Update on the Church in Ireland (continued)
By Sean O’Conaill
VOTF Ireland
We are frankly grateful for this lull, as it allows us to recoup our energies and to reflect that we played a role in the important enforcement of accountability upon a delinquent bishop. There is a lot still to happen this year in Ireland and all eyes will be on Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, to see if he will expand on an earlier observation that victims of abuse were failed not just by their abusers but by the church as an institution. He has already drawn a clear line between himself and the longer-serving bishops who so badly handled everything, so there is the possibility that 2009 will mark a clear waypoint on the journey towards a healthier church.
Coincidentally Ireland is gripped by an intense economic crisis that has distracted attention from the church crisis. We have 11% unemployment and a disastrous one-third slump in tax revenue that has precipitated a major political crisis also. An emergency budget tomorrow may cause serious social unrest if the burdens it imposes are seen to be not only intolerable but unfair. It is unclear that our political parties have the collective talent to see us through this, so we could be in for political turmoil also.
