You may recall a previous post about a 66 yearl old Protestant Church elder convicted of molesting a child who escaped sentencing to prison because he was so fat.

Well the Attorney General (not yet John Larkin but some time soon, "any time" in fact) is seeking to have the sentence increased.  You can read the story here on the BBC.

What's interesting is how the BBC has dropped all reference to him being a Church elder.  The original story is headlined "Sex abuse church elder McConaghy 'too fat ...
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So the Irish bishops are off in Rome for two days of meetings/dressing down with the Holy Father.  I have to say the whole thing has me appalled and outraged.  So many of our bishops seem to have learned nothing - even after all these years, countless meetings etc they still don't know how to wear their pectoral crosses.  Almost all of them are wearing them like Anglican bishops.  What hope is there for the Church?



And then the attempts of some of them to kiss the Holy Father's ring, or in the...
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You really have to wonder if our church has learned anything during this abuse crisis. 

On the 19th January this letter appeared in the Irish Times in response to a letter by Pat Buckley, Bishop of Larne, Omeath and the Isles.

Madam, – Pat Buckley (Letters, January 13th) inaccurately stated that, at the time of his “sacking”, Fr Brendan Smyth “was ministering in Down and Connor with the knowledge and consent of its then bishop, Cahal Daly”.

It should be noted that Fr Brendan Smyth, ...

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I have been pondering the Murphy Report.  Among the problems I have is that I find it hard to yield an inch to the enemies of the Church.  When the rather unpleasant son of the Protestant Archbishop of Dublin starts attacking the Papal Nuncio you know, you just know, that there's more to it than concern for children.  He may start out with that thought.  He may still have it when he calls for the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio but when he says:

"Our actions now will demonstrate whether this sta...
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I think the game is up for Archbishop Martin's attempts to turn the religious orders into a bad church for toxic abuse.  It only works if people don't realise it is happening.  But this morning on Joe Duffy's TV programme on RTE1 the cat came out of the bag.  Joe began with a bland "the bishops have come out of this controversy well", his tongue firmly in his cheek.  Fr Tony Flannery paused but a moment before laying in to their attempts at scape-goating religious orders.  I thought he would ...
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The Archbishop of Dublin is not particularly noted as a teacher.  But some people are learning from him.  Last week I noted his efforts at establishing CORI as what I called a "bad church" to deal with the toxic debt of child abuse.  In tomorrow's The Irish Catholic, CORI will be doing the same with the eighteen religious orders involved in the Ryan Report.  In turn David Quinn has noted that of the eighteen orders mentioned in the report, some are far "guiltier" than others.  I suspect as th...
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One of the reasons we respect Diarmuid Martin so much is that he is a tremendous strategarius - like a stradivarius but with a lot more strings and instead of a sound board it's more of a bored sound.

His strategy for dealing with the child abuse scandal has been masterful.  He has learned well from the secular sphere he moves in.  While the State has been setting up the National Assets Management Agency to transfer toxic debts into one bad bank, Martin has been setting up CORI as the "Bad Chu...
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Damien Thompson in the Telegraph has an interesting post today on the abuse scandals which he describes as as much Irish as Catholic.  Do read it.  I think a lot of what he has to say has validity. 

And it's important that we start really trying to analyse what happened in this country.  This will be difficult because most people don't want to know why it happened.
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Mary Kenny in tomorrow's Irish Catholic has an excellent proposal which I heartily endorse.

She thinks the Archbishop of Dublin should sell his house and give the money to the abuse victims and then go and live in the centre of Dublin.
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I've been debating the Ryan Report in some other on-line fora and really I've had enough.  Is there any point?  Should we keep putting ourselves out and talking about it or just let the media and victim groups to talk among themselves.  You get so far and then someone plays the Absolute Morality Card and announces that they were abused and you're expected to stop the discussion, roll over and die.  Well, that might be good enough for the Archbishop of Dublin, but it isn't for me. 

Clearly the...
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Someone left this comment on the blog:

"I am not really to sure you are or if you even know your self.  But I wonder are you living in the real world and I mean it from the point of view that in the biggest report to have hit the Irish Church you can only find space to try and defend a bishop It scares the hell out me that it was people like your self who in the past both in side the church and outside of the church inside and outside of other bodies buried their heads in the sand and claim no...
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I find myself forced to break my self imposed silence on the Commission on Child Abuse because I have to comment on the disgraceful behaviour of the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.  His Grace has always, frankly, been a bit holier than thou when dealing with this issue with his attempts, not just to do the right thing, but to show that other bishops and religious orders are doing the wrong thing.

But his attack on the new Archbishop of Westminster on the day of his installation has me f...
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Seen and Unseen is a Commission to Inquire into Child Abuse discussion free zone.  We've had the aplogies, the discussion, the arguments over the required standards of proof.
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Apparently the Children's Ombudsman is not at all happy with the HSE.  She had stopped her investigation into their part in the Cloyne abuse saga because they are refusing to cooperate.  Seems the only document they sent was a photocopy of an already publicly available document.  And then on foot of continuing request from the Ombudsman, they wanted to negotiate via senior counsel.  The Ombudsman decided not to waste public many and called a halt to her investigations while going public on th...

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Well clearly my taunting of Liverpool has had unexpected results, prompting them to raise their game against Manchester United.  Good news for the neutrals, I suppose, keeping things going for another few weeks.

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I had Patrick at his football training this morning;  he plays for East Meath United - the EMUs.  I was helping train the under fives today and it showed how difficult a child protection policy can be.  Four and five year olds find it very difficult to put football bibs on ...

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Well, actually little demonic genius would be more apt.  Teresa Benedicta Maria has a particular talent for hiding stuff.  I spent two days looking for my car keys - she'd hidden them in the space in the door between the outer inner flaps of the letter box. 

This evening it was the romote for the television.  I hunted high and low, under sofas and chairs, in laundry baskets, toilets, the oven, the fish-tank.  Eventually I gave up, sat down for a cuppa - the first in six hours! - and suddenly ...
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Back to Cloyne for a moment.

This is all very strange.  I had a quick flick through the Code and I cannot find any legislation governing the current situation in Cloyne.  As the various news reports and press releases have made clear, Bishop Magee has not actually resigned.  I presumed originally he'd resigned as allowed for by Canon 401.2:

A diocesan Bishop who, because of illness or some other grave reason, has become unsuited for the fulfilment of his office, is earnestly requested to offe...

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Sunday was out buying paint – a job that takes a long time, particularly when you are trying to find a particular colour.  I had  little plastic toy bath (pink with blue/green legs) with me – the colour I wanted was the bluey/green as it’s the colour of our box room, one of which walls was moved last week to allow a staircase to be installed for our attic conversion.  I was wandering up and down Homebase lost in Crown and Dulux and heritage paints and own brands and nothing looked remot...

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DISCLAIMER – meant to put this in the first post - anything I write is my own opinion and is not intended to represent the views of any organisation of which I am a member or have any connection.

 

Oh yes, the name – Seen and Unseen.  Well obviously from the Creed, but in particular it was mentioned in some context in the Vicar of Dibley and I thought that would be a good name for a blog.  (Although a few others had the same idea as well I see).

 

Keen observers will notice the timing...

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