Scottish Catholic Observer

THE prophet Jeremiah really ought to be made the patron of all journalists. The atrocities that befell him for telling the Jewish people things that they didn’t want to hear would make your eyes water. At least two kickings were administered two him; one of them by his own brothers. Death threats were against him and he was imprisoned for a spell. He truly is a newspaperman’s prophet, though it is unrecorded if he had an unhealthy pallor, kept unsocial hours and liked the odd drink.

I am not suggesting here that it is a journalist’s primary purpose to break bad news, but it is certainly our job to ask uncomfortable questions of people whom we have elected to run the country’s affairs and to bring them to account if they have been dishonest or corrupt. We do this, not because it is a perverse pastime but because if newspapers didn’t reveal the wrongdoing of those in privileged positions of responsibility then the rest of us would never get to hear about it at all.

The British people would still be largely unaware that our politicians were routinely fleecing us of millions of pounds by making false claims for expenses if it wasn’t for the Daily Telegraph. In the 1960 and 1970s we would never have known about how brutal and evil the apartheid regime was if it wasn’t for the BBC, and Lord only knows how many more lives would have been lost if graphic media pictures hadn’t roused public opinion to force the Americans to get out of Vietnam.

The responsibility with which the newspaper and media profession has been entrusted on behalf of the rest of society is a sacred one and, as such, it confers a heavy responsibility and demands high standards. That is why it became necessary for the corrupt network of relationships between some Sun and News of the World journalists and many high-ranking members of the police to be exposed by The Guardian. Sometimes we have to expose the wrongdoing and malpractice amongst members of our own profession and ensure that a robust code of practice is in place governing the way we go about our business.

It is even more important for newspapers to reveal corruption and hypocrisy amongst priests, ministers, bishops, cardinals and Popes. For these people have been raised to a station where they have been given spiritual and moral authority over us. This is a far greater burden of responsibility than that borne by our secular and temporal leaders. Unfortunately, the record of our Church in policing the behaviour of its own clergy has been a lamentable one and perhaps this is why the press have had to step in.

We Catholics would not have known about the scandal of Bishop Roddy Wright and the initial cases of clerical sex abuse in the 1990s if the press had not revealed them. The Church’s attitude then was simply to cover up the wrongdoing and act as if nothing had happened. ‘Nothing to see here,’ was their attitude. And when it did reluctantly acknowledge the wrongdoing in our midst the Church had to be held accountable and persuaded to put systems in place to ensure there was no recurrence. The Church certainly was not going to do so without some ‘encouragement.’

Communication through evangelisation is at the very heart of the Church’s mission in the world and this also includes acknowledging and repairing those areas that are broken. For that too is a form of evangelisation as it demonstrates that when we do get it wrong we act properly in addressing the situation and that we do so in the light. Unfortunately, it seems the prevailing attitude of our Church when wrongdoing is revealed is cover up and denial. Then we put up the no entry signs to block any further questioning. Ordinary Catholics, trusting, bewildered and hurting, are kept in the dark.

The story about the alleged misconduct towards at least four Scottish priests by Cardinal Keith O’Brien was shocking for many of us who have known and loved this man as our leader.

The story was revealed by The Observer in London, one of the other newspapers for which I write. I must state categorically here that I was proud of The Observer for the way that it ran the story and I was proud of Catherine Deveney, the journalist who wrote it, for it was in the very best traditions of what our industry is supposed to be about.

Cardinal O’Brien has been a charismatic and much-loved leader of the Church in Scotland, but he was also living a lie that, if it had gone unchallenged, could have wrought far greater damage in our Church. If Catherine had not broken this story then the cardinal would have been taking his place at the conclave which elected Pope Francis.

Unfortunately, several senior people in the Scottish Catholic Church, who really ought to know much better, began to shoot the messenger and insist that this was all an anti-Catholic witch-hunt. They were, and are, in denial and they must snap out of it soon.

Since then there have been further revelations about behaviours and practices in the Scottish Catholic Church. There has been a feeding frenzy here and some of the usual suspects have used the situation to slake their anti-Catholic thirst. They have been able to do this unchecked because not a single voice of authority in the Catholic Church has spoken. The Cardinal O’Brien story was revealed almost three months ago, yet since then we have only had a couple of unattributable twilight sources purporting to speak with Rome’s consent.

This is a lamentable situation. More than 700,000 Scottish Catholics are today bewildered at what has happened. They want to know how many of the subsequent stories are true and they need to know if the Church is taking them seriously. Thus far we do not know even if an inquiry will ever take place.

In the wake of Communications Sunday, it is now time for the Church to take control of this situation and to communicate to its people and to the world, with the full authority of Rome, how it intends to repair the hurt and the damage.

_ Kevin McKenna is former deputy editor of the Herald and former executive editor of the Daily Mail in Scotland. He is currently a columnist for the Guardian