Pat Rabbitte, Labour’s Spokesman on Justice is on his feet in the Dail speaking about the end of deference to clergy in Irish society.

Church authorities have repeatedly claimed to have been, prior to the late 90s, on “a learning curve” in relation to child sexual abuse.  The Commission makes plain that “it does not accept the truth of such claims and assertions.” Despite 2,000 years of Papal statements on clerical child sexual abuse, the Vatican has made no statement on the Murphy Report. Worse, and notwithstanding the diplomatic niceties dwelt on by the Taoiseach on Tuesday, the Vatican authorities did not assist the Murphy Commission.

He sharpshoots on term de jour – “mental reservation”:

When the dictates of obsessive concern with secrecy were inadequate, it has emerged that there is a special dispensation for Bishops to lie.  The revelation by cardinal Connell of the device known as “mental reservation” confounds anything experienced in the political world.

Ministers on occasion evade and dodge and weave and mislead and deputies on occasion exaggerate.  But the word “lie” is not admissible in the Chamber and if a blatant untruth finds itself onto the record inadvertently or otherwise, the requirement is to put the record straight as quickly as may be.  But leading Churchmen can apparently, if the need arises, shelter behind “mental reservation.”

Given Cardinal Connell’s Drumcondra provenance when explaining the concept, I suppose we in this House should consider ourselves fortunate that “mental reservation” didn’t seep into the political water in Drumcondra.

He ends soberly with:

The Vatican is silent.  The Papal Nuncio is contemptuous.  Whatever happens, it is the end of the age of Deference.