Still Kissing the Bishop's Ring

State Agencies continue to strive to stop the truth about child sex abuse coming out. And there are other indications of Christ and Caesar still hand in glove.

Publication of the report of the Commission of Investigation into abuse in the Dublin diocese is being thwarted by the Director of Public Prosecutions. The DPP says that release of a chapter on how State institutions handled abuse allegations would compromise a possible extradition case.
The case concerns a priest who has been living abroad since the 1980s, against whom a number of grave allegations were made before he fled the jurisdiction. Until last Spring, there was no mention of extradition being sought. On the day before the DPP was to give evidence to the Commission, the possibility of issuing a warrant was raised.
The text of the report was cleared for publication by the High Court on October 15th. On the 16th, the DPP contacted the Department of Justice to complain that publication might compromise extradition proceedings. Minister Dermot Ahern responded by asking the court to think again.
For 20 years, no move had been made to bring the cleric to justice. But within 24 hours of a ruling which would have exposed the State’s role in the matter, Ahern was citing the possibility of charges to keep the facts hidden.
Ahern has form on this front. His Department’s new Charities Act outlaws the selling of Mass-cards other than with the imprimatur of an approved Catholic Church official. Defiance of the Church is punishable by 10 years in jail or a €300,000 fine. State lawyers are currently in court defending the Act in a case taken by an aggrieved Longford card merchant.
Ahern is author of the Blasphemy Act 2009, imposing a €25,000 fine on anyone who “publishes or utters matter... causing outrage among a substantial number of the adherents of [any particular] religion.” Police with a search warrant will have power to raid premises and use “reasonable force” to obtain evidence.
It would be wrong to say that nothing has changed in the Republic regarding the overbearing role and immunity from law of the Catholic Church. But not as much has changed as is frequently suggested. And there are elements, like Ahern, still fighting, not unsuccessfully, to conserve the past and hold back the future.

Turn, turn, turn, Hillary Clinton might have said to Benyamin Netanyahu during her visit to Israel this month, but didn’t.
‘Turn, Turn, Turn’ became a global anthem with the version by The Byrds, all jangly guitars and sweet harmonies, in 1965. The song, by Pete Seeger, was based almost entirely on words of King Solomon in Ecclesiastes. “I wrote the music and six words and one more word that’s repeated three times, so I claim 45 percent,” Seeger explained, reasonably enough. It’s been a good earner. Since The Byrds, dozens of versions have appeared — Nina Simone, The Seekers, Dolly Parton, Chris de Burgh.
A decade ago, Seeger signed the royalties from ‘Turn, Turn, Turn’, over to the Israeli Committee Against House Demolitions, a largely Jewish organisation using legal challenges and non-violent direct action to obstruct the demolition of Palestinian homes in the West Bank and East Jerusalem.
“I wanted the money to go back to where the words were written,” says Seeger. “It’s like it’s being sent back home, to help folks.”
ICAHD was founded by Jeff Halper, an American human rights activist who emigrated to Israel in 1973. In April last year, Halper was arrested for the nth time, sitting with a group of mainly young Israelis in front of an earth-mover revving up to destroy the home of the Hamadan family in a Palestinian neighbourhood in Jerusalem. The house had already been demolished once, and rebuilt by ICAHD.
“We’ll rebuild again,” said Halper.
Mrs. Clinton, too, has had something to say on the subject of house demolitions. Although not much.
At a press conference following her meeting with Prime Minister Netayahu, she was asked by Mark Landler of The New York Times: “When you were here in March on the first visit, you issued a strong statement condemning the demolition of housing units in East Jerusalem. Yet that demolition has continued unabated, and indeed, a few days ago, the mayor of the city of Jerusalem issued a new order for demolition. How would you characterise this policy today?”
After a pause of perhaps five, six seconds, Clinton responded: “Well, let me say I have nothing to add to my statement in March.”
The demolition of homes in occupied East Jerusalem and the West Bank to make way for Israeli settlers is accepted by all – including, formally, by the US administration – to be contrary to international law. But Clinton, when asked, couldn’t bring herself to condemn its continuance, much less summon up a syllable of sympathy for the families thrown onto the streets to watch their homes reduced to rubble.
The royalties from a popular song won’t do much to offset the agony of the Palestinian people. But Seeger and Halper and ICHAD remind us that there are Americans other than Clinton and Israelis other than Netanyahu, and because of them, and the fortitude of Palestinians, a time for peace, I swear it’s not too late.