BishopAccountability.org
	Anything Goes When Attacking the Church - Andrew O'connell Irish Catholic September 16, 2011 http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/anything-goes-when-attacking-church-andrew-oconnell What does the post-Cloyne Report spat between the Government and the Vatican reveal about our Taoiseach? Even though his supporters will never admit it, it's quite clear now that the Taoiseach was caught out badly in his attack on the Vatican. Every Taoiseach relies heavily on speech writers and support staff. It's the job of the leader, though, to ensure that facts are double checked and to resist the temptation to execute a rhetorical flourish by taking poetic licence with those facts. But Enda appears to have simply read what was handed to him. Populist The work was clearly not his own as evidenced by his mispronunciation of some words and the way in which he struggled with the natural cadences of some sentences. He did something similar in that daft speech he delivered on College Green to welcome President Barack Obama in May. We are justified in expecting better from a Taoiseach and in hoping that he does not bow to strategies which make populist political calculations on very complex and serious issues. The Vatican's response will have been relayed to governments all over the world detailing just how wide of the mark his accusations were. We are told that there is strong support for him but those who see beyond the bar stool gallery (which will abandon him overnight when the local hospital is threatened) know that he over-reached on this occasion. In defence he has resorted to the standard line of those caught out on this issue: ''I really hate child abuse, it makes me very angry, so I can say what I like.'' This leads to a second point. Why was the due diligence of checking the facts seemingly not performed on this occasion? It is possibly due to a creeping tendency, seen in some media circles for some time now, of thinking that one can pretty much say what you like about the Catholic Church without fearing a response. For instance, The Irish Times editorialised on July 12 that the Ryan Report had made a recommendation that the costs of redress be split 50:50. The fact is that there is no reference whatsoever in the Ryan Report to the costs of redress. That's a significant error. Another example of shoddiness was the presence of several grammatical errors in the speaking notes handed to the papal nuncio by Eamon Gilmore after their post-Cloyne meeting. This behaviour would be seen as embarrassing on an issue related to economics but it seems anything goes when it's the Church. Inability This is partly the natural consequence of the Church's own woeful inability to respond effectively to crises over the years. This brings me to a third point. The tone of the Vatican response has laid down a clear marker -- criticise us, yes, but respect the facts. The response includes a well researched passage detailing the reservations of a previous Fine Gael-led government on mandatory reporting. But why did this research have to be prepared by the Vatican? Why was no one in the Irish Church able to produce it and defuse this issue months or even years ago? The Vatican can feel rightly annoyed that it has had to provide an intellectual bailout to the Church in Ireland and we should feel a certain embarrassment that it has had to be done for us. This experience will hopefully inform the work of the Apostolic Visitation as it prepares its report on the needs of the Church in Ireland. Clergy unite The Government's plan to extend mandatory reporting of child abuse to the confessional has had an unexpected consequence. It has managed to unite both liberal and conservative clergy in a way that I can't remember happening before. It has been highly unusual to hear some priests who have never found themselves on the unpopular side of a debate taking a stand for the sacrament. In uniting the divergent wings of the clergy against the proposed legislation, the Government has been able to achieve what no Pope or bishop has been able to do for a long time. Well done, Enda. Teachers together The history of the Church shows that renewal happens when committed people come together to address a particular need. One such group is the Association of Catholic Teachers (ACT) -- a group of young primary school teachers who share faith formation resources via a monthly email bulletin. The idea is simple and ACT now has a membership of over 600 teachers around the country. If you know any primary school teachers, tell them about the email bulletin. The group's website is www.actireland.ie
Any original material on these pages is copyright © BishopAccountability.org 2004. Reproduce freely with attribution.