IRELAND
The Irish Catholic
by Cathal Barry
April 7, 2016
Paranoia as a result of the clerical sex abuse scandals is “hampering” priests from engaging fully with society, a prominent psychotherapist has warned.
Kevin Egan, who has lectured in All Hallows College in psychology and pastoral theology, told The Irish Catholic that “the main thing that blocks mission in the Church today is paranoia or fear”.
“That is why the Church has difficulty now in engaging with groups in society, with statutory bodies, in the area of education and in others. The Church in its relationship with all these bodies acts in a quite a paranoid way.
“One of the functions of the Church in society is to engage for the good of society with all the other groups in society and so its ability to do that is hampered in Ireland particularly. You can’t go and reach out to people if you fear them,” he said.
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