Catholic groups in Ireland have condemned moves by Northern Ireland Unionists to add them to a list of “sectarian organizations.” The British government has drawn up a list of such organizations in its proposals for a new police force in the British-run province. Police officers who are members of the listed groups will have to declare their association, if requested by the Chief Constable.

The list was proposed by former Hong Kong governor Chris Patten (a Catholic), who drafted proposals for reforming the Royal Ulster Constabulary. The force is predominantly Protestant and is widely distrusted by Catholics and nationalists.

Patten had proposed that “all officers—those now in service as well as all future recruits—should be obliged to register their interests and associations,” and that the register should be held by the police and by the Police Ombudsman. Patten and the RUC Chief Constable said that they would prefer that public servants were not members of “secret societies or organizations perceived to be sectarian.”

Northern Ireland Minister Adam Ingram has said that he is now considering adding Opus Dei and the Knights of St. Columbanus (the Irish equivalent of the Knights of Columbus) to the list of “registrable associations” recommended by Patten.

Section 47 of the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill, which is now going through the British Parliament, requires RUC officers to inform the Chief Constable if they are members of the Ancient Order of Hibernians, the Apprentice Boys of Derry, the Independent Loyal Orange Institution, the Masonic Lodge, and the Orange Order or the Royal Black Preceptory. All the groups, with the exception of the AOH, are Protestant.

Catholic groups added to list
When the matter came before the select committee at Westminster in late June, West Tyrone Unionist MP Willie Thompson proposed an amendment adding the names of the Knights of St. Columbanus, Opus Dei, the Irish National Foresters, and the Jesuits as “registrable associations.”

Thompson told the select committee: “It is the view of the Ulster Unionist party that the clause should be removed altogether. Therefore, we shall vote against its inclusion in the Bill when the time comes. However, as the Government are reluctant to change very much in the Bill, we wish to add to it.”

He added, “As I understand it, the Knights of St. Columbanus is an organization that is designed to promote the Roman Catholic faith and therefore it seems to be somewhat different from the Orange Institution. I know very little about the Opus Dei. . . .”

Thompson went on:

We have also included in our amendment the Irish National Foresters. That organization is so secretive that we could not find out anything about it from our research, so we assume that it is a secret organization. In addition, we have included the Jesuits. I am told that one must be a Roman Catholic priest in order to be a Jesuit. I do not know whether that is true, but presumably it would be possible to give up the priesthood or to be in training for the priesthood and to be a Jesuit, so there could be a Jesuit in the RUC.

This whole thing is stupid anyway, but if the Government are including so many other organizations, we might as well include a few more.

Ken Maginnis, Unionist MP for Fermanagh and South Tyrone—who is a member of the Freemasons and the Apprentice Boys—said:

The clause would be obnoxious to any right thinking person. I despair when I look at the list of the six organizations that are to be registered, which somehow suggests that people in those groups should not be members of the police service or, if they are already members, should almost be placed automatically under suspicion. The person who drew up the list knows absolutely nothing about Northern Ireland, its history or those organizations.

Extending the list simply shows how utterly and completely ridiculous it is to have a list in the first place.

On the understanding that the Minister would reconsider the situation, Maginnis withdrew the amendment.

Intrusion on privacy
Back in Ireland, Michael Walker, general secretary of the Grand Lodge of the Freemasons, said he thought the proposals were “a gross intrusion on a person’s privacy and his right of association.”

Walker said membership in the Freemasons would encourage RUC men to be better citizens. “The whole basis of the masonic order is square dealing—to contribute, rather than just take from society,” he said.

Niall Kennedy, the Supreme Knight of the Knights of St. Columbanus, said the order did not wish to enter into what was essentially a political debate.

We are a Catholic organization, recognized by the Vatican and founded on the principles of social justice as expounded by Pope Leo XIII and Pope Pius X’s exhortation on the lay apostolate. Mr. Thompson himself, in moving the amendment, defined the Order as “an organization designed to promote the Roman Catholic Faith.” He is quite correct.

Paul Harman, a spokesman for Opus Dei, said:

I was really surprised to hear about this proposal but glad that Mr. Ingram expects to receive representations on the matter. Opus Dei will certainly be in contact with his office to explain why it would be very erroneous and unjust to include this institution of the Catholic Church in the Police Bill listing.

Opus Dei, as a personal prelature, forms part of the Church’s hierarchical structure. Its reason for being, as defined in the statutes given to it by the Holy See, is purely spiritual and apostolic. It is not a private association with a social or political agenda, much less a secret society. Members act with the same freedom and individual responsibility in these matters as any other citizens who are members of the Catholic Church. Membership of the Opus Dei prelature is a personal matter which, in its civil effects, is absolutely indistinguishable from a person’s membership of the Catholic Church.

Hence, for a police officer or anyone else to be required to declare membership of Opus Dei would amount to an attack on that person’s public rights. It would imply an attack on the right to hold Catholic values, or to participate in the work of the Church, without being exposed to possible discrimination.

Opus Dei does not and cannot involve itself in the professional, social, or political decisions of its members. To include Opus Dei in the list, because of a perceived need to provide “balance” from the Catholic side, would amount to crude sectarianism.