Prison Chaplaincy...

I'm not a fan of the Association of Catholic Priests, but I find this statement on their website very interesting.
It concerns a prison chaplain and a convicted rapist who is suspected of being responsible for the deaths of a number of young women. On his release from prison a number of months ago, the ex-prisoner was followed by a posse of journalists and camera men. I remember being disgusted by the voyeuristic tone of the coverage at the time. Anyway, the ACP statement is as follows:

The Association of Catholic Priests wishes to affirm its full support for the priestly work of Fr. Ciarán Enright, Chaplain Arbour Hill Prison, in the wake of the unjustified criticisms made against him in the Sunday World, 5th June. During the lengthy imprisonment of Larry Murphy in Arbour Hill, Fr. Ciarán ministered to him in a caring and compassionate manner. It is part of the Church’s role to break down the social barriers which society tries to erect, just as Jesus did. No-one, no matter what crimes they have committed, is excluded from the Church’s caring ministry or from the love of God.
The reprehensible manner in which Larry Murphy was released from Arbour Hill prison at the end of his sentence has already been severely criticised in the most recent Prison Chaplains’ Annual Report. The media coverage fuelled fear and anxiety amongst the general public, could only have added to the distress of his victim and indeed could have put his own life in danger. The only voice of protest came from Fr. Ciarán. Being faithful to the Gospel requires the Church to affirm the dignity of every human being, and to insist that this dignity be respected. This does not always sit easily with the attitudes of many in society.
The media witch hunt which, in the pursuit of profit, demonises some high profile offenders whose crimes are rightly abhorrent to the vast majority of society, only increases the risk of re-offending and consequently makes society less safe.
As prison chaplain, Fr. Ciarán has devoted many years to ministering to those whom society would prefer to shun. As Catholic priests, we stand firmly with him, and we are encouraged by his faithful witness to the values of the Gospel.

Amen to that! I've always had a huge regard for prison chaplains and the fact that Fr Enright's ministry is provoking howls of outrage from the gutter-press should be a reminder to us how the Gospel of reconciliation and the doctrine of the dignity of the human person is subversive of worldly values. The pastoral support and concern of the Church is not something which should or can be earned, but is something that is offered to all. Often those most in need of that support and concern are those who are 'least deserving' in the eyes of the world.

Readers might be interested in reading the text of the Sunday World article which prompted the above statement:

THE DEVIL'S ADVOCATE
Priest pal of rapist Murphy in bizarre rant in support of sicko
THE priest who is predator Larry Murphy's best pal has claimed that the sick sex beast is the victim of a "shameful witch hunt".
Father Ciaran Enright says the rapist and attempted killer's life is in danger.
And in a stunning outburst he claims Murphy should have been given special treatment when he was released from prison last year.
The Sunday World has learned that the priest - Murphy's only friend in the world - is furious over the way that his sick sidekick Murphy is being pursued by the Press and blames the Irish Prison Service for "appalling and irresponsible" treatment of him.
The head chaplain at Dublin's Arbour Hill prison, where Murphy served a 10-year sentence for a vile rape and attempted murder, is in regular contact with the suspected serial killer and greeted him at Dublin Airport when he returned to the country 11 days ago.
Garda sources say that the holy man has been totally taken in by Murphy and believes that he is a reformed character.
Impulsive
However, senior gardai say that Murphy is an "impulsive psychopath" and could strike again at any time. He is now living in a safe house in rural Ireland and will not leave the country until at least the end of next week.
Fr Enright, in his position as head chaplain, said: "The hysteria that was generated by media coverage heightened the danger to his life and fuelled fear and anxiety among the general public.
"While current legislation may not have allowed for any curtailment of this appalling media coverage, senior management had not only the power, but also the responsibility, to be cognisant of such intense media intrusion when putting a discharge plan in place for a person who had spent over 10 years in the custodial care of the State.
"The failure to do so represents a clear failure of responsibility and duty of care that played into the hands of the media."
The devil's advocate went on to say that making Murphy walk out the front gates of Arbour Hill when he was released caused the pervert "unnecessary distress" and created a "witch hunt" that was "shameful and dangerous".
The 46-year-old psycho refused all offers of counselling and rehabilitation treatment during his decade behind bars.
Despite Murphy giving two fingers to the authorities, Fr Enright has stood up for him, saying the lack of special treatment "endangered his life and caused untold distress for many people".
"No amount of political spin or selective recalling of facts can justify this," Fr Enright said.
The priest has also accused the prison service of leaking "inaccurate and false" information about Murphy that Enright believes was "destructive, disturbing and unacceptable".
The Sunday World can exclusively reveal the background of Larry Murphy's controversial return to Ireland.
The 'Beast of Baltinglass' was enjoying a drink in an open-air bar in a square of Las Ramblas in Barcelona on Thursday, May 19, when his passport fell out of his back pocket. Contrary to reports, there was no prostitute involved in stealing it.
He only realised it was missing when he went back to his hostel and the following day he went to the Irish Consulate in the city and informed them of what happened and asked about how to get a replacement.

The Sunday World ignores previous press reports that show Fr Enright encouraging Larry Murphy to engage with the probation services after leaving prison. I'm glad that Fr Enright was at the airport to meet this man and I agree 100% with his criticisms of the media pursuit of Murphy following his release from prison. If you read what Fr Enright actually said, it's far from being the 'bizarre rant' implied by the journalist.

Now, if Larry Murphy is guilty of further crimes, then of course he should be prosecuted, convicted and imprisoned. However, failing that, I suspect that some sectors of the Irish media would be reasonably satisfied by his suicide. If, God forbid, that should come to pass, those journalists would have blood on their hands.

An interesting article...

Andrew O'Connell of the Irish Catholic is definitely worth reading on the latest child protection controversy in Ireland. His article puts together a very clear picture of the situation.

Media reports gave the impression that the Church had willingly placed legal obstacles in the way of the Board's review of current safeguarding practices in dioceses and religious congregations. The impression was also given that the Church was withholding information and starving the Board of funding to conduct training in best practice. Legal obstruction, financial strangulation and continuing hypocrisy; the hallmarks of an un-reformable institution, according to one journalist.
However, that is a gross misrepresentation. How that impression was created was due to three factors; the presentation of events in the Board's own report, the willingness of the media to provide the worst possible interpretation and the failure of the Church to provide a rapid response to a meltdown situation.

Why is it that Andrew seems to be able to explain what's going more clearly and more effectively than the hierarchy's own media office?

"Including three women..."

There's a rather predictable whiiiiiiine from the Association of Catholic Priests in response to the shocking (SHOCKING!) news that the improved English Translation of the Roman Missal will come into force in Ireland. They seem to be throwing their toys out of the crib in protest.

Anyway, I think it's all rather absurd and am looking forward to using the new texts. Yes, there will be teething difficulties and they will take time to get used to, but I will not miss the current translation. So much of the theological meat and substance were drained out of the prayers when they were initially translated that I look forward to finally praying them as they were meant to be prayed.

The ACP statement is puzzling in one respect. It contains following:

At a meeting in Maynooth on Monday, February 28th a delegation from the ACP met the Episcopal Commission of Worship, Pastoral Renewal and Faith Development. There were five members of the Bishop’s Conference and a number of others, including three women, present.

I'm scratching my head at why the clause 'including three women' was included. Is something sinister implied? Are we to suppose that they are the bishops' concubines? Vatican spies, perhaps? Are these women to be considered class-traitors for their connivance with the male hierarchical hegemony in linguistic impression?
Or are we to suppose that they are included for theological reasons - that they weren't literally present, but have been added in by the person drafting the statement in order to symbolise the thousands of women written out of the Bible when it was re-written by the Emperor Constantine? Do they represent the Myrrhbearing women at the tomb of the old translation?
Or, is it just the case that the ACP - despite all its protestations about respecting women in the Church - has some kind of difficulty in seeing women involved in these issues, especially when they're on the wrong side of the desk?

School Patronage - The Answer Already Decided?

This report from the Irish Times is of interest - it describes how a group is being established to examine how the patronage of some Irish primary schools might be transferred away from the Catholic Church (or more precisely, the local bishop) in order to better represent the religious make-up of Ireland and in order to afford choice to parents who may wish to have their children educated in a school with a non-Catholic ethos.

A word of explanation may be needed for non-Irish readers - the Article 42 of the Constitution of Ireland says the following about education:

42: The State acknowledges that the primary and natural educator of the child is the Family and guarantees to respect the inalienable right and duty of parents to provide, according to their means, for the religious and moral, intellectual, physical and social education of their children.

42.2: Parents shall be free to provide this education in their homes or in private schools or in schools recognised or established by the State.

The State shall not oblige parents in violation of their conscience and lawful preference to send their children to schools established by the State, or to any particular type of school designated by the State.

The State shall, however, as guardian of the common good, require in view of actual conditions that the children receive a certain minimum education, moral, intellectual and social.

The State shall provide for free primary education and shall endeavour to supplement and give reasonable aid to private and corporate educational initiative, and, when the public good requires it, provide other educational facilities or institutions with due regard, however, for the rights of parents, especially in the matter of religious and moral formation.

In exceptional cases, where the parents for physical or moral reasons fail in their duty towards their children, the State as guardian of the common good, by appropriate means shall endeavour to supply the place of the parents, but always with due regard for the natural and imprescriptible rights of the child."

It should be noted that the State is not charged directly with providing primary (elementary) education, but rather should 'provide for' - in other words, co-operation with religious and other groups in terms of the provision of education is explicitly foreseen.
So it is that most Irish primary schools - 90% or so - come under the patronage of the local Catholic Bishop or a religious order. The other 10% are mostly Protestant schools, interdeminational/nondenominational schools or schools established for the promotion of the Irish language.
Now, it should be noted that the State funds all these different sorts of schools in an even-handed manner. Our primary education system is almost entirely state-funded. Likewise, the curriculum and most of the regulations to do with running the schools come from the Department of Education and not the patron. So, it would be a mistake to suggest that these schools are CONTROLLED by one religious group or another. [The last line of the news report is a nonsense - the Department of Education has much more 'control' in the schools than the Church.] However, the Patrons (religious and otherwise) are key to the management and ethos of the schools. So, a school under Catholic patronage would have daily Catholic religious education and prayers. The school would play an active part in the life of the parish and should be expected to have a Catholic spirit. Non-Catholic pupils are welcome in our Catholic schools, of course, and parents may opt their children out of Catechism classes and so on. In general, I would argue that our schools are very accommodating and Christian in the welcome they give to non-Catholic students and the way in which the reasonable rights and expectations of parents are respected. This is especially important in areas where there is no alternative to the local Catholic primary schools.
I mentioned management earlier - whilst a Catholic primary school is funded by the State and is subject to a state curriculum and regulations, it is actually managed by a Board of Management on behalf of the Patron (local Bishop). It is an 8-member board. The Chairperson and one other board member are directly nominated by the Patron. (Normally the local priest and a local layperson are the bishop's nominees.) The school principal and a teacher also sit on the board. Parents nominate two members and these six members select the final two members from the local community. The management of the school, therefore, is very representative of the various parties who have a strong and genuine interest in the school itself - an excellent example of subsidiarity and local involvement.

Anyway, it has been clear for a number of years that the de facto monopoly of Catholic primary schools wasn't meeting the needs of parents in some parts of the country. The idea of parental choice in these matters is something that co-incides nicely with Catholic thought, so the Irish Bishops have said that they are open to transferring the patronage of some schools. I think that it's probably fair to say as well that some schools have found it difficult to maintain their Catholic identity/ethos when a large proportion of the students attending are non-Catholic, so this transfer of patronage could also be seen as facilitating the strengthening the ethos of those schools which remain under Catholic patronage. Parents would have to chose to send their children to a Catholic primary school, rather than sending their children to a local Catholic school because the only schools out there are Catholic. Similarly, teachers would be choosing to teach at a Catholic primary school rather than just accepting at job at a Catholic school because there are no other teaching posts available.

However, this report from the Irish Times is worrying in that it states that the Minister for Education wants to see 'at least half' of the schools currently under Catholic patronage to be move to some other form of patronage. In other words, less than 45% of Irish primary schools would remain in Catholic patronage. One wonders how he came up with that figure and why he thinks that it is fitting that he should announce the answer before the body investigating the question has even met. When you consider the fact that most small rural primary schools are very embedded in the life of their local parish, it doesn't make sense to suggest that their patronage should be transferred. In the main, parents, teachers and community are happy with the status quo. So, does the Minister have his figures wrong or is there something more ideological behind his statement?

Maynooth Seminary to Close?

There's an interesting report on the Irish Catholic website suggesting that Ireland's largest seminary may be closed as a result of the recent visitation by Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York.

The national seminary, which has educated Irishmen for the priesthood since 1795, may be set for closure after the recent Apostolic Visitation by New York's Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan. It is expected the report will recommend that Pope Benedict XVI move all Irish seminarians to a reformed and restructured Pontifical Irish College in Rome.
The historic shift would bring an end to concerns about falling academic standards at Maynooth and claims by some that the college in no longer 'fit for mission'. One senior academic told The Irish Catholic that the Apostolic Visitors were ''appalled'' by some of the standards in Maynooth. Rome would give access to heavyweight universities under direct scrutiny from the Vatican.
It is understood the plan would include the Irish College in Rome dramatically reducing the number of non-Irish students enrolled in the seminary to make way for the seminarians from Maynooth.

I can imagine that this news won't go down well as many Maynooth graduates won't want to see their Alma Mater closed. It's interesting that the focus of the article is on the academic shortcomings of the Pontifical University. Whether Maynooth had sufficient weight to be considered a viable Pontifical University is something that I've heard quietly discussed for years.
One wonders what Archbishop Dolan's report will have to say regarding formation in Maynooth and the other Irish seminaries (Rome & Belfast).

Incidentally, speaking of Archbishop Dolan, his St Patrick's Day Letter this year is a very fine reflection on the Sacrament of Confession. I'm loath to quote selectively from it, so go and read the whole thing.

[Anyone want to lay a bet on how quickly the Association of 'Catholic' Priests will be in putting together a whine about Rome suppressing Maynooth?]

Edited to add: The President of Maynooth says the report is 'without foundation'.

Dorothy Cummings McLean on Spirit Radio this Friday

Be sure and listen to Spirit Radio this Friday morning at 10.00am. There will be an interview with Dorothy Cummings McLean who writes (with humour and sanity!) about the single life from a Catholic perspective.

And with your spirit!

It's a shame that those who are less than enthusiastic about the new translation of the Roman Missal are making all the noise... This homily by Bishop Conley (Auxiliary in Denver) certainly explains why we should be enthusiastic about the new translation.

When we celebrate the Eucharist, the pope says, we are “entering into the liturgy of the heavens that has always been taking place. Earthly liturgy is liturgy because and only because it joins what is already in process, the greater reality”.13

To drive this point home, our new Mass translation replaces the mundane affirmation – “Happy are those who are called to His supper” – with a confession of faith worthy of the cosmic character of our celebration.

We are not “happy”. We are blessed. We have not been called to any ordinary meal. No, we have been invited to the great banquet of our heavenly King, the wedding feast of His Son, our Redeemer.

Accordingly, we will now pray: “Blessed are those called to the Supper of the Lamb”. Again, the prayer has been there all along in the Latin. The language is an almost literal quotation from the revelation of the heavenly liturgy given to Saint John in the Book of Revelation.14

In the holy Mass heaven reaches down to earth and earth reaches up to heaven. We are worshipping not only in our local church, but in the precincts of Mount Zion, “the city of the living God, the heavenly Jerusalem, and [with] innumerable angels in festal gathering, and [with] the Church of first-born who are enrolled in heaven.”15

That is how the early Christians understood their worship. And it’s time for us to reclaim that same consciousness. We need to come to our worship filled with this same awe for the mystery of God’s love and His covenant plan.

Amen!