By Anthony Sheridan
Letter in today’s Irish Examiner.
The editor decided to remove a section from the final sentence. I’ve reinstated the section in brackets.
There has been a great deal of outrage expressed at the treatment of former Garda Majella Moynihan.
Much of the comment has focused on the apparent cosy relationship between the An Garda Síochána and the Catholic Church, particularly on sexual and moral issues.
You might think that that dark period of Irish history has been firmly consigned to the past but current events tell a different story:
According to Social Democrat TD Roisin Shorthall, the State is awaiting a series of approvals from the Vatican before the new National Maternity Hospital can be handed over to state control.
Just two weeks ago, during the RTÉ documentary Divorcing God, we learned that a diocesan advisor monitors the teaching of sex education in Athenry Presentation College and reports his findings to the local bishop.
At the same school a religious teacher admitted that sex education is only taught because of a directive from the Department of Education.
She went on to give an example of how the school flagrantly contradicts this State directive:
“I remind my students that this is a Catholic school and as a Catholic, you do not use contraceptives.”
So, as outpourings of outrage fill the air about the oppressive religious culture of decades ago we are currently appealing to a theocratic foreign state for permission to open a maternity hospital and instructing our children, on the brink of adulthood, not to use contraceptives.
Once again we are witnessing a strain of hypocrisy unique to Irish culture that expresses outrage about religious abuses so long as they are safely buried in the past. […while tolerating current abuses without lifting a finger to protect its victims.]
Anthony Sheridan
Cobh
Co Cork