The Vatican very happy that Irish bishops mess is being sorted out - Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown skips a generation of leaders

Cardinal Sean Brady (center) with Monsignor Eamon Martin (left) and Papal Nuncio Charles Brown (right) on the steps of Armagh Cathedral on Jan 18 2013. 

The Vatican is moving to completely transform the face of Irish Catholicism led by the dynamic Papal Nuncio Archbishop Charles Brown.

The New Yorker and Notre Dame grad has quickly worked out a strategy for the Irish church leadership beset by sex abuse cover-up allegations.

That strategy was unveiled in full by the announcement late in the week that Monsignor Eamon Martin of Derry would leapfrog a generation of bishops and would be bishops and become the future leader of the church.

Martin is a toddler in ecclesiastical terms, a mere 51 years old, and Brown has undoubtedly taken the step to recommend him as the future Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of Ireland to end once and for all the hideous in fighting that has consumed the church leadership.

There is apparently a poisonous atmosphere among the top clergy, caused in the main by the implications of the cover-ups and the failure of one leader, Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, to go along.

Diarmuid Martin is fearless, but a deeply divisive figure among his fellow bishops because of his outspoken comments. In terms of public approval he would be by far the most popularchurch figure in Ireland but popularity is not where the Vatican is at.

Cardinal Sean Brady, head of the church in Ireland, has become a massive liability after it became clear that he had participated in some manner in the cover-up of abusive priests.

So he had to go, hence the move now by Brown and the Vatican to move beyond this tainted generation of church leader and choose a bright new star, untainted by child abuse scandals.

It is operation ‘clean hands’ and is already being referred to as such. There are many other senior appointments to come and we can expect more of the same.

The gamble for the Vatican is that young Eamon Martin may be out of his depth which would mean they have picked a lightweight who may be in situ at least two decades.

Brown however, appears to be a shrewd and clever playmaker who has seen the need to skip a generation and start afresh and who thinks the gamble on such an inexperienced prelate is worth the risk.

That remains to be seen but there will be a long sigh of relief in the Vatican that the Irish mess is on its way to being sorted out.

Former Bishop of Derry Edward Daly spoke for the majority when he said “He does not carry any baggage from the past with him,' Daly told the BBC.

'It's a challenging time for the church in Ireland. He has been asked to lead that church.'

Irish government and Catholic hierarchy need to disavow reasons for death of pregnant woman -- Will they stand up and be counted on wrong application of Catholic doctrine?

Protestors gather outside Leinster House (Irish Parliament building)
 during a demonstration in favor of abortion legislation in Dublin,
 Ireland, on November 14, (Credit: Peter Muhly/AFP)

The Irish government and the Catholic hierarchy there should make clear that they strongly disagreed with the dreadful decision to allow a young mother in a Galway hospital to die because her non-viable fetus continued to have a heartbeat.

There is no other correct decision for them to make. This is not a medical issue, it is a human rights one. It is incredible to think that in this day and age such a death could occur.

The life of the mother was sacrificed in this occasion by waiting for the 17-week-old non-viable fetus to die while she was miscarrying. When she desperately asked for the fetus to be aborted she was told “This is a Catholic hospital.” She later died of sepsis.

Savita Halappanavar (31), a dentist and of the Hindu faith, originally from India, went through two and a half days of dreadful pain while the fetus lived on.

Surely the Catholic Church and the Irish government need to step in here and say “not in our name”?

The fetus would never have lived, doctors in Galway agreed. The mother was bleeding and leaking amniotic fluid.

In Britain or the US, if it were seen that the mother was in imminent danger, the mother would have been given drugs to expedite the miscarriage.

In Ireland she was told to suffer and bear it and she died as a result.

If it sounds like a terrible plot from an Edna O’Brien novel from the 1950s then it is.

One can only imagine what this lovely young woman and her husband, both emigrants to Ireland, experienced in her final hours.

It is an enormous blot on the country, a throwback to the bad old days when women’s lives in childbirth were considered expendable.

The church and state need to make it clear that it was not done in their name.

Whether they will or not will tell us a lot about the new Ireland.

 Read more: Thousands gather to protest in Ireland over death of mother due to abortion denial

Cardinal Dolan right to see the light and agree to speak at Democratic convention -- Huge error appearing at Republican convention only with closing prayer

New York Archbishop Timothy Dolan (Photo: AP)

Cardinal Timothy Dolan is doing the right thing speaking at both the Democratic National Convention and the Republican one.

His decision came after a storm of criticism about him appearing only at the Republican National Convention in Tampa and not at the Democratic one in Charlotte, North Carolina.

There was also news of a secret meeting between Mitt Romney and Dolan at Dolan’s office in New York which took many observers by surprise.

Why a secret meeting? Why not acknowledge out front that the Cardinal Archbishop of New York was meeting one of the two men who will be president come January next year?

Clearly Dolan, by far the most powerful figure in the American Catholic Church, was displaying a partisan approach that went down badly with many American Catholics.

On social justice issues such as immigration and caring for the poor, the church is far closer to the Democratic party.

On doctrinal issues such as abortion and church affairs, they are closer to the GOP.

The Catholic faithful are probably split in a similar manner with the more conservative wing leaning towards the Republicans and cultural Catholics siding with Democrats.

So the New York archdiocese and Dolan went ahead and finally did the decent thing and acknowledged both parts of their divided faithful.

In a statement on Thursday, the New York Archdiocese stated:

“Timothy Cardinal Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has accepted an invitation to deliver the closing prayer at next week’s Democratic National Convention. As was previously announced, he will also be offering the closing prayer at the Republican Convention on Thursday of this week.

The news of the Democratic convention gig also came after the New York Times revealed that Romney had secretly met with Dolan last month.

“The two had a private meeting, previously undisclosed, at the chancery in New York, across from St. Patrick’s Cathedral, said Peter G. Flaherty, a senior adviser to the Romney campaign on religious issues.


Secret meetings and offering benedictions to one side and not the other should not be the style of the Catholic Church and its undisputed leader.


Dolan has already displayed animosity to Obama and sued him over his health care law. He has made plain his disdain for this president and his policies.

On the other side, he positively gushed in a recent radio interview about GOP VP candidate Paul Ryan who hails from his home state of Wisconsin.

It has become obvious for some time that Cardinal Dolan loves his media image and pumps it up at every opportunity.

He positively preens in the spotlight which is harmless enough, but putting the Catholic Church squarely on the side of the Republicans was a major mistake.

It does not seem that long ago that Protestant churches mounted a savage campaign against Catholic John F. Kennedy in 1960.

Many of those churches never fully recovered from the backlash to that onslaught.

This is a deeply divided society right now, even at the level of the US Bishops where some have criticized VP candidate Paul Ryan for targeting his budget cuts at the poor.

Cardinal Dolan should have really known better than to totally align himself with one side.

Luckily he has seen the light.

U.S. Catholic Bishops have major choice to make between Romney/Ryan and Obama/Biden -- Problems with both parties makes their choice far more complicated this election

Barack Obama and Mitt Romney

U.S. Catholic Bishops have major choice to make between Romney/Ryan and Obama/Biden -- Problems with both parties makes their choice far more complicated this election

The Catholic Conference of Bishops is between a rock and a hard place in this election.

They are on record as castigating both parties. They slammed Obama for his health insurance clause that the bishops claimed meant they had to subsidize birth control for their employees.

But the Republican ticket has felt the lash as well. Paul Ryan’s budget was roundly slammed by the bishops for its cuts on programs to the poor.

So the presidential election sets up an interesting dilemma for them. There are two Irish Catholics on the tickets, making it certain that a Catholic voice will be prominent in the White House whatever happens.

But which one would they prefer?

I have no doubt they would prefer a Romney/Ryan ticket to succeed.

The church is now heavily dependent on Hispanics for renewal and have staked out a position on immigration far closer to the Democrats. That is a huge issue in this election.

But I still feel the bishops, or the vast majority of them, will side with Romney/Ryan.

The tiebreaker of course, is abortion which both Romney and Ryan oppose and Obama and Biden support.

In addition, social justice issues have slipped down the scale in favor of adhering to the conservative orthodoxies espoused by this pope.

The Catholic vote is critical and the Bishop’s role is powerful, yet it is clear that cultural Catholics, those raised in the faith who no longer practice it weekly, are not influenced by their bishops any more.

Those who are tend to be regular mass goers who hear the weekly sermons.

The Catholic Church has come a long way since President Kennedy faced extraordinary suspicion over his Catholic roots.

Nowadays swing Catholics in key states are the most sought after voting block.

The Bishops have a major hand to play. It will be interesting to see how they deal their cards.

Cardinal Dolan does the right thing by inviting President Obama to Al Smith dinner

President Obama and Cardinal Dolan

The decision by Cardinal Timothy Dolan to invite President Obama to the Al Smith dinner in New York is a very good political move.

Contrast that with his predecessor, Cardinal Edward Egan, who refused to invite Senator John Kerry when he was opposing President Bush.

Dolan was never going to allow himself to be caught in the meat grinder that Egan did on that occasion.

Though he is suing Obama over health care legislation Dolan knew that snubbing Obama on this occasion would cause a huge backlash.

The Al Smith dinner called after the first major Irish Catholic candidate for president, is a presidential year tradition, a night when the impact of the Catholic vote is recognized.

Cardinal Dolan does the right thing by inviting President Obama to Al Smith dinner -- Avoids the massive mistake of his predecessor Cardinal Egan who snubbed John Kerry

Dolan knew what happened his predecessor. Egan came under immense pressure and eventually kicked for touch and invited Hugh Carey as the Obama surrogate and President Bush senior as his son’s spokesman.

It all came crashing down on Egan who suffered a massive loss of prestige as a result.

With a Catholic Democratic governor in Andrew Cuomo with whom he has cordial relations, Dolan knew well that not inviting Obama would cause a huge rift.

Obama’s presence on the night will be significant. The Catholic vote is absolutely critical in this election, especially in key states such as Ohio and Pennsylvania.

Ironically the tenets of Mormonism are far more hostile to Catholicism and potentially cause problems for Romney than anything Obama might have to say.

Joseph Smith, the founder of the Mormon religion, speaking of the vision he had to start his church noted that he asked his angel what about other religions.

"I was answered that I must join none of them, for they were all wrong; and the Personage who addressed me said that all their creeds were an abomination in his sight; that those professors were all corrupt; that: they draw near to me with their lips, but their hearts are far from me, they teach for doctrines the commandments of men, having a form of godliness, but they deny the power thereof. He again forbade me to join with any of them;..."

Romney will obviously not be highlighting that aspect of the relationship between his religion and that of Catholicism.

Apart from the debates the men will not be seen in the same company other than at the Al Smith dinner.

Cardinal Dolan has done the right thing here and deserves credit. There is more than enough divisiveness in American politics already.

New questions about Father Michael Kelly's guilt or innocence -- Case seen as similar to story of priest accused in the movie "Doubt"

Father Michael Kelly

I had occasion to speak to a person from California who is a long time friend of  Father Michael Kelly, the California-based priest who flew to his native Ireland after losing a civil case against him on an abuse charge.

Yesterday we wrote that Kelly was found liable on the civil charge despite the fact that the accusations against him by a 37-year old man, a pilot for Southwest Airlines, were based on “recovered memories” a highly dubious method as recent history has shown in cases such as the McMartin preschool case.

The man alleged that Kelly abused him when he was a young altar boy back in the mid 1980s.

The person who knows Kelly for over twenty years says they believe that Kelly was likely innocent but they could not be absolutely certain.

The person told me that Father Michael Kelly is straight out of the John Shanley play and movie ‘Doubt’ where an unproven charge against a priest results in his removal from a parish.

“Father Flynn of that movie” the person said, “is exactly like Kelly. “There is suspicion but no outright proof and he has plausibly and extensively denied it.”

This is no open and shut case.  Kelly passed two lie detector tests, has hundreds of his former parishioners still siding with him and an extensive inquiry by the diocese of Stockton found him not guilty.

His flight to Ireland was not illegal. He is not under any prison sentence, he lost a civil case.

My informant also told me that the plaintiff’s attorney John C. Manly who is a specialist and who has won hundreds of millions against the church in such lawsuits, easily outsmarted the Kelly attorneys who were not in the same league. “They were no match for Manly” the person said.

There is said to be another case against him dating to 2002 but the fact that it has never been to court suggests it never will rise to the burden of proof needed to prosecute.

Parishioners still flocked to him and they turned out in large numbers for him despite the guilty verdict.
Kelly is left in a no man’s land, half priest half accused felon.

According to local reports he can no longer publicly perform priestly duties.

Kelly cannot invite people to participate in privately held events, but individuals can invite him.
Kelly did participate in a privately conducted Easter vigil at a rural Lodi-area residence.

Local Bishop Stephen Blaire is required to write a formal report to a Vatican body called the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith, which is responsible for dealing with clergy sexual abuse crises within the Catholic Church.

"They will advise me back what action they believe should be taken," Blaire told the Modesto Bee.
That could mean they defrock Kelly.

But the question will always remain--- is he innocent or guilty?

Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin sheds tears on "60 Minutes" as he discusses the impact on young children of abuse

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin shed tears on "60 Minutes" tonight as he recounted asking to see a class of eight-year old boys in a Dublin school so he could imagine what it was like for them to be abused.

He did so after meeting a man who was horrifically abused at that age by a priest in his own archdiocese.

It was an emotional highpoint of a "60 Minutes" profile that portrayed Martin as a hero of the Irish church and a voice for the children who had been abused.

The Irish Times Religious Affairs correspondent Patsy McGarry made it clear that Martin alone among the top hierarchy had come to the aid of those abused by releasing the documents detailing the charges against hundreds of priests.

He alone among top church figures retained the loyalty of the faithful, McGarry said, pointing out that his boss, Cardinal Sean Brady, Primate of All Ireland, had been totally compromised after admitting covering up allegations made by boys many years ago into the notorious pedophile Father Brendan Smyth.

By so doing Martin clearly saved many other children from abuse and stopped the cover up..

The "60 Minutes" show painted a devastating portrait of the downfall of the church in Ireland with vocations plummeting and fall off in attendance as dramatic as only 2 per cent mass attendance in some parishes, down from over 90 per cent.

Martin is the one bright star remaining in that church and his stand off with Rome and those continuing the abuse cover up was clearly outlined on "60 Minutes."

As I stated last week here Martin is the greatest living Irishman a man who has told truth to power in the most courageous and straightforward way. The "60 Minutes" profile merely underlined that.

He has refused to tolerate child abuse practitioners among his clergy, has named and shamed them and has handed over every available file on them to the proper authorities.

His acts have made him deeply unpopular in Rome and among those apologists who would somehow make child abuse a temporary little evil in the Catholic Church.
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He is a turbulent priest, a popular figure in Irish history who stands with his people not the powers that be.

For that reason he is Ireland’s greatest living person. The "60 Minutes" profile will only add to the legend.

Contraception controversy overshadows amazing work of Catholic hospitals --- Vital part of US healthcare in every state

The Catholic Church is going through very tough times with issues such as lack of vocations and abusive priests.

Catholic hospitals have been dragged into the discussion over contraception in recent weeks, making them also a target for criticism

But it is time Catholic healthcare systems and the incredible work that Catholic hospitals do for the ill and needy in this country is recognized.

I have always stated that the church in America needs to rewrite their priorities, less of the harsh social teaching and more of the focus on the amazing work they do in education and health care.
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That is where the success of their mission is clear.

There are Catholic Hospital facilities present in all 50 states providing acute care, skilled nursing, and other services including hospice, home health, assisted living, and senior housing.

Here are some amazing facts:

* There are 624 Catholic hospitals.

* There are 60 Catholic health care systems.

* 1 in 6 patients in the United States are cared for in a Catholic acute-care facility each year.

* More than 5.5 million patients were admitted to Catholic hospitals during a one-year period.

* There were more than 92 million outpatient visits in Catholic hospitals during a one-year period.

* Catholic hospitals account for more than one fifth, or 20 percent, of admissions in 21 states and the District of Columbia.

* Catholic hospitals employ more than 525,193 full-time employees and 233,394 part-time workers.

New research shows Catholic majority now likely in Northern Ireland - New figures show trend is continuing and now inevitable

Deputy First Minister Martin McGuinness, First Minister Peter Robinson, Taoiseach Enda Kenny (Credit:  NGNS)

In a stunning column that turns the future on its head, Irish Times columnist Gerry Moriarty has shown that a Catholic majority in Northern Ireland will occur much faster than had previously been thought.

There has been a clear and inexorable pattern of Catholic population increasing while the Protestant population declines.

However, Moriarty presents it in a new and stark way and asks several critical questions.

Key of course is what will the upcoming Catholic majority mean for Northern Ireland?

But first to the facts and figures.

Moriarty opens his column by saying:

"The British and Irish governments and the people of Northern Ireland are facing the prospect – and sooner than most people might think – of how to manage a transformed constitutional situation where the majority in the North are likely to be from a Catholic background."

He goes on:

"The figures are revealed in the statistics: there are now significantly more Catholics than Protestants in nursery, primary, second- and third-level education in Northern Ireland. If that trend continues, and it’s difficult to see a reason why it should not, then in another generation or so the majority population should be Catholic or from a Catholic background – people of voting age, most of whose immediate antecedents are nationalist in their political outlook.

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He pointed out that figures from Northern Ireland’s Department of Education for 2010/11 show 120,415 Protestants and 163,693 Catholics in the North’s schools.

Those figures that is a breakdown of 57.6 per cent Catholic, 42.4 per cent Protestant.....figures for 2009/10 obtained from the Higher Education Statistics Agency show that at university level the trend has continued

"In total... at third level there are 20,995 students (59.3 per cent) from a Catholic background and 14,410 (40.7 per cent) from a Protestant background." Moriarty writes

In the 2001 census the figures showed Protestants at 53.1 per cent and Catholics at 43.8 per cent. The 2011 census is expected to show that gap is much narrower.By the 2021 census the change will be dramatic

In the last election 48 per cent voted for Unionist parties and 42 per cent for nationalists. The rest voted cross community, mainly Alliance.

Of course, there is no certainty that Catholics would vote for a United Ireland, indeed, many say they would not.

However, with Scotland trembling on the edge of major devolution and conceivably outright independence, the old United Kingdom is not what it once was.

One could say the same about the Irish Republic of course, and many Catholics, now that they share power in Northern Ireland would hardly want to join up with a country in the throes of a terrible economic malaise.

But how a Catholic majority would work out is unpredictable. But it seems certain that it will happen within a generation.

The Protestant state for a Protestant people created against the wishes of Catholics corralled in 1921 into the new state may find itself on the ash heap in the future.

As Yeats might have said, All changed, changed utterly.

Shock closure of Irish Embassy in Vatican Announced -- Further evidence of deep problems between Ireland and Holy See

Plaque outside the Irish Embassy in the Vatcian

The closure of their embassy at the Vatican by the Irish government is a startling move.

While they couched it in terms of it saving money, the fact is that the Vatican posting, in particular, was considered one of the most high prestige posts in the world.

It is easy to see why. The Papal Nuncio, the Holy See Ambassador in Dublin, was always considered dean of the diplomatic corps there and given extra respect and access.

It would have been inconceivable a few years ago that Ireland would turn its back on its Vatican outpost.

It is a measure of how sadly diminished the Catholic Church is in Ireland that a government now feels enabled to take this step.

Eamon De Valera even enshrined the church's special position in the Irish constitution.

Years ago such a move would have resulted in a belt of the crozier sufficient to put the government back in line very quickly.

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There will be no such threat this time.

The Vatican has previously withdrawn their Nuncio in Dublin, Giuseppe Leanza, after the Irish government had criticized them over the sex abuse scandals.


New Prime Minster Enda Kenny quickly made his mark when he accused the Vatican of taking part in the cover up over abusive priests.

He was applauded by a scandal weary nation for doing so.

Those abuse cases have sucked the fight out of the church.

A recent survey conducted by a religious group showed that 50 percent of the Irish people no longer trusted the church.

That is an incredible number for a church that once had over 90 per cent mass attendance and the ear of every major politician.

The closure of the embassy is another extraordinary step in the evolving relationship between Dublin and the Vatican.

The Holy See will not be pleased at this move, signaling as it inevitably does a lessening of their influence in Ireland.

It will be interesting to see their response.