Bruce Arnold
When the Murphy Report was published, the Minister for Justice, Dermot Ahern, made his pithy but pointless remark, that ‘a collar will protect no criminal’. He also asked us to reflect on how the culture of deference to the Church came about. He did this, knowing that neither statements would be tested. He also knew that no one in power would reflect meaningfully on the culture of deference.
Within 48 hours, as the faithful rallied to support the Bishop of Limerick, it became clear that the state would play a limited role in the disciplining of the Church, through further investigation of the protection given to abusing priests, since the legal framework for this is inadequate. Nor would there be an explanation of just how the protective clerical collar, which immunised most priests and the auxiliary bishops from the laws of this State since its foundation, would do so no longer. Instead, the entire process of disciplining the Church has been left to the determined Vatican fire fighter, Diarmuid Martin.
As to any reflection on how the culture of deference to the Church came about, this too would not take place. And Dermot Ahern knew it to be the case since this vital area of reflective national shame was not part of the Murphy Report and would not be confronted.
The worst area of dereliction in the Report by Judge Yvonne Murphy and her legal colleagues, Ms Ita Mangan and Mr Hugh O’Neill derives from the Commission’s failure to address the question of how the Irish State and its people, notably its children, were subjected to legal structures that were either inappropriate (Canon Law) or demonstrably inadequate (Statute and Common Law).
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