Jesuit priest, Fr Peter McVerry has said the child sexual abuse scandals has ''initiated a revolution in the Irish Church''.
Speaking at the launch of The Dublin/Murphy Report: A Watershed for Irish Catholicism? edited by John Littleton and Eamon Maher, Fr McVerry was highly critical of the manner in which Rome, by controlling how people think, blunted their capacity for independent critical judgement, therefore creating the climate in which the abuse of children could go unpunished and undetected.
''The revolution is that many lay people now will no longer believe what Rome, or their bishops, says, just because Rome or the bishop says it.
''They are no longer prepared to do what they are told by their Church to do. And they will no longer be silent, they will question it publicly and with boldness.''
However, Fr McVerry said priests ''will be drawn, breathless and late'' into the revolution and questioned whether it will ever be possible for the bishops to join because they, just like Jesus, would be ''crucified'' for ''abandoning and betraying'' the traditions of their faith.
''Those who have power never give up power voluntarily. And that is why the bishops probably cannot join this revolution; if they do, they will be removed by Rome, or transferred to some desk job in Rome, where they can do no harm.
''And that is the revolution which will make our Church a more human, and therefore a more divine, institution.''
SIC: IC/IE
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