I had a meeting with a priest of an English Catholic diocese who told me that he belonged to a small group of priests in the diocese who called themselves the SOCIETY OF PERPETUAL RECREATION – SPR
The motto of this society is: “TO WORK ONE DAY (SUNDAY) AND TO “DOSS” FOR SIX DAYS”.
The founder of the SPR was an Irish priest from Kanturk in County Cork – Canon Denis McSweeneywho was a well known priest of the Catholic Diocese of Northampton. However he was well known in the dioceses of Westminster and Birmingham also.
There are still a number of members of the SPR alive and well.
CANON DENIS MC SWEENEY
As a priest he was well known in the biker community. He was also famous for his collection of antiques – especially old telephones, wind up gramophones. He was also famous as an art collector.
CANON MC SWEENEY LEFT
Mind you Denis McSweeney was liked by many clergy and people and he was very human and friendly and a great story teller.
CANON MC SWEENEY IN THE LONDON ACE BIKERS CLUB
The SPR encouraged its member priests to spend six days a week meeting each other and following up their own hobbies. The priest I spoke to was an “officer” is the SPR and at meetings of the Society he was required to dress up in a bishop’s purple mozetta (red cape).
MOZETTA
He also had to wear this mozetta when they met in pubs and hostelries for “meals, drinks and laughs”. My priest friend said:
“There are still living SPR members in England. It was a totally subtle secret society, I know members who were Cagney & Lacey and Wycliffe fans , we didn’t answer the door 🚪or phone”.
WHAT IS MY EXPERIENCE OF LAZY PRIESTS AND THE SPR?
I have no personal experience of the SPR but I have known a few priests in my time who did little or no work. My fellow curate in St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast Fr Joe Mc Gurnaghan RIP from 1978 – 1983 had the following daily routine:
9 AM: Breakfast and read Irish Times.
10 am – 1 pm: Listen to music in private sitting room.
1 pm: Lunch – Vegetable Broth laced with sherry, main course with red wine, desert, coffee laced with brandy.
2 pm to 6 pm: Listen to music in private sitting room.
6 pm: High Tea.
Some days he celebrated Mass.
Thursday was his “Day off”.
In fairness to Joe he never should have been a priest. I think he was pushed into the priesthood by an overbearing and bullying school principal father.
In the priesthood you can either be a “dosser” or a “worker” and you will get away with it either ways.
There are some very good and very active priests.
There are plenty of dossers among the priests in parishes.
I think there are even more dossers in religious orders.
The priesthood can either be a WASTED LIFE or a VERY FULFILLING LIFE.
I’d like to hear the readers experiences of dosser priests and hard working priests.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
154 replies on “THE SOCIETY OF LAZY PRIESTS!”
Masses in the Colin are reduced at weekends at weekday cuts are planned
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They only go to Mass in West Belfast if it’s a funeral. It’s the most lapsed part of the diocese.
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Unfair comment. They also go to weddings and Christenings.
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Who is the Colin?
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I think it’s a reference to Colin Glen, a place much troubled by TWOCing and substance abuse, in the Wild West of Belfast.
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You do realise that the SPR is a joke? It was Denis taking the piss.
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Here we go again. Such a vacuous, stupid, silly and pathetic piece. You will elicit the predictable responses of total ridiculing of priests. Incidentally, you printed these photos before and also relayed your story about Fr. Gurnaghan. It’s disgusting that you should defame and discredit this man who has died. You are a despicable priest. You’re not the icon of any priestly virtue. Thank God I am blessed to have been inspired by many wonderful and dedicated priests. Your topic today represents a spiritual emptiness in your life, a life you present as better than any other cleric. How blind you are!
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Anon@ 11:58:
I agree entirely with your second sentence. On reading the blog my impression was that +Pat was really “scraping the bottom of the barrel.”
MMM
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For that to happen, there has to be a bottom and “scrapings”.
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9.48: Thank you MMM for your very considered response to my 11.58 of last night. I am very disappointed with Pat that he should indeed scrape the bottom of the barrel. Undoubtedly there are lazy clerics who do just the minimum but the majority try to work with diligence and responsibility. The purpose of the blog today is precisely to invite invective and nasty judgment against clerics. It’s what Pat thrives on. Those of us who try our best find his constant abuse and obsession a little tiresome, disheartening and utterly contemptible. What a “lenten” renewal Pat is having!!!!
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Stick to reviewing Guinness in the pubs of Hilltown, MMN.
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Pat thinks that his fiddling with his blogsite all day makes him an industrious priest.
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Didn’t realise the SPR was still going. Denis was indeed it founder and he liked to dine out a lot in rural Bedfordshire Pubs especially at Puloxhill. I can remember one young priest at a Cathedral lunch wearing a Mozzetta – I think they referred to him as the Father General, the meeting consisted of a very long lunch with much giggling and frivolity. The emphasis was very much on dossing. They were a harmless bunch who wined and dined a lot. I think there were several former Anglican clergy in the SPR.
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I think those pair of goofs who dine out together and watch priests would have a field day watching all this SPR wining and dining.
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We are not goofs thank you very much. The topic of the blog today vindicates my wife and I and proves what we’ve been saying all along. Priests out dining and dining with the collection money. Bank holiday yesterday we had an excellent carvery at Tullyglass in Ballymena. Far too much food in offer and a bit expensive but enjoyable. They had the usual hogs over filling their plates and going back for more, total gluttony we observed. No priests as they don’t tend to hang around Ballymena eating places. We did see one that possibly was a retired one in mufty and my wife said he was horsing the red wine into him as if there was no tomorrow.
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12:24 is fefinitely taking the piss – as they say in the vernacular. So ladies and gents it’s there for a laugh. That’s all. Don’t go all serious and react. We Irish need to be able to laugh at ourselves a bit more – as the English can.
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I think any clergy who spend all their time on golf courses must be SPR.
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12.24: Would you and your nosey trollope of a wife put your heads up your backsides. You pair of auld loopies. Get off this blog and hopefully you’ll soon get a chicken bone in your throat from all your noseying around in restaurants. You imbeciles.
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Oi, pal! ‘Trollope’?
Mind your language.
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Have we upset you Father or perhaps spotted you gorging yourself in a hotel.
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Any priest trying to offload requiem Masses and prayers onto lay people is a dosser.
Any priests seeing 5/6 people in a queue for Confessions at Christmas time and calling them up for general absolution, which is not allowed by Church rules yet witnessed at Clonard monastery, is a dosser.
Any priest keeping himself busy with worldly considerations while ignoring the SPIRITUAL hunger of his parishioners is either a virtue signaller / misplaced civil servant / dosser.
Any priest below a certain age who is overweight is most likely lax and self-indulgent.
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Any priest who insists on a Requiem Mass being tagged on to a regular week day or Sunday parish Mass for their own convenience is dossing.
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That was always the way in Armagh Cathedral. It was a total abuse to turn the main Sunday Mass (a mini Easter Sunday) into a Requiem with purple vestments.
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Pat, the cartoon is as apt for you as it is for the clerics you deem lazy. You have so little to do yourself with no school responsibilities, no pastoral responsibilities in a parish, no financial administration, no first communion or confirmation parish programmes, no pastoral council, no school board management….Have a look at the schedule of priests who are on their own in parishes. You’ll see the real picture. And, try to be honest, balanced and fair!
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The Armagh Clergy have got to be the laziest dossers about the place. @2.55pm is correct to point out the lazy practices at its Cathedral but is also the case in many of its parishes. I wonder is Amy in the SPR.
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And ginger nuts Rory always picked EP2 on a Sunday (another liturgical abuse) and would drop the homily if there was a big Armagh match. He’d affect interest in the GAA but he was only interested in the footballers’ thighs.
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Where can you apply to be SPR.
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There is a Northern Irish Branch
V. Rev Eamonn Canon Murney PE
PO BOX 12189
Dromara
Co. Down.
BT25 2JG
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Murney is a very popular Co. Down name especially in places around Newcastle. I wonder if MMM is a Murney?
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You can’t apply to SPR, you must be invited in by any current member. No lay people in SPR either as they would frown on The Rule that they have adopted.
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Red Rory’s main interest lies in the entire area above the thighs and below the belly button – back front, sides and underneath 😂
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I hear SPR have recruited a few members in Ireland. It’s rumoured that Noel Treanor is a member and lives out the rule every week. Often seen wining and dining and generally dossing about the place.
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Noel is the Episcopal Protector of SPR N. IRELAND. He is a nephew of Canon Murney who worked in England all his life. Murney is a brother of Noel’s mother, Sheelagh Murney.
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St Patrick’s Belfast, St Vincent de Paul, Belfast, St Peters cathedral Belfast. Therein abide three men who wouldn’t know an honest days work if it hit them up the face. In these parishes clericalism is alive. As I head out to work now, no doubt these three princesses are still in their pits.
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6.56: Lies, lies and damned lies….jealousy and begrudgery. Thank God you have work to go to. There are many who have no such opportunities, so be grateful.
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There is work in Belfast at the present time for anyone who wants it. Fact. Low wages are supplemented by tax credits. So what you on about!!!
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I think the big Dean now fits into the category of SPR after Elsie dropped him from Westminster. Time now spent travelling and hanging around the Portstewart coffee shops and Harry’s Shack plus the harbour hosteleries of Portrush
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The Big Dean thought all his Christmases had come at once when he, in defiance of Noel Treanor, found himself a cushy job in More House among the lovely young guys – all university types – highly intelligent (like himself) – and swanning around amongst the Sloan Rangers, like a Padre straight out of an Evelyn Waugh novel!
He was free to go a panting after various lovely guys, including a young Dominican who had captured his interest.
He was living the dream, in the midst too of the musical and theatrical splendours of Westminster Cathedral, right under old Else’s nose.
Sadly, the long arm of the law reached across from his former life and scuppered the idyllic life he had created. Some blighter of an erstwhile lovely guy – who undoubtedly has misinterpreted a little bit of affectionate, rakish, horseplay between two lads and blown it out of all proportion – g’ol darn it.
Life is so unfair. The great Dean, hang-dog faced, now sits mournfully gazing out of the hostelries’ windows of boring old Portstewart, wistfully thinking, on what was and what might have been.
He could even have been Elsie’s successor. 😔 Helas!
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At 8:18 I don’t like using vulgar language but in your case I’ll make an exception. This is rather a bitchy post.
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The Canonesses brought in a permanent deacon as the chaplain in More House for a while. It was an agreeable live-in job but inevitably in typical permanent deacon fashion he started to lord it over the nuns and as staunch feminists they did not like it one bit.
The nuns started to ask “what can he do that we can’t do” as there was no market for weddings, funerals or baptisms in the chaplaincy so they got rid of him.
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Canon McSweeney was a saint. There’s no resident priest in Flitwick now.
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I wouldn’t go that far. He was a fun man but he wasn’t a saint. Even he would laugh at the idea of that.
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I’m sure he would. He was great craic and celebrated the TLM. For that reason alone he deserves a 😇
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Sounds a laugh compared to the dreary twats of today. Anybody remember Denis Murphy of Westminster Cathedral in pre-Mark Langham days? A Cork man, I believe.
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At 8:41pm 😂😂😂
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We’ve had all these anecdotes before, but they do beg the question of whether the PP model is viable or indeed any longer desirable. We still operate a preconciliar model of spectacularly ineffective long seminary training followed by curacy and then these days getting your own parish fairly quickly. Priests therefore tend to be dependent on each other for social contact with “the lads”; the difference today is isolation. In Westminster, not exactly a model of good practice, Basil set up the Ministry to Priests programme to give a social life to those clergy too pathetic to join the gay clergy holiday and social club which met at Rules Restaurant in Covent Garden. The proffered alternative was to meet in each other’s kitchens to go for a pint and support each other. Call me a sentimental naive old fool, but I don’t think that everybody who goes into a seminary is necessarily venal, lazy or corrupt, but the system either teaches them to play the game ( as notoriously at Allen Hall and Maynooth ) or leaves you on the rocks as Billy No-Mates rattling around a presbytery, unable to form proper social contacts, let alone exercise ministry because most people out there think you are a weirdo or worse, so you increasingly lie in bed in the mornings, delegate visiting to the Eucharistic Ministers, and look forward to a gin watching Hollyoaks thinking of the life you might have had. From time to time you might try to convince yourself that you do have some integrity by adding your name to a petition calling for the rigid application of traditional teaching on communion/gay marriage/contraception or something else that you don’t actually believe in. Needless to say, you hate and fear Elsie.
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Elsie had little fits of SPR activity himself going with his nun friend to the caravan.
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That’s where he goes to get “Carmelised”.
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Our priest’s “working’ week:
1. After Mass on Sunday, he is off and away at lunchtime Sunday until Mass at 6:00 pm on Tuesday evening. So at least two and a half days off each week. He says he goes “home’ but he heads off to be with his latest partner.
2. Wednesday – Saturday: Up for Mass at 10 am (it used to be 9 am but he moved it to 10 am, as more convenient for the elderly, but in reality no doubt to suit his getting out of bed time, and making it very difficult for the school to arrange their timetable to include Mass.
3. After Mass back to the presbytery for a coffee, look at the paper, and make some phone calls and do a little bit of desk work. Close attention is paid to the collections, accounts and bank balances with an eye to how much can be spent on doing up the presbytery, interior design and generally spending on his own comfort.
4. 12:30 pm: Lunch, very often in a local hostelry, followed by a siesta until 4 pm.
5. 4:00 pm: Occasionally off to the gym for a bit of exercise, followed by a little trip around the lay-bys and cruising sites looking for a meet with another gay guy. If they look the right type, they may be invited back to the presbytery for a session. Once a fortnight he travels further to go to the gay sauna in the city.
6. 7:00 pm: Quick shopping trip for wine and the evening’s supper; cook, eat, drink, watch tv. If sober enough, and if he hasn’t got his oats earlier in the day, off for another quick late night cruising trip.
7. 12 midnight: And so to bed….
8. And he thinks we are fooled…..!
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That outline fits several local PPs I know about.
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At 10:01.
That’s a convincing argument in favour of allowing priests to marry!
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10.01: Do you live with your priest? You damn plonker and utter nut!
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Oh, and don’t forget the at least 6 weeks holidays a year in places like Gran Canaria, Sitges etc., in addition to a few more weeks away on “retreat” or “professional development”. And any other excuse to get away…..
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+ Pat,
I am abhorred to read the pejorative comments about me here.
I believe that I am doing a fine job as president of the Pontifical College, Maynooth.
Some new seminarian recruits come here with a deep faith, belief in the Real Presence, devotion to our Lady and the Rosary, belief in the devil and demonic, etc. You know? all that medieval nonsense!! The first thing we do is we bludgeon all this balderdash out of them and then turn them into agnostic careerist cynics.
Some, unfortunately, get through the mal-forming process with their faith intact, although maybe somewhat tarnished (which at least we consider is better than having their faith left completely pure and joyful!).
I was proud to have the privilege of welcoming a record low number of only 5 seminarians last year, and hope to even break this record in the autumn.
I am also proud to announce that most fellows now with a sincere vocation avoid Maynooth like the plague and opt instead for the Dominicans or foreign shores.
Now I must write a licky arse email to the Nuncio. I can’t have old ‘yellow teeth hi guys’ getting the purple hat before me! If he thinks he can come home from sipping cappaccinos and nibbling croissants on the Champs-Elysees without a battle, he is seriously mistaken!!!
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Ehhh Fanny,
Please stop your waffling and burn any fucking incriminating evidence against us should we be landed with Freedom of Information Act request!
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Right-wing thrash. Not remotely humourous. Can’t tell the difference between faith snd belief. Bitter and twisted mesnderings.
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Hear hear Fanny!
Down with all that pre Enlightenment nonsense, indeed.
Wait a minute! If there is no such thing as the Devil, why the hell did I enter the seminary? 🤔
I’m outta here man! Party! Eat, drink, shag, be merry baby! Coz we all gonna go straight to heaven no matter what!😜
Who cares what Jesus says???
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Good woman Fanny.
Keep steering her on to the rocks.
She’s about to blow !💣
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2:01 You are actually in error. While the Church teaches the existence of hell she has never in her long history said that it is populated. In other words, while many are declared to be in heaven, the same can’t be said for hell.
So, you need to rething your using what Jesus said to support your claim.
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@12.42
Two lines- and two spelling mistakes plus two typos. I’d say you have the depth of a piece of clingfilm, so I’ll pass on your opinion as to what God requires of us.
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3:58
Some of Jesus’ words on hell:
“I have guarded them, and none of them is lost but the son of perdition, that the Scripture might be fulfilled.” (John 17: 12)
“Enter by the narrow gate; for the gate is wide and the way is easy, that leads to destruction, and those who enter by it are many.” (Matt 7:13)
“And they will go away into eternal punishment, but the righteous into eternal life.” (Matt 25:46)
Jesus’ words trump what the Church says.
Don’t delude yourself.
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3:58
Not one of the three quotes claims that anyone has gone to hell.
‘Lost’ in the first refers to Jesus’ failure to have kept all of his disciples from abandoning him.
The second and third are parables not allegories and neither mentions ‘hell.’
You may wish that many should be there, perhaps even some of your acquaintances. However, Jesus in his wisdom and Holy Mother Church in hers know better than you.
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8:54
The etymological root of the word perdition comes the Latin word, perdere, which means to destroy.
Now please, let’s not overcomplicate Jesus’ words here.
You are erroneously applying the allegorical biblical hermeneutical key inappropriately to where a literal translation is required.
Out of the allegorical, analogical, literal and moral senses of interpretation, the Saints, Doctors and Mystics of the Church have always used the literal sense to these passages.
If you doubt anybody goes to hell, why did Jesus come to earth to give us a moral code to live by? What was the point of his death? Why bother being a Christian?
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@8:54 What does eternal punishment mean? While the Church does not say for definite that anyone is in hell neither does she deny this. It is not the Church’s place to say that anyone is in hell. That belongs to God alone. But we can infer from the Bible, Saints and approved apparitions that many do go to hell.
I sincerely do not wish that anyone is in hell. Especially my acquaintances. You are making big assumptions there buddy.
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Dear 8:54
It’s not the Latin we need to look at but the Greek of John 17.12. It reads as follows: ὁ υἱὸς τῆς ἀπωλείας, Literally, the (the only one I have lost is) ‘the son of ruin.’ The literal meaning of ἀπωλεία is just that, ruin. Nothing about hell or damnation. Jesus lost the battle for Judas. Judas betrayed him. That’s it.
The point of being a Christian is not to be moral. We are that by virtue of being human. The point of being a Christian is to be a disciple of Jesus and emulate his relationship with the Father.
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@10.55
You may infer as much as you like that your enemies are in hell. The church declares that many named individuals are in heaven. She stops short of doing that about hell. Have you every wondered why. An argument from silence holds some weight but in this case, very little.
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“Pontifical College” is a dead giveaway that you have never been near Maynooth.
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Au contraire 4:16!
I was in Maynooth for a considerable amount of time.
Let’s no be pedantic over lexical semantics. Eh?
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8:18
It is precisely because I don’t want anybody to go to Hell that I believe it should be discussed more.
Do not impute motivations to me of which you have no cognizance!
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😴 wake me up when we all get to heaven 8:54
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Sounds as if you’re disappointed some specially chosen by you may not be going to hell.
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12:25: There is no point in engaging with someone who has fallen for the modernistic error of universalism. You are a typical Maynooth denizen, no doubt.
If you are afraid to discuss the possibility of eternal damnation – that’s your problem.
St Teresa of Avila began her arduous path to the heights of sanctity when Jesus showed her the place in hell which was prepared for her should she stay in a mediocre and worldly state.
“The Fear of the Lord is the beginning of wisdom.” (Proverbs 9:10).
You can distort the meaning of the words of Scripture with serpertine semantics till the cows come home buddy!
The problem with many in the modern church is that there is no proper fear of God and His judgement. Hence the morals of Western society are deteriorating at an alarming rate.
The Scriptures were written shorthand in a very simple straight forward style. The basic soteriological truths of the Faith were intended by Jesus to be grasped by everyone. Not just those with degrees in Theology, Philology or ancient Greek and Latin! Who are very few!
Again, you have failed to answer the questions: If nobody goes to hell, why not live a dissolute or debauched life? Why would any normal young man want to be a priest? with all that entails.
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9:16
The universalism you decry is articulated by the author of the First Letter to Timothy. In 2:4 he refers to God “who desires all to be saved and to come to the knowledge of the truth.” Its roots may be traced to Second Isaiah (40-55) and other biblical locations.
Christians are orientated to live moral lives, as every other member of the species is, by virtue of their membership of the human race and their innate power of reason. We Christians have an extra encouragement in the moral adventure by belonging to the church with its foundations in scripture and tradition and by following the teaching and example of Jesus.
Those who live morally out of fear of God’s reprisal remain at Kohlberg’s first stage of moral development and have a long way to go to human flourishing.
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The way you speak 8:18 is the reason why most guys avoid Maynooth now and the place is dying.
You believe in some esoteric religion, not Christianity.
Thanks be to God I will not allow my faith to be influenced by enlightened people like you.
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9:59
Yes, God desires all to be saved.
But then our desire comes into the mix.
God does not force anyone into Heaven who does not want to be there.
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Pat Mullaney is a great SPR man as he spent lots of time at the bum bum so he did Pat.
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Fixated obsessive alert.
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@12:43 the only real “fixated obsessive” around is your good self! 😂
Here, you’re not Pat Mullaney by any chance are you? 😉😂
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Quite right @2:18 pm. What’s the game for this obsessive “fixated obsessive alert”? Is he the same one who kept posting “obsessive” when any questions were raised concerning the former Provost of the Oxford Oratory? Now there’s a case for Miss Marple. He is still listed in the Newsletter as Parish Priest which rather suggests, does it not? that he is a busy bee attending to the needs of the faithful, so he is back from his unexplained absence and subsequent demotion? Or are the Fathers being a little economical with the truth? Where is our Birmingham correspondent when we need him?
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The remedy for the lazy priests society or the ‘society of perpetual recreation’ is to support themselves by
working part-time. I’d doubt if this topic is scraping the clerical barrel. I reckon there’s an awful lot worse to be found in that barrel.
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A lot of the clergy go to Lourdes as they see it as a great dossing session and end up singing late at night in the bars and hotels. Just turn up for the bare minimum and doss the rest of the time. When in Brum Elsie had the tradition of inviting all his clergy to a meal together in Lourdes. Elsie insisted on each one having a party piece and there was much laughing and merriment.
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Did Elsie also do a turn with the nun? How simply ghastly! At least old Maurice had style.
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They also like dossing down by the meadow at night.
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Yes great jivers too..them Lourdes boyos.
Plenty of Irish coffees and many sex encounters
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I bet you feel you’re missing out.
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Aul Niall Ahern, the Middle Dean, also insisted that every sem performed a party piece at his “at homes” in his well appointed rooms in New House. I recited Miss Joan Hunter Dunn by John Betjeman. That went down well with the Kerry lads.
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You sound more like a Belloc’s Matilda man yourself.
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Any priest who spends his time taking part in auld silly plays and shows must be a first degree dosser. Rehearsing for them instead of fulfilling his duties and just dossing instead.
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The bingo numbers won’t call themselves, you cretin.
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Are only Priests capable of calling bingo numbers?
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He’s being with and among his people. Amateur dramatics are a great way to get to know your people.
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Amateur Dramatics my eye. If you don’t know your people after 5 or 6 years there’s something seriously wrong. Sounds more like an opportunity to camp it up,
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Any schoolteacher will tell you that extracurricular activities do wonders for building up a relationship with the class.
If you consider amateur dramatics as a way for ‘camping things up’ you are both a chauvinist and a boor.
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And who pays for all of this? You’ve got it, baaaaaaaaaaaa
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😆👍
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These words are those of the nameless troll who frequents this website to an inordinate degree.
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I see Journo/award-winning photographer Brenda Marsha’s narrative of tragic events in Cookstown is widely accepted and commented upon in today’s papers …….. NOT!!!!
What on earth was he playing at?
He was at pains, it would seem, to exonerate someone by adamantly saying, in his barely coherent interview with Nolan, that there was absolutely no crush – contradicting the PSNI and making a total fool of himself.
What’s that all about one wonders? Is he friendly with the disco organisers or something?
Mark Simpson was swift in contradicting him. All very strange.
And lunatic Quinn stuck in the middle of it all to boot!!
Anyhow, at the end of the day, God love all those affected by this tragedy.
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Yes very tragic events indeed and a community in mourning. Not helped by the two Armagh rejects Quinn and Marshall turning up like some sort of ghouls to watch from a distance. I also hear it was Marshall who called Nolan and not the other way about.
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Quinn looks insane and grotesquely ugly!
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1.27: No doubt that if you were close by You’d have been another ghoul! It’s in human our nature to be curious onlookers, even in tragedy. So, you too are a ghoul….you idiit.
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BJM is an entitled moron. He thought he was God’s gift in Maynooth and swanned about as if he was as gorgeous as Gorgeous. His 5 live stunt backfired badly.
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5 Live must have thought “here’s a scoop, there’s a journalist at the scene now and ready to go on air”.
Within BBC News the heirachy is that 5 Live is cleared to get the news out first, even ahead of the telly. That’s why their jingle says “first for breaking news”.
They take that seriously and Marshall’s carry on has left them seriously unimpressed.
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That sem from Galway who was filmed in NYC by Nationwide is more gorgeous than either of them. I’m committing a venial sin just be thinking about him.
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4.58pm You managed to spell idiot wrong as you couldn’t even get that right hahaha. Can imagine you as being the nosey ghoul, racing to the scene with binoculars in case you missed something.
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Maybe he is saying he did not have a crush on anyone there.
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Lol
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Dowtcha boy Fanny!
Yeeraggh, if they can give the purple hat to a langer like me, you’re a shoo in.
Did you know the Nuncio has a sense of humour? I said to him, ‘Hey AB, how does a nun eat a banana? Horizontally from side to side! 😂😂😂
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Actually 12:42
It would be hilarious if it were not also true.😕
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Pat Mullaney has us all petrified to tune into the Nolan show today, since cafe bum bum and matra closed its the only refuge we get from the place.
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Obsessive is on again. Get help for your fixation.
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Maynooth was full of SPRs, especially sems doing degrees in the lay part. There was some sort of roll call in the in-house seminarist course and lay lecturers in the NUI were supposed to report to the deans if seminarians missed lectures but most lecturers refused to do so.
New House, where the 3rd year BA/BSc sems lived was a dosshouse, with many never attending lectures or tutorials and sleeping during the day. That’s how bad habits formed.
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In my last semester in NUIM I attended 11 of 120 lecturers. I got 1H in all modules.
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There’s a low bar there, to be fair.
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Typical day in New House 1988.
1. 07:20 Morning Prayer, meditation, Mass in Joe’s Oratory.
2. 8:20 breakfast in Pugin Hall.
3. Lectures optional.
4. 11:00 tea & biscuits in Pugin Hall.
5 12:30 lunch
6. 14:00 Lectures optional.
7. 14:30 A wee trip out to the village, to Dunnes, the Manor Mills coffee shop or the public library.
7. 15:00 Tea and gossip in other sem’s rooms.
8. 16:30 a walk round the graf with cronies.
9. 18:00 supper time, sometimes with extras left over from the pros ref
10. 19:30 Evening Prayer.
11. 20:00 – free time. Private study, visiting up the house, the library or going to student society events for the free wine and cheese.
12: Midnight or later, lights out.
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Compared with Allen Hall in the same period, that sounds very tame.
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You forgot the daily trip to the Elite.
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I think The Priests who sing must be in the SPR for all the travelling they do and all the money they rake in.
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@3:54 that was what it was like then. It’s a bit like a day in the life of a nursing home/convent and it lacked zeal and energy. There was no sex apart from the occasional sem who got a girlfriend. Always the handsome ones and they were chased by female lay students relentlessly. They found them better listeners than the grunting Maynooth male lay students.
The main Maynooth problems then were drinking, laziness and priest lecturers and students who were athiests in all but name.
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The whole Maynooth gay sex stuff started in the 1990s and it was wild for about twenty years therefter. Press and Pat’s blog scrutiny finished that off plus the collapse in sem numbers helped.
Though even in the 1980s there was a sem chorister who died in the senior infirmary of a HIV-related illness. Sr Vincent didn’t know what to make of of it. All hushed up, of course.
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Are you sure? A student actually died in the List?
You are right in one sense. In the 80s there was little or not much sexual activity. I did hear afterwards though about a certain seminarian who visited another for a bj some mornings before class.
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The official line was that he’d died of the ‘flu, which was probably correct as the immune system collapsed in the days before better AIDS medicine developed.
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A ludicrous generalisation and a little humorous. But quite off the mark.
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Two sems died in the List in my time. The saintly late vocation James O’Rawe of D&C and the singing sem who died of AIDS. I’d forgotten about trips to the Elite. No day was complete without it.
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What is?
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Sad to see Priests not engaging and going for it with their vocation. They have such a capacity to really help People: right in the cut and thrust of it all.
I’ve often thought it would have been an amazing career: but was put off by the whole Celebacy thing.
Which leads the question if we want the brightest and best into the Priesthood should we be prepared to let go of the Clerical celebacy issue?
Also if we really want the brightest and best should we consider a higher pay scale?
What would the Priesthood look like if there was the option to Marry and provide a decent living for a family?
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Most priests are not required for full-time ministry and should, therefore, be supporting themselves financially through paid employment; this would enable them to buy or rent their own homes.
Financial independence from bishops would reduce the risk of retaliation by them, allowing priests to be more public in their criticism of bishops’ behaviour.
The current, dependent (held by the short and curlies) arrangement favours the episcopacy, ennabling it to exercise contol and restraint of priests. This is not good.
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7.31
The three billygoats gruff had to sort out a troll. Same here.
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@ 7.04
I don’t want you as a priest.
1) It is not a ‘career.’
2) We don’t need the ‘brightest and best,’ what we need are the humblest, the wisest and the holiest.
Your attitudes are what got us into this mess.
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… and the poofiest, of course.
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8.44 you may not want him as a priest. You are entitled to express that view but yours is only one voice among many. And it’s God who calls and the church community which affirms the calling.
He has a point. Celibacy is not intrinsic to the priesthood as the many married Catholic priests attest. And some are put off ministry by that requirement.
Secondly, if/when a married diocesan priesthood becomes the norm a major change in the system of remuneration will be necessary.
The Church of Ireland has got in right in so many respects.
1. Clerical posts are negotiated by interview where your voice and mine can be heard.
2. It’s easy for CofI priests to take a few years out to work at another job. There’s a lot to be said for that. And it’s just a matter of renewing your licence annually.
3. A national system of remuneration.
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It would look like the Walsingham Ordinariate; full of single and married middle-aged and elderly mo’s.
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That’s a highly unattractive option at 8:48pm
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8:45 they are not priests and it’s definitely NOT the Church of Ireland in any way whatsoever.
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Ask them whether or not they are priests. They ought to know better than anyone else what they are. They will tell you. They are not saying that they are Roman Catholic priests.
You seem to have a difficulty with the term ‘the Church of Ireland.’ The Bank of Ireland does not claim to be the only bank in Ireland or the only Irish bank there is. You really ought to examine your knee-jerk reactions to a phrase like this and recognise it for what it is at 9:56.
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@ 8.45
Stuff and nonsense. He can’t even spell celibate, repeatedly wrong.
CofI? It’s going really well, isn’t it!
Isn’t it strange that God has “called” so many homosexuals lately, and that the “church community” ( homo hierarchy) has affirmed them!
Did I just come up the Lagan in a bubble?
As for interviewing for your priest? Well, certain parishes would require a Gaelic speaking, transgender, Sinn Fein voting one, while others would want a bland dishcloth with impeccable manners etc etc.
Read Cardinal Sarah’s latest. You are well off the mark.
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9:09
As usual making no sense at all, probably not even to yourself.😆
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You are an internet troll.
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D’Arcy is a prime candidate for SPR. He is either in a tv or radio studio and I’m almost sure he has a bed in each. If not in the studio he’s touring the Country (mostly Fermanagh) in the flash Merc with the big end. He’s some man.
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That Mercedes must have some miles on it tho.
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He won’t be bothered about the mileage our Brian. The Sunday World will buy him another.
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I had a relationship with a Glasgow Priest a few years ago. We met in a bar, had good sex in his Church house several times at night and again every morning we we woke. After morning nookie he’d say he needed to get up to say morning prayer. We then had breakfast, he went over to Church for Mass and we spent all day together either in bed lazing around or we went for lunch. He did hee haw for his Parish and bled them dry for every penny. Several years later we met up again by chance and he told
me he now had a regular boyfriend. Seems he has been able to have his cake and eat it for years.
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He’s well past retiring age and is entitled to spend his twilight years as he wishes after the fatigue of his labours. 7.20.
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There’s no way that the non-marrying Mercedes Man is over retirement age. He still has nut brown hair with not a trace of grey.
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Born 1 June, 1945. So 73 and therefore well deserving of tranquility in retirement to renew and refresh his relationship with the Lord who called him all those years ago.
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8.54 – that Diocese is affectionately know as the Archdiocese of GlasGAY. This isn’t a great surprise and I have narrowed your allegation
down to 24 possibilities. Sounds that you stayed over regularly and also sponged off the Parish for food and lodgings. Send a cheque to the Parish to pay back something for bagging a Priest as your penance.
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9.13 Well said. Hahaha. Lateral thinking!
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Probably more like 186 possibilities.
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SPR Ay I thought ‘‘twas a new kinda bug spray. I can see how it could happen. Frustration and being part of a bag of holes causes steam to be vented in some shape or form. Canon Sweeney was human was he hi. Does that mean that the rest of the mob is alien. Jesus isGod but he ain’t no halien but. Get the dossers off the space ship hi.
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10:29pm
Hello Fly , hi. Begorra fly, I thought spr was a new disease, so I did, needin a cure.
Jesus wasn’t an alien fly hi but som of mob seem wired to the moon, so they do, with nathin to be doin but all day to do it. The divil luvs idle hands and th sprs sound like an idle bunch of adolessents.
Bring on Super Priest! Bye fly, hi.
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Wish it was a bug/fly spray so we could get rid of idiots like you on this blog. Go on and feckin fly away ye gobshite and do us all a favour.
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12.02. Feed the sheep’s Get some sleep and spare the finger hi
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8:16am
Ah, Fly, and tell em to quit ravishing the lambs. By fly, hi.
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That too
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8:59 was your cage rattled wannabe bishop O’Neill? U spend more time away from the parish than any of your predecessors in St Patrick’s. Ur mate in ligoniel spends more time abroad than any of his predecessors. No wonder he is known as Fr Flybe ! That is when he’s not getting hammered. And ur other mate in the cathedral likes to “bugger off” as well. Lies lies damned lies, begrudgery! Nope methinks not. But calm down luv. Sure the bishop thinks ur great and so do we ur parishioners. Great you are. A great phoney
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