Spotlight on darker side of the Catholic Church
He related a story from the North's police ombudsman, Nuala O'Loan, showing the kind nature of his Church (Irish Examiner, September 28). However, there are many examples of his Church forcing people to parade their guilt. A simple example was the practice of reading out the dues in order to humiliate people into giving more.
Mr Mullen claims that his "Church has the capacity to be a healing, compassionate force." Where was this capacity in the Magdalene laundries and industrial schools run by his Church?
His Church has demonstrated its capacity for force. It would be nice for once to see it demonstrate its capacity for healing and compassion. Perhaps it doesn't have this capacity at all.
Mr Mullen mentions how some Catholics are confused about the Immaculate Conception. Isn't it odd that, despite years of religious instruction, very few understand this doctrine? Why have faith-based schools if they teach nothing about faith?
Mr Mullen claims his Church's teaching on sex isn't backward. He says that his "Church sees the physical union between man and woman as something sacred a foretaste of heaven."
If that is true, why do the clergy avoid sex like the plague? Is it because his Church sees sex as dirty, or is there something dirty about his Church?
To answer that, ponder the fact that his Church kicks out clerics who want to marry and found a family while at the same time covering up for those clerics who raped and sexually molested children. Perhaps his Church's thinking on sex requires some adjustment.
But at last, Mr Mullen starts to criticise his Church by lamenting its lack of leadership. In his will, Pope John Paul II instructed his private secretary, Archbishop Dziwisz, to burn all his personal papers. Not only did Dziwisz not do this, he publicly stated that he wouldn't do it. Dziwisz was a close friend of John Paul II for 40 years, and he feels no problem in publicly disobeying him. And what was Dziwisz's punishment? To be appointed to John Paul's former office as Archbishop of Krakow!
Before entering the conclave, every cardinal must swear an oath of secrecy. But one kept a diary of the proceedings and the results of all the ballots and leaked the lot to the media. As the punishment for breaking the oath is excommunication, it shows just how little regard some cardinals have for oaths.
If archbishops and cardinals can ignore papal instructions and oaths, how can they have any credibility as leaders? It appears that the light is slowly dawning on Mr Mullen that it isn't secularism, individualism, materialism, or any other 'ism' which is the cause of his Church's woes.
Whatever fate befalls his Church will be entirely its own fault.
Jason FitzHarris
Rivervalley
Swords
Co Dublin
