NOEL’S LETTER TO D&C PRIESTS
PAT SAYS
This is the job Noel has wanted forever.
He is coming to it late as he turns 72 next month.
But hey! Better late than never.
I’m sure Noel popped a Dom Perignon when he got the news of his new appointment.
Followed by a Chateau Petrus over lunch
Noel should never have been a priest or bishop. He does not have a pastor’s heart.
He is a desk man.
He should have joined the Irish civil service in the department of Foreign Affairs.
He also has an autistic personality which disables his ability to communicate with other people at an ordinary level.
Noel is a very cold fish. I find coldness one of the worst faults in a priest.
Noel covered up for gay and straight misbehaving priests in D&C and was totally lacking in compassion for priests struggling with problems or ill health.
And he was very cold in his meetings with those priest’s victims.
Like the rest of his Irish colleagues Noel has simply presided over decline.
He does leave a very plush palace behind for his successor and a very highly organised set of diocesan offices.
He was and is good at admin.
But bishops, priests and deacons are not called to be admistrators.
They are called to be pastors.
One of the scandals of Roman Catholicism is the number of clerics doing desk jobs – when those jobs should be done by competent lay men women.
In his 14 years in Belfast I have never met Noel Treanor.
He has never done me any harm that I know of?
Noel’s life and career highlights the old expression:
“He went out to do good – and he did well”.
NOEL’S NEW HOUSE IN BRUSSELS
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 