THE FIRST Bishop Donal McKeown heard about the pope's refusal to accept the resignations of Dublin's Catholic Auxiliary Bishops Eamonn Walsh and Ray Field was "from the press", he said yesterday.
Dr McKeown, auxiliary bishop in Down and Connor diocese, said: "I wasn't privy to discussions which were clearly going on since Christmas [ when the resignations were offered]."
He felt bishops Walsh and Field were "in many ways, wonderful men, of great talent. The decision has been taken. We've got to find a way forward. I'm looking forward to working with them."
As to whether Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin had been undermined by the pope's decision, Dr McKeown said he was "not sure what has been going on this past eight months". On the proposed new priests' association he said: "It is a time for people to make their voices heard. It is important that voices are heard . . . priests feel bruised."
Coming from Northern Ireland he said he knew how hard it would be to address the past. It was quite clear many people were not happy" with the church, he said. There was "an awful lot more grappling to do with the past".
But there were good things happening in Ireland, and the church wanted to make a contribution in a different role, a very different one from the past, he said. He was speaking at the launch in Dublin of a DVD In Praise of Priests.
He said: "There are those who find it a bizarre time to launch any material in praise of priests . . . and yet, as the five simple interviews on this DVD show, there are many people in Ireland who have great memories of at least some of the priests that they came to know."
Ireland, he said could turn to Nama to sort out the bad debts of the consumerist ideology that had consumed us all. "It will take an awful lot more to sort out the rubbish heap of shattered dreams, lost trust and broken promises that fester in the corner of modern Ireland. Church, politics, bank and even the weather seem to have conspired against the hopes of Seán and Mary Citizen."
What was needed were people "who have what even secular management theory calls 'spiritual intelligence', that ability to take the rubble of the past and make it into foundations for the future."
He continued: "Every period of crisis has produced wise figures who could transform the story about the future." The challenge for the Catholic Church in Ireland was "not to ask how we can get our strength back. Renewal will not come by sniping at the new ideology that now holds sway.
"The answer will come when we open ourselves together to Jesus's teaching and silence, to his activity in word and sacrament - and make ourselves humbly available to be used by him to heal the broken heart of the world."
Also at the presentation the Bishop of Raphoe Philip Boyce,chairman of the Bishops' s Council for Clergy, said the DVD was "a snapshot of the immense good work done by Irish priests at home and abroad and it is right that we mark this dedication and generosity. Sometimes it goes unnoticed and is hidden, but it is very real."
Recent revelations, while "a source of deep shame and sorrow . . . must not obscure the outstanding and exemplary ministry lived by priests throughout this land and beyond," he said.
The 10 minute DVD includes interviews with personalities Mickey Harte, George Hook, Alice Taylor, David Begg and drama teacher Ashleigh O'Neill, who speak positively of dealings with particular priests. The DVD is available at catholicbishops. ie and on youtube.com/ irishcatholicbishops.
In a passionate interjection at the end of the launch, Ferns priest Fr John O'Brien appealed on behalf of the Catholic Church to media present for "balanced reporting".