A beard is what they have in common. Bishop Kevin Doran and Gerry Adams. A beard and a very odd view on how we, the citizens of Ireland, are seen by them.
Let’s start with the Bishop. In a wide-ranging interview with Chris Donoghue on Monday, he reiterated the Church’s opposition to same-sex marriage. That is his right and not really earth-shattering.
What caught my ear was the following exchange:
I was as confused as Chris.
Is being gay a disability? Is having a disability in the same ‘moral’ league in Kev’s eyes as being gay? The mind boggled but eventually I settled on the following image of the man upstairs.
The all powerful one was having a bad day and so I slipped through. My disability can only be explained in that way. The same with those strange gay folk. God was on the lash the night before we were created. These things happen. We can still be loved but let’s not get carried away and see ourselves as perfect human beings. God Forbid that would ever happen. You might get a disabled Pope or a gay parent… or even a gay disabled parent who is a priest.
Will I be charitable and think the nerves that come with a live radio interview got to the bishop or will I assume this what he actually believes?
If it is the latter, then the church is in trouble if the youngest bishop it has thinks this. The absurdity could be seen later yesterday when even his fellow bishops were keen to distance themselves from the great Kevin when they had their press conference earlier in the week.
If Kevin sees himself as a great human being, then Gerry sees himself as the great Irish man put on earth to save us ‘down south’ from ourselves.
Do we really want a functioning economy with a nice wide tax base? No, says Gerry, we’ll just tax the rich and click our emerald slippers and say there is no place like home.
Gerry wants us to have him as our leader but what does he really think of us?
Are we a people in our own right or a handy place to move naughty republicans to when they blotted their copy books during the Struggle?
We turned our back on the Church because of the way it ignored borders to move troublesome priests hither and thither, and yet those great republicans that Gerry may or may not know, did the exact same things. Moved their black sheep south. We don’t really matter.
We are southern softies, and anyway it’s only the Free State.
Bishop Kevin will hear what we think of his vision when we vote in the marriage referendum in May. As for Gerry? Well, he is riding high in the polls and wants to be Taoiseach. Of course it might happen, but when you are in the polling station… Remember the beard.
