Bishops don’t always know what is best

This week’s Mediahuis Irish regional newspapers’ column.

Michael Commane

There’s a house in leafy Killiney for sale. The asking price is €12 million and from the pictures I have seen of it, it sounds a good buy at the price. 

The then Catholic archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid moved in to the fine house in 1945. 

And don’t forget, he still had his pad at his palace in Drumcondra. When I read about the sale of the house in a national newspaper earlier in the month I was reminded of an experience I had with the same archbishop.

My own personal experience of the man is not one I wish to dwell on. Just let me say I have had better encounters than my one with the late John Charles McQuaid. I jumped for joy in January 1972 when I heard on the lunchtime news that McQuaid had retired.

I am aware of many fine jobs and acts of charity the man did. Only last week someone told me how kind Archbishop McQuaid had been to him and how he helped set him out on his career.

And as to his Killiney house I was told by someone it may have been gifted to him. We are complex people and there is good and bad in all of us.

But I’m never surprised why so many Irish people have spoken with their feet when it comes to their allegiance to the institutional Irish Catholic Church.

After the Northern Ireland elections Sunday Independent columnist Joe Brolly wrote his usual incisive piece on the state of play in the North. He argued that in any ordinary democratic political environment heads would roll in the leadership if they failed to achieve their goals. But that doesn’t happen too easily in the North.

Has it ever dawned on the management of our church that there might be something seriously amiss in its leadership?

The type of leadership that has been displayed by far too many bishops and leaders of religious congregations is simply not fit for purpose. Far too many of them have acted as bullies and incompetent people. I have seen it with my own eyes over a long period of time. Please don’t get me wrong, I have also had the great good fortune of experiencing fine leadership.

Right now the Catholic Church worldwide is involved in a two-year synod, which will end next year.

The logo on the Vatican website invites us to ‘walk together as a church with the Holy Spirit’. It is a listening process. But are the people being genuinely  listened to and what role are bishops playing in controlling what is being said? 

The church is the people of God, we are a communion, where all members are on a common journey. It’s not easy to kill old ways and there seems to be something in the psyche of the episcopacy to believe and say: ‘I am the bishop and I know best’. If the current synod is to have any success then a change of heart has to come from our bishops.

Let’s pray to the Holy Spirit for some success for the synod.

By the way, are people even aware there is a synod underway?