The Papal Nuncio to Ireland has told representatives of Irish missionary associations and institutes of consecrated life not to undermine church authorities in public, writes Sarah Mac Donald.
At a meeting at the Dublin nunciature with the Executive of the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI), Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo acknowledged that Irish people’s faith survives, despite the “crisis that has shaken this local Church”. He appealed to prophetic voices to shake people out of their comfort zones with “respect, prudence and with good intentions”. Of Pope Francis, he said even those who criticise him respect his humanity and his sincerity. “He leaves no one indifferent,” the Nigerian prelate said. But he warned the gathering: “No one unclothes his dad in the public place, as my people say, in my country; no one reproves his parents in public.”
In a separate address at the Festival of Faith conference, “Raising Hearts and Giving Hope”, to coincide with the installation of Bishop Brendan Kelly in Galway, the nuncio criticised the media for reporting only negative stories about the Church. “I too am a journalist. I understand it. They will just pull you down and criticise you and then go to your files and see if there are some ghosts in the cupboard,” he said. The nuncio also apologised, on behalf of the Pope, “for creating discouragement and disappointment” in the Church.
Responding to the nuncio’s comments, Augustinian Fr Iggy O’Donovan criticised his “concern with not washing our laundry in public”. He told The Tablet that “secrecy and a lack of transparency and the concern with avoiding scandal got us where we are”, with the Irish Church “caught up in the mother of all scandals” on child sexual abuse.
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