Catholicus - diarium in tela

Links here or read it below:

Sir, – I am very sorry for those priests, like Fr Brian D’Arcy and Tony Flannery, chastised by the Holy See recently. They are good men, much loved and highly regarded, doing and having done much good, for the ordinary Catholics of Ireland.

However, they are misguided in their views. The only safe place to be in this modern age, full of confusion and chaos, is close by the side of our beloved Holy Father, Pope Benedict XVI.

Our dear Pope has been given to us by God at this moment in the history of the world. If God wants married men to be ordained, if God wants women priests in His Catholic Church, it will happen. We priests and lay faithful need to stay close to Peter’s Successor and agree only with him. His opinion must be our opinion, until God reveals otherwise, which He will only do through our chief shepherd.

Likewise on the tortured and much disputed issue of human sexuality and orientation. The teaching of the church on these matters is absolutely true for ever. Human beings are loved by God with infinite Mercy. Our loving Heavenly Father sees us as we are and He provides for our healing and reconciliation, in His Sacraments, when we fall into sin. He will immediately rescue us. No human being is defined as so-called “gay” or “straight”. What nonsense. This is worldliness. We Christians don’t use such terms. Everyone is God’s beloved child. Infinitely loved.

Benedict XVI has been given by God to the world, at this point in history, because he articulates so well the Truth that stands firm for ever.

We must stand with the Pope. There is no other place to go. Everywhere else is dangerous ground and unsafe territory. Our only safe place is beside the Vicar of Christ on earth. The Holy Father speaks the Truth.

The Holy See has rightly called to order dissenting clerical voices. Let every priest remember that on the day we were all ordained, we resolved to uphold, not our own opinions, but “the faith once and for all delivered unto the saints”.

Let us stop this useless disputing and pour our energies into serving the People of God, nourished by our daily union with the Lord, at the Eucharistic Table. – Yours, etc,

Fr PATRICK McCAFFERTY,

Lower Rathmines Road,

Dublin 6.

I thought I would save time and get a post out before tomorrow night's (Tuesday) BBC programme exposing Sean Cardinal Brady's detailed involvement in the Fr Brendan Smyth case and subsequent (still continuing) damage it caused to both children and Church. The Donegal Democrat has the story.

This is the man who should have never accepted the job; who should have told them he couldn't take it because this was in his closet;  who should have resigned quickly when it all came out. This is the man who is using his diocese to fund his legal case.  This is the man who refuses to let anyone, including his fellow bishops in the Irish Church, see the full copy of the Visitation Report.

He should go now.  Go quickly.  We really are in the Berlin bunker at this stage.

Just to follow up on this earlier post about censorship of the website of the Association of Catholic Priests.  I left two comments in my own name with a negative tone (but compliant with their guidelines) about dissident priests.  Neither of the comments were published.  I then left a comment under a different name, asking if it were true that they didn't publish comments they disagreed with, as I'd read this on another site. Again, this fairly tame comment remains unpublished.  I then went in under a third name and left a positive comment about the protest outside the nunciature and how good the priests were.  It was published:



On the issue of other groups with limited freedom of expression, such as civil servants and members of political parties (because of the whip system), it seems Michael Noonan wants to have pre-clearance rights for any statements on Ireland made by the IMF - interesting.

And listening to Fr Iggy O'Donovan on Joe Duffy today.  Well Joe was afflicted with a memory loss about the concelebration with Protestants story and Iggy did his best not to remember it either - really just a misunderstanding and I accept not everyone is ready for it at this time.

You know the way Christian speakers of a certain ilk like to pretend they had dreadful pasts - like St Augustine - to prove their street cred and how happening they were before they found Jesus.  Well it turns out D'Arcy was a tree-killer.  From The Examiner:

The clergyman recalled what he said was the “greatest sin” of his life, when as a novice he was ordered by a superior to cut down 20 cherry trees because the senior figure did not like them. But the trainee priest was challenged the next day by the gardener who was upset by the destruction, since he had planted the trees 15 years before.

Father D’Arcy said: “I was obedient to the letter, and committed a sin. Obedience is not blind.”

The important thing is that he admitted it.  For those not familiar with the famour story of George Washington:

A poem by Paul Perro

Little George Washington was a good boy
So his mummy gave him a brand new toy.
It was a little axe, a real sharp one,
And George thought that it would be lots of fun.

He took the little hatchet out into
The garden, where lots of plants and weeds grew.
He chopped at some weeds, chopped them to the ground,
After that he began to look around.

He looked around for something else to chop,
He was having a ball, and could not stop.
Right at the bottom of the garden he
Came across his daddy's best cherry tree.
 
He chopped at it with his little hatchet
The tree was big, he could only scratch it.
So he tried much harder, chopping the wood,
Until at last it fell down with a thud.

Then George was happy and put down his axe
And he sat down and started to relax.
Suddenly, a cry, it was George’s dad;
He’d seen the felled tree and was really mad.

“Who has chopped down my lovely cherry tree?”
His face was red he was really angry.
George was scared to tell the truth but he knew
Telling the truth was the right thing to do.
So George said “Sorry daddy, it was I,
I killed the tree, I cannot tell a lie.”

At first dad was cross, then he realised
As he looked into his little boy’s eyes,
George’s behaviour had been outrageous
But he’d been honest, which was courageous.

“My boy” said dad, “I’m very cross, but still,
Your honesty is quite admirable.
I cannot punish you because I’m so
Proud that you’re my son. I love you, you know.”

If you’re brave and honest, you can go far,
You can grow up to be a superstar.
Yes George grew up to be one of the greats
A President of the United States!

Give yourself a laugh.  Go over to the website of the Association of Catholic Priests who are fighting the bad fight on behalf of silenced priests.  They believe in freedom of expression within the Catholic Church.  But not on their website.  If you leave anything there they don't agree with the moderators remove it. 

Why do they have moderators in the first place if they don't believe in censorship?

There was a massive show of support by Irish Catholics for the Holy See in Ireland today.

Some 4,544,890 Catholics stayed at home today (Sunday) in support of the Holy See's recent "silencing" of a number of dissident Irish priests. 

"I'm so fed up with these wishy-washy priests" said Maisie O'Donnell, "and I just love the Pope.  So I stayed at home all day to show my solidarity".

Meanwhile in Dublin, a tiny counter demonstration of about a hundred people (about 0.002% of Irish Catholics) was held outside the residence of the Apostolic Nuncio.

In attendance were professional dissidents like Brendan Butler of a group called "We Hate Church".  And Sr Kay Mulhall, a Brigidine sister who spends her days supporting illegal immigrants.  Why not take a moment to read her Advent Reflections.  The First Reading in each case is not taken from the Old or New Testaments, but from her personal anecdotes about asylum seekers.

Meanwhile, in a show of outstanding solidarity with the Holy Father, the Archbishop of Dublin said it was all nothing to do with him and entirely a matter for religious orders.

Proving once again that the real scandal is the silencing of Irish bishops by, em, themselves.

 It has all been a big mistake.  Fr Brian D'Arcy hasn't been silenced because of his heresy;  it's because he's sh*te.

Apparently the Holy Father heard a pod-cast of one of his ghastly programmes, awful music peppered with a "little bit of religion", and ran around the Apostolic Palace, his ears bleeding, shouting "make it stop, make it stop".  So they did.
 
Now all Brian's cosy friends in the media are lining up to support him, after all he is a life member of the National Union of Journalists (which is committed to supporting abortion  - but of course Fr D'Arcy never opposed official church teaching).

He was on with Finucane today spouting off about homosexuality and women priests - apparently Jesus never ordained a black man - but of course Fr D'Arcy never opposed official church teaching.

He's a sly little bit of work, isn't he?  He's been trying to link all this with child abuse - "I will not be silenced" as if he were being silenced because of child abuse.

I take no pleasure in this (well a little bit of pleasure).  D'Arcy is delighted to think he's in the same league as, you know, real theologians.  Sooner he's gone the better.

It would be good if journalists would pause for a moment and look at what happens to politicians who contradict their party line - they lose the party whip, are expelled from the parliamentary party.  Look at the freedoms civil servants have to publicly contradict government policy - none!

 Ireland's newest, probably biggest, certainly finest, primary school was open to the public for the first time this evening. We've been selling the somewhat over priced ballots (raffle tickets to Free-Staters) for weeks and the draw was held in the new school library with a massive crowd in attendance and the parish priest in his element, including telling this story:

Young Thomas, clever and bright, bought a donkey from a farmer for €100. 

The farmer agreed to deliver the donkey the next day. 

the next day the farmer drove up and said, 

"Sorry Thomas, but I have some bad news, the donkey died." 

Thomas replied, "Well, then just give me my money back." 

The farmer said, "I can't do that. I went and spent the money already." 

Thomas said, "OK, then, just bring me the dead donkey." 

The farmer asked, "What are you going to do with a dead donkey? 

Thomas said, "I'm going to raffle him off." 

The farmer said "You can't raffle off a dead donkey!" 

Thomas said, "Sure I can. Watch me. I just won't tell anybody he's dead." 

A month later, the farmer met up with Thomas and asked, 

"What happened with that dead donkey?" 

Thomas boasted, "I raffled him off! -- I sold 500 tickets at 

two dollars a piece and made a nice profit of $898.00." 

The farmer said, "Didn't anyone complain?' 

Thomas said, "Just the guy who won. So I gave him his two dollars back."

Well our raffle and donations raised around €63,000.  My children were convinced we'd win the first prize (€5,000) and the great debate was over we'd go to Disneyland Paris or Disneyland Florida - I was hoping for Florida.  Well, the draw's over and we'll be heading for West Cork as usual. 



 You can see on the floor of the entrance hall of the school the new coat of arms, the winning entry of the Mc Camley, which will give us bragging rights for many years to come. You can't see the motto underneath (up with which we did not come - that't not the motto - just saying we didn't select it).  The motto is:

Trí Nasc Ár Neart

which roughly translates as "Strength through union".  Which funnily enough is also the motto of the Kingdom of Belgium.   And of the ruling Fascist party in the film V for Vendetta.  And of the white farmers union in Zimbabwe.

 The Irish media have been gushing about the appearance of Joanna O’Riordan at the United Nations.  And rightly so.  She is a 16 year old from Cork - and as if being from Cork was not enough to warrant gushing, she has total amelia, a condition which means she has no proper limbs.  She is extremely positive about her condition and has a tremendous passion.  This is reflected in stories in The Cork Examiner, RTE, the Cork Independent, The Sun, the Irish Echo, the Student News and Irish Central.

Of course, if Joanna were 16 week old fetus and not a 16 year old girl the same media organisations would be supporting her medical execution.  In the last two weeks we have had a relentless wash of articles about the horrors of Irish women having to go to England for abortions because their unborn children had medical defects.  The Irish Times had a series of articles including this one, featuring women who have had such abortions.  But it's also been "debated" on RTE and Newstalk along the same lines - bring in hard cases and dare pro-lifers to argue the case against these women.  The same approach was taken at the meeting at Leinster House at which Ronan Mullen was mauled for daring to argue the pro-life case.

If abortion law were changed to allow for abortion in these cases then anyone like Joanna O'Riordan would be hunted down and destroyed.  Here is what a medical website says about how to "manage" Joanna's condition, total amelia:

Management: Based on gestational age at diagnosis. Pregnancy termination should be offered if the diagnosis is made prior to viability.
 

I was reading the Bishops' Lenten Pastoral this evening.  It got very little circulation at the time.  I remember the days when every bishop issued a lenten pastoral read out in all the churches.  Anyway, this one is a fairly decent effort - not sure who wrote it - but it's liberally sprinkled with quotations from the Holy Father - more of the post-visitation effect I would guess.  

Below a few snippets - but do go check out the rest here:

Europe in our time is a culture, almost unique in history, in which God appears to be silent and unmissed in the lives of many. There are many spheres of life in which even believers rarely recognise the relevance of the Gospel. Pope Benedict asked a penetrating question:

 Patsy McGarry, the perfectly impartial religious correspondent of the Irish Times has another attack piece in the paper to mark the Holy Father's birthday.  Most people send a card or gift, maybe a text if you haven't time - Patsy sends an incendiary device.

It's so old hat, so yesterday.  Still harking back to the disappointment of his election, the disaster for the middle aged, middle of the road, middle of nowhere generation of Catholics.  We get the (in reality very short) list of theologians who have been silenced - but of course there's more but Patsy can't reveal their names to protect them.

Read it if you can stomach it - but be careful, the grapes are a little sour.

Update - well don't I feel foolish - the programme I was complaining about was The Savage Eye, not Republic of Telly - but as RTE tells me, the advice holds good.  You can watch it again on RTE player, about ten minutes in.  And when I went to look again what did I discover but that the sketch was introduced by Archbigot Patsy Mc Garry - he really is a piece of work!

-------------------------------------------------

RTE's institutional anti-Catholic bias was well on display this evening with its so-called comedy programme, The Republic of Telly The Savage Eye.  The sketch featured parents visiting a school which was pretending it was no longer Catholic, and featured priests hiding in the closet (ha ha).  If done right with any sense of subtlety it could have been funny.  Instead RTE made it completely offensive by including a scene in which the teacher pulls communion hosts from his pocket which fall over the floor.  He makes some flippant remark about the Body of Christ while eating one and saying "lovely".

If you wish to complain, and I suggest you do, you can read how here, but a simple email will do: complaints@rte.ie  

I sent off the following:

I wish to complain about the Republic of Telly which was shown on Monday evening, 16th April.  

We are used to the relentless anti-Catholics bias of RTE and the tedious references to priests as paedophiles which passes for humour in this programme.  

However, the use of Communion Hosts as a prop in a sketch and references to the Body of Christ, were grossly offensive and well beyond what passes for acceptable.  Doubtless your friends in the Broadcasting Authority of Ireland will tell us how this is a comedy programme and we should expect material which some viewers will find offensive.

It is just not good enough.  Have you learned nothing from the Fr Kevin Reynolds case?  Do you need to lose another €5 million to get the point? 

Immigration Officer:  "Name?"

Chancellor:  "Angela Merkel"

Immigration Officer:  "Occupation?"

Chancellor:  "Ja. Warten Sie, nein, nein. Ich bin nur zu Besuch."

A curate emerged from his simple home on a hillside in South Antrim, West of Britain. Across his front wall someone in the night had painted "KILL ALL TAIGS".

He telephoned his Parish Priest. 

Curate: "Someone's painted "Kill All Taigs" on my garden wall".

Parish Priest:  "Oh yes, I saw that - I thought you'd written it yourself".

There have been three reactions to the combined story of the silencing of Fr Tony Flannery and the Association of Catholic Priests (sic.) sponsored research on the extent of heresy among Catholics:

- Liberal outrage about the silencing and gloating about how Catholics don't believe what Rome wants them to believe proving that the ACP positions are supported by the people;

- Conservative relief about the silencing ("something done at last") and acknowledgement that the type of priests involved in the ACP have been successful over the last forty years in undermining the traditional beliefs of Catholics and that this is reflected in the survey;

- General episcopal silence and embarrassment about the whole affair with the usual "nothing to see here - Catholic education is great - best educated generation of Catholics since St Columbanus etc.

A priest who was saying Mass yesterday at the Church of St Philip the Apostle, Mountview (a visiting priest) preached the following sermon on Divine Mercy Sunday:

"Isn't it awful how Fr Flannery was silenced and in Holy Week too.  It is hard to see how that represented Jesus' divine mercy."  That was it. 

The mission statement for the parish is revelatory:

"To make Mountview Parish a community where each person feels welcomed, accepted, included, listened to and respected.

Under the guidance of the Holy Spirit we will endeavour to achieve this by opening our minds and hearts to the diversity of needs among our parishioners and by encouraging one another to offer our gifts and talents so that we can build a truly Christian community".

I think they borrowed it from a university GLBT society, stuck in Holy Spririt for effect.