Catholic Priests Involved in IRA Murders
By Austin Cline November 8, 2013
According to evidence and interviews, Catholic priests in Ireland actively
cooperated with an IRA system that included murdering and 'disappearing' people.
The priests imagined that they were doing the right thing by providing last
rites to someone who was about to die but not reporting it lest they not be
given a similar opportunity the next time a murder occurred.
On some level that might sound reasonable, but it assumes that it's reasonable
to exchange the lives of people for possible help to alleged souls in the
future. It also means that these priests gave religious legitimacy and
justification to murder. They cannot deny support for a system that they
actively participate in.
If Fr McCoy had refused to provide Extreme Unction for Mr Molloy, he would have
felt he was denying him God's grace.
If he had left the house where Molloy was awaiting death and called the police
to try to prevent the murder, then the IRA would have been obliged, in its own
security interests, to avoid bringing priests in to comfort others.
Further victims would have been dispatched unshriven. That's the Catholic way of
viewing the problem.
It is a view which assumes reasonably benign intentions on the part of the IRA;
they needed to kill some people, but they didn't mind them going to Heaven
afterwards.
Another perspective would suggest that the ritual of bringing a priest to a
person under interrogation might be an act of mental torture; an attempt to
convince the person that he, or she, really is about to die, turn the screw a
bit further before pulling the trigger, in the hope of exacting a confession.
How would a priest feel about being used like that? ...
And there was a logic to this position; he needed to retain his credibility with
the IRA as someone who could vouch for the guilt, or innocence, of people
accused of car theft, drug dealing, rape and other offences.
Source: Belfast Telegraph Given a priest's beliefs, even though I don't share
them, I can't fault him for wanting to provide last rites to someone who is
about to die. I also can't fault him for wanting others in the future to receive
last rites. I may not think his religious beliefs to be reasonable, but he does
and his desires here are not only genuine, but are reasonable given his
theology.
However, what's far less acceptable is a willingness to trade lives for the sake
of giving last rites. No matter how important the religious ritual may be, it
can't be more important than people's lives. As soon as you say, in words or
deeds, that a religious ritual is worth being an accomplice to murder, then you
become a zealot of the worst sort.