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	Mary Kenny: Respect, Then, for Jennifer Sleeman of Clonakilty, Clearly a Valiant Old Party, Turning Rebel at the Age of 80 By Mary Kenny Irish Independent August 21 2010 http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analysis/mary-kenny-respect-then-for-jennifer-sleeman-of-clonakilty-clearly-a-valiant-old-party-turning-rebel-at-the-age-of-80-2306507.html Who plans to respond to Mrs Jennifer Sleeman's call to Catholic women to stay away from Sunday Mass on September 26, as a protest against deficiencies in the Catholic Church? It might be hard to tell. There are plenty of women already staying away from churches of any description. Atheism used to be more characteristic of young men -- often linked to a young man's Joycean pride: "I will not serve" -- but I encounter more examples now of women who proclaim themselves to be atheists. Women used to be more likely to say that they were 'spiritual', even if they were not religious. This may just mean they believe the tosh that is written in horoscopes, rather than the wisdom of the 'Book of Proverbs', but it was some gesture beyond the material world. Still, I learned at my mother's knee to repeat the words: chacun a son gout. ("Each to their taste", though you'll admit it sounds classier in French.) She would follow this up with a tolerant motto: "It would be a poor world if we were all the same." Respect, then, for Jennifer Sleeman of Clonakilty, clearly a valiant old party, turning rebel at the age of 80 and calling on women "to let the Vatican and the Irish Church know that women are tired of being treated as second-class citizens". Very spirited. She seized the initiative. I have a fondness for direct action when it doesn't involve violence and the octogenarian Corkwoman puts me in mind of my own rebellious youth, when I only had to see a protest demo to join it. And having some experience of protests, boycotts and various stunts of street theatre, I feel I may give Jennifer some advice on turning any boycott or protest into an effective operation. The first principle is: identify clearly and very obviously what you are demanding. Marching down the street shouting "Impeach George Bush!" was not subtle, but it had the virtue of an easily understood agenda. The anti-war protests against military involvement in Iraq were excellent, because the demands were clear and simple. "Don't Invade Iraq!" The politicians in question didn't take a blind bit of notice, but, already, history is judging the protesters to have been right. Protest chants can sometimes sound daft and juvenile. The writer Polly Toynbee told me she once went on a pro-choice march where feminists shrieked: "What do we want? Abortion! When do we want it? Now!" Women well past childbearing, barren women seeking fertility treatment, women prudently on the Pill, lesbians who were never in danger of being impregnated by any male, all calling to be given abortions on the spot certainly had a surrealistic element. Still, you knew what they stood for. Like it or hate it, that's what matters with a boycott or demo. And this is where Jennifer -- who is just starting out on her career of protest -- is making a tactical error. Her aims are too diversified and vague. She asks women to engage in the Mass boycott for a range of reasons, including the ordination of women, the end of celibacy, opposing male domination and expressing horror about the paedophile scandals. No, sister, you have to choose one aim out of this repertory. Either "Ordain Women Now!" or "End the Celibacy Rule Now!" or "Our Horror at the Paedophile Scandals -- Bishops Show You Care Now!" ("End Male Domination Now!" is far too vague, not to mention over-ambitious.) Identify one focus of protest, not three. Otherwise protest dissipates into an inchoate series of grievances, however sincere or justified. Jennifer, who was brought up a Presbyterian, has another grouch against the Catholic Church. It seems to be so lacking in social graces! When she attends the Church of Ireland, she is welcomed with such kind manners. When she worships with the Methodists, why, they couldn't be nicer to her. But the Catholic Church seems so lacklustre in this department. Difficult to organise a boycott or protest around this issue: "What Do We Want? A Joyful Welcome for Women! When Do We Want It? Now!" You have to imagine the message in one punchy line. In fact, the Irish Catholic Church never did do social graces very effectively. The Church of Ireland rector in any Irish village always had more polish, as well as a better silver tea service, than the old PP with his rougher country ways; and the Protestant ladies' sales of work were always far superior, with their lovely jams and pickles and neat needlework from the Mothers' Union. Where the Catholic Church did impress, traditionally, was in care for the poor, the misfits, the marginalised, the tramps, the itinerants, the drunks, the prostitutes, the homeless, the friendless old bats muttering a decade of the rosary or forlornly lighting a candle to St Jude, Patron of Hopeless Cases. And maybe that answered the original remit: I seem to remember that the New Testament was rather more concerned with the poor and the outcasts than whether the respectable classes got a cheery welcome from the vicar for Sunday worship. Jennifer Sleeman -- whose own son is a monk at the posh Glenstal Abbey -- is certainly in a worthy tradition of doughty Christian women who called for change and reform throughout the ages. St Bridget of Sweden regularly trekked off to Rome to give the Pope a piece of her mind, back in the 14th century. But a successful tactician focuses on one reform at a time, and I think Jennifer has to decide just what, specifically, she wants to stress in her boycotting crusade.
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