Clerical conviction puts politicians to shame

Irish religious leaders have shown rare courage and integrity in their reaction to cuts in school and aid budgets, writes DAVID ADAMS 

LATELY, I’VE found myself admiring the courage and integrity of some religious leaders, which is unfamiliar territory for me, to put it mildly. It’s probably to do with not being able to detect much evidence of similar qualities among the political classes. I’ve even taken a bit of a shine to Pope Benedict, which would support that idea.

I find the pope’s forthrightness and his refusal to compromise in order to fit with contemporary opinion refreshing. It shows a measure of courage and steeliness that sets him apart from other world leaders. Most of whom settle for mealy-mouthed platitudes, and trumpeting “opinions” and “beliefs” dutifully in line with whatever is the current consensus, too frightened to say anything other than what they think people want to hear.

Whatever your views on the pope, you certainly can’t accuse him of courting popularity or sowing confusion. You know precisely where he stands on most of the big issues. Whether you agree with him or not, and usually I don’t, is an entirely separate matter.

However, it is with local religious leaders that I have been most impressed.

Church of Ireland clergy in the Republic have been particularly courageous in their outspoken opposition to cuts in funding for Protestant schools, considering that the C of I’s usual mode is one of rarely-seen- and-more-rarely-heard acquiescence. When the Archbishop Paul Colton of Cork recently charged that Protestant schools were being singled out for cuts and being “got at”, he was strongly hinting at, if not quite religious discrimination, then a vendetta by the Department of Education. In this, he has probably gone further than any southern Protestant leader since partition. Nor did he stop there. He warned that Protestants in the Republic had traditionally kept their heads down, but “they are not keeping their heads down on this one”. And neither should they.

Speaking of traditionally keeping your head down, it is disappointing but sadly not surprising that senior Church of Ireland lay member, and junior Government Minister, Martin Mansergh, has chosen not to speak out in support of his less fortunate co-religionists. Rather, he seemed almost to chide the clergy, and those who have supported them, when he told the Seanad of his regret that “a type of religious emotional charge which sometimes arises in controversies of this type” had entered the debate. One wonders what sort of reaction he expected from a religious minority that feels it is being discriminated against in something as basic as educational rights. More silent acquiescence? Mansergh did say he hoped that “a resolution can be found to this problem in the context of next year’s budget”. We can only wait and see.

True to form, there was no reticence or mealy-mouthing from the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin. He didn’t bother himself with distractions about constitutionality and necessary belt-tightening, but simply followed his conscience and came out strongly in support of his Church of Ireland counterparts. Just as fearless, frank, and, dare I say it, as genuinely Christian-like as he was over the child sex abuse scandals, Archbishop Martin said: “I believe there is a public interest in guaranteeing the right of the Protestant community to education” and “without the Protestant communities and without their schools, I believe Ireland today, or pluralism in Ireland, would be poorer”.

Other Catholic clergy, lay members and organisations, such as the Catholic Iona Institute, have echoed Archbishop Martin’s views, which is deeply heartening. If nothing else, the row over school funding cuts has probably done more to enhance inter-faith relations than decades of private discussions could ever manage.

Another issue that religious leaders in Ireland have been unafraid to tackle is overseas aid, which has been cut by €222 million (or €255 million, depending on who you speak to) during the past 12 months. In these recessionary times, the first instinct of many must surely be that charity begins at home, so promoting foreign aid is hardly the populist thing to do.

Regardless, the four main Christian church leaders, along with the clerk of the Quakers in Ireland, came together recently and publicly called upon the Government to keep its commitment to spend 0.7 per cent of national income on aid by 2012. In essence, they were advocating that the McCarthy report, which has recommended that the 0.7 per cent target be postponed until 2015, should be ignored. Before even considering another across-the-board cut, the Government should first do everything possible to streamline aid distribution by leaving it to Irish non-governmental organisations.

In coming to any decision, the Government should bear in mind what Cardinal Brady said about relatively minimal savings here having a devastating impact on the lives of aid recipients overseas.

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