Bishop Magee: The Man Who Would Be Pope … or so he thought!

The disgraced Bishop of Cloyne, John Magee, will bring at least two dark secrets to his grave with him. The Newry-born Magee was Secretary to three Popes, Paul VI, John Paul I and John Paul II, the only cleric in history to achieve such an incredible honour. John Cooney, an Irish journalist covering religious affairs, wrote how Magee proudly boasted that Pope Paul VI treated him like a son, and that John Paul II treated him like a brother. According to Cooney, he was considered the “most handsome man” in the Vatican and had incredible access to the Popes. He lived in a wonderful villa on the Vatican grounds.

It even had a private chapel, and he loved to entertain friends from Ireland and arrange meetings with the Pope for a chosen few. He was widely expected to return to Ireland in triumph as Archbishop of Armagh, his home diocese, and be the future Primate of All Ireland. But John Paul 11 banished him to a lonely Cork diocese in 1987, when Magee was at the height of his power. The job of Bishop of Cloyne was intended for someone else, but John Paul insisted that Magee go. He was never liked by the priests there, who considered him a Vatican outsider who was dumped on them. The Bishop’s house was a sad, drafty old building in need of repair, totally unlike his Vatican villa.

The reasons why he was exiled to Cloyne have never been explained. Rumors ran rampant, including involvement in a cover-up of the death of John Paul I and unspecified personal behavior charges, but nothing ever came to light. What is known is that in 1978, on the death of John Paul I after only 33 days as Pope, Magee covered up the fact that a nun found him, and a statement was issued that he was the person who discovered the body.

Why this was so has never been explained. Nor was the fact that he was briefly brought back to Rome immediately when Pope John Paul II died for unspecified duties. By all accounts, he went into a deep funk when posted to Cloyne, a minor diocese in Ireland far from his beloved Armagh. His lack of oversight of the child abuse problems in his parish were seen as a sign of his total disinterest in his new duties. Now he is gone, and the mystery of how he ever ended up in Cloyne, or why he tried to mask the truth of who found the body of John Paul I, may never be known.

In “Angels and Demons,” Dan Brown’s prequel to “The Da Vinci Code,” an ambitious Irish priest close to the Pope almost becomes Pope himself by plotting and eliminating enemies during a papal conclave. The book’s Rev. Patrick McKenna may well have been loosely based on Magee. Whatever lofty ambitions Magee had,  they have long since ended, and he resigned in disgrace. It was surely not the script he had written for himself.

From Irish Central Niall O’Dowd

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Enda Kenny and Leadership Qualities

Some sit and pontificate about whether leaders are made or born. Enda, as a true leader, ignores such arguments and instead has concentrated on developing the leadership qualities necessary for Ireland’s success. The leadership qualities that people look for in a leader are:

1. Honest
2. Forward-Looking
3. Competent
4. Inspiring
5. Intelligent

And Enda has all these in abundance.

He is honest to a fault. Some say he is too honest to be a politician but Enda is fast consigning that hoary old cliche to history’s dustbin.

He is forward looking. He knew Ireland needed a plan and instead of cobbling together a series of aspirations he produced an utterly brilliant, yet simple, 5-point plan that points the way forward and upwards for this badly-wounded nation.

He is competent. Some would say he is more than competent. For a leader to demonstrate that they are competent, it isn’t enough to just avoid displaying incompetency. When people were confused over the Roscommon spat Enda cleared up the confusion forthwith and people are now able to look at his immediate reaction and think, “that just goes to show why he is the one in charge of Fine Gael AND of the country”. These moments of confusion around Enda will, of course be infrequent, but it’s likely that his decisiveness and demonstrations of competency will help boost even more his leadership ability.

Like the other traits, it isn’t enough for a leader to be competent. They must demonstrate competency in a way that people notice. This can be a delicate balance. There is a danger of drawing too much attention to yourself in a way that makes the leader seem arrogant. And Enda has never being one to show arrogance of any kind. Nor is he one to “toot his own horn without blowing it”. The Roscommon spat is, though one are where he should ‘toot his own horn‘. He did promise equal access to health care for everyone and, barely 4 months into his stewardship, ALL the people of Roscommon now have equal access to health care in Galway.

Enda is unarguably the most inspiring leader Ireland has elected, going into the second decade of this century – just his simple, yet telling, phrase: “” Paddy likes to know the story “” is evidence of that inspirational quality. A phrase that is both inclusive and profound.

Enda is unarguably the most intelligent Taoiseach we’ve had this century. His performances in the General Election debates proves this – not even Vincent Browne could ruffle his integrity.

Enda Kenny – A leader for our times. Watchful, Alert, Far seeing, Intelligent, Inspiring.

Enda Ever Watchful For Danger

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