‘A Safe Pair of Hands’ by Joe McVeigh

I see the Pope has appointed a new papal nuncio to Ireland. The Vatican does not recognise the border. The new nuncio is from Nigeria, he is 60 years, has been a diplomat for most of his life, and likes table tennis. I am going to challenge him to a game. Des Wilson has agreed to moderate the game. The nuncio’s job is to liaise between the Irish church and the Vatican. I have had reason to use their office in the past. During the Hunger-strike, I was part of a delegation who went to visit the then Papal Nuncio in Dublin, Dr Alibrandi. We found him sympathetic and he offered to do what he could. The Vatican sent over an envoy, Fr John Magee, who was Pope John Paul II’s secretary at the time. He went to Long Kesh and spent some time with Bobby Sands as he was dying. I met other papal nuncios since then. Along with a delegation including members of the McAnespy and Carragher families met one called Dr Gerardi who promised to inform the Vatican about the plight of Catholics in the north. He did not seem to know much about it before that. Again he said he would do whatever he could.

All throughout my life many priests have been promoted to high office in the church(either archdeacon, bishop, archbishop or Cardinal). When I asked what qualifications any of these had, the response invariably was, “Och, sure he’s a safe pair of hands. That meant that he would not say or do anything to challenge the status quo –either in church or state. Only once did one appointment seem to contradict this opinion. That was in the case of the appointment of Tomas Ó Fiaich to be Archbishop of Armagh. He was later appointed Cardinal by the Pope. He was pilloried by the British media and establishment and indeed by many in the Irish media and establishment because of his alleged republican sympathies. He was a native of South Armagh. Tomás did his best to protect the interests of his people and to promote our native language and culture-unlike any before or since.

However, the general rule for appointments and promotion in the Church is ‘a safe pair of hands.’ I used to play in goals for Ederney and was considered by the selectors and my team-mates and myself as a fairly good goalkeeper. I had what I thought were ‘a safe pair of hands.’ But it did not make any difference in the Church when it came to promotion to high office! Wonder why?