AS THE countdown begins to the forthcoming Vatican meeting between Pope Benedict, senior Curia figures and the Irish bishops, Vatican insiders have suggested the Holy See has been alarmed by recent signs of internecine strife within the Irish hierarchy.
Many commentators believe the Holy See intends the meeting, scheduled for February 15th and 16th, to serve as a starting point around which the Irish Catholic Church can unify as it strives to achieve closure on the pain inflicted, above all on the victims but also on the church, by Ireland’s prolonged clerical child abuse crisis.
In such a context, the Holy See has been confused and alarmed by apparent factional in-fighting among the hierarchy.
Reports of former Dublin auxiliary bishop Dermot O’Mahony criticising Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin for failing to support the priests in his archdiocese in the wake of the Murphy report have caused concern.
Likewise, an article in today’s Irish Catholic reporting that a number of Dublin priests feel Archbishop Martin showed a lack of compassion towards the auxiliary bishops named in the Murphy report; that he left them “hung out to dry”, will only add to the Holy See’s sense of concern.
Senior Curia figures are likely to be unimpressed by the fact that such tensions in the Irish church have found very public expression.
The Holy See and the Italian Catholic Church are rife with bitter internal feuds. But these tend to flow along underground with churchmen rarely criticising one another in public debate. Full frontal attacks are not a constituent part of Holy See DNA.
Many commentators had originally anticipated that when the Irish bishops arrive in Rome for their meeting with the pope, they would be presented with a final copy of his forthcoming “pastoral letter” to the Irish faithful.
Given the obvious climate of dissension within the hierarchy, it is possible that the pope may wait until he has met and listened to the Irish bishops before issuing the definitive version of this unprecedented message.
When the pope last met with the Irish bishops at their Ad Limina visit in 2006, he called on them to “deal with the problem in an efficient manner”, adding: “It is important to establish the truth of what happened in the past, to take all possible measures so that this can never happen again in the future, to guarantee that the principles of justice are fully respected and, above all, to heal the victims and all those who have been hurt by these abnormal crimes.”
At their Vatican meetings, the pontiff is likely to suggest to the bishops that, from the Holy See’s viewpoint, the Murphy report represents an important stage in carrying out his Ad Limina recommendations. In that context, senior Curia figures are likely to express their concern at the apparent unwillingness of some members of the Irish hierarchy to accept the overall findings of the Murphy report.