.........................................
Above: Kate and Gerry McCann on Madeleine's fourth birthday, May 12th 2007That fictional Scottish detective, Taggart, is well known for his taciturn remarks. At the end of an episode, when the most horrendous murders had been committed and investigated, Taggart ended the show with these words, "Sometimes Ah wunder." Me too! Today, I am left wondering if those at BBC Radio 2 who make decisions about invited guests have gone totally bananas or if they are just planning with a view to pulling in a good audience.
Aled Jones talks to Kate McCann on Mothering Sunday. Kate McCann and "mothering." Those words belong together like Gary Glitter and child protection.
"On Mothering Sunday, Aled says Good Morning Sunday to Kate McCann, mother of missing child Madeleine McCann, who has found comfort from her Roman Catholic faith since her daughter's disappearance."
Her Catholic faith? Well, I guess it does say, "since her daughter's disappearance." Kate McCann's own mother, Susan Healy, seemed to be wondering about Kate's suddenly finding her faith when Maddie disappeared.
Susan Healy: 'Kate phoned me, errm… about an hour after Gerry and asked me to get in touch with, errm… Paul Seddon, who is the priest, Father Seddon, who married her, who baptised Madeleine, errm… and I didn't have his mobile phone so I rang a friend of Kate's and got… got him and he rang Kate right away and I think as soon as this happened, as soon as Kate realised what had happened, it was as if, errm.. she started to ask God right away to give her Madeleine. Errm… because Kate and Gerry were not the most devout family. We do have Catholic faith, errm… it's… it's the religion that we were brought up in, but I would never describe myself as a devout person. We're just ordinary people, errm… but Kate certainly has… has clung to her religion, errm.. since this happened. Possibly she feels that, you know, it has to be a greater thing that helps us to get Madeleine back. Errm… something with more power than… than we have.'
(Interview for Spanish TV Channel, Antena3, broadcast on 22nd October 2007 - Joana Morais)
Putting aside when Kate McCann found her faith, because tragedy will often bring people to rely on, as Susan Healy says, "....something with more power than… than we have," how on earth can the BBC or Aled Jones bring themselves to have Kate McCann talking about being a mother on Mothering Sunday? A woman, who by her own admission, left three small children alone for five nights in a row, in an unlocked apartment, in a foreign country. Yes, I wonder.
Kate McCann has never actually accepted that she was wrong to leave the children alone. The most she has managed is that she wished she had been there at the moment Madeleine was taken. Crass? Stoooopid? At the moment Madeleine was taken? Would Kate have insisted that the abdcutor wrapped Madeleine warmly against the cold? Errr, where are you taking that child? Just trying out your abduction skills? Well, make sure she's warm! Is Kate McCann two sandwiches short of a picnic or does she think the rest of us came up the Clyde on a banana boat? Go back to sleep Sean and Amelie while mummy waves to the nice abductor, who is going to treat Madeleine like a princess.
One of the most heartless things I have heard Kate McCann come out with must be her reaction to Maddie's asking her why she didn't come when she and Sean were crying.
"It was just a passing remark," Kate McCann said.
"If what happened hadn't happened, that comment wouldn't have passed through my head again."
If a child I was responsible for said that to me, I would be absolutely distraught at the thought of a small child crying and my not hearing them and responding. Yet, to Kate McCann it was a "passing remark," and it would never have passed through her head again. What kind of mother is that?
This just beggar's belief. A serial child neglector, who went on holiday with three children, and who through her own actions came home with two, is to be featured on a Christian programme on Mothering Sunday talking about the comfort her Catholic faith has brought her. Pity she didn't see fit to be there to comfort her daughter when she cried or to be there to keep her children safe in that apartment in Praia da Luz.
Yes, sometimes I wonder!
