Religion

Ultra conservative Catholic, Mary Kenny, is writing in today’s Irish Independent about the forthcoming visit of Pope Benedict to the UK.

Apparently, Cardinal John Newman is to be beatified by the Pope during the visit but Kenny is worried that this might prove controversial.

Cardinal Newman — who undoubtedly added to the acceptability and prestige of British Catholicism when he converted to Rome in 1845, and was a brilliant writer and intellectual — has only performed one miracle since his death in 1890, and that seems to some people to be less than decisive.

Jack Sullivan, a 70-year-old deacon in Boston, has been cured of back and leg pain after praying to Newman and doctors have testified that there is no medical explanation for his cure.

But is one such miracle enough? And doesn’t back pain sometimes heal itself spontaneously?

It’s incredible, and somewhat disturbing, to witness somebody, who most people consider to be perfectly sane, seriously suggesting that a dead man needs to do more if he’s to achieve sainthood

Paedophile priests face the prospect of “burning in Hell” forever, according to the Vatican’s top prosecutor dealing with sex abuse cases.

Feck, it’s only recently we were told that Hell was merely an absence of the Catholic god. The previous Pope said:

While Scripture uses the image of place in relation to eternal damnation, what is really involved is a state of self-exclusion from God

Now that it’s back I’ll have to buy a new fireproof suit.

Last week, writing about RTEs obsession with all things Northern Ireland, I jokingly suggested that perhaps the end days were close to hand because of recent catastrophes like the Haiti earthquake, the Icelandic volcano eruption and the possibility that there could be a split in the Unionist vote in Fermanagh/south Tyrone.

But there are those who believe that there’s a more serious message in recent events.

Pat O’Leary, columnist in the Irish Catholic, warns that recent events could be the work of (her) god warning humans that their quality of homage was not up to scratch.

Where is it all going to end we wonder?

In a world and in a Europe today that tries to ignore the existence of God, it is not beyond the bonds of possibility that we are being reminded that we need to recognize and pay due homage to our Creator.

And there I was thinking that the deaths of more than 230,000 people in Haiti was an horrendous tragedy brought about by natural forces when in fact it was actually the work of a god throwing a tantrum because his due homage wasn’t up to scratch.

The following letter was published in this week’s Irish Catholic in response to the claim by the Pope’s right hand man, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone, that there’s a relationship between homosexuality and paedophilia.

The letter demonstrates how the child abuse that is religious indoctrination can destroy the happiness of an innocent human being.

Dear Editor,

Is what Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone said true? I really find it hard to believe.

I am a Catholic who happens to be homosexual, through no choice of my own. I was taught as a child that I was evil and that God hated me, I believed it. I used to ask him why he hated me. I used to tell him that I had done nothing wrong, that I couldn’t understand his animosity. My bedtime prayer was, ‘please let me die’.

Was it right that an innocent six-year-old child should experience such a complete absence of love? Was it not another form of child abuse? For over 40 years, I have done everything to try and force God to love me. I have been celibate with all that entails – a life lived in solitary confinement, a heart that has never loved or been loved.

I go to Mass and pray the Rosary every day. I read the Bible every day and some other spiritual book. I am alone in a Church that gives the best impression it can that it despises homosexuals.

For 2,000 years, no Pope has ever publicly said one word of support or encouragement to people like me, never denounced the murderers or imprisonment of men who cannot help who and what they are. The few words reserved for us are always condemnatory.

And now, this. If it is true, why hasn’t the Pope come out strongly against it? Perhaps he agrees with him. Christ never mentioned us, never condemned us either. Are they just continuing His silence and adding their own slant to it?

The only people who ever show charity and understanding are lapsed or non-Catholics. Doesn’t that say it all?

After being persecuted by the Romans why did they have to begin persecuting others themselves? Shouldn’t they have known better? I don’t think it will ever change.

There is no light at the end of the tunnel. There never will be.

Yours etc.

(Name and address with editor)

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was clearly very upset by the remarks of Dr Rowan Williams Archbishop of Canterbury (RTE News).

Williams’ (accurate) assertion that the Catholic Church in Ireland had lost all credibility drew an instant and strong response from Martin. He issued an immediate statement to the media saying he was ‘stunned’ by the remark.

Bishop Willie Walsh was sent out to express the outage felt by the hierarchy saying that the remark was harsh, over the top and went against all the evidence (Marian Finucane Show – Saturday).The evidence, he bizarrely claimed, was the huge number of people who had attended weekend Mass.

Then, amazingly, Archbishop Martin himself got onto the same show to express his stunned shock at such a terrible event.

Listening to the Archbishop it was clear what worried him most – that Williams’ (correct) assessment of the corrupt nature of the Irish Catholic Church was going to be broadcast by the BBC across the globe or, as Martin put it – Boomed across the world.

He was obviously shocked, that after all his careful manipulation of the Irish media and in particular RTE, a simple few words from Williams would see it all come to nothing when the brutal truth was broadcast across the globe by the most respected broadcasting agency on the planet.

In a desperate damage limitation move he announced that he was going to write immediately to Williams and would publish the correspondence if necessary.

Martin obviously felt that those few simple words were so damaging (revealing) that immediate and strong action was necessary to limit the damage.

In the end no letter demanding an apology was necessary. Williams, realising he had made what I call an ‘in house error’ immediately telephoned Martin and made an abject apology expressing his

deep sorrow and regret for difficulties that may have been created by his remarks.

So what was this spat all about? It has all to do with the truth. Williams, in an unguarded moment, uttered the brutal truth that the Catholic Church in Ireland is indeed without any credibility whatsoever.

How could a church that presided over a child abuse holocaust have any credibility especially when, as the truth began to seep out, it engaged in a long, well funded, well organised cover up?

And make no mistake about it Dr. Martin is part of that ongoing denial/cover up. Williams’ slip of the truth has damaged Martin’s well choreographed propaganda campaign of the last two years or so. His working of the media, and in particular RTE, has been a major and very successful part of his campaign.

In practically every interview Martin is treated with an over arching deference and in most cases, as in his interview with Marian Finucane on Saturday, is actually told what a great man he is.

This dishonest strategy was exposed during the bishops’ visit to the Pope recently. It was clear that nothing had changed, that the Catholic Church was still in denial, still engaged in a damage limitation strategy, still putting all its resources and power into protecting the church rather than admitting the brutal truth.

Archbishop Martin, the soft face of this strategy of dishonesty and denial, made no criticism whatsoever of the Pope’s failure to properly address the pain of the victims.

Neither did Martin express any criticism when the Pope’s pastoral letter blamed secularism for the child abuse holocaust.

It was the immediate, strong and panicked response by Martin to a few simple words of truth that has exposed his true position.

His response to the child abuse horror is, and always has been, strictly in line with the Vatican’s policy of putting the interests of the church before the safety of children.