Martin O'Brien
Seán Rogers MLA talks faith, family and politics with Martin O’Brien
You are not in the company of Seán Rogers MLA, husband, father, ACCORD facilitator, Eucharistic Minister, Minister of the Word, cancer survivor, before you are touched by the strength of his faith, his steadfast belief in the power of prayer and his conviction that the trials and joys of his life are somehow, unquestionably, the will of God.
The SDLP Member of the Legislative Assembly for South Down at Stormont, chief whip and education spokesperson is a rarity in Ireland, a politician who will speak freely and unapologetically about his Catholic faith.
Mr Rogers (62) told me: “I see my faith as part of my DNA. I would generally pray every day and play a CD of the Rosary in the car on my way to [the Assembly in] Belfast.” It’s a 100-mile round trip of up to an hour-and-a-half each way. He adds: “Before any big decision, I will talk to my parents at their graveside and pray.”
A recurring theme in a long conversation in his family home on a small farm just outside Kilkeel in Co. Down – where he relaxes by tending his sheep – is his embrace of the double motto of St Louis Grammar School, Kilkeel.
That’s where he taught for 20 years until 2007, the last four as principal before he made “the most agonising decision of my life” to retire after a diagnosis of prostate cancer heralded “the darkest period of my life”.
Inclusive ethos
That motto’s words read “Ut Sint Unum & Dieu Le Veult” which translate from the Latin and French respectively as “That They May Be One & God Wills It”.
The former inspired Mr Rogers as a principal, and a vice-principal before that for 15 years, to forge an inclusive ethos in building up the school community.
The latter part of the motto, he says, helped him to see God’s hand in everything that has transpired in his life albeit sometimes retrospectively, as in the case of his cancer when during the bleakest times he contemplated “planning my own funeral” as a husband and father of five children still in his early fifties.
The cancer was spotted after his wife, Rosemary, who is a sister of Fr Noel Keogh CSsR, the rector of Clonard, recommended a general check-up around the time of his 50th birthday.
A year after his enforced retirement he was inspired to embark on a political career when he heard a priest exalt in a funeral homily the community service of Councillor Michael Cole who had died refereeing a GAA match.
He replaced Mr Cole on Newry & Mourne Council.
Seán Rogers does not remotely come across as being outwardly or overly pious, let alone “holier than thou”.
He is just living proof that there are still some perfectly normal people in public life, who will be seeking election soon, who are prepared to talk about the central role of God in their life in an open, natural and authentic way.
Mr Rogers, who was co-opted to the Assembly in 2012 after Margaret Ritchie MP decided to concentrate on Westminster, will seek election in his own right in May’s Stormont elections and is tipped to win well in one of the few remaining SDLP strongholds.
Because he is a refreshing rarity in the Ireland of today, one devoted as much as possible of this interview to Seán’s faith and the role it has played in his story so far without dodging some of the tough issues.
Those issues include abortion and same-sex marriage which he believes “should always be decided by a free vote” putting him at odds with his party because the SDLP inexplicably refuse their MLAs and councillors a free vote on marriage, insisting that those opposed to same-sex marriage should either toe the party line or abstain.
Mr Rogers pleased supporters of ‘equal marriage’ in November and disappointed others when he joined three other SDLP MLAs in voting in favour of change for the first time, having abstained previously.
The motion was carried by a single vote – the first time the Assembly backed change – but changed nothing owing to a DUP veto.
“I took flak from all sides after the vote” and he recalls that he received “very hurtful abuse” in the past from supporters of ‘equal marriage’ some of whom have apologised but denies he was worn down by the campaigners.
His explanation for his volte-face is interesting.
“After a lot of reflection on my role as a legislator and listening to both sides of the argument and a lot of prayer, I changed my mind.”
Part of that process was “asking myself what would Jesus do and considering his command to love my neighbour”.
Mr Rogers says his role as a husband for 36 years and father, and an ACCORD facilitator helped him to recognise “there is a world of difference between civil marriage which we are talking about here and the Sacrament of Marriage which I firmly believe in”.
He added: “I am a Catholic but I am also a legislator and the State has a responsibility to legislate for those of all faiths and of none. I do my best to accommodate everybody but I cannot accommodate them fully. I will be judged on the Last Day.”
Mr Rogers rejects any suggestion that his change of heart on same-sex marriage might weaken his total opposition to abortion: “There is always a wee heart beating there in the womb and I could not vote for abortion because it is killing human life.
“Human life is sacred,” he said.
He emphasises the imperative of providing the highest possible professional care for mothers who are expecting children through sexual crime or where the unborn baby is deformed.
Before he was struck down with prostate cancer, from which he recovered after “excellent medical treatment, 35 sessions of radiotherapy and the prayers of countless people” the greatest crisis in Seán’s life came in 1993 when his daughter Sinead, now a successful brand marketing executive, was struck down with leukaemia at the age of six.
“It was a two-year crisis until Sinead recovered and my faith ebbed and flowed but the prayers from right across the community was our bannister that held us up and kept us going.”
In those two years he and Rosemary and the family experienced “the Church’s pastoral support at its very best” and he singles out two priests in particular, Fr Hugh Starkey, “he was Jesus walking” and Fr Patrick Mulholland “who sat with me for days on end”.
One senses that the deep faith of Seán Rogers, a practising Catholic, gives him authority to speak about shortcoming he identifies in the Church he loves.
He is critical of the Diocese of Down and Connor’s tardiness in establishing the permanent diaconate pointing out that for years deacons “with their great knowledge of family life” could have been giving massive pastoral assistance to priests “who are stretched to the limit, right, left and centre”.
“I would have loved to have been a deacon,” he says ruefully.
Celibacy
Mr Rogers favours the abolition of compulsory celibacy arguing that married priests would have “an understanding and feel for the complexities of family life that celibate priests can’t have with the best will in the world”.
“There is a world of difference between being a husband and a father and being an uncle.”
Seán Rogers is critical of what he sees is “the bureaucracy and administration that is weighing down priests seriously inhibiting their pastoral outreach to the home and the school”.
He is afraid that many priests secretly welcome this because it keeps power in clerical hands and away from the laity to such an extent that pastoral councils “have died a death” because so many parish priests “don’t want to let go”.
Mr Rogers argues for “ongoing engagement between the Church and Catholic legislators” and says such engagement “would be preferable to getting e-mails from the bishops on the morning of key votes”.
“There should also be more communication between Church leaders and laity, more listening to the laity.”
As a Catholic legislator he met Pope Francis at the conference of the International Catholic Legislators Network in Rome in August.
“Pope Francis is a breath of fresh air. What an experience it was to shake the hand of Jesus Christ’s representative on Earth!”