Rights of priests have been greatly infringed

The rights of the individual Catholic priest in Ireland are greatly limited, at least they have been in the past.

When I began teaching in 1980 the Association of Secondary Teachers of Ireland prohibited priests from joining their union. The considered priests part of management.

The Irish State treated priest teachers as self-employed and therefore were not entitled to pay the full PRSI rate. This meant they were not allowed claim unemployment benefit or contribute towards a contributory pension.

And the Dominicans made no effort at all to suggest their priest teachers should contribute to the State pension offered to teachers.

It really is a scandal and shcoking. Not much has changed.

The State is forever stressing that it treats all its citizens equally and the church in holy tones about being on the side of the marginalised.

Hard to take. The moral of the story is that all organisations, church and State, have a default attitude that always suggests that the organisation must be protected at all costs.

Maybe that's simply the way of the world.