Irish Independent
July 25, 2011
http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/maurice-hayes-we-cant-let-our-real-problems-get-lost-in-winning-minor-battles-2830124.html
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| Archbishop Diarmuid Martin's attitude has been in marked contrast to the actions of Cardinal Sean Brady |
IT has been a good week for Enda Kenny and the Government: a roar of defiance at the Vatican, and, more substantially, the achievement of better terms from Brussels.
Both, in their different ways, are significant, but both represent the less important elements of the struggle of which they are a part.
A skirmish on the one hand, a battle on the other, may give immediate satisfaction and short-term relief, but neither means that a war has been won -- and they may well divert attention and energy from the pursuit of the more important prizes.
The Taoiseach's challenge to the Vatican had many of the characteristics of the All Blacks' pre-match haka: it irritates the opposition, it is widely applauded by supporters on the terraces, while others find it somewhat embarrassing and not a little over the top.
Above all, it makes not the slightest difference to the outcome of the game.
The more important encounter of the week, unquestionably, was the negotiation in Brussels that achieved a significant reduction in interest and an extension of the timetable, which makes the burden of borrowing more bearable and improves chances the economy can trade itself out of difficulty.
There may be hidden consequences in Franco/German proposals later in the year for the economic governance of the eurozone.
However, after a collective sigh of relief for the survival of the euro, and the betterment of the loan conditions, the more important question for Ireland is why so much has to be borrowed in the first place.
There is, of course, the cost of restructuring failed banks but, more importantly, the fact that what is spent on services vastly exceeds what can reasonably be raised in taxation.
The success in Brussels should not divert the Government, or the public, from the need to live within our means and get the public finances in order. The message is not to put away the hair-shirt, despite the good news from Brussels.
Similarly, in relation to the Vatican, there is a danger of fighting on the wrong ground about the wrong issues.
The real issue is the protection of children, and making sure that church discipline and structures do not make this more difficult when clerics are involved.
These are big questions and should not be overlooked in skirmishes on the sideline about the sanctity of the seal of the confessional, or rushing through laws about disclosure under which no one is likely to be prosecuted.
There is a lot to be said, in the wider public interest, for the confidentiality of communication in several professional fields, which should not easily be cast aside.
It should be enough to legislate to require anyone with knowledge that a child or children are in real and proximate danger of harm to bring that to the attention of the appropriate authorities, and leave it to the church to work out how this can be effected.
Incidentally, although ministers have not mentioned it, the commission did find it necessary to report a lack of co-operation from the Department of Children, which similarly took refuge in legal privilege in refusing to disclose the nature of the legal advice that persuaded it that despite the concerns of social workers, the law was sufficiently robust to enable them to protect children from non-familial abusers.
It is hard to calculate how many children suffered because of that piece of sophistry.
Meanwhile, in another parallel with the financial crisis, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin stands out, a lonely figure perhaps, but the more widely respected for that, as a sort of reforming Governor of the Central Bank, with most of the hierarchy scrambling to protect their assets from some ecclesiastical NAMA (if such there were).
What the church has to face, too, is a complete lack of public faith in its ability to manage self-audits -- rather like the banking system, a deep scepticism that those who presided over the mess are the ones best qualified to find a way out of it.
Cardinal Sean Brady's faith that Bishop Magee would be the person to do so in Cloyne is seen to have been badly misplaced (and not with the benefit of hindsight).
There is a lot to be said for Fr Vincent Toomey's argument for a radical restructuring into fewer dioceses and the retirement of many of the incumbents.
Most of them were appointed in the reign of John Paul II, who was to liberal post-conciliar Catholicism what Tony Blair was to British socialism, and whose main criterion in appointing bishops was conservatism and conformity to Rome.
One almost farcical sub-theme of the Cloyne Report was the recommendation, by an earlier investigation, that the diocese should pay for a "boundary counsellor" to help the bishop to understand the difference between right and wrong.
Such advice used to come for free. It was called a conscience.
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