PETER McEVOY,
Madam, - In the current discourse on the concealment of clerical sexual crime in Irish society, a fundamental point appears to be overlooked, ignored or forgotten.
In my youth, in the Archdiocese of Dublin, it was consistently emphasised, in both schools and churches, that the Catholic priesthood was a vocation, not a job. God personally sought out particular male humans from the great unwashed in order to further His Divine Plan.
Therefore, as God could not err in this selection process, there equally could not exist "bad" priests. Any public evidence of erring clerics might lead to questions about the Church being a human rather than a divine institution.
When I offered this hypothesis to a young priest, he responded by saying that the faithful put their clergy on pedestals and are now surprised to discover they are human after all. I would suggest the clergy put themselves on pedestals and are now astonished to find the citizens hacking away at the foundations.
But don't despair, the empire is well capable of replacing one bust of Caesar with another. I'm sure the real power in the Vatican, Cardinal Ratzinger, will appreciate this simplistic analogy even when it appears nonsense to others. - Yours, etc.,
PETER McEVOY, The Stiles Road, Dublin 3.
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Madam, - What did the Garda authorities and the Government know after seeing the Prime Time programme that they did not know already? Whatever information RTÉ had on those matters would, of course, have been disclosed in full to the Garda authorities, would it not?
So why was the programme so crucial? Does it mean that our criminal investigation system is such that public opinion must first be aroused by the media before matters are taken seriously? - Yours, etc.,
PATRICK NOLAN, Cherbury Gardens, Booterstown, Co Dublin.
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Madam, - I am in total agreement with Father Tom Doyle's assertion (Opinion, October 24th) that the Catholic Hierarchy's agenda is to hang on to power at all costs.
When Cardinal Cahal Daly "sacked" me in 1986 because of my liberal views and my willingness to criticise the Church in the media, Father Brendan Smyth was being allowed to minister freely in his diocese and in many other Irish dioceses!
When Cardinal Desmond Connell refused, four years ago, to allow me to celebrate a funeral Mass in any Dublin church for my nephew Christopher, who had committed suicide, hundreds of cases of sexual abuse by priests had been committed and many were known to Cardinal Connell.
Had I been a paedophile, a sacerdotal womaniser, an alcoholic or an embezzler of Church funds, I would still be within the embrace of Canon Law and would still be "on the books" as far as Cardinals Daly and Connell are concerned.
But because I committed the unforgivable canonical sin and challenged the absolute power of which Father Doyle speaks, I have been consigned to the ecclesiastical leper colony these past 16 years!
Like Father Damian, I am very happy to spend my life ministering to my fellow "lepers" - the divorced, the "laicised" priests, the gay community, the cast-aside priests' mistresses, etc.
But can I be forgiven for hoping and praying that our Taoiseach, our Minister for Justice and our Dáil will see to it that Ireland will cease totally to be ruled by Canon Law and that at long last all of us, including priests and bishops, will be equal before the State? - Yours etc.,
Bishop PAT BUCKLEY, The Oratory Society, Larne, Co Antrim.
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Madam, - In the 11th century the German King Henry IV challenged papal authority. As a result he was obliged to travel as a simple pilgrim to Canossa, where the Pope, Gregory VII, was staying. On January 28th, 1077, after a humiliating wait of three days, Henry was received into the papal presence and reconciled to the Church.
Henry's penitential pilgrimage acknowledged the ascendancy of the papacy. The primacy of church over state was established for centuries.
There have been repeated expressions of regret from the Catholic bishops and clergy regarding the vilest abuse of children by priests, brothers and nuns. It is time now for the Roman Catholic Church authorities in this country publicly to acknowledge their collective contrition.
I suggest that, stripped of all symbols of power and consequence (including spin-doctors and PR persons), they gather at the hill of Tara on the first day of the New Year. From there, shoeless and lightly clad, they should proceed on foot to the precincts of Áras an Uachtaráin, where, after a wait of three days in penitential humility, they should receive the symbolic forgiveness of the people of Ireland through their elected representative - a simple tea-and-buns reception might suffice.
Such a pilgrimage of atonement would clearly indicate that there is more to their expressions of remorse than mere words, and signal that they acknowledge the priority of the democratic civil order. - Yours etc.,
FRANK M. FLANAGAN, Clareview, Limerick.