RITE AND REASON: I decided to be unfashionable and reveal a different episcopal image, writes
OTTO HERSCHAN
VARIOUS FRIENDS suggested that as I
was a good seanachaí and never stopped dropping names, I should write a
book of memories.
Following an article some seven years ago about me in
The Irish Times , still more said I should add some of the story of my life. Hence my book
Holy Smoke?
Since the discovery of the paedophilia
avalanche, bishop bashing is the vogue. So I decided to be unfashionable
and reveal some of my encounters with bishops that unveil a different
image.
My first meeting with the formidable archbishop John
Charles McQuaid was in 1972. He had publicly voiced criticism of a
Christmas crib by Fergus O’Farrell at Dublin airport. I told the
archbishop that I did not agree with his criticism. He replied: “I am so
glad.”
Now I am very deaf and conscious of the disability in
others, so I thought he had not heard. I repeated: “I said I disagreed,”
which evoked the reply: “Yes, Mr Herschan, I heard clearly, you
disagreed. You need to know that in nine cases out of 10, people who
come to see me say what they think I would like to hear.” Apparently it
was a welcome change.
The lack of communications by bishops had
not been restricted to paedophilia. They simply had little appreciation
of communicating. Before the crisis there were only two bishops, Eamonn
Casey and Brendan Comiskey, who were born communicators.
In 1981
the then archbishop of Dublin Dermot Ryan suggested that I meet his then
auxiliary bishop Brendan Comiskey. The result was an invitation to
Brendan Comiskey to write a column in the
Irish Catholic newspaper but his boss said no.
So I wrote to the archbishop and complained.
In his reply he said: “As a columnist he would put his head on a block every week.”
I
countered: “Where else does a bishop’s head belong?” The result was
that he wrote a weekly, entertaining and stimulating column until August
1995.
In the early 1980s I decided to take in hand the image
changing of bishops. I knew that both cardinal Hume, the archbishop of
Westminster, and archbishop Ryan were keen squash players.
I
suggested organising a match between them to be televised and that the
fee (which should have been considerable) be given to named charities.
Both tentatively agreed.
Alas,
in 1985 when I wrote to archbishop Ryan, by then pro-prefect of the
Congregation for the Evangelization of Peoples in Rome, I received no
reply. He had just died that February.
The father of archbishop
Denis Hurley of Durban in South Africa came from Cork. Denis always
insisted on being called by his Christian name, but in letters always
added OMI.
He was was very proud of his Order, the Missionary Oblates of
Mary Immaculate (better known as “Oblates”).
Ordained an
archbishop at the age of 31, he was the youngest one in the world. He
had been on the Preparatory Commission of Vatican II, but abstained from
clerical language and preferred to use the vernacular, as it would be
better understood by the laity.
When I had been with Catholic
newspapers for 50 years, he wrote to me: When a batsman reaches 50, he
waves his bat to the crowd, takes a fresh guard and sets out for his
hundred. I hope you have gone through the process.
He died on the
13th of February 2004. The diocese had to hire a football stadium in
Durban to accommodate the crowd for his Requiem Mass, which was also
attended by Nelson Mandella.
In
Holy Smoke? I have indulged in more name-dropping of bishops to show another side to their image.
Maybe now they will follow suit.
Otto
Herschan, who was born in Vienna in 1927, published Catholic newspapers
in the UK and Ireland for over 50 years.
His memoir
Holy Smoke? is published by TAF