CONTRIBUTION BY ENGLISH MONK:
“Much comment in England about the long overdue and courageous move made by Bishop Declan Lang of Clifton in clipping the wings of his two errant priests Fathers Bede Rowe and Alexander Redman
Long a thorn this good man’s side, they have bullied him for years since arriving in the sleepy backwater diocese after having left Ealing Abbey together some 20 years ago.
By all accounts the two monks were inseparable and the source of much division in the community and well as comment.
Since then the ultra-traditionalists have ruined every parish they have been given including ripping out forward facing altars and restoring altar rails.
In desperation the gentle bishop gave in to their incessant demands to be allowed to set up their own community, giving them the bizarre parish of Glastonbury; a dead-end place full of hippies and witches, though he refused their petition to allow them to each be Abbot in turn.
They had hoped to attract young men as novices, but alas not one has come.
It remains to be seen what their next move will be, but shorn of the extraordinary form that they so worship, its rumoured that they are already exploring throwing in their lot with the Lefebvrite’s who have a shrine in nearby Bristol.
Or maybe they will join the community of Buckfast, led by the ultra-traditionalist Dom Richard Charlesworth?
Now there’s a tale to be told! He has just been re-elected abbot for the fourth time in twenty years, after living for the last several years in a luxury penthouse apartment in a West Country city with a handsome Turk.
The young man has followed his benefactor to the monastery and briefly flirting with the Portsmouth diocese.
What is it about West Country monasteries? Must be the cider, or the tonic wine”!
SILVERSTREAM TRYING TO RECOUP ITS MISSING 3 MILLION BY SELLING E 12 MUGS.
They can hit E 3,000,000 by selling 250,000 mugs.
Why not introduce some more mugs to help?
A KIRBY mug?
A DEENIHAN mug?
A GAY MONK mug?
DICK PURCELL CONDUCTING AN INSPECTION OF MELLIFONT MONASTERY BEGINNING TODAY 🤣
Dick Purcell is off to Mellifont Abbey on an inspection beginning today.
It will be his job to isolate any misbehaviour there are report and correct it.
Talk about the fox in the chicken run….
He is being accompanied by an abbess.
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
159 replies on “LETS HAVE A MONKS DAY TODAY”
Aah didn’t know the Glastonbury monks had been at Ealing. They won’t go to Buckfast – they wouldn’t get everything their own way lol.
LikeLike
A Wiltshire priest has been banned from driving for 24 months after admitting drink-driving and failing to stop after an accident.
Father Bede Rowe, 39, of St George’s Catholic Church in Warminster, appeared at Chippenham Magistrate’s Court on Thursday.
Rowe was also fined £360 and ordered to pay £85 costs and a £15 surcharge. The incident happened early on 16 May.
He earlier told the BBC he was thankful no one was hurt.
The priest missed Sunday Mass after spending the night in cells.
LikeLike
That was 11 years ago you numpty
LikeLike
A priest missing mass because of being in a police cell is perennially funny, Bede.
LikeLike
Declan is a humble and decent Bishop and not a well man.
LikeLike
And this is nasty cut and paste is relevant on account of what? It was long ago.
LikeLike
Flying saucer hat and a Dr Who cape – and the Dr Who looks – ready to audition?
And the other one with his huge dollop of Black Forest Gateau on his head and Christmas decorations all round his shoulders.
LikeLike
Dom Anselm was private Secretary to Anglo Catholic Lord John Selwyn Gummer now Honorary Vice-President of the Friends of the Personal Ordinariate of Our Lady of Walsingham. He was also a very particular friend of Fr Spinelli whilst at the VEC…
LikeLike
I was under the impression Fr Spinelli was a good man? Very trad……
LikeLike
He is a good man.
LikeLike
Rawhides sidekick no more than a fag hag. The whole thing is farcical! Boiler house one week canonical visitations the next LMFAO
LikeLike
The faggot’s moll.
LikeLike
How very interesting. I recall a seminarian at the VEC running round telling everyone the severe rash on his hands was scabies caught from a younger seminarian at the VEC with whom he was sleeping. He also claimed the younger seminarian was very badly circumcised lol… when the younger seminarian tired of him he turned into a gin soaked auld queen… unbearable bore.
LikeLike
I know him
LikeLike
Poor fella. Maybe he just forgot to utter the magic words so it wasn’t really wine he drank!
But then that Jesus fella was fairly potent!
LikeLike
Are all Cistercians in the republic moving to Melleray within the next 3 years? Are the other houses winding down?
LikeLike
Yes. Delay due to getting agreement from individual monasteries. They are not a top down order after all. It is known that the site in Roscrea and Mellifont have had quantity surveyors in over the summer, apparently developers & hotel group have shown interest. Big implications for Roscrea as they still have the boarding school on site. Decision made by Rome as it’s land etc. The age profile is certainly on the upper end for the Cistercians. The next 5 years will be very hard on them. The Bishop of Killaloe was informed in late May.
LikeLike
12.06 the changes made to the guesthouse and monastery were made with view of selling as nursing home or care centre. The school is in total separate building. More than enough space to extend all buildings. The monastery already looks like a spa hotel.😁hotel in school building etc and spa health facility in monastery.
LikeLike
That would make perfect sense – according to the figures in this year’s Benedictine Yearbook there are a grand total of 62 Cistercian monks in Ireland, both republic and Northern Ireland.
The age profile is also very high.
LikeLike
LOL I suspect most of them would be under the care of nurses…
LikeLike
Generally monks are nursed by the community.
LikeLike
Apparently it is only the houses in the Republic which are allegedly due to move so that wouldn’t be 62
LikeLike
Celsus in Portglenone is resisting changes
LikeLike
Would all 62 want to be under Dick Purcell?
LikeLike
“Would all 62 want to be under Dick Purcell?”
Something tells me that Dom Dick is a real expert at getting men under him. 💅
LikeLike
@10:48 I realise I forgot to take off Nunraw in Scotland (10) and if you take off Portglenone’s dozen we get down to 40. Give it another three years and you could probably fit all the Irish Cistercian monks in a semi. Or possibly a rest room in a gay sauna.
LikeLike
It’s not long since Roscrea added an extension with modern rooms for the monks to move into. Will all that investment be wasted.
LikeLike
Pat @11:25
I think many religious communities are forced to get carers in or farm members out to care homes if they need full time care. It was more doable in the days of larger communities and they realize that novices will be put off if all they do is wipe bums.
LikeLike
The nuns, especially in Italy, bring in novices from India and the Philippines to care for the aged nuns.
LikeLike
@12:06 that was only a temporary stop gap. Apparently it’s fate has already been decided. There are only a few monks in Roscrea anyway and the current superior was never made abbot, it was decided a while ago but cogs are in motion now apparently. Dom Purcell was the last Abbot of Roscrea before he moved to Melleray. There is no abbot in Roscrea.
LikeLike
The Sisters of Nazareth are reducing the number of their UK convents from 13 down to 2.
Good old Vatican II, what a success it has been.
LikeLike
Yes, 6.17, hasn’t it?
Getting shot of the deadwood.
LikeLike
*Alexander Redman. His name is Alexander (or Anselm) Redman. Please correct your mistake in the article.
LikeLike
Father Redman is quite the eye candy, isn’t he? That boyish smile and impish eyes. I’m smitten.
Is he a friend of Dorothy?
LikeLike
Old picture he is balding and withered looking now. I think in lay life he would’ve been a committed bachelor…
LikeLike
OMG! Beam him up, you Scottish person.
LikeLike
Any of this going on in A and B? Any traddies there – dont think so.
LikeLike
What a turn up it was for Basil at Ambrosden Cathedral the other day. England is “Catholic” again after nearly 500 years! I think he should be made St Basil, and Blessed Cormac for coattailing.
I note Kirby’s flaky pate is away from the lips of right handed drinkers.
LikeLike
https://www.thinkinganglicans.org.uk/bishop-of-liverpool-announces-his-retirement/
/
Aka “I’m getting out of here before this thing blows up in my face.”
There is much more to come from Liverpool, pat. Evil is an apt word to use here.
LikeLike
I hope the Bishop of Plymouth is watching the mens swimming at thr Olympics live.
LikeLike
Mary O’ Toole in Plymouth. Biggest poof going. Got her job courtesy of Cormac. Instructed the Iraqi war mongerer Blair into the Club.
LikeLike
Richard Purcell was Chris Derwin’s spiritual director.
LikeLike
Weren’t the two Doms signatories to the letter to The Telegraph letter which was signed by 1,000 priests?: same-sex marriage will restrict freedom of Catholics
LikeLike
Why is Rowe wearing a ring? He’s not an abbot.
LikeLike
He’s married to Alexander
LikeLike
I think the chanting of the pagan witch in red would be more effective than Rowe’s Latin mumblings!
LikeLike
Would SSPX + Felatio have them?
LikeLike
This made me blow coffee everywhere. Best laugh all day, thanks.
LikeLike
I don’t see why not, everyone else has.
LikeLike
When you think about it, the novelty of gay-monk mugs and suchlike isn’t a silly idea: the items probably would sell faster, perhaps even like hotcakes in famine, than staid, sunset-print merchandise. This is what Catholic clergy have reduced themselves to; this is how the world now sees them: as a pretentious global hilarity whom increasingly few these days take seriously, unless ( according to one blog commenter) it is to have priests, exclusively among clergy of all denominations, feature as the main characters in gay-porn movies. What an accolade!
So why not milk this potential cashcow, eh? Take it as a serendipitous opportunity? It’s what the Church has always loved, right? Way above everything else, even Jesus?
Mammon? 😕
The Church could send itself up, in a Monty Python sort of way, on mugs, and on crockery in general; that sort of thing. Let’s face it, it’s already doing so unintentionally, and on a world stage. (And bloody how!) So why not, similtaneously, make ‘loads o’ money!’ out of what it has turned itself into: a total, bellylaughable farce.
LikeLike
Yes there is a’father’ genre of gay porn. They are not unique though – there is also a Mormon missionary genre of gay porn for obvious reasons.
LikeLike
8.00: Magna, you over-write your script. No: clerics have not reduced themselves to merchandise sellers. Thankfully, despite much resentment and hating begrudgery from you and your false narratives – lies – our parishioners give very generously. People see through your sloppy, shabby nonsense and hate speech. How sad it is that a once potential candidate should transform into so ugly a person. Are there any redeeming, likeable qualities in you? You do NOT SPEAK on behalf of the vast, vast majority of priests. The Lady goth protesteth too much….God blesses our good priests…
LikeLike
But they don’t see through yours, ‘father’, that’s why we people of good will keep saying it.
LikeLike
Another mugs day by cracked mugs….it gets worse.
LikeLike
12.51: Ahhhhhhh….you make me sad….I am just so good…how very dare you question my integrity? 😈😈😈😈😈😈…
LikeLike
They look like fat panto dames, utterly ridiculous promiscuous gays hiding in plain sight. It’s an abomination. They should be ex communicated. At least the diocesan bishop and priests actually work and (many of them)contribute to many peoples lives in a beneficial way.
Its time these fat queen’s were dealt with once and for all. Why are they tolerated Pat?
Either merge into normal diocesan administration or get out.
Nothing wrong with being gay ,but these are having a laugh big time.
LikeLike
” Glastonbury; a dead-end place full of hippies and witches, ”
“English Monk” Needs to re- read “The Good Samaritan” and to attend to the log in his own eye and that of his church!
LikeLike
Dick Purcell is not the only example of highly inappropriate choices for the conduct of visitations as in 2019 the notorious Abbot Cuthbert Brogan of Farnborough Abbey, was made Abbot Visitor of The English Province Subiaco – Cassinese congregation OSB as this from Another Abbot Extraordinary blog highlights (or should that be “Lowlights!!!”)
“We were shocked in the autumn to discover Brogan had been promoted to the position of Abbot Visitor. Our recent departures had been most distressed by the failure during a visitation by the previous incumbant, to address their concerns. Promoting Brogan to this position, one can only assume, is a deliberate attempt to further cover up and whether deliberate or consequential, further traumatises his victims! To top it all we were given painful evidence of the congregations care for victims in the form of a photograph of a complaint against Brogan sitting on his desk! https://anotherabbotextraordinary.blogspot.com/2020/02/sed-post-triennii-tempus.html
LikeLike
Yes totally unsuitable. Brogan used to leer and quote Abbot Mark Hargreaves’s words in the nocturnal visit to a guest at Prinknash ‘I think we both know why I’m here’. I wonder if he begins his visitations like that.
When the shit hits the fan with Brogan the congregation will have literally no way of saying they didn’t know. Probably dozens of people have complained about him.
LikeLike
Well, well. This brings up a very interesting connection.
From the Silverstream Priory newsletter, June 2020:
7-10 FEB [2020]—Dom Mark Hargreaves, OSB, of Prinknash Abbey, Gloucestershire, gives our annual retreat. Taking as his theme the words, “Adam, where art thou?”, he describes how monks are to return to God by the practice of the vows of stability, conversion of life, and obedience.
The very same Mark Hargreaves who had to resign as abbot in shame after attempting to seduce a male retreatant.
Birds of a feather …
You simply cannot make it up.
LikeLike
Will there be anywhere to stop off on the way to Mellifont?Which diocese is Mellifont in Bishop Pat?
LikeLike
It’s in Armagh.
LikeLike
For tea and buns? Or just buns?
LikeLike
Why do the clergy wear ridiculous outfits?
LikeLike
To give the public due warning that they are themselves ridiculous.
LikeLike
They must be if they put up with the kind of characters in that photo and financially support them
LikeLike
LOL I meant that the clergy are ridiculous but you have a very good point if people can’t or won’t see through these pantomime Dame’s.
LikeLike
Buckfast is able to buy and sell all the other OSB abbeys. It has huge income and resources. They have done a lot of high quality building and development. They do not live badly at all. It all comes down to the Buckfast Tonic Wine, th preference of alcoholics on the street. It’s their fundamental option for the poor !
LikeLike
Their income in the year up to October 2019 was £11,989,380.
Those are commas, there is no decimal point.https://register-of-charities.charitycommission.gov.uk/charity-details/?subid=0®id=232497
LikeLike
‘Their fundamental option for the poor’: love it!
LikeLike
Lots of bitchy comments today. Are all the old queens here a bit hungover from last night?
LikeLike
I noticed on the Dublin Diocese website that Fr Enda Cunningham is no longer director of vocations. Is this part of the clerical changes we are due to see in August Pat?
LikeLike
Maybe?
LikeLike
Fr. Séamus McEntee Is the New Vocations Director for Priests.
Assistant Director for Priests is Fr. Bill O’Shaughnessy
Diaconate Very Rev. John Gilligan
Assistants for the Diaconate Fr. Joe Mullen & Reverend Deacon Noel Ryan
fr Edna Cunningham is going to one of the Pastoral Areas
LikeLike
Is Cunningham a big golfer?
LikeLike
Presumably, Pat, you have no objection to the distinctive headger and vesture of our Orthodox brethren in that photo?
LikeLike
Who is that 🎶lady in red🎶?
LikeLike
Looks like a pagan witch – she’s giving auld mother Burke some competition though.
LikeLike
I think she’s an Anglican priestess. They like dressing up. I’ve even seen lady vicars in fiddlebacks.
LikeLike
Come back Gilbert and Sullivan. We need a new opera – HMS FIDDLEBACK
LikeLike
Whst’s a fiddleback?
LikeLike
one of us will be a Queen,
And sit on a golden throne,
With a crown instead
Of a hat on her head,
And diamonds all her own!
With a beautiful robe of gold and green,
I’ve always understood;
I wonder whether
She’d wear a feather?
I rather think she should!
All.
Oh, ’tis a glorious thing, I ween,
To be a regular Royal Queen!
No half-and-half affair, I mean,
No half-and-half affair,
But a right-down regular,
Regular, regular,
Regular Royal Queen!
Marco.
She’ll drive about in a carriage and pair,
With the King on her left-hand side,
And a milk-white horse,
As a matter of course,
Whenever she wants to ride!
With beautiful silver shoes to wear
Upon her dainty feet;
With endless stocks
Of beautiful frocks
And as much as she wants to eat!
All.
Oh, ’tis a glorious thing, I ween,
To be a regular Royal Queen!
No half-and-half affair, I mean,
No half-and-half affair,
But a right-down regular,
Regular, regular,
Regular Royal Queen!
Tessa.
Whenever she condescends to walk,
Be sure she’ll shine at that,
With her haughty stare
And her nose in the air,
Like a well-born aristocrat!
At elegant high society talk
She’ll bear away the bell,
With her “How de do?”
And her “How are you?”
And “I trust I see you well!”
All.
Oh, ’tis a glorious thing, I ween,
To be a regular Royal Queen!
No half-and-half affair, I mean,
No half-and-half affair,
But a right-down regular,
Regular, regular,
Regular Royal Queen!
Giuseppe.
And noble lords will scrape and bow,
And double themselves in two,
And open their eyes
In blank surprise
At whatever she likes to do.
And everybody will roundly vow
She’s fair as flowers in May,
And say, “How clever!”
At whatsoever
She condescends to say!
All.
Oh, ’tis a glorious thing, I ween,
To be a regular Royal Queen!
No half-and-half affair, I mean,
No half-and-half affair,
But a right-down regular,
Regular, regular,
Regular Royal Queen!
Oh, ’tis a glorious thing, I ween,
To be a regular Royal Queen,
A right-down regular Royal Queen!
LikeLike
Me, actually. Responsible for the Twinning between Glastonbury and Patmos. Why don’t I tell you my name? Because I have never ever read such venal commentary from Anglicans. Pity the nation, I say …
LikeLike
Those two are just playing at monkery – not the real deal.
LikeLike
The playing at monkery can reach monstrous proportions, as in the case of the so-called “embarassment of vocations” to Dame Kitty Kirby’s stable of young, naive trad lads in Co Meath.
LikeLike
Glastonbury a ‘dead-end place’? On the contrary, my good fellow, Glastonbury is the G-spot of the esoteric and the mystical, the confluence of happenchance.
Isn’t King Arthur buried there? And wasn’t the Holy Grail brought there by one of the Apostles?
Nothing dead-end about Glastonbury.
LikeLike
Yes a place of make belief and fables. Ideal location for a pseudo Benedictine house.
LikeLike
The Buckfast community is less than half the size it was 25 years ago – because of monks leaving, not deaths. They elected William Manahan abbot. His term was cut short by his arrest and subsequent imprisonment.
And that’s without the fact they are rolling in cash with the sales of tonic wine which is the cause of so many problems on the west side of Scotland. You would think they would use some of these huge riches to set up initiatives to help the social problems they cause or else stop making the wine.
The whole thing is rotten to the core – you lift up any stone in the church and find the same iniquity.
LikeLike
Alkies would just buy something else if Buckfast didn’t exist.
The Abbot of Buckfast made the reasonable point that Scotch whisky is much stronger but nobody asks for production of that to cease.
LikeLike
But Buckfast is a lot cheaper!
Nothing reasonable about the fat abbots point.
LikeLike
I thought you’d know all about the ins and outs of booze pricing, MC.
LikeLike
You so clearly have an Issue with Buckfast. Spill
LikeLike
Both of these stupid comments are exactly like the idiots who say if you have an issue with child rape you are anti-catholic.
No, wait, they are the same idiots.
Let’s rephrase that. You sent your child to church so it’s your fault Fr raped him.
Yup, definitely the same idiots.
LikeLike
You are partially right about the alcohol problem. It is predominant in south west Scotland, particularly Glasgow and parts of Lanarkshire. You are totally wrong about he alcohol problem being with Buckfast Abbey. The retailers (off-licences) are the money makers who sell to the public and are responsible for the alcohol problem. There are many underlying social problems such as : long term unemployment, drug and domestic abuse. Yes, even religious bigotry.
Are all the whisky distilleries, beer and lager breweries responsible for for alcoholism?
There is a supply chain from the abbey through warehouses (distribution centres), cash and carries and off-licences before the tonic wine gets to the end user.
I used to enjoy the occasional glass of Buckfast Tonic Wine after the flu. Good tonic.
From an early age it was sad to see so many alcoholics in the Garngad, Gorbals, Bridegton and Parkhead It is national social problem. Not an abbey problem.
Garngad Lad
LikeLike
I honestly think that if a religious community makes a drink involved in the social problems you describe, even if as you rightly say major responsibilities are with the social problems and the vendors, rather than sit back and enjoy the proceeds… Morally the religious community can do something to help this. Buckfast is popularly called Fastbuck, and while you expect the response from a secular manufacturer that it isn’t their problem, I expect a better response from Christians.
Their lack of sensible response to the problems connected with their comfortable life, may well indicate problems of attitude which would explain why Buckfast (and many other EBC monasteries) is dead on its feet.
LikeLike
Given that at one point Ealing Abbey had since-convicted paedophiles as both Abbot and prior what would you have to do to cause comment there?
LikeLike
Look out for Abbot Celsus Kelly. Major upheavel
LikeLike
Indeed. Some turbulent years ahead for the Cistercians. Time isn’t on their side. In the last few years seeds of discontent have been planted. Sooner rather than later the cracks will show. Land and buildings will be sold.
LikeLike
The other contrarian of course is Fr Aelred Magee who has already caused trouble down south. Hurricane Aelred will cause devastation and infrastructural damage come the winter months. Word from the monastery is that there continues to be whispering against the boss. Aelred already had a row with Dick Purcell! Appears he is looking to take a power position within the Cistercians. All indicators that there are moves afoot to bring them together. Interesting months ahead.
LikeLike
In this year’s yearbook Aelred is listed in the community at Portglenone. TBH if it has been done that way so the joiners can join together in the republic and the others be separate in the north that seems a sensible resolution.
LikeLike
Portglenone is Aelreds home monastery.
LikeLike
I suspect the monastery has always been a refuge for gay men – Bernard of Clairvaux was very likely gay judging by his correspondence with Archbishop Malachi – and rather like a prison a monastery creates its own homo erotic culture – men wearing dresses singling in choirs, living in top of each other with a vow of celibacy as a cloak to hide all manner of deviancy – a recipe for disaster if ever there was one.
Prinknash an odd place.
Aelted Baker was a nice chap though – he used to walk from Gloucester town centre to Cranham and thought nothing of it.
David Coup was there for a while – not sure of his religious name – he joined after his wife died but his foray into monasticism didn’t last long. He used to teach at a local school many moons ago.
Abbot Hargreaves can say the right words it’s his actions that are the problem.
Prinknash is like Fastbuck it’s a golden goose -the gift that keeps on giving.
I wouldn’t trust an OSB as far as I could throw them.
I think the monks have sold the new building and moved back into the old lodge where Henry VIII used to stay.
LikeLike
Looking at the community I would be surprised if much was going on there these dayshttps://www.benedettinisublacensicassinesi.org/project/prinknash-abbey/?lang=en
LikeLike
Pat, can you do a blog on Fr Hugh Kavanagh and the inappropriate funeral that he officiated at last week? Listen back to RTE Joe Duffy and today’s Sunday Independent.
LikeLike
Bishop Pat is probably not THAT stupid to make or invite comment on a gang-land funeral. You on the other hand are off with the faries and I’m not talking about the lads in Pantibar.
LikeLike
Fr Hugh Kavanagh made a huge mistake going on Liveline. I would love to know how much he was paid for officiating.
LikeLike
Fr Hugh Kavanagh made a huge mistake going on Liveline. I would love to know how much he was paid for officiating.
LikeLike
Anon @ 3.22: This is indeed an issue which must now be addressed by the Bishops, Priests, Gardai, parishes and families. We cannot have this thuggery and dangerous craziness at or around funerals. Most priests face the challenges of these funerals with care and sensitivity but from hereon we will have to think differently. If there is any suspicion of possible endangerment to others or a reckless attitude to the mass, then we must, I contend, just go to an open field or the graveside for prayers. We, as priests, are in an unenviable situation. The commenter at 2.33 is undoubtedly only interested in creating mischief around the celebrant. How very intelligent!
LikeLike
‘We, as priests, are in an unenviable situation.’
What a shame. You’re being faced with the reality that all public facing workers face on a daily basis.
LikeLike
5.55: You are utterly stupid. I was talking about the challenge of officiating at funerals. Are you able to understand written prose or texts? Now, when you actually understand my comment, you might, if capable, respond appropriately and intelligently on the issue in question in my comment: I.e: celebration of difficult funerals and the dilemma priests are presented with. If not go back to school. You obviously have huge chips on both shoulders. Coming from a large family and interacting daily with parishioners and families, I am well connected to the real world.
LikeLike
Thank you ‘father’ for showing how priests happily resort to insults and abuse at the drop of a hat. If you understood that those kind of situations confront checkout, healthcare and security workers on a daily basis and weren’t such a prissy madam you might actually be connected to the real world.
No chip here, merely stating the truth, not my fault if you lack the humility and respect to take it on board.
LikeLike
Pat, what is your view on the Abbot conducting a visitation of Mellifont.
LikeLike
2.48: We could all wtite Pat’s script: it won’t be kind. Nah…never.
LikeLike
Purcell us not fit to conduct an investigation into a blocked pipe.
LikeLike
4.26: Do you consider you are a more perfect specimen? Hypocrisy is your second name…yes, indeed.
LikeLike
5:50 I’m really not being funny but if Cistercians voted for him they have got what they voted for. If these things have come to light since, they can and should delate him to Rome.
LikeLike
Dom Dick is slippery. Outwardly comes across as pleasant and efficient. The Catholic mothers’ Choirs love him but I know a priest who worked closely with him and he always says he has a wicked temper. The friendly facade slips and the arrogance of a cleric comes out. Cistercians are not happy that they have to fund his private life. The Abbot’s corporate credit card must be busy!
LikeLike
8.06: Context is everything. The cynical comment you previously made about priests not living in the real world was typically nasty and unnecessary. Sometimes we have to argue forcibly for the truth to be heard. I know all about the real world, I assure you. Thank you for your condescension, miss queenie!! Get a grip and stop perpetuating lies.
LikeLike
And your violent response isn’t nasty?
It’s not my fault you’re unwilling to hear the truth expressed with all humility by me and resort to insults.
I pity anyone at a funeral presided over by you.
LikeLike
I love it when 8:59 goes off on one.
LikeLike
Mrs Lang is quick enough to finish Cromwell’s work and smash the TLM in her declining diocese, yet very slow to sort out the problems highlighted by 3:14pm.
LikeLike
3.02
Cromwell died in 1540.
The missal of Pius V was not published until 1570.
LikeLike
William, you think that Trent invented a Novus Ordo. It didn’t.
LikeLike
4:46 No I do not consider myself perfect in anyway.
But an abbot who barebacks priests in kitchens and attends gay saunas!
Come off it.
LikeLike
Pat they are only upset that you’re not barebacking priests in the kitchen and all your personal stuff is in the open. As you know the cathbots like to think that nobody should do anything about any corruption and criminality and give as their bizarre reason that nobody is perfect.
Imperfections would be things not totally contrary to the abbot’s professed life, such as being irritable or nodding off during vigils.
LikeLike
I only cook in my kitchen 🥳
LikeLike
I hope the Kitchen in Cistercian College Roscrea has been sterilised on a regular basis. The image of the abbot barebacking priests is an image that prolongs. +Pat you are right. The hypocrisy is impossible to stomach.
LikeLike
Does the boiler house accept cash post Covid or is Rawhide going to have to use the monastic credit card to gain entrance.
LikeLike
4.52: You lack humility. You are guilty of the sin of pride. Thete’s an arrogant self righteousness in your condemnation of everyone else. You are very imperfect. You crush people. Truth.
LikeLike
6.18pm I have no idea but I have little doubt rawhide Dom dick Purcell handles loads of cash or has ability to withdraw cash or use some sort of electronic payment not going through the Cistercian’s accounts. All the foreign visitations etc present opportunities. An abbot is free to cum (ahem) and go anytime they like. There’s a reason Dick wanted to be abbot so young. With the position comes freedom, power and lack of accountability. Purcell became over confident and failed to realise that monks were only happy to hang him out to dry. By their nature Benedictine and Cistercian monks are gossipy and bitchy. In the last 2 years it has reached new levels. The abbot general has taken eye off ball and the natives are restless.
LikeLike
Clifton is a weird diocese.
Years ago on a youth retreat, on a sleep room over the youth leader handed out porn and said that it would make more exciting reading than the Bible. Charming as our parents thought we were learning to pray and be good Catholics. Taught me about Catholic faith and hypocrisy- thanks lads!!
Wasn’t Peter Slocombe from Clifton – he was found guilty of some dubious behaviour on a train in Rome, he assaulted two police officers, was fined and placed on house arrest.
Clergy go MIA and the Omertà is pretty tight lipped here – three line whip from the VGs no doubt – Massey and Slattery.
Whatever happened to Fr Barnabas – he was in Gloucester and just disappeared and Graham Gillman – he was in Bristol and is now c/o Archbishops House, Westminster. What is that all about?
Lots of secrets in Clifton all buried deep in the clerical vaults and hermetically sealed.
LikeLike
2.33: This is a most selfish and unnecessary request. Pat, some funerals present with great pastoral challenges, as happened recently. I’ve had at least 3 such experiences in last 18 months in parish where I work. Priests are often outwitted on the day by organisers who literally push their way into the church and do things on the spot. The funeral mass is NEVER innaporopriate: it’s the carry on of powerful, thuggish friends that’s a disgrace. All funeral masses are about remembering God’s mercy and supporting those who are bereaved. Joe Duffy’s Liveline attempted to get Fr. Hugh to speak judgment and condemnation and to have only one approach – exclude and denounce such people publicly. If any priest did this, he’d be condemned from the rooftops. Sometimes radio and media outlets misrepresent the truth and reality. Their task is to report and investigate, not attempt to push particular agendas. Priests have pastoral responsibilities which must seek to be of CHRIST. Personally, I am shocked at the hijacking of funerals by some thuggish elements but I believe the Church must now offer definite guidelines for funerals whuch have the potential to run out of control. If I am ever faced with incidents as before, I am considering just preparing a short prayer service for the deceased and family. This is a topic which requires an intelligent, calm, sensitive, pastoral and rational debate, not aling the lines as suggested by “Disgrace”, which is to “witch hunt” the priest! What a disgraceful approach from 2.33!! Incidentally, Liveline were, as usual, poking around for controversy all week…more disservice to compassion, truth and grieving families.
LikeLike
“Published: 17/07/2021
Last Updated: 17/07/2021
Below is a statement of the Diocese of Westminster, following the Coroner’s report into the death of Fr Alan Griffin:
We express our sorrow and dismay at the death of Fr Alan Griffin. We extend our condolences to his family and friends. This has been a great shock to us all. We are grateful to the work of the Coroner in bringing to light the complex circumstances of this tragic situation and we acknowledge the Coroner’s conclusions. We are cooperating fully with the Catholic Standards Safeguarding Agency in its review so that every lesson can be learned from this tragedy.”
LikeLike
A coroner has hit out at the Church of England after wide “systemic and individual failings” led to the death of a London priest found hanged at his home.
Father Alan Griffin, 76, was found dead at his home in Wapping, East London, on November 8 last year.
An inquest into his death at St Pancras Coroner’s Court heard that Father Griffin was a “HIV positive (viral load undetectable) gay priest” who killed himself because he “could not cope with an investigation into his conduct, the details and source of which he had never been told”.
The court heard he was “under investigation” for more than a year due to allegations of engaging in sexual activity with minors, using prostitutes and engaging in sexual activity with others while HIV positive.
However, Senior Coroner Mary Hassell penned a lengthy Prevention of Future Deaths report following the conclusion of the inquest on July 2.
The damning report criticises the Church of England, with the coroner saying she had no choice as to the length of the report as she was “unable to convey the breadth” of its failings succinctly.
She also hit out at the its “lack of full engagement” in the inquest process and lack of any “meaningful attempt” to recognise the errors.
The hearing concluded that there was no evidence of wrongdoing on the part of Father Griffin, nor were the allegations or their source ever plainly set out to him.
The allegations were “supported by no complainant, no witness and no accuser”, the report said.
Father Griffin, though, took his own life because he “could not cope” with the stress of the investigation.
Ms Hassell wrote: “He killed himself because he could not cope with an investigation into his conduct, the detail of and the source for which he had never been told.
“The investigation had been ongoing for over a year and was being conducted by his former Church of England diocese and subsequently also by his current Roman Catholic diocese (to whom the Church of England had passed a short, written summary of allegations that contained inaccuracies and omitted mention of Father Griffin’s earlier suicide attempt on learning of his HIV status).
LikeLike
The Archbishop Cranmer covers this tragic case in some depth.
https://archbishopcranmer.com/church-of-england-safeguarding-alan-griffin-suicide/
LikeLike
3.32: The Coroner, Mary Hassell made insightful and very necessary recommendation is dealing with allegations made against clerics and how they are dealt with. This is a horrendous tragic case to reflect on. While all and every abuse allegation must be taken seriously, there are priests whose lives have been destroyed by false allegations. Their Bishops treat them as convicts. No mercy, no compassion, no human decency and little communication. I knew three priests who took their lives because of false allegations: all three were fully exonerated by civil courts but their Bishops treated them like freed prisoners. With the publicity before and after allegations, all men were destroyed in every way.
LikeLike
What checks exactly does the Anglican ordinariate carry out on former CofE clergy before accepting them for ordination? A copy of their personnel file should be obtained from the Anglican diocese.
LikeLike
I see RTE is recognising partition. Try and watch RTE’s Olympics coverage in Northern Ireland and you get the message “This programme is not available”.
LikeLike
Anon 4.05. This unavailability regularly applies to other sports programmes too, especially football, on both Freesat and Freeview. I don’t use Sky, on principle!
LikeLike
Get a life.
LikeLike
@5:30: If your three word intellectually demanding riposte refers to DMast’s choice of avoiding Sky, it shows no respect for anothers freedom of choice.
I too avoid Sky on account of its profusion of banal, in your face, over frequent adverts. I also object to its ever increasing prices and its dominance and political affiliations.
I also happen to have a very contented satisfying life. Perhaps DMast’s principles also provide that. One has to wonder though if yours is content and satisfying when you have a need to make such a negative supercilious retort as yours at 5:30pm.
Think about it, if you’re able.
LikeLike
Ireland is partitioned!
LikeLike
I see Celsus Kelly was elected abbot in 1977.
LikeLike
The future Archbishop of Westminster is sitting next to the Abbott of Buckfast in one of today’s photos.
LikeLike
Dom Tricky Dicky Purcell is up for re-election as abbot again in 2 years. My money is on an ambitious monk moving in, obviously from a daughter house to be eligible to replace him. Then again 2 years is along time in Cistercian parlour games. The poor cleaner will continue to be busy scrubbing the kitchen floors and counter tops.
LikeLike
The Comeragh Mountains don’t have the same ring about it as Brokeback Mountain but it’s possible to imagine Rawhide Dick with a young innocent cleric from the Waterford Diocese getting intimate. Replace a horse with a John Deere tractor. Engine oil as lube and you have a best seller and blockbuster.
LikeLike
Haha! Is it true under Cistercian constitutions you can only elect a monk of the abbey or a daughter house?
The Benedictine thing where you can usually elect virtually any eligible monk would be better to my mind.
Is it possible to ask for someone else or what happens?
LikeLike
7.57: Disgusting pervert. Let not any young person be close to you, filth bag.
LikeLike
LOL why is that perverted? What do you think the staff in gay bath houses clear up in the morning?
LikeLike
8.32: Filth bags….
LikeLike
In fact anyone who goes near washing for a young man or teen boy will come across spillage.
LikeLike
Why is that comment perverted? Dom DICK’s exploits in the kitchens are on record. Hence the comment the person made. Say a prayer if you like…
LikeLike
They continue with their exploits with Gay abandon. The pillar should take an interest in these errant monks.
LikeLike
A Grindr mug would be a best seller at Silverstream, Bp Pat, I am sure.
https://cache.sharesome.com/file/sharesome/uploads/user-images/u936899/z5nncn-sokreeabtm-o.jpg
LikeLike
False allegations aren’t just life destroying but soul destroying! Those who make malicious allegations rarely apologise and get off Scott free! Poor Fr Alan.
LikeLike
I think Dom’s Bede and Anselm have much to teach the monastic world. As handmaidens they reflect the active Martha, and the passive Mary. It’s good to know that the active and passive compliment each other to bring mutual joy.
LikeLike
Imagine a world wiped CLEAN of these freeloaders. I can.
Can you?
LikeLike
Yes I can. Although I don’t think actually trying to get rid of them would be a good idea because it would feed into their delusion that any reasonable control by external bodies is persecution.
I would advocate removing charitable status and possibly tagging of clergy – purely for their own peace of mind, you understand, so they can be reassured that allegations will be compared to objective evidence.
LikeLike
The way things are to day re monasticism and hierarchy. Re mostly blind guides….rationalism is the assassin of the soul…(Jesus to Maria Valtorta)….so take heartful confidence in never reformed Carthusians. Richard.
LikeLike