Rónán Mullen (Independent) | Oireachtas source

I understand that the faltering structured dialogue between the Government and representatives of faith and non-confessional bodies is resuming temporarily today. One item likely to be discussed is the new covenant between church and State, for which the Taoiseach called when he met Pope Francis last August. Perhaps another issue that could be discussed is that of basic respect in public dialogue and utterances touching on church and State. A teacher friend of mine, not a priest as it happens, was in touch to ask me to raise remarks the Taoiseach made about parish priests in the course of his exchanges with Deputy Micheál Martin yesterday, remarks which my correspondent regarded as deeply stigmatising of Catholic clergy and insulting to most Catholics. When I looked up the remarks, I was very surprised at the Taoiseach. He compared Deputy Micheál Martin to "one of those parish priests who preaches from the altar telling us how to avoid sin while secretly going behind the altar and engaging in any amount of sin himself."

We all know that the Catholic Church, in particular because of its past prominence in Irish society, must live with the shame and disruption caused by its terrible failures over many years to deal with abusing clergy. What some of us know is that a huge amount of change, reform, energy and resources are going in across the board to try to ensure that this will never happen again and this investment of human effort will benefit other institutions and society as a whole. What most of us know, and some of us will admit, is that the vast majority of clergy and religious have been decent and selfless people who have been utterly ashamed of what happened. What some of us know, and even fewer will speak about, is that some of these clergy and religious are now targeted for abuse on social media and in the street, and that the worst elements of Irish society are seizing on past scandals involving the guilty to inflict pain on the innocent.

If the Taoiseach is mindful of this context, why would he invoke a trope, a stereotype of a hypocritical, sinning priest? At best, it is playing to a very unpleasant gallery of anti-clerical people. At worst, it is the expression of some deep-seated hidden dislike on his part. It is not acceptable, at this moment in our history when clergy are fewer and older but continue to do good work, to make a mocking, stigmatising remark like that, whether for its own sake or in order to attack a political opponent. I need hardly say that if somebody made a similarly stigmatising throwaway remark about gay community leaders or spokespersons for the travelling community, he or she would be rightly criticised. I hope the Taoiseach will reflect on his remarks and come back with something more generous.