Are we Irish sex-mad? There are some who would dispute this, pointing to our consuming (no pun intended) interest in drink. Experience tells me that this is a false dichotomy: it’s perfectly possible to be consumed with interest in both. Back in the 1950s, the attitude of the Catholic Church and Irish society suggested that the only truly grave sins were sexual sins. Getting drunk was maybe sinful according to the Church, but it was also a laugh and the Church’s ruling was openly flaunted.
With the Pope set to fly into Ireland any day now, there have been fevered discussions on how Ireland has changed since John Paul II was here in 1979. The fall-off in church attendance is dramatic and noted, but the factors that get TV time are same-sex marriage, abortion and sex outside marriage. All three have a clear link with sex, and all three are hotly debated. So here’s a few headings that are bouncing around in my head.
- Looking back, the Catholic Church’s obsession with sexual sin was an appallingly narrow obsession. No other sin came near it, in terms of upping your chances of ending in hell.
- Debate today – like last night on RTÉ’s Prime Time – might give you the impression that Irish people are every bit as obsessed with sex as the Church was back then. The sexual abuse of children by members of the clergy dwarfs all other matters, and it is the one thing some people believe the Pope should be questioned sharply about.
- Oddly, no one speaks of questioning him about other matters on which the Catholic Church could be held to account. Money, for example. Jesus spent a fair bit of time talking about wealthy people. He also spent quite a bit of time talking about loving your enemies and turning the other cheek, which sounds suspiciously like pacifism to me. What’s the Catholic Church’s record on that? Does it go with the turn-the-other –cheek teaching or is it more into just war theory, about which Jesus said absolutely nothing?
- In the south of Ireland, judging certainly from last night’s Prime Time, there is a mob mentality about the Catholic Church: cruel, uncaring, venal, corrupt. There are very few people coming forward and saying “The priest in my parish is a hard-working, sincere, kind man who is always there for people when they most need him”. Is this because such men don’t exist or because it would ruin the neat Corrupt Church argument?
- The number of genuine cases of sexual abuse by clergy coming to light is truly ghastly, and a source of particular shame for an institution that would assume the role of moral arbiter. But didn’t I hear some time ago that sexual abuse was a problem throughout society, and that all areas of society – including the media – had its shameful share of sexual predators? Protestant Churches, the BBC, scouting organisations, schools – is the Catholic Church the only area of society guilty of this brutal crime? And is it true that the place where most sexual abuse takes place is in the family setting?
None of this is to take away from the horror of the sexual abuse that appears to have been rampant within the Catholic Church for generations. But isn’t there something deeply ironic about the way contemporary Ireland is going after the Catholic clergy for sexual wrong-doing, while virtually ignoring the Church’s history and stance on other matters – just as the Catholic Church, a half-century and more ago, went after the laity for sexual wrong-doing, while virtually ignoring other wrong-doing like war (yes, Virginia, that’s when people, many of them Christian, do all they can to kill one another), poverty and lust for money.
Comments are closed.