Masses Today

6.30 Tony Boyle, (Anniv)
11.00 Mary, Jack & Bridget Ward, (Anniv)
6.30 Mary Conroy, (Anniv)



EVENTS THIS WEEK






AS I WAS SAYING...

The Catholic Church in Ireland is in the midst of a traumatic crisis. That crisis is so intense that the bishops have been stunned into a collective silence. Let it be said at the outset that the crisis is not of their making. It predated them. It is greater than them. Nevertheless, they behaved as cowards when courageous leadership was called for. And they admitted as much in a report called Time to Listen: Confronting Child Sexual Abuse by Catholic Clergy in Ireland published this week. As Archbishop Brady conceded at its launch, the report made painful reading, not least for bishops.

But in fairness to them, if they were initially cowardly in their handling of this whole issue of child sex abuse, they were very courageous in handling of this document. After all, the bishops themselves commissioned the report; they financed it; they participated fully and frankly in its production; and they published it. This new-found openness is most welcome, because it was secrecy that landed them in hot water the first day!

This secrecy was born out of a concern to avoid scandal, to keep the news of clerical sex abuse from the public. Of course, when the news eventually reached the public domain, the real scandal (from the point of view of the public) was not the sins of the abusers but the cover-up of the leaders! This is what really outraged the victims, and the general public. As David Quinn pointed out, what caused the scandal was in no small part their fear of scandal.

And the real irony of course was that they need not have worried about the effect of the scandals on the faithful. As the survey conducted for this study makes clear, the vast majority of people still believe in God, they still believe in their priests, and if they have doubts about such Church teachings as the rule of celibacy, this appears to be for reasons other than the scandals.

Instead what people have lost faith in is the bishops themselves. Even the bishops seem to have lost faith in the bishops, since 20pc of the bishops who responded to this study said that they have lost confidence in the "institutional Church". But what is the institutional Church other than the bishops themselves and their advisers? Now that is worth repeating: according to this report, 20% of the bishops have lost confidence in themselves.

Some may interpret this as a shocking admission, a failure not just of leadership but of nerve! But there is another way of viewing this. The bishops have often been accused of arrogance. In this context, should their admission of inadequacy be seen as a sign of hope rather than a source of depression?

This report runs to 300 pages. It is a rigorous analysis of clerical sex abuse and how it should be dealt with. It advances our understanding of it, and allows us do everything reasonably possible to overcome it. The bishops have already put in place a great number of procedures, personnel, offices, phone lines, guidelines, and so on, devoted to the protection of children. Yet only 10% of those interviewed for this report were aware of such measures. This highlights the difficulty of communicating good news. An English politician once said, "Bad News is already half way around the world before Good News gets its boots on!" I'm sure the Irish bishops would agree with him.

-Dick Lyng.




Christmas Concert

The "Galway Gospel Choir" will present an evening of Gospel Songs and Christmas Carols in the Augustinian Church on Friday next, December 12th at 8.00pm. Proceeds in aid of Galway Simon Community. No tickets necessary. But a contribution will be welcome at the door on the night.






CHRISTMAS IN PRISON

{Recently, The Furrow asked a number of people for a short message on what Christmas has meant to them in recent years. Below is just one of the replies.}

I have spent the last three Christmases in prison and will spend the next three also before my release date in March 2006. Christmas has always been my favourite time of year. I just love the whole ethos of Christmas. As far back as I can remember it was a time of happiness and joy in our house. Being born and reared on a small farm my mother would fatten three dozen of turkeys every Christmas, keeping two or three for the house and selling the rest at the market in Limerick. This was the Christmas spending-money. On the way home the shopping would be done, Santa Claus provided for, a gallon of paint to freshen up the inside of the house, a couple of bags of lime to whitewash the outside, not forgetting to put up the Christmas tree.

I'm forty-three years old now. My parents are dead but each year before I came to prison I would return to that old farmhouse to relive the aromas of freshly baked Christmas cakes, cooked ham with roast turkey and the smell of fresh paint.

These last three Christmases have been different, isolated from my fiancee and family, the aloneness of eating Christmas dinner in my cell, having the time and opportunity to think about all that this day means which is much more than filling one's belly with beautiful food but, saying that, it's the one day that we look forward to a decent meal most of all.

But for me even in this dark corner of my world there is a special spiritual feeling about for these few days. Everybody seems to put their troubles aside and be a little kinder.

I guess the only way I can explain it is like that song 'Christmas 1915'. It was the first world war where both sides put down their arms and shared whatever they had with each other, talking, showing each other family pictures, the sharing of sweets and cigarettes. Even in here among murderers, rapists and drug dealers, officers and staff there are feelings of empathy.

But sure God is right here among us sinners. God I wish every day was like Christmas. Even in this neck of the woods God hates our sin but loves us sinners.

-Patrick Scanlan




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