Author:
Publication: Zenit.org
Date: February 25, 2001
Cardinal Connell Has Staunchly Defended
Church Teachings
Archbishop Desmond Connell may have
been made a cardinal last week for the same reason he is such a controversial
figure in Ireland: his robust defense of Church teachings.
So says David Quinn, editor of The
Irish Catholic, in an analysis he wrote for the U.S.-based National Catholic
Register (NCRegister.org). The Catholic Church in Ireland has for some
years now been at the receiving end of a strong backlash from a secularized
popular culture, Quinn wrote. Whereas once every utterance of a bishop
was uncritically received, today they are routinely met with criticism,
unless they are politically correct.
Quinn said this had led to a situation
where few Irish bishops are willing to speak out on controversial issues;
one of the few still willing to do so is Archbishop Connell, 74.
He was a surprise choice for the
position of archbishop of Dublin in 1988 when he was plucked out of relative
obscurity at University College, Dublin, where he had been teaching philosophy
for 35 years. Immediately upon his appointment he was subjected to ferocious
criticism for his "conservative" views, including that homosexuality is
disordered, as the Catechism now teaches.
After his initial roasting Archbishop
Connell went quiet for a few years. He was content to work away from public
view putting the diocese in order.
One of his first big forays into
the public arena came with the abortion referendum of 1992. Wording for
a constitutional referendum had been put before the people which appeased
neither pro-abortion nor pro-life forces. A statement from the bishops'
conference had said that it was permissible for Catholics to vote either
way given the nature of the wording. Archbishop Connell, followed by three
others bishops, publicly disagreed.
They declared why they would be
voting No. Rome took note of this brave public stand, Quinn said, and within
months Archbishop Connell was appointed to the Congregation for the Doctrine
of the Faith. The next time he attracted major public criticism came in
December 1997.
Mary McAleese, a Northern Catholic,
had just been elected president of Ireland, a mostly ceremonial role. At
a Christmas ecumenical service she was pictured receiving communion at
an Anglican service in defiance of the Catholic Church's ban on intercommunion.
Media commentators praised her for
her action and attacked the Catholic Church for its ban. Archbishop Connell
felt obliged to step into the fray. He said it was "sham" for Catholics
to receive communion from a church with which they were not in full communion.
Many people thought he meant that Anglican communion itself is a "sham."
He was roundly attacked for his "unecumenical" attitude.
The controversy went on for days.
Radio shows took calls from outraged listeners. Pages of newspapers were
devoted to it. Editorial writers, letter writers and columnists all lined
up for their chance to attack him.
If anything, he came in for even
worse criticism in the summer of 1999. He had delivered a speech defending
Pope Paul VI's encyclical reaffirming Church teaching on contraception,
"Humanae Vitae."
In it he said that parents who plan
their children may come to regard them at some level as products. This
could mean that the children might feel less loved resulting in anger and
dysfunction. Women's group led the attack on him. How dare he suggest that
people who planned their families might love their children less than those
who did not?
Again, the controversy raged for
days on end. Once again Archbishop Connell became a national hate figure.
Finally, he was attacked for this defense of the Vatican declaration on
the uniqueness Jesus Christ and the Church, "Dominus Iesus," late last
year. Some ecumenists took note and didn't like what they heard.
All of these public interventions
only served to raise Archbishop Connell in Rome's esteem, Quinn contended.
A shy, self-effacing man who shuns publicity, Archbishop Connell does not
deliberately court controversy, but the fact that he was willing to do
so, and pay a price, went down well with the Vatican, the Irish editor
said.
The first two cardinals in Ireland
were based in Dublin. But since 1893 the red hats invariably had been given
to Armagh in Northern Ireland. Why? Because Rome believed, according to
Quinn, that the man in line for it, Archbishop William Walsh of Dublin,
was already too powerful and too political.
Rome wanted to balance out Walsh
by giving the red hat to someone else. Since Armagh is the ancient primatial
see it made sense to give it to its archbishop, Michael Logue.
By the time the latter died in 1924,
Ireland had been partitioned with the 26 counties of the South gaining
independence, and the six counties of the North remaining in British hands.
With the Catholics of the North
now a beleaguered minority, Rome felt, correctly, that they needed a "defender
of the faithful" as much as a defender of the faith. It is only now, with
the situation in Northern Ireland beginning to settle down, that it has
become practical to return the red hat to Dublin.
After last Wednesday's consistory,
the new Cardinal Connell met reporters on the steps of St. Peter's Basilica.
He revealed that when the Pope gave him the biretta, he thanked the Holy
Father on behalf of Ireland.
"I told him that Ireland thanked
him for this great honor, because it is something very special" for the
country, the cardinal said. "As you can see, there were so many cardinals
appointed, there are needs all over the world, and that Ireland should
get a second cardinal at this time was truly remarkable and a sign of the
very great benevolence of the Holy Father, his great love of Ireland."
Noting the increase of the Latin
American representation in the College of Cardinals -- it grew by 11 at
the consistory -- the Irish cardinal said he was pleased with the news:
"Latin America, of course, had fallen to a perilously low level. ... It
was absolutely necessary to increase the number of votes ... because Latin
America is so very important, such an immense number of the Catholics of
the world are in Latin America."
