THE much-maligned Roman Catholic Church will have in recent weeks
contributed more than the Irish State for famine relief in Somalia.
This
is done through its Third World Development Agency, Trócaire.
The contributions in either case were not from the State or the
Church in the sense that State funding is taxpayer’s money while the
Trócaire funding comes from the generous contributions made by church
congregations to help alleviate starvation and famine in the Horn of
Africa.
Still it was mainly the nationwide church network, which helped
organise and collect the amount of money involved in the case of
Trócaire.
This needs to be noted in the interests of balance at a time
of an understandable anti-church media frenzy in the wake of the report
on clerical child abuse in the Catholic diocese of Cloyne.
The much-maligned Roman Catholic Church through the St. Vincent De
Paul Society has at the same time helped keep the wolf from many doors
and food on many tables affected by cutbacks in jobs and social welfare
benefits.
In this case too the money and the contributions of food, clothes,
etc., came from what is known in church circles ‘the people of God’ the
parishioners whose faith inspires them to share what they have, even if
most of them have not very much themselves.
This too needs to be noted
in the interests of fairness and balance at this difficult time for many
people in all walks of life.
The much-maligned Roman Catholic Church has in effect a better child
protection system in place than many other societies and sporting groups
in Ireland.
This can be seen in action in most church sacristies in
which care is taken to make sure that Mass servers are never in a
one-to-one situation with a priest or other adult.
Priests, parish workers and parents are in favour of this and
cooperate in this to the extent that signing in, being overseen or
monitored are taken as a necessary part of life.
The main problem in
Cloyne diocese was that this system was not in place, or certainly was
not in place to the extent that it should have been.
The more than 90
per cent compliance with the rules and regulations throughout the
country should, however, be noted in the interests of fairness and
justice.
The Dáil speech of Taoiseach Enda Kenny in response to the Cloyne
report has been deservedly praised, not least by clergy and committed
Catholics.
It put into words what many were feeling throughout the country,
exasperated by Vatican macinations, and wondering what was the problem
with high-ranking Cardinals and officials who seemed to see the
suffering of children as very low on their list of priorities.
Leaders and spokespersons for other political parties were forthright
too in their comments.
The ironic thing is that in this so-called
Church-State debate, the State has more Roman Catholics, including
priests and many bishops who were personally appalled by the findings of
the Cloyne report, on its side than church officialdom has.