Month: Jun 2019

Independent Inquiry into Child Sex Abuse BBC

Image copyrightBPM MEDIAImage captionBirmingham Archdiocese allegedly knew about abuse by Father John Tolkien in the 1950s

Children could have been saved from abuse if the Church had focused less on its reputation, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has said.

More than 130 allegations of abuse were made against 78 individuals associated with Birmingham’s Catholic Church.

Cardinal Vincent Nichols – the city’s archbishop between 2000 and 2009 – was accused of focusing on reputation rather than the impact of abuse.

He denied a cover-up, but allegations were found to have been “ignored”

“I am truly shocked by the scale of sexual abuse within the Archdiocese of Birmingham,” the inquiry’s chair, Professor Alexis Jay, said.

The report concluded that “children could have been saved from abuse if the Church had not been so determined to protect its reputation”.

Father John Tolkien – son of novelist JRR Tolkien – was said to have admitted abusing boys in Sparkhill, Birmingham, in the 1950s.

The archdiocese was apparently aware of the alleged abuse but did not report it until decades later.

Former boy scout Christopher Carrie, from Solihull, was given £15,000 in compensation in 2003 after he sued the archdiocese.

Father Tolkien was deemed too ill to be charged after an investigation into abuse in the Church

At the time, the Crown Prosecution Service said Father Tolkien was too ill to be charged, and he died later that year.

Cardinal Nichols – now the leader of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales – appeared before the inquiry in December.
He was asked if he had suppressed a note which suggested Father Tolkien admitted an allegation of abuse in 1968 and was sent for treatment.

However, the report said the note “was disclosed to the police so it cannot be suggested that the Archdiocese sought to cover up the note”.

The note was made by Archbishop of Birmingham Maurice Couve de Murville as part of a 1993 investigation but no action was taken either in 1968 or in 1993.

This “lack of action by the Church meant that abusers were free to continue committing acts of child sexual abuse,” the inquiry found.
Image copyrightGOOGLEImage captionThe inquiry looked at allegations in Birmingham’s Roman Catholic Archdiocese

Analysis

By Martin Bashir, BBC religion editor
Once again, the Independent Inquiry into Child Sexual Abuse has shone light upon dark areas of the Roman Catholic Church in England and Wales.

This report describes an institution where the safeguarding of children was relegated to second, even third place, with the Church much more concerned about reputation management.
It also appears that Church leaders preferred secrecy over transparency, assisting some abusive priests to leave the country and others to move from parish to parish.

The criticisms of Cardinal Vincent Nichols are particularly scathing. The clear implication of the report is that his focus on reputation management – rather than the welfare of children – meant that abusers were allowed to continue victimising children.

And while it would be tempting to imagine that these offences are all in the past, the report concludes that “the Archdiocese is still falling short in its child safeguarding arrangements”.

As well as Father Tolkien, the investigation focused on three other priests: James Robinson, Samuel Penney, and one who remains anonymous.

Father Robinson, described as a serial child abuser, was moved from parish to parish after complaints were first made against him in the 1980s. The police were never informed and there was no internal, Church-led investigation.
He fled the UK in 1985 – later to be tracked down by the BBC at a caravan park in California – after being confronted by a victim.

Despite multiple allegations against him, he continued to receive financial support from the Archdiocese for seven years.

Robinson was found guilty in 2010 of 21 child sex abuse offences against four boys – some 40 years after complaints were first made to the Church in the 1970s and 80s.

When the Archdiocese was alerted to allegations against Father Penney, the Vicar General – who was charged with investigating – attempted to help him evade arrest and leave the UK.

Prof Jay said the number of perpetrators and victims is “likely to be far higher than the figures suggest” and the consequences of the Church’s failings “cannot be overstated”.

‘Failed victims’

The report also concluded that the Birmingham Archdiocese continues to fall short in its child safeguarding arrangements.

In a statement, the Archdiocese said it accepts it has “failed victims and survivors” and apologised for “the grievous failings we have made in the past”.

It said it has “fundamentally changed its practices and processes to ensure an open and compassionate approach to victims and survivors”.

PAT SAYS

LONG RUNS THE FOX!

Vinnie/Elsie is finally getting his comeuppance after all his years of naked ambition and climbing the sleazy, greasy RC clerical pole.

In the end we discover they are all the same.

Empty, sneaky, power hungry operatives with neither the smell of the Shepherd or sheep about them.

Any decent, self respecting person in a senior position would immediately resign and take full responsibility for everything.

But Elsie is another Brady who will lie low sometimes and then parade all around the place in crimson robes – and wine and dine in places like Rome and Lourdes.

Bad cess to the lot of them!

ABUSIVE AND CLERICAL COMMENT MAKERS MAKE REFERENCE ON A DAILY BASIS TO THE COURT CASE I WAS INVOLVED IN 6 YEARS AGO IN 2013.

Yesterday people like MMM referred to an article in a recent edition of The Irish News – a biased RC newspaper that was set up by the Irish Catholic Bishops in the late 18th century to oppose and bring down Charles Stewart Parnell a Church of Ireland MP who was marrying a divorcee.

THE 2013 COURT CASE

Over the past 33 years couples seeking marriage have been referred to me by a variety of people – family, friends, solicitors, doctors, wedding co-ordinators, hotel managers etc etc.

Between 2007 and 2009 a Belfast solicitor named Ho Ling Mo reffered 15 couples to me in that 3 year period.

Up until 2007, priests like me were responsible for the marriage preliminaries – interviewing the couples, checking their documents and issuing the marriage licence.

That changed in 2007 in the Republic – when new legislation was introduced taking away all preliminaries from the clergyman and reserving them absolutely to the state registrars. From that at point onwards ALL couples had to be immediately referred to the civil registry office – who then became absolutely responsible for interviewing the couples, checking their documentation and issuing the marriage licence. A priest had no power or permission to marry any couple until the state registrar gave the green light by issuing the MRF Marriage Registration Form in the South and the MS – Marriage Schedule in the North. In fact the North was much later in changing their procedures.

So, the 14 couples I married were all referred to the civil registry office at Dundalk. They were interviewed by the civil registrar, all their documents were checked and a MRF issued.

At that stage, and at that stage only, could I as a priest marry that couple – and I celebrated all 14 marriages with the direct permission of the Irish State.

I got my normal fee of £300 and my travelling expenses to Dundalk and other parts of the South were covered by the couple.

What I did not know at the time was that the solicitor, Ho Ling Mo was charging each couple up to £18,000 for arranging their marriage and handling their visa applications.

When I discovered that I challenged Mo and refused to take any more referrals from her.

Eventually the police became interested in Mo’s activities. They asked me to go and meet them in Belfast and I did and told them all I knew.

Later, at my invitation, they came to home and spent all an afternoon studying my registers and all my extensive paperwork.

The asked if I would be willing to be a witness for the prosecution, and I agreed.

Later they said they wanted to interview me under caution and on 3 occasions I went to talk to them for many hours and never even brought a solicitor with me.

Later again they told me they were going to charge me with “assisting illegal immigration”. At that stage I brought a solicitor to my 4th interview.

After this again they told me that they could not charge me with assisting illegal immigration and changed the charge to “conspiracy to defraud the British Home Secretary!

The crime of “conspiracy” is a very controversial crime because it requires an inferior level of proof and a longer sentence.

An American judge has called the crime of conspiracy the preferred charge of lazy policemen and prosecutors”.

So I was charged and put on trial in Belfast Crown Court. The trial ran for 3 weeks before a jury and ended up with the jury not being able to come to a verdict.

Later the prosecutors decided to have a second trial.

I am a mentally very strong man. And when a strong man is under extreme stress the stress goes for the body. In 1987 I was diagnosed with the inflamatory bowel illness called Crohns Disease – an illness which ban be fatal.

During the stress of 3 week trial, my Crohns flared up very seriously and I was in very bad pain, was bleeding and having “accidents” on the way to and from court.

The prospects of another 3 weeks or longer would leave me open to becoming seriously ill. On my lawyer’s advice I decided to take a deal from the prosecution and plead guilty. For me it was better to live with a criminal record or die without one.

The judge, Mr Mark Horner, who was hearing his first criminal case in court decided to give me a suspended sentence but also decided to punish me further by telling the gathered press that I was HIV+.

What he did was against the European Human Rights Convention. When I discovered this I spoke to the Northern Ireland Human Rights Commission but unfortunately the 3 months I had to complain had run out. But the human rights people had correspondence with the Lord Chief Justice and judges have been informed that they cannot breach human rights in their judgements.

ANOTHER ASPECT

Since the case I have learned from a very reliable source that a very senior RC cleric met a very senior policeman in a Belfast Indian restaurant quite a while before any proceedings. I have also learned that there was communications between the church and other senior members of the legal profession.

PASSPORTS

After my court case the police and home office awarded two of the grooms wth British passports for being prepared to give evidence against me.

Why did they reward two men they were accusing of sham marriages with passports?

Finally, why would a man who had never broken the law in 61 years decide to break it at 61. And the same man has not broken the law in the 6 years since 2013.

I continue to be a wedding celebrant in both jurisdictions.

At the time the government, the police and the border force were under big pressure to address sham marriages. It suited them very much and got them more publicity if they could attach someone with a public profile to the case.

To my knowledge the 14 marriages I celebrated have never been declared null and void.

Miss Mo got a short sentence and is now living on her £5,000,000 back in Hong Kong.

My enemies will say I did it for money. I did not need those 4 weddings a year. At the time I had so many weddings I was outsourcing some weddings to others. The judge also made me pay £6,000 to the state which I did.

I will not be addressing this topic again on the blog but will place this statement on my personal website http://www.bishoppatbuckley.org

Archbishop Vigano

Barbie Latza Nadeau Correspondent-At-Large The Daily Beast.

ROME—There are few scandals in the sordid history of the American Catholic church more painful than the saga of former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a high-ranking prince of the church who fell from grace amid a slew of lies and cover-ups.

McCarrick was forced to resign and later defrocked after credible allegations that he sexually abused a boy from the age of 11 until the young man was 29, starting long before the Boston Spotlight probe and Pennsylvania Grand Jury report came to define priests behaving badly.

It was well known in certain Catholic circles that the cardinal liked to entertain six or more seminarians in his five-bedroom New Jersey beach house with the assumption that the odd man out would share his bed.

“Francis is a big problem for the church and his liberals will ultimately destroy it.”

Unlike in Boston and Pennsylvania, where the local dioceses were easy to blame for bad management, McCarrick was a man of the popes, which makes him an easy target for those who oppose the direction of the church. Both John Paul II and Francis relied on him as a chief fundraiser and were, it seems, willing to look beyond the rumors. McCarrick’s fall from grace shook the very foundations of the Roman Curia.

While McCarrick’s sins and crimes are by now established, there is still mystery surrounding what his bosses—both Pope John Paul II and Pope Francis– knew and, perhaps more importantly, when they knew it. But there is even more mystery why those who are so ardently against Francis see him as their poster priest of bad behavior.

Enter Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò, a traditional conservative Italian cleric supported by American Cardinal Raymond Burke and Francis-foe Steve Bannon—both of whom have been vocal critics of Francis’ policies on everything from immigration to gay Catholics and who have embraced the McCarrick fiasco as a way to pin all the church’s problems on this pope.

Bannon, whose own dreams to open an alt-right Catholic institution run by the Burke-sponsored Dignitatis Humanae Institute in Italy recently were thwarted, told The Daily Beast that Viganò was heroic and that Francis was the enemy.
“Francis is a big problem for the church and his liberals will ultimately destroy it,” Bannon said. “His open border policy on immigration won’t help, either.”

It is little wonder that Matteo Salvini, the hard-line far-right Bannon protégé is also a Pope Francis hater, even bragging last week that he has never asked for an audience with the pontiff.

Viganò was the apostolic nuncio, or ambassador, to the United States from 2011 to 2016. He was a harsh foe of Francis long before he was elected as pope in 2013 and one of the first to speak out when he was coronated. He was the one who set up the ill-conceived handshake with same-sex marriage opponent Kim Davis on Francis’s first visit to America. He was also the one who penned a lengthy testimonial last July in which he claimed that Francis knew all about McCarrick’s illegal behavior but covered it up. And for that, suggested Viganò, the pope ought to do the church a favor and resign. A month later, Viganò had gone into self-imposed exile.

This week, he surfaced again, this time on the pages of The Washington Post whose reporters interviewed him from his still-undisclosed location through a series of emails. The fruit of that labor is an 8,000-word tome that doubles down on the allegations against the leader of the Roman Catholic Church.

“The signs I see are truly ominous,” Viganò wrote. “Not only is Pope Francis doing close to nothing to punish those who have committed abuse, he is doing absolutely nothing to expose and bring to justice those who have, for decades, facilitated and covered up the abusers.”

Viganò calls the pope’s February summit on abuse a farce, blaming the Vatican’s gay mafia for the real crimes of clerical sex abuse. “An especially serious problem is that the summit focused exclusively on the abuse of minors,” he wrote, acknowledging that yes, those crimes are truly horrific. “Indeed, if the problem of homosexuality in the priesthood were honestly acknowledged and properly addressed, the problem of sexual abuse would be far less severe.”

McCarrick, he has long asserted, should have been made an example of years ago as an abuser who indiscriminately abused both young boys and adults. Viganò believes that Francis knew that and chose to elevate the American cardinal, who was a skilled diplomat who helped him broker a deal with China over its underground church. “McCarrick’s degradation from office was, as far as it goes, a just punishment, but there is no legitimate reason why it was not exacted more than five years earlier, and after a proper trial with a judicial procedure,” Viganò wrote in the Post. “Those with authority to act [i.e. Pope Francis] knew everything they needed to know by June of 2013.”

Viganò’s return comes at a time when battle lines have never been so clear between the more liberal faction of the church that supports Francis and the traditional conservatives who support the likes of Burke and Viganò.
Even the timing of the release of a harsh Vatican document against what it calls gender theory—“nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants”—is curious. A Vatican insider confided to The Daily Beast that the timing, during the height of Pride month, was meant to push the pope into a corner, either in defending the document or defending transgender people. In the end, he did neither.

That Viganò finally gave permission to The Washington Post to publish its scoop after weeks of negotiations (Vigano’s letters are dated May 2), is another example of the systematic criticism meant to embarrass the pontiff. “We are in a truly dark moment for the universal Church: The Supreme Pontiff is now blatantly lying to the whole world to cover up his wicked deeds!” Viganò claims. “But the truth will eventually come out, about McCarrick and all the other coverups, as it already has in the case of Cardinal [Donald] Wuerl, who also “knew nothing” and had “a lapse of memory.”
Wuerl, another American cardinal from Francis’ inner circle who like McCarrick, brought millions in donations from wealthy American Catholics to Rome, is the disgraced head of the powerful Washington, D.C., diocese. Francis was forced under pressure to accept his resignation last October after Viganò claimed he knew and covered up for McCarrick with the help of both Francis and John Paul II of McCarrick’s crimes proved too credible to ignore.

To those against the pope, Wuerl and McCarrick are emblematic in what is fast becoming a troubling legacy for the popular pope many thought could do no wrong after he was elected. For those who support this pope, they are just ammunition used against the most liberal pope in modern history. Either Vigano is the pawn or the errant clerics are in what is fast becoming a schism that may soon be hard to close.

“Pope Francis needs to reconcile himself with God, and the entire Church, since he covered up for McCarrick, refuses to admit it, and is now covering up for several other people,” charges Viganò. “I pray for his conversion every day. Nothing would make me happier than for Pope Francis to acknowledge and end the cover-ups, and to confirm his brothers in the faith.”

PAT SAYS

I like Vigano because he is a whistle blower.

Im not sure his motives are 100% pure as he is right wing and anti liberal.

But he has served at the top in Vatican affairs and he knows the dirt on the big boys and knows where many of skeletons are buried.

He knows what even a number of popes have done and not done.

The Vatican and the RC church thrive on secrecy and keeping their massive corruptions under wrap.

As more whistle blowers emerge and the international media bloodhounds follow leads more and more chunks fall off the ugly edifice.

The Chinese curse says “May he live in interesting times”.

I started off my life as a thoroughly brainwashed RC.

How glad I am to have lived in ways that opened my eyes.

I am living in interesting times.

The Reverend Matthew Fox (born Timothy James Fox on December 21, 1940) is an American priest and theologian. Formerly a member of the Dominican Order within the Roman Catholic Church, he became a member of the Episcopal Church following his expulsion from the order in 1993. Fox was an early and influential exponent[citation needed] of a movement that came to be known as Creation Spirituality. The movement draws inspiration from the mystical philosophies of such medieval Catholic visionaries as Hildegard of Bingen, Thomas Aquinas, Saint Francis of Assisi, Julian of Norwich, Dante Alighieri, Meister Eckhart and Nicholas of Cusa, as well as the wisdom and prophetic traditions of Jewish scriptures. Creation Spirituality is also strongly aligned with ecological and environmental movements of the late 20th century and embraces numerous spiritual traditions around the world, including Buddhism, Judaism, Sufism, and Native American spirituality, with a focus on “deep ecumenism” or interfaith.
Fox has written 35 books that have been translated into 68 languages and have sold millions of copies and by the mid-1990s had attracted a “huge and diverse following”.

PAT SAYS

I have been a fan and admirer of Matthew Fox for many years.

I don’t give assent to everything he thinks or says.

His favourite book for me is ON BECOMING A MUSICAL MYSTICAL BEAR.

I enjoyed the above interview and it speaks a lot of truth.

Fox makes various suggestions as to what can help the church;

1. Ordain women to priesthood and episcopacy and involve them in the exercise of power in the church.
2. Make celibacy optional.
3. Sack bishops and priests who abuse or cover up abuse.
4. Banish homophobia from the church.
5. See human sexuality as an original blessing and not as a problem. 

Invitation to priest who blames autism on parents ‘should be withdrawn’

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin tells church to withdraw offer to Fr Dominic Valanmahal

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has asked the Irish branch of the Syro-Malabar church to withdraw an invitation to Fr Dominic Valanmanal to visit Ireland. Video: Marian Retreat Centre

Patsy McGarry The Irish Times

An invitation sent to controversial priest Fr Dominic Valanmahal to lead a retreat in Ireland should be withdrawn, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.

A priest of the Eastern Syro-Malabar Catholic Church, which is based at Kerela in India and has about 4,000 members in Ireland, Fr Valanmahal has been preaching that the increased incidence of autism and hyperactivity in children is due to their parents’ lifestyle.

Members of the church worship at Dublin centres in Tallaght, Lucan, Blanchardstown, Phibsborough, Inchicore, Bray, Blackrock, Swords, and Beaumont.

“Why does this generation have autism and hyperactivity? That is to say, mentally retarded children are in abundance,” Fr Valanmahal asked in a sermon.

“Adultery, masturbation, homosexuality, porn, if you are addicted to these, I say to you in the name of God. . .when you get married and have children, there is a high possibility of bearing these type of children,” he said.

“They lead an animal-like life. They copulate like animals. They bear children like animals. Therefore those children also, will be like animals,” he said.

The priest has also claimed that on previous visits to Ireland, he “cured” one such child in Dublin. He “stood in the middle of the house and said ‘In the name of Jesus, I command, I bind the spirit of autism and hyperactivity that has infested this house. I banish it. Banish it to the foot of Jesus’s cross’,” he said.

‘Touched by the messiah’

On another visit to Ireland, he claimed to have “cured” a child in Limerick. “They bring this child. Praise the Lord. The child was cured 100 per cent. I gave the child Holy Communion. Now the child studies in a normal school. Not only that child, but her younger siblings were also touched by the messiah,” he said.

Fr Valanmahal had been invited to conduct a retreat at the Syro Malabar Catholic Church in Tallaght on October 26th, 27th and 28th next.

On Thursday morning, a spokeswoman for Archbishop Martin, who has jurisdiction over the church in the Dublin archdiocese, said he had been in contact with the Syro-Malabar community “and told them that Fr Dominic Valanmahal should not be invited here.”

Meanwhile, a petition has been launched by members of the Syro-Malabar community in Ireland calling on Minister for Justice Charlie Flanagan to have Fr Valanmahal banned from entering the country.

A member of the group told The Irish Timesthey were doing so as “this kind of personality should not be allowed to do anymore harm to the people living in Ireland”.

They added: “I believe our children, families should never hear another preaching from this priest.”

False preaching

The petition is “supported by Indian emigrants in Ireland. I would like to let Irish people know about this as this kind of false preaching will affect the whole nation and it is a social nuisance,” the person said.

The petition claims the priest “verbally abused autistic kids and compared their parents to wild animals having no intelligence but just living for sex, alcohol and reproduction.”

It continues: “We discourage any attempt made by people like this person who could potentially be a threat to the development and integration of our children in the local society and also their future in this country.”

To date, almost 1,500 people have signed the petition, including Richard Thuruthen in New Zealand who commented “ I have personaly heard his speech in Wellington NZ . He is racist person. He said bad things about Indian kids marrying to Chinese and people from Africa. ”

The petition is at http://chng.it/wrFqyYKG

PAT SAYS

The views of this sub continent priest are nonsense.

He is telling good, loving parents that their children’s autism is down to them masturbating etc.

More RC teaching being used to abuse those already suffering.

Diarmuid Martin is quite right to call for his invitation to becrecinded.

We have enough home grown spiritual nuts to cope with without importing exotic ones.

The last thing 21st century Ireland needs is the arrival of witch doctors and medicine men from tge third world.

“Q: Whats the difference between a social worker and a Rottweiler?

A: You’ll get you child back from a Rottweiler”.

I’VE MET A LOT OF SOCIAL WORKERS IN MY TIME BUT I CANNOT REMEMBER EVER MEETING A GOOD ONE!

This topic is on my mind currently because I am trying to help a lady in her 80s who has recently moved into a care home.

As a result ALL her pension now goes to the care home and her son has to add £40 a week to that.

She was also on the care and mobility components on DLA – Disablity Living Allowace. They have taken all that from her.

So, the poor old lady has ZERO income now.

We know the namevof her nominated social worker.

The old lady, frail and on a zimmer called into the social workers office and some screamed at her that she didnt have a spcial worker!

I then decided to contact the social worker on her behalf? I’ve been ringing for over a week now and I get nothing but put offs and lies.

They’ve promised me a call back a dozen times and they have never bothered.

They are determined not to deal with the matter and its a waste of tome complaining to their bosses. The bosses are worse.

A number of years ago I represented a friend of mine whose marriage had broken up.

The female social workers conspired with the ex wife to see to it that my friend never got to see his two girls since – 10 years now.

I get the impression that most social workers are really screwed up individuals, unhappy, miserable, people hating and get an unhealthy pleasure from hurting vulnerable people.

They also, very frequently, lie through their teeth.

To be avoided at all costs!

Aodhan O’Faolain The Irish Times

A dispute between six siblings over their late mother’s will cannot proceed before the High Court because one of the parties, a Catholic priest, has been charged with drug offences in the United States.

New York-based Fr Michael O’Leary (aged 50) was arrested by New York police in the early hours of St Patrick’s Day last after they found him and another man in a vehicle.

Investigating officers claim they recovered half an ounce of methamphetamine, two scales and other materials used for packaging narcotics following a search of the vehicle.

Fr O’Leary is charged with criminal possession of a controlled substance with intent to sell and two counts of criminal use of drug paraphernalia and the criminal possession of a controlled substance and is currently remanded on bail.

In Ireland four of the accused’s siblings Nora Harpur, Barry O’Leary, Tadgh O’Leary and Marie O’Leary have brought unrelated High Court proceedings against both Fr Michael and their brother John O’Leary.

The action is aimed at setting aside the will of their late mother, Mrs Elizabeth O’Leary, who died in September 2014.

The four plaintiffs seek an order condemning a will made by the late Mrs O’Leary of Morehampton Road, Donnybrook, Dublin 4 in 2009 on grounds that she was not of sound mind when it was executed.

It is claimed that the family home was left to the defendants, while the residue of the estate was left to the other siblings.

It is also alleged that undue influence was exerted over the late Mrs O’Leary by the defendants when she was preparing and executing the 2009 will.

The claims are denied.

The case had been fixed for hearing later this month and was expected to last for several days

Fr O’Leary is expected to give evidence against his four siblings’ claim.

Last week lawyers for Fr Michael asked Ms Justice Leonie Reynolds, who is in charge of the High Court’s chancery division to adjourn the case as it was not possible for their client to attend court due to “a somewhat sensitive” matter.

Fr O’Leary, the judge was told, is charged with drug offences and is currently undergoing a 90-day residential drug rehabilitation programme in New York.

Despite their best efforts his lawyers have had very little communications with Fr O’Leary since his arrest and the rehabilitation programme won’t be completed until mid-July.

From the limited instructions, they have received, his lawyers in the will case say it would be prejudicial to Fr O’Leary to interrupt the programme he is currently undergoing, the court was told.

He is due back before a New York court in respect of the drugs charges later this month,

His lawyers say he is hopeful that given his past good behaviour and having undergone treatment the US court will treat him with leniency if Fr O’Leary is convicted of the offences.

His lawyers are unclear about the terms of Fr O’Leary’s bail, but believe he would be unlikely be able to travel to attend at the High Court.

His lawyers add that despite being unable to get firm instructions they are concerned that Fr O’Leary is unlikely to be emotionally or psychologically ready to address the complex issues raised in the will dispute.

The case had been originally listed for hearing in January, and Fr O’Leary had attended court from America.

However, there was no judge available to hear the action and the case was fixed for June 19th.

The plaintiffs had been made aware of their brother’s situation, the court also heard.

The adjournment application was opposed by lawyers for the plaintiffs.

Ms Justice Reynolds expressed the court’s displeasure at the application, which she said lacked detail about Fr O’leary’s future availability.

Clearly, the case which had been fixed for hearing in advance could not go ahead as scheduled and a new date would have to be fixed, the judge said.

The judge adjourned the matter for mention to next week to allow Fr O’Leary’s lawyers to obtain more information about the criminal proceedings in the United States, and when he would be in a position to give evidence.

PAT SAYS

The RC church is the scandal giver that keeps on giving?

Sex, abuse, money and drugs.

The RC junta is the new Mafia.

So much evil comes from and leads to Rome.

Mailonline16:38, 11 Jun 2019, updated 17:59, 11 June.

Helen Maguire, 71, from Tipperary, Ireland, moved to London to have baby

Returned home and left daughter with nuns to avoid questions from parents

Now believes when she went to pick up child, she was given a different baby

Took DNA test with Christine Skipsey, 51, to find they weren’t biologically related

Now desperate to find birth daughter and how the mix-up could have happened

A mother has revealed the devastating moment she discovered her daughter, 51, had been swapped with another baby, and that the woman she raised was not her biological daughter.

Helen Maguire, now 71, from Tipperary left her daughter Christine with the nuns at the infant hospital at Temple Hill, the infant hospital at St. Patrick’s Guild adoption home in Dublin, while she found somewhere for them to live.
Yet when she returned to pick up her daughter six weeks later, Helen now realises she was given a different child.

It is unclear if this was intentional.
After considerable publicity about the illegal adoption scandal in Ireland last year, she took a DNA test with her daughter Christine Skipsey, 51, and the pair discovered they were not biologically relatedIt’s believed her biological daughter was adopted by another couple living in Dublin, and Helen hopes to meet her in the near future.

She told the Irish Independent she had been left ‘devastated’ by the revelation, saying: ‘I am going to apologise to her and tell her it wasn’t my fault, that I was told when I collected my daughter that she was my daughter and that was it.’
‘You’re brought up with your religion, and I believed them. And I just feel sorry for the girl as well and I am going to apologise to her, I’ve apologised to Christine.’
‘Christine’s life has been turned upside down. It is something I have got to live with now for the rest of my life.’

Helen said she wishes to apoligise to the child she’s never met, and revealed she felt sorry for her lost daughter

Christine Skipsey, 51, was devastated to discover the woman who raised her for 50 years was not her biological mother
In 1966, an 18-year-old Helen Carew, left her family home in Co Tipperary and moved away to work in the Avenue Hotel in Dún Laoghaire.
Having grown up in a staunchly Catholic environment, she said she was desperately lonely, and ended up getting pregnant.
Upon telling the father, he encouraged her to meet a priest, and to move into a mother and baby home, where Helen was scared the pair would be seperated.

She was terrified that if her family discovered her pregnancy, her father would force her to give the baby up for adoption.

I was sitting in my garden yesterday afternoon at 3 pm in the sunshine. My Jack Russell pets, Aria and Buzz were lying at my feet and the whole scene was perfect and peaceful.

My thoughts turned towards God and I prayed. I then felt a very silent and still presence and I was deeply moved. I praised God for all the wonderful things he had done for me during my life. I asked him to help me with all I was doing and also asked him to let me know if anything I was doing was against his wishes to give me a sign. And all my heart heard: “Just tell people how good I have been to you”.

I had two good parents but we were very poor. As the oldest of 17 children I, very early, felt the burden of being a third parent. That made me very serious too early and I had a childhood overshadowed by worrying about things that no child should have to worry about. 

But my dad had introduced me to daily Mass at the age of 4 and that habit continued all my life. As a child I brought all my worries to God at Mass and in the church. It really got me through my childhood and especially my teenage years when I became aware of my sexuality. Because of RC teaching I became very guilty and ashamed of who I was. My daily Mass and my daily hour in the church talking to God got me through – even thought I was not aware of it.

At 18 I entered Clonliffe seminary Dublin. I loved the seminary life especially Mass, the Divine Office and the spiritual exercises. I enjoyed the camaraderie of some companions but carrying the “secret” of my sexuality made me feel difficult in small and large groups where a lot of banter went on. I had a big problem of blushing and of course others saw this and it gave them something to tease me about. But good God was with me and that got me through.

My second seminary was St, John’s in Waterford. Life was wonderful there. I felt no pressure and the president, Monsignor John Shine was a wonderful inspiration to me and he gave me wonderful encouragement and support. God works through good people  like John Shine RIP.

My ordination on Pentecost Sunday June 6th 1976 was the best day of my whole life. God had granted me something I had longed for since the age of 4.

I had a tough beginning to ministry in Wales in 1976 to 1978 with having two old Irish parish priests who were absolute tyrants. I will not go into the details but all this was helped by having a wonderful spiritual director who belonged to the Servants of the Paraclete order.

In 1978 I came to Belfast and to St Peter’s in Divis Flats. At the beginning things were good in the presbytery but after a year went sour. I got through those years by spending an hour a day before the Blessed Sacrament. 

When Cahal Daly came to Down and Connor in 1982 things began to change. A couple of priests convinced Daly that I  was a “problem”. Daly moved me from Belfast to Kilkeel and then tom Larne. He disliked my public and media outspokenness about the failures of the church. We had a few conversations and one big 4 hour meeting, I was respectful to him but refused to accept his way of looking at the world and told him my way. It was obvious we were not going to agree. He did not like that. Daly was the boss and it was his way or the highway. In 1986 he showed me the door. All that time I felt God close to me and I was able to deal with my distress by taking it to God.

For the past 33  years I have ministered independently from Larne, I have kept an open door.  If all the people that have passed through The Oratory turned up at once we would have to meet in a large football stadium. 

Father Sean Rogan who was a curate told a Larne parishioner not to worry about The Oratory as “only the dregs went there”. 

I sent him a message thanking him for what I said,

Other priests call The Oratory a hayshed. I take that as a great compliment. Was not the Saviour born in a stable/hayshed

There are people/Christians who like to be part of a herd and then develop the herd mentality. It was a herd of Jews and others at Calvary who shouted “Crucify him”

Then there are individuals, who while being far from perfect, are either not part of the herd or are rejected by the herd who do their own thing.

The Oratory has ministered to thousands of people in 33 years who were rejected by their own priest or minister. They said NO to them. We said and say YES to them.

Archbishop Helder Camara of South America once said:

“Try and say yes to people. and when you have to say no to them try and make the no as much like yes as possible”.

Anyway, as I said at the beginning, I want to acknowledge today how good God has been to me all my life.

No offence meant to our atheist and agnostic readers.

Jun 10, 2019 by Joshua J. McElwee NVR

VATICAN CITY — The Vatican office responsible for overseeing Catholic educational institutions around the world has blasted modern gender theory, claiming in a new document that it seeks to “annihilate the concept of ‘nature.’ “

In an instruction released June 10 as LGBT people globally are celebrating pride month, the Congregation for Catholic Education calls the idea of people’s gender identities existing along a spectrum “nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants.

Labeling the biological differences between men and women “constitutive of human identity,” the office also questions the intentions of those who identify as intersex and transgender.

“Efforts to go beyond the constitutive male-female sexual difference, such as the ideas of ‘intersex’ or ‘transgender,’ lead to a masculinity or femininity that is ambiguous,” states the document.

“This oscillation between male and female becomes, at the end of the day, only a ‘provocative’ display against so-called ‘traditional frameworks,’ ” it continues.
The document, which carries the title “Male and female he created them,” was released by the Vatican June 10 without prior announcement. Described as an aid for Catholic schoolteachers and parents, it is signed by the educational congregation’s leaders: Italians Cardinal Giuseppe Versaldi and Archbishop Angelo Zani.
The educational aid does not carry Pope Francis’ signature, and the text makes no reference of the pontiff reviewing the document.
Groups that minister to LGBT Catholics immediately criticized the document. New Ways Ministry, one such group, called it a “harmful tool that will be used to oppress and harm not only transgender people, but lesbian, gay, [and] bisexual people, too.”

Francis, whose early pontificate was defined by his “Who am I to judge?” answer to a question about an alleged gay priest working at the Vatican, has made contradictory remarks about gender theory and transgender people throughout his six-year papacy.
In a 2015 interview, for example, the pontiff compared gender theory to nuclear weapons, saying the concept “does not recognize the order of creation.” But in 2016, the pope revealed in a press conference that he had met at the Vatican with a Spanish transgender man who had been ostracized by his parish priest after having gender reassignment surgery.
“We must be attentive, not saying all are the same,” Francis said about that experience, adding that “people must be accompanied, as Jesus accompanied.”

The new document, which is 31 pages in length, does not speak of accompanying transgender people. It instead issues fierce warnings and criticisms of how children and young people are being educated today.

The text opens by saying that society is facing “an educational crisis, especially in the field of affectivity and sexuality.”

It then claims that cultural “disorientation” has destabilized the family as an institution, “bringing with it a tendency to cancel out the differences between men and women, presenting them instead as merely the product of historical and cultural conditioning.”

The heart of the document critiques modern society’s detachment of an individual’s concept of gender from their biological sex.

“Gender theory … speaks of a gradual process of denaturalization, that is a move away from nature and towards an absolute option for the decision of the feelings of the human subject,” it states.

“In this understanding of things, the view of both sexuality identity and the family become subject to the same ‘liquidity’ and ‘fluidity’ that characterize other aspects of post-modern culture, often founded on nothing more than a confused concept of freedom in the realm of feelings and wants, or momentary desires provoked by emotional impulses and the will of the individual,” it continues.

The text claims that genetic studies have shown that male and female embryos differ “from the very moment of conception.” In cases where a child is born with ambiguous genitalia, it says “it is medical professionals who can make a therapeutic intervention.

“In such situations, parents cannot make an arbitrary choice on the issue, let alone society,” it recommends. “Instead, medical science should act with purely therapeutic ends, and intervene in the least invasive fashion, on the basis of objective parameters and with a view to establishing the person’s constitutive identity.”
Retelling the Genesis story of God creating humans in his image as men and women, the document calls for a reaffirming of “the metaphysical roots of sexual difference.”

In a short section detailing some “points of agreement” with gender theory, the text praises educational programs that “share a laudable desire to combat all expressions of unjust discrimination, a requirement that can be shared by all sides.”
“Indeed, it cannot be denied that through the centuries forms of unjust discrimination have been a sad fact of history and have also had an influence within the Church,” it states.

“This has brought a certain rigid status quo, delaying the necessary and progressive inculturation of the truth of Jesus’ proclamation of the equal dignity of men and women, and has provoked accusations of a sort of masculinist mentality, veiled to a greater or lesser degree by religious motives,” it continues.

The document also praises anthropological studies that focus on the “values of femininity,” lauding how “women’s ‘capacity for the other’ favors a more realistic and mature reading of evolving situations.'”

[Joshua J. McElwee is NCR Vatican correspondent. His email address is jmcelwee@ncronline.org. Follow him on Twitter: @joshjmac.]

PAT SAYS

This is a disgraceful and ignorant document coming from a hotbed of corruption and sexual promiscuity.

The Vatican does not have the expertise tor issues are for the medical, psychology, medical, genetic professionals.

Nature is imperfect and makes mistakes . We see this all the time when babies are born with a huge variety of serious physical and intellectual disabilities.

Nature destroys the globe constantly with hurricanes, flooding, storms and earthquakes.

This makes it quite legitimate for a person to say that nature made a mistake with them and put them in a wrong body.

We must treat transgender people with an open mind and with compassion and a desire to listen and help.

I have had the privilege of working with transgender people. I welcomed. I listened. I learned.

Ann then accompanied them to their hospital appointments?

After each appointment I brought them for a meal dressed in their desired gender.

We were stared at and whispered about.

I didn’t care.

Transgender people are often modern lepers.

Jesus would want his followers to love them as he loved the lepers of his time.

And of course the dirty Vatican has no true interest in the teachings of Jesus.

They prefer their manmade empire.

“The nearer you are to the church the further you are fom God”.