CARDINAL CONFUSION by Mike Cummings
Posted by Jim on March 5, 2015
CARDINAL CONFUSION by Mike Cummings
In an interview with CNN’s Chris Cuomo on NEWDAY, Cardinal Archbishop Dolan made an unfortunate reference to the Irish Republican Army comparing them to ISIS.
First, the IRA never claimed their armed resistance to British terror was in the name of God. It may come as a surprise to the Bishop Dolan but the depiction of the ‘N. I. conflict as religious’ has been a useful spin provided by the British which never had a basis in fact. Second, most military experts, even British ones, would disagree with his comparison of ISIS with the IRA. The casualty figures for 30 years of conflict, although no consolation to anyone, show the British and their loyalist thugs had more in common with ISIS in that the majority of their victims were innocent civilians. Third, the machinery of British murder and injustice is amply documented by Anne Cadwallader in her book LETHAL ALLIES. I commend it to the Bishop. Would he deny the right of self-defense against such murderous mayhem? Fourth, he cites the periodic condemnation of the IRA by the Irish Bishops as constructive. Far from it. While no one expects clergy to advocate violence, they are obligated to speak out and condemn injustices as did Pope John Paul at Drogheda in Ireland and Paul VI at the U. N. Ever since the 19th century when Bishop Moriarity of CO Kerry condemned the Fenians stating that for them “Hell is not hot enough nor eternity long enough” the Catholic Bishops have at best been silent on British atrocities like the Dublin Monaghan bombings and at worse instruments of British oppression.
In his defense, the Cardinal may be unfamiliar with the Irish conflict. There is no record of his voice speaking out against the discrimination against Catholics in jobs, housing and voting or in favor of the MacBride Fair Employment Principles; or in support of the Hunger Strikers; in protest of the murders of attorneys Patrick Finucane or Rosemary Nelson or indeed the killing of nearly 1000 Catholics whose deaths have yet to be investigated or in opposition to current cases of injustice like the Craigavon 2. Like many other Bishops he may have hid behind the U. S. National Conference of Bishops who, in turn, hide behind the Irish Bishops.
Let’s not forget that it was Bishop Philbin of Belfast who forced Mother Theresa out of town because of her work for the poor. Voices of reason, justice and non-violence like those of Fr Des Wilson, Fr. Joe McVeigh, Fr. Raymond Murray, and Fr. Denis Faul were isolated and marginalized as being too close to the poor. Given the church scandals in Ireland it takes a brave man to cite the Irish Bishops for anything save incompetence, arrogance and “narcissism” to quote Taoiseach Enda Kenny.
Michael J. Cummings