The Vincent Brown Show.
Last night I witnessed the most inept, senile and out of touch display of accountability by the bishops of Ireland that has ever been known, when they set up the three stooges, McAreavey of Dromore, Brennan of Ferns and the holier and more stupid than thou, our own Jones of Elphin.
Although this press conference was expected and in fact Brady of Armagh said he would attend and it was expected Archbishop Martin would also be present, two hours notice of time and location was given to the media and the conference was limited to 25 minutes duration while these three bishops gave their much vaunted master class in obscurity, idiocy and sheer lunacy.
You would think that the bishops knowing the seriousness of the situation and that a public relations class was necessary, would have brought out their big guns to fend off the barbs of the media, but obviously Brady does not want to become involved and Archbishop Martin has been told to back-pedal. The difference in that man pre-Rome and Post-Rome is a subject in itself. It is as though they are two different men, the go-getting Martin knowing God was on his side pre-Rome, has been replaced by this stultified, nervous and certainly very uncomfortable post-Rome Martin, who finds it difficult to put more than two words together in answer to questions on the subject of abuse. On Newsnight on BBC2 on Tuesday, he was at his lowest and no match at all for the strident Jeremy Paxman when talking about the serial abusing yet unpunished Bill Carney. My advice, for what it is worth in matters as important as this is to stand up and be counted, do not hide behind authority and at the end of the day give authority as the excuse for wrongdoing, like Hitler’s minions did after the war was lost. Be totally accountable at all times to everybody. Feck the rules because the rules are wrong and evil. I feel really sorry for him having to take the path he has and being reined in and letting the likes of Drennan of Galway and the retired O’Mahoney have their evil way and say.
Which reminds me that Drennan of Galway who was classed as the complete scholar and holy man by Jones of Elphin at the press conference yesterday, has told his priests to send a couple of representatives from each parish in the diocese to a service of reparation in the Cathedral on Palm Sunday where these elected ones would place a sprig of palm on the altar to express penitence for the cover up by the bishops of these paedophilic priests. The poor people of Galway, what has it to do with them? Why should they express penitance? Why are the bishops not standing on their heads and shouting “Mea culpa, mea culpa, mea maxima culpa”. Jones’s statement about Drennan reminds me of something a mate of mine said this morning whilst we were talking on this subject, Michael Cryan, citizen of Boyle and always good for a quote said “If you are there at the bottom of the shit heap even a hump on your back is a thing of beauty”
So there we were with these three monkeys from Dromore, Ferns and I am ashamed to say Elphin, with Dromore spluttering and farting like a demented pig, Ferns doing a good impression of a man sucking a lemon and Elphin asking why is everybody singling out the Church when it is a well known fact that most child abuse takes place in the home and has done for hundreds of years and nobody condemns that, but just because the Church has transgressed and covered up, the world is on its back. What a load of bunkum, if this is what they say publicly what must their private thoughts and conversations be like. Why should we accept lunacy of this nature from a shepherd of Christ.
It was Jones of Elphin who said in his pastoral letter after the Murphy Report that the Diocese of Elphin abides by best practice when dealing with possible child abuse and the laity have nothing to fear. Well I fear him. Where is best practice in that statement of his yesterday.
Watching this simian trio at the press conference made me think that the Church is missing a trick, professional PR men or women would do a far better job at wooing the people back, but perhaps the Church realises it has put its finger too far into the fire and that self immolation is the only way out. It is well known among all the dead religions as the Phoenix Theory. It never works. All we can do is sit back as Sinead O’Connor said to me last Saturday “Good will win in the end. We just relax and enjoy watching it all unfold”.
Tags: Archbishop Martin, Bishop Jones of Elphin, Newsnight on BBC2Bishop Drennan of Galway, Sinead O'Connor, The Bishops of Ireland, The Diocese of Dromore, The Diocese of Elphin, The Diocese of Ferns, The Murphy Report