THE shadow of Rome, the Ryan child abuse report and the spectre of the forthcoming findings of the state investigation into the Archdiocese of Dublin hovered ominously over the governors of the Irish Church yesterday. But outwardly, it looked just like a normal June meeting of the Irish Bishops Conference at Maynooth College.
Bishops took their traditional post-lunch walks yesterday afternoon in the splendid quadrangle of St Joseph's Square.
In huddles, they conferred with one another on the stark implications of the first-hand reports which, only hours previously, they heard from Cardinal Sean Brady and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of how "very upset" Pope Benedict was last Friday when they briefed him on the Ryan Report in Rome's hallowed Apostolic Palace.
Most of the 26 heads of dioceses and their assistant bishops had still been inside the closed rooms of their cloistered meeting place in the former student infirmary when Cardinal Brady and Archbishop Martin came to the front door for an open air encounter with the media.
The message from the Cardinal and the Archbishop was that the Pontiff had entrusted them with a three-fold task: finding out the truth of what happened, taking steps to prevent any repeat of such abuse and ensuring victims got justice.
Three significant clues as to how the bishops might accomplish this papal mission were elicited in a brief question session. Cardinal Brady had met representatives of religious orders on Sunday evening on his return from Rome to give them the first account of Pope Benedict's wishes.
Firstly, and pointedly, Archbishop Martin dismissed the public's perception of deep differences between the bishops and 18 religious congregations over additional financial contributions to abuse victims.
Secondly, Archbishop Martin indicated there was likely to be a follow-up intervention by the Pope once he had digested the reports being assembled by heads of six departments of the Roman Curia with whom he and the cardinal met in Rome. The driving force will be Cardinal Bertone, the pope's prime minister.
Thirdly, as part of what Archbishop Martin called "soul-searching", the Irish Church will accelerate its installation of a unified child-protection system and embark on a period of analysis of how the Irish Church is now notorious worldwide for the sheer scale of abuse.
To do so comprehensively and transparently will involve academics, psychiatrists and other scientific experts, as well as the abused -- and members of the Oireachtas, the clergy and the Catholic laity -- in the diagnosis of what is now called "the Irish disease".
This will require an opening up of the closed clericalist doors of Maynooth.
But before this can be accomplished, the bishops know that the fuller and grimmer picture is yet to come, with the even more shocking revelations of the abuse and cover-ups that will be contained in the Dublin Archdiocese report.
The many bishops I spoke to yesterday did not know when this report would be published, though many of them suspect it may be before the end of June.
And after that there will be the Cloyne diocese report.
The absence of Bishop John Magee from their ranks was a ghostly reminder to them that in the post-Ryan climate of public distrust of the Church, the position of no Lord Bishop is now secure or life-long.
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