Sunday Newsletter

Masses Today

6.30: (Vigil) Jack Ryan, (Anniv).
11.00: Bridget, Raymond & Edward Moloney, (Anniv).
6.30: George Herterich, Jnr., (Anniv).

As I Was Saying...

It has been a truly awful week. On a personal level, I would much prefer to 'move beyond' the Murphy Report to a more edifying, seasonal topic. However, from a pastoral point of view, 'moving on' so effortlessly does less than justice to the victims, and minimises the enormity of what has been revealed.

When journalists write on Church matters, they can resort to exaggeration and tired stereotypes. However, when RTE's Joe Little dubbed the present child abuse crisis as 'the most serious crisis facing the Catholic Church in Ireland since the foundation of the State', he was not exaggerating. This is a crisis of enormous proportions; and it is experienced at many levels.

(1) The first level of crisis is the most serious and the most obvious: a considerable number of priests damaged young innocent children for life, simply to satisfy their own perverted needs. Those charged with shepherding the the flock savaged them instead. This, obviously, is where the crisis is experienced at its most intense and painful level.

(2) Church leaders, including some bishops, were 'criminally negligent' in so far as they facilitated criminals by furtively moving them from parish to parish. Inevitably, these criminals abused again. This has enormous repercussions for Church leaders, and rightly so.

(3) The crisis is acutely experienced by our Catholic congregations. They feel embarrassed, betrayed and morally contaminated by this sordid saga. Traditionally, they trusted their priests and bishops absolutely, and supported them very generously. Now that this trust has been so sordidly betrayed, the ordinary Catholics feel confused and let down. They already found it difficult enough to pass on the faith to their children and grandchildren. Now they have mountains to climb.

(4) The ordinary priests in the parishes feel terribly betrayed also. How did so many of our brother priests become so desensitised to the ideals they once embraced? However, even in their moments of embarrassed misery, most priests will recognise that clericalism is a pernicious and malignant culture. It encourages deference and spawns secrecy. Courageous whistleblowers were never popular or promoted. Obviously, clericalism is not the whole story, but it is a factor.

(5) Our Church leaders have rightly stated that this scandal would not have been exposed but for the work of good journalists. For this, we are all in their debt. However, this point must also be made: a number of influential Irish journalists have worked consistently to an anti-Catholic agenda for years now. As far as some of these people are concerned, the death of the Church is something devoutly to be wished for. And these journalists held this position long before these scandals ever emerged.

(6) The Church was in denial about child abuse for years. But society in general is still in denial. The Dublin Rape Crisis Centre reports that 44% of all cases of child sexual abuse were perpetrated by fathers and brothers of the victim, while another 23% were perpetrated by other male relatives. The media gave the distinct impression this week that Catholic clerics had a monopoly on child abuse. This is not written in mitigation, but in order to identify a broader context: the Catholic Church is but one small corner of these stinking Augean stables.

-Dick Lyng

Happenings

ADVENT & CHRISTMAS

COLLECTION SUNDAY NEXT

As you know only too well, a great many people in Galway County have been badly affected by the recent flooding. In many instances, their homes have been irreparably damaged. The local diocese and the St. Vincent de Paul Society have had discussions on the matter. The following measures were agreed upon. The annual St. Vincent de Paul Church Gate Collection was billed to take place next weekend, the 12th-13th December. This collection will now be taken up as a second collection in the Church. The proceeds will be forwarded to the Diocesan Office, immediately after the collection. The monies collected will then be forwarded to St. Vincent de Paul, here in Galway, who will in turn direct the monies to those in greatest need, who have been affected by the floods.

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