On February 15 2010, Pope Benedict XVI held a number of meetings with Irish Catholic bishops in Rome. These gatherings had their origins in press, media, and judicial claims that Irish prelates had covered up clerical sexual abuse in their dioceses and mismanaged the offenders.
Bishop Noel Treanor, whose response to Pope Benedict’s concerns was a rapid one, asked the Church, on Ash Wednesday, 2010 – as did Archbishop Diarmuid Martin just days later – to repent of its wrongdoing; and he initiated, with a view to ecclesial renewal, a series of ‘listening sessions’ throughout the Diocese of Down and Connor. One such encounter, which lasted for virtually three hours, was held in Holy Family Parish, Belfast [or my parish] early in 2011.
Many opinions were expressed, on that occasion, as to how this parish in particular, and the wider Church in toto, might be spiritually rejuvenated. But nothing was said about the harm done to Holy Family Parish [or ‘the parish’], the Church as a whole or the victims of clerical malfeasance by the ‘cover-ups and mismanagement’ to which Bishop Treanor referred in his Lenten Letter of February 21, 2010.
The Catholic Church, like other religious bodies, is ‘semper reformanda’ in respect of specific shortcomings. But if it is to be renewed at this juncture, then it must repent – and most profoundly so – of the way it has handled physical, emotional, and sexual abuse within its own ranks. Moreover, penitence demands not only the implementation of adequate child protection measures, and the payment of financial compensation to victims, but also a candid acknowledgement of the following closely-related facts: First, that the predominantly clerical sub-culture which generated the cover-ups was familial in nature; secondly, that it was wedded to the erroneous belief that the Church’s reputation and assets should be protected at almost any cost, even to vulnerable persons; finally, that it has failed as yet to confront either of these matters with a high degree of success.
One can only hope that the mistakes which were made in parishes such as mine 11 years ago have not been repeated in their current preparations for the coming synod, and that the Church will attend at last, under the direction of Pope Francis, to unpalatable truths about the most egregious ecclesiastical scandal of our time. However, the conclusions of the Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry, and the responses which they recently evoked from religious congregations at Stormont, suggest that these expectations may be purely pious ones.
JOSEPH McBRIDE
Belfast BT15
North has entered a dystopian world
There are many consequences and issues arising from the northern election.
However, there is one very clear demonstrable outcome: Northern Ireland has entered a dystopian world courtesy of the DUP and the Tories.
The DUP bally-go-backwards people advocated a hard Brexit thinking that liaison with questionable English nationalists was better than dealing with political substance. Along the way they were bought and sold by the most shallow and moribund Tories of all time – the same Tories who negotiated the protocol. So one must ask, were the DUP out of their depth?
One has also got to ask where this leaves the hard-working unionist-minded community and the rest of the people?
In a very short time the overall trade benefits of the protocol are totally evident despite the economies with the truth (and I’m being very diplomatic here) supplied by those who find facts problematic.
One hundred years ago Ulster Protestants (despite leaving their co-religionists in Donegal, Cavan and Monaghan ‘behind’) wanted to stay with the bigger market called the empire. Do they now want to remain in an increasingly narrow, isolationist entity called the United Kingdom or, do they want to be part of the biggest trading bloc in the world?
This is not about the tribalism of green and orange which is often the insulting mantra articulated by those whose view is an exclusively internal northern view.
This is about the unification of Ulster, the unification of Ireland within the blue of the European Union.
One needs to leave the ‘dreary steeples’ behind and see the geo-political reality of our changed world.
Imagine the north being the European headquarters of international companies and organisations because of full EU membership. And that would be only one of many benefits.
DR BILLY LEONARD
former MLA and author of Towards A United Ireland,
Kilkee, Co Clare
Unionism still doesn’t know the workings of democracy
It seems to me that the greatest failure of Doug Beattie in the last election campaign was his failure to put the foot down on the likes of Jim Allister and Jamie Bryson – two fringe extremists within his own camp. This made his ‘moderate unionist’ claims appear very hollow, and showed nothing of distinction worthy of winning liberal voters back from Alliance.
The insistence with which Mr Allister is forced upon the public is evidence that unionism still does not know how democracy works. ‘65,000 TUV voters’ has been quoted a lot recently; without the concurrent fact that 862,000 voters cast a ballot in the last election – 65,000 is, in these terms, a very small number. It is also worth bearing in mind that Mr Allister himself was only elected on the fifth count. The people that he nominated around him were quickly eliminated. In a democracy, the minority loses, the minority is usually overlooked. Any democrat will not allow Mr Jim Allister on the airwaves again.
FIONNBHARR RODGERS
Rostrevor, Co Down
Better to fall out with Brussels than your neighbour
David Trimble in a recent article for argues that the protocol is a threat to the Good Friday Agreement and cites that only 0.2 per cent of products entering the EU do so through Northern Irish ports. We should listen to a man who has understood the compromises required to secure peace. There should be no border either at sea or in Ireland. The integrity of the EU is not threatened by the suspension of food and product regulation in one area. The compromise upon which peace in the north is built is threatened. The EU showed its concern for the protocol when they were prepared to trigger Article 16 to acquire vaccines. Their concern now is simply to get one over Britain. It is better to fall out with Brussels bureaucrats than with your neighbours.
DOMINIC GALLAGHER
Glenavy, Co Antrim
