“Please note that a comment made on this website on the 10th of September 2009 relating to Ms. Martina Devlin was not intended to undermine her independence as a columnist.  This comment was not posted by us or with our prior approval. It alleged that Ms. Devlin was “close to the leadership of the Abortion Campaign”. We acknowledge that this comment was entirely unfounded and that Ms Devlin has no connection with such a campaign. We sincerely regret that such a comment by a third party questioned Ms Devlin’s impartiality as a commentator and unreservedly retract same. We would also like to point out that the comment has been deleted

Patsy McGarry, in today’s Irish Times, gives the most hopeful note for the future.

It’s on a similarly hopeful note that I’m ending this blog.  It has been a great forum, but I think we are arguing ourselves around in circles and it’s time to stop.   I’m grateful to all who have contributed and I wish you God’s blessings in the future.   Slan agus Beannacht!

Some of the most thoughtful reports from Rome have come from Joe Little of RTE.  The blame game continues: the Nuncio is criticised for refusing to appear before a parliamentary committee, even though the mistakes in communication with Rome occurred when his predecessor was in office.   Some see a lot of the problem as being traceable to the Curia itself.

The Irish Church continues to be the scapegoat for failings that were truly its own, but which were also a reflection of  Irish society’s tradition of culpable silence. In the fuss about the status of certain bishops,  we may overlook the Pope’s emphasis on healing for the victims.

Meanwhile, John Cooney has written a very colourful piece, with an emphasis on Bishop Drennan.  The text does seem to place the Pope with the bishops, at a Mass he didn’t actually attend.

If Bishop Drennan is still in office two days from now, there will be media outrage, but the Catholics of Galway, and elsewhere, will not be in revolt. If justice is to be done, victims, and others, should not set short deadlines.

John Allen brings an American perspective, based on bitter experience in the local Church.   We are advised to look beyond Ireland and see what has happened elsewhere.  Unspoken, in his shortened article, is the remarkable harshness some American bishops have shown towards accused priests,  in their rush for legal self-preservation.

David Quinn focuses on Pope Benedict, who has absolutely no tolerance for clerical misconduct, nor for episcopal prevarication.  He reminds us that the situation in Dublin improved after 1996, and, as in his other writing, gives us the statistics, but doesn’t try to excuse anything.

A letter, from Father Sean McDonagh,  takes a sweeping and positive view of where the worldwide Church should be moving.  Highly critical of the Vatican’s tendency to think that clerical child abuse is a uniquely Irish problem, the writer insists that there’s no getting back to “business as usual” in any form.

Meanwhile,  a robust defence of Irish  Catholic schools comes from Kevin Myers, who faces the critics and damns the distortions.  In the present climate,  Catholic education needs all the defenders it can get.

The letter shows a new spirit, because it begins “Dear Pope Benedict”; the customary greeting is “Most Holy Father”.   Andrew Madden, one of the signatories, resigned membership of the Catholic Church last month.

There has been a lot of anguish about how to resign from the Catholic Church.  A website has been set up for Irish people anxious to sever links.  In Spain, some former Catholics have asked for a law that would compel priests to obliterate their entries in baptismal registers. That’s a somewhat typical Spanish attitude, being confrontational, dramatic and a bit over-the-top. It begs the question: if I resign from the Church, is the Pope required to pay attention to anything I ask of him?

Canon Law gives both Pope and bishop rights in this situation: Canon 401, paragraph 2: A diocesan bishop who has become less able to fulfill his office because of ill health or some other grave cause is earnestly requested to present his resignation from office.

The insistence on financial compensation is a bit disturbing,  as is the presumption that the Church shares equal guilt with the State and its agencies in the industrial schools. The grapeshot approach to all bishops is so broad that it invites injustice.

Meanwhile, a very sad portrayal of the Irish diocesan priest is offered by Padraig O’ Morain, who does not seem to realise that most Irish men enter the priesthood, remain in it and are sustained in it by spiritual motives.

Much more positively, Gerry O’Hanlon, SJ, suggests how the whole Irish Church may move into the future.

There was also a touch of old time religion in yesterday’s Sunday Tribune editorial, but this time it’s a ringing denunciation of the religious orders mentioned in the Ryan Report, whom the paper reports as trying to recover their legal costs from the State.  Other news media have yet to report such claims.

Meanwhile, the text of Bishop Eamonn Walsh’s letter of 17th December is now available online.

It’s all to the good that Irish bishops should disagree amongst themselves and that priests should criticise bishops.   Some officials in Rome may be distressed by such disagreement, but it’s part of being a living Church – the Acts of the Apostles records constant differences of opinion. The tradition of strained unanimity and blind uniformity, rather than lively discussion and consensus, has done a lot of harm in the post-Vatican Two Irish Church.

Meanwhile, the roots of Irish Christianity came to mind with the discovery of an ancient brooch in County Kerry; it was probably lost by a priest 1,400 years ago.