Unease of the faithful is being ignored by the Irish bishops

By Colum Kenny
Irish Independent
September 14, 2014

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/comment/unease-of-the-faithful-is-being-ignored-by-the-irish-bishops-30585105.html

Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Eamon Martin

'Sing a new song to the Lord". That's the motto of the new head of the Catholic Church in Ireland. Last week, Eamon Martin became Catholic Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland when Cardinal Sean Brady stepped down.

Like many priests and nuns he is committed to helping people who are isolated, lonely, ill and anxious.

But a Catholic Church that really strikes a new note will do much more than that. It must offer all people hope by being believable itself.

It might lead by example, filling a vacuum in Ireland where suicide and stress are symptoms of despair.

"Every day, as long as this today lasts, keep encouraging one another," Eamon Martin urged people last week, quoting St Paul.

But Paul actually told the Hebrews, "Every day, as long as this today lasts, keep encouraging one another so that none of you is hardened by the lure of sin."

Archbishop Martin left out that bit about sin. People do not like to hear bishops talk about sin, partly because decades of experience have made people associate sin with the condemnation of sexual enjoyment.

But sin is a word for what we do when we separate ourselves from what we believe is true or right.

And for many who were reared as Irish Catholics that is where church institutions and teachings have been for too long, separated from what feels right or true. On contraception, on women priests, on explaining the universe.

If Irish bishops really want to set an encouraging example, the hierarchy should be seen to engage in a process of honest self-criticism of its institutions and its doctrines, a process leading to real and painful changes. Instead, the Irish hierarchy still sounds like it's singing off an old hymn sheet.

Archbishop Martin was full of feel-good sound bites last week. He said that he would not want back the 1940s and 1950s: "It was very much tarnished gold."

But he needs to be more specific. What exactly does he think was wrong then, and why? And how much is fundamentally different in the organisation that he leads.

The absolute power of bishops has not changed. The way that policy is decided still ultimately excludes the laity in general and women in particular.

This will be graphically illustrated when a synod of bishops meets in Rome next month to discuss family matters.

The laity were invited to respond to a questionnaire and those who did so identified immense challenges faced by families in Ireland, including problems arising from severe financial hardship, unemployment and emigration, domestic violence, neglect and other forms of abuse, infidelity and constant pressures on "family time" together.

Some respondents expressed particular concern about the limited amount of State support for marriage and the family. But the laity will be sidelined when decisions are taken in Rome about such matters. They have no vote. And the bishops will not acknowledge widespread unease about how the discussion of such questions is being managed.

Just last year, Archbishop Martin himself was leading a charge to defeat the State's minimal legislative response to the death of Savita Halappanavar in Galway. This was not a position shared by too many lay people as a priority.

Pope Benedict sent in four foreign heavy-hitters to review the Irish Church. They talked to lots of people but nothing seems to have happened. And the whole process was shrouded in familiar Vatican secrecy.

There are still too many Irish bishops, and they are stuck in church property that itself is "very much tarnished gold". Their number alone encourages traditional careerism.

One of the newest bishops is Fr Kevin Doran in the Diocese of Elphin.

He is a staid conservative, and resigned from the Mater Hospital, Dublin, after that Catholic-run body complied with the new abortion law that makes provision for women whose lives are at risk.

He was, of course, entitled to his opinion, as are other Catholics who take a more nuanced view that differs from his.

Suddenly he became a bishop. Priests and nuns, never mind the laity, as usual had no say in the matter. Would he, or many other bishops, have been the first choice of the faithful?

And if not, who and why are certain people chosen?

Bishop Doran has been making a mark with a series of statements since his appointment.

Last week, he popped one out about his feelings of "sadness and gratitude" on hearing of the resignation of Sean Brady, aged 75. He added that, "I look forward to working closely with Archbishop Eamon Martin." It's like an old boys' club.

And fine Episcopal words have been flowing like wine to praise Brady as he retires.

But it might have been better for his Church had Brady gone as soon as it emerged that he was part of the team that interrogated Brendan Boland when the boy reported in 1975 that he had been sexually abused.

"You never got to like it?" was one of the remarkable questions put to Boland. The question itself was abusive. It served no obvious good purpose and implied God knows what.

But Brady stayed. And he will still have a say in the election of any Pope in the next five years. As Cardinal Connell of Dublin and Cardinal Bernard Law of Boston continued to be welcome in Rome after their ruinous role in covering up sex abuse scandals emerged.

It is not easy for the faithful to believe, and never was. People get discouraged at the best of times. They become angry.

In that same letter to the Hebrews, Paul urged believers, "Do not harden your hearts, as at the rebellion, as at the time of testing in the desert."

Archbishop Martin's new song will have to come from the heart and be heard to strike a new note.

Sunday Independent