EMMET MOOREHOUSE,
Sir, - Mary Raftery correctly argues that the Catholic Church in Ireland got off far too lightly in its compensation deal with the Irish State (Opinion, February 1st). She is also correct when she points out that the State has a long and shameful history of funding Church-run institutions which are morally responsible for both carrying out and actively concealing terrible acts of abuse against innocent children.
However,this does not mean that the Catholic Church will evade judgment for its terrible crimes. The real loss is being felt by it already as large sections of Irish youth reject their legitimacy as moral leaders and withdraw their consent to be morally governed by them.
Look at the falling number of vocations. Look at the number of Irish women who go abroad for abortions. Look at the number of cohabitations.
An organisation that could once dictate terms to any Irish government now plays a minimal role in the moral lives of most young Irish people. In the early and middle 1990s, when all of the scandals broke, there was deep anger towards the Church and it seemed impossible to have a general discussion on the state of the nation without someone making an angry statement about the Church and its many scandals. Now the Church has become so irrelevant that no one gets angry any more.
The Church is not taken seriously as a moral or political force and this is a sign of a great defeat. It has gone from being the real master in Ireland to being the subject of bitter castigation in Hot Press, to finally being something to laugh at, courtesy of Dermot Morgan et al. This move from omnipotence to absurdity is the real defeat. An organisation that once controlled this land by moral force has now been reduced to the level of three fictional simpletons on Craggy island, and it is its own fault.
So while it is the case that the Catholic Church has been let off the hook by the Irish State, it is also the case that many Irish people have judged the Church and have concluded that it is of no real significance to our lives. - Yours, etc.,
EMMET MOOREHOUSE,
Zibo,
Shandong,
China.