UNIQUELY among Irish newspapers, this organ spent much of the seventies, eighties and nineties excoriating the Catholic Church for its egregious shortcomings when it came to protecting its flock.
A persecuted community of the faithful in the North of Ireland, let it be said, that, uniquely in Europe, was being slaughtered in a joint state-paramilitary campaign because they worshipped in the wrong church on a Sunday.
During those long agonising decades — our very own Garden of Gethsemane — the scarleted bishops in their palaces haughtily dismissed our editorial entreaties. They, of course, knew what was best for their congregations. Until, that is, they had no congregations to speak of and condemning the crimes and misdemeanours of the clergy had become a national pastime.
Yet, during those lost years of disgraceful inaction by the Catholic hierarchy, there were always priests on the ground who kept the community's connection to the Church alive through their fearless advocacy for civil rights: Fr Denis Faul, Fr Raymond Murray and our own Fr Des among them. And there was also one cardinal who sided with the downtrodden: Tomás Ó Fiaich.
It's no surprise to us, therefore, that when a Pope finally came along who stood up for the 'wee people' he was embraced by the nationalist community of the North.
And stand up he did. Casting aside the suffocating Vatican protocols and practices which served only to turn the faithful from the Church, he spoke truth to power.
He opened his tenure with his groundbreaking apostolic exhortation, 'The Joy of the Gospel', which declared, in the midst of a global recession, "the socioeconomic system is unjust at its root."
"How can it be that it is not a news item when an elderly homeless person dies of exposure, but it is news when the stock market loses two points?" he asked pointedly of the powers-that-be who, even as they flock to his funeral, have failed to answer that indictment.
His first encyclical, a powerful and radical piece of writing on climate change, was endorsed by the California State Legislature, perhaps then the most left-leaning state parliament in the USA. (Though a similar effort to have the Stormont Assembly applaud Pope Francis' advocacy for the marginalised and for universal social justice was still-born.)
In that encyclical, ‘Laudato Si', he urged a worldwide effort to reduce global warming. “I urgently appeal then for a new dialogue about how we are shaping the future of our planet... Climate change is a global problem with grave implications."
And yet the shameless world leaders shouldering each other aside to get at the cameras in Rome this weekend have backtracked on their climate change pledges, in the process heaping further misery on the 'least of these'.
Francis is gone and no-one knows where the Catholic Church will set its sail in the time ahead. Its choices are clear, though. It can opt for a leader who stands up against genocide in Gaza and against racism in Europe or a leader who closets himself behind the high walls and closed minds of the Vatican insiders.
For everyone, believer and non-believer, who has kept the faith in these parts, our prayer is simple: that the next Pope follows in the footsteps of both Francis and Christ.
Requiescat in Pace. Ar dheis Dé go raibh sé.
