State, church in no `marriage of equals'

The Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, has said the Catholic Church "should have learned a long time ago to use a very long spoon in dealing with government", no matter how well meaning.

Speaking at the Humbert School in Castlebar last night, he said such dealings were "never a marriage of equals, there is no prenuptial agreement and the divorce proceedings can be very bitter and financially ruinous. The history of Irish industrial schools is but one example."

Insisting he was speaking "on nobody's part except my very own", he said that, "first of all, there is no escaping the stark truth that he who pays the piper calls the tune, and the State's tune is not, and should never be, the tune of any church.

"Secondly, the principal partner, the State, will always have - and rightly so - its own agenda, an agenda which will differ radically at times, and again rightly so, from the agenda of faith-based institutions. Thirdly, a faith-based agency, in receipt of substantial State funding, will gradually become a place where the `volunteer' will gradually be equated with `amateur' and will become an oddity, and shortly a casualty, in an organisation of professionals."

Partnership between government and faith-based institutions had existed "throughout the lifetime of this State, in schools and hospitals, for example", he said. It was "currently operating between government and faith-based institutions such as the Catholic Church's Trocaire, Cura and Accord.

"These organisations are already in receipt of substantial Government funding and there is nothing illegal, covert or unconstitutional about this. Our courts have ruled on this."

On the decline in church attendance, he felt this was "no isolated happening but could very well serve as an early warning system pointing to a great psychological disengagement on the part of a growing number of citizens from the life of the community in areas such as politics, trade unionism, parent-school relationships, civic and fraternal organisations, and volunteerism".