‘I don’t get downhearted. You just keep going’
And that’s just the overspill from his sitting room where the cabinets are similarly swamped.
He recently celebrated his ruby jubilee, 40 years as a priest, and the cards are from family, friends and well-wishers congratulating him on his achievement.
He is moved but slightly bemused. “I don’t know why they mark 40 years in the priesthood as well as the silver and golden jubilees. I suppose in the past, they didn’t expect you to make 50. They thought you’d be buried by then.”
Life expectancy has changed over the years but so too have expectations. Now Paddy Cushen is not only much more likely to celebrate his golden jubilee than his predecessors but it’s almost essential that he does.
In another 10 years he’ll be 74, still one year away from retirement, if indeed he is able to retire. Many “retired” priests now find they’re still very much in demand to help out the stretched colleagues left behind.
One thing he has learned in 40 years of priesthood — and particularly in the last 10 — is that you never know what’s going to happen next.
Fr Cushen is parish priest of Ferns, the Co Wexford village that gave its name to what for a time was the country’s most infamous Catholic diocese. It is almost six years since the report of the Ferns Inquiry was published, bringing into the public domain the sexual abuse of children by 21 priests over a 40-year period and the serious failings of local hierarchy to deal with their crimes.
Since then, the spotlight switched to the Dublin Diocese with another report into abuses there published in 2009, and soon the Diocese of Cloyne will be under scrutiny as publication of a report into similar goings-on there is imminent.
But even though the publicity about Ferns has died down, the impact of the turbulent days when priests like Sean Fortune and Jim Grennan became household names, continues to be felt in the diocese.
“A lot of priests in the diocese, they were really torn asunder,” says Fr Cushen who, apart from four years in London, has spent all his ministry in Wexford parishes.
“It was very demoralising. It was devastating to see that lads could be so cruel. Some of the things we found out were horrific.”
Many parishioners were demoralised too and Fr Cushen still meets people who tell him they stopped going to Mass as a result of the scandals.
“I ask them were you going to Mass to honour Fr So and So or were going to honour God? I tell them don’t let what men do interfere with your relationship with God. I challenge them to go back and reclaim the Mass for themselves.”
But the fallout has affected other aspects of his work too. “You would never be alone with a child now. You would never have a child in the house here. In the past a parent might have sent their young lad over to help with odd jobs — the garden or something — but now if they offer, you refuse.
“Before, you could have the altar servers over for their breakfast after Mass or give lads a lift to hurling in your car but you can’t do that now.
“Some priests won’t have altar servers at all now and one thing I find particularly sad is that you have priests who won’t go next or near the schools.
“I will always go into the schools. I’m never on my own — not like before — there’s always a teacher there.
“But I do sometimes think, if anything was ever said against me and I had to stand down in the morning, people might say, ah sure wasn’t he always in the schools? And wasn’t he manipulating the kids, giving them Easter eggs and Christmas treats?
“I have faith nothing like that will ever happen and it won’t stop me going in to the schools or being generous with the kids.
“I love it when they shout across the road: Hello, Fr Cushen. I genuinely do. But it is on your mind that people might ask, why he is so friendly with the children?”
Something else that has been bothering him of late is the talk of securalising schools. “The talk is always of the Church’s ‘control’ of schools. I’m the chairman of the boards of management of two schools but I’m only one of seven people on each and I have no more control than the rest of them.
“We have children of different faiths and no religion at all. They’re not threatened by anything I say. I’m talking to them about good values, about respect for yourself and respect others. It’s good citizenship as much as good Catholicism.”
It’s all very different from when Fr Cushen was growing up in Graiguenamanagh, Co Kilkenny and his family was delighted that he, and his brother, Bernard, now parish priest of Ramsgrange, another Wexford parish, were joining the priesthood.
“Now if two brothers went in, the family would be talking about ‘losing’ them to the priesthood.”
When he began studying at the now closed St Peter’s Seminary in Wexford, in the late 1960s, there was a great sense of optimism.
The Second Vatican Council promised so many changes and there was real excitement about the prospects of a renewed church.
“There were a few guys in my class who believed so many changes had come in that they said it will only be a matter of time before celibacy is dropped. They were looking forward to that and it never happened.
“I would be open to priests marrying, and to women priests as well. I believe we are made in the image and likeness of God which means we are equal and if we are equal why doesn’t the church give equal rights to women?
“Older people mightn’t agree with those kind of changes but there were a lot of good lads lost from the priesthood over celibacy.
“We are human beings, we are sexual beings, and it’s wrong to deny that part of us. But it’s not just about sex, it’s about companionship.
“I know if I was married, when I came home in the evening I’d be told, you are not going out to meetings tonight again. You have to stay home.
“You would be a more relaxed person, a more rounded person. As it is I only have the doctor saying, Paddy you have to take it a bit easier, you’re blood pressure is sky-high. That’s not the same as hearing it from your wife.”
His blood pressure has been tested again in recent weeks. Another priest in the diocese, Fr John Sweetman, parish priest of Riverchapel, stepped aside from his duties, telling parishioners at Mass that an accusation of abuse dating back 30 years had been made against him.
He told them the claims by woman involved were entirely untrue but he was standing down until the Garda investigation was complete. Fr Cushen isn’t sure what to think and will only say he hopes his colleague is right.
The cards on his kitchen counters show people still do have faith in their priest and he takes heart from that.
“I don’t get downhearted. You keep going. You look for the best in people and they look for the best in you.
“And for all our troubles in this diocese, we have three students in the seminary and another two starting this year. That gives you hope.”
