More arrogance and assumptions from the RCC

Oh my my, the Catholic Church is willing to discuss patronage of schools. How magnanimous of them! From the Irish Times

THE CATHOLIC Church is willing to be an enthusiastic and constructive partner in the debate about future educational provision, Cardinal Seán Brady said yesterday.

The church, he said, was not interested in retaining schools simply for the sake of having them.

“The belief that the Catholic Church wants to manage as many schools as it can, irrespective of parental demands, is unfounded.”

This is coming from a man who covered up rape, child abuse and protected the rapist. Why is anyone listening to him still? Why is he still in head of the Catholic Church in Ireland? It shows the true arrogance of an organisation that still thinks of itself as valid.

The organisation covered up the truth, protected rapists, enslaved women and girls, starved and beat children, and raped with impunity. When their conduct was discovered they covered everything up, demonised survivors, indemnified themselves from prosecution, protected the guilty and transferred their fixed assets into untouchable accounts. While not every member of the organisation was involved, just as not every soldier in Abu Graib tortured prisoners, the organisation is rotten. The organisation is structured in a way to encourage criminality. I have written on this before. It is NOT just a few bad apples.

This organisation which controls 91% of primary schools, and which 61% of Irish people want out of the schools is willing to discuss the issue. The arrogance and assumptions of the RCC know no bounds.

And our poor pathetic government does nothing as usual, except for our Catholic fundamentalist Minister for Justice who passes a blasphemy law.

Our zombie "leadership" seem to lurch from crisis to crisis either without understanding or pandering to their Catholic fundie constituents who seem incapable of separating the message from the messenger.

Brady’s real role in the sex abuse cover up

I have a new post on GlobalComment:


Cardinal Seán Brady celebrated mass on Easter Sunday with some pretty words about rebirth, apologies and child sexual abuse. He did not mention that in the previous week he was asked by survivors of clerical sex abuse to resign. He did not announce his resignation. Instead, during his Easter Sunday sermon, he pledged to remain in his position:

I am resolved to continue to keep the safeguarding of children central to the Mission of the Catholic Church in Ireland. We all have a critical part to play in safeguarding children.

Implicitly, Brady refuses to resign. He will not carry out the request of the survivors of clerical sex abuse. Yet he sees no difficulty including in preaching about the seriousness of the wounds inflicted by the church:

We must take them seriously. We can only move on into the future if we first own our own personal misdeeds. We have to recognise the harm they have done and be resolved to do whatever is necessary to atone for the crimes that have happened and prevent their reoccurrence. Once again, I apologise with all my heart to all survivors of clerical child sexual abuse. At the Good Friday ceremonies in Dundalk I pledged that proper reparation would be made for the harm that has been caused and I renew that pledge this morning.

While it is not quite a non-apology apology, it comes close. As the primate of all Ireland, Brady speaks in generalities. He does not apologise for his personal sins of omission and commission.

Indeed, the portrayal of Brady as a youthful, ignorant school master is a public relations exercise. He received his advanced degree in canon law at the elite Pontifical Lateran University in Rome. There is no Catholic education institution more highly regarded than that he attended. The man is an expert on canon law and has been since 1957.

At the young age of thirty nine, Brady was asked by his bishop, Francis McKiernan, to conduct a canonical inquiry into an allegation of child sexual abuse by Norbertine priest Brendan Smyth. The upshot of the inquiry led to the suspension of Smyth’s confessional privileges. Brady reported to McKiernan who, in turn, passed the information to Norbertine Abbot Kevin Smith, Smyth’s superior.

The question is why was the information never passed on to the police. To answer that, I delved into the history of the monastery. I spoke extensively to people from the diocese of Kilmore, many of whom knew the protagonists well.

I was told that Felim Colwell, Abbot at Kilnacrott until 1968, was a strange man. He had grandiose ideas and an inflated view of his own self importance. At public ceremonies in Saint Patrick and Saint Feidlim’s Cathedral in Cavan, Colwell would dress entirely in white, mimicking the Pope, and proffer his ring to be kissed. This was unusual and made quite an impression on those who attended such functions.


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Brady must go

I've a new post up on GlobalComment:

Years ago, Father Seán Brady interviewed two survivors of the child rapist (Father) Brendan Smyth and then swore them to secrecy. This was standard operating procedure for the Catholic Church, as has been repeatedly revealed in the past few years. From the Catholic Communications Office

On March 29th, 1975, Seán Brady and two other priests interviewed a boy (14) in Dundalk. Seán Brady’s role was to take notes. On April 4th that year, Seán Brady interviewed a second boy (15) in the Parochial House in Ballyjamesduff. On this occasion Brady conducted the inquiry by himself and took notes. At the end of both interviews, the boys were asked to confirm by oath the truthfulness of their statements and that they would preserve the confidentiality of the interview process.

However, this happened in 1975 and Smyth continued to rape children until 1993. Brady said nothing to the civil authorities. Keeping silent, he ascended in the church hierarchy while Smyth claimed more victims. Now Smyth is dead and Brady is the current Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland. He was made a cardinal in 2007 by Pope Benedict XVI.

Brady’s actions have come to light recently and the Church has sprung into its default position of denial and justification, using the letter of the law. Monseigneur Maurice Dooley has been doing the publicity circuit in a pathetic attempt to justify Brady’s actions using canon law.

Canon law is, in this context, the internal ecclesiastical law governing the Roman Catholic Church with roots in Roman law, civil law, purported divine law and what is called natural law. However, the perceived superiority of canon law in the Christian tradition is rooted in the middle ages with the writings of Henry of Segusio aka Hostiensis:

[Hostiensis] did, however, clearly distinguish canon law from civil law… he maintained the superiority of canon law, indicating that in cases of conflict the civil law should yield to the law of the Church [Clarence Gallagher, Canon law and the Christian community (Rome, 1978)]

The perception in RCC continues to the present day. The pope formerly known as Joseph Ratzinger sent a letter to Catholic bishops urging the cover up of child abuse. The letter is in Latin, presumably to harken back to glory days and to limit the comprehension of the masses. Broadly speaking, it urges bishops to report child abuse to Rome, that the Apostolic Tribunal of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith is the only body that can deal with these crimes.

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