LARNE, where I live is a very ” religious” town – as far as the number of churches we have.
For a population of 25,000 people we have over 50 churches, including one in a former pet shop.
Larne is an 80% Protestant and 13% Catholic town.
Over the last few days I wen’t out to buy my Christmas cards.
We have several news agencies and a big franchise can’t shop.
I could not find ONE SINGLE RELIGIOUS CHRISTMAS CARD in the whole town of Larne!
Maybe I am naive, but I was shocked at that.
I know that Christmas has it’s root in pagan and pre Christian times and that Christianity hijacked it.
But I thought that after nearly 2,000 of Christianity it would be easier to buy Christian Christmas cards?
I actually deeply resent the total materialisation and secularisation of Christmas.
So, years ago I made a very firm decision to opt out of the materialistic Christmas.
For me, Christmas is about two things:
1. The Christmas Vigil Mass.
2. Christmas Day Lunch with those who are dearest to me.
Of course I appreciate how Christmas is a family time and a wonderous time for children – and making Christmas magical for children is a great priority.
But sadly many children will not hear the name Jesus this Christmas – and personally I think that that is impoverishing children.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
62 replies on ““THEY” HAVE TAKEN CHRIST OUT OF CHRISTMAS 😪”
Ulster Protestants don’t like religious Christmas cards. A bit too Catholic for them. They like ones with robins and trees and maybe churches in the snow.
LikeLike
I must say, I do love an auld Robin. We’ve always situated the robin near the top of the tree beside the angel.
LikeLike
I’d say pat would have been content with churches in the snow. he is right Christmas has been completely monetarised.
LikeLike
Can you blame them?
I mean, seriously, who would want to be associated with the Catholic Church these days? It has become a by-word for child sexual abuse, clerical paedophilia, financial fraud, and any other form of corruption you care to mention.
It is not the Church of Christ, but it is a church that continually makes you want to exclaim ‘Christ!’ at its moral depravity.
LikeLike
The Ulster Protestant, most of them claiming Scottish heritage, probably still have the mindset of the Scots who did not celebrate Christmas. Until 1971 Christmas Day was not a holiday and lots of folks still worked.
The main emphasis for celebration was New Year.
LikeLike
Pat, you should have designed your own Christmas card with a religious Christmas theme which our Parish has done for many years. They sell like wildfire and all proceeds go to homeless charities. For our 12 masses with maximum 150, we have filled all places, desugnatung 3 as Family Masses which filled very quickly. It is a pity that commercialism has taken over the true meaning of Christmas for believers…We hold fast as believers in God. I also sense that many people are, because of the pandemic, being very circumspect and reflective about Christmas “over do” this year. We have been forced to reflect more deeply. So, hopefully all of us will try to hold on to the CHRIST of Christmas: Emmanuel- God-with-Us.
LikeLike
“I know that Christmas has it’s root in pagan and pre Christian times and that Christianity hijacked it”.
What was celebrated in pre Christian pagan times was an entirely different reality. Nevertheless, God did not leave the poor pagans entirely clueless about Him.
There were hints and signs of the truth in some of their customs and beliefs. This is what St Paul did at Athens with the altar to an Unknown God.
When the Gospel was preached, those practices and beliefs that were helpful were used to proclaim Christ – for example the triumph of light over darkness in the Winter festivals.
So it is not true to say the Church “hijacked” these pagan feasts. The Church evangelised them and brought the full light of truth to shine upon, fulfilling them.
LikeLike
Good post. I only send religious cards, but I get them from offline.
LikeLike
“They” are working from the outside in with a commercial predisposition to make money. Sadly the church has concentrated so much on rituals and rules and wobbly Willie they two have lost track of Christ Star of Bethlehem back this year. Perhaps we should follow it 🙋♂️
LikeLike
Silverstream do lovely religious Christmas cards.
LikeLike
The steam coming off them.
LikeLike
I agree Pat. Christmas should centre on the christ child, Jesus. We must do all we can pastorally to being the child to the people.
LikeLike
6:49, they also do a nice job at covering up malfeasance!
LikeLike
Sorry, + Pat, but I’m not sure I share your love for Larne ! I’ve passed though it many times for the ferry, and boy, is it grim ! It’s part of the Protestant bastion and shows it, Union Jacks and all, as well as being typically joyless in that Protestant way. It’s only function is as a way out of Northern Ireland ! On a more serious note, it is very interesting to watch what is happening in Northern Ireland and the island of Ireland. The Brexit imbroglio, with its ups and downs and its inconsistencies, suggests to me that NI will gradually move in to the orbit of the Republic and the EU. I think even the Protestants and Unionists will begin to see what side their bread is buttered on. The Brexit debate has clearly shown where NI’s interest lie, and it will not be with a diminished, impoverished, isolated and fragmented UK (which in the next 10 years will be an even more diminished UK when Scotland inevitably goes independent and returns to the EU). Now that the Republic has thrown off the shackles of national Catholicism and embraced a more secular, flexible, outward looking and European character, even the Protestants and Unionists will begin to see that they will have a better future as part of the Republic than they will as part of Little Britain. Throw in also in NI the changes in demographics whereby the Unionists will be, probably are already, outnumbered by Nationalists, and any border vote when it comes will in all likelihood go for reunion. Now, whether the Republic will want the Protestants and Unionists in their fold, I don’t know, given their awkwardness and capacity for making trouble ? Another observation – talk to those in the UK who live on the other side of the Irish Sea, and they really don’t see the Northern Irelanders as British at all. They are, firsts of all, Northern Irelanders (a special breed, especially the Protestant ones), second as Irish, and only third as kind of British. So, the Brits don’t want NI and its people who are always troublesome and expensive to keep, and the economics, politics and demographics are moving inexorably towards union with the Republic, and that will be the way it goes. Rightly so. And Larne will still be grim !
LikeLike
Many good insights there.
I have seen Larne change over my 36 years in it – for the better.
Every year there are fewer Union Jacks now.
But you are right, it is still a very Protestant and Unionist town.
But I’ve had a relatively good life here and have happy memories and many have been very good to me.
It was a great place to be when the Catholic Church was after you 😀
LikeLike
10:04am
Of course it was a great place for you, and you were tolerated by the heretics because you were a thorn in the side of the Holy Church. It would have been a different experience for you had you been a priest in good standing believe me.
LikeLike
I was what you call a priest in hood standing for two years in Larne.
But why would anyone want to be “a priest in good standing’ in a globally recognised ” absolutely corrupt Roman denomination”
LikeLike
Scratch the surface of a Unionist, in spite of all the twee saccharine Irish shiite the put on, and you will find a growling, nasty beast. Don’t trust them, + Pat.
LikeLike
https://www.thetablet.co.uk/news/13660/ampleforth-pledges-change-after-ofsted-report
Pretty damning Ofsted inspection report on Ampleforth. You do have to ask yourself, given the fact that they will have known they were in the spotlight on safeguarding, that the Ampleforth people at the school and the abbey would have made sure that everything about their safeguarding policies and practice would have been faultless. But, oh no, they just tinker with the edges and carry on regardless. The instances referred to about adults accessing the site which are seen as breaches of good safeguarding practice will, I am sure, have been clueless, entitled, toff monks from the abbey waltzing over to the school. Idiots ! Ampleforth’s days are numbered. No parent will want to send kids to a school with such a history, with such a present, and with such a doltish, idiotic understanding of what is at stake.
LikeLike
The only way I suspect for Ampleforth College to be saved is for the monks to leave as the Downside monks under their new prior are leaving. It’s a sadness to a school when a religious order leaves but the “golden years” of church-led education have passed and very probably rightly so. Though the involvement of churches, Catholic and Protestant and indeed other faith-based groups, did much good they also did much harm.
LikeLike
One of the things that the school was keen to tell Ofsted was that there is now a fence between the school and monastic sections, presumably to keep the monks away in the manner of keeping a diabetic out of a sweet shop or an alcoholic out of a pub.
LikeLike
What’s to stop a child attracted a monk digging a tunnel under the fence?
LikeLike
11:31am
Despite what you say, there are thousands of priests in ‘good standing’ who have kept true to their vows, unlike all the degenerates we hear about constantly on this blog. They are honored to be in The Sacred Priesthood of The One True Holy Catholic Apostolic and Roman Church.
LikeLike
And why are they not standing up and speaking out about all the corruption.
LikeLike
11:31am
Many have but they are voices crying in the wilderness, just look at the four Cardinals who submitted the Dubia to the The Holy See two of them now dead and still no answer. I don’t know and neither do you how it will be sorted, but we must have faith. Almighty God will deal with it in his own good time.
LikeLike
Oh, get real, please ! Yes, you may want to divide the clergy in to the goodies and the baddies, and yes it’s quite easy to see that there are some good holy men. But, don’t forget, all those holy men, implicitly, have been and are part of an institution that has some rottenness at its core, particularly with some of the clergy. Pray, do tell, which of those goodies and holies you know have stood up and called that out ? Not many. Too interested in keeping their heads down and in with the bishop and the VG and their nice little holy lives, while people, especially innocent children, have been grievously harmed. I think that somewhat tarnishes the goodies and the holy ones, doesn’t it. Maybe now they might speak out a bit ?!
LikeLike
Pat, Christmas was not “hijacked” by Christians. The pagans who thought the sun was a god were told about the Creator of the sun. Those who worshipped elements of nature were introduced to the Creator who sent His Son to redeem the world. They came from shadows to Light as was rightly pointed out above in another post. Don’t be so quick to fall for the usual old secularist lies that we “hijacked” Christmas. Let the modern heathen have their Yuletide and Saturnalia if they wish and good luck to them. But we are properly and rightly celebrating birth of the Saviour – Christmas. Fair play to you for keeping the spiritual focus but we didn’t “hijack” anything.
LikeLike
Jock McTavish. I have been born and raised in Edinburgh. I laugh when I hear ulster people talking about their Scottish connections and affinities. It’s one way traffic. Except for a few misguided members of the Orange Lodges in Glasgow, West Lothian and Nrth Ayrshire the rest of Scots couldn’t give a monkey’s about Ulster or its people.
In fact not only have most Scots never been to NI they couldn’t even tell you where Cairnryan is !!!
LikeLike
Where is cairnryan
LikeLike
Across the shuck from Larne.
LikeLike
No one wants them NI costs the UK taxpayer 11 billion a year, can’t see the Republic paying that, Scotland is the same.
LikeLike
Scots voting for independence are turkey’s voting for Christmas look
LikeLike
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rdy7HsWZxWQ
LikeLike
I cant take you with me but your time will come I’m certain of it. take care, sister you will always be in my thoughts. our alliance is enough for me. I also wish to discuss East Anglia but since his death it has become lawless. Your army sets a clear message we are allies. Together, I believe we can achieve our fathers dream of a united land.
LikeLike
Jack has a black moustache!
LikeLike
Pat, it’s been a quiet few days on here. Are people fed up now? Give us a few days of sems and their wee gay lifestyles!!! Plenty in England, Ireland and Scotland!
LikeLike
I think you could probably get Christian themed Christmas cards from many charities, even charities without religious ties if you wanted to avoid denominationally tied charities. I can’t think of any Christian charity without a tie to a particular denomination or churchmanship.
LikeLike
12.09: Mr. Perfect… you do not have a monopoly on moral probity. Lots of clerics have spoken. You choose, in ignorance and vengeance, not to listen…hypocrite.
LikeLike
Lol it is so funny that whenever somebody says anything critical of wastrel RC priests you try to make out that they are saying they are perfect.
You didn’t do very well at logic did you?
‘Jack the Ripper is a murderer’ means only that Jack the Ripper is a murderer. It says nothing about the speaker at all.
Of course this is charitably allowing that you are not deliberately distracting attention to the speaker.
So here’s the thing. The RC church is in an ongoing scandal of criminality by its clergy actively encouraged by its bishops and not one cleric has made any meaningful public contribution to stopping this or spoken out in any way.
Are you going to make any meaningful comment or is your reading as poor as your logic?
LikeLike
7.16: Another buffoon and plonker. How inane of you!
LikeLike
I thought you wouldn’t be able to make a sensible contribution.
LikeLike
Someone asked for an update on the Motherwell priest soon to be a daddy.
My latest info is that Mammy to be ,a nurse, is going off on maternity leave from Christmas.she is from the Falkirk area.
Also it seems daddy is going to sit tight and say nothing. Wait til wee Joe finds out.
LikeLike
Maybe he won’t find out? Does mammy know that daddy is a priest and is this her first child?
LikeLike
‘Gerry the fatherless’. is that what they call you?
LikeLike
Sure won’t it be lovely for the priest to have his own baby to put in the church crib this Christmas 😇
LikeLike
6:02pm
Patsy, you’re such a bold boy.
LikeLike
I know 🤣
LikeLike
We’ll stick you on the top of the Christmas tree, father
LikeLike
Well, I am a bit of an angel 😇
LikeLike
😂🤣😂😂
LikeLike
Midnight Mass is coming from Clonard in Co Meath this year and Fr Michael Collins of Dublin Archdiocese is doing the commentary and translation of Urbi et Orbi for RTE 1 on Christmas Day.
LikeLike
Not from Silverstream, Co Meath??? 😱 I hear they make lovely Christmas cards!
LikeLike
If you want to be porn again 🤣
LikeLike
You are on fire today Pat!
LikeLike
8:45 good one. you’re on the wiser page clearly
LikeLike
Meath again! Will Big Tom be front and centre?
LikeLike
GG. I have heard a name for the new mum. Are her initials MC and is she from Polmont?
If it’s her then the priest has got himself a good looking girlfriend.
It will be a nice feeling for his bishop knowing he has at lease one heterosexual priest in his patch.
LikeLike
That makes it ok then. Fact is – homo or hetro is irrelevant. If you want to be an RC Priest, keep your todger in your pants unless washing or wanking.
LikeLike
the Rev J suffers from selective memory. Many RC priests are happily married with children. They who wilfully left the anglican ‘church’ behind. Foolio!
LikeLike
Rev J. You are a total deviant. Priests do not masturbate.
LikeLike
In answer to 6.56 the answer is yes to both questions.
LikeLike
My Lord Bishop, I’m off to bed. I bid you good night
LikeLike