From the editor’s desk
A relationship in need of repair Free
It is only three months since an international symposium on clerical child abuse was held in Rome, causing many observers to believe that the Church was beginning to understand the full scale of the scandal. There were wise words from Mgr Charles Scicluna, of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF), who deals with abuse cases, urging church leaders to put the protection of children above all else.
Omertà – a Mafia-style culture of silence – had prevailed in the Church on abuse; protecting the good name of the institution was the enemy of truth, he said. The CDF prefect, Cardinal William Levada, even acknowledged the role that the media played in exposing abuse. Now an historic case in Ireland is putting this recognition of the Church’s failings, and its need to do better, to the test. A BBC documentary described the involvement of Cardinal Seán Brady in a cover-up of abuse back in the Seventies. It accused the then Fr Brady of failing to act when a teenage boy, abused by a notorious paedophile, told him about other victims during an internal church investigation.
Cardinal Brady says he was only the note-taker, and though he did not alert the police or the children’s parents, he reported what he heard to senior clergy.
Although Cardinal Brady has now made a public apology over the case, he has refused to stand down. His supporters say that he is not personally guilty of a crime, but that is not the issue for many in Ireland. The point is the upholding of a system of authority that allowed abuse to flourish. The once-devoutly Catholic country now appears to be locked in permanent combat with the Church, sickened by not only revelations of clerical child abuse but clerical cover-up.
Rome, meanwhile, despite its praise for media enquiry, denunciation of omertà and insistence on the need to put children first, appears to be in no mood to let Brady fall on his sword. The Vatican is ...
Omertà – a Mafia-style culture of silence – had prevailed in the Church on abuse; protecting the good name of the institution was the enemy of truth, he said. The CDF prefect, Cardinal William Levada, even acknowledged the role that the media played in exposing abuse. Now an historic case in Ireland is putting this recognition of the Church’s failings, and its need to do better, to the test. A BBC documentary described the involvement of Cardinal Seán Brady in a cover-up of abuse back in the Seventies. It accused the then Fr Brady of failing to act when a teenage boy, abused by a notorious paedophile, told him about other victims during an internal church investigation.
Cardinal Brady says he was only the note-taker, and though he did not alert the police or the children’s parents, he reported what he heard to senior clergy.
Although Cardinal Brady has now made a public apology over the case, he has refused to stand down. His supporters say that he is not personally guilty of a crime, but that is not the issue for many in Ireland. The point is the upholding of a system of authority that allowed abuse to flourish. The once-devoutly Catholic country now appears to be locked in permanent combat with the Church, sickened by not only revelations of clerical child abuse but clerical cover-up.
Rome, meanwhile, despite its praise for media enquiry, denunciation of omertà and insistence on the need to put children first, appears to be in no mood to let Brady fall on his sword. The Vatican is ...
So close, yet so different
In Britain, the anniversary of the day 67 years ago that hostilities ceased in Europe slipped by this week with scarcely a mention in the media. Across the English Channel, by contrast, it was marked in France by a public holiday, as it is every year. In the Netherlands, Denmark, the Czech Republic and Slovakia, liberation from the yoke of Nazi militarism is also marked by a public holiday. It is even commemorated on 8 May in the north German state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, where Chancellor Angela Merkel has her constituency.
It is curious that in a country like Britain, where the Second World War still looms so large in popular culture, so little is made of its passing, but it is perhaps revealing of the semi-detached relationship she has with Europe. After all, when fighting in Europe was over, Britain traditionally brought home its troops and pulled up the drawbridge behind them.
It is therefore not so surprising that when Britain looks at Europe, more often than not it sees only part of the picture. Trade still dominates the British mindset as it has for four centuries and trade is what it thinks of when it thinks of Europe. But for the broken countries of the post-war Continent, trade was only ever going to be a part of the main agenda. Theirs was a larger vision of cooperation rather than conflict, of politics and philosophy as well as economics; an overarching commitment never to be ground under the jackboot of the Right and, post-1989, of the Left is the motivator of modern Europe.
Much has been made by many of the different approach to the eurozone’s current financial crisis of the incoming leader of France. On Tuesday, François Hollande officially becomes the seventh elected president of the French Fifth Republic. Only the second socialist in half a century to hold France’s highest office, Mr Hollande says he favours growth rather than German-backed austerity as a way out of the crisis.
This is widely seen as ...
It is curious that in a country like Britain, where the Second World War still looms so large in popular culture, so little is made of its passing, but it is perhaps revealing of the semi-detached relationship she has with Europe. After all, when fighting in Europe was over, Britain traditionally brought home its troops and pulled up the drawbridge behind them.
It is therefore not so surprising that when Britain looks at Europe, more often than not it sees only part of the picture. Trade still dominates the British mindset as it has for four centuries and trade is what it thinks of when it thinks of Europe. But for the broken countries of the post-war Continent, trade was only ever going to be a part of the main agenda. Theirs was a larger vision of cooperation rather than conflict, of politics and philosophy as well as economics; an overarching commitment never to be ground under the jackboot of the Right and, post-1989, of the Left is the motivator of modern Europe.
Much has been made by many of the different approach to the eurozone’s current financial crisis of the incoming leader of France. On Tuesday, François Hollande officially becomes the seventh elected president of the French Fifth Republic. Only the second socialist in half a century to hold France’s highest office, Mr Hollande says he favours growth rather than German-backed austerity as a way out of the crisis.
This is widely seen as ...
Previous weeks
Help the young hear the call
“We were made for love” could well be a song played by the radio DJ Chris Evans, on whose show the former Abbot of Worth, Fr Christopher Jamison, pops up from time to time in a slot called “Pause for Thought”. In fact “We were made for love” is a comment made by Pope Benedict XVI to the young people of Britain during his 2010 papal visit and is quoted in a new document on vocations ...
Tables turn on Murdoch Free
This week’s majority verdict of the House of Commons Culture, Media and Sport Committee on the fitness of 81-year-old Rupert Murdoch to act as chairman and chief executive of a global corporation may not amount to a row of beans. Certainly the force of the committee’s message was diluted by its split along party lines, with six Labour and Lib Dem members describing Mr Murdoch as “not a fit person ...
Cutting isn't working
Across Europe, public opinion is rebelling against austerity. The first round of the French presidential election, which saw the socialist François Hollande in the lead and a strong showing for Marine Le Pen on the far right, is the clearest indication yet of this change of mood. Political upheavals in Holland, Greece, Italy and Spain tell a similar story.
Sartain must be a bridge-builder Free
The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) has investigated the activities of the organisation which represents the great majority of religious sisters in the United States, and it did not like what it found. As a result, the Leadership Conference of Women Religious has been told to accept close supervision of its activities, to bring it back into line with church teaching and policy. Roughly nine out of 10 ...
Common sense on human rights
It is an important principle that the United Kingdom should not condone or in any way cooperate with torture. That has been the issue in several high-profile human-rights cases, ranging from the Government’s desire to deport the Islamist preacher Abu Qatada to Jordan, to the accusation – denied – that the former Foreign Secretary Jack Straw permitted the rendition to Libya of opponents of Colonel Gaddafi’s ...
Something good for all of us Free
A common charge made by people hostile to religion is that it is harmful rather than beneficial. This has become a popular misperception. In fact, a growing body of evidence points the other way. The latest report from the think tank Demos confirms previous findings that people with a declared religious belief are more likely to engage in voluntary service to the community, more likely to be open-minded on race and immigration, ...
Extradition and injustice
British Home Secretaries have rarely been freedom’s best friend. Various measures coming forward from Theresa May, the present incumbent, are squarely within that tradition.
Listen to the People Free
Catholicism’s reputation as a monolithic belief system is plainly no longer deserved. The latest evidence comes from what was until not long ago one of the most conservative parts of Western Catholicism, the Catholic Church in Ireland. A new survey of grass-roots opinion indicates that the typical Irish Catholic no longer accepts church teaching on a range of issues, mainly to do with sex and gender. Yet in terms ...