Seen and Unseen - Catholicus

The victims support group, One in Four, Two for Joy, has attacked Pope Benedict XVI for his failure to prevent a horn growing on the head of an old Chinese women. 

"His silence is disgraceful", said Marie Collins, "This has been a growing problem for years and he's done nothing about it.  Everybody knew about this, even though she wore a scarf;  it's a complete cover up."

Andrew Madden, who used to be Chinese until he defected last month, said that he had read very carefully the Vatican's letter to the Church in China and there was not one word in it about the issue.  "They just don't get it". 

Christina Buckley said "It's not about the money, it's about space and time for hearling and my account details are BOI 00901-0017-4989393879".

Colm O'Gorman refused to comment as his speaker's fee had not come through.

Watched a programme tonight, The Boys of St Columb's.

Derry people are tremendously gifted - they manage to combine an inflated sense of their own importance with a whingy tone in a way that no other people can quite achieve. 

The closest competition maybe comes from Palestinians but at least they don't usually try to sing (apart from that ghastly concert during the Holy Father's visit to the Holy Land).

Bishop Edward Daly came across as nice.

Of course he was born in Donegal.

"An abortion requires an operation.  It kills the life of a baby after it has begun.  It is dangerous to your life and health.  It may make you sterile so that when you want a child you cannot have it."

A quote from SPUC?  Perhaps Youth Defence or the Pro-Life Campaign?

Think again - the year is 1952 and Planned Parenthood, which would go on to become America's greatest mass murderer in history, had not yet made the scientific breakthrough that a child stops being a child when you want to kill it.  It was trying to promote contraception and desparate to make the point that it wasn't pushing abortion.  You can see the leaflet here.

Meanwhile its sister organisation in Ireland, the Irish Family Planning Association, has gerrymandered a poll to show support for abortion through the usual method of a) pretending there are life threatening diseases only treatable by abortion; b) ignoring the fact that no women in Ireland is refused medical treatment which may result in the unintended death of her unborn child; c) ignoring the fact that, according to the United Nations, Ireland has the lowest maternal death rates in the world.  The Calgary Herald has some interesting angles.

Was doing a post last night on my son's First Confession last week and the connection crashed, which was probably just as well, cos really who needs all that ranting and complaining.  In summary, it's a farce, a joke and devoid of anything approaching sacramental theology.

If you've never been introduced to the horrors of religious education in Ireland, visit the website of the archdiocese of Dublin and check out the section on confession.

On a brighter note, I came home the other day and find the boys engaged in a heated debate on the issue of which was the best sacrament.  Patrick was championing baptism on the basis that it was the first sacrament and you couldn't have any of the others until you were baptized.  Michael favoured the Eucharist, on the basis that you were actually receiving the Body of Christ. 

I was very proud.

 Photoshopped - this never happens in nature

"When the door of a microwave oven, in which has been placed a cup, jug or bowl with a handle, is opened, the propability that the handle will be facing the back of the oven is 1."

One of my good friends has accused me of unnecessary cruelty, a charge I accept so I am amending the post - for those who missed it - well it was cruel but funny and you should read more often.

I was pleased to see Niamh Kavanagh on the Late Late Show on Friday and that she will be representing Ireland at the Eurovision Song Contest.  She is a tremendous singer, though the song is not as good as the one that won in 1993 and I doubt she'll win.

She'll also need to get better advice on dress as the one she was wearing was far from ideal.  Someone described it as "unrelentingly hideous from the victoriana ruffly bussle, the big split in the front like the madam in the Cheyenne Social Club, the lacy sleeves, the terrible tights and culminating in a huge red shiny bit in the middle that ... managed to clash with her hair."  Perhaps that's harsh, but I fear, true.

Drop down to the bottom and you can see the video from the Late Late Show (I've finally learned how to inbed videos). 

Didn't Johnny Logan want to talk about himself a lot, though Dana put him in his place a few times?  My sister and her friend Eithne hitched a ride on a tractor to see him sing in Cookstown, many moons ago.  Looks like he certainly got on the scent of the Cookstown Sizzle.

Prime Minister Berlusconi manages to overcome his embarrassment

Just when you thought bishops couldn't sink any lower in our estimation along comes the good bishop of Kerry in this story.

Bishop of Kerry says he was embarrassed to kiss Pope's ring

The Bishop of Kerry has claimed that he was surprised as he stooped to kiss Pope Benedict’s ring during the visit of the Irish bishops to the Vatican. 

Speaking to the Kerryman newspaper Dr Bill Murphy said he was surprised with the protocol but he followed his fellow bishops who bowed to kiss the papal ring. 

"When it came to my turn, the person before me did it and I kissed his ring as well even though I was rather embarrassed by it."  He said when he previously met Pope Benedict and his predecessor, Pope John Paul II, he was greeted with a handshake. 

Bishop Murphy said he was sure the pope would also have preferred to avoid the ancient kissing of the ring custom when he met the bishops in Rome.

”Some people still try to kiss a bishop’s ring but, obviously, it’s out of touch with modern thinking," Bishop Murphy stated. 

What do we learn about this Catholic bishop, this leader of men?

1.  That he is embarrassed by tradition;
2.  That showing respect for the Holy Father is "out of touch";
3.  That he has no personal strength of conviction;
4.  That he thinks it's a good enough excuse to do something because the last person did it;
5.  That he thinks he understands the mind of the Holy Father.

Well, all these things are precisely the sort of things that got the Church in Ireland into it's current mess.  What sort of man hasn't the strength of character to simply shake someone's hand if he thinks that is appropriate? 

One can picture already the Murphy Commission Mark 2 -

"Well bishop Murphy, why did you do nothing about this complaint?" 

"Ah, well, your honour, I was uncomfortable about it and a bit embarrassed but you know the previous bishop didn't do anything about it, so I thought I better just do what he did".

Some sneaky rascal has gone and gotten the domain name www.catholic.ie.  To get a domain name you have to prove you are entitled to use it.  In this case, if you follow the link, you will find yourself brought to www.countmeout.ie, the website for those wishing to defect from the Catholic Church.  I hardly think this classifies as legitimate use.

However, if one wishes to complain there is a procedure, but, it will cost you €1,500 to €4,000 to complain!  Anyone with deep pockets willing to give it a go?

Everyone with a blog or website takes an interest in how people find their site, and especially which google searches lead them in.

I've noticed that there are three searches which appear far more than any others and they're not what you might expect:

- "Pictures of St Berthold" (early founder of the Carmelites)

- "Climb the mountain of conflict" (my blog is the first site returned by google - funny but people don't linger!)

- "Nazi Julie Andrews" (same as above).

Decided to reinstate the old name "Seen and Unseen" but keep "Catholicus" as well, because, well, because I can.

On Wednesday evening I'll probably do my biennial rant about First Confession - you have been warned.

Well my eldest was studying some ecclesiology in school today.

In Alive-O this means talking about your local GAA club, school, community centre before we all join hands and sing "We are the greatest because we're sorry, so sorry, so very very sorry that we've lost our mamamamama" - translated from a 7th century Syrian chant by Charles Wesley.

Where was I?  Yes, the teacher began telling the class about the diocese and how they were part of Armagh - except, as my eldest pointed out, the parish is actually in the diocese of Meath.  "No it isn't" - he is a victim of hyper-correction.  He heard some vague thing about the diocesan and county boundaries being different.  However, every practising Catholic in Drogheda knows that half the town's in Armagh (north of the Boyne) and half in Meath (southside).

As Michael pointed out, the teacher couldn't even pronounce the word "diocese".

Doubtless this will all be fixed when the bishops' determined efforts to do away with grammar schools swings into action.

Or perhaps the Commission on Catechetics will save us.  This includes a link to a special website www.catechetics.ie which funnily enough brings you right back where you started - could this be a metaphor for catechesis in Ireland?  As you will see the Catecheticl Directory remains "pending" - but we do have a special instruction for children receiving communion at Mass in the Extraordinary Form.  Apparently these weirdos receive communion on the tongue and are known to kneel down.