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	Abuse Scandal Still Obscures the Light Brady's Support for Magee Reinforces the Impunity of the Powerful, Writes Colum Kenny By Colum Kenny Irish Independent January 18, 2009 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/abuse-scandal-still-obscures-the-light-1605840.html Bishop John Magee failed to enforce his own church's guidelines on child abuse. He failed to protect children promptly from at least one alleged abuser. He failed to co-operate fully with his own church's investigation into his earlier failures. But Cardinal Brady said last week that Magee should not resign. It does not matter what most people, even most Catholics, think. The Irish hierarchy's model of the church is old-fashioned, top-down, authoritarian, and paternalistic. Cardinal Seán Brady was in Kerry last Tuesday to deliver an address on contemporary Ireland and the church. In it, he referred to "the disturbing freshness of Christ". What was disturbing last week was his own protection of the stale status quo. A person other than Ian Elliott investigating the failures in Cloyne — a trusted lay person from inner church circles, for example — might have used weasel words to avoid putting Bishop Magee on the spot. Someone else might only have hinted at what the independent Elliott concluded more baldly. But now Cardinal Brady has shown that, when push comes to shove, Elliott's National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church weighs less than a bishop. The shameless impunity of the powerful in Ireland — be they bankers who get fat retirement settlements while Dell workers get the sack, mediocre politicians who overpay themselves, or bishops who do not implement their own guidelines — is reinforced again by the Cardinal's support for Magee. Cardinal Brady may think that he is treating Magee with Christian charity, and showing critics who is boss. But his support for Magee does not bear clear witness to hope. And "we need witnesses to hope", admitted the cardinal last week in Killarney. The cardinal spoke at length about his visit last April to Christians in Gaza. In moving words, he described the suffering that he saw there and said that it was "a reminder to us all as Christians to be light to the world and salt to the earth". But the mishandled Irish child abuse scandal continues to obscure that light. And by failing to ensure that Magee stepped down, Brady missed a chance to show that his church has changed. Cardinal Brady spoke about other Catholics in Killarney — about priests, women, the laity. These are groups that are largely silenced within the present power structures of Catholicism. They seem unlikely to support Magee remaining as bishop, if he were to ask them. Brady said, "If it was not for the quiet fidelity of thousands of priests and religious in the last few years, the impact of the scandals would have been even more damaging than they have undoubtedly been." But the fidelity of priests has been "quiet" partly because they have no effective way of making their voices heard. And their fidelity is primarily to God, not to their bishops as Brady may have meant to suggest. Many priests are discouraged by the hierarchy. The cardinal consoled himself that lay women "feel part of the Church". He based this conclusion on a small parish survey in his diocese. Who selected the questions? Who was asked? If the hierarchy really want to know what women think, including those who are alienated from the Church, this is not the way to find out. When it comes to young people and modern culture, the cardinal acknowledged that "we" must listen. He said, "We have to listen to the new sensibility of young people instead of imposing our old answers too rapidly." That word "too" is significant, for it reflects underlying intent. This is "listening" to "understand" as a prelude to then "imposing" the hierarchy's answers. It is not listening to the laity to learn. The models of communication that emerged from the cardinal's speech last week subvert his attempt to promote a new kind of evangelisation within the church. For such evangelisation would have to be based on lived example rather than mere words. He quoted another cardinal, John Henry Newman, who once said, "The heart is commonly reached not through the reason but through the imagination." There is little that seems fresh or imaginative about the Irish hierarchy's vision of the future of their church. How fresh it would be if Bishop John Magee simply said sorry and stepped down to concentrate on pastoral work. How fresh it would if Cardinal Brady had not backed Magee's intransigence but instead asked him gently to step aside. Last week in the United States, one of the main organisations of lay Catholics, Voice of the Faithful, called for the resignation of six members of the US hierarchy "who by their own testimony or by the verified evidence in public records knowingly transferred predator priests". Bishop Magee may not have transferred child abusers out of his diocese, but he did fail to act appropriately to protect children when allegations were made against priests in his jurisdiction. Last week in Killarney, Cardinal Brady said, "We must rediscover our courage in these challenging times and we should do all we can to encourage each other." But Bishop Magee's clinging to power after what has happened is discouraging. So, too, is the cardinal's support for that course of action. The safety of children is at issue. Beyond that, the credibility of the Christian church and its witness to the message of Christ continues to suffer.
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