Sir, - Fintan O'Toole suggested (Opinion, January 8th) that the silence of the Irish bishops in recent times could be traced back to their stance at the time of the divorce referendum. That is, of course, a possibility. But other factors deserve consideration.
For example, on January 2nd the Irish Independent carried a banner heading on its front page: "Liberal young voters give bishops a bashing". While my few friends would not regard me as a spear-bearer for their lordships, the heading did amuse me greatly. It had all the news value of: "Dog barks at tall stranger", or "Rain falls from dark clouds". Had the heading read: "Liberal young voters applaud bishops", that surely would be newsworthy and would merit such a prominent headline.
The article in question was based on a survey conducted among 1,012 adults over the age of 18. The questions posed related to leadership, sexual mores and economic matters. According to this survey, 72 per cent of all adults (75 per cent of U-25s) had little confidence in politicians; 67 per cent of all adults (65 per cent of U-25s) had little confidence in banks; 62 per cent of all adults had little confidence in bishops. (Interestingly, the paper didn't give the U-25 statistic for this category). The bishops trotted in third in the unpopularity stakes, behind the banks and the politicians, in that order.
Yet it was the bishops who were selected for the banner headline. Who decided this? Who decided against the more obvious, and more accurate alternatives available? "Liberal young voters give politicians a bashing", or, "Liberal young voters give banks a bashing"?
The use of the term "liberal" to describe the attitudes expressed in the survey is dubious, because 25 per cent of the 18-21 year olds (as opposed to 17 per cent of the entire population) believe that the fruits of the recent economic boom are fairly distributed! At Christmas, Archbishop Desmond Connell pointed out that, despite the much vaunted feats of the Celtic Tiger, serious pockets of poverty continued to blight our society. He called for less selfishness and a more equitable distribution of recent gains. Furthermore, 69 per cent of U-25s (as opposed to 68 per cent of the total) believe that the number of people seeking refugee status should be kept to the minimum! That same week, Bishop Fiachra O Ceallaigh was applauded in the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin when he condemned the official treatment of immigrants and appealed to the government to grant working permits to them.
I searched Dr A J F O'Reilly's Irish Independent in vain for a headline reading: "Liberal old bishops give young voters a bashing!" Because that was indeed newsworthy, and somewhat accurate.
Have the bishops been silenced? - Yours, etc., Richard A. Lyng, PP,
St Augustine's, Galway.