Mozlink Mission Blog: Meanderings

This first time Blog has been on the web for almost two months now. As a novice Blogger I am slowly learning how to do various things but I am still fundamentally a beginner in this new world of cyberspace with lots more to learn. One of the things I am learning is that it is necessary for me to write a few of my own thoughts more often. Holding down a busy full time job, time is often the restraint but now that I have a few moments, here goes.

While the focus of my Blog is to put before you in one place, the extreme sufferings of so many of our brothers and sisters in the developing world, on my very first post I included a link to what I consider an excellent RTE TV interview given by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin last October. (Read the Post.) Despite all the inhumane suffering in those posted stories from around the world that first week, I received two extremely lewd and vulgar reactive comments (in my opinion, unprintable, even on the Internet where almost anything goes), not about the suffering from all around the world but rather accusing Archbishop Martin of being the head of a paedophile ring and how dare I regard anything he could possibly say as "excellent".

I confess to being shocked at these vulgar reactions for a number of reasons. First and foremost, despite a reasonably long life at the service of people in Ireland, England, the US and in the developing world, I have never before had unprintable comments such as these addressed to me personally. Perhaps the explanation is that the two people who wrote, were themselves victims of abuse by Church personnel and if so their reaction is understandable, and my heart goes out to them, as no human being should ever be put in such a sordid situation by anyone, least of all by Church personnel.

While not knowing Archbishop Martin personally, I have met him a few times and I know him to be a gifted and genuine human being, eager to be a witness to the love of God for all, in all his various responsibilities in heading up an Archdiocese of nearly one and a half million people. Unfortunately the clock cannot be turned back but I know of his concern and eagerness to right the wrongs of the past in so far as he can, especially in ensuring that no other child of the Archdiocese will ever again have to suffer the unspeakable indignity of abuse by Church personnel. He is so dedicated to this task that he has left himself open to being accused by his own priests, of exposing innocent priests to false accusations, as was witnessed a few months back where an individual was convicted and sentenced in court of a false accusation against one of his priests. His willingness to right the wrongs of the past was also seen recently when he released the 1962 report on the Artane industrial school and upset the Christian Brothers in the process. (Read story) I have no doubt whatsoever but that the Archbishop will continue to give his all in addressing this serious problem that has been inflicted upon our Church in recent years.

In fact, I will go beyond that and predict that the Catholic Church in Ireland has begun a journey in recent years that will see the Church being regarded as an example to the whole of society of best practice, in the important task of safeguarding our children. How soon this will happen will depend first of all, on the Church learning from it's own mistakes and responding to what it has learned, as it is has already begun to do, despite what the media might say. It will also depend on when the Irish government and society in general are ready to face the truth of what continues to happen on a daily basis in our country. Society in general and the media in particular, continue to ignore the reality that Church personnel have been responsible for only about 3% of the abuse of children in our country. While any percentage is totally unacceptable in a civilized society, who will take on the challenge of speaking out for the other 97%?

To the fourth estate I say: You have done your job in helping us face up to the great cancer in our Church; continue to challenge us and call us to greater responsibility, but please resist the temptation to gloat, to beat a dead horse, to regurgitate old stories to sell more newspapers or magazines and move on to assist the other 97%. See the lessons we are learning as a Church and let us work together in reaching out to making a difference to the lives of that 97%.

Since returning to Ireland in recent years, after almost 12 years working in a distant land, I have noticed the tendency of certain branches of Government (even some ministers) to jump on the bandwagon and take easy potshots at the Church. To our exalted elected brothers and sisters I say: We have begun to address the beam which unfortunately has infected our vision for many years, now the time has come for you to look at the beam in your own eye. You have to stop passing the buck to the HSE and accept your own responsibility to address the child abuse that still stalks our land. Appointing a Minister for Children looks good and gives the impression that you are really serious about addressing this problem. But deep down, you know and I know that having a Minister for Children and a HSE is not addressing the serious problem which confronts us. Safeguarding our children between 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday is not good practice. You do not have to be a sociologist or a highly qualified doctor to know that the time our children are most likely to be abused is between 5 p.m. and 9 a.m. Monday to Friday. Can I further respectfully ask: "Who is safeguarding our children at weekends?"

Every citizen including priests, bishops, politicians and reporters have a responsibility to safeguard our children. It is part of the civic responsibility of every citizen. Following on from the responsibility of every citizen, it is primarily the responsibility of Government (our elected officials) not the Church, to guarantee that society protects our children. Perpetrators of abuse within and outside the Church have to be pursued and rooted out, but a policy that attempts to bring the Church to it's knees, however desirable that may seem in some quarters, does not relieve you of your responsibility to the other 97% of abused children. My argument is that a Government that is only concerned about our children from 9 a.m to 5 p.m. Monday to Friday, is not fulfilling it's responsibility to our children. There have been high profile media reports on heartrending tragedies during this past year, highlighting this lack of services, yet to date nothing has been done. Significantly, in one of these tragedies it was a priest, who was on hand over the week-end who was left to cope alone, in trying unsuccessfully to avert a tragedy, which saw the tragic death of two young children. I am left wondering why the members of the fourth estate have not pursued our elected officials for this irresponsibility with the same tenacity as they have rightly pursued our bishops?

My last word on this topic. It has been a highly profitable time to be a solicitor, barrister or lawyer. Many people in the Church feel that these qualified professional people are acting unjustly, in accepting or charging totally exorbitant rates. I myself know of a case where a solicitor received 33% of the total compensation claim. The Church is obliged and committed to pay compensation to genuine victims, but what is has a problem with is totally exorbitant fees and false claims. Unfortunately the Church in it's efforts to address these inequalities in our justice system, often appears to the outsider to be cold and not concerned about the victims. (This is probably why the Christian Brothers are upset with Archbishop Martin, as the report risks exposing them to more monstrous legal fees and possible false claims.)

With the public growing tired of Tribunals and their cost, I say to all our elected representatives: When the Inquiry into abuse in the Dublin Archdiocese reports next year, please resist the temptation to give more business to the legal profession by deciding on more tribunals/inquiries to investigate abuse in other dioceses. Why waste tax-payers money in investigating abuse cases that have already been investigated by the police? Resist the temptation to divert attention from your own responsibility to assist the other 97% of cases, most of which as yet, you do not know about. Make good use of taxpayers money to track down these abusers instead of regurgitating old stories you already know about. And perhaps you might like to look at the massive fees charged by our legal professionals, which more and more removes justice from the realm of the ordinary person.

Another reason I was shocked by the reaction of my two correspondents was that up until this week, these were the only comments I received on my blog. Not that I expect to be inundated with comments but I would have hoped that the stories of human suffering would have evoked an occasional comment. I have also just posted the story of the 26 yr. old in Wales who has just forked out £Stg.1,800 for medical attention for her pet hen. I am left wondering if our exposure to human suffering throughout the world in the media, is slowly leaving us immune to the reality of that suffering for so many of our fellow human beings. I thought of that as well this week, when a friend of mine told me that he was having serious reservations about attending an Irish wedding in a European country this coming week-end. He estimated that the c. 120 Irish guests will have paid well over 1 million Euro when all expenses are taken into account. That does not take into account the global warming consequences of such a decision to have a wedding on mainland Europe.