How Ireland Lost Its Faith

I have to wonder if this is purely a Catholic issue, or a Western Christian one. I will admit however, that this situation sounds rather similar to the one in the German states in the 15th and 16th centuries.

Will Ireland become just another secular Western country? Or will another form of faith ascend? We saw in Russia the resurgence of the Orthodox faith after communism. Perhaps in Ireland, traditional Irish folk belief will ascend and the people themselves will decide when to celebrate and what prayers to say. The ancient Irish poems and the green hills of Ireland set a much nicer play than the grey institutions of the Church and their hideous masters.

It seems that Ireland is just catching up with a more secular, prosperous and better-educated continental Europe whose national boundary disputes and nationalistic yearnings have been largely been settled. The Catholic Church in Ireland and Poland in particular has been a conduit for nationalism and now that those aspirations have been realized its influence declines as intellectual modernity takes hold. This is a good thing.

It is time for the Irish to accept the fact that this is probably not what St. Patrick had in mine all those centuries ago. The medievalism of the church...the fact that it still exists essentially in that form, feifdoms under the Pope, is due for a massive remodeling. Oh yes, I know, the Church moves slowly and all that sort of jazz, but it isn't even making the attempt. That, however, is no excuse nor is it an acceptable rational.

I have been aware of Ratzinger for quite some time, while John Paul II was still alive. While I was never one to call him a Nazi as did many, I did then and still do believe that his German upbringing, the regimentation and demand for submission to power of his upbringing, has always been a detriment to both him and the Church. I think we see this in his public behavior, talks, and apparent belief that he and his descending religious mafia are lords of their domain and can do no wrong that can't be excused or covered up with some sort of hypocritical mumbo-jumbo.

I cheer the Irish People who are fed up with that hypocracy and who are willing to say, "Enough...never again!" God does not tell us that we must submit to child rape and physical and mental abuse just because the offenders wear white collars, flashy robes, or crowns. Jesus was a simple man, not a peacock with unconscionable power.

While religious ceremony is often appropriate, abuse is not, nor is unlimited abusive power and the ability to manipulate with threats and excommunications.

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/popes-empty-words-ireland

THE POPE'S EMPTY WORDS IN IRELAND

Published February 19, 2010 in the National Catholic Reporter (United States)

By Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish

Pope Benedict's repetition over and over again that the sexual abuse of a child is "a heinous crime" and "a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image," in country after country may, to use Bishop Diarmuid Martin's words, "even be empty."

I agree with Michael O'Brien of Right to Peace in Ireland, who said, "It's unbelievable what we heard today from the pope, this is the man who is in charge of the Catholic church worldwide and he hadn't even the gumption to say he was sorry for what happened to us.

"All he's done now is to add salt to the wounds, and this is very hurtful," he added. "We were expecting something and we got nothing."

While the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has its own variation of child abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious, the underlying causes are much the same in Ireland as they are in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany as well as other European and African countries.

The problems are endemic and systemic to the hierarchical and governmental systems of the Roman Catholic church. They are certainly not peculiar to Ireland.

It is not as if Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Holy Office, does not have the most extensive background in the history of the church's sexual abuse problems involving children, young boys, girls and vulnerable adults which also includes women religious and younger members of religious communities like the Legion of Christ.

Unlike his predecessor, Benedict does not have to depend on others for the facts, because he already has much of that information because of his previous position.

The problem was and continues to be the unbridled abuse of power and authority by an episcopacy that put what was the good name of an institution before the well being of its most vulnerable members.

Until or unless Pope Benedict acknowledges and addresses the governmental structures and policies that led to this terrible abuse of power by the bishops and other church authorities, an infinite number of words of sympathy or shock will not be enough to assuage what those victim/survivors have suffered at the hands of abusers while others continue to suffer because of what they have learned about the criminal and immoral actions of the episcopacy.

The cover-up of the physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of children did not happen in a vacuum in Ireland any more than it happened in a vacuum in the United States, Canada or Australia.

The abuse happened. That's factual and cannot be disputed. In the United States, for example, it wasn't caused by the permissive attitude of the people in New England. It cannot be dismissed as an American problem, and it was not caused by the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood. Homosexuality does not cause the sexual abuse of children any more than heterosexuality causes the sexual abuse of children.

Rather the question that has to be asked and answered is what is wrong with the underlying governmental structures of the institutional Roman Catholic church that gave bishops license to act with such utter abandon of its most vulnerable members in countries worldwide?

What flaws in the fabric of the church contributed to the bishops actually enabling further abuse by transferring priests from place to place over many years while threatening and intimidating victims and their families? What allowed this conspiracy, this collusion to happen in country after country and on such a scale?

There should be some outline, a paradigm of reform and renewal included in the pope's expected pastoral letter to the People of God in Ireland.

Such a letter from the pope will be read very carefully by peoples around the world who expected something more substantive than just the words of sympathy and concern they received when the pope visited their countries, especially the United States where not one bishop was removed from office or criminally prosecuted because of his part in covering up for abusive clerics and enabling their continued abuse over long periods of time.

It appears now that such a pastoral letter to Ireland will not be forthcoming and that will be a tragedy because the People of God did have hope.

They expected more from those they considered leaders.

[Maureen Paul Turlish, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, is a victims' advocate and writes from New Castle, Delaware in the United States.]

She may be reached at:

maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

http://ncronline.org/news/accountability/popes-empty-words-ireland

THE POPE'S EMPTY WORDS IN IRELAND

Published February 19, 2010 in the National Catholic Reporter (United States)

By Sr. Maureen Paul Turlish

Pope Benedict's repetition over and over again that the sexual abuse of a child is "a heinous crime" and "a grave sin which offends God and wounds the dignity of the human person created in his image," in country after country may, to use Bishop Diarmuid Martin's words, "even be empty."

I agree with Michael O'Brien of Right to Peace in Ireland, who said, "It's unbelievable what we heard today from the pope, this is the man who is in charge of the Catholic church worldwide and he hadn't even the gumption to say he was sorry for what happened to us.

"All he's done now is to add salt to the wounds, and this is very hurtful," he added. "We were expecting something and we got nothing."

While the Roman Catholic church in Ireland has its own variation of child abuse perpetrated by clergy and religious, the underlying causes are much the same in Ireland as they are in the United States, Canada, Australia and Germany as well as other European and African countries.

The problems are endemic and systemic to the hierarchical and governmental systems of the Roman Catholic church. They are certainly not peculiar to Ireland.

It is not as if Pope Benedict XVI as Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger, head of the Holy Office, does not have the most extensive background in the history of the church's sexual abuse problems involving children, young boys, girls and vulnerable adults which also includes women religious and younger members of religious communities like the Legion of Christ.

Unlike his predecessor, Benedict does not have to depend on others for the facts, because he already has much of that information because of his previous position.

The problem was and continues to be the unbridled abuse of power and authority by an episcopacy that put what was the good name of an institution before the well being of its most vulnerable members.

Until or unless Pope Benedict acknowledges and addresses the governmental structures and policies that led to this terrible abuse of power by the bishops and other church authorities, an infinite number of words of sympathy or shock will not be enough to assuage what those victim/survivors have suffered at the hands of abusers while others continue to suffer because of what they have learned about the criminal and immoral actions of the episcopacy.

The cover-up of the physical, sexual, psychological and spiritual abuse of children did not happen in a vacuum in Ireland any more than it happened in a vacuum in the United States, Canada or Australia.

The abuse happened. That's factual and cannot be disputed. In the United States, for example, it wasn't caused by the permissive attitude of the people in New England. It cannot be dismissed as an American problem, and it was not caused by the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood. Homosexuality does not cause the sexual abuse of children any more than heterosexuality causes the sexual abuse of children.

Rather the question that has to be asked and answered is what is wrong with the underlying governmental structures of the institutional Roman Catholic church that gave bishops license to act with such utter abandon of its most vulnerable members in countries worldwide?

What flaws in the fabric of the church contributed to the bishops actually enabling further abuse by transferring priests from place to place over many years while threatening and intimidating victims and their families? What allowed this conspiracy, this collusion to happen in country after country and on such a scale?

There should be some outline, a paradigm of reform and renewal included in the pope's expected pastoral letter to the People of God in Ireland.

Such a letter from the pope will be read very carefully by peoples around the world who expected something more substantive than just the words of sympathy and concern they received when the pope visited their countries, especially the United States where not one bishop was removed from office or criminally prosecuted because of his part in covering up for abusive clerics and enabling their continued abuse over long periods of time.

It appears now that such a pastoral letter to Ireland will not be forthcoming and that will be a tragedy because the People of God did have hope.

They expected more from those they considered leaders.

[Maureen Paul Turlish, a Sister of Notre Dame de Namur, is a victims' advocate and writes from New Castle, Delaware in the United States.]

She may be reached at:

maureenpaulturlish@yahoo.com

To all the Marxist bigots writing above like SmallMindChurlish, DogDics, JPEngels et al: The problem with what's happened in the Catholic clergy in Ireland and the U.S. is about what you always get when you take mindless liberalism (Vatican II under John XXIII) and marry it to an outreach to the decadent and degenerate secular norms of "the world".
Vatican II sought to reconcile The Church to The World which is ruled by "you know who" instead of converting the world to the Church. In order to foolishly show it's "good will" and willingness to be hip in the world, it adopted the world's trappings, including permissiveness in it's seminaries for "nancy boys" who appeared superficially to have true religious convictions, when in reality they were looking for better opportunities to be among others of their kind and have access to even younger prey, because satisfying their degenerate urges far and away trumped their yearnings for salvation through Christ and His Church and His Way as priests.
Paul VI was Gerald Ford to John XXIII's Dick Nixon. But, the real tragedy was JPII who was in fact and great and holy man, but for his willful state of denial and refusal to defrock and excommunicate whole swaths of the episcopate and priesthood that needed to be removed forthwith because they were unrepentent serial pedophilic degenerate homosexuals.
How ironic that the same Atheistic, Socialistic, Marxist, Leninist left writing here and throughout a lost and decadent Europe decries the abuses of pedophilic gay men in the Catholic Clergy while simultaneously railing against anyone (like the Boy Scouts) who won't allow these same homosexuals unfettered access to more boys to go camping with in the woods. To be a Leftist is to never have to say you're sorry. It is the inherent degeneracy of Sodomites (who were allowed to break-in to the Church) that is the cause of this scandal, not Jesus Christ, His teachings or His Church which exists mystically and universally above and beyond the actions of a small number of fallen, sinner, homosexual pedophile priests. I AM THE CHURCH far moreso than these degenerates who will be judged by Jesus when the proper time comes. What I find intolerable is these anti-God bigots who look at their own kind (left-wing homosexuals who have tried to bring down the Church theologically) as both allies when they're writing in Liberation Theology Journals, but then turn on them in a heartbeat when their friends and allies are found out to be degenerate child-molesters, who they would otherwise celebrate as those with "an alternative lifestyle". What hipocrisy.

Sr. Maureen's twice cut and pasted mindless diatribe above is factually incorrect in many areas, but I'll address one, for point of brevity.

She claims the following point which I quote:

"it was not caused by the presence of homosexuals in the priesthood. Homosexuality does not cause the sexual abuse of children any more than heterosexuality causes the sexual abuse of children."

This is factually inaccurate and contrary to the truth. Homosexual men are many more times more likely to sexually abuse boys than are men in the general population. This has been shown in many studies, suppressed by a politically correct media which does it all it can to defend the "gay lifestyle". A whole genre of literature celebrating and documenting male pedophilia can be found in just about any American gay book store. A study which I read done by the University of New Hampshire Family Research Laboratory on Child Sexual Predation over the Internet demonstrates statistically that gay men are at lest 14 times more likely to prey on young boys through the internet than are heterosexual men to prey on young girls. So, Sr. Maureen is blowing smoke as one would expect who wants to bring down "the hierarchy of the Church' as she so boldly admits.

Probably being a lesbian herself, her statements above are to be expected. The other thing these Leftist, radical homosexuals try to do in their arguments is make it out that girls were as common as victims in these scandals as were boys, when girls were probably less than 5% of the victims. Given that homosexual men make up about 1.5% of the general population, reason dictates that all things being equal, boys should have been only about 1.5% of the victims. We all know that not to be the case as I just mentioned. The fact is that the devil has indeed infiltrated the Catholic clergy and he needs to be exorcised. However, Sr. Maureen seeks only to see him triumph.

I don't defend the actions or rather inactions of Pope Benedict in dealing with this crisis. But let us now lose sight of from whence it comes. It is a plague from the left-wing, moral relativist, atheistic, anti-Church, liberation theology libertines like the good sister who want to see more homosexuals in the clergy and do away with all that is traditional and hierarchical, up to and including the hierarchy that puts God and the Trinity at the Head of the Church. These are Secular Humanists who live lives of politics, not spirituality masquerading as nuns, priests and bishops, devoid of wisdom and like Yeats wrote, while the best like Pope Benedict may lack conviction to clean house, those like Sr. Maureen are full of passionate intensity to knock down the house.

"Although opinion poll after opinion poll over recent years has indicated a great majority now favor legalizing it (abortion)"
Which opinion polls is McGarry referring to? I'm not aware of any.
A dubious poll in Jan. 2010 reported that 60% of 18-35 year olds felt abortion should be legalised, conveniently excluding the majority of voters, thus being a nonsense. It's certainly a long way from 'a great majority'.
Of course making abortion a Catholic issue conveniently disguises the fact that it's an issue of human rights.

Paul VI was Gerald Ford to John XXIII's Dick Nixon. But, the real tragedy was JPII who was in fact and great and holy man, but for his willful state of denial and refusal to defrock and excommunicate whole swaths of the episcopate and priesthood that needed to be removed forthwith because they were unrepentent serial pedophilic degenerate homosexuals. This contributes to remote garage door opener.

I agree with Michael O'Brien of Right to Peace in Ireland, who said, "It's unbelievable what we heard today from the pope, this is the man who is in charge of the Catholic church worldwide and he hadn't even the gumption to say he was sorry for what happened to us.

"All he's done now is to add salt to the wounds, and this is very hurtful," he added. "We were expecting something and we got nothing."