Church’s foot soldiers feel hurt and under siege amid Magee affair

THEY are the foot soldiers — the men who are always expected to come running if someone is seriously ill or dying in the middle of the night.

For many non-church goers, they are still the people they call upon to officiate at weddings or preside over a funeral.

Once holding vaunted positions in the community and country, they have seen their vocation, Church and faith come under siege in recent years due to child sex abuse cover-ups and the emergence of a more liberal and secular Ireland where contraception, homosexuality and sex outside marriage are accepted and even championed.