Catholic Primate of All Ireland, Dr Seán Brady, tells Kate Holmquist about the church's annus horribilis and how 2006 will be different
A job description for the Archbishop of Armagh, Catholic Primate of All Ireland, would go something like this: Handle the greatest crisis of the institution in modern times, deal with a human resources nightmare of falling vocations and the consequences of having power-abusing sexual deviants in your employ, play a fathering role to the majority of good priests while also negotiating with fellow bishops and laity on controversial issues such as child protection. While you're at it, play an instrumental role in the Northern Ireland peace process. Based in Armagh, in an imposing Gothic cathedral with stunning views of the city, you'll be asked to fill St Patrick's shoes. On top of all that, there's the regular travel to confer with colleagues in Rome.
Looking back on his nine years as Primate of All Ireland, the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Seán Brady, seems to wish he'd seen it coming when he returned to his beloved Cavan 12 years ago from his equally beloved Rome. In the Eternal City he used to spend Christmas touring the cribs and visiting the Christian and classical antiquities he studies. After 19 "very special" Christmases as vice rector and then rector of the Irish College there, entertaining on occasion a certain future pope - then a German teacher and theologian - Dr Brady was pleased to return home in 1994 to work as a parish priest. Two years later he found himself head of the Catholic bishops on this island.
"If you'd told me 12 years ago that I'd be landed into the middle of this (scandals surrounding paedophile priests)... But that is the cross of this present time and we can't run away from it . . . I'm so grateful to so many ordinary people who have a very profound understanding of human nature and the weakness of human nature - and despite all that are willing to forgive, and that applies to all victims, victims up here in the North and victims of thousands of other things."
The son of a Fianna Fáil councillor, Andrew Brady, Dr Brady played for Laragh United as a boy and seems happiest at the side of a GAA football pitch - whether cheering on Armagh, Tyrone, south Derry or Louth in equal measure.
"Pastorally, it's a strong card. There's a community of interest through which to relate to people and move amongst them," he says. It was Dr Brady who helped to organise an audience with Pope John Paul II for Jack Charlton and the Irish football team during the World Cup in Italy in 1990.
Never a star on the pitch, Dr Brady sees himself as a team player in co- operating with his fellow bishops, priests and - increasingly - laity of both genders.
In 2006 Cardinal Desmond Connell, former archbishop of Dublin, loses his voting rights, as Cardinal Cahal Daly has already done. On the prospect of being given a red hat by Pope Benedict XVI, the 66-year-old archbishop says wryly: "I'm not losing any sleep over it. I have enough responsibilities. It wouldn't change my life. There's always the temptation to be too heady and it's important to live in reality."
THE CHRISTMAS CARDS displayed in an ante-room of Archbishop's House from the President, the Taoiseach, the Minister for Foreign Affairs and other leaders testify to the reality, which has been particularly difficult this week, as the church has struggled to redeem itself in relation to the child abuse scandals by launching Our Children, Our Church, a policy document developed with a working group of lay people in co-operation with the Conference of Religious of Ireland (CORI). The document is "at the forefront of best practice - nationally and internationally - regarding the protection and welfare of children", believes working group chairwoman Maureen Lynott.
But the document has also been described as "a backwards step" by the One in Four group of child sex abuse survivors and as "continuing similar practices to the ones that led to the under- reporting of allegations of child abuse" by Fergus Finlay, chief executive of children's charity Barnardos.
"I am a bit disappointed at the reaction," says Dr Brady. "Our Children, Our Church was developed in co-operation with the State and lay professionals. I thought there were victims whose voices we had listened to. We have invested a lot of time and effort introducing this document. I hope on reflection they will give it a more benign response."
Critics of the plan object to the requirement of the church's new directors of child protection - who will be lay people, such as social workers and psychologists - to report to civil authorities only those cases in which there are "reasonable grounds for concern". These lay directors, employed by the church, could in theory err on the side of the church in their professional judgment, an allegation that Dr Brady roundly rejects.
"These will be State standards in a church context, carried out by lay people with their own professional integrity at stake, so there will be no winking and nodding, although it may take time for the church to convince the public that it will not compromise standards in order to accommodate church personnel. Reasonable grounds for suspicions are just that - how could somebody react on unreasonable grounds?"
He says innocent priests deserve to be protected from spurious allegations. "People have rights to their good name and the right to be presumed innocent until proven guilty, but we're not emphasising that, we're emphasising the safety of the child, which is paramount."
SPEAKING SOFTLY AT first, in the primrose yellow sitting room of Archbishop's House in Armagh, Dr Brady's frustration at the church's intentions being misunderstood becomes evident when he moves to the edge of his seat, face reddening, and wonders aloud why journalists hardly want to talk about anything but what some have termed a "cover-up", as evidenced by the Ferns Report and by disclosures from the Dublin diocese.
"We are not sure how much cover-up there was. Psychiatry, in hindsight, did not give us the best advice. Three or four per cent of priests sexually abused children - what about the other 96-97 per cent?" He is clearly a man who wants to move on. But how long will it take to rebuild trust? Decades? His face falls.
"I hope much sooner than that. I don't want to offend victims by making it appear that they can get over this quickly, but I do hope people will get the freedom to let go and move on."
Children, he believes, are the future of the church. So while the institution of the church protected itself at the expense of protecting children for the past 25 years, it now understands that it must protect children in order to ensure its own future, he agrees.
"We regret the loss of moral authority. It is a fact that less people are going to religious services and Mammon is quite important. This Christmas some (who never attend services during the year) will turn up for Mass - rather than berate them I would welcome them to be there. It's better for them to be in church on Christmas than in the bed or in the pub. I would hope that by giving them a good experience of liturgy, they will want to come back."
Preaching is "tough work", he says. "I hope I would lead people wherever Christ wants them to go. I think that the deepest yearnings of the human heart can only be satisfied by this relationship with Christ . . . Frivolity and affluence alone are not going to make people happy. Many people are unaware that they are spiritually poor and that is the challenge of the preacher. Christ came to tell us that we have life in order to be fully alive in all our potential - physical, emotional and spiritual."
If a man is required to suppress his sexuality, is he fully alive? "The experience of intimacy is an important part of growing to maturity; at the same time, I know a lot of celibate people who are very mature and very happy and very self-giving and not self-centred -you could argue this case many ways. A mere shortage of priests shouldn't be the reason (for allowing priests to marry). We must address it other ways. There are married priests in our church - former Anglicans and in the Oriental Rites - and so the church's policy could be changed, but from the views of the Synod, which I attended in Rome in October, it's not likely to be."
Celibacy can be a grey area in the real life of the priests. Dr Brady's reputation for compassion is borne out by his support of a parish priest in his diocese, Fr Anthony McAnerney, who has accepted responsibility for a child he fathered in a relationship while continuing to work as a parish priest. "You have to have a balance of understanding of human weaknesses and failures and at the same time be firm on the principles. There are exceptions and you have to make room for those," Dr Brady explains.
HE ALSO ACKNOWLEDGES that there are many fine homosexual priests. "When a young man is called by God, he is called to a life of chastity from that moment. If this tendency (for homosexual relationships) is something transitory, if he can grow through it to effective maturity, just as a heterosexual has to do, that would be fine. If it's a deep-seated tendency that he cannot grow through, that's where the problem is. I'm sure there are homosexual priests who are doing a wonderful job, but they have reached that effective maturity, which we all have to reach so that we can appropriately deal with people and listen with respect without letting our needs get in the way of the relationship."
He thinks that a "strong lobby" within the media has deliberately skewed Catholic teaching on the matter, making Pope Benedict appear harsh when he "is a very timid man, quiet, very unobtrusive, very gentle, kind and fair. Very clear in his views, a wonderful teacher and a brilliant theologian. Like St Paul, he's just being true to Christ's teaching and that's why he is being attacked."
Same sex couples should be allowed to legally secure their bond through private contracts and other means, but not through the civil partnerships that took place in Belfast this week, Dr Brady believes. "Civil partnerships as a legal institution will erode and devalue marriage as a context for creating new life and rearing children, which is fundamental to the stability of society."
The archbishop will have a busy Christmas, celebrating midnight Mass tonight in St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh, and 8am Mass tomorrow at the city's St Malachy's Church, before making his way across Markethill towards the Mourne Mountains, which he hopes will offer a lovely view. He'll say 11am Mass in Dundalk, Co Louth, then head "home" to his brother Con's family for Christmas dinner in Laragh. On Tuesday, he'll travel to Dublin to spend time with his sister, Kitty Mulligan, in Castleknock.
"The importance of family was brought home to me in a very special way when I went to Poland recently and visited Pope John Paul II's birthplace, where he is quoted: 'I thank God for the gift of life and love, home and the care of my parents.' That's what it's all about.
"Tonight and tomorrow, I will be praying for all the people of Ireland and their families for a peaceful and happy Christmas."