Shepherd Versus Flock

The recent forced resignation of Father Desmond Wilson from the Ballymurphy parish followed a classic clash between one with a social conscience and a monolithic institution the interests of which were with self-preservation and its own power and wealth. :

Father Wilson has been popular in Ballymurphy for his obvious interest in the local people's welfare. He stood out from the local clergy in his rejection of living in seclusion from the people in one of the Church's “big houses”’, occupying instead a council house in the estate, and by his support for and initiation of community self-help projects.

Not so Bishop Philbin. He was the man who made his initial mark on the diocese by shaking the hands of the Unionist hacks at Belfast City Hall and has gone on to redirect funds allocated for school development or donated by local people for community centres, into the coffers of the Church. The only apparent result of the redirection has been Church buildings totally out of proportion to the demands of the local people.

The dictatorial attitudes of both Philbin and the Parish Priest, Padraig Murphy culminated in the resignation of both Father Wilson. Wilson and Sean McKeown, head of St. Thomas’ School on the Whiterock Road, last month.

But it is not Bishop Philbin or Canon Murphy who are unusual. Philbin did not become head of the diocese, nor Murphy head of the parish, by being out of line with - the official policy of the Church. They take their role seriously as leaders of a Church which seeks to retain a firm hald over the flock it regards as sheep. The Church is eager to ally itself to Government, to act as an agent of social control for the state, and thus increase its strength as an institution in the state. In the 26 Counties this has long been the case. In the North the nature of society has caused complications.

The Church has sought to place a brake on militancy on the streets against repression, turning its official venom against militants within the catholic community.

There have been exceptions, individual priests who have felt obliged to respond to pressure within their parish to expose injustice, such as Father Faul of Dungannon, and who have worked to alleviate the suffering of the working class, such as Father And at a time when the Church is aligning itself to a Northern state in which the Unionists are set to re-establish their control, such individuals as Father Wilson are very badly out of step.

They are caught in a trap, exceptions in what Father Murphy of Ballycastle called a “middle class church’. It proved too much of a contradiction in this case.

Since his forced resignation, the people of Baltymurphy have rallied around Father Wilson. A mass meeting was held calling for the withholding of funds from the Church until a full public enquiry was started. The staff of St. Thomas’s have called for an “enquiry into the circumstances around the resignation of Sean McKeown, and pupils have demonstrated at the home of Canon Murphy to demand the re-instatement of their former headmaster.

Plans are also under way in Belfast to form a Catholic reform group, to agitate for control of funds to be in the hands of parishicouncils composed of and elected by local people.

These initiatives must be supported; no longer can the working class afford to have the Church unquestioned in its dictates and its policy.