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	Our Politicians Take to the Skies As Church Leaders Sink below the Waves By Ryle Dwyer Irish Examiner March 20, 2010 http://www.examiner.ie/opinion/columnists/ryle-dwyer/our-politicians-take-to-the-skies-as-church-leaders-sink-below-the-waves-114963.html WHY would the future Cardinal Sean Brady ask an eight-year-old girl and a 10-year-old boy to swear on oath that they would not divulge that Fr Brendan Smyth had sexually abused them? The main aim was certainly not to protect other boys from that predator. Fr Brady was apparently more interested in protecting the Catholic Church as an institution from criticism. The cardinal says he should not be judged by the standards of today — 35 years on. The only difference is the clergy were less likely to be held accountable then. Everybody makes mistakes in life, but anyone who covers up such activities should be removed from any position of authority — not out of vengeance but in order to protect other children by demonstrating that any cover-up is intolerable. When the girl told her how Smyth had soiled her dress, the nun beat her over the head with keys. While this was before Bill Clinton stained Monica Lewinsky’s dress in the same way, this was no excuse for the nun’s behaviour. She beat that little girl rather than face the sordid reality. Thus she became part of the cover-up. In much the same way, Fr Sean Brady became part of the cover-up when he asked the two children to take the oath of secrecy about their abuse. His position now is utterly untenable. The message to all adults, clerical and lay, must be that there is zero tolerance towards involvement in, or covering up paedophilia. Where are our supposed leaders in the midst of the current controversy? Fianna Fail came to power in 1997 promising zero tolerance. Not one member of the Fianna Fail frontbench has spoken out in relation to this controversy. They have been too busy jaunting around the world. Those junketeers — posturing as leaders — have persistently demonstrated they know no as much about proper leadership as a pig knows about table manners. Their behaviour reminds me of when British Conservative backbencher Leo Amery harked back to Oliver Cromwell in denouncing Neville Chamberlain’s government in May 1940. "This is what Cromwell said to the Long Parliament when he thought it was no longer fit to conduct the affairs of the nation," Amery said. "You have sat too long here for any good you have been doing. Depart, I say, and let us have done with you. In the name of God, go." We are indeed in a sorry state when Oliver Cromwell begins to sound good. The Taoiseach and most of his ministers, along with the two cardinals and a number of bishops should, indeed, "in the name of God, go". Many of the current bishops were appointed through the influence of Papal Nuncio Archbishop Gaetano Alibrandi, who served in Dublin from 1969 to 1989. In his book, Ireland and the Vatican, ProfDermot Keogh states that no diplomat in this country "enjoyed so much notoriety" since David Gray, the controversial US Minister to Ireland during the 1940s. In both the 1970s and 1980s the Fine Gael-Labour coalition governments informally tried to have Alibrandi recalled. Garret FitzGerald noted in his memoirs that Alibrandi seemed "to confuse Catholicism with extreme republicanism". Alibrandi, who had served as private secretary to Msgr Giovanni Montini during the 1930s, was appointed counsellor at the nunciature in Dublin from 1953 to 1956, when Montini was acting secretary of state at the Vatican. Later, after Montini became Pope Paul VI, Alibrandi returned to Dublin as papal nuncio in 1969. In the next two decades he recommended the appointment of 34 of the 38 bishops and archbishops selected during his tenure. "Dr Alibrandi’s efforts were not always appreciated by Garret FitzGerald and the less democratically minded elements of the former Irish fascist party, Fine Gael-Irish Labour Party," according to a profile of Alibrandi penned at the Vatican. The colossal ignorance of whoever wrote that should be obvious. Whatever one might think of Fine Gael or Labour, it is nauseating that somebody at the Vatican should describe them as fascists and allude to so-called republicans as democratically minded. Alibrandi displayed contempt both for democracy and the views of the local clergy in relation to the appointment of Eamon Casey’s successor as Bishop of Kerry in 1976. As the priests were receiving their consultation papers in line with the recommendations of the Second Vatican Council, the appointment of Dr Kevin McNamara was announced. In 1977, Alibrandi was the principal consecrator of Tomas O Fiaich as Archbishop of Armagh. He also pushed for O Fiaich to be elevated to the College of Cardinals the following year, but Pope Paul VI died. Taoiseach Jack Lynch and British prime minister James Callaghan lobbied privately against O Fiaich’s elevation because they considered him too close to the republicans. The new Pope John Paul I apparently agreed. "Ireland deserves better," he quipped. But the new Pope was dead within a month. Pope John Paul II elevated O Fiaich to the College of Cardinals in 1979. The cardinal-designate then snubbed Lynch by pointedly notifying him that he was not being invited to the Vatican. Whether the snub was in retaliation for the Taoiseach’s opposition to his appointment — or for the government’s introduction of the bill to legalise artificial contraception — is anybody’s guess. The Government was also kept in the cold in relation to the Pope’s itinerary on his visit to Ireland later that year. Lynch’s efforts to get the Pope to visit Cork were rebuffed. ALTHOUGH much had changed during his tenure in Dublin, Alibrandi was still highly impressed by the number of Irish people who were going to mass. "When I was secretary to Monsignor Montini in Rome, he told me that a good gauge of the spiritual health of a country is its Sunday Mass attendance," Alibrandi said. "Here in Ireland we have the highest Mass attendance in the world." In 1973 some 91% of Irish Catholics went to weekly mass. By 1981 that number had only dropped to 87%, but it was down to 60% in 1998 and to 46% in October 2009. Alibrandi also boasted there had been no real decline in vocations during his 20 years in Ireland. In 1978 there were 175 men accepted into Irish seminaries. By 1987 applications were up and the number accepted was 168. At the start of the current academic year last autumn, however, the total number of applicants accepted for the whole island was just 33. Many young people are clearly disillusioned with the church and nobody should be surprised because, with the exception Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, there seems to be no credible leadership. Yet many senior clergymen seem to be at odds with him because he is clearly not impressed with how they have been behaving over the years. Nobody should expect them to do the popular thing, but everyone has a right to expect them to do the proper thing.
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