Brendan Comiskey is no theological whirlwind, but the wildest possible imaginings can't describe the Bishop of Ferns as conservative. His face was everywhere when St Therese's remains came to Ireland, lapping up the public's quirky mix of affection and curiosity and staging his own one-man challenge to the right-wing dogmas fashionable with his more powerful peers.
Dr Comiskey was climbing back out of the doldrums after a difficult period professionally and personally. His back-to-basics campaign wasn't too bothered with theological niceties - better a new age mix of Celtic spirituality and common-or-garden faith on whatever terms than no faith at all. 2001 was his best time for years.
But strip away the new pastoral garb and the old habits are still there. Instead of the man who knows personal humiliation and suffering at first hand, there is a bishop rushing to take refuge in Roman Catholic legalese after BBC's Suing the Pope documentary, when some of the late Father Seán Fortune's victims went on camera to talk about how badly let down they felt by Church, the Papal Nuncio and Bishop Comiskey. Comiskey would not appear nor would his clerical masters.
It's not that Bishop Comiskey is timid - he lambasted potential anti-abortion No voters for even considering taking a different line to the Government and the Catholic Church in the referendum, and he obviously enjoys doing media. Perhaps he was angry because he had cherished secret hopes that the St Therese tour would help to get the referendum passed and saw his work going down the tubes.
It is notable how far the rest of the bishops are distancing themselves from him. In the midst of all the abuse scandals, Dr Comiskey is the one face the bishops have allowed to be visible, if by default. He was not the only bishop who had a paedophile priest in his parish, not the only one who took more time than he should in getting the priest transferred or reporting a suspect to the civil authorities.
The distance became an abyss after the BBC programme. No one would comment, other than to say that bishops are responsible to Rome rather than to their national conference and have no jurisdiction over each other's dioceses. The question is whether the bishops are throwing Dr Comiskey to the wolves because they believe he made the wrong decisions or whether he is being sidelined for his other views. Maybe his current isolation has more to do with episcopal politics than with the issue of managing sexual abuse and corruption.
Maybe the whole issue of sexual abuse has more to do with episcopal politics than with the corruption it visited on the Church, as well as on so many others. Now that the deal has been done with the Redress Board and the State, on terms favourable to the Church, the institution is almost out of the woods for the first time in nearly 20 years. No matter what land has changed hands or what shekels will be paid over to people whose lives were ruined by such corruption, the Church has still not made a big spiritual gesture that can speak to the abuse survivors as well as to everyone else.
Bishop Comiskey echoed the words of abuse survivor Damien McAlean in inviting people to come forward, but the bishop seemed to be suggesting that people came forward to him personally. Why should they? Having given so little and resisted so hard, what can any bishop offer at this stage?
OFFICIALLY, the Church has finally got its institutional act together, but its human behaviour makes it more like Enron or AIB before the fall than an agency with a spiritual mission or the means to deliver it. The Church's moral authority is less, but its institutional power remains strong and deserves scrutiny. Key appointments are made by the Vatican State through Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto, not the first name that springs to mind when you think about the diplomatic corps, yet enjoying a unique degree of power of all the ambassadors and attaches assigned here.
No change is made within the Irish Roman Catholic Hierarchy without his say: thus his influence spans directly and indirectly across health and education, interacting with State policy in many areas.
This strange combination enables the Catholic Church to be simultaneously Irish and "other". It means that responsibility is split and accountability almost non-existent. The Irish bishops own whatever aspects suit them and distance themselves from the rest. They can spend considerable money and resources promoting a political referendum yet retreat into Shaggy mode at the first sign of genuine human need.
Bishop Comiskey did say sorry, but we're getting rather too used to hearing that word from various clerical mouths. Why be discreet now, especially when so many questions need answering? It's almost as if he, like his peers, are afraid of the victims and their hurt, offended humanity, reluctant to be accountable and, in some cases, more comfortable saying prayers over a dead nun in a GAA field while thousands cheer.