Church and state - The Vatican response is unsurprising

THE Vatican’s response to Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s criticisms will do little to bridge the widening gap between traditional Irish Catholicism and those Irish people — including a growing number of disenchanted Catholics — who believe the interests of this society and corporate Catholicism are no longer compatible.

This may seem almost as academic as trying to agree about how many angels might dance a quadrille on the head of that infamous pin. For some it may even be as irrelevant as the fact that today, September 5, is the day designated to remember the life of a seventh-century Benedictine abbot who lives on in Catholic observance as St Bertin.

However, in a country where religious persecution has been at the root of so much hatred and bloodshed it would be foolish to pretend that the seeds of a destructive social schism do not exist within the Vatican’s, and the Irish Catholic hierarchy’s — past and present — response to the uncovering of so much child abuse at the hands of protected, recidivist clerics.

This response has been utterly unsatisfactory, self-serving, dishonest and in other spheres of life would have been considered criminal and treated as such.

It has shaken the belief of tens of thousands of people who can no longer depend on the comfort their generations-old faith once offered. It has contributed to the great loss of power suffered by the Catholic Church.

So negative has been the response that a question once almost unimaginable has become current — how welcome would Pope Benedict be here should a mooted visit be announced? Even today, and despite everything, that question might offend many Irish people, but for a significant number it is pertinent. That it might be asked at all underlines the widening gap in our society.

Discussions around school patronage have the capacity to deepen that divide, as has the debate on abortion made inevitable by recent European Court rulings.

When Enda Kenny made his passionate, groundbreaking speech in the Dáil on July 20 he spoke for the majority of Irish people. No amount of parsing by the gimlet-eyed will change that. It was as if a dam had burst and a sense of national outrage built up over decades had been released.

This weekend’s response suggests that the Vatican will never recognise its role in the active evil that stalked this society and our children in a way that the great swathe of Irish people no longer in awe of Catholic autocracy do. We can take comfort in the fact that the issues involved are nearly all historical, though some cases of abuse investigation remain current. We can never forget how victims’ lives were changed either.

Maybe we are at the point where we should recognise this reality and act accordingly. Catholicism will continue to play a huge role in this society because so many people remain steadfast in their beliefs. However, as other beliefs become more and more prominent they must have their voices heard too.

A good place to start would be a debate on why we need to sustain two embassies in Rome — one to the republic of Italy and the other to the faux state, the Vatican. That one issue crystalises all of the questions with the capacity to divide and stymie this society.