Madam, – I wish to voice my admiration for the sheer courage and grace of the victim of clerical sex abuse in her letter to the Irish people published in The Irish Times (Opinion, December 23rd). Her article shames the Irish people for their voicelessness and lack of positive action in calling for a response by both the Catholic hierarchy and the Government’s lack of pressure on the papal nuncio and the Pope.
As a human being I am sickened, angered, shamed and frustrated at the Irish people’s lack of action taken against the Catholic Church whose members treated Ireland as a paedophilic playground.
I wish to congratulate The Irish Times for giving this wonderful brave person a voice and once again to thank this person for enduring the trauma of reliving her experience by writing this letter. It behoves the Irish media to give victims a voice, and to speak on their behalf, because the Government is doing nothing! – Yours, etc,
Madam, – Congratulations on printing the plea from a survivor of clerical sexual abuse, who is calling for some kind of public response to the private crimes committed against her and thousands like her (Opinion, December 23rd). As the Catholic Church is so deeply ingrained in every facet of Irish society, any move against it feels like a move against ourselves. But there is one gesture which would cost nothing but make a strong national statement. The Angelus bell on RTÉ must be rung for the last time.
This interruption of normal broadcasting by the national service at key times is incorrectly presented as a public call to prayer, like that of a muezzin in Islamic countries. However I have walked the corridors of RTÉ and the streets of Dublin and the boreens of Connemara and never once, at noon or 6pm have I seen any sign of anyone hurling themselves to their knees and praying in response.
People in Ireland say the rosary at times of grief and celebration, in family homes and churches, but their prayers almost never coincide with the RTÉ bell. The bell is not really a call to prayer. It is a blast of narrow sectarian triumphalism which brazenly states “There is only one true faith in Ireland and anyone who differs from it has no rightful place in this nation”.
If the ringing of the Angelus was banned, or even suspended until after the resignation of those bishops who continue to deny their responsibility for crimes of omission and denial of abuse, then it would send the clearest possible signal to survivors of abuse that we as a people acknowledge their suffering. It should also be taken as a signal that all those who abuse their power over the weak and helpless will ultimately be brought to book. – Yours, etc,