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THE RATHGAR AFFAIR.

SUBMITTED BY DUBLIN PRIEST

“The real story in Rathgar isn’t Commane but Paul Taylor and his live in Master of Music Frank O’Donnell. 

Late night parties and disturbances in the presbytery and neighbours complaining. 

Commane and two female staff went to Drumcondra. 

MICHAEL COMMANE

Taylor locked the staff members out of their office and got rid of Commane.

The PPC complained and Taylor disbanded it. 

Farrell moved Taylor into next parish Beechwood.

FARRELL

The two staff members were never let back in.  Taylor tore Rathgar apart. 

How long before Beechwood realise”.

PAT SAYS

I made contact with Fathers Taylor and Commane to get a response to what was written above. Neither replied.

INTERESTING INTERVIEW WITH MICHAEL COMMANE:

135 replies on “THE RATHGAR AFFAIR.”

This suggests that Archbishop did well in ejecting the trio, Taylor, his Master of Music and Fr Commane. Maybe his vision of bringing in standard Order priests (ie not like Commane) is twenty years too late, but it does not reflect well on the quondam Archbishop on allowing this canker of scandal to grow. Perhaps Fr Taylor and his Frank could be posted to somewhere in west Dublin where the church is a tin shack and the organ is a Casio electronic keyboard. They might not be in the mood for so many loud parties. The odd looking Holy Faith, Beechwood Ave, might not provide the reform, the bracing cold shower, Fr Taylor needs. A dying parish like that mightn’t make the belated protest that finally ended the situation in Three Patrons, but +Farrell might be making Beechwood Fr Taylor’s last chance saloon. Presumably Mr O’Donnell will be seeking employment in another parish.
The OP should send Fr Commane to wherever they park priests like him, maybe it’s St Malachys’ in Dundalk. He can talk on Louth local radio on celibacy or whatever comes into his reddened head.
The picture of +Farrell is apt, suggestive of profound irritation at Taylor.

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What if that parish already had an organist? they just ousted him/her to allow his ‘ahem’ friend in?

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This is not ideal but +Farrell has likely told Fr Taylor that a repetition (parties, lockout etc.), or even the appearance of scandal would have consequences. If it were otherwise, the diocesan ordinary would be foolish, and +Farrell does not look or seem foolish.

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From the excellebt blog of Patrick Comerford, we learn that two former Taosaigh were married in Beechwood Avenue church: in 1924, Seán Lemass (1899-1971), who signed the register as Shaun Lemass, married Kathleen Mary Josephine Hughes, who lived at 34 Upper Beechwood Avenue; their daughter Maureen also married Charles J Haughey here. Frequent Mass goers included the former Taoiseach Garret FitzGerald and the poet Padraic Colum.
Padraic Pearse was supposed to be the best man at the wedding here of the 1916 leader Thomas MacDonagh, who lived on Oakley Road, and Muriel Gifford of Temple Villas on nearby Palmerston Road in 1912, but he never turned up on the day.

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The interior is of a high quality, but the exterior aspect seems very much neither one thing nor the other. Yes, his blog is excellent. I read it at times.

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Its time now for the Dominican provincial to exercise his authority and bring Michael Commane OP back into community where the rough corners can be knocked off him and where the People of God can be safe from him megalomaniac tendencies. Enough is enough.

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Really most religious should stop calling it obedience at all, since when you ask them what it means they always come up with some crap about creative listening and dialogue. It’s a far cry from obedience as generally understood. Years ago I read about a religious priest who thought that he wasn’t breaking his vows by a relationship with a woman because technically only marriage would do that.
To cut to the chase, they don’t follow their vows and probably don’t believe in God.

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1.24pm You are so right about religious describing obedience as “creative listening and dialogue”. There is such clerical/religious exceptionalism. Most lay employees in any organisation would get short shrift if they responded to management instructions with a plea for creative listening and dialogue.

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You get free range diocesans as well, eg Ben Hughes of Clogher, Joe O’Leary of Cork & Ross and Liam Lawlor of K&L who are masters of their own destiny who decide what they’ll do next, which definitely does not include service in the diocese for which they were accepted and ordained. I wonder do they have similar free range priests in Scotland and England?

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@12:41 pm A very nasty comment. Michael Commane OP is an interesting priest who is not afraid to speak truth to power. His work is with people who are dying from cancer. Listen to him speaking about this during the radio interview (link below). The very last word you can use to describe him is ‘megalomaniac’. You need to think again. My impression that your own life is way behind the kindness Michael Commane givess to people who are very vulnerable. I know mine is.

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Yes I would think so. There are a good many Dominican priories, all over Ireland. Someone said his personality might cause the Provincial to prefer to leave Commane to it, provided he avoids scandal, but that would be wrong. Therein lies the death of religious orders or the Dominicans joining most orders in a spiral of terminal decline. Being a difficult personality should not score someone special privileges.

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Sounds all too familiar with Nigella and The Dean in Belfast Cathedral. Any updates on those two clowns ?!!

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+Tobin claimed the words were to his sister, which still sounds deeply weird. Two thirds of them wish they could house homeless beefcake Italian actors. The actual homeless, not so much.

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Cardinal Tobin should check out Instagram profiles of CSsR students – far more evocative, erotic and explicit than his Italian connection

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That picture of Frank O’Donnell is old. He looks older and is more portly now. He can be seen around Maynooth playing all the organs.

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Pat, are you losing your marbles? Surely, you didn’t believe for a moment that Fr. Taylor would entertain a conversation with you? If you thought so, you are very misguided. Fr. Commane, OP should be packed up and sent back to Dominican territory in Siberia, where his cold heart would have little difficulty adapting to -59°, seeing that it’s the temperature at which he treats his confreres!! If not, you and he would make great bloggers together. As for Rathgar/Beechwood Avenue, that’s for Archbishop Farrell to solve not the Oratory Bishop in Larne. Would Australia come calling again for a certain cleric? Perhaps, William Mulvihill who seems to have been in a dalliance with this cleric might enlighten us?? Kangaroos, art, fine dining and wining, exquisite artefacts gone missing!!!

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Marcelo I invited Paul to communicate with me. He was free to respond or not respond. I simply wanted to give him his right of reply.

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So, I’m taking it the underlying suggestion here is that Fr Taylor and O’Donnell are engaged in some sort of relationship, possibly even a genital / sexual relationship, and that they have been living in the presbytery together as a couple ? Well, I’ve no problem with that in the right place, but given the Roman Catholic Church’s requirement of mandatory celibacy for its clergy, as well as its moral judgement that homosexual orientation is intrinsically disordered and that homosexual genital activity is morally wrong seriously sinful, then it would seem to even the most detached and objective observer that this arrangement of Taylor and O’Donnell is bang out of order. Taylor and O’Donnell are taking the piss. The Archbishop rightly should act to restore order and require that the teaching of the Church be observed. That’s his job. Even though the teaching on which it is based is nuts and should be ditched, as well as being observed more in the breach than in the observance by most clergy. Shades of Boris, here, – ‘do as I say not as I do’. And look where that’s got him.

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I am not suggesting that.

Maybe the presbytery in Rathgar was very large and Frank was renting rooms?

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1. I think you are more worldly wise that that, + Pat !
2. If Taylor was renting rooms, I wonder which pocket the money went in to ?
3. It’s an invariably dodgy situation if a priest has a young (much younger) man or woman living in the house with him. The optics don’t look good. And, at the very least in this day and age you would have thought what it might look like should be a consideration. Even at the most charitable reading of this situation, it was unwise.

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12.20: Pat, isn’t it very dangerous, ethically and morally unacceptable to engage in speculations, innuendo and suggested sinister motivations re: Paul Taylor and the Church organist? This kind of writing by you has led in the past to people being ruined, emotionally and mentally. Some have endured almost irreparable damage and illnesses, sime being pushed to the edge. Where does your responsibility begin and end? In the death of targeted individuals? This to me is a serious issue to discuss. It’s being discussed at wider levels of society: how can we control social media platforms and blogs so that they do not fatally wound others or bring them to the depths of depression or to self harm? There are responsibilities as an author of a blog. Surely, Pat, you must have a moral and ethical responsibility about the content you publish?

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Before I blogged on this topic there was a prominent piece in THE PHOENIX entitled “Inquisition in Rathgar”.
So this matter was in the public domain already.
The issue is
The power balance between priests and parishioners.
In this day and age, and with all the scandal – a young man or woman living in a presbytery with a priest is very much a matter of “public interest”.
What about transparency?
If an individual or family is living in a presbytery surely the arrangement can be referred to on the parish bulletin like:
“Mr Brown is occupying an empty priests quarter and is paying a rent of £ 800 per month into the parish accounts”.

Here in Larne a family is living in an empty presbytery and are paying a rent that takes into account their role as caretakers of the house and church beside it.

All done very openly.

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By Post Author

Has the “live in” organist also been transferred to Beechwood parish along with Fr Taylor? I wonder.

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I know many clergy in the Diocese who have friends/family living with them. It’s not a big deal. Live and let live. c’est la vie!

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You have a live in lover in your Presbytery Pat so what’s the big deal. You are such a self righteous arrogant hypocrite of the highest order.

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I have a legal Civil Partner – we were married in an open and public ceremony in our local Town Hall – of 15 years living with me.

This is open and public partnership, with nothing hidden – and fully accepted by the parishioners at The Oratory.

That is far different from a priest having a secret lover with him and him pretending to be celibate.

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1:36 And the fact you either can’t see the difference or claim not to see the difference doesn’t reflect well on you, your intelligence or moral sense. 😟

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A wonderful distinction Pat. Well written and eloquently explained. Our priests in Northern Ireland (especially under 40) don’t know the meaning of the word celibate.

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Bishop Alan Hopes (East Anglia) will be 78 next month. Archbishop George Stack (Cardiff) will be 76 in May. No sign of retirement.
The Westminster Auxiliary Bishop (West London) post has been vacant for three years (since the double-promotion of John Wilson (Southwark).
What is the Nuncio doing?
We have two Westminster priests on sabbatical who are former Rectors of seminaries (Rome and Alice Hall).
Elsie has asked a PP (once in residence in Chiswick with CMOC) to take on an additional appointment as PP to a neighbouring parish (after their new PP left after a month and is now in a smaller parish).
And Monty is doing well in Northwood!
What’s going on in Westminster?

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The Glasgow has been vacant for not quite thirteen months. Don’t make it worse than it is! No idea who the spiritual director you mentioned is, so no comment.

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Hallo Pat
Will there be any further updates on the lads and ladettes over in bonnie Glasgay. I enjoyed the Daisy Chain business.

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Frank O’Donnell offers singing and piano lessons as a sideline. Is he doing that in the presbytery, and if he is, has diocesan safeguarding been informed? I am not in any way suggesting anyone might be at risk but merely asking if diocesan premises are being used in this way, which would require the safeguarding protocols to be observed, as they should be observed throughout the diocese.

Also, it seems that Rathgar needed a Master of the Music, but now doesn’t, but a need has now arisen in Beechwood Avenue, with the organist switching parish. Is this a personal appointment? Why wasn’t the job, with it’s valuable Dublin accommodation, not advertised? Did the new PP not fancy the idea of sharing the presbytery with an organist?

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Does now hospital chaplain, Michael Jack Byrne still occupy a presbytery in North Dublin?
How can this be right?

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Unrelated to this story but I want to ask Pat, what do you think of Bishop Alan McGuckian in Raphoe?
I heard on the grapevine this that he was one of the legitimate contenders for Tuan before Francie Duffy got it. I forgot that McGuckian even existed at all before I heard his name this morning

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I think that Alan McGuckian, whom I have met, has been overwhelmed by becoming a bishop.

I thought that Francis a Jesuit, might have appointed him to Dublin.

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I think that becoming a bishop and k owing all is hops know about priests etc is a massive burden to him.

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I won’t be at all surprised if Francis were to appoint Bishop Mc Guckian as Ireland’s next cardinal. If not him, then Archbishop O Reilly of Cashel.

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That picture of Ledwith-Farrell is scary. The man looks deranged and a little unhinged.
The Ledwith dynasty lives on through him.

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1.06: You are quite a nasty bastardo and an ugly piece to express such a comment..An unnecessary ugliness of comment – but shows your dysfunctionality which appears to be weird, peculiar and dangerous.

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1.09: What do you mean by your throwaway remark “….says it all…” when speaking about the Organist? Are you suggesting something about which you haven’t the courage to say?

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Pat I asked you before stop using women’s names when referring to gay clerics.
It is disrespectful to us women.
Yes it may have started among priests..
When you type the word Amy it makes me feel that I am a lesser person to you men.

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Priests who use women’s names when referring to gay clerics have no interest in how it makes women feel. They don’t care that women perceive it as disrespectful, and it is unlikely that they will change their practice in this regard. But please don’t feel that you are the lesser person here. The reverse is true.

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12.54pm

Why did Roger Reader quit being Vice Rector of Valladolid and why was he made a Monsignor?
He was prison chaplain to HMYO Feltham so too was Laurence Soper.
Laurence Soper is now not a prison chaplain but an offender – funny old world!!
Stack does SFA in Cardiff – Brignell that deeply charismatic and efficient (not) prelate runs the roost with Menevia not even a diocese any more – what is going on in Wales!!
I sense a tension between the Noncio and Elsie – what’s going on there?
Will Wilson get Westminster or will it be Paul Gallagher?
Wilson’s ambition is dripping off him he doesn’t hide it – God save us from Wilson and God preserve us from Stock.
So Hope and Stack are bidding time, treading water, managing decline and equally incompetent bishop pricks are waiting to pounce.
The Nuncio comes across as a ponce nonce – right wing, Latin Mass and has to be centre of attention- so appointments are in good hands.

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@2.03pm If you are unhappy with the Nuncio write to Cardinal Sarah in Rome. Failing that report him to Archbishop Gallagher. He is good at responding to complaints and sent me prayerful good wishes recently. I have also written to His Eminence Sarah on several occasions and he has a keen eye on the UK Church. Ineffective Nuncios must be reported.

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Who are the two rectors of Alice Hall on Sabbatical?
Where is Mike OBoy and Stuart Wilson? Weren’t they Pinky and Perky?
Where is Brown the singing priest – fav of Hume and Vlad the Rad – he must be over 100.
Oh and Michael Seed whatever happened to him – friend of CMOC enemy of Elsie?

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You are correct. There are a lot of errors by the anonymous coward at 2.10pm. Fr O’Boy is parish priest At st Albans Hertfordshire (westminster) . Fr Wilson is at Allen hall. CMOC moved fr Seed not cardinal Vincent.
Garbage lad

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Micheal Seed was last seen as the chaplain of Steve Bannon’s Dignitatis Humanae Institute. In 2014 he accompanied the Duke of Castro and other members of the Institute as their chaplain at a private audience with Bergoglio in the Vatican.

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One former Rector of Alice Hall is on sabbatical Canon Roger Taylor. Former Rector of VEC Mgr Philip Whitmore is also on sabbatical and is in residence at Spanish Place.
Canon Stuart has moved out of Allen Hall and is based in the City of London area. Fr O’Boy is a PP in Hertfordshire.
I am not Fr Tom.

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Strange that the Portglenone Cistercians have been drafted into Moneyglass parish to provide cover at present. The PP is having a hip replacement today and will be out of action for a bit. Maybe he doesn’t trust his diocesan colleagues to look after his flock during his absence.

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I didn’t think Cistercians served in parishes. Though I also didn’t think they should be university chaplains.

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3.42pm

I thought Elsie did the requiem for David Amess?
If Brown – why? And is he still the swinging sorry meant singing priest?

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Sorry, meant that Canon Brown was homilist and concelebrant at the Requiem. The Canon is Catholic chaplain in the Palace of Westminster and presumably knew Sir David.

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You really are quite ignorant. Canon Brown is the RC chaplain to the UK parliament as well as parish priest of Pimlico. I do hope I have educated you on all your points about Westminster.
Pax
Garngad Lad

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The Cistercians because they have been in the confines of portglenone for so long may be a bit backward and withdrawn. They should be able to relate well and be a good fit for the Moneyglass/Toome parishioners

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@4.28pm A few Cistercians at Portglenone get out and about more than you realise. Some do visit the sick and housebound.

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Pat, The circumstances surrounding Fr. Taylor’s sojurn down-under are worth some probing.
He has quite a cargo of baggage that would’t bear close scrutiny. His Harrington Street days, and party nights would make the present residents perform an exorcism of the presbytery in full Tridentine regalia!
He’s a dark horse, and quite dangerous.

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Pat, the Dublin priests don’t seem to be biting.they don’t seem to be commenting on the Taylor and the Organist story. Such a loyal group they must be. Perhaps it is their way of supporting DM their Archbishop Emeritus. I suspect the Taylor and the Organist story will die due to being starved of oxygen.

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5:54pm and 5:33 pm
Dublin RC clergy have a culture very particular to themselves. To 5:54pm ; there is very little you wouldn’t know.

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What about a series on the Cathedrals of Ireland & what they do? Usually the best boys in the class run them. I believe many have lots of staff & choirs and organists who control the show!

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Are there many actually celibate Priests and Bishops left that actually believe in the teachings of Church?

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6.31
Celibacy is a matter of discipline and not of teaching. How could things be otherwise. Married clergy was the norm up to Lateran II.

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10.16
There is no indication that the verse in question is addressed to any but all of Jesus’ disciples. The verse is referring to those who have abandoned ties in favour of the faith. And there is no expectation that those referred to should not subsequently marry in the faith.

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The Catholic gays who have made a conscious decision to commit to chaste singlehood are most likely to be out of the closet. For this reason, they are treated with an attitude of suspicion by the Church and they are officially not permitted to enter the priesthood or religious life. However, those gays who conceal their sexuality are commonly admitted to seminaries. Ironically, these are exactly the kinds of gay men to get involved with hypocritical, unhealthy, secretive, impulsive, and coercive sexual activities. This is an irony that conservative and trad Catholics refuse to understand.

This is why the don’t-ask-don’t-tell culture in the Church is so toxic. The Church is immature and needs to grow up. Gays must be able to come out in the Church without fear of rejection. This is the only way to rid the Church of filth. The developing world are several decades behind the West in terms of social values. In the developing world, psychosexually immature men will join the priesthood as a way of dealing with their sexuality, just as western men did before the 1990s. I expect there to be a huge wave of child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church in the developing world in the next few decades. I suspect this will force the Church to finally put an end to the don’t-ask-don’t-tell culture.

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Sounds good, but it doesn’t work that way for openly heterosexual men who enter the priesthood, many still end up breaking their vows.

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Bela Rob Roy must be licking his Tridentine wounds after Jim S. saw him off game, set and match back to Govan.

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@6.34pm We heard enough of your Scottie crap all day yesterday. Do us a favour and spare us anymore of your infantile stupid bickering. School children would have more cop on.

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7.10
I find it fascinating how filk who are barely literate in the vernacular associate with Tridentine liturgies which the don’t understand. Let’s hear more from this constituency not less.

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Govan ? Do tell! There’s been some unhappiness there too after the late and (un)lamented +Philip moved a few – who went reluctantly

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6.17pm

I’m intrigued – does sending a patronising and conceited blog entry in which you feign superior knowledge to the ignorant make you feel a lot better about yourself, albeit temporarily?
If so I quite understand – it’s like a valve for your low sel-esteem – if it isn’t then your simply a rude arrogant twat – and I understand that too – ah bless.
Canon Brown was cherry picked by Hume – what was that all about? Discuss.

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Your cage has been well and truly rattled. Anonymous at 2.10pm and 3.42pm and now “Ah Bless”. You had so many errors in your anonymous posts and still questioning Canon Brown .Father Brown as he was then was private secretary to Cardinal Hume. Why was he picked? MYOB. Please do thank me for putting you right and informing you.
PAX
Garngad Lad

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Hume and Brown were more than just good friends. It seems garngad lad doesn’t want to accept the reality.

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Anonymous again at 9.16pm. Quite a serious allegation. Cardinal Hume, whom I have met and admired. I admired him for his humbleness and and manners . There were no airs and graces. He lived a simple Benedictine life in a simple cell in Archbishop’s House, With the late Bishop O’Donoghue (then administrator of the Cathedral) he set up the much acclaimed Passage day centre for the homeless. What have you done other than write rubbish?
PAX
Garngad Lad

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Quite right, Garngad Lad. Nobody has ever made any insinuation about the late cardinal and Fr Brown. The very idea is ridiculous muck spreading. Cardinal Hume was a man of great depth and holiness.

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Hume was a homosexual who covered up major homosexual behaviour in his monastery.

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Likely a total nothing, bu semit germane given Fr Commane OP is partly under discussion, the Dominican website(https://dominicans.ie/) has a slide of an OP staring at water then ‘this video is private.’ Probably it is website snafus or some VPN issue, but it is slightly curious.

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Why does an ordinary Dublin parish organist have the quaint job title of “Master of the Musick”? Why the superflous “the” and the archaic spelling of “music”?

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@9.34pm Garngad it’s not an allegation it’s been widely known among clergy in Westminster for years. You seem more than close to Hume yourself as you jump to his defence all too quickly. Care to share anything with us?

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There is nothing to share about the good cardinal. Would you like to give us some facts rather than gossip. He cannot answer back. But I can!!!!
Pax
Garngad Lad

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9.55pm There is no evidence of either point. Dead men cannot answer back. He was much respected across the religious And political divides.
There is a big difference between sexuality, adultery (that seems to be a taboo subject), or living in sin. Perhaps that is a topic for the future. What GOD wants rather than what we want.
Good night
Pax
Garngad Lad

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Cardinal Hume moved child abusers from pillar to post – fact.

Cardinal Hume was v close to Jimmy Saville – fact.

I personally watched Cardinal Hume flirt, favour and clearly was animated in a sexual way by prett posh boys.

Homosexual and cover up merchant.

Me thinks his defenders protest to much.

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A lot of people were taken in by that horrible individual Jimmy Saville .Politicians, royalty, religious leaders of ALL denominations, military (royal marines in particular), professional people and don’t get me started on the entertsinment industry.
Get to your bed. It is past your bed time.
Sleep fight. Pax
Garbage Lad

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More covering up. It’s clearly established that it was widely known about Savile. The only people taken in were the kids writing to Jim’ll Fix It, or rather Jim’ll Fuck You.

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Plus 30 members of staff and monks at Ampleforth have been credibly accused of child sexual abuse.
Obviously nothing there is as it’s feigned to be.

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The long standing bitchy cat fight between Hume and Worlock was all about two catty old queens vying for to table – both were as gay as the day is long both deeply unhappy and unpleasant men regardless of the iconography.

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11.01pm

You can’t help yourself – your self aggrandising and pomposity – what’s this ‘Get to your bed’ what are you my Mum? Your a poor advocate for Hume – his skeletons would have tumbled out of his wardrobe/closet had he lived longer – thankfully he is now the skeleton.
Ps. Jimmy Saville antics and preferences were well known by the BBC, the Church and Stoke Mandeville like McCarrick no one spoke out because he was a cash cow – what you don’t think the royal family or the Catholic Church turned a blind eye to child abuse? Don’t Get to Bed – Get Real

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It seems the Irish Dominicans finally have a provincial with testicles: Larry Collins op and Tom Jordan op are removed from public ministry for hiding the crime of child abuse, not reporting it properly to either civil or ecclesiastical authorities: hopefully they will both face a proper investigation.
Michael commane ‘OP’ is being expelled from the order for refusing to live in his house of assignation. Perhaps he’ll be incardinated into the Dublin Archdiocese: they are desperate for priests.

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