I see the Cause of Fr Edward Flanagan, the founder of Boy's Town, is advancing. The Archdiocesan phase in Omaha has been completed and the Postulator has taken possession of the documents to deliver them to the Congregation of the Causes of Saints in Rome. Just recently the diocesan phase of the Cause of Fr Patrick Peyton, the Rosary Priest, also ended and his documents are now deposited in Rome. So two ex-pat Irish priests are on their way to beatification.
You all know the story of Fr Flanagan, so I need not go into it. He was a 20th century Don Bosco who deserves to be honoured at the altars of God for his love and dedication to the most vulnerable of our young people. His life and holiness contrasts sharply with what went on here in Ireland as he was setting up Boy's Town. It seems he was not happy with the system of industrial schools in Ireland and apparently on a visit to Cork he read the riot act and told the Irish that the system the government and Church were putting in place was bad. See an interesting article on this here.
As we have come to expect, the Irish were having none of it and condemned Fr Flanagan for his remarks. The then Minister for Justice, Gerard Boland, using Dail privilege, said he was "not disposed to take any notice of what Monsignor Flanagan said while he was in this country, because his statements were so exaggerated that I did not think people would attach any importance to them". Fr Flanagan was castigated by those who thought they knew better, an attitude of the Irish that transcends all ideologies, and all religious beliefs and none. Fr Flanagan responded by saying, quite correctly, that we needed to be shaken out of our smugness and satisfaction. Well, we have indeed been shaken. The dismal state of the Church in Ireland today is of our own making, the fruit of our refusing to heed the warnings God gave us through his faithful servants because we thought we knew better. And you know, I don't think we have learned anything because listening to some in the Church recently they are going along as if it is business as usual.
Of course it would be simplistic to blame the Church alone for all this - this attitude Fr Flanagan was speaking about is an Irish one, not a Catholic one - indeed a good dose of Christian humility will shake it out of us. This is interesting as we hear reports from the HIA enquiry in Northern Ireland which is currently looking at the Brendan Smyth case. It seems, according to what was revealed (and not widely reported down here in the South), that the Gardai were aware of accusations of child abuse made against Brendan Smyth in 1973, long before the Church was, but seemingly did nothing about it. Why didn't they? We shall see where that will go.
Why don't people listen to the modern John the Baptists God sends us?
It has been a busy few days here, and in Ireland it has been an eventful week. More revelations concerning the Cardinal and the media has been bursting a gut to make the most of it. It has been a difficult week for the Church here, once more we were bombarded from all sides with accusations, anger (rage even), protestations, inertia, bigotry, opportunism - at this stage it all just congeals into one big ugly tumour. God help the poor victims at the heart of all this. One also wonders how we can kick start the reform of the Church here in Ireland with all this. Would a complete clearing of the decks help?
One thing which struck me was the hypocrisy at the heart of the media campaign. I accept that Christians who fail to live up to Christ's teachings frequently fall into the category of hypocrite - that is why Jesus in his wisdom gave us the Sacrament of Confession. But the "holier than thou" attitude of the media is sickening. While RTE has been exposed, they are still jumping on the bandwagon and throwing stones. The recent BAI report on the Prime Time Special Mission to Prey was damning - the National Union of Journalists are not happy with it and are challenging it. I notice in their defence of the journalist involved, the NUJ are using arguments not too dissimilar from those the Cardinal is using to defend himself: interesting.
The reporter at the heart of the whole affair has finally resigned - it took her long enough: if she was a Catholic bishop she would have been hounded out long ago. Given that RTE is calling for episcopal resignations all over the place, in this libel case they have been slow to clear the decks. Some minor shuffling around took place, but I am inclined to think that that was merely cosmetic.
Meanwhile the politicians are breaking their own demand for separation of Church and State by demanding, albeit in a cautious way, the resignation of the Cardinal. They preface their remarks with the phrase "in my personal opinion" - who would ever think that "personal" would become such a dirty word? I see the Minister for Education is trying to use the situation to push his agenda to get the Church out of education: he is not comfortable with the Cardinal being the head of the Church in Ireland when the Church has the patronage of so many schools. Meanwhile Enda Kenny, our Taoiseach, has said that it is not up to him to determine who leads the Church. It's a pity he didn't adopt that attitude last July when he attacked the Pope.
Personally (if they're all using it, so will I!) in my view I think they are very concerned over who leads the Church - an erastian puppet denomination would be much more favourable to the current administration here in Ireland than an independent universal communion. After all with abortion and gay marriage, among other things, being lined up, a supportive native Irish catholic church is the preferred option. Some have even suggested to me that certain political figures are in dialogue with certain religious figures to see if such an institution could be created and "the Vatican" airbrushed out of Irish Catholicism. Is that possible?
In other news: the dissenting nuns in the US LCWR are reacting to the recent report from their Apostolic Visitation - they are not happy. Reading their response I am reminded of an incident from the life of Blessed John Paul II concerning the disciplining of a nun who was ardently pro-abortion and had herself elected to a legislature. The Vatican had been in dialogue with her for some time pointing out that her position was not in keeping with the teaching of the Church, but she dug her heels in, refused to resign her office in the legislature (priests and religious are not allowed present themselves for national/civic election) and maintained her position on abortion, publicly promoting the “pro-choice” position. The Pope finally had enough and sent a representative for a final chat to see if she could be persuaded to back down: she refused. So she was asked that if it came to choice which would she choose: her position as a consecrated religious or that of an advocate for abortion? Defiant as ever she maintained her position. The papal representative reached into his briefcase and took out a document: it was a dispensation from her vows, already signed. Having made her position clear, she was being dispensed of her vows and free to go wherever she liked. The nun was stunned.
The LCWR representative is Sr Brigid McDonald and she's lashing out in good old dissenting fashion. Her reaction goes to prove the truth of what the Visitation found. Like the sister above, Sr Brigid, it seems, is pro-abortion. Is it not time for an official to pop over to the US from Rome with a briefcase?? Here's an interesting article on obedience from Fr Bevil Bramwell. He notes: "Interestingly, people who have trouble with obedience to the Church will still obey their boss and the weatherman or the cop on the beat and not note the inconsistency." I would go further and say, from my own experience, that those who reject obedience to the Church demand obedience from those under them and they can be tyrannical superiors.
Anyway, to cheer us all up on this Bank Holiday Monday, some music. Today is an easy day for many, another day of rest - not here - I have a funeral later and lots to do. But sit back and enjoy a little piece of Mozart - always puts you in the right mood! From The Marriage of Figaro, this is Figaro's fantastic aria at the end of Act One, "Non piu andrai". It was the piece I used for auditions when my heart was set on an operatic career. "Sometimes I wish....." Ah no, stop now, Father, serving God is better.
