John Waters writes in the ‘Irish Times’: – I had an odd feeling last Friday morning, listening to an RTÉ apology broadcast on Morning Ireland. We don’t think of published apologies as journalism, but this went to the heart of matters the Irish media refuses point-blank to ventilate. Something was being “reported” that generally remains unacknowledged.
The apology stated that, on May 23rd last, RTÉ broadcast a Prime Time programme “A Mission to Prey”, which accused Fr Kevin Reynolds, parish priest at Ahascragh, Galway, of raping a minor while a missionary in Kenya and fathering a child as a result.
Before the broadcast, Fr Reynolds had made repeated but fruitless efforts to alert the Prime Time journalists to the falsity of the allegations, even offering to undergo a paternity test. RTÉ’s apology acknowledged that the programme should not have been broadcast and said it “fully and unreservedly” accepted that Fr Reynolds was “entirely innocent”, that the allegations were “baseless, without any foundation whatever and untrue”.
The apology could hardly be more explicit in its admission of error, but, had he not been able definitively to demonstrate his innocence with a paternity test, the programme would have cast Fr Reynolds forever among the growing legions of discredited Catholic clerics.
The allegations seemed of a piece with the broader picture, sketched out over several years in Irish media, of predatory priests abusing their power and positions. The “victims” had spoken out, and victims, as we know, are always to be believed. The priest denied it, but he would, wouldn’t he?
This goes beyond slackness. There was no apology for the title of the programme: “A Mission to Prey”. Here, the allegations against Fr Reynolds acquired an added dimension of toxicity, imputing to him and implicitly to other Catholic missionaries an abominable premeditation.
Behind the priestly vocation and outward altruism of church initiatives in foreign countries, that title insinuated, is a grotesque design to abuse and exploit. The title echoes a malevolent mentality now rampant in the Irish media, which, where the church is concerned, no longer considers it enough to state facts – the case must be augmented with sneers and vicious innuendos.
Carefully nurtured public prejudice ensures that, when condemning a church figure, it’s impossible to go too far.
Full Article: Irish Times
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