Bertie Ahern was interviewed by Gay Byrne on RTE's 'Meaning of Life' programme last night .The former Taoiseach revealed an unpretentious traditional Catholic faith that will probably have them tittering over in Dublin 4 but which makes him all the braver for having admitted to such a faith, especially in the present climate.

Mr Ahern was also asked about the scandals. On this point he said he wished the Church well, but  he went on to criticise Church leaders for hiding behind canon law.

He said: “There was one time when the church tried to put up the defence of canon law and my colleagues just looked up to the sky and thought they were joking. Unfortunately, they weren’t joking, they made bad decisions.”

It's a pity Ahern didn't have his own canon law advisers because they could have told them that far from canon law giving Church leaders a shield to hide behind, it actually required them to deal with abusers far more ruthlessly, and justly, than they did.

As the Murphy report made clear, the problem with canon law is that it wasn't used. The problem is that it fell into disuse and disrespect from around the mid-1960s, abandoned in favour of less 'punitive', less 'legalistic' and more 'compassionate' and 'pastoral' approaches to errant priests, approaches that turned out to be disastrous.

Instead of disciplining or laicising offending priests as required by canon law, they were sent off for therapy only to offend again later.

So don't blame canon law for this mess. It would be far more accurate to blame the 'pastoral' approach adopted by post-conciliar liberals. They are the ones who abandoned canon law.