Wednesday 24 August 2011

Bishop Boyce claims Catholic Church attacked by secular and Godless culture...

"Catholic Bishop of Raphoe Dr Philip Boyce has said the Catholic Church is being attacked by the arrows of a secular and Godless culture.

Dr Boyce also said it was rocked from the inside by the sins and crimes of priests and consecrated people.

An independent review of diocesan files relating to child abuse allegations against priests is nearing completion in the bishop's Donegal diocese.

He has promised to publish the findings of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church when he receives them, which is likely to be next month.

Bishop Boyce made his remarks last Saturday but they were not released to journalists until yesterday evening.

He told worshippers at the Novena at the Marian shrine in Knock, Co Mayo that they were living through a testing moment of history and a spiritual dark night now engulfs the church.

The bishop urged Catholics to act hopefully and with patience and predicted that the church would rise again."   (RTE news, this morning).

Well, it is just a pity that a "secular and Godless" culture did not exist in Ireland when the abuses perpetrated by the powerful, State-influencing, Catholic Church were in full swing.  

When the bishops whispered into the ears of elected politicians who twiddled their rosary beads in their pockets as they genuflected to do the church's bidding.  As did much of the Irish population who sometimes even colluded in sending children off to the Magdalene Laundries or the industrial schools, as they tugged their forelocks before the unholy trinity of priests, police and politicians. 

I am not quite convinced that a "secular and godless" culture exists even now in Ireland, but public attitudes are not quite so unquestioning and prostrate before the still-powerful Catholic Church, which continues to run 90% of our schools.    Yet, a 2009 poll by the Iona Institute asserted that 65% still go to mass at least once a month, while the Irish public attitude to abortion rights continues to be misinformed by Catholic ideas of conception.

Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn, will begin negotiations with Catholic Church representatives next month in an attempt to get them to pay half the compensation bill to those they abused. 

It might be timely for him to insist that schools, in our supposedly secular and Godless society, are finally taken out of the Church's control.

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11 comments:

Ella said...

"Education Minister, Ruairi Quinn, will begin negotiations with Catholic Church representatives next month in an attempt to get them to pay half the compensation bill to those they abused."

So the tax payer has to fund half the compensation bill for those abused by the catholic church.

Now I know the State supported catholic schools and allowed this abuse to go on and then turned a blind eye, but even so..

anna said...

hear. hear!!!

anna said...

http://pubs.socialistreviewindex.org.uk/isj91/horgan.htm

Try link above- actually I am not good on copying links- but that should open artile by Goretti Horgan, NI socilaist and lecturerarticle Changing Irish women's lives' International Socialist Review 2001- of course it shows that the catholic repression of woemn was against all of society- not even a long article, just a few pages, but it's a materpiece of compression - shows the explosion of irish people entering religiosu orders from 1870's onwards, the sexaul repression , the magdalen homes, , no doubt this warped thinking contributed to the viciousness I see here i would not see so much of in the North. I am 50 and got Slapped Once at primary school in NI- never at secondary- women my age , down here were routinely slapped several times a day through their school career by nuns down here.No wonder I see a lot of aggression here- and its companion- cowardice in supporting victims of bullies. No wonder when many priests/ nuns down here were Forced into it by their families. One commentator said' Irish seminaries were full of young men whose Mother had a vocation to the priesthood.' And an industril school victim, possibly in Wexford, described the nuns who beat him as 'mad savages.' So that was the good old days- an Excellent summary by Goretti**
(**and no harm to murdered catholic child saint Maria Gorettti, I for one, think it is progress that irish people now name kids Chardonnay, Vogue,Kylie rather than Assumpata or Majella...girls were Majella, a portuguese saint's Surname, St Gerard Majella, her brother was gerard , her mother was Mary ( I think in early/ mid C20 1/4 of Irish women were called Mary)...Ok I am bitter ...my real name is Concepta...read Goretti...she's very good

anna said...

You can contact Education Minister at: Ruairi Quinn TD. Leinster House. Kildare Street. Dublin 2 . Ireland. Or on +353 1 618 3434. email is: minister@education.gov.ie ...

I think all readers should contact him- seriously I already did at email above;

' I Concepta Magdelana Fideles O'XXXX urge the Minister to remove all primary schools from Catholic control: their history shows they are unworthy for responsibility for children.Certainly No catholic school that gets Any money from the State, for salaries upkeep etc should be allowed to stay in catholic church control- I do not object to catholic schools that are totally funded by the church/ wealthy parents staying in church hands. I do not object to catholic chaplains being appointed to state schools ( by request of parents/ board) as long as purely catholic instruction is kept to out of main school hours.'
SERIOUSLY the Minister is trying to garner support- I know this as I emailed Eamonn Gilmore, saying I was pleased he stood up to Papal Nuncio- and why was Catholic church still in control of schools? he replied saying thanks- and he had forwarded my email on subject of schools to Ruari Quinn.

Peadar said...

The Catholic church in Ireland still has to much power and influence. We as citizens must demand the constitutional change to the sectarian nature of our constitution i.e "In the Name of the Most Holy Trinity, from Whom is all authority and to Whom, as our final end, all actions both of men and States must be referred,
We, the people of Éire,Humbly acknowledging all our obligations to our Divine Lord, Jesus Christ, Who sustained our fathers through centuries of trial,Gratefully remembering their heroic and unremitting struggle to regain the rightful independence of our Nation"..
Until real steps are taken by citizens of this state there will be no changes to the arrogant self serving atitude of the Catholic hierarchy

Dakota said...

The rot and hypocrisy, as ever, is palpable in this septic isle, GM. The Catholic church should have no say on anything. Full stop. The narrative of this story is simple. Essentially vast numbers of innocent children were destroyed by sadistic Irish scum. Sadism was rife in the Catholic church, and it was accepted and allowed by not only those in authority but also by a significant minority of the population (by either direct knowledge or by accepting a culture of blatant hypocricy). Governance did not act on behalf of the people and sadism seems to be bred into the Irish psyche. (Just think how lucky Northern Catholics were and still are!!!! No wonder there is no appetite for a united Ireland).
That's the beginning and end of the story. My guess is GM, if they want a takeup in church goers they should lie prostrate in front of those they debased and beg forgiveness. Then, they should sell off all there assets and live like Jesus would have wanted them to.
I would be surprised if they did any of this, of course. What's more, they are in the right country if they want a dosile audience for the meanderings.

Anonymous said...

The catholic church in Ireland and the vatican should pay 95% of the compensation. The Irish state should pay the rest as they were compliant with the religious orders in the abuse. Children in national schools were abused by nuns. Today's taxpayers should not have to pay one cent as they were not responsible for turning a blind eye like the older generation.

Dakota said...

Hi Anon, I disagree. The younger generation had plenty of time to demonstrate with regards to this and they did not. If anything they had the benefit of hindsight and should have done so. Instead, they just took the lazy option and church attendence, dropped off. No one was brought to account, there was no mass demonstrations, there was no public revulsion etc.....Just nothing really. There is nothing special about the present generation.

Anonymous said...

MR GM the good bishop is indeed correct the entire adult industy here in hollywood has known this for some time, shipments of software and hardware to holy oirland have now surpassed those to godawful godless england, regardless of the dire macreconomic climate people want to enjoy themselves, my missus says this godless stuff started when the printing press was invented in germany, wouldnt you know the germans stirring shit as usual,BTW my misus wants to be a rose of tralee but she is from UJUNGGPANDANGG in the CELEBES do think she is oirish enough for the lads in KERRY, CHEERIO BH

Anonymous said...

Sheninegens in godless country

http://www.galwaynews.ie/21172-forty-%E2%80%98dogging%E2%80%99-locations-galway-leaves-senator-%E2%80%98gobsmacked%E2%80%99

MariaB said...

Forget the bishops and the priests- my view is that education is the choice of the tax payers and whether it's Natasha dancing around the maypole with flowers in her hair, Jack learning about all world religions. David reading Dawkins or Rhys saying the rosary, the key word is choice. I hate the idea of a one size fits all approach with little diversity and parents totally written out of the picture. If some parents want the option of no religion at all in the schools, others equally deserve the option of denominational education. I hope Ruairi Quinn considers all views when seeking out a model for our educational system.