RITE & REASON:IT IS hard to believe it now but there was a time and a place when Irish priests and nuns were synonymous with the defence of human rights, writes JOE HUMPHREYS
As a new television series on "radical" Irish missionaries reminds us, Irish clergy once played an important role at the forefront of an international social justice movement. "It was invigorating, it was exciting. You felt so proud to be part of this church," Sr Áine Garvey, a former outreach worker in Brazil, says in Misineírí Radacacha.
The four-part series starting next Monday on TG4 recalls the influence of liberation theology, and how many idealistic young Irish men and women became disheartened by the direction the Catholic Church took.
While the situation in Brazil has greatly improved since the days of military dictatorship, “the church has fallen behind”, says Fr Kieran Ridge, a Kiltegan priest working in São Paulo for over 30 years. “What worries me most is the new clergy coming to the fore. I don’t think they lose any sleep over the situation that many people are living in.”
The television series is one of a number of initiatives bringing fresh attention to the subject of Irish missionaries. The Irish Missionary Union with former head of RTÉ religious programming Fr Dermod McCarthy, is releasing an audio archive of interviews with retired Irish missionaries.
A book is being published in September, with a foreword by President Mary McAleese, telling the stories of missionaries worldwide. A Road Less Travelled: Tales of the Irish Missionaries(Four Courts Press), edited by Aidan Clerkin and Brendan Clerkin, includes contributions from Cardinal Seán Brady, businessman Denis O'Brien and Goal's John O'Shea.
As the number of missionaries continues to fall, there has been an increasing awareness Ireland may be losing something unique. There is an acute sense that the contribution of Irish missionaries to the State – as opposed to the church – has not been recognised.
The missionary movement helped to shape Ireland’s policy on overseas development assistance, and to create public awareness of many injustices beyond our shores. The legacy of missionaries continues to be felt in terms of the goodwill they have created towards Ireland in the developing world, now emerging markets for our exports.
However, there is also evidence the movement is refusing to face up to darker aspects of its past, including child sexual abuse as highlighted in the RTÉ Prime Timeprogramme Mission to Preylast May.
In the wake of that documentary, I chaired a series of debates at the Irish Aid Volunteering Centre in Dublin on the Irish missionary movement. While there was some honest discussion, I found it limited at times by a self-congratulatory undertone. (Recordings of the debates can be found at worldandmedia.com).
There are at least three taboo issues within the movement: 1. Celibacy: the fact some Irish priests had sexual relations overseas is perhaps not as worrying as the secrecy which surrounds this and the potential for exploitative power relation; 2. Financial transparency: missionaries have resisted outside scrutiny; 3. Internal abuse: as in other parts of the church, a code of omertaseems to apply to cases of bullying and abuses of power .
Many Irish people can vouch for missionaries who have been inspirational. But until missionary congregations address these issues, the public would be right to question any claims they make about doing “great work” today.
Joe Humphreys is an Irish Timesjournalist and author of God's Entrepreneurs: How Irish Missionaries Tried to Change the World(New Island Books)