Flocking around the abusers

(Rome, Italy)
As the row surrounding the findings of the Murphy Report rumbles on in Ireland, the priests and the flock appear to be competing with each other to scandalise the rest of the country with their reaction.

Bishop of Kildare Jim Moriarty is the latest in a long list of priests to refuse to resign because he believes he has done nothing wrong in covering up the abuse. At the head of that list is Bishop of Limerick Dónal Murray, who claims that his resignation was a matter for the diocese. He ignores the fact that priests are moved around the country – especially the child abusers – so it is actually a matter for the general population. He is now in Rome, supposedly in order to tender his resignation, but the Vatican has only broken its silence to issue platitudes.

Back in Ireland the faithful are becoming more and more vocal. One woman rang in to a morning radio programme and claimed that the priests should be left in peace because at the time of the abuse “they didn’t know how much pain it would eventually cause”. She likened it to a pharmaceutical drug that a company produces in good faith but which only turns out to kill people much further down the line. She went on to echo many other callers in claiming that child abuse is something that “happens everywhere in society” and called on politicians to resign for their own mistakes.

The woman’s first comment is obviously ridiculous and is not even worth answering. The general claim that abuse happens in every walk of life is true – this is not a problem exclusive to the Catholic Church, but everywhere else it is rejected and punished. In any other organisation the offender would be handed over to the police (and of course sacked). The call for ministers to resign is also completely reasonable, but there is a clear difference between government and Church – at least with the government there is a periodic opportunity for renewal even if a sense of accountability is as absent as within the hierarchy of the Church.

It might be a good idea for the faithful to show some degree of disgust towards the Church for the betrayal – perhaps a one-day strike, a mass refusal to attend Mass or to put the coppers into the plate that pay the priests’ wages. Instead they have compounded the sins of the priests, the government and certain members of the Garda Siochána by sending out a very clear message to child abusers around the world – come to Ireland, get yourself into Maynooth and you will be untouchable.