I am proud of the Taoiseach

COMMENT

“Man will get used to anything, if he only reaches an appropriate degree of submission.” – Carl Gustav Jung

I HAD not imagined I would get to say this any time soon. In actual fact, if it is not the first time I have said it then it is certainly the first time I have written it. I am proud of the Taoiseach. It might be more appropriate that I am proud of the Government, the civil servants and anybody who had anything to do with the Taoiseach’s statement in the Dáil last week on the Catholic Church and its behaviour with regard to the abuse of children in Ireland. So rare is straight and direct talk in modern politics that the Taoiseach’s words felt like a new dawn of kinds, an epoch promising freedom for the dark and troubled times which have proceeded it.
For so many years, reports similar to the most recent on Cloyne have been published only for initial revulsion to wither into non-action. This is made all the more galling by the fact that the damage done to those documented in the report stays with them for all their lives.
It has been such a long time since this terrible reality has ensconced itself in the Irish psyche that it is a thing of the purest and unfathomable question as to why it has taken so long for a Taoiseach to come out and make a statement of this kind. If Enda Kenny did not write his Dáil statement himself then the civil servant who did should be identified and honoured because they have given a voice to many thousands of people. They have vocalised feelings, which many people have felt for years but have remained internalised because of repeated missed opportunities. As the Cloyne Report has exemplified, the abuse continued as people believed it was a thing of the past. While we wrung our hands and looked fearful back at a terrible history, Catholic priests continued to molest and rape with impunity, safe in the knowledge that their organisation would protect them from prosecution or exposure.
As Taoiseach, Enda Kenny actually needed to make the statement he did. Not only was it long overdue but it contained the kind of language, which indicated the Irish State might finally mean business in its dealings with the Catholic Church. For too long, the State was seen by the Vatican as servile and within its grasp. No longer can this fallacy be allowed to continue. The petulant response of the Vatican to the speech has been interesting to observe. There is a peevish anger in the tone of the comments reported around lunchtime on Monday. These included, “Some degree of surprise and disappointment at certain excessive reactions”. This only underlines again the inability of this organisation to acknowledge its faults. The Taoiseach’s statement was perhaps strong in a diplomatic sense but it was bordering on tame in the sense of what he might have said to this foreign State and those who do its work in Ireland.
Let it be stated repeatedly and often that the hierarchy of this Church/State has systematically, over the course of many decades, hidden the rape of children, protected the rapists and defied the law of the land in doing so. Why does such an organisation deserve anything other than our derision?
Despite the fact that the Vatican is the 18th wealthiest nation in the world per capita, collection trays are still passed around in churches every Sunday. Despite owning vast amounts of property, some of the Catholic orders refuse to pay their fair share of compensation to the victims of rape and torture. In fact, they are €350 million shy of their total. When they were refusing to meet the minister recently, RTÉ quoted a source from within the congregation who “accused Mr Quinn of moving the focus away from the survivors, of adopting an ideological position and of planning to lecture them”. This statement is so far beyond ironic as to be actually mind-boggling in the level of self-delusion it demonstrates in the person who uttered it.
It would be easy to read too much into the Taoiseach’s statement of course. As a symbolic act, it will hopefully live on in Irish history as the moment that marked firm action against the Church by the Irish State. The Church’s spoken promises in the past have proven to be worthless so until we see action on the part of the Government to back up the statement, we must try to remain grounded.
Since the speech, certain Church figures and others have suggested the Taoiseach neglected to go hard enough on the State for its role in the shameful history of child rape and torture in Ireland. To those I would say, for the majority of the time that this was endemic in Church institutions, there was precious little difference between Church and State in Ireland.
In fact, it could be argued we are only now, with this statement, finally getting the kind of separation there needs to be. That said, it was interesting to note the pains Enda Kenny was at to let everyone know what a devoted Catholic he himself is.
For many decades, the Irish State was subordinate to the Catholic Church, ruled by fear and living in shackles. Now at last, another link in the chain of repression has been broken with the leader of the State publicly and properly stating that the dysfunctional, elitist and narcissistic attitude of the Church will no longer be tolerated.
Hopefully, having finally stood up to the Rome-based bully, Ireland can build a new and better future free from interference. This said, we thought we reached this place before only to find ourselves plunged back in time with the publication of another report with all its devastating revelations.
The Taoiseach deserves the praise he has received for delivering this landmark speech, including messages from a thankful clergy. He should enjoy this and use it to spur him on into the necessary action to follow through from the starting gun shot that his message could well be.