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Tuesday 9 February 2010

The Sins of the Fathers

Friday, 27th November 2009

The least surprising thing about the latest revelations of the Irish Catholic Church's complicity in thousands of cases of horrific child abuse is that almost none of it is surprising at all. Shocking, yes, but not surprising. Even those of us with an appropriately cynical view of the Chuch, mind you, can only marvel at the breathtaking mendacity displayed by the Church.

The Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary, says he is " mindful of the perceived hollowness of repeated apologies" and he has a point. Because until they were caught, the Church displayed no remorse whatsoever. Time and time again, as the Murphy Commission's report makes only too clear, the clerical authorities, often with the full connivance of the Gardai, lied and lied again as they protected child abusers an endangered and exploited the children in their care.

And the cover-up continued into this decade too. This was not merely a case of ancient history. Consider this all-too typical brand of mendacity that would, in other circumstances, be entertaining:

Nothing quite as perfectly illustrates the moral rot at the core of institutional Catholicism in Ireland as the concept of “mental reservation”.
Exposed in the Dublin diocesan report, “it permits a churchman knowingly to convey a misleading impression to another person without being guilty of lying”.

A concept “developed and much discussed over the centuries”, it was explained to the commission by no less a person than Cardinal Desmond Connell.

A homely example of what it involves was given by the commission in its report.

“John calls to the parish priest to make a complaint about the behaviour of one of his curates. The parish priest sees him coming but does not want to see him because he considers John to be a troublemaker. He sends another of his curates to answer the door. John asks the curate if the parish priest is in. The curate replies that he is not.”

The commission continued “this is clearly untrue but in the Church’s view it is not a lie because, when the curate told John that the parish priest was not in, he mentally reserved the words ‘. . . to you’. Thus the term “mental reservation”.

So the Archdiocese of Dublin and Cardinal Connell were not lying when in a 1997 statement it said it had co-operated with gardaí where Marie Collins’s complaint of abuse was concerned.

She knew this was untrue and had the statement checked out.

A spokesman for the archdiocese put it like this “we never said we co-operated fully”, placing emphasis on the word “fully”, the report commented.

Not that this brazenness was limited to the Dublin see. On the contrary, it reaches as far as the Vatican and the current Pope:

In September 2006, the commission wrote to the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (of which Pope Benedict had been head until April 2005) asking for information on the document Crimen Solicitationis , which deals with clerical sex abuse.

It also asked for information on reports of clerical child sexual abuse conveyed to it by the Dublin archdiocese.

There was no reply.

Instead, the Vatican contacted the Department of Foreign Affairs to say the commission had not gone through appropriate diplomatic channels.

Just one month after that letter was sent by the commission to Rome, Ireland’s Catholic bishops visited Pope Benedict at the Vatican on their ad limina visit. Such visits occur usually every five years and involve a report by a bishops’ conference on church affairs in their country.

In his address to the Irish bishops that October, Pope Benedict said that “in your continuing efforts to deal effectively with this problem, it is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take whatever steps are necessary to prevent it from occurring again, to ensure that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to bring healing to the victims and to all those affected by these egregious crimes.”

As he spoke thus, the Vatican did not deign to even acknowledge a letter from an Irish statutory authority set up by a government of the Irish people “to establish the truth of what happened in the past” where such abuse was concerned in the largest Catholic diocese on the island.

Protocol, you see.

Similar commitment to protocol over truth prevented the papal nuncio to Ireland replying to letters from the commission in 2007 and again earlier this year.

The wonder is not that there will be empty pews across Ireland this Sunday, but that so many will still, despite this and everything else, be full. A church as rotten as this deserves to perish and the sooner it does the sooner the Irish state itself may have a reckoning of its own with its conniving, subservient relationship with an institution that has done so much to define and demean the state.

I'd thought that the Church's protection of war criminals from the Second World War - because they were good Catholic lads, you see - was bad enough. But this is muc, much worse. And they still don't get it.

[Thanks to reader SM for the heads-up on the concept of the "mental reservation".]

Filed under: Catholic Church (2 more articles) , Ireland (59 more articles)

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dearieme

November 27th, 2009 8:04pm Report this comment

“it permits a churchman knowingly to convey a misleading impression to another person without being guilty of lying”. Was this the technique that was used in Ireland to justify lying by witnesses and jurymen?

James O'Sullivan

November 27th, 2009 8:55pm Report this comment

I was in Dublin today as I have been visiting Ireland for some meetings, but I noticed that at evening Mass today, the pews were far from empty.

It is my opinion that people attend Mass because of their faith. If the behaviour of some perverted priests and their handling by some bishops results in people losing faith, then their faith would have been rather weak to begin with.

Your attacks against the individuals who committed these crimes and those who wrongly thought a cover up was in the church's/states best interest are understandable, and they should be brought to justice, but you should at least be able to distinguish between the man and his office.

Alex Massie

November 27th, 2009 11:22pm Report this comment

James O'Sullivan: Sure, but there is no difference between the office and the man in this instance. Why do you think there is?

JohnBUK

November 28th, 2009 12:08am Report this comment

James O'Sullivan ....."should be able to distinguish between the man and his office". Maybe, but isn't the problem more deepseated? Because of "faith" many people, including the police, did not feel able to "carry through" in their investigations, leaving the church to deal with it's own. They proved totally inadequate for that task. Sadly that just exacerbated the problem for the unfortunate victims. Whilst we cannot legislate against "faith" surely it is time people woke up to the fact that blind faith can be very dangerous for all concerned?

Geoff Miller

November 28th, 2009 8:29am Report this comment

What is it about the clergy - and I include all sects not just Catholic.

Why the preponderance of paedophiles, predominantly gay?

Could the recruitment difficulties to the cloth be a result of the new opportunities as air stewards, clothes/interior designers and hairdressers?

Naomi Muse

November 28th, 2009 8:47am Report this comment

Geoff Miller - Might it just be another manifestation of hubris, like politicians thinking they are without the law and normal social and societal restrictions?

Occasional Ostrich

November 28th, 2009 11:26am Report this comment

So, if you're the local Guarda, and a believer in the infallibility of the Church, and the priest tells you you'll got to hell if you let the cat out of the bag, what would YOU do?

David Lindsay

November 28th, 2009 2:56pm Report this comment

The End of Catholic Ireland? That is what the Dublin Political and Media Classes want. But Catholic Ireland is still more than safe in the six counties that remain within the United Kingdom.

There will always be Catholic schools in the United Kingdom, and Westminster will never introduce abortion to Ireland, a fact which is the last chance of preventing Dublin from doing so and thus restraining Westminster. That fact depends entirely on the continuation of partition.

In Northern Ireland, the inspection system was always more rigorous. But even so, almost everyone in the Irish Republic was educated by the Catholic Church. That is the wider context, providing the necessary senses of perspective and proportion to this story.

terence patrick hewett

November 28th, 2009 3:13pm Report this comment

The End of Catholic Ireland? That is unlikely as The End of Catholic England. We have survived Henry, the Cromwells, Napoleon, the Borgias and Hitler and we will survive this.

David Lindsay

November 28th, 2009 4:13pm Report this comment

Actually, terence patrick hewitt, Catholic England is built on much firmer foundations than Catholic Ireland.

Purely in the twentieth century, there used to be very high levels of weekly Mass attendance. But that was all. There has never been in Ireland the profoundly Catholic culture that one encounters on the Continent. Into the nineteenth century, the Irish were so pagan that they were widely polygamous, and practising Catholics did not predominate until at least the middle third, or even the third quarter, of that century.

Each of this United Kingdom’s parts contains a Catholic intelligentsia, whereas the Irish Republic’s is the most tribally anti-Catholic in the world. There are precious few Mass-going, and no ideologically Catholic, politicians, journalists, radio or television producers, or other public intellectuals. Rather, the memories of Samuel Beckett and James Joyce are venerated. Anyone who objects to even the most extreme decadence is accused of wishing to “return” to “the bad, old, repressive Ireland.” The Republic’s Catholic schools, among much else, are doomed.

As would be Northern Ireland’s, if Sinn Féin had its way. Under the pretext that they teach through the medium of Irish, wholly and militantly secular Sinn Féin schools are being set up at public expense, in direct opposition to the Catholic system, by the Sinn Féin Education Minister. Her exclusion of Anglican, Presbyterian and Methodist clergy from their historic role in the government of schools is the dry run for her party’s openly desired exclusion of the Catholic Church from schools throughout Ireland.

So the Catholic case is for the Union. Look at the Ulster Unionist and Democratic Unionist votes in largely or entirely Catholic wards. Even Ian Paisley’s huge personal vote could not happen without Catholic support. With no corresponding Nationalist vote in Protestant wards, the Union, simply as such, is manifestly the majority will of both communities. As for Paisley’s theological opinions, the definitive Catholic answers to them have been available for centuries.

Kittler

November 28th, 2009 6:34pm Report this comment

What I cannot understand, is that these creatures believe in an all knowing, all seeing Deity.

Frank

November 28th, 2009 10:10pm Report this comment

My curse on their miserable heads. I hope they roast slowly in Hell and Satan gives me the pleasure of turning the spit.It will be nice to see them squeel.

THX1138

November 28th, 2009 11:14pm Report this comment

"Men will never be free until the last king is strangled with the entrails of the last priest"

Denis Diderot

Ben

November 29th, 2009 10:35am Report this comment

All credit to James O'Sullivan and David Lindsay for excellent thoughtful comments, but typical Alex Massie, both in his pathetic bigoted summation, and his deliberately obtuse reply to James. Likewise, although quoting Diderot suggests THX1138 is teribly brainy, what is he/she actually suggesting? All humans are very fallible indeed, but it doesn't invalidate truth. perhaps Alex et al could reflect on this when they next transgress in their daily lives, and find a way to forgive themselves, as we all do.

Ben

November 29th, 2009 11:39am Report this comment

I did raise these in a different post, but I may as well raise it again here, as it does illustrate the quality of Alex Massie's judgement in general. It's written by his boss, Andrew Neil, in The Daily Beast. About Megrahi (whose release was thoroughly supported by Alex, in numerous posts):

"..Think it can’t get worse? Oh yes it can. It has now been revealed that three of the doctors who opined that Megrahi had only three months to live were not just paid by Libya but were encouraged by Tripoli to say three months—because that’s when so-called compassionate release can click in under Scottish law. Doctors had previously given him up to 10 months or more..."

A sorry episode indeed

THX1138

November 29th, 2009 1:34pm Report this comment

Fry & Hitch V The Catholics, Intelligence Squared debate, more of a massacre than a debate

THX1138

November 29th, 2009 1:35pm Report this comment

Sorry here's the rest of the post

http://richarddawkins.net/articles/4580- Fry Hitch won an additional 774 votes - A record.

Ben

November 29th, 2009 3:50pm Report this comment

Well that's that sorted, thank you THX1138, problem solved. That Hitchens is good isn't he? Stephen Fry, he's the polymath bloke. Used to be a comedian.

THX1138

November 29th, 2009 4:29pm Report this comment

Ben rather than making snide remarks at me you should ask yourself why Ann Widdecombe and Archbishop John Onaiyekan were thrashed out of sight in the debate.

Snowman

November 29th, 2009 5:18pm Report this comment

THX1138 @ 11.14:

you mean men will never be free then?

Ben

November 29th, 2009 7:00pm Report this comment

Dear THX1138 (can I call you TH?), by "thrashed out of sight" I suspect that you mean heavily outvoted in a modest gathering of doubtfully neutral bien pensants. It's hardly a definitive conclusion frankly. Religious observance and structures, by definition, require that element of belief that goes beyond pure logic. Not unlike atheism, in fact. We all do things and believe things in our everyday lives for which we cannot provide rational explanations. Except for Richard Dawkins of course.

THX1138

November 29th, 2009 9:46pm Report this comment

Ben - Spin it however you like but after listening to both sides of the debate an additional 774 people rejected the motion "Is the Catholic church a force for good in the world"

The Telegraph said:

"The voting gives a good idea of how it went. Before the debate, for the motion: 678. Against: 1102. Don’t know: 346. This is how it changed after the debate. For: 268. Against: 1876. Don’t know: 34. In other words, after hearing the speakers, the number of people in the audience who opposed the motion increased by 774." ...

It was the most decisive swing against a motion since the Intelligence Squared debates started.

So the more people find out about Catholicism the more they find to dislike it and I'm sure it's history of child rape and didn't help

James O'Sullivan

November 30th, 2009 12:36am Report this comment

I apologise for not replying to your responses earlier.

I can only say that the failures were at a personal level on the part of the priests and bishops involved in committing the crimes or of their cover up. When you say, Alex, that there is no distinction between the man and his office, I think their is; the Priesthood didn't fail, the individuals did. Maybe even the church as a human-run institution failed. The spiritual side, the reason why the Church exists at all, God/Jesus, and all the associated moral teachings cannot be argued away by saying some who claimed to speak for it were perverts. They have had their public perception and claims to authority tarnished by these criminals. My guess is that those who truly believe in what the Church tries to do, rather than walking away, will be more determined to restore the reputation of their Church. Personally, that is what I would do.

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