Madam, – Am I the only person who found Patsy McGarry’s article, “Long past time for bishops to ‘get it’ if the faithful are to continue travelling with them” (Opinion, March 8th) intemperate and biased?
He accuses Bishop Drennan of living in a “see no evil, hear no evil” world. To my knowledge, Bishop Drennan has never said such a thing. What he did say is that there was no collective responsibility for decisions taken in the Archdiocese of Dublin during the past three decades and that he was not going to accept guilt by association. Nuala O’Loan shares this view.
Surely a person who has been a religious affairs correspondent for the past few years would have some understanding of the actual power which auxiliary bishops wielded in an archdiocese, ruled over by forceful archbishops? His comments about holding the institution (the institutional church) responsible for compensating abuse victims, betrays an ultramontane view of the Catholic Church, rather than the one enshrined in Vatican II. In the final sentence he dismisses anyone who raises questions about the Murphy report as “sycophantic acolytes” of the bishops. While accepting the overall judgment of the Murphy commission, people have raised questions about whether the commission paid sufficient attention to the historical, sociological and cultural contexts of the time. It would be better to refute their arguments than call them names.
Finally, there is no acknowledgment of the time, effort and money which the Catholic Church in dioceses, religious orders and missionary congregations has put into developing and implementing child protection policies over the past decade. I am not saying we have it right yet, but huge efforts have been expended and that deserves some recognition. – Yours, etc,