When mitre is righter than the mob

Dr Ruairi Hanley is pleased Pope Benedict has not bowed to mob justice and accepted the resignation of Bishop Raymond Field

A few months ago, I wrote an article entitled ‘The Crime of Being Catholic’ (see http://www.imt.ie/opinion/guests/2010/04/the-crime-of-being-catholic.html). In it, I admitted that I am not a particularly religious person, being at best a rare visitor to Mass. Nonetheless, I fully supported the right of my colleagues to hold religious beliefs and to practise medicine according to their conscience.

Furthermore, I expressed the view that the Catholic Church has not been treated fairly in Ireland over the past years. It appears that a section of the popular media have decided that an entire religion should now be officially demonised.

I was genuinely astonished by the response to this article. Via the power of the internet, it was quoted on English speaking websites throughout the world. I began to realise that any vaguely positive depiction of the Catholic religion must be a rare event.

It also appears obvious that many people feel their views and faith have been denied a fair hearing. Recent revelations have led me to conclude this is still the case, and I have thus decided to re-visit the issue.

As always, when discussing Irish Catholicism it is necessary to point out the obvious. What happened in the past was beyond disgraceful. The actions of a perverted minority of clergy, on occasion covered up by their superiors, were nothing short of despicable. No jail sentence can be too long for those depraved criminals who behaved in such a fashion.

However, this does not alter the fact that the religious orders also saved thousands of our fellow citizens from illiteracy and premature death, through their devotion to education and the health system.

Unfortunately, in Ireland we have seemingly abandoned balanced analysis and instead embraced the flawed doctrine of angry mob justice. Thus, following the publication of the Murphy report last year, the desire for vengeance appears to have overwhelmed the ability of commentators to actually read the document and draw fair conclusions.

In this context, Bishop Raymond Field of Dublin became a public pariah. Having been ‘named’ in the report, his resignation was demanded by those who felt that justice would be served by such a response. Unfortunately, the facts simply do not support this interpretation. Bishop Field was not condemned in the Murphy report; his actions in the case of one priest were questioned, but he was not in any way officially censured.

The truth is that he was only appointed a bishop in 1996, by which time the Church was belatedly realising the need for serious child protection policies — a process he fully supported. Like all good priests in this country, he is horrified, ashamed and disgusted by what has gone on in the past.

Any reasonable interpretation of the Murphy report can only conclude that Raymond Field had no hand, act or part in the abuse of children by the Church. Nor did he ever participate in a deliberate cover up of the actions of paedophile priests.

Furthermore, Bishop Field is a good and honourable man. He served as a highly respected chaplain to our Defence Forces for many years, including in Southern Lebanon. Having met the man at a family occasion some 15 years ago, I can personally attest to his kindness and decency.

Of course, none of this mattered last Christmas, as Raymond Field was forced to issue a joint resignation statement along with Bishop Walsh by a baying mob, most of whom had never met the man, nor read the report that did not condemn him.

His immediate superior, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, appeared to raise no protest as his colleague was publicly humiliated.

His Lordship enjoyed media plaudits for his highly popular actions in this regard.

Unfortunately for Diarmuid Martin, there was a higher authority that decided to reject Irish mob justice. On August 11, Pope Benedict XVI refused to accept the resignation of Bishop Raymond Field. This decision has naturally been condemned by large sections of our media. However, I believe it to have been fair and completely justified.

Victim groups were also outraged. No one can underestimate the suffering these people have endured and they deserve our full and total sympathy. But this should not extend to allowing them to destroy the name of a good priest who never harmed a child in his life.

I believe this episode has revealed many things about our society and its attitude to fairness, honesty and justice.

The truth is that we now live in a country that has become nothing more than one giant media-led kangaroo court, where those that the mob hates will be destroyed, regardless of the facts.

It is ironic to think that it took an old man in Rome to expose how low we have sunk as a nation.

My new no 1 fan
It appears that some people are unimpressed with my recent calls for fully trained doctors to be allowed to see medical card patients and be paid accordingly.

One gentleman decided to write a nice letter to my editor, where I stand accused of “child-like behaviour” for supporting the right of colleagues to have their career success determined by their patients, and not by the financial whims of their older peers. I was amused to note that the author stated his apparent support for the automatic right of trained GPs to have medical card numbers — as recommended by the Competition Authority and myself.

Nonetheless, he devoted most of his comments to a personal attack on me, for having actually supported the aforementioned recommendations, followed by a series of irrelevant comments about Mary Harney.

Having (erroneously) stated that my personal career circumstances would benefit from these proposed reforms, he then goes on to ask if I have actually read the document in question. Considering I am in fact quoted in the CA report, that bizarre query is unworthy of a response.

I can only conclude from this letter that my esteemed colleague would prefer to play the man rather than the ball. Could this be because he and his colleagues are realising that the system they have thrived under is very hard to defend?

Keep it up lads. But rest assured, change will happen.