Church and State links too cosy for comfort

IT seems to me our long-running clerical abuse scandals owe quite a lot to the cosy relationship between the Catholic Church and successive Irish governments since independence.

It might not be too far wide of the mark to suggest the church has had government in its pocket on any issues which concerned it during most of the past 87 years.

I think it would be far healthier if there was a reasonable level of tension between church and State — both acting as a brake on the perceived excesses of the other. Even today, there seems to be a marked reluctance by ministers to take on the church in any but the mildest of tones.