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CARDINAL SAYS CHURCH NEEDS TO EXIT CLERICAL ABUSE SCANDALS AND THAT DIARMUID MARTIN SHOULD STOP APOLOGISING

Sarah Mac Donald The Tablet

‘We need to find a way of exiting this experience otherwise it will suffocate us,’ said Turkson

The Church needs to “find a way of exiting” the negativity of the abuse scandals “otherwise it will suffocate us”, according to a senior cleric who is based in Rome.

The Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development, Cardinal Peter Turkson, also criticised Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin for apologising “too much”.

In his keynote address to the Autumn conference of the Association of Leaders of Missionaries and Religious of Ireland (AMRI) at the Emmaus Centre in Dublin, Cardinal Turkson recognised the abuse crisis as one of four “signs of the times”.

He told 155 participants from over 50 congregations, societies of apostolic life and affiliated lay groups that he understood something of the impact of the scandals on the local church in Ireland from the two world events, the International Eucharistic Congress in 2012 and the World Meeting of Families in 2018, which he attended.

He recalled how at IEC2012 Archbishop Martin gave an apology at every event he addressed. “At one point I thought it was too much. I thought he was making this huge cloud hang over everything,” he said.

At WMF2018, the Ghanaian prelate said he recognised the scandals, the pain of the victims and he agreed with Pope Francis’ messages to victims. “Now we need to find a way of exiting this experience otherwise it will suffocate us,” he warned.

Asked about Cardinal Turkson’s comment, Sr Liz Murphy, Secretary General of AMRI, told The Tablet: “It can be difficult for someone who has not lived through the past 20 years in Ireland to understand fully the effects of the abuse scandals. I believe he was challenging us to move forward and to be vigilant of all forms of abuse today.”

Elsewhere in his address on Mission Today in our Common Home, Cardinal Turkson identified the ecological crisis and climate change as further signs of the times: “This is a sign of the times that invites us to a particular form of mission that we can carry out by hearing the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor,” he said.

Other signs of the times he highlighted were the growing inequality in communities between the rich and the poor and a throwaway culture that sees so many abandoned and discarded as well as the threat of war to global security.

Speaking about the Extraordinary Month of Mission, he said Pope Francis was urging the faithful not to let fear over a lack of resources or fear about a challenging situation inhibit them as missionaries.

“We sin against mission when we fail to spread joy, when we think of ourselves as victims. In the world and in the Church, we sin against mission when we become slaves to the fears that immobilise us,” he said.

PAT SAYS

Is Turkson blind?

Sexual abuse and rampant homosexuality is the current fruits of the RCC.

The hierarchy and clergy have stolen the joy of faith and spirituality.

There’s nothing left except darkness, evil and the stench of decay.

Diarmuid Martin is a serial apologiser.

It’s all he can do.

Their sorrow should be eternal.

Maybe it will be.

But at least DM seems haunted by the abuse mmountain.

At least he recognises that it is the RCC final exiit.

PAUL BRITE IS PAUL BRITE

Cynical comment makers have been trying to undermine the ex seminarian who spoke our yesterday about abusive Wonersh Seminary.

Here Paul publishes his Wonersh credentials to prove who he is.

Let the cynical and wormish RCC defenders of worm – ish collapse in the face of Paul’s honesty and integrity.

112 replies on “CARDINAL SAYS CHURCH NEEDS TO EXIT CLERICAL ABUSE SCANDALS AND THAT DIARMUID MARTIN SHOULD STOP APOLOGISING”

Pat I visited wonersh a number of times as a good friends of mine where of study there. Did you know the rectors rooms are above the main door of the college , he has a balcony with a large cover over it. Like a pope! He seees and heard all due to his location
The fire alarms are so sensitive you need to go into the showers to put on deodorant.
It’s true that the showers are communal ie no separate cubicles or shower curtains so pretty much all to see.
It’s very much like a school, the men have made wholes in the toilet doors to be able to look between the cubicles

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Sounds like there could be some peep freaks at Wonersh, Bp Pat. I wonder if the “younger seminarian” was called Bo-Peep?

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Pat, we do need to find a way of exiting this abuse scandal, not at any cost though and particularly not in a way that forgets victims/survivors. WE CAN NEVER DO THAT. You seem to rejoice at the situation the Church finds itself in. That’s an arrogant, self righteous attitude which you display with sneering joy. However, the Church must root out every and any cause of sexual abuse, have zero tolerance for abusers, enforce resignation of those who cover up, give paramount priority to survivors, financially, spiritually and morally. In this perspective, yes, the Church must find a way of exiting the present scandals but only when it complys with the utmost moral commitments as I outline. We cannot allow the abuse scandals continue. If I had power I would ensure and command that a TRUTH AND RECONCILIATION FORUM be established with all relevant people involved, giving absolute priority to victims/survivors to define the terms of such a forum. We, as a Church are morally bound by CHRIST to embrace the suffering, broken and pained survivors. And unless we do this with immediate effect, as Christ’s compassion would urge us to do, then the Church will be defined for generations by its abysmal record in confronting the horror of sexual abuse scandals. We will exit this chapter only when the Church in truth and justice does what GOD asks and expects: to live like CHRIST ALONE. This requires moral courage, spiritual integrity and a deep commitment to give all necessary help, support and justice to survivors. It’s not a time for rejoicing that the church is flattened but a time to pray for a just, loving, compassionate and merciful outreach to all who cry in their pain. Archbishop Martin expresses a righteous anger and can be credited with being very pro active re: response to sexual abuse and a vigilance about ensuring all parishes carry out its responsibilities. A prayer by you Pat for your former church may not go astray!!

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12.00

So you would ‘ensure and command’, would you, that a truth and reconciliation forum be established, in order to avoid the Church’s being defined for generations by the sexual abuse scandals?

YOU ARROGANT …!😠

You, and that cardinal, would just love to move on, wouldn’t you? Even if victims can’t.

Your ‘forum’ is about drawing a line in this sinking, stinking sand, so that when, in future, other crimes of sexual abuse by Roman Cathoilc priests emerge (as they inevitably will), and when it emerges alongside these that other so-called men of God (priests, bishops, popes) actively, and pro-actively, concealed, or attempted to conceal, these crimes from law enforcement agencies around the world, you, and that cardinal, can cry out: ‘Enough! We don’t want to hear anymore. We dont want to be defined by the evil which, literally, is a historical characteristic of the institutional Roman Catholic Church, the Strumpet that betrayed its master in Gethsemane, and repeatedly thereafter. We don’t want to be defined by our historical truth!’

You, and that cardinal, would prefer a show of piety, of holiness…the very facade behind which your forebears hid and abused children, doing evil in anonymity, while presenting to the world the Pharisaical face of moral righteousness.

As is said about two world wars last century: ‘Lest we forget.’

We must NEVER forget the evil committed by the institutional Roman Catholic Church, not just lest we forget, but lest people like you, and that cardinal, avail of the opportunity to offend all over again.

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Cardinal Turkson remarks are appalling. He’s completely out of touch, needing to acquire the ‘smell of the sheep’ particularly sheep abused by their shepherds. If the Cardinal thinks there’s a convenient exit to be found to this ‘experience’ he badly needs a rethink. The institutional Church can never apologize enough. There’s NO exit for victims, to the experience of abuse, perpetrated by clerics. The clouds at the events in Dublin weren’t due to Arch. Martin’s apologies. The clouds in the Rcc were, and are, due to moral corruption, abusiviness and criminality among far too many clerics. ‘We sin against mission when we fail to spread joy’, when we think of ourselves as victims’! Cardinal, we sin against mission when we rape, abuse and ruin lives, when we live as hypocrites, when we cover up crime, when we fail to take all of the gospel seriously!!! Idiot!!! Who appoints Cardinals? How was former Cardinal, Ted McCarrick appointed when many knew about his ‘missionary activities’. And how does Sr. Liz think the Church can move forward when new cases of abuse are streaming out daily in America, being reported daily to the Vatican, while old cases remain covered up here, as Bishops keep their heads down, mouths shut, trying to avoid drawing attention, while evading their responsibilities. Pope Francis messages to ‘victims’ is public relations spin. The reality is, PayPal Nuncios, Bishops and Cardinals, couldn’t give a ‘you know what’ wishing ‘victims’ would sod off! Are there scandals in the Church in Ghana to come into the light? Cardinal Turkson needs to realise, the Church will never be the same again. It will never be business as usual. A refocusing of mission might be required following Church repentance before Almighty God.

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Yes, Pat, I was thinking the same as your comment as I read this. ‘Let’s move on’ is a way of trying to ignore a problem but trying to make it sound positive – in fact it’s something that is often said to you on here!
And I like your comment about their sorrow should be eternal.

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Poor choice of words from the pointed hat but I think I can see part of his point. Abuse will suffocate. Exit abuse and enter into the proper mission of the gospel. John calls for repentance But once more it is time for baptism of Jesus and the sending of the Holy Spirit hi

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I don’t think the guy is blind Pat. He is expressing the truth. His solution to the truth he perceives is to brush it under the carpet. He is wrong.
“The times they are a changing!”
The truth he perceives is the pollution in the church by what Francis calls clericalism. In the past the Church, ie the laity, has been unable to challenge the clericalists who abuse their God given authority to pollute the Church and bring such offence. This guy perceives that the laity are rising in indignation at the abuse of authority and the hypocrisy of these guys who think they are invincible. He perceives, Mr McCarrick, Conry, O’Brien, Apuron, Maynooth, Wonersh etc etc etc. He is right to be concerned because clericalism will be overwhelmed.
He is alarmed that the “over pious”, “serious” people who are scandalised by the offence given to Mary and Jesus are standing up to be counted in growing numbers. Some of these people may have been abused and may be seeking revenge. Others are thinking of their eternal life and even though it will mean they will suffer in this life they are prepared to stand up. Not by chance that AB Vigano has chosen to go in to hiding as reports of murders in Venezuela become public. Some of these clerics are prepared to do anything to protect their little empires.
AB Martin seems to have read the signs of the times. The seminarians who clapped Paul Bright off as he left the seminary at Wonersh provide a striking insight in to their feelings.
The people have had enough. The culture will change and transparency will come through people like Francis, AB Martin, Pat Buckley, Catherine Devaney, Paul Bright and me. The cleric will get old and pass. The next generation will have to make a choice. So seminarians, choose where you want to be! Clerics choose where you want to spend eternal life!!

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With the exception of Kieran Conry and Catherine Devenay, I imagine all the rest are doodle-gazers, including Paul Bright.

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Paul, find some other way to serve the Lord other than getting involved with a bunch of dysfunctionals.
Best wishes.

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You can recognise the dysfunctionals by the hissy fits they throw and their feigned outrage (I am so offended deary!)
when presented with some uncomfortable home truths. You really are better out of the place Paul. Shake the sand from your feet.

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It’s VERY odd that the showers at Wonersh are communal given the Church’s neurosis about sex. Has this always been the case and had it never been proposed that they should be renovated? What are the ablutions in other seminaries? I think I would be less concerned about the eye candy than about copping an eyeful of the less desirable specimens – especially the staff!

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The two seminaries I attended in the 70s had shower cubicles with lockable doors.

The showers at Wonersh are communal to deliberately facilitate both looking at others and encouraging gay sex.

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There’s an awful lot VERY ODD about the Church.
The Church’s neurosis about sex is of the obsessive compulsive addictive type.
Celibates holding a sex summit last February is another sign of the times.

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Hi +Pat,
+Diarmuid Martin would like to know if you finally support Rev. Byrne to be ordained this year? He would like your stamp of approval to proceed. He remarked that you have been “an essential element” in his formation over these past years. He thinks he might be ready after his time out and pastoral work. What do you think?

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To his credit Michael has always been upfront about being gay and has never tried to hide behind Latin and lace. For that and for his quiet perseverance he might be able to do great good. The question is whether he has been cruel and unkind, as malice behind the fake piety is the real scandal. Others who actually know him have spoken of his warmth and kindness, so if Diarmuid is prepared to ordain him, I’d say go for it. There are far worse shits in cassocks.

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Pat

It is not a question of changing someone. The question should be: has he learned from his past mistakes? He cannot be blamed for everything that happened to him. People used his good will, good looks and kind nature for their own benefit. He was used too. He was naive not malicious.

God Bless.

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I can accept all you say. I think he was used for sex by many priests and seminarians. Being young he was flattered by that and his clerical daddies spoiled him financially.

DM has to take a lot into account.

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By Post Author

Magna. The priests you talk about don’t exist. You are living up in the clouds. I think you need to come back to reality. Judging by your own high standards and by your own definition you were never suitable either!

I remember the gin parties in your room (which was against college rules btw) and your flamboyant homosexuality. The blonde hair and blue eyes (with glasses) did not make up for the skinny, nerdy, badly dressed and ugly looks.

I also heard recently that you are still living with your mother too 😂. You must be into your late 30’s by now? Do you still go for afternoon tea with her? “Who dear, me dear”

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My mother lived with me for the last 16 years of her life. We often went for a meal together. What’s wrong with that?

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Good to read some sympathetic and supportive comments concerning Michael rather than objectifying him, as so many have done to his detriment. It would be good if we could drop the Gorgeous and treat him as a human being. I wish him well. He’s fortunate in having Diarmuid as his Bishop given some of the useless shits we read about daily.

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11.12

I did not ‘lash out’ at Byrne: my post was directed at ‘Meath Priest’ (at 10.38).

I have sympathy and compassion with those who are honest, and direct, about their misconduct, and who persuasively express a willingness to change their behaviour; I have absolutely none for those who euphemise such conduct, and seek to hide poor moral character behind it.

Byrne, and others, have caused deep hurt, both to themselves and to the wider Church; and yet, there has not been one public word of apology… of a desire for self-reform …from any of them. Instead, they have lain low, no doubt hoping that this moral sandstorm will blow right over them. Apparently, Byrne even lied to Bishop P. when texting with him. Is your conscience so rudderless that you would have us all run aground on Byrne’s lies and deceir?

Habitually poor behaviour is not overcome by self-deception and others-dishonesty. Nor by attempting to pull the wool over their eyes.

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Pat

I think people bring up Byrne as a distraction to other issues on the blog because they know you can’t help yourself when it comes to him.

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In a real was Michael Byrne and Maynooth are connected to the gay crisis at Wonersh.

I am not without empathy for Michael Byrne.

But he did lie to me and has never publicly apologised to all those he hurt and scandalised.

He continues to be a person of interest on this blog – and not just for me.

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By Post Author

Magna raises a very important point.

Why has Byrne not publicly apologised for his behaviour and stated that he is a reformed person and living a celibate life?

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10.38

‘Mistakes’?😕 You ask whether Byrne has learned from his ‘past mistakes’?

You remind me of others your kind (Roman Catholic priests) who continue to euphemise the institutional Church’s crimes of child rape and sodomy, and its concealment of these from law enforcement agencies around the globe, as, er, ‘mistakes’.

Can you people ever grow up? Ever mature enough emotionally and spiritually, and grow sufficient moral backbone (not to mention moral conscience), to call such acts for what they really are: intentional, calculated, methodical and deliberate acts of malfeasance which, in very many cases, were also very serious crimes?

Byrne sinned, wilfully, and by choice, because he prospered from it sexually, and in other ways.

Don’t, please, patronise the world by telling it that Byrne made mistakes.

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There is no one beyond making mistakes and later making up for them.

The question for DM is whether or not Michael is suitable for ordination.

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Ahh Magna you were always jealous of him. We must talk about your sexual exploits while in seminary. Hmmmmm

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For heavens’ sake Magna!
Michael Byrne is not a monster. Why is it you feel the need to lash out, when you yourself are capable of great wisdom and sympathy? Are you really only in your thirties? I always inferred you were a miserable washed out old git much like myself!

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10.54

My mother died nearly three years ago.

And I live alone, and celibately.

If you are sure of my identity, then name me.

By the way, you are almost correct about my appearance: I am fair-haired and do wear glasses. But I was never nerdy, thin, and ugly.

Oh! And I’m not near my late thirties.

(Sigh) Name me. 😩

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Here is an idea Magna

Since you are so brave on this website why don’t you name yourself?

I gave enough details about you. You might be in your 40’s now. I was never sure of your age. You are not celibate by choice! You were hard to look at.

You are always attacking people anonymously. Name yourself. I know you can give it but ehhhh can you take it? 😂😂😂

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This has become the Magna show again!!!

One thing is certain – Byrne has an abundance of supporters and haters. It is impressive how he has captured peoples attention for so long. There is something special about him, even if we don’t like to admit it. I would love to know what he thinks about all the rumours and gossip about him.

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Happiness
Songwriter: Derrick Anderson Sung by : Ken Dodd 1964.
Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess
I thank the Lord I’ve been blessed
With more than my share of happiness (Chorus)

To me this world is a wonderful place
And I’m the luckiest human in the whole human race
I’ve got no silver and I’ve got no gold
But I’ve got happiness in my soul

Happiness to me is an ocean tide
Or a sunset fading on a mountain side
A big old heaven full of stars up above
When I’m in the arms of the one I love
(Chorus)
Happiness is a field of grain
Turning its face to the falling rain
I can see it in the sunshine, I breathe it in the air
Happiness happiness everywhere

A wise old man told me one time
Happiness is a frame of mind
When you go to measuring my success
Don’t count my money count my happiness

Happiness, happiness, the greatest gift that I possess
I thank the Lord I’ve been blessed
With more than my share of happiness x2

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10:44 I think the dirty sordid behaviour stems from the top down the ranks. The Rcc seems to be one big gay club.

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There is nothing wrong with being gay.

I could understand a priest having a discreet partner – even though it is a contradiction in private if a very public promise.

Morally, no one is bound to observe a bad law.

But with the RCC we are in a totally different league of cardinals, bishops, priests and seminarians involved in a world wide gay orgy.

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By Post Author

11:44
My problem is the blatant hypocrisy on so many levels.
Regarding homosexuality, they teach homosexuality is intrinsically disordered while so many clerics are at it like rabbit’s. Has the Rcc teaching changed?

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12:07
If people comprise themselves in one area of life, comprise in others areas is much more likely, hence so much corruption in so many areas in the Rcc. Its obvious discipleship to Jesus Christ seems to count for little or nothing to many in the Institutional Church.

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Pat
Deacon Michael Byrne has off spring in every seminarian. We see the connection in wonersh with at least two: Henry balkwell from maynooth days and Clifton’s Steven corrigan from Irish college swimming pool saga. He continues to leave his mark in the Irish college and maynooth to this day.

It has never been fully investigated here but I know he was the link for the oscott day trips to Dublin to meet men at the pro cathedral, some of which are ordained or will be this summer.

I think to get yo the bottom of this we need a blog to take us back to the kingpins of the summer of love days.

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Stephen Corrigan? Goodness gracious me! He looks so sweet and innocent that butter wouldn’t melt in his mouth.

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Henry was in Maynooth but they were not friends. My recollection of my time in Maynooth was that Michael did not like or get on with Henry.

The rumour about Stephen Corrigan is not true. He was never in Rome with Michael. They do not know each other.

I hope this helps to quell your inaccurate and malicious rumours.

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Pat may we have an update on the kingpin Brendan Marshall.

Where are all his victims now?

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Pat
I know you know and ex seminarian called (Kenny McDonagh). Ask him about the truth about Byrne. He knows him very well.

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What about the substantive issue of the title of today’s blog ? Cardinal Turkson’s belief that we should get over apologising for the clerical sexual abuse scandal and move on. What arrogance. Just imagine if Angela Merkel of Germany announced that Germany should get over and stop apologising for the Holocaust and the Nazis ?

Turkson is self evidently African and portrays that elitist, entitled, arrogance you find in so many of that continent’s clergy. Just like Irish clergy of 50 years ago. His attitude says ‘why should we apologise for the egregious sins of the clergy against the innocent because we are clergy and we don’t apologise and we do what we want’. Well, he had better think again. We expect him to apologise and hold his head in shame forever at what he and his fellow bishops, priests and cardinals have presided over in the darkness. And when he appears before the judgement seat of God he most surely will have to answer for it. But then he probably doesn’t believe in that ?

I’m astounded at his attitude. Let DM carry on apologising. At least he appears to understand the depth of pain that has been inflicted on victims, survivors and the Church by the wickedness of clergy and bishops.

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2.03
Think of the portentously vague and semantically elastic title held by Turkson, Prefect of the Dicastery for the Promotion of Integral Human Development. How does it sound to you (apart from portentous, vague, and semantically elastic😅)?
I had never heard of this department of the Vatican bureaucracy until today. From its very vagueness, it sounds as though it is a creation of Pope Francis’ papacy (and Francis is a man who excels in Alice in Wonderland doublespeak) to provide status, and a good income and accomodation, for a senior prelate at a loose end.
Seriously, what is Turkson’s job description. More to the point, could there be a job description for a title so hard to pin down in practical terms?
One thing is for sure, the word ‘integral’ means ‘essential for completeness’. I should heve thought that what was essential for any kind of HEALTHY human development (be it in the Church, on the factory floor, in the office or school) was honesty with oneself, and with others. A quality Turkson lacks to a startling degree. Telling people that the Church needs to find an exit strategy from the scandal of child-sexual abuse and its cover up in the Church, to avoid suffocation, is like…well…like telling them that the Church must, for the same reason, rewrite the Gospel to airbrush out of it the betrayals of Jesus (and not just by Iscariot), and the petty bickering and squabbling among Jesus’ disciples that marks much of the post-Gospel New Testament.
What Turkson is showing (and he’s either too stupid, or too conceited to see it) is the mindset of those in more modern times who betrayed Christ in different ways: in the children raped or sodomised by priests and religious; in children sexually molested in other ways; in children intimidated into psychlogically perverse silence; and in children subsequently betrayed when offending clergy and religious were officially moved around rather than shopped to police.
Turkson, the fool, doesn’t realise that his very suggestion is reason enough to keep the sexual-abuse scandals ever in the public spotlight, like a holy print perpetually illuminated by a votive lamp, to remind us all that while there is holiness in the Church, there is also great and insidious evil.
Neither must be ignored, each being an obverse side of a single coin.

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Excellent comment Magna, like all your more recent ones: analytical, illuminating and spot on. Thanks.
MMM

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Anon 2.25
I’m afraid your incorrect there. Henry told many stories about deacon Byrne and the wild days they had.

Yes Stephen corrigan although didn’t study at the Irish college, he did indeed spend a summer there and that swimming pool got use.

So 2.25 I’m afraid when one sees and hears with their own senses, the truth will always emerge. Your idea of throwing people of the scent didn’t work. I have plenty to publish YET

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2:50
Seminarians are not in the Irish college in the summer. Byrne was not there when he was.
Henry may have told stories (like vicious queen always does) but they were not friends I assure you.
I am not throwing anyone off any scent. The truth is the truth.

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So what did Corrigan do other than go swimming? As for Michael Byrne, if all he did was empty the wallets of old queens in the Shelburne, I think we can let him off now!

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It is amazing how many posters here know me in such personal detail (and how often they post about this), and yet, not one of them can name me, however often I ask.😅
Guys, unless you can come up with the correct name, you’re making fools of yourselves.😆

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Magna.
Obviously nobody will name you because they don’t want the slap in the face you so obviously want to give them.
You see, there’s a feature of online communication, which is that people are more honest. Despite you telling different tales at different times (for example you once mentioned speaking to Ledwith, which would make you mid-forties at the youngest. However a personality comes over loud and clear, and obviously that is the real reason you are celibate.

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Pat there is a seminarian from maynooth days working in Westminster abbey,, what’s his name, he says he is lawyer

We have Fr Rory working in Fulham does the cardinal know his past or because it’s a religious order, they don’t need his permission? Why is he not in Ireland????

Any ideas

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Do you mean Conor Gannon is now working for the Anglicans?
Also do you know for a fact that Rory Coyle is now in Fulham? Do you mean as attached to the Servites!

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4.49: Mags, are you jealous and annoyed that you were denied many bottoms because you were thrown out of the seminary? Can’t imagine you being bottoms!

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Can anyone remember the key characters from the maynooth days
Gorgeous … Michael Byrne
Kerry puck
Horny Andy
Rory Coyle
Brendan Marshal

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Sean Jones (Jockstrap pics)
Brendan Marshall (Sex victims)
Michael Byrne (older priest friends)
Ronan Sheehan (in bed with Brendan)
Conor Gannon (Irish College stuff)
Kevin McElroy (Horny andy X)
Chris Derwin (“robbed” + sex issues)
Rory Coyle (Grindr + pictures)
Stephen Wilson (altar priest scandal / trolly dolly)
Declan McGeehan (Grindr issues)
Conan McGonagle (found brendan and Ronan in bed)
Who else?

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4:20
Are these boys members of the kooky kollard klub Gayenooth branch? 😝 ( Just askin, like) 😳

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Elise Harris
Oct 11, 2019
SENIOR CORRESPONDENT CRUX.COM
Several clerical abuse survivors took to Twitter to criticize the Cardinal Turkson after the comments went public.
Marie Collins, an abuse survivor from Ireland and a former member of the Vatican’s Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors who in 2017 resigned in frustration over perceived inaction, issued two separate tweets.
If Turkson wants an exit strategy, Collins wrote, “He should recommend the Church institute a transparent process of accountability for negligent/corrupt bishops, deal with the huge backlog of abuse cases lingering in the CDF, put in place universal mandatory reporting to civil authorities…stop fighting the extension of statutes of limitations, put in place strong normative child safeguarding policies in every country, stop the use of pontifical secret in abuse trials and implement REAL zero tolerance in all cases of a guilty perpetrator.”
And this, she said, is “just for a start.”
Colm O’Gorman, an Irish clerical abuse survivor who is now Dublin Executive Director of Amnesty International and founder of the One in Four organization, also took to Twitter to convey his dismay.
“Cardinal Turkson is a prime example of why the institutional church will likely never recover from the collapse caused by its cover up of the rape and abuse of countless child [sic] and vulnerable adults,” O’Gorman wrote. “They don’t get it, because they won’t. They do not care.”
O’Gorman, who led several counter-rallies during Pope Francis’s 2018 visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, in a separate tweet praised Martin for having “shown enormous compassion, courage and humility in his efforts to fully and properly address the cover up.”
“It’s a tragedy,” O’Gorman said, “that @Pontifex & his fellow bishops don’t have the same courage and integrity.”
Mark Stephan Murray, who claims to have been repeatedly sexually abused by a Comboni missionary priest in a seminary in Mirfield, Yorkshire, in the 1970s, also sent a tweet about Turkson’s comment, asking, “How can the Cardinal apologize too much? Lives & families were destroyed by the abuse and the systemic cover up of the abuse by many in the Church.”
As of press time, neither Turkson nor Martin had commented on the flap over Turkson’s comments.
Though the 71-year-old Turkson has never played a prominent role in shaping Church policy on sexual abuse, he did stir controversy in 2013 by appearing to link the abuse crisis with homosexuality.
“African traditional systems … have protected its population against this tendency,” he said in an interview, adding that “in several cultures in Africa homosexuality or for that matter any affair between two sexes of the same kind are not countenanced.”
In a 2018 interview with Polish television, Turkson argued that too many good priests have been tainted by the scandals.
“We cannot throw away the linen with the dirty water,” Turkson said in an interview with Polish Television TVP1 that aired on Sunday. “We have to do something to recognize that there are bad priests, but there are also good ones.”

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Thank you Scoop for drawing attention to those tweets, and confirmation that the more respected knowledgeable commentators like Collins have called out Turkson for what he is: a dinosaur like ostrich with head firmly embedded in the sand.
MMM

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“We have to do something to recognize that there are bad priests, but there are also good ones.” Really ? Some maybe. But even these are complicit in what the “bad” priests have been doing and are doing. Do not tell me that most priests did not know that there were questionable goings on with some of their confreres ? I know that this stuff was condoned as just antics, a sinfulness that was due to human weakness, that could be cured by repentance and prayer. But, surely, these “good” priests must have realised that the same “bad” priests just kept having relapses, being moved along, kept inside the company, and surely they must have realised that there was something systemically wrong ? But, by and large they kept quiet. They din’t want to rock the boat. They wouldn’t challenge authority, i.e. the bishops, that were telling them everything was under control and it would be dealt with. And all the time the bishops were covering up, making excuses, protecting the priests. All because they were priests and members of the priestly club. So, any “good” priests still has a lot to answer for, to say sorry for. Or are they like the Germans after the 2nd WW who said that they simply didn’t know what was going on ? Of course they did. They just didn’t want’t to know at the level that would make them act. Priests who are faithful to the Church are faithful to an institution that has at its core a wickedness and an evil that it has not accepted and repented for. Turkson is at the forefront of this. They do not get it. They simply don’t want to get it. They are criminally sinful in their blatant disregard for the wickedness that has gone on under their watch. Shame on them. Now, they just want to forget about it, and carry on as if nothing has happened. Even more shame on them.

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A sound perspective Anon@7:22. You do well to point out the complicity of the many “good priests” who ‘kept their head down’ so as not to rock the episcopal boat. That’s something Magna has also forcefully highlighted.
I can make some allowance for individual timidity in the face of priestly dependence on their local bishop: that helps me understand and have sympathy for their predicament. But my sympathy is extremely limited in view of the scale and magnitude of the abuses, and the availability to clerics everywhere of independent complaints organisations where whistleblower’s ID’s can be protected.
MMM

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Mirfield is a town in Yorkshire which gives its name to the Anglican Community of the Resurrection. There certainly was a school in the town run by the Comboni Fathers which was the subject of a lengthy article in The Observer magazine a few years ago – 2014 I think – detailing historic abuse there. This could have been checked very simply rather than throwing in a comment which calls into account the veracity of the claim. This tactic has already been used by commentators claiming falsely that neither Lawrence Doyle nor Paul Bright was ever a seminarian at Wonersh. There are too many ignorant one-liners on this blog and I suspect that some at least are intended to dissemble and confuse.

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I think Michael Byrne will always carry a legacy now wheeeever he goes. Doesn’t matter where he goes. I think if he still has a vocation he would need to go with an enclosed religious order. However this would not suit his personality. I’m suprised he has not surfaced since, how can a very outgoing sailor like him not he around somewhere🇵🇱 Where is he now

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Magna darling, there is quite a lot wrong with a son living in his deceased mother’s house when she is still alive! And we all know why you need glasses. Mummy warned you, darling!

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Ronan Sheehan is back in Maynooth Pat. Brendan Marshall tried to destroy him and his vocation. Ronan and Conan will be ordained.
You did not win Brendan! 🙂

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4:25
Vocation!
Vocation to the priesthood and lustful life commencing in seminary under the guise of celibate holiness funded by the laity. Shameful. But these lads have no shame.

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The MAGNA and MMM mutual admiration society (all 2 of them) are out in force. Can we be certain they’re not shagged up somewhere in the Mourns Mts? There’s a pair off them in it that suit each other’s craving and indulgence for affirmation and publicity. Shith***s, both of them, boozers…

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Fantasist alert @ 8:01pm.
Most likely a member of the KKK Gayenooth branch. 😝 ( Just sayin, like)😊

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8.12: I have nothing to do with Maynooth: never had. Studied at Queens, Belfast. I don’t mean a word of my comment at 8.01: I am happily married but I find the reciprocal “I love you” refrain between Mags and MMM rather interesting.

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Thank you sir, madam. or whatever, @ 8:01, for that truly intelligent, insightful, and thoughtful comment. Such constructive positive lucidity is to be much admired: it seems to be the hallmark of a certain type of blog contributor’s resentful backlash at anything which challenges his/her perceptions, preoccupations, or possibly practices. And of course you are entitled to that perspective: it helps others to understand certain contributor’s limitations.
MMM

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8:12pm
Nope! Don’t believe you.
I still think you’re in the Gayenooth branch of the KKK. 😂

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