...and instead of leadership from clergy there’s a deafening silence

FATHER Ted star Ardal O’Hanlon’s documentary on priests, The Last Priests In Ireland, which airs tonight on RTÉ One, suggests that the country is experiencing a spiritual void but that male priests don’t have to be the ones to fill it.

‘The conversation needs to be about women and celibacy,’ says the comedian. ‘There’s no good argument against women priests or [for] celibacy.’

Too true, but perhaps another fillip for the church’s fortunes and a cure for our supposed spiritual drought might be if existing clerics made it their business to show leadership about immigration.

Charity and compassion are two of Christianity’s central tenets but there has been a deafening silence from the Catholic Church when it comes to applying them to the immigration crisis.

Yes, Archbishop Eamon Martin condemned the violence against migrants after the Dublin riots, but he seemed just as exercised by how cancel culture is stultifying public debate on the matter.

It’s high time priests showed the moral leadership and common touch they displayed after the Creeslough tragedy and when Ashling Murphy was murdered.

They might argue that the priest shortage makes attending local protests to reassure parishioners about their anger and fears impossible. But is it not just as likely that they are afraid of alienating their dwindling congregations by challenging deep-seated prejudices, more prevalent among the elderly?

Whatever the reason for their pusillanimity, as long as no one steps forward to tackle the crisis – as former bishop Willie Walsh did 20 years ago when he allowed travellers to park in the grounds of his residence in Ennis, Co. Clare, or Brother Kevin Crowley 40 years ago setting up the Capuchin Day Centre for Homeless People – the Church will shrink into such obsolescence that the questions of women priests and celibacy will be irrelevant.