BishopAccountability.org
	An Irish Catholic Responds Vatican Radio April 8, 2010 http://www.oecumene.radiovaticana.org/en1/Articolo.asp?c=370666 An interview with the editor of The Irish Catholic, Garry O’Sullivan, on reaction to the Holy Fathers Pastoral Letter to the Catholics of Ireland Q1. To the abuse victims and their families. In his letter the Pope writes “you have suffered grievously and I am truly sorry”. Has this apology been heard? Yes I think it has. Even people who were critical of the letter admitted that he had apologised so that demand that the Pope apologise has been laid to rest fully. Q2. To those clergy who abused children. In his letter the Pope writes that priests who abused children must “stand before properly constituted tribunals”, to the best of your knowledge, what is the current situation regarding ongoing investigations of clergy accused of child abuse in Ireland? Well, the vast majority of clergy who abused children in Ireland are dead or have been dealt with by the courts. There are two chapters of the Murphy report, which was released in November, still to be published - they were withheld because of two pending court cases. It is expected that one of them will be resolved soon. However, the storm will blow once again when those other chapters are published and one of them is expected to be pretty bad in its contents. The police are also looking at the possibility of pressing charges but there is no developments at the moment. However it is unlikely that any charges will be pressed because in many cases no laws were broken, or the amount of time that has passed makes it very difficult for any charges to be brought. But like I say many of the people who were involved in these cases are dead, or have left the priesthood or have been thrown out of the priesthood. Because we need to emphasise that will there is a statue of limitations in civil law in the canonical process very often in cases dealing with the abuse of children the statute of limitations is waived. Absolutely, but you know in the Ferns case, a report in 2000, similar to the Murphy report, in 2005 the Ferns diocese went to the Vatican to the then Cardinal Ratzinger and had several priests removed from ministry, so there is a proven process and I don’t think the Church currently would be found wanting in that because they are very keen to be clear on this issue and to deal with it speedily. 3. To the Bishops In his letter the Pope writes “..some of you and your predecessors failed..to apply cannon law..grave errors of judgment were made and failures of leadership occurred”. In the aftermath of their meeting with Pope Benedict XVI, the bishops of Ireland admitted their failure and asked forgiveness, but since then what have they done to address the problem of a vaccum of pastoral leadership for a church that is increasingly disaffected with its hierarchy? The bishops came back from Rome with something like a bounce in their step because I suppose for the first time in a long time they seemed to have a plan, they said the Pope would be sending his letter and that it was all part of a process. Since they’ve come back they have been reeling from blow after blow, some self inflicted blows to be honest. It’s not difficult to understand why the bishops would be seen to lack credibility because of these things but also because the Pope in his Letter said to them that their credibility had been seriously undermined. 4. To the Clergy of Ireland This weekend the Archbishop of Canterbury said that “…it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now”. In his letter the Pope reached out to encourage those priests and religious who have inherited the consequences of the actions of paedophile priests. What is the mood among them? And what is the wider attitude in Ireland right now to clergy is it as bleak as the Archbishop of Canterbury paints it? Ordinary priests have been deeply hurt. But I think what is keeping them together, what is keeping those ordinary decent men still in their parishes ministering to the flock is basically they have the support of the people in their parishes. These people see that they are good priests and don’t associate them with the church hierarchy who can’t seem to get their act together. But, in Ireland, ‘Paedophile Priest’ has become a term and an occasion for the mockery of men who give up a lot to be at the service of people and the Church. It is going to have a huge consequence on vocations. However, the mood among priests isn’t so bad. Their churches were fairly full this Easter and there is no evidence of a decline in attendance or in collections. Q4. The Lay Voice The lay Catholic voice in Ireland has been a silent voice up till now, has it been given more space in the debate in the wake of this crisis? I suppose when they go to mass, by doing so , they are not necessarily showing support for the institutional church, what they are showing is that their faith has not been damaged and many Catholics have been able to separate the scandals from the fact that the Church is the Church of Jesus Christ and that they have faith in Jesus. Only on Easter Sunday there was a group protesting outside the main Church in Dublin the Pro Cathedral, and they had tied babies shoes to the railings. This is an awful sight for some people going into mass and some people were being heckled as they entered the mass. What Irish laity, what Irish Catholics are wondering is why can’t the bishops and the Cardinal sort this problem out? Q5. On Why it Happened Following the publication of the Pope’s Pastoral letter, many opinionists singled out the Pope’s observations on the consequences of the secularisation of Irish society and the Irish Church, claiming that he had laid the blame for paedophile priests on secularism. In your opinion is this what the Pope was saying, is it as simple as this? Some people are saying that and I wonder have they really read the Pope’s letter. I read that part of the Letter very closely again and again, because what the Pope was doing, and I thought it was very interesting, was he was trying to get to a resolution of what caused this. He is very clear on that in the Letter, he doesn’t categorically state that one thing or the other caused it, he tries to draw a context, to look at the context and the issues. Now he does mention secularisation. The one which many people honed in on was secularisation. But the Pope also spoke about formation of priests, spiritual and moral education, the failure to use canon law. However, it is important to note that roughly half the men who abused children that were named in the Murphy Report were ordained before Vatican II ended. Seminaries may well have become overly permissive in the 70’s and no doubt this caused problems, but the repressive atmosphere of the 40’s and 50’s seminaries allowed paedophile priests to be ordained. Unfortunately, when these men were causing problems in the late 60’s and 70’s the attitude among their superiors was to use pastoral practices to help them and to get them psychiatric treatment, rather than bringing on the rigors of canon law. 5. On the Media In the wake of the Murphy and Ryan reports, the Bishops visit to Rome and the Papal letter, cases of abuse of children by clergy and religious in Germany, Austria, Holland, the USA have been making headlines. A common denominator is the perceived view of the Vatican’s inaction in addressing the cases. As a Catholic, as an Irishman and as a journalist how have you been following the development of the sex abuse scandal in the media? I think in terms of child abuse, people expect the Church to be open, honest and transparent. That is a reasonable expectation. Sometimes, yes the media are too hard, they go too far or they don’t have all the facts, but blaming the media just looks like you are trying to avoid the hard questions. You can’t go wrong once you stick to the facts and stick to the truth. The truth will set us free. I think that is an axiom that is often forgotten, even in the church. 6. On the future In an editorial on the Papal Letter you write : “There are many questions and few answers and the Pope himself seems keen to get to the heart of the matter. However, in tandem with the Roman visitation we need an Irish visitation of our own Church”. You also propose “An Irish solution to an Irish problem” – quoting Charlie Haughey– can you expand on this? The people best positioned to understand the Catholic Church in Ireland are the Irish people. The Pope in that Letter talks about the laity, so why not give them a role? There is no reason why some intelligent and faithful Catholics could not, with a representatives of the religious, the bishops and the priests, hold a review of Church practices. Look at the past, look at the present and look at the future. It doesn’t have to be binding. The only way this is going to be sorted out is with the laity be involved with the bishops and with the priests and the clergy. Let the Vatican send in people to inspect the seminaries, there are only two in the country, but the people need to be involved in this or the Church won’t have a future. 7. Resurrection and rebirth Because we are in the Easter season, is there anything positive to be gained out of all of this? Of course there is. We believe in the Risen Christ and that is our hope as a people of faith. In Ireland, we are very quick to talk about the Holy Spirit. We see the Holy Spirit when there are positive things but we don’t see the Holy Spirit when there are negative things. I have heard very few people say, maybe this is the Holy Spirit. The Holy Spirit is all around; it is in the voice of the victims, it is in the voice of the priests it is in the voice of people in general and in the voice of the Holy Father writing to the people of Ireland. What is really happening here? What is happening is that the evil that was in the Church, as the Holy Father said, the filth that was in the Church is being revealed. A light is being shone in on a room of darkness – that’s a good thing. In many ways there are a lot of people who have left the Church, whose voices, when they criticised the Church in the past were crushed, some were victims some weren’t. Hopefully the Church in the future will be humbler, less arrogant and more inclusive of everyone. The parable of the lost sheep, is lost in Ireland. Nobody wants to minister to the people who don’t go to the mass on Sunday, that have left the Church and yet Jesus commanded his apostles to go after the lost sheep. There was more rejoicing in heaven over the one sinner than over the one hundred righteous people. I think we need to get back to basics and to the Gospel. We need new wineskins and new wine in the Church in Ireland and perhaps in other parts of the Church around the world.
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.