(26 Oct 2009)
The annual Reality Awards presentation was made on 22 October in Marianella. Through six different categories, individuals and organisations were honoured in recognition of individual and collective contributions to the Church and Irish society.
This year's Reality Award winners are:
1 Lifetime Achievement Award: Bishop Willie Walsh
2 Church Organisation of the Year: Iona Institute
3 Youth Organisation of the Year: Catholic Guides of Ireland
4 Author/Book of the Year: Rev Ruth Patterson
5 Person of the Year: Fr Peter McVerry
6 Promoter of the Year: Sr Peter Ryan
Best of times and worst of times for the Church – Bishop Walsh
Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe has described these days ahead of the release of the Dublin Report and in the wake of the Ryan report as “part of a process that was badly needed by the Church in Ireland”. He was speaking to Redemptorist Communications ahead of receiving a Reality Lifetime Achievement award in recognition of his service to the Church as a bishop and priest.
Bishop Walsh was rresponding to the address of the Editor of Reality, Fr Gerry Moloney, CSsR, who told the assembled award winners, clergy and guests, “This is a difficult time for the Church in Ireland. We are still dealing with the fallout from the Ryan Report into institutional abuse. We await with dread the Dublin Report, due out very soon. There are going to be difficult days ahead, when for many of us it will be hard to listen to the radio, or watch the TV news, or pick up a newspaper.” He added that it was “good and necessary that these reports come out; that as a church we address our failures and our shortcomings; that we ensure to the best of our ability that no child or vulnerable person will ever be hurt or abused or not listened to again.”
Fr Gerry Moloney, CSsR, said it was “important and necessary to face up to our shadow side, the dark side.” However, Fr Moloney also underlined that it was “necessary too to acknowledge the many good things that are happening in our Church that don’t get reported and the wonderful people who are part of it, people like Sharon Commins and Michael Sinnott, who are doing their best to serve others, out of love. And there are countless people doing just that in parishes and communities and clubs and organisations all over the country, as so many others have done down the years.”
Bishop Walsh echoed these sentiments. He told Redemptorist Communications, “These are the best of times and the worst of times. I think there are lots of wonderful things like Sharon Commins and the concern that has been shown for Columban Fr Michael Sinnott. And they simply represent a fraction of the wonderful work being done all over the world by missionaries, priests, religious and lay and the wonderful work that people are doing every day of their lives – parents raising their children in love.” He added, “I think sometimes we divide and talk about the secular and spiritual – whatever is good is spiritual – that’s the reality of life and it is unwise to make these sorts of distinctions."
Speaking about the fallout from the Ryan Report, Bishop Walsh said “Of course the Ryan Report has been devastating and the Dublin Report will be devastating.” Drawing on his own personal experience of talking to victims of abuse, he said “Having been a bishop for over the past 15 years, in some sense I have talked to a lot of victims and indeed I’ve talked to some abusers as well. There is no doubt, it is a devastating story. Yet I’ve always felt privileged that when someone who is broken and has been abused tells their story – it is a privilege to listen to them – even when it is heart-breaking.”
Speaking of the possible impact of the Dublin Report on the Church in Ireland, Bishop Walsh said, “I think that this is a whole process which the Church needed – and needed badly. We had gone through a period where we were overconfident. We thought that we were the best Catholics in the world – the island of saints and scholars. I thought when I was growing up that we were reliving that and I think that sadly it has taken something like this to bring a bit of reality to the Church. It makes us humble and reminds us of our fragility. I think that our position will be much closer to what Christ was about – weak, humble, and a servant and if the Church is about anything it is about serving people. It is not about dominating people’s lives.”
The Bishop of Killaloe, who retires next year, added, “So while it is tough going and it is painful for those of us – certainly for the clergy and bishops, I know that I certainly have a great sense of pain and shame about the whole thing – but yet I do believe it is right that it should be exposed.”
He added that the “forthcoming report isn’t just about Dublin – it is called the Dublin Report but it is a report about all of us and our Church about how far in some areas we moved away from gospel values.” Nevertheless, he said he still believed it was possible to say “in some respects it was the worst of times and also the best of times”.