The Vatican criticised - Taoiseach speaks for the majority

TAOISEACH Enda Kenny’s Dáil attack on the Vatican was one of the finest moments in this Republic’s struggle to assert its relatively newfound independence.

That the powerful speech was so very overdue, that it came from such a conservative and unexpected quarter made it even more moving and inspiring than it might otherwise have been.

It will, in time, be seen in the same light, and be given the same import, as President Éamon de Valera’s response to Churchill’s 1945 bitter attack on Irish neutrality during World War II.

Just as de Valera did then, this week Mr Kenny reminded those who may have forgotten — or never recognised — that we have an elected parliament and that the laws it invokes pertain to all citizens no matter what other authorities they choose to recognise.

That it coldly confronted the hypocrisy, lies and hubris of what was once the most powerful force, respected and feared in equal measure, in this society marks it out as a Rubicon moment in the assertion of participatory, constitutional democracy over the kind of religious belief that imagined itself unaccountable to any lay jury of its peers.

Mr Kenny’s declaration that this is “a republic of laws, of rights and responsibilities; of proper civic order; where the delinquency and arrogance of a particular version, of a particular kind of ‘morality’, will no longer be tolerated or ignored” was directed at the institution of the Catholic church but it could be directed at other sections of this society equally. If the speech leads to a renewed primacy for our laws, a revitalised expectation that standards and laws be observed in ways they have not been then we have good reason to cheer and be more optimistic than it has been possible to be for quite some time.

Some Catholics will be unhappy with the Taoiseach’s declaration, pointing to the State’s less than perfect record in child protection but the reality is that the great majority of Irish people, and Irish Catholics too, will support his view. He articulated what most Irish people, Catholic or otherwise, concluded years ago. This conclusion is reflected in church attendance figures which the hierarchy has admitted have fallen as low as 3% in some urban areas.

Those who would oppose his view should remind themselves that his attack was aimed at a “dysfunctional” institution and not the fundamental tenets of their religious beliefs, beliefs which Mr Kenny is proud to share and observe. They might reflect too that his position is shared by the obviously frustrated and disappointed Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin.

The relationship between the Vatican, the Catholic hierarchy and this Republic is being redefined but the Catholic church in Ireland is struggling to sustain itself. Vocations are at an all-time low and many parishes have only one priest, some none. When today’s clergy retire they may not be replaced. A few decades ago this situation would have been as unimaginable as Mr Kenny’s groundbreaking speech.

And, as we await the Vatican’s “measured response” to the Cloyne Report, we should recognise the great irony in all of this. By being so very forthright Mr Kenny may provoke the kind of change — reformation is not too strong a word — Irish Catholicism must undergo if it is to recover the relevance its fundamental message of faith, hope, love and charity deserve. In time Mr Kenny may be seen as Irish Catholicism’s best friend.