“An object lesson in what not to do” is how Association of Catholic Priests founder, Fr Brendan Hoban described last weeks interview and the statement issued by former Cloyne bishop, John Magee.
The media events were Magee’s first comments in five weeks on the Murphy Report into the handling of sexual abuse in the Cloyne diocese and in particular Magee’s mis-management of the it.
“You don’t agree to talk to someone giving the impression that you are being door-stepped. You don’t read out a statement or, if you feel you have to, you make sure that someone who knows something about words has a look at it beforehand,” Hoban said.
“You don’t justify or explain, when the evidence is conclusive and the jury has already gone home.”
“You turn up. You tell the truth. You hold up your hands.”
“It’s not brain surgery. It’s just being media savvy.”
Hoban said: “The difficult truth at present is that bishops are not believed or trusted. Even if they said the Our Father there would be something wrong with it.”
“Old men in black suits conjure up frightening, not reassuring images. Being Catholic is the last great stigma.”
He noted that “every bishop is lord in his own diocese and the culture of deference that assures them they are competent in every imaginable subject makes it almost impossible for them to actually accept that in certain instances they are completely out of their depths.”
“Part of the difficulty is that they seem not to understand how much the ground has moved under their feet.”
Hoban is of the view the Magee interview is a media lesson and simply underlined the problems the Church has.
“There are rules that have emerged from the experience of dealing with difficult issues . . . There are things you do and things you don’t do. And the Magee interview was an object lesson in what not to do.”
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