Monday, December 12, 2011

Private hospital honours 'His Grace'

Mount Carmel Hospital in south Dublin is a private hospital managed and run by a commercial company.

It was originally owned and run by the Blue Sisters. They built the hospital, which was partly funded by voluntary contributions mainly from people of the Catholic faith.

The hospital has now been sold. What share of the money was returned to the voluntary contributors?

The second irony.

Outside the main entrance there is a mosaic recalling the official opening of an extension to the hospital in 1962. It tells the visitor that "His Grace the Archbishop of Dublin John Charles McQuaid DD" officially opened the extension.

Calling an alleged child sex abuser 'His Grace" and honouring him on a fresco cannot be appropriate.

5 comments:

Michael said...

Michael, your attacks on McQuaid on the basis of allegations is shameful. While you have god personal reason to dislike him, joining the smear campaign s beneath you.
Michael

Michael said...

Michael, your attacks on McQuaid on the basis of allegations is shameful. While you have god personal reason to dislike him, joining the smear campaign s beneath you.
Michael

Michael Commane said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
Michael Commane said...

Michael,

I greatly respect your views and opinions. You have stopped me in my tracks and I have re-read what I have written on the John Charles McQuaid case.

If I have done the late archbishop any wrong, let me apologise.

Of course I have been influenced by what I experienced while he was archbishop in Dublin.

I well remember the day he savaged my hair and I can still see his face in front of me.

I am ashamed and angry that I did not stop the man from doing what he did that day. I should have. And it's easy now to speak out.

I was afraid. Had I objected, most probably I would not have been ordained a priest.

It was enough of a statement refusing to have my hair cut.

I imagine I am still afraid. Too meany people are afraid.

I have seen the damage that has been done to so many men through a theology that seems at odds with the nature of human beings.

Bishops are party men, they do what is expected of them.

If my attack was a 'broad lash', maybe it can be understood in the context of the hierarchical structure of the church.

And a final point. I am inclined to think that the church has made little effort to examine the underlying issues that have led to so much clerical child sex abuse.

I would hate to be part of any smear campaign - on anyone.

December 20, 2011

Michael said...

Michael, you know me well enough to know I have my own feet of clay and suffer from the same paralysing fear in terms of criticizing authority. My own lash over JC McQ arose from the perception that much of the current writing appears to have been prompted by allegations which are just that,allegations. My own apologies to you: I did not intend to offend or hurt.
I agree entirely with your view of episcopal status and abuse of authority! Recent events show that all to clearly. Perhaps the only way forward for the church is to recognize that priesthood is something of all the baptized and that sacramental ordination is a travesty generated by a pursuit of power!
There has been a recent groundbreaking book on the whole issue by Marie Keenan, published by Oxford Press. The title is something like Clercal Child Abuse in the Catholic Church. It is a fascinating and deeply disconcerting read which looks beyond individual perpetrators to wider systemic issues. None of these, sadly, is being addressed by the current dispensation.
Michael

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