THROUGHOUT the last dismal decade when abuse scandals rocked the Catholic Church to its foundations in Ireland, the modest Bishop of Killaloe, Willie Walsh, looked like the only pillar likely to remain standing.While many others threatened to be swept away by revelations, Willie Walsh remained calm and contrite throughout; a totem of humility and modesty in a tide of sleaze.
Dr Walsh seemed to stand for simple decency. His feet seemed more comfortable on the ground with his people rather than in the heights of the pulpit.
While the established church stood cold and unyielding, more concerned with protecting its own reputation than with taking care of its most vulnerable, Willie Walsh was compassionate and humane.
It was no surprise that when Travellers found themselves evicted from the roadside, it was within the gates of Dr Walsh's home that they found sanctuary.
When Archbishop Diarmuid Martin admonished the hierarchy for their obvious failings and was met with a wall of austere silence, Dr Walsh was the solitary voice that came out to support him.
For all these reasons, he will be greatly missed as bishop.
If the church had the vision to see the kind of leadership that would restore the trust so badly breached in recent years, it could do worse than remember the example of WIllie Walsh.
He epitomised the dictum of St Francis that "nothing is as strong as gentleness".
SIC: II