Michael Commane
Sometimes I wonder should I even be a Catholic let alone a Catholic priest. But here I am. Twisting Martin Luther’s words a little and probably taking them out of context, I’m inclined to say: ‘Here I stand; I can do no other. God help me.’
If I may digress for a moment. The Wartburg was a so-called prestige car built in the former East Germany. Wits nicknamed it the Martin Luther car because it regularly broke down. They edited the Luther quote to support the nickname: ‘Here I stand, I can go no further’.
Last Monday week journalist Mary Kenny, speaking to Sarah McInerney on RTE Radio I’s Today programme, was criticising the Irish government Covid-19 regulations. She was due to speak at the Percy French Festival in Roscommon this week and was questioning the ‘wisdom’ of having to quarantine for two weeks on arrival in Ireland from London. Immediately after the programme it was announced that that she will not be in attendance.
She argued that everything we do in life involves risk. Kenny compared the dangers involved with Covid-19 to those when we sit behind the steering wheel of a car.
For me the upshot of Mary Kenny’s problem is that she does not like being discommoded.
Mary Kenny writes a weekly column for The Irish Catholic. Two weeks ago she wrote about Ghislaine Maxwell, who is in custody in New York awaiting trial on charges of trafficking minors for Epstein.
Kenny argues that the sexual licence that prevailed in their circle has been normalised for some time.
I can’t imagine a single person I know would consider such behaviour normal.
In that same issue of The Irish Catholic the headline on the lead story on the front page runs: New Govt could ‘kick Church out of Education’ warns Senator.
It’s a story about Senator Ronan Mullen calling for the church to engage families in any attempt the new government may have in plans to exclude the Catholic Church in the running of schools.
I can’t help thinking that the historical tendency of the church to think that it knows best is being perpetuated. Might the zealots not stand back and place more trust in the Holy Spirit than in their own judgement?
Surely the tools the church should use in preaching the Gospel are those of kindness and love.
There is a palpable arrogance, a stridency that the right-wing in the Catholic Church is currently exhibiting that I find greatly upsetting and indeed, dangerous.
Listening to the Mary Kenny interview I kept feeling that she knew best. Mary Kenny is not a doctor, nor is she a theologian. She constantly gives the impression that she knows best on so many topics.
Her latest entry into the world of medicine is new.
The Irish Catholic seems so angry with everything to do with a world that does not have the stamp of its approval.
Surely life is far more nuanced and varied than such an outlook.
Living a Gospel of kindness and love is the most effective way to live and spread the Christian message.
Have we not learned all the damage that sticks have caused?
I am reminded of something Pope Francis said last month: ‘God shows his love, not with great speeches, but with simple, tender acts of charity.
‘It is not easy to understand, but God expresses his infinite love in small, tender ways.’
Well said and thank you Pope Francis.
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