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	Rebel American Priest Detects a 'Move by Irish Away from the Catholic Church' By John Cooney Irish Independent May 1, 2006 http://www.unison.ie/irish_independent/stories.php3? ca=43&si=1607751&issue_id=13995 THE dissident American theologian, Fr Charles Curran, has said that there is a growing lack of credibility in the leadership of the Irish Catholic Church. In an exclusive interview with the Irish Independent, he said he detected "a move by many people in Ireland away from the church". Referring to how scandals have racked the Irish Church over the past decade, he observed: "The church itself has not dealt creatively with the problems it is facing internally and with the growing secularisation in Ireland". Fr Curran, who teaches at Southern Methodist College in Dallas, Texas, added: "The hierarchical leadership has been slow to act and has not responded to the many problems facing the church today". Fr Curran was speaking at the weekend during a conference in St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co Kildare, which assembled scholars from Ireland and abroad to pay homage to the work of Fr Enda McDonagh on the fiftieth anniversary of his entry to the priesthood. The presence of Fr Curran in a hallowed Catholic institution like Maynooth had caused controversy because he is debarred by the Vatican from teaching in Catholic universities. He said he holds no grudge against the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, for publicly distancing himself from the two-day conference which was attended by ex- Taoiseach Dr Garret FitzGerald. Fr Curran said: "The Archbishop was looking over his shoulder at conservative opinion in Rome when he announced on his diocesan website that he was 'in no way' involved in the talk. "This kind of stuff has happened many times to me in the past," added Fr Curran of the website. "As a theologian banned by Rome, I experience this wherever I go. "I do not know Archbishop Martin personally. But I understood that some former Maynooth student objected to my speaking here, and the Archbishop felt he needed to react."
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