RITE AND REASON: Two months after the resignation of Bishop Brendan Comiskey a light has gone out in Ferns diocese, reflects Canon Norman Ruddock
I have known Bishop Brendan Comiskey for almost 10 years of my ministry. As my own bishop (the Right Rev John Neill, Bishop of Cashel, Waterford, Lismore,Ossory, Ferns and Leighlin) has six dioceses to administer he sometimes calls on me to deputise.
So Bishop Brendan and myself appeared together at countless functions, blessings and religious events. He always made me feel welcome at his altar, and I always enjoyed his company.
Bishop Brendan was light years ahead of any other Roman Catholic bishop in the area of ecumenism. He always tried to attend the diocesan synod of the Church of Ireland in Ferns and at one synod told us: "I am an alcoholic. When you're on the ground no one can kick you any lower."
We had never heard such incarnate, honest words before from a bishop. His confession made all other diocesan business pale into insignificance.
He and our Church of Ireland bishop at the time, the Right Rev Noel Willoughby, pioneered joint services of baptism and marriage for inter-church couples. And few will forget Bishop Brendan's apology for the events of the Fethard-on-Sea boycott in 1957. He made that apology at a 1798 commemoration service in Rowe Street, Wexford, in the presence of the President, Mrs McAleese.
During that year (1957), in the very same Rowe Street church, another Roman Catholic bishop had sought to justify the boycott. Bishop Brendan had helped us to travel light years onwards from those 1950s days of bitterness, misunderstanding and sectarianism.
Too many prelates preach a gospel of predictability. Safe men are selected who will not rock the boat. Is it any wonder that the world is turning its back on institutional religion? The ship is rudderless and becalmed. There seems to be no room for the prophetic, charismatic and human Bishop of Ferns. And the media tiger stones the prophet.
What other Irish bishop would state that we should re-examine clerical celibacy? For his courage Bishop Comiskey was called to Rome and probably got a belt of a papal crozier. Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe was the only fellow bishop, other than our own Bishop John Neill of Ferns, to come out publicly to support Bishop Brendan at that time. The prophet is left on a lonely limb and walks his via dolorosa with a few faithful friends.
No one condones sexual abuse. Our hearts go out to the victims. But priests in other dioceses in Ireland have been found guilty and convicted. Did their bishops resign? Why has Bishop Brendan been singled out as a pariah? Why has he to be the scapegoat for an evil that has been present in the church for years?
There was a deafening silence on continual abuse in a diocesan secondary school. The boys were constantly aware of it. Can we believe that those in authority knew nothing of what was going on? Why should the bishop take all the blame? In the Monageer case, concerning the alleged abuse of girls being prepared for confirmation, the South Eastern Health Board requested sight of the Garda file on the case. But they didn't get it. What happened that file? Gardaí in Co Wexford have questions to answer.
The closure of the diocesan seminary was a sad day for the diocese of Ferns. But few people realise the tremendous work that Bishop Brendan did afterwards to have a third-level facility set up at St Peter's College. Now the Government has sanctioned the provision of a third-level college. While Co Wexford has been passed over for a share of the national cake, this achievement needs to be recognised.
A light has gone out in Ferns diocese. A poll of 150 interviewees in a local newspaper decided the fate of Bishop Brendan. I suppose I have met as many people since, the overwhelming majority of whom told me that he should have stayed. Others in positions of authority have told me he was right to go.
Like another Monaghan man, the poet Patrick Kavanagh, Bishop Brendan has known times of great loneliness and rejection.
Some months ago, amid rumours that I was to retire, he wrote encouraging me to stay on as rector of Wexford. He finished his letter with the following lines:
Grow old along with me
The best is yet to be,
The last of life, for which the first was made
Our times are in His hand
Who saith, "A whole I planned,
Youth shows but half, trust God; see all nor be afraid".
(Rabbi Ben Ezra, 1864)
My prayer for Bishop Brendan is that the best is yet to be. That is also my prayer for all those so viciously and cleverly abused. I hope we have the faith to believe that, after evil, good will arise and bring about a new resurrection.
Norman Ruddock is rector of Wexford and chancellor of the Church of Ireland diocese of Ferns