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THE “PROBLEM” OF BENEDICT AS “POPE EMERITUS”

Benedict, without meaning to, has undermined the papacy. In that, he has done us all a favour without intending to.

There is no proof that Peter was ever in Rome.

And even if he was, there is no proof that he was the “bishop” of Rome.

The Apostles, were not bishops in the sense we mean today.

They were not for ONE particular church. They were missionaries to the WHOLE church.

Bishops, on the other hand, while not been there in the beginning, eventually emerged from the “elders” or as they were called overseers.

In the early church these overseers were not

“bosses” but community servants.

How that has changed!

Later all bishops became monarchical and the bishop of Rome became an “emperor.

And that meant the church were from being a servant church to being an hierarchical empire.

Benedict retired as pope because of the sexual corruption in the church. He may have himself being involved in sexual misbehaviour and corruption?

And instead of properly retiring and shagging back to Germany invented a new title for himself and renovated a massive building in the Vatican for this new fangled “pope emeeitus” title where he lives with his boyfriend George.

Benedict should have returned to being a cardinal with the title bishop, emeritus of Rome.

But by inventing a title for himself that has NEVER existed in the 2000 year history of the RCC he has demistifed the papacy more.

And then Francis comes along with a dark and murky past in Argentina and goes about the Vatican losing his temper and slapping hysterical women.

One of the Reformers once said:

“What Jesus announced was a kingdom. What we ended up with was a church”.

The current RCC bears no resemblance to the early New Testament church.

Nor does it reflect the teachings of The Nazarene.

My own journey, which I never planned or foresaw, has been a journey away from the church and back to the Kingdom.

These days I wonder how I never saw how rotten the whole thing was much earlier in life.

Of course I have been free of it now for 34 years.

As a result I feel the FREEDOM of a son of God.

When I have a decision to make I dont have to consult the corrupt canon law or any dictator bishop.

I simply have to ask myself: “What would Jesus do”?

And the only book I am have to consult is The Bible.

Of course I am a sinner with a myriad of faults and failings. I have got many thing wrong. I have gotten myself into situations I should not have gotten into.

But my heart is in the right place and I sincerely want to do right by God and people in need.

Even this week I have been in the presence of people who have been and still are being, deeply hurt by the RCC and powerful individuals within it.

This hurt is evil and evil does not come from a good place.

Some people say there some rotten apples in the RCC barrel.

Not true!

THE RCC barrel is rotten to the core and miraculously the odd apple is not rotten.

This is by God’s grace.

A number of years ago a friend asked me a question that stunned me. He asked:

“What if the Antichrist is not an individual but an institution”?

I now know which institution is the Antichrist!

—————–
BUT DONT WORRY.

BIG AMY IS PRAYING FOR US ALL IN LIMA

74 replies on “THE “PROBLEM” OF BENEDICT AS “POPE EMERITUS””

I am not in any hierarchy.
I am the presiding elder “overseer” / bishop of the catholic Christian community that is The Oratory.

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I agree that Benedict should never have allowed himself the title ‘Pope Emeritus’, not to mention its more serious lack of job description. But this is what comes of papal absolute monarchy, a startling, even bemusing anachronism in the 21st century. It smacks of the time (1378 to 1417) when, first, there were two men who each similtaneously claimed to be pope, and then, by 1410, when three men each similtaneousky made the same, shocking claim. It was a period of internicene turmoil in the Church, and one has to wonder that Benedict, who must have known this part of papal history (and if not, should have), nevertheless ignored its lesson to tilt at a continued papacy from the relative comfort of personal, er, ‘retirement’.
But I suppose Teutonic hubris trumps any history lesson.

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Don’t forget there are a few other claimants to the papal title knocking about, as well as the crowd who say Frankie isn’t a pope. And then there’s the crowd who claim Cardinal Siri was elected pope.
Phew! You can hardly move for them!

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I cannot understand the RC church at all or how it resembles Christ’s teachings. I’m ashamed to say that I went along with it for almost half a century, never questioning only blindly accepting their modus operandi. The RC church is like a cult, maintained through instilling fear with its lies, lies, lies. I look around at some priests and I wonder would these people ever get a job somewhere else and be able to keep it if they got on the way they do . Somehow I doubt it. Saying they are called by God is a lot of nonsense. Why would God call someone to preach the gospels when they aren’t going to live them themselves. These “priests” are a sham. Their lives make a mockery of Christ. You say that there may be a few good apples and I guess that is right. But how can these good apples not turn bad as well if they are in a barrel of rotten fruit? When Christ said to Peter “on this rock I will build my church”, he was not referring to the RCC. Christ’s church is a body of people who follow and live his message not an institution which is rotten

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It isn’t ‘like’ a cult, when objectively measured by cult behaviour scales the church is very clearly a cult. Also the few good priests are only ‘good’ in the sense of not abusing children – they are very happy to live with the perks of their role.

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10.48: Take the blinkers from your eyes. Good priest are good because they choose to follow Jesus Christ. Many are supremely good, dedicated and work tirelessly for their parish community. Fact and truth. Stop spinning lies even though you may be happy to paint us all with the same brush strokes and attribute your sinister motivations for our continuation in ministry. My main ideal and the one I look to is Jesus Christ, as do many, many priests, even though we may struggle greatly to live the ideal!

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Fr Not-Like-The-Others @12:44
Don’t come on here talking your pious claptrap to me about Jesus, you vermin. Read John Paul’s comments below for what your church is like. Would Jesus have sat back piously rattling on about how good the religious functionaries of his time were? No. Until you publicly do something about the institution you represent you have forfeited the right to preach your hypocrisy about Jesus to anyone else.

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Where did u see as regards to objectively measured by cult behaviour scales?
Think Church is some sort of a cult but i need to prove it -how?

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@ Deaf User
Isaac Bonewits devised a cult evaluation tool called ABCDEF. He has died but I think his website (neopagan. Net) is still up.

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10.48

You’re right. I had forgot about all of that.

Apparently, US Intel agrees with Pope John XXIII’s detractors that Siri was elected, but that the ballot which elected him was declared null and void.

Siri was an arch-conservative, wasn’t he? A stick-in-the-mud, anti-progressive? This would feed the conspiracy theories (cherished by the Sedes) surrounding his supposed sabotaged election to the papacy.

‘Papal politics’…the alliteration, and syllabic rythmn here seem to suggest that human agency and the papacy were ever meant to go hand in hand.

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12.18am
There is a lot of good priests out there but i dont trust institutional church that is RCC. Came from abused background where deaf kids were abused from age 4 onwards by nuns then age 10 onwards by CBS. Noticed lot of deaf kids now adults have psychological, psychiatric ,mental traumas which they received at the hands of the Nuns (Daughters of the cross of liege) and CBS.Its better to name them so you know who they are and their history.)
Worse piece of abuse, i ever came across was Fr Murphy who went on to abuse well over 200 deaf kids as Fanjo Seper and Card Ratzinger sat on Murphy’s files.They never defrocked Murphy nor did they apologise to Relatives of kids that Fr Murphy abused it for some 20 years.
I asked god where were you when i was abused same for 200 deaf kids -where was god that that time?
Now ‘on this rock’, jesus refers peter as rock but i think rock meant believe in JC (faith in him) not the church. On this rock-what rock was Jesus referring to? (maybe jesus christ himself as he didnt say church). RCC name wasn’t there that time as it was jews. There were no sacraments that time- just mainly last supper-creation of mass and priesthood. Baptism was there before Jesus was baptised (John the Baptist). Marriage and celibacy arrived around 1000AD. Confirmation?? So it seems to me that RCC was making it up as they go along with the changing times.

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3.25

I agree with you.

When Jesus spoke this way to way to Simon Peter, he was referring not to his person, but to the faith within him.

Faith is the foundation of Jesus’ followers, and it is on this faith that Jesus builds his church, that is, ‘transforms spiritually his followers’.

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12.44
There is a clear and obvious conflict of interest between pledging obedience to Christ and pledging it to a bishop.
You can see this, can’t you? Because the terrible consequences of pledging obedience to a bishop rather than to Christ have been, and still are being, played out in the Romanist Church, and are being revealed almost daily.

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No church in particular, and not in the sense in which the word ‘church’ is understood today: a denominational sense.

‘Church’ means ‘those who truly believe that Jesus is the Christ, the Son of God, and who try (however often they may fail) to observe the two commandments into which Jesus distilled the entire Mosaic Law: first, love of God; second, love of other as if he were oneself.

‘Church’ most emphatically does not mean ‘Roman Catholic Church’.

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That’s a very sensible article, Bishop, and I’ve given you a Like.
I’m particularly impressed with his assertion that the only book he has to consult is The Bible.
Garry Wills says some things that are similar to that (and some things that aren’t) so I’m once again posting this video.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4rbc2DbVVvU
But I’d be far more in agreement with the writer of today’s piece than I would be with the writings of Garry Wills.

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Thanks +Pat. I liked your article and your honesty.
I have been very deeply wounded by the Institutional Church. In recent times I have been lied to by my Bishop.
I find the lack of compassion, the lack of accountability, the hiding behind power, moral cowardice and lack of basic Christianity and humanity, of so many people in the Institutional Church quite staggering.
‘ What you do to the least….’
When the chips are down the Gospel is abandoned. That’s my honest experience. I don’t want money.
I want explanations and accountability. They couldn’t careless. The priestly brotherhood looks after each other to the extent of ruining the Church. There’s worse to come out in time. So Irish Bishops will continue to keep their heads down, mouths shut, and not draw attention to themselves, while attempting to manage decline.
‘By their fruits you will know them’.

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John Paul at 7:30pm
I have had very similar experiences as yourself. I am very shocked and saddened at how the bishop and others attempted to cover up and fob off. I use the word attempted for good reason!
But do not give up, they are being revealed, day by day, on such a scale that is covering the surface of the globe.

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Big Benny is like the Queen Mother-Bong. The Church is a monarchical hierarchy – Bong Do we need a popexit – Bong. What ever happened to Jesus Christ- Bonghi

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Does Benedict have a formal role or say in the running of Church?
If he doesn’t is it not inappropriate for him to interfere when retired?

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Jorge Bergoglio is forever talking to the press and TV reporters.
And, like many Jesuits, he thinks that one of the privileges of his position is a right to talk rubbish without any fear that the uneducated peasants will contradict him.
The ex-Pope is entitled as anyone else to speak out when the situation warrants it.

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No, he is not. He is no longer Pope and can no longer use the authority of that office to add weight to his pronouncements.

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This sort of virtue signalling will be much more convincing when you renounce the Catholic titles you’ve assumed, and maybe don’t co-opt St Peter’s Basilica — or any other symbol of Roman Catholicism — into your blog imagery. Just sayin. 🤷‍♂️

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Raff: You raise a good question there. Why indeed +Pat, when you are so critical of the RC. institution have you chosen to post your photo in front of one of its most recognisable symbols?
It hadn’t struck me before, but thinking about it, it does seem most incongruous.
MMM

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‘One of the Reformers once said: “What Jesus announced was a kingdom. What we ended up with was a church”.’

No, it was Alfred Loisy who said something like that in “The Gospel and the Church.” But he intended the word Church to have a positive meaning in that sentence (over against Harnack’s denial of the necessity of the Church): https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alfred_Loisy

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Pat Buckley, your “heart” is not “in the right place”.

Your heart is dark, devious and deluded. You are a total narcissist who wraps all of reality around yourself in a manner that is entirely self-serving, even those few “faults” to which you will admit.

But many of us see you for what you really are – not the illusion you attempt to project out of your own self-deception.

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1.10: A perfect description of this delusional narcissist. Pat epitomizes the fullness of that word. He has spent his life pointing fingers of blame, making horrible judgments, mocking, name calling, ridiculing, denigrating many through hearsay, innuendo and speculation. His criticisms are sometimes very legitimate but when it comes to personalised attacks in a nasty, vicious manner, it is, I believe, morally repugnant. Pat conveniently forgets his past of which much could be said but kindness of heart and self respect prevents many of us from that pathway. The way of CHRIST’S COMPASSION and MERCY, as each Christian is called to emulate, particularly priests, is preferable to the shabby, nasty name calling and poisonous mud slinging, as found too often on this blog. It is very possible that Pat is so smug sure of his rightness in all things that he fails and does fail comprehensively – to acknowledge or see his total un-Christ-likeness at times in mind, heart and spirit. The suggestion that Pope Benedict may have been involved in sexual abuse and corruption is a serious claim, outrageous in the extreme and I challenge Pat to quote empirical, valid, substantive evidence of his assertion.

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I think old Beno was and is up to his neck in all kinds of corruption and cover up.

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I still can’t watch that video, Bp Pat, as I found the previous incident with the ring-kissing awful to watch.

It must be very difficult for the queens at the Vatican having to deal with such techty and an unpredictable man like Francis.

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I think ill-health forced the former pope, Benedict, to retire, Bp Pat, as he was latterly being pushed down the aisle at St Peter’s on some sort of pope-skateboard contraption.

I also thought he lived in a former renovated gardener’s cottage at the Vatican with his lover.

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What were they thinking when they put him in to Armagh at such a young age, so that he’s going to be there for 20 + years ? He’s pretty much ineffectual, a limp, camp, high pitched, lardy Mammy’s boy who has nothing to say of any weight or import and just churns out twee pious shite. And that’s supposed to be leadership ? Really, the man is out of his depth and does not have the gravitas or intellectual capacity to be in such an important position. And, as I say, we are stuck with him for decades yet. Unless eating too many cream puffs will cause him some harm.

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Same with Annie Walker at St Andrews and Edinburgh. She’s stuck there for the rest of her life too.

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bishoppat 20th Jan 2020 — 2:26 pm
……
Yes. Hopefully we’ll both still be around when his obituaries are published. Some of those are likely to be scandalous.
But would that prevent his canonisation?

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Not at all. They’d canonise Hitler these days if he gave them enough money and young German hunks 😥

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I love the mood you’re in today, Pat. I bet it’s led to some pearl-clutching in a few presbyteries (not to mention saunas).

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2.54: Pat, you’d be good material for canonization! Wouldn’t you? Seriously….I’ll pray to you after you’ve passed on..

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1 56: Mr. Angry Vermin is rattling on again. Get real man – There are good priests – some excellent priests. You are constantly shitting on this blog with your tirades of condemnation. You haven’t a clue about what I have done or continue to do about any problem or scandal within the church, nor would you care as a devotee of Pat, but I assure you, I have done more than you’ll ever do. It obviously annoys you that there are priests who are genuinely good and genuinely committed to priesthood and to THE GOSPEL OF CHRIST – and actually live it as oppose to just referring to it, like your lip service and sham outrage and indignation. Yes indeed, there are vermin on this blog, you being one of them with your hatred.

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5.29
And yet, despite all you say, you vowed or promised obedience not to Christ, but to a mere man (and, through him, to an institution whose moral corruption … its anti-Christ character … is now being revealed almost daily). 😕

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5.45: Magna, as St Paul says we each need to turn back to Jesus over and iver, as he encouraged the Corinthians to do. It’s the call to all Christians. I keep this calling in mind each day, not always with the success I’d wish for. I think your argument is unfair. I believe that we discover through our ministry that if Christ is not at the heart if all we do and at the core if our live a, things most definitely will go wring. I believe that most priests seek to serve Christ, albeit with difficulty and challenge at times.I also find that if you put your put your focus exactly where it should be – in and on Christ – it helps in remaining faithful to him alone and his gospel. My vow of obedience never stopped me from putting Christ first and foremost in my ministry.

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Ooh, Father’s upset!
Thanks for the riposte, Magna, it’s exactly what I was going to say!
Obviously some people need to open their eyes and it’s not me. I could almost feel sorry for them, having people tell their kids to get away from them everywhere they go and having the United Nations indicate that their “church” has tortured people.
… But not quite.
Actually if they were doing so much good they wouldn’t be throwing hissy fits on here all the time!

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5.56: Every person, irrespective of their life’s profession or work, has an absolute right to defend themselves against hatred, poison and prejudice, all of which are dangerous and which seem deep in your DNA. Your comment is not an intelligible or rational one, rather one motivated by hatred of clerics. That you quote Magna in your favour does not give validation to your poison.

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5:29
Vermin!
Describing people as vermin is not exactly Christ-like or showing love of neighbour.( Just sayin,like). 😇

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6.36

I appreciate your sincereity, and the fact that you undoubtedly do strive, each day, to practise what Jesus clearly teaches, in the Gospel, we must practise in order to be truly his followers. But he expresses also the absolute necessity for singularity of purpose in that following, calling not for divided loyalty: it must be for Christ, and for him alone.

Pledging obedience to a fallible mortal, a bishop, does not fulfil this requirement for singularity because, for an obvious, reason it cannot.

So far you seem to have been fortunate in that the will of God, as you perceived it, did not conflict with the demands on you as a priest who pledged his loyalty to a bishop, and to his successors. But this may change some day. Quo vadis, then?

I have today read a news report in Crux. It concerns the ongoing trial of a former priest, Bernard Preynat. The details are shocking, not least the attitude of former cardinals (and a current one, Barbarin), who were more concerned with the prevention of public scandal, one of them even asking Preynat whether his crimes were old enough to be beyond the statute of limitations. Not one of these so-called ‘servants of Christ’ ever enquired about the children who had been abused by Preynat, and about any physical and/or psychological harm he had done them. This is the spirit, the attitude, cultivated in men who are not obedient to Christ, but to an institution through an ordination vow or promise.

You appear to have absolutely no insight into the conflict of interest here: effectively, between serving God or mammon.

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And it’s interesting how these ‘good’ priests rush to the defence of their own work, all the time making reference to Jesus.
Yes, that’s right, the one who had things to say in the Sermon on the Mount about rejoicing when you are persecuted. I don’t see where he said about rushing to your own defence.
Once again Magna makes the point very well with a specific example, a point I was going to make more generally by saying, Is it conceivable that any serving priest can be ignorant of the utter corruption and criminality of his church? I think the answer is no, and a priest who seeks to defend the institution is either hopelessly naive or in denial.
It follows then that, being aware of the utter corruption and criminality of the RC church is it possible to remain in it and consider oneself to be serving Jesus? The unavoidable answer to this question is no, and concentrating on ones own pastoral work is a useful distraction from the horror surrounding one.

You are being unreasonable to expect understanding and sympathy when you collude with a criminal body and make out that notwithstanding this fact you are following Jesus!

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Ar’a God blesh ya Magna, sure I didn’t see ya there. small fella that ya are. how ya keeping

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Whoever has his hand up the arse of the “Magna Carta” puppet is an absolute twat. Likewise, most of the priests who argue with it are brainless clowns.

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6.53

I agree with your last sentence utterly. 😆

Geez! That hand up my nether region is dashed uncomfortable. 😖

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Pat, Fanny is not for recanting – even is it means impeachment. Fearless and principled – that’s our Fanny – and a looker to boot.

She’s a strong, brave and beautiful woman, Pat. Indomitable. “I won’t have me teeology pecked at by auld rosary-rattlin’ hens in D’Oyrish Toyims” says Mullaney, Pat.

Up our Fanny.

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Fanny is woke! So f**kin’ woke! Great to have a president of Maynooth who doesn’t believe all that “Jesus is god” rubbish, that “O your so perfect Jesus” carry on of the feeble minded. The formation of clergy is in skilled hands directed by the mind of a genius.

Fanny’s a great successor to the last truly great president of Maynooth – Miceal Ledwith.

Anywhoo, should the auld holy water biddies drive Fanny out, there will be a great Cead Mile Failte on the mat of the Ramtha School of Enlightenment. Sure what the Bleep do we know anyhow?

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Oh Pat, merciful hour this night tis’ a holy terror has surely descended upon us in the holy seminary and sacred university of St Patrick.
Well, Pat, Fanny Mullaney has taken the leave of her senses and is bullin’ absolutely bullin’ over this whole “I hear you’re a racist now, Jesus, when did you become interested in that kind of thing?” Sermon, during the Holy season of Advent, in the mouth of Chrissimiss, at the solemn concert of the carols in the Blessed Maynooth Chapel.
She’s blaming Mick the Extractor Collins for the whole misfortunate occurrence, saying that he played a joke on her, telling her that there was a new dogma about to be proclaimed, that Jesus had ingrained prejudices and racism and that the Pope was about to announce it on Christmas Eve, at midnight mass in Holy Rome.
She says that Mick the Extractor convinced her that it would be a great idea and would help her chances for Dublin no end, were she to somehow weave it into her sermon that the little baby Jesus had a mudder and fadder that told him the Canaanites were nothing but dirty dogs and a shower of bastards.
O declare to God, Pat, twas’ a terror in the Ref the udder day between Fanny and the Extractor and her roaring at him, “your xxxxing little joke has resulted in me taking a great, big ,massive, public shite from a height, upon my chances of being raised to the Fullness of the Priesthood, to serve the priests and People of God in the Archdiocese of Dublin, you xxxxing xxxx and xxxxxx bastard and bollox xxxxing scumbag xxxxing hooring xxxxing xxxx from Clare”.
O Pat twas’ a fright altogether and nearly came to blows and Fanny going around and the great big puss on her.
O Blessed Saint Arius intercede that peace be restored once more between these hallowed walls.

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12:44. I have no agenda whatsoever other than to highlight the hypocrisy within the RCC. You say that there are good priests who want to serve Christ. How is this possible when you also serve mammon. Is it not written that you cannot do both? If you truly want to serve Christ then why do you remain as a serving member of a corrupt institution that has lied, covered up and abused thousands of innocents. It sounds as if you want to have your cake and eat it. It is so easy to deflect from this by accusing me of having sinister motivations. I think that you would be better levelling this accusation at your bishop and hierarchy. Your church is a business . It is a sham. We have been beaten physically, emotionally and spiritually by your church for years. Your church terrorised us with fear. I’m sorry but the Christ that you say you serve sees through your institution. My Christ is good and wholesome, doesn’t practice corruption, states that the least of us will be first and the first will be last. My Christ, the Nazareen isn’t interested in the gold ornaments that adorn your churches and palaces. Isn’t interested in what robes signify hierarchy not is he interested in your church’s dictatorial style. Take a look around you Mr Priest at your colleagues. It’s like a rogues gallery. You are a fool if you continue to believe that you can serve Christ and your church. The two simply don’t go together. Interesting that you fear this blog so much that you are on it trying to defend the indefensible. Mr priest, you should choose who you really want to serve.

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