The Siege of Magee’s Ivory Tower
I’ve spent the past few months teaching some of the most vulnerable children out there, and working with children who’ve been abused, often by those they trusted most: their parents. I’m home now for Christmas. When I arrived I was met with the news of yet another Church scandal. I know I’m not the only one who’s getting really tired of it at this stage. When will the Church stop giving us reasons to be disappointed??
The abuse of children is the abuse of our society’s innocence, the murder of our society’s innocence. The sexual abuse of children is something so abhorrent, so horrifying that it can only make any person of conscience sick to the stomach.
If I didn’t know any better I would have guessed that the biggest problem for our bishops would be to make sure that the don’t forget about charity when dealing with the priests involved. The reality for too many is that their biggest problem has been to appear to give a damn.
God is Love. The God of our Church is the same God of Love. Any man who is not revolted by the sexual abuse of children is not representative of God or His Church. A bishop who stands for the rights of the weak, who stands before any of the world’s evils and continues to proclaim peace, justice and love will face resistance from the world’s evils. If certain wayward priests choose instead to stand for these evils then a bishop must be prepared for ecclesiastical civil war. If Bishop Magee thinks he can put his personal comfort above the protection of children from sexual abuse then he is no place to claim any relationship with the God of Love.
Children are a source of grace in our world. The Church is supposed to be another. A priest who abuses a child robs the world of God’s grace twice. Any bishop who denies a child their due protection from abuse again robs the world of such grace. Pope Benedict XVI has often been misunderstood by our secular world for speaking on purely theological lines. What ever way you look at this the sexual abuse of children and the overlooking of this abuse by senior figures in the Church is a horrifying abuse of man and a horrifying abuse of God.
As Michael Kelly quoted in The Irish Catholic recently, the former press officer for the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops Russell Shaw spoke for us all recently when he said: “I live and work in a largely non-Catholic, even anti-Catholic, environment. In this setting I consider it my job to be an exemplary representative of the Church, a kind of living testimony to Catholic beliefs and values. With all my faults, I work pretty hard at it, too. But time and again the authorities have pulled the rug out from under me. The sex-abuse scandal isn’t the whole of it, but it’s made things far worse. Really, I ask you, how can you put a good face on being a Catholic in the eyes of people who are at best suspicious of the Church, when you’ve got something like that hanging over your head?”
Mr Kelly goes on to write: “People who have stayed true to their faith despite the scandals, people who have felt humiliated by the thoughts of their non-religious co-workers, mothers and fathers who have had to endure the scorn of their teenage children at the Church’s failings need reassurance.”
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Our two highest Church authorities, Cardinal Brady of Armagh and Dr. Martin of Dublin, have spoken and acted for the good of the abused children. The problem however is that as long as his brother bishops will speak to him at all John Magee can shut himself in his ivory tower and do even more damage. He has let us all down and by refusing to resign he continues to do so. He has lost all moral authority now. If he wants to work for the protection of children he should resign as bishop and do so in his new role, more open to grace.
How can the Church stand so fiercely in protection of the unborn child while ignoring the living? If anyone is to be refused communion for supporting abortion then Magee should be refused communion for ignoring the abuse of live children.
If the other Irish bishops care enough to stand up for the truth, regardless of how it will inconvenience them, they must force Magee to resign or appeal to Rome to make the decision for him. They are practically the pope in their own diocese but this is one universal Church. They should take responsibility for it.
Monday, January 12th, 2009 and is filed under The Church, Views on News.
Responses are currently closed
Frank Bradley Says:
Welcome back Ronan.
Great post and I agree 100%. I’m sick and tired of having to explain myself to friends, family and work colleagues.
If he will not jump, then he needs to be pushed.
January 12th, 2009 at 6:18 pm
jim Says:
hi. i think we should be looking at the whole bishop magee mess from a positive point of view, it clearly shows how much of a closed shop that the irish bishops run here, their solence is deafening they should be condemming the lack of co operation shown by magee in this case nothing changes, , its good in that it proves the corruptiop endemic within the catholic church
January 19th, 2009 at 10:54 am
Sister Says:
Yet of course nothing has been done; the fuss has died down and mcgee is still there.. there is no way now to trust the Church in Ireland.
So it has achieved nothing and less than nothing. No good is done; we knew all this previously.
Thankfully we are not an Irish Order and can stay clear thus. Not interested in attending Mass with a corrupt branch. Period.
January 30th, 2009 at 7:07 am
Keith SIMPSON Says:
I have not been in a Catholic Church since 1961, that is before VATCAN II.
I would not know what to do in the unlikely event that I were to return to the practice of my religion.
I was educated at an Irish Christian School in England.
The Catholic Church is OBSESSED with sex, virginity, celibacy, homosexuality; the whole institution is wholly questionable, wholly unhealthy.
I view the whole lot with suspicion.
Keith A. SIMPSON.
SALFORD.
May 17th, 2009 at 11:45 pm
Sister Says:
Mr Simpson. It is not that the Church is thus “obsessed” with these things, but that the world is obsessed with sexual idolatry. Modern pyschological theories say wrongly that unless you ” express” your “sexuality” then you are being repressed, incomplete etc.. This contradicts basic Christian teaching on these matters. Celibacy in fact has almost nothing to do with the trivilaity that is sex, but few realise this. Virginity similarly is precious in every culture in history. and we have to combat what is happening to family life and structure and what is against the Laws of God.
September 14th, 2009 at 7:26 pm