While there has been mixed reaction to the announcement that the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Desmond Connell, is to be made a cardinal, most of us surely take pride in an Irishman making it to the top. Well, not quite to the top, but to a very high eminence, in with a chance (however slight) when the College of Cardinals elects the next Pope.
The Archbishop of Westminster, Dr Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, whose family hails from Cork, also gets the red hat, as do two other men with Irish connections, namely Archbishops Egan of New York and McCarrick of Washington. And let us not forget the recent appointment of Dubliner Dr Diarmuid Martin as Holy See Permanent Observer to the United Nations and to the World Trade Organisation.
One might speak of the rise in Rome of a new Irish Catholic mafia, were the Mafia not an organisation with its own language, an autocratic regime, a tradition of silence, a submission to absolute authority, an obsession with secrecy, a good deal of pomp, a degree of grandeur, a strict code of honour and a highly organised career structure with a Godfather or capo di tutti capi at its apex.
No comparison there, then.
When top-level church matters make the news, a fabulous language comes into play. It involves words like "conclave" and "consistory", the "sees" (e.g. of Rome and Armagh), the "Primate" of Ireland and of All-Ireland (two different jobs), episcopal conferences, the Commission for Doctrine and its theological com missions, and the truly awe-inspiring Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith. "Ecumenism", on the other hand, would be a fairly well understood word at this stage, except among some senior Catholic clergy.
If the Catholic man in the street arrives at an understanding of these abstruse concepts, the next thing he needs to do is to learn Latin. Otherwise he will spend his life dependent on translation, often inadequate, by various commentators. He won't even understand the titles of the various documents and encyclicals such as Humanae Vitae and Dominus Iesus. He won't have a clue what Dr Connell meant when he said that the latter document was signed by Cardinal Ratzinger certa scientia et apostolica Sua auctoritate - "with sure knowledge and by his (the Pope's) apostolic authority". He will not be able to fully appreciate the ceremony in Rome on February 21st when the new cardinals vow to serve the Church usque ad sanguinis effusionem - "up to the spilling of blood".
In short, it hardly matters how good a Catholic you are, because unless you take at least a primary degree in theology and in Latin you are effectively excluded all your life from comment on Catholic Church doctrine, except at the most superficial level. Your ignorance, in the view of the church, means that it can and will patronise you for ever, on the rare occasions when it is not actually ignoring you.
You do not see the church responding to newspaper letters from Catholics taking issue on various matters. Nor (apart from a very recent article by Cardinal Cahal Daly), do senior churchmen bother to make much use of the Rite and Reason column in this paper.
The media, meanwhile, are treated by the church with considerable disdain (though it is recognised that they have their uses). The other day they were briefly informed that the Archbishop would be available for press photographs from 3.30 p.m. to 3.45 p.m. at the Archbishop's House in Drumcondra, and that afterwards "he will make a short statement to the media". Publicity-wise, this is pretty much par for the course - but hardly for news stories of such magnitude. The media are a fairly thick-skinned bunch, but a 15minute photocall and a "short statement" verge on the dismissive. On the other hand, after making his statement, Dr Connell answered every question put to him.
In general, the media are treated by the church like wild dogs, liable to do serious damage to the flock unless kept under control. Wilfully or not, it seems, we misunderstand and misrepresent important church teachings. Driven by deadlines, we rush in. We are superficial, our attention span is notoriously limited and we get our facts wrong. Few of us know anything of theology and less of Latin. Sadly, from the church viewpoint, most of the Catholic public are little better.
Oscar Wilde may have been more accurate than he realised when he said that the Catholic Church was for saints and sinners alone ("For respectable people, the Anglican Church will do"). Saints and (extreme) sinners always seem to reach an accommodation with the church. It is just the folk in the middle who remain perplexed.
bglacken@irish-times.ie