Sir, – Prof Dermot Keogh is incorrect when he states (Opinion, August 29th) "An editorial in China News, for example, quotes the text of the Taoiseach's speech to justify the repressive policy of the Chinese government towards the Catholic Church." The opinion piece referred to by Prof Keogh was authored by Mr Sameh El-Shahat in the (Chinese state-run) Global Times, and asked the question, "Why can't the Chinese choose their own bishops, ideally without the interference of any state, whether local or foreign?"
The question of who has ultimate temporal authority is one that has troubled politicians as diverse as King Henry VIII of England, Chairman Mao Zedong of China, and our own Taoiseach Enda Kenny, or so it appears. It is a question that is likely to continue, however, for as long as in the binary of “church-state relations” in some instances “church” also means (a foreign) “state”. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – In his article (Opinion, August 29th) on the current relationship between Ireland and the Vatican, Dr Dermot Keogh wrote on the seriousness of the recall of the Apostolical Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, and appears to place the blame firmly on the shoulders of Taoiseach Enda Kenny. He wrote that the “Holy See has a policy of seeking to preserve diplomatic relations intact even in the most trying circumstances” through revolutions, dictatorships and authoritarian regimes such as in Argentina in the 1970s where bishops and clergy were murdered by government authorities. And many good clerics were indeed murdered or disappeared in Argentina as they were in many Latin American countries.
Nevertheless It has long been acknowledged that the Catholic Church in Argentina, in stark contrast to the role played by the church in Chile, remained largely silent throughout the dictatorship when many thousands of civilians were murdered or “disappeared”.
In 2006 prominent Catholic cleric Christian Von Wernich was sentenced to life imprisonment for his part in several murders, 42 kidnappings and torture of people opposed to the dictatorship. The trial illustrated how closely some members of the church worked with the military leaders. Following the fall of the dictatorship Von Wernich had been transferred to the small parish of El Quisco in Chile where he continued his work as a priest under a false name. During the trial a witness for the prosecution Rev Ruben Capitano said “the attitude of the Church Catholic Church was scandalously close to the dictatorship”.
A spokeswoman on behalf of the Mothers of Plaza de Mayo, a group of women who had been protesting at the disappearance of their children since 1977, said “justice has been done and the complicity of the church has been exposed”.
There are indeed many reasons why the Holy See seeks “to preserve diplomatic relations intact even in the most trying and difficult of circumstances”. Perhaps the words of a Bishop of Verden (1411) explains it best: “When the existence of the Church is threatened it is no longer bound by the commandments of morality”. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – Dr Dermot Keogh writes of Enda Kenny’s unintended discourtesies (Opinion, August 29th). The Taoiseach’s description of the Vatican as “dysfunctional, elitist and narcissistic” an unintended discourtesy? I think not! A speech, “more scattergun than sure shot”? Hardly. He aimed, he fired and he hit his target with breathtaking precision. – Yours, etc,