Ireland 'left out' in atonement drive for sins of the Fathers

By John Cooney
Monday January 14 2008

THE Vatican's call on Catholics to atone for the child clerical sex abuse scandals that have rocked its foundations in recent years has handed a poisoned chalice to the Irish bishops.

A week after what has been described by one commentator as Rome's "largest global prayer initiative ever seen", the Irish bishops have not yet received a letter instructing them what to do in order to make reparation to the thousands of young people raped by priests and nuns.
The purported aim of this Rome initiative is "to make amends before God for the evil that has been done and hail once more the dignity of the victims".

Yet, it is most unlikely that the victims of rapacious clerical fiends, such as the late Fathers Brendan Smyth and Sean Fortune, as well as other known notorious priest felons such as Ivan Payne, are enraptured at this directive from Rome for collective spiritual atonement.

Still cast as social pariahs more than four years after the Ferns Report into horrendous clerical sexual abuse in Wexford, victims in Ireland still await the justice delayed to them from the Ryan Commission of Inquiry into state institutions run by religious orders, as well as from the Dublin archdiocesan probe, which is being conducted behind closed doors by Circuit Court judge Yvonne Murphy.

Apparently oblivious of the legal processes set in place here by the Government, the Vatican has decreed an alternative strategy which concentrates on other-worldly contrition, rather than on the classic civic principle of justice being seen to be done to the wronged.

The rallying cry for bishops, priests and the Catholic faithful to engage in "perpetual adoration" before the Blessed Sacrament in churches throughout the world was issued last Sunday week by the Vatican's head of clergy, Cardinal Claudio Hummes.

In an interview with the Vatican's official daily newspaper, 'L'Osservatore Romano', that was picked up avidly by the secular media, Cardinal Hummes said that atonement-prayer crusade would involve ordinary parishioners taking turns to maintain a round-the-clock vigil kneeling before a consecrated host representing the body of Jesus Christ.

Cardinal Hummes also explained that the atonement initiative would require every diocesan bishop to assign a priest to work full-time on the arrangements in their localities.

According to the Brazilian-born Cardinal, a letter had already been sent to dioceses, parishes, rectories, chapels, monasteries, convents and seminaries.

It may be that the post between Rome and Ireland is unduly tardy -- or that the diplomatic post-bag to the papal nunciature in Dublin has not yet recovered from the Christmas holiday season -- but, as of this weekend, a spokesman for the bishops at Maynooth could affirm no sighting of a Vatican stamp or a curial imprint.

Yet, Vatican-watchers are in no doubt that Cardinal Hummes would not have given the story to 'L'Osservatore Romano' if the prayer initiative did not have the full personal backing from the very top of the Catholic Church's authoritarian command system -- Pope Benedict XVI.

Indeed, it carries all the hallmarks of the thinking of the former Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, who, before his election in succession to John Paul II, made clear his intent "to cleanse" the Catholic Church of "filfth" from within the priestly ranks.

As is now admitted, even in Rome, the late Polish Pontiff was slow to move against paedophile clergy, and even Cardinal Ratzinger, in his powerful post of head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, was also accused of engaging in cover-ups of errant clerics.

Since his election in the 2005 conclave, Pope Benedict has taken a tougher line against paedophile clergy, notably censuring the Mexican founder of the extreme right wing Legionaries of Christ, Fr Marcial Maciel, who was shielded by John Paul from accusers stretching back to the 1940s.

So, if this is Pope Benedict's latest response to the damaging phenomenon of clerical sex abuse, he has blundered in the public relations section of the Vatican, by allowing Cardinal Hummes to communicate through the traditional but narrow medium of 'L'Osservatore Romano'.

It is strange that a Pope of such intelligence has not summoned either a meeting of Cardinals, or an international Synod of Bishops, to discuss ways of tackling the huge crisis of credibility for the Catholic Church.

This is not to mock the power of prayer and repentance, but it is to affirm the need for Rome's consultation of the leaders and members of national churches in addressing a problem of such magnitude.
Apart from a communications system failure that has left the Irish bishops in the dark, the timing of the leak from Hummes could not be worse, coming as the Irish Episcopal Conference is finally getting its child protection procedures in satisfactory order for government compliance on both sides of the Border.

As the Irish bishops await formal receipt of this instruction from Rome, it has a capacity to distract from the corrective strategies put in place, particularly by Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

Rome's well-meaning but poorly-launched move may leave many Catholics wondering if they have to shoulder the guilt for the "Sins of the Fathers."

- John Cooney