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THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS QUEEN OF HEAVEN.

The Gospel According to Jesus, Queen of Heaven Traverse Theatre, Edinburgh 2018

Neil Cooper – Four Stars

The candles are waiting to be lit in this just shy of ten-year revival of Jo Clifford’s beatific meditation on the child of God. So far, so seasonal, one might think. Except Clifford brings Jesus to life, not as a slightly hipster-looking bearded bloke as is the stuff of biblical cliché, but in her own image as a trans woman surrounded by an audience of disciples.

Over the next 70 minutes of Susan Worsfold’s production, Jesus regales her guests with various yarns concerning both her personal transformation and the gauntlet of hostility and abuse she runs every single day.

There are parables too, in which the Good Samaritan is recast as a late-night party animal tottering home through Leith, while the prodigal son becomes a runaway daughter who returns home after her wild years.

The result of this is part self-deprecating sermon, part anecdote-peppered pre-dinner speech that packs a moral punch rooted in radical theology and reinvented for a non-binary age.

Nine years on from the show’s debut, and with trans rights much more in the spotlight, the rest of the theatrical world at least seems in part to have caught up with Clifford’s presentation of a messiah who holds court with inclusive bonhomie and charm.

There is still rage at a world that would hate this version of Jesus, but an over-riding sense of love outweighs the anger of a show that calls for acceptance and humanity in the face of everyday prejudice.

It finishes, as it has too, with a ritual sharing, a prayer, and a blessing for those who might condemn Clifford’s play without ever actually seeing it.

If those doubting Thomasinas did dare to bear witness, they would see a show that lives and breathes a moment that looks very much like now, and all the heaven and hell on earth such uncertain times bring with them.

PAT SAYS

God is everywhere and Jesus as God is everywhere.

However, if God ever had to choose between being one place or another (impossible) God would choose to be at every and some “edge”.

God is helplessly drawn to the edge and people living at any and every edge.

It is who He chose to be born in a stable and to die on a garbage dump.

The “respectable” and the “establishment” believe that God is for them, one of them.

Nothing could be further from the Truth.

God is helplessly attracted to the most low, the most forlorn, the most rejected, the most repugnant.

He chooses, everyday, to be on Skid Row and not Saville Row.

He chooses to be in the gutter rather than on the Boulevard of Success.

He is attracted by the Eau de Sweat more than Chanel No 5.

But the thieves who stole his message and sold it to the Chief Priests of fashion wealth and fame still peddle their wares.

THEY are the Thieves of Christ the unrepentant thief of Golgotha.

The Gospel According to Christ the Queen of Heaven is the gospel that calls us all back to the Real Christ.

How many of us have new wives and new farms to stop us responding to the invitation?

81 replies on “THE GOSPEL ACCORDING TO JESUS QUEEN OF HEAVEN.”

What a load of contrived and pretentious drivel. Honestly, Buckley, you’ll run after any old load of nonsense.

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“Let he who has eyes to see, see”.
So easy to be an anonymous fart.
A cleric of course, just out of the bed of a counsellee.

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1:52
Many of Jesus’ Jewish listeners must have reacted in a way very similar to your post when they heard Jesus tell the parable of the Good Samaritan. Jews and Samaritans? Sworn enemies. And the Jews hated the Samaritans even more than the oppressing, occupying Roman legions in Palestine.
If you (like those Jews) could just manage to raise your intellectual and emotional sight beyond the packaging in which spiritual truths are expressed, rather than deferring to base stereotypical didactic forms, you would learn a great deal.
Go beyond, in order to go within. You’ll find it humbling; you’ll find it purifying. Because there you’ll meet God. But there is no back entrance. The lesson from entering by that one and only narrow door, a personally challenging door, is sometimes as great (if not greater) than that learned once inside.

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Pat, when you stand for any old crap, you’ll fall for anything. This is such shallow, self righteous sentiment passing as spirituality. It’s awful, just as your own sentiments are. Just absolutely dreadful. Of course God in and through Christ is always at the edges of people’s lives. You’re not the only one to know this revelation!! Living the memory of Jesus in fullness is the challenge.

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I believe that the suffering, redeeming Christ is speaking to us profoundly through this “trans” woman, who like the woman with the bleed, has been suffering hurt and rejection for decades.
I intend to invite this woman to Ireland to perform her challenging play in churches and venues that will welcome her.
At least she is open and honest about her journey – unlike the twisted RC clerics whose church has become a front for satisfying their sexual desire for men, women and children.

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You intend inviting this woman to Ireland to Churches. What a fool and idiot you are. What Churches and where? They won’t let you in the door so what makes you think this eejit will be welcome. Buckley are you a well man. Are you sure it was a clinic for dental treatment in Hungary you went to? Dear oh dear oh dear.

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A COMMENT SENT BY EMAIL
“I suppose Jesus s to be found in a private dental clinic in Hungary”.

AH!
Another rotten RC cleric.
But Jesus is also found in such places – in the tears of a fellow patient with face cancer undergoing restorative oral surgery.

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Come to think of it I don’t think Christ would have associated with a private dental clinic. Despite your expensive treatment Buckley it hasn’t done you any good lashing out in the way you have done. Maybe you’re showing your true colours.

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10:25
Jesus would not have needed to resort to private dental or medical treatment: he had the luxury of being able to work miracles.😅
Some dentists can work, as it were, ‘cosmetic miracles’, restoring (or helping to restore) natural look, and massive self-confidence, to patients suffering physically (and, sometimes, in silent, self-conscious, emotional hell) from disfiguring facial operations that can make them look grotesque and the butt of cruel jokes in public by, well, by people like you, actually.
I’d say Jesus would be proud to associate with such dentists, since he, after all, is the source of their skill and talent.😕

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Honestly the buttock-grasping RCs (clergy and others) who read this blog!
Fortunately the world outside their Denzinger has moved on, but they’re determined to drag it back, so they relentlessly criticise others.
It’s projection, pure and simple, and the really sad thing is the way they themselves come across as a bunch of touchy old queens.
Get over yourselves, everyone else’s ideas of gender and sexuality have changed from yours.
Oh, and BTW people would be more likely to listen to you if you didn’t represent an international criminal organization masquerading as a religion.
Love,
The 21st century xxx

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10:50
It is true to say the Catholic Church is an international criminal organization as much as anything else.
Child sexual abuse is one layer of international crime within the church. I have no doubt other layers of criminality exist particularly around finance. Christ on the margins!
Christ doesn’t get a look in. The clerical fraternity is what counts NOT Christ.

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@10.50
Pure bollocks.
The sheer ego of you to proclaim to speak for everyone else. Up yourself, or what!
“Jo(e)” is acting. He puts on a little, soft voice, tilts his head to one side, rolls his eyes and does his impersonation of a woman – then his voice deepens with aggression and he lashes out. He’s like the others. How many DNA women have been clobbered by aggressive men masquerading as women.I’ve read about quite a few. Undoubtedly he has issues.
I am a woman. I object to men proclaiming they can somehow ‘become’ women. DNA doesn’t change.
Now take yourself off and stop bullying real women.

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She’s not saying she became a woman. She says she was always a woman. DNA often proves the claims.

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By Post Author

@2.44
That’s exactly the illogicality I meant.
Disagreement with your pseudoscience is “hatred.”
No, thank you. I have a brain.
When are you pulling the ‘waycis’ word out? Is it when you return from Calais after seeing to the ‘needs’ of the male ‘children’ there?
Could write the script! Don’t you tire of being so predictable? Such a cartoon?

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And calling my opinion pseudoscience is respectful? A trans person being trans is neither disrespectful to men or women or to science!
You’re just trying to pull the victim card and it won’t work.

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@4.13
How can ‘opinion’ be scientific? look up the meaning of opinion, clue: it’s subjective. ( Long sigh.) You have the gall to ask how this ideology can be ‘disrespectful’ to others! Are you serious? If that were all it were! The ideological fascism just had a Canadian fined $55,000 for calling a He a He, and that’s not to mention the court cases here. Stop playing the innocent.

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There is no doubt that the institutional church has lost uts moral and spiritual authority across the world. People now generally find and live by their own conscience and morality. We must not however, overlook the thousands of (lay) Christians, religious women and men and clerics who stand alone in living truly the gospel of Christ. We know these “salt of the earth” people scattered in our communities and around thecworld. They are often overlooked and dumped in with the bad, rotten apples. Each day I have to recommit myself to Christ in my ministry. It is not easy to be true leaven every day. I try. What I dislike intensely in the mindset that ascribes negative stereotypes to all who belong to the Catholic Church. There are many, many individuals who are shining lights of God’s love and mercy, making a difference to all whom they encounter. We must not denigrate these people. They must be acknowledged amidst the crumbling edifice of an institution that, hopefully, will emerge from the ruins to be what Jesus intended “His” community of God’s people to be. What a challenge for all who genuinely belong to God and who profess a commitment to Christ.

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@12.58
“DNA often proves the claims”!
What in hell gibberish are you spouting!
“She says”……………….
There is now an ‘elf’ and an ‘asexual alien’ – they “say” as well!

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11:26
The Church has significantly lost moral and spiritual authority. Why? Because, in my view, far too many members of the clergy and hierarchy put themselves first, before anyone else or any other considerations, rationalized it as ‘ in the interests of the church’, crap!. There are far too many bad apples in the clerical fraternity and the clerical fraternal barrel. That’s a major problem. Jesus Christ, the gospel and gospels values, are and were jettisoned, in the interests of the clerical fraternity. Jesus came to heal the broken hearted. What happens to the broken hearted? When a person, made in the image and likeness of God, or so we’re told, is abused by the church, that person is likely to be re-abused and retraumatized by the church, when he or she comes forward.The institution doesn’t give a damn.
I’m sick of religious guff, jargon and claptrap! Too many good Christians keep their mouths shut, their heads down and fail to challenge the corruption going on within the institution, most likely out of fear.
In America, Rico legislation is likely to be used against the institutional church, because the church cannot police itself, or be trusted to police itself. District attorney’s have stated to catholic commentators, that dealing with the church, is literally worse than dealing with the mafia.( How bad can you get). If people think matters are any better this side of the atlantic, they are deluding themselves. It is a very serious situation requiring prophetic action. That’s not likely to happen, because their are no individual or collective ‘superpriests’ or saintly people, in the Irish church!

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@12.28
There ARE saintly people within the Irish Church. No doubt about that. You’re either looking in the wrong places, or looking for the wrong thing.

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12.28: What are you, you individually, doing to create a better gospel, Christ-like community with real gospel values? You may be sick and tired of “spirutual” jargon and claptrap – so am I – but at least I try in my ministry within the parish to do something useful and worthwhe. I’m sick and tired of the naysayers like you who probably couldn’t give a damn about your local church community! Armchair critics are legion…..

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Unfortunately this blog attracts naysayers, weirdos, Degos and anyone with a chip on their shoulder usually after rejection by a bishop or Seminary. No surprise given the fact that the blogs author is a reject himself and responds in a vicious manner like the many other rejects like MC, Pat Mullaney, MMM and all the other mongrels.

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4:59
The good samaritan was a ‘mongrel’, too.
Come to think of it, so was Jesus, to those Jews who considered him a blasphemer and no respecter of THEIR laws. (The equivalent today is canon law.)😆
So thank you for the compliment, albeit a backhanded one.😅

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Now what phrase does your comment make me think of…? Something about somebody being rejected. Despised. And so on.
Obviously you’d have criticised him as well.

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Anon@ 4:59: As one specifically named by you as having allegedly responded in a vicious manner, I’d be grateful if you could point to where I have done so.
Some might say that you could be confusing the expression of contrary opinions and criticism for the ‘vicious manner’ you refer to simply because you have opposing views, and/or, you do not think other such views should be permitted. Well then you can now justify your comment by pinpointing my supposedly “vicious” responses so that we can judge the validity of your comment.
However I am aware that some might lament the possibility that you have such a poor command of language as to misunderstand/misuse the word. To assist, if that be the case, may I explain the word.
“Vicious” as an adjective describes an action deliberately cruel or violent with the intention or wish to hurt someone or something very badly. It is used to describe an object, condition or remark that causes great physical or emotional pain.
I do hope I am not dealing with a product of the snowflake mentality here. By the way if you don’t understand that expression, I’m sure Wiki will come to your rescue.
MMM

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12.28: Typical broadside and sweeping judgment. Unfair and unjust to many, many good religious and clerics. Would love to know the quality of your contribution or commitment to make things better! Tell us, O Prophetic One!!

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Touchy touchy, aren’t we!
Calm down lads.

You people have NO idea, of the damage, destruction and hurt done to countless numbers of vulnerable children and adults lives, by clerics, and subsequent cover up, by Bishops and religious superiors. Rape of children, by individuals supposedly committed to Christ! Jumped up Joe Soaps wearing a clerical collar who think/ thought they can/could get away with anything! That was the attitude that prevailed for years.
Don’t cause scandal… don’t get caught, inculcated in seminary.
Criminality covered up by Bishops!
More jumped up Joe Soaps!
What for? The love of God? Loyalty to Christ? Holy Mother Church? It was done to protect the clerical fraternity.
All you people can do in response, is be ultra defensive, because you guys are saddled to the institutional Church. Is Jesus Christ Lord and Master or the institution and clerical fraternity? Tell me, what constitutes a ‘ good religious and cleric’ ?To the best of my knowledge, the only person up for canonization from the Irish Church is Frank Duff.There may be one of two more, max. ( Edel Quinn and Fr. John Sullivan S.J).
Most priests, not all, but most priests, I have crossed paths with, are moral cowards. I spoke to a priest some time ago, about a matter of criminal abuse and his opening words to me were ‘ I was a younger man then’ .
Now where did we hear that defensive line before?
An institution that demands obligatory celibacy has to hold a sex summit! The contradictions are legion.
I’ll tell you something about my contribution to make things better, buddy. My life has been a life of redemptive suffering, to make things better. If you knew what I’ve had to endure, what I know, and what I’ve experienced, you’d be amazed! I have known for years what the institutional church is/ was capable of doing, regarding crime.
The clergy and hierarchy and institution need to repent.( Institutional sin/crime).
But that’s too spiritual, too religious, too humbling for the clergy and hierarchy.Jumped up Joe Soaps.

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Precisely. They don’t want to get it and also once you see how damaging this institution is, any good is washed away because you can’t unsee the extreme damage.
I think the man-god they claim to follow would expect quite a different attitude from his followers.

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7.09: MMM: How condescending! Your Wikipedia or Oxford dictionary is handy at times. Maybe you might research the word condescending!! When you creep out from your hiding, generally you evoke respect, but glib, dismissive condescension does not suit you.

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3.33: You are not alone in bearing suffering. I too have experienced abuse but I got through it by counselling and I’m still recovering but I don’t allow it to define my life by always carrying guilt or the daily reminder of it. I struggle. I too know the meaning of loss, grief, inner turmoil and hurt. I too know what it is to be abused, mentally, emotionally, spiritually and sexually. Once abuse of any kind is inflicted, all domains of our psyche are affected. I know. I am a cleric. I have met many other victims/survivors. I have, thankfully, encountered many “good” – yes, “good” priests and religious. While I condemn and have done so frequently, all abuse by church personnel and the horrendous, immoral cover ups, I personally, have to be true to my conscience, a conscience that’s very informed and balanced. My approach is to always try to make my life and ministry more Christ-like. I think I help people sufficiently to be the same. That’s the starting point for all of us. While I understand your grievances and hurts, I will not, despite my experience as a teenager, allow that painful moment be the last word about my life, nor will I allow it to paint all church personnel with the same brush. That is very wrong. In present day society, I am very inspired by Br. Kevin, Sr. Stan Kennedy, Fr. McVerry, Sr. Consilio, Alice Leahy and many other wonderfully good Christ-inspired people. I meet “saints” too in my daily work, parents especially. Don’t dismiss all Church personnel. That’s an injustice.

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5:42

It doesn’t surprise me that you single out, for the most part, fellow clerics, or religious, for praise in your pantheon of saints: you, as a priest, are in their company.

But who funds them, since none actually works for a living? That’s right: the sheep.🐑

Funny that your sainted people depend on others, whom you neither deign nor care to mention.

Saintliness (your kind) always costs other folk, doesn’t it?

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8 20: You, Maggie become more repulsive and loathsome by the day. You are so full of hatred for priests, it’s now a major, almost incurable disease in your life. I’ll pray for your healing.

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10:42
Of course you will!
And I don’t doubt your self-righteous ‘prayers’ will carry , er, inordinate weight in Heaven.😆

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Bishop Pat, I particularly liked your Pat says comments on today’s blog.
The Rc church doesn’t care about the many people on the margins as a result of Rc institutional abuse.
I would not expect the institutional church to care about other marginalised minorities. There ideological mindset would not permit it.

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6.26: Ooen your eyes. There are many, many people, priests and religious included, who work on the “margins” with the broken and unwanted of our communities. Try to be balanced. Try to be honest. Have a look at the Dublin Diocesan CROSSCARE agency and the Vincentian and Jesuit justice projects; have a look at the many initiatives taken by the Mercy, Ursuline and Presentation Sisters in the areas of disadvantage and poverty. Have a look at the many religious sisters working on behalf of all who are caught up in human trafficking. You might be surprised if you did a little research rather than follow the “lie” and “bias” perpetuated on this blog. .

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No. And I’ll tell you why I’m not going to be balanced, it’s because I was sexually abused by a priest. The church refused to do anything about it and I still have flashbacks and nightmare 25 years later. That abuse also ruined my family: my mother didn’t believe me and threw me out because she was so ashamed of me bringing shame on her holy faith.
When you live with that and have ongoing effects of abuse you can talk to me about fucking balance you prick.
6:29

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Sorry – I was replying thinking the reply was to a comment of mine. I’m a different person from 6.26 but the principle stands.

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7:10
I am so sorry that you were treated in such a Judas way, by that scumbag priest, his scumbag church brothers, and by your deceived mother.
Tell me to mind my own bloody business if it suits, but how old were you when you were thrown out of your home? I know of others treated in a similar way. And it makes me very angry.

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It was on and off for many years, winding up with being told not to dadken their door again in my early twenties. We’re completely estranged now – that was always going to be the best outcome for me, I can see in retrospect, and I usually tell people I don’t have a family unless I know them well enough to lift the stone.
Actually only the other night I got talking to a man in a pub who was abused at a Catholic children’s home, whose reaction struck me as more worrying, because he just said it without emotion and deemed to be feeling nothing at all!

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Pat since you’re an Independent Catholic (something else they don’t understand) you could declare a feast in your calendar: Christ the Queen!
A perfect queer counterpoint to the original triumphalism of Christ the King.

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5:42
I never claimed to be alone in suffering nor did I dismiss all Church personnel. Your experience of abuse, by whoever, is yours. Own it and please don’t project your notions onto me.
Count yourself blessed to have a ministry, a livelihood, and to have been able to afford counselling. Some people abused by church personnel ended up in their graves prematurely. Fact. Some people never recover. Fact. Lots of victims cannot afford therapy. Fact. Some people never form normal healthy relationships ever again. Fact.
Victims/ survivors are not a homogeneous group. The harm, hurt, wounding, trauma and suffering various in degree, depth and extent.
I’m not particularly inspired
by people working in the voluntary sector who are religious. They have their religious communities to support them. They receive huge funding from the state. It’s a business and not charity. All Christians are called to be ‘saints’. That’s at the heart of Christianity and the gospel.
How much evidence do people need to realize, the corruption in the institutional church, is organized, systemic and international? A few months ago, on this blog, a few clerics acknowledged, the church is rotten to the core. I don’t doubt them for a second.

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7.10: Calling other peopke f******g p****k is ignirant. You have been hugely hurt and obviously anything I might say by way of ressonable, emotionally intelligent comment will mean nothing to you. One suggestion: avail if professional support. That’s all I can say to you. But, responding with vulgar expletives will not bring healing to you.

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8:26
You patronising so-and-so.😠
Let him or her express anger as it must be expressed, such is its depth.
And how dare you tell another what may or may not bring personal healing!😬
I know what I should like to do to you, you arrogant, self-righteous so-and-so.😈
How must that other poster feel about you?😕
Were I you (and thank genetics I’m not!), I should remain indoors tonight.😉

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8.38: How dare you, Magna, you who are probably the vulgar, abusive person on this blog: you, who pontificate about the “right” way to believe, behave and to live. You, Magna, contribute intelligently at times with a modicum of empathy and understanding but any comment by a priest meets with your contemptuous disdain and dismissal. Those of us who experienced abuse, whatever its’ nature try to have some compatability in emotion and empathy, so to be so full of faux outrage at my comment at 8.26 doesn’t invalidate the essence of my contribution. I believe if I wasn’t a cleric, your response would not be so arrogantly smug. Your comment is infantile, bullying and utterly meaningless. My 6 year old niece displays greater intelligence than your piece of crap. Thankfully, I don’t have to stay indoors and would never allow a bully like you to treat me with such contempt. Therapy might be something for you to consider – a therapy that would enable you to grow up, little child! Now Mags, toddle off to bed…🦍🦍🦍🦍🐂🐂🐂🐃🤣🤣🤣

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Well said Magna. In truth I believe those who comment like 8:26 have very little emotional understanding of the impact of such abuse. They may have intellectual acknowledgement, and profess understanding, but it may well only be superficial lip service.
MMM

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8:26
Oh diddums. A vulgar expletive!
In fact, vulgar expletives might be a very necessary part of therapy. Don’t know much about professional therapy, now, do you. By the way, professional therapy is very expensive. So, if you can afford to avail of it, swear as much as needed to ventilated anger. That helps the healing process. 😮

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Yes that’s right, call someone who has been abused unreasonable and emotionally unintelligent.
Obviously whatever I can say to make you understand my experience is wasted because you lack the Christian charity to face what your church does to people.
Yes, definitely a prick.

BTW if you’re so worried about vulgar expletives I will happily share some my abuser used.

And don’t tell me to get therapy – that implies there is something wrong with me that needs healing. For your information the fact that I have survived the abuse poured on me by your church and am still alive (although it has been close at times) is now part of what I am.
And since you feel free to give out advice, here’s some for you – listen to people like me, and since your so keen on therapy read what validation is.

Thanks to Magna and Pat.

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Well said sir.
That you are able to speak out strongly indicates your strength and resilience.
Respect to you.
MMM

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9:38
You are very welcome.
I was sexually abused myself, aged about 6, by a much-older boy, who trapped me in a barley field. I was so afraid that I was never going to see my parents again, because I did not think he would allow me to live after what he did to me, in order to protect himself. I suppose I was fortunate, in a way, that he had low intelligence and, therefore, didn’t or couldn’t think ahead, to the possible legal consequences of his abuse.
So despite what that know-all poster at 9:30 declared about me (‘faux outrage’), I know that anger, even expletively expressed, is raw but honest. Fuck people like him!

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9:30 you used a vulgar expletive! A sign of how emotionally immature you are. Get therapy at once!

Pat it is absolutely disgusting, a pr**st using a word like cr*p. I am shocked beyond belief and was hoping for mature discussion about how helpful the Catholic Church is to transsexuals and people abused by its clergy.

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10 23: And f**k people like you for your unacceptable raw, dangerous hatred. Incidentally, you’re good at stories!!!

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10.23: Magna, thanks for the lovely copliment you attribute to me – “a know all”. The baton has been passed on from you, at last!!

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8.04: I feel some empathy with you but you have chosen to have an aversion to church personnel in whatever capacity they work. I am well aware of how abuse, like grief, in very personal, unique and different. It seems you are closed to any project or activity by “faith inspired” people. It’s pertinent to acknowledge the many initiatives taken by such individuals. Our communities would be very mpoverished without their presence. Yes, in many instances the religious orders fund and support such good work. That surely is admirable. My experience of my abuse and my coping mechanisms are different. I’m quite certain that if I wasn’t a cleric, your response would be kinder! I wish you well.

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8:35
I have no idea where you get the notion re my aversion to church personnel. I worked in Focus Point. I know the voluntary sector.I set up a voluntary group for the HSE. I worked with many marginalised groups. Voluntary agencies are predominantly funded by the State. They are businesses, not charity. Our communities voluntary agencies, are mainly run by lay people, not religious. Religious orders may contribute to some extent or may not, but don’t fund the vast majority of those agencies, ongoing. I’m telling it straight. The fact you are a cleric is irrelevant. You are failing to acknowledge church corruption. Why? I suspect out of misguided loyalty.
Would Jesus Christ condone church corruption?

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9.26: Let me assure you, I’m not in denial about the corruption in the Church. Not at all. I am as appalled as you and others are, but I try to live daily with my conscience and do what I believe Christ expects of me. That is always my approach. Some of the charities and social projects I referred to were initially begun and founded by religious and their inspiration and vision should be appreciated. Some religious orders fund their own outreach projects anf that too must be acknowledged. I worked on a voluntary basis with Simon Community and St. V. de Paul and I experienced much poverty and brokenness. I also worked at Cuan Mhuire with Sr. Consilio. I have benefited hugely by such opportunities. They shaped my faith and how I live it. I have endeavoured to ensure that my loyalty is to Christ and not to an institution. Years of experience at ground level is a life changer. I abhor all corruption and abuse. But priests, sadly, are guilty by association and I believe this to be very wrong and a huge injustice. If I proclaim to be a follower of Jesus Christ, of course I unreservedly condemn all wrong.

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8.31: Pat, responding with vulgarity to people who seem compassionate should never be encouraged. You should be advising 7.10 to seek professional help. As always you’ll give credence and legitimacy to ‘cleric haters’..Most unfair but not surprising.

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Totally fair.
Read my point above and just have a go at experiencing what the victims of your church have.

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9.40: Not at all fair or just to lump all clergy into your broad sweeping judgments. Totally a lie. Sorry….

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Where were clergy mentioned? I haven’t mentioned clergy once and you’re all clutching your pearls!
Read my posts again and do try to take them in this time.
Actually I have a wish for the clergy commenting here today. I hope someone falsely accuses you of abuse. The lack of evidence will not lead to a prison term, but I want you to see how your church can treat people. I hope the allegations make you get defrocked and your family disowns you because they’re so shocked.
Then you might get the slightest inkling of what your church does to people.
And I will comment here that you need to be balanced and mature about it, and seek therapy so that you can get over your life being wrecked by someone else.
When you are then a ball of anger who feels physically sick at the thought of even passing a Catholic church you might have a slight inkling of the lives that have been wrecked.

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9:58
All committed Christians try to live by their conscience, do what Christ desires, live according to gospel values and walk in the Spirit.
Tell me to mind my own business, but you mentioned you were abused. Were you sexually abused ?
If so, was it sexual abuse by a priest?

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8:41
‘Should be’ is symptomatic of neuroses. Why do you need to patronize, paternalize and dictate what Bishop Buckley should or shouldn’t be doing. Typical. 😣

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9.39: Ugh😚😚 – umm🐗🐗 … what genuis of a psychiatrist told you that puece of info?😁😁

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10:35
Josie, you are showing up
your ignorance of gestalt psychology. Are you orally fixated lollipop? I reckon you might be! 😜Am I right? 😆

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9:38
I completely understand where you are coming from and can easily empathize with you. While I wasn’t sexually abused, my experience was equally appalling. Clergy don’t get it, and I believe, at this stage, they don’t want to get it. The cover ups in the church were for the sake of the clerical brotherhood. That’s blantant.
It seems to me that clergy, who claim to love all and are available to all, are too damn selfish, too preoccupied with themselves and their clerical culture, their sense of entitlement and specialnees, to give a damn about anyone. They come first and their sense of privilege. Now, the dominant concern is protecting church assets and minimizing bad publicity. The former Pope Benedict, who was at the centre of cover ups for years, claimed when pope, there’s no forgiveness without justice. They can talk the talk. But don’t expect justice from the church. I spoke to my pastor about what happened to me, without going into much detail, and I might as well have talked to the wall. No response other than cold deafening silence. Couldn’t give a crap. The hierarchy, couldn’t give a crap. Now they consider people who criticize them, as a professional brotherhood, as ‘cleric haters’. They, as a brotherhood, are responsible for much. In all my years of attending mass, in many church’s, I have only heard the issue of CSA mentioned twice. Once by a priest in 2006, blaming the media narrative, and once last year, by a religious priest, who briefly mentioned his sense of shame regarding poor church leadership. Poor church leadership!
An understatement, if ever.

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11 03: I have lots of lollipops. Would you like to taste them? 10 a penny but I do have very expensive lollipops, you know the ones Magna and Pat lick together when behind the curtains, giggling like little girls, teasing each other, swooping lollies and other paraphernalia, God only knows…..they always come out all coloured and sticky!!!

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12:09
I’d say your projecting yourself onto others.
Are you, by any chance, a member of the order of the golden willie? I believe it’s a bit of an obsession with some immature clerics.

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We’re back to the problem which comes up so often here: would Jesus be part of such a corrupt institution and what would he do about it?
I don’t think he would be a member of its clergy in good standing and yet claim he is against all evil!

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Some of the clerics on this blog like to keep reminding us of the privilege of having made it through the seminary to ordination. And yet, most clerics are ashamed to wear their clerical collar in public. That’s a move towards the margins. Jesus might be
found there by some in time.

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