IIRELAND
Irish Times
Colum Kenny
Why would anyone intending to have sex stay in a seminary for celibates?
That’s the most puzzling but not the saddest aspect of current controversy about St Patrick’s College, Maynooth.
The saddest is the damage that the continuing failure of the Irish hierarchy to cope well with crisis has inflicted on Ireland’s oldest spiritual organisation.
Some welcome that damage. There is hostility towards the Catholic Church, and by no means all of it from active secularists. The aggressive and punitive behaviour of bishops after Irish independence, when they had unassailable political and social power, has left a legacy of bitterness (not least among women).
But Christianity is an intrinsic part of Irish culture. For most people, that faith sustained their ancestors though centuries of fierce oppression and poverty. It was sometimes beautiful.
Note: This is an Abuse Tracker excerpt. Click the title to view the full text of the original article. If the original article is no longer available, see our News Archive.