FAUL ISSUE WON'T MOVE AWAY, YOUR GRACE
Faul issue won't move away, Your Grace
YOU don't have to approve of graffiti to read it. Some of the best is to be found on the Newtownards Road in Belfast - often witty, always cutting. Practically every day I pass a gable end which reads 'Sinn Fein and SDLP - Hand in Hand as Usual'.
One piece of graffiti, one young scribbler, you say. Perhaps, but it betrays a commonly held perception of the SDLP these days in loyalist areas. You don't need to be a unionist or loyalist to think that the SDLP has grown too close to Sinn Fein for comfort in recent years.
It was heartening, therefore, to see one brave SDLP soul taking a stand for decency and free speech last week. Joe Byrne, Assembly member for West Tyrone, has probably done himself no good but someone had to speak out against what Byrne rightly characterised as the "orchestrated" intimidation of Monsignor Denis Faul.
Denis Faul must have upset just about everyone in Northern Ireland at some time or another over the last couple of decades.
He drives unionists to distraction with his criticism of the security forces. Nationalists wish he would stick to the hymn sheet. Liberals seethe at his views on integrated education and church doctrine generally.
That said, most people still hold him in the highest regard as a moral compass during the dark days of the Troubles, a true champion of human rights, excoriating the perpetrators of violence regardless of the flag of convenience they fly under.
Faul's latest travails date back to December 7 when Sinn Fein Assembly member Barry McElduff and 40 henchmen broke up a meeting between Faul, two social workers, a doctor and a couple of home helps and the RUC. The meeting, held in the Silver Birches Hotel in Omagh, was called to discuss road safety and pensioners' concern for their security at night. Innocent enough you would think.
Already infuriated by Faul's call for acknowledgement of the sacrifices the RUC's men and women have made in the course of duty, this was the last straw for McElduff and his cronies. They bombarded the dozen or so people with leaflets calling for RUC disbandment, and singling out Sergeant Philip Marshall of all people, one of the first on the scene after the Omagh bomb, whose professionalism undoubtedly saved many lives.
The two health workers had to take sick leave. Health Minister Bairbre de Brun has behaved like a Trappist nun, seemingly unable to find any words of support for two employees in her Department. Others at the meeting have, according to local sources, been intimidated into "recanting" for their attendance.
A Sinn Fein lobby is now calling on Archbishop Sean Brady to have Faul moved out of the parish. Faul's crime, it seems, is not that he isn't a Provo priest for a Provo people but that he is taking a "political position". It seems that it is OK for Fr Des Wilson and Fr Joe McVeigh to take political positions, but not Mgr Faul.
There is speculation that Archbishop Brady is about to be made a cardinal. This would seem to be on account of the Pope's regard for him and for Ireland. Brady has kept an extremely low profile and this is his first real test.
So far he has buried his head in the sand hoping the issue will go away. If Faul is moved, Brady's biretta will sit uneasily. Who is to run the Catholic Church - God or the Army Council? It is a simple question, Your Grace.
Guidance from Armagh is called for. The Archbishop would do well to listen to counsels of brave souls like Joe Byrne. Or do we have to be reminded yet again of Pastor Niemoller's words: "They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...?"
YOU don't have to approve of graffiti to read it. Some of the best is to be found on the Newtownards Road in Belfast - often witty, always cutting. Practically every day I pass a gable end which reads 'Sinn Fein and SDLP - Hand in Hand as Usual'.
One piece of graffiti, one young scribbler, you say. Perhaps, but it betrays a commonly held perception of the SDLP these days in loyalist areas. You don't need to be a unionist or loyalist to think that the SDLP has grown too close to Sinn Fein for comfort in recent years.
It was heartening, therefore, to see one brave SDLP soul taking a stand for decency and free speech last week. Joe Byrne, Assembly member for West Tyrone, has probably done himself no good but someone had to speak out against what Byrne rightly characterised as the "orchestrated" intimidation of Monsignor Denis Faul.
Denis Faul must have upset just about everyone in Northern Ireland at some time or another over the last couple of decades.
He drives unionists to distraction with his criticism of the security forces. Nationalists wish he would stick to the hymn sheet. Liberals seethe at his views on integrated education and church doctrine generally.
That said, most people still hold him in the highest regard as a moral compass during the dark days of the Troubles, a true champion of human rights, excoriating the perpetrators of violence regardless of the flag of convenience they fly under.
Faul's latest travails date back to December 7 when Sinn Fein Assembly member Barry McElduff and 40 henchmen broke up a meeting between Faul, two social workers, a doctor and a couple of home helps and the RUC. The meeting, held in the Silver Birches Hotel in Omagh, was called to discuss road safety and pensioners' concern for their security at night. Innocent enough you would think.
Already infuriated by Faul's call for acknowledgement of the sacrifices the RUC's men and women have made in the course of duty, this was the last straw for McElduff and his cronies. They bombarded the dozen or so people with leaflets calling for RUC disbandment, and singling out Sergeant Philip Marshall of all people, one of the first on the scene after the Omagh bomb, whose professionalism undoubtedly saved many lives.
The two health workers had to take sick leave. Health Minister Bairbre de Brun has behaved like a Trappist nun, seemingly unable to find any words of support for two employees in her Department. Others at the meeting have, according to local sources, been intimidated into "recanting" for their attendance.
A Sinn Fein lobby is now calling on Archbishop Sean Brady to have Faul moved out of the parish. Faul's crime, it seems, is not that he isn't a Provo priest for a Provo people but that he is taking a "political position". It seems that it is OK for Fr Des Wilson and Fr Joe McVeigh to take political positions, but not Mgr Faul.
There is speculation that Archbishop Brady is about to be made a cardinal. This would seem to be on account of the Pope's regard for him and for Ireland. Brady has kept an extremely low profile and this is his first real test.
So far he has buried his head in the sand hoping the issue will go away. If Faul is moved, Brady's biretta will sit uneasily. Who is to run the Catholic Church - God or the Army Council? It is a simple question, Your Grace.
Guidance from Armagh is called for. The Archbishop would do well to listen to counsels of brave souls like Joe Byrne. Or do we have to be reminded yet again of Pastor Niemoller's words: "They came first for the Communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Communist...?"
Further Information
Publisher: BELFAST TELEGRAPH
Ref: BT/0727
Published Date: 13-Jan-00
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