Monday, June 06, 2011

Irish Church at tipping point

An international expert on child safeguarding has appealed to Irish Church authorities to put their pastoral instincts before legal advice and urged Catholics to support and encourage their bishops and religious leaders to move in the right direction.

Dr Monica Applewhite, who has advised Church leaders all across the world on how to respond to the scandals, said she was also hopeful that a national day of prayer could help to bring reconciliation and renewal to the Church in Ireland.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Dr Applewhite, who was recently in Ireland advising the independent National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church (NBSCCC), said that ''initiatives to create and maintain transparency should not be construed in any way as opposed or against the Catholic Church.

''Those of us who love the Church in spite of its failings are the people who most desire systems of accountability -- so that faith and trust in the Church can be restored in a manner that is both legitimate and sustainable over time.''

However, she said: ''It saddens me that there are still leaders in the Church who elect to follow the advice of lawyers rather than listening to their own pastoral instincts or hearing the encouragement of the faithful to embrace a new era of accountability and openness.

''I believe we are at that tipping point in the Irish Church. The time has come for every leader within the Irish Church to choose where he or she stands -- who will emerge for transparency and change and who will stay in hopes of maintaining the status quo? One can no longer sit on the fence in Ireland, those days are long gone,'' she said.

Dr Applewhite also added: ''It is essential that we all support and encourage movement in the right direction when we see it. Leaders are human and if every move they make is met with punishment and criticism, they ultimately slip into a kind of helplessness and just quit trying."

''Those of us interested in the promise of change have to find ways to shed light on the positive initiatives so that energy and hope for the future are not lost,'' she said.