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JESUS – “TAKE UKRAINIAN REFUGEES INTO YOUR HOME”.

All of us in the West, and here in the UK and Ireland, have a massive moral obligation to give urgent practical help to Ukrainian refugees.

Those of us who are Christian have an extra responsibility to welcome these refugees.

When we welcome these refugees, we literally welcome Jesus Christ.

If we fail to welcome then then we ate letting Jesus Christ down.

These are the six questions Jesus said he will ask us on Judgement Day;

1. Did you feed the hungry?

2. Did you give a drink to the thirst

3. Did you clothe the naked?

4. Did you care for the sick?

5. Did you visit prisoners?

6. Did you welcome strangers into your home?

I have already registered with the UK Governent to host refugees in the house I live in.

It is a very large house with several spare bedrooms.

My priestly colleague Father Paul has one spare bedroom in his apartment, and he has also signed up.

I’m sure others from The Oratory will be offering practical help and support too.

EMAIL FROM OUR FRIEND ROBERT NUGENT ON THIS TOPIC

Hi Pat,

Maybe you can do a post on the blog calling out the Church to take some action for the refugees from Ukraine. There are 1355 Parishes in Ireland for 4.5 Million Catholics. Many of these parishes have properties that can be used to temporarily house families. ​ These families are mainly women and Children as Men have not been allowed leave Ukraine. ​ Kinga my wife has been helping on the border. ​

Example would be Knock, there are many empty properties that could house 250-300 people with local schools and services. Look at the Knock youth centre that has been empty for 2 years. Also many of these Ukrainians are Orthodox so we should allow them to practice their faith and allow Priests to minister to them.​

If every Catholic Parish just took 20 women and Children it would mean 27100 have a place to go. While immigration is a hot topic for some right wing Catholics, we have to look at the humanity of the situation and not let politics get involved.​

I personally don’t support any side in this conflict, I have no faith in either side, But I do have faith we try to help those families who need stability until this all gets resolved. The Church has to open the doors now, and us laity will help fund them with clothes, money, food, etc.. We are not looking for money from the Church, just access to the properties. For example in Ballina the Church has several houses for priests in the town and a very large residence for the Bishop. The 4 priests in the separate houses could live with the Bishop for a while and allow Families to use the houses.  The Clergy have to lead by example in this crisis, not just asking for prayers, but leading by example.

PAT

Robert hits several important nails on the head there.

Bishops, priests, and religious orders should lead the way on this and put their money where their mouth is.

You will always find an excuse for not doing the right thing:

My insurance will not cover me for this.

I like to keep my home private.

My partner will not allow me to do this.

I have a weakened immune system.

I’m afraid they might rob me.

I only have one bathroom.

Forget the excuses.

If you are a good human being, you will do this.

And if you are a card carrying Christian – then my friend, you have no excuse whatsoever!

289 replies on “JESUS – “TAKE UKRAINIAN REFUGEES INTO YOUR HOME”.”

Bishop Buckley, you are using Jesus as any bishop would…. Even the Russian Orthodox Patriarch in Moscow is at it, like yourself!

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8 .40: William, i’m not sure if your comment is meant negatively or positively about Pat because of your cryptic style. Apart from thus, I think that Pat and RN should stop forever preaching to the rest of us. Many parishes and community groups have been very proactive in responding to the Ukranian humanitarian tragedy. They should open their eyes more to what’s happening all around our country. Incidentally Christian aren’t the only people who are compassionate and kind. Certainly our profession to be Christian obliges us to go that extra mile. We will, with Gids blessings.

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I think they should stop preaching at the rest of us when every other cleric and churchgoer does as well. Including you.

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But Pat, they don’t want to read it but have to keep coming back here in case they see themselves!

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2:34pm At least if Putin gave you a gold watch, you’d know it wasn’t someone else’s gold watch that he was giving you.

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+Kirill gets his watches from generous parishioners, I’ll have you know. And his fifty hats (there’s a website on them, apparently for hats worth between $4k and $24k, including the koukoulian) are from the resources of the Patriarchate. He would say that, if ever deigns to address the matter. I do have a windup Soviet diver’s watch.

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ROBERT NUGENT
The name should be capitalised. Like a headline. Or the title of a blog. Because this blog is turning into the Robert Nugent Show. What’s Pat’s obsession with this guy? His every email or phone call seems to merit a post here. If he visits Pat, the posts analyse the implications of that visit for days. I’m sure he’s a very nice guy and I wish him well. But do the rest of us have to be given updates on his every benign utterance?

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Pat, we are currently in talks and examining the possibilities of offering some of our properties in Dublin to Ukrainian families. I know of at least two convents willing to do the same too. I think religious orders and congregations will be more open to this that dioceses and bishops. Most, nae all incumbent bishops in Ireland are guarding their money piles and will let nobody near..

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9.48. No children should be housed on your properties if you are a Roman Catholic organisation. None.

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9:57 & 9:52am Very Well Said – and many schoolyard bullies became priests. That explains a lot.

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9:57pm The Faithful run Pray and Play sessions for children in the back room during Mass in several churches.

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2:29pm Don’t be Silly, Clergy & their laity don’t rat on each other – that’s why so much wrong-doing remains unresolved or even still unpublicised for decades, much of that already still unresolved 🐀. You will find them much more verbal about both the real and church narrative led fictional shortcomings of those outside of their toxic circles. Birds of a feather flock together. Keep Safe.

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There is an absolute obligation on all of us, Christians especially, to be generous in compassion. Where there is no parish property available to accommodate, parishes should support those who open up their homes as we are doing in our Parish. Give financial support to charities. Help in practical ways. Accommodate if possible. With all due respect to you, Pat and Robert, we don’t need your judgments. RN’s videos are a little too self congratulatory and I believe Pat that your homilising is unnecessary. Last week a huge truck with donations of all kinds of things left from a neighbouring parish but we all contributed. It was done with great spontaneous compassion. Today our Parish committed to supporting families who are taking in Ukranians. I think all of us will do our utmost. There is no need for you or Robert to sermonise to the rest of us. The Irish people and parishes are very kind. I am not surprised that you and Robert woukd use this tragedy to make implicit judgments about the church. Neither of you are aware what any individual priest or parish community is doing. All efforts, however small are significant. God bless all whose quiet, unheralded acts of love, care and compassion make a diffetence, like an elderly lady who, in tears, gave €500 to our parish fund for Ukranians living locally. These gestures are powerful. These hidden acts of generosity speak louder than any videos! I do hope and pray that the Church in Ireland will continue to act compassionately.

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‘These hidden acts of generosity speak louder than any videos!’
Except they don’t, because they’re hidden. What have you been smoking?

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9.21: You of course must be aware of Jesus who asks us to carry out our acts of kindness quietly without any need for notice…That’s the context of my comment. Don’t you agree that Pat and Robert have used this humanitarian tragedy purely to boast about “their” offers of kindness and have elicited some nasty, biased and very vindictive commentary. Robert is a very self serving individual. Pat’s usual rant against clerics is not unsurprising.

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The tragedy, pain and suffering of the Ukranian peoole is a moment for practical assistance and for all parishes to act in a powerfully Christ like way. I believe this will happen. What this tragedy requires is our immediate generosity of heart. It is not a tragedy that should be used to create the narrative that the church doesn’t care. That’s very wrong. The local clustering of parishes in our area are acting with incredible love and compassion. This is what matters most. And our own individual sacrifices.

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10.08 Take a closer look at the world and what has been happening the last twenty or thirty years…..then blog whats very wrong. Ukraine has restarted stagnated conscience on this continent……selective application of course. Didn’t Bergoglio make his first trip to Lampedusa to try and do that….oh yes and he carried four ( from what I recall) families on his plane back from a refugee camp for the Italian State to take care of !

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I want to thank the Dominicans in Poland for all their help and support for my wife. Esp the Dominicans in Krakow (sisters and the brothers). My wife’s family on her mother’s side come from Lwow.
I know there is a severe housing shortage in Ireland. But maybe Priests can group in community for a while and free up over 1000 properties.

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10.13: Robert, why thank people who won’t read this blog. Email the Dominicans…or let your wife thank them. What’s this about?

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I have. I was letting Irish Clergy know what Polish Clergy and Religious are doing. Maybe they will wake up and do the same.

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9:13pm Agreed. There is no rhyme or reason to Robert Nugent. Recently he was complaining that his wife and family were being targeted by angry deniers of clerical wrong doing and now here he is drawing attention to his private family again. It’s like these celebrities that play games with the paparazzi- one minute they want to be front page, then they don’t want to be on any page and then they start clamouring for the front page again. Hard to fathom Mr Nugent.

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I know of religious orders and parishes who are offering accommodation. Requests were made and responses are being given. While celebrating mass today I made specific reference to Ukraine and after mass a few people volunteered to come together to respond as community. This we will do. I didn’t have to say anything except ask all of us gathered – what can we do? I am slightly puzzled why both Pat and Robert present as having a monopoly of “care”. There’s a very thought provoking piece by Brendan O Connor in the Sunday Independent re: the danger of comparing our “caring”!!! Just let’s get on with caring. That’s what Jesus asks. Do it.

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10.02: Absolutely. Robert has featured footage about his wife on You Tube. Why? There seems a deep need for affirmation by Robert. If he wants privacy he should stop videoing about his family. Hundreds of others are doing the same work but not proclaiming it so publicly. There’s something not quite right about the tone of Pat’s blog today. It has struck a very discordant note and my guess us that the implicit judgments against others in their boasting are irritating and self-serving. In this awful tragedy the emphasis is on what we can do individually and as communities, not on who does “more”.

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If you think this will somehow stir TPTB to prioritise housing the homeless Irish, sadly, you’re whistling in the wind. If an Irish person goes to a DSP office they are treated meanly, but a Nigerian will be told of every possible grant he or she could wish for. I wish it was otherwise. Perhaps if any of this parish or order property proves suitable, it could be used longer term. A great example is how the main wing of the Passionist Retreat in Kimmage houses homeless people, who are nearly always Irish.

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Phonsie won’t want his clergy living with him or vice versa & that will be the case in most other Diocese. That’d be akin to meeting Satan himself in Lourdes or Knock for many priests. Didn’t some parishioners move travellers into garden of a bishops house years ago when he criticised them for complaining about traveller settlements near their homes.

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@ 10:25.

If staying with Phonsie requires one cold shower a dei I’d doubt if his clergy will make a dash for his front door.

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Pat, Pat, you are appealing, not to common sense here, but to people’s emotions, in particular, to their capacity for moral guilt. It’s a form of emotional blackmail, and it isn’t Christian.
I have a spare bedroom, with just a single bed. I would happily take in a Ukranian refugee (and here comes the ‘but’), but I’m on a very low income, and can barely provide for my own needs. Will YOU make up my financial deficiency so that I can take in a Ukranian mother and one child? (Mind, they’ll have to share a single bed, unless YOU can fork out for a double.)
I know you’re not short of a bob or two, since you were flushed enough to jet off to Hungary in recent years for two very expensive sets of false gnashers.

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Robert Nugent delights in the moral high ground, giving directions and instructions and pontificating on what people should and shouldn’t do.
Whether or whether not people take in a refugee is a decision for them – this much I know Robert Nugent will milk it’s virtue signalling for all irs worth wringing out every drop.
The right shouldn’t know what the left is doing v they shout their deeds from the rooftops and parade their righteous thanking God that they are unlike other men.

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I suggest that the author of this blog and Robert re-read the gospel for Ash Wednesday. Reflection it: pray about it and remember, there are thousands ariund our country already doing wonderful acts of charity for Ukranians, including many parishes, parishioners, priests, religious and many, many others – and none of them needed a lecture of any kind about their moral, ethical, humanitarian or Christian duty. We do what needs to be done without any fanfare. Your plea would be more efficacious were it done with less preaching.

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I’ve tried to, but I was following the Seamus lectionary so read the nativity gospel and can’t see the relevance.

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11:00pm Please go back to your own Church and preach to your congregation there, Fr Fanfare. Thank you.

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10.57: Your conscience has indeed been pricked…Now go and do exactly as Jesus asked through the Ash Wednesday gospel…You’ll be a better human being…

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11:37 Yawn! unconscionable clergy & sheep just can’t help themselves. Helplessly Addicted to their own self interested toxicity.

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Jesus looks mighty cross, even threatening like one of the Krays, in that pic. Why? The hypocrite could have stopped this war with a mere thought.
‘Duck’ the Nazarene monster!

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11.28, not that its any of your business, but I recently made a large donation to the Disaters Emergency Committee online.

It’s true, though: your Jesus could have prevented this war with a mere thought, but clearly he chose not to. How do you explain this behaviour of a god you would claim is love, and capable of doing the impossible?

Anything SENSIBLE to say? Free of the customary bs you people profess?

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@5:38: It’s all ‘our own’ fault! It’s just that we, ( okay then, …..my and your great great great grandparents ×thousand of generations) bu☆☆ered up our all loving God’s wonderful plan by “eating that damn apple”!
So all loving Jesus really couldn’t interfere with his Dad punishing us for, …..yes that damn apple again.
I mean just get this matter in proportion: scrumping apples is a really serious business: I kid you not. You could end up getting nailed to a cross for something as serious as that.
MMM

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Thank you Bishop Pat, when I see you leading the way in your own diocesan property by taking in refugees I am sure more people will follow your advice and lead.

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Bishop Bling has acres of space. The singing warbler Eugene O’Hagan lives in a 3 bedroom house on his own. Wee Joe lives on his own. Bishop Emeritus Paddy Sniff’s home is vacant given that he is in Nazareth House.Nearly every presbytery has free rooms. I imagine they’ll be the first to open their homes given that their ontological change will inspire them to welcome in refugees. Then again, pigs might fly

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Plenty of empty parochial houses in belfast that are not lived in at all. Take them refugees. Make use of them

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Lots of empty parochial houses and other church property all over The UK & Ireland- Catholic Church is land banking yet at same time constantly and consistently seeking donations.

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And just like that, there is now no war in the Middle East, All is well in Afghanistan and Syria. The Israelis and the Palestinians – now the best of mates. All is well in South Sudan and sure Boko Haram, well who are they again! Theres no homeless families in Ireland, no kids living in hotels, no elderly on the streets. no one dying in parks in Dublin and outside Dail Eireann. The homeless have all gone away.
Yano, its horrific what’s happening in the world. Ukraine is now the centre of the media, but come 6 months from now, it will be another country and the woke will be throwing themselves over THEIR citizens. Pictures on Facebook of Mary doing a 5km run for some country she’s never heard of and couldn’t point out on a map. John collecting tins of food and taking a hundred and one pictures of himself for social media. What a society!

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We have to be careful about importing people who may go on to be terrorists. Same happened with the Manchester and Liverpool bombers. For the Irish PM to say our security people will keep an eye on them is laughable. They cannot keep an eye on their own Dublin gangsters and drug cartels. Jesus, is this man for real?

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Clergy, Police and Doctors all thick as thieves in some areas still – incesteous- rare to get justice whilst this continues.

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Why are Ukrainians escaping Russian bombs given such safe, secure passage and housing but Syrians escaping those same Russian bombs are not?
The world was sympathetic when it saw images of Syrian refugees drowning at sea, washing up on European shores and settling in at awful camps and makeshift shantytowns. Yet they were beaten and arrested by border police, blamed for igniting a cultural war that threatened the fabric of a white Judeo-Christian Europe.
Why did you not welcome Syrian strangers into your home? Why did you not feed the Syrian hungry? Why did you you not offer a spare room to a Syrian refugee?
Europe was already grappling with the Syrian refugee crisis – an issue that had bitterly divided European Union nations in recent years over what to do with the 1.1 million Syrians who sought refuge in Europe.
Meanwhile, neighbouring European nations have swiftly met the influx of more than 2 million Ukrainian refugees since Russia’s invasion on Feb. 24 with a united show of solidarity.
But no show of solidarity for the Syrian peoples, why? Maybe if Syrians were “just like us,” they would receive a more compassionate welcome in Europe and the West. Did Jesus mean when he said to welcome strangers, as long as they were Christian and white?
Jesus was more like a Syrian, wasn’t he?

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8.57
Bishop Pat, you had ample time to Blog for the Syrians or Yemenis. You didn’t. You may well welcome them but they did not have your attention as with the rest of white Christian Europeans.

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Bill, in the course of the past 36 years in Larne a great number of people have been housed here – homeless, alcoholics, drug addicts etc.

For me to house anyone from abroad they have to have a visa.

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It’s something I am considering but our house is very small. If you can’t, you can always give money and offer to help at the refugee centres.

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9.15 A Blog about racist sectarian discrimination by white Christian Europeans then.( A Europe of flagrant racism today)….no appetite to fast track visas for so many. Denmark is sending Syrians back and taking in Ukrainians……silence in Europe. I realise and know you have always helped people with your house and home.

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If you compose a blog about this topic I will publish it unedited for you Bill.

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I’m not taking sides because the west (remember Iraq 900k dead) is as bad as Russian. So on the Politics side I don’t believe either side. But on the Human side we need to help those who need help. This isn’t virtue signalling or whatever I’m being accused of. The reality is the Irish Church DOES read this blog. They keep saying we need to pray for Ukraine. Well the people of Ukraine need help and I’m talking here about the Women and Children of Ukraine, they need help. They need accommodation. Not camp beds in crowded halls. Polish Church and Polish religious have opened their properties. Where is the Irish Church? Esker monastery is closing this year, why not allow it to be used today? Bishop and Priests in Ballina have 7 houses, can’t they all live with the Bishop and offer 6 houses for a while? Or is the message of the gospel they claim to have given their lives to mean anything?

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9.39, not taking sides means that you are moral fence-sitting.

You are a coward, Robert. Russia is the clear aggressor here.

Let me express it simply, so even you can understand: Russia invaded Ukraine, not the other way round. THAT constitutes aggressive and is a crime under international law. Plus, Russia appears to have committed a succession of war crimes.

I’ll say it again: you’re a moral coward, Robert.

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7.40: What Robert and Pat do by way of helping Ukranians is their business and that’s where it begins and ends. Their pontificating is virtue signalling and the manner of their preaching is self serving. I believe and I know of many initiatives in parishes but neither of them are open eyed enough to notice. Their requests for others are made by way of moral shame and judgment. This crisis is not about who does “the most” but about what we each do personally and as a parish community and as country.. The videos by RN are all about “my family”. Pat and Robert, keep doing the good you’re doing but not by way of comparison of others. Just do it. Also, while I hope presbyteries will welcome some refugees, I firmly believe that parents, grandparents with children and grandchildren should be placed only with families. It’s a more natural environment. Men or women on their own may well be housed by presbyteries but families belong to families. Aside from this, there are legal, moral and civil protocols (safeguarding issues/health and safety) to be followed and we cannot ignore the necessity for these. But, let us not use this awful human tragedy to score points against each other. When I watched RN’s videos, I thought, “here we go…”!! May God inspire all of us to respond with compassion to ALL suffering.

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9.39: Here he goes again. A self proclaimed moral conscience. Your words Robert would be more effective if you dropped the moral shaming. You have no idea what individual priestscir parishes or religious communities are doing. Do you only feel truly good when you compare yourself against those who have less compassion than you? There are atheists and humanists doing infinitely more….as well as thousands of Christians.

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9.39 Perhaps the Irish Catholic Church has learned from their mistakes; taking care of women and children was their nemesis and I am being very polite. I am not going to comment on your praise for the Polish Church. The Land we now call Ukraine was under the domination of what is now called “Poland” for centuries……What is called Poland was not always kind. We Irish have never gone on the rampage to dominate another race ( the human propensity for power and violence we attended to among ourselves) to our credit as a people…..whatever the anthropological reason. Your blog comments are like many the homily on Sundays. I find your saccharine gospel presentations hollow. Please stop speaking as ” we”……I have no idea who you envisage you represent when using that pronoun ?

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9:50 An illuminating comment, and strikingly compares William to the many clerical comments here saying the same thing. I suppose formation is easier said than done to shake off.

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9.28 Thank you Pat for the offer. I politely decline. That is your gift and remit and you do it well.

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10.27 You clearly are unaware of what I have submitted here before on what you term ” formation.” Your self congratulatory “illumination” I hope brings you enjoyment for the remainder of the morning.

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Robert Nugent writes, ‘I personally don’t support any side in this conflict, I have no faith in either side.’ What an extraordinary statement. The Ukrainian people are not victims of a tyrant: they are not the innocents apparently? Robert has no firm view about the killing of citizens, including children; the lies Putin is peddling in Russia; forcing people from their homes to seek asylum and, therefore, housing, in other countries. Remember, the holocaust was in part perpetrated by the silent ‘neutrality’ of Christians. Pat, please stop giving oxygen to wholly unacceptable views within your main blog

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You must be fair. Robert is a Roman Catholic and so when he comes across a megalomaniac responsible for crimes against humanity is bound to have difficulty seeing that any sensible person would automatically decide this is wrong. Cf the way the bishops all happily covered up child abuse despite it being against the church’s own teaching but we must have an educated conscience. 🙄

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And the west is what? Shining example of what? Iraq war over 900k dead. More Americans killed in Afghanistan than 9/11 and what America hands the country back to…. The taliban. I don’t take sides. Washington, London, NATO, all as bad as Russia.. I don’t trust either side.

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As many as we can take. Why? My wife had already offered a number of women places, but sadly many of them want to stay near Ukraine because their husbands, brothers, sons are in Ukraine and if this ends soon they want to be able to quickly go home. Believe it or not, many Ukrainians don’t want to go to the west of Europe. They want to go home.

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RN 11:26, it was an honest curiosity. When you are calling on people to house refugees, people will want to know are you leading by example.
When the majority want to stay near Ukraine, aid agencies often purely want people’s financial support so that they can deliver the aid required.

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8.36: By his own admission, why then did the truckloads of good accompanied by his wife, not go to Russians? Am I seeing confusion, bad history and contradictions in Robert’s announcements? But – this blog should not today be about what Pat’s and Robert’s out doing each other and the rest of us. Can they stop lecturing the rest of us who are getting on with doing something..Today a group of parishioners are meeting with some Ukranians to seek their advice about how we can truly be of help to them and arriving families.

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Robert’s is in Poland helping. I am simply single that I, like thousands of others will take in a refugee.

Father A simple question. Will you take refugees to live in your.presbytery?

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Robert takes no sides on what suits him. As William Mulvihill rightly concludes RN is a very strange individusl.

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9.47: I refer you to the reply I have at 9.43. We as a parish ARE responding. No need Pat for competition.

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8.59 From the tenor of your Blog article today, I would have thought your Jesus access could have hurried the matching on request.

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I’m sure My Jesus 😀 will assist. If I get refugees, it will depend more on the Tories than My Jesus.

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If Jesus wanted to make himself useful he could take care of the war in the Ukraine and rampant government corruption in UK but strangely doesn’t.

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Somebody’s remarks were referred to as “cryptic”. Maybe “hypercriptic” would be more accurate or should that be spelt “hypocritic”?

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I find it interesting the way Robert rubs commenters here up the wrong way – presumably they’re not brave enough to get a YouTube ID and leave their comments on his channel, I haven’t been there for some weeks.
Except I don’t think it’s Robert himself, I think it’s his tridentinist, let’s reform the cess pit approach. And that’s what interests me because I’ve never bought the view that the old mass and a reformation backwards would work, would attract anyone to the church or would even be popular with regular massgoers beyond the minority interest group which already attends the old mass.
And I’ve always thought that because I’ve always thought the old mass crowd set themselves up against other Catholics and as something special which has to be wrong…. and is essentially the nub of the criticism today!

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9.36, I find it interesting that Robert is almost universally disliked on this blog, which, of course, is what you really meant when you said that you found it interesting that Robert rubs commenters the wrong way.

Now a sensible fellow, especially one like Robert (who wants others to come to the ‘one truth’), would take stock of himself here and ask ‘what the hell am I doing wrong that’s causing me to repel people rather than attract them?’ That’s what a sensible fellow would ask himself, unless he really wasn’t trying to preach the ‘one truth’ at all and was just trolling an internet site.

There’s an old Jewish proverb: when six people say you are ill, lie down.

Tell Robert to lie down, 9.36. He might listen to you, since you seem to be a friend. The only one he has on this blog.😅

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It will be interesting to what how many bishops and priest feel able to invite refugees to live with them. Not many, I imagine. There will be all sorts of convenient excuses. Where I live, the local priest could easily offer a couple of floors in a building to families, given that only one priest lives in the whole thing and could easily move next door for the duration to take a room in another priest’s large house which was built for 5 priests but now only has one priest.. Or he could move home to live locally with Mama, where he already seem to spend much of his time. I guess D&C Bling Bishop could find room in his palace. Mind you, Ukrainians are not Brazilians, are they ? Shame that. I do hope somebody does a bit of survey and works out how generous our priests and bishops have been with their own spaces and lives, rather than just encouraging other people to do so. And yes, before you ask, I will be taking in a refugee, and have made contact with various charities to make it happen. Slava Ukraini !

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Brazilians of all genders have been all the rage in providing various services for parish council members and clergy for years now.

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Let’s not pit Irish homeless against refugees. We need to help everyone and treat everyone with compassion.

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When you open your home, it involves risks. Quite a few of the homeless people I have sheltered here robbed from me and left during the night.

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Robert, you are full of s***e. Of course we do, but it’s not possible to do so. Nobody is ‘pitting’ then together but merely offering insight into their respectable circumstances. There are ample opportunities here for people not to avoid being homeless and for one reason or another they do not avail of this. Homelessness seems to be a choice for many.

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In N Ireland, if you are homeless, the government will pay for a hostel for you and place you on the housing list. They will also pay the rent to a private landlord for you.

Many of the homeless I meet in Belfast don’t want to go to a hostel.

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There are plenty hostels out there that are not at full capacity, also they can feign illness and occupy a NHS bed if in dire straight and then claim homelessness while there and become a ‘social’ admission which would mean not being discharged until they had somewhere to stay. Play the system guys.

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10:08am Haven’t you noticed, it’s never been “trendy” in the RCC to help the Irish at home. The laundry slave girls from institutions were exported on the Mail boat to England with little or no money, despite being owed years of unpaid wages by nuns. Just one example of many well documented atrocities aided and abetted by RCC.

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10:11
Pat, many people out of home don’t want to go to hostels for safety reasons including fear of physical or sexual assault, drug and alcohol abuse, violence, etc.

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I understand that. Bit here in NI you can rent a premises from a private landlord and the government will pay your rent and pay you benefits.

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9:52am Try telling that to the thousands of Irish working couples forced to pay 75 percent of their joint wages on rent. The demographic of people who genuinely end up homeless or in vulnerable housing is no longer limited to alcoholics, druggies or the mentally ill – it could be anyone these days and is.

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The only person that still speaks any sense on this blog is Bill Mulvihill. Save the white Europeans, damn the Syrians and Yemeni. Even in war there seems to be an acceptable face of racism.

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11.10 Dan did not attack me. I clearly commented after his comment on that night that I was not in agreement with what he held as truthful about why I quit. He did not attack me…..you’d get a job with a Russian Embassy you would, for mangling the narrative….or any USA Embassy.

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Pat You say Robert Nugent is in Poland. Mexico a couple of weeks ago, now Poland. For whom does he work? I think we should know given the importance air time you give him. Just in case you think it, here is nothing confidential about where someone works.

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His wife is in Poland, not him. He works for an international company doing IT. How is his company relevant?

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10:01 am His company is relevant because I wanted to know if he is employed by the CTS or a similar organisation. I simply do not understand why you advertise his views when they are pretentious and, in the case of the Ukraine, wrong.

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The company he works for might be very relevant. I believe he works for a worldwide company that has the some of the most unethical principles in the world market. So unethical that it difficult to understand how, Robert – a devout Roman Catholic, can countenance working for them.

Oh, wait a minute – the Roman Catholic’s track record on ethical behaviour is piss poor. Your ok then, Robert.

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10.01: I notice in Robert’s videos, his wife is paramount, not others. His preaching on the blog today is unnecessary, as is his sekf praise. But he has a friendly ally in Pat and vice versa. Don’t knowcwho is pulling whose strings!! Their dynamics get curiouser and curiouser…

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2.24 The Irish Bishops Conference had at least one very important meeting with Diageo. It is my understanding that their silence on ( let’s call it “ moderation “) was “ purchased!!

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I was speaking with a priest yesterday who said we should not feel pressure to take in refugees as many of us are struggling to feed ourselves and eat our own homes without extra people to take on.

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Robert how many refugees will you be taking in you hypocrite! Sure while you are there open up a homeless shelter with all your wealth you have accumulated within your employment. Glass houses son!

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Your wife must have some faith in your relationship to be housing all these Ukrainian women while you fly the world with work and leave her to it.

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10.12: Robert, you are tiresome in your boasting…..Your task is not to try to outdo all others in acts of charity. Why the need for such self publicity? Just get on with your work.

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If I did a blog urging people to take Ukrainian refugees without stating I was going to do that, I would be challenged a out what I was doing.

There is no boasting. Its just about putting your money where your mouth is.

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The priest hosts what can only be described as a refugee looking young man that comes to his house late at night and leaves in the early hours of the morning. He will love the addition of more Eastern European men arriving.

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10:10am Old News – he doesn’t do that any more. They meet in the Sacristans motor home. It’s a Moveable Feast.

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Doubtful that Bishops will direct their clergy to make housing provision for Ukrainian refugees when they’ve ignored the escalating housing crisis where for years now thousands of Irish schoolchildren are living in homeless hotels and workers are spending most of their wages on rent. There are a few exceptions such as Fr Peter McVerry but it seems the majority of the Irish clergy are engaged in banking more wealth for RCC, not engaged in giving housing not even to Irish, let alone Ukrainians. They will generously praise parishioners for housing refugees but won’t be doing it themselves.

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10.11
Peter Mc Verry Trust is a multimillion euro business, make no mistake about it, with Jesuitical Capitalism underpinnings….like Bergoglio in Rome. Charities are part of what is perpetuating “Homelessness.” They feed into the lack of a Government policy to deal with this social phenomena. Focus Ireland having a sleep out to raise money for homelessness is a crass and vulgar patronising of other peoples plight; nobody finds it distasteful to be told to sleep in your garden…..as a connection with the homeless? Incredible societal sensitivity.

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Yes. It’s like that priest who keeps telling commenters here to go and help in a soup kitchen – it perpetuates the structures that cause inequality.

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You are right, Bill. Voluntary sector agencies are businesses; little empires purposely created to fill gaps of government policy while making all associated look good. Of course empires always seek greater expansion..ie more funding from the public.

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12:51pm Spot On – Little Empires run by Little Hitlers and they run off playing tennis to de stress when anyone dares to check where all the money meant for the needy has gone. Oh & don’t park near the tennis courts or they’ll sue you for daring to look at them! Such arrogant self entitlement.

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10:38 Elitism and snobbery are still core characteristics of the laity involved with clergy. They involved to preserve their own interests but under false pretences.

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Pat I can not believe you are allowing comments encouraging people to occupy NHS beds under false pretences when the NHS is not fit for purpose when it is full of genuine sick people.

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Nobody came to rescue the Catholics in this British state years ago, send all the Ukrainians to the British mainland.

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The trolls are live already today, Robert, Bill, Martin and even Pat – depending on definition of troll.

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Robert Nugent should do what God wants him to do and that’s to keep pro creating with his wife and not pro creating utter nonsense on this blog.

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11.05 ….and you have a “definition” of yourself or your contributions “Trolley.” Do state it please ?

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10.50 If you are lecturing Robert on what “God” wants him to do from a RCC perspective, you have missed their directive: Its Proles, Fides and Sacramentum……there is more to marriage as we all know after the same-sex referendum in the Republic of Ireland.

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Take in refugees, feed the poor, comfort the weary and broken hearted but for Gods sake stop banging on about your virtue or generosity or largesse – it’s tiresome, tedious and reveals a lust for affirmation and self-importance.
Blessed are they who do good but only the Father who sees what is done in secret rejoices and rewards – when you bleat and virtue signal you have received your reward.
House the stranger and refugee – who knew?

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Forget the Ukrainians and focus on Palestine. Them damn Israelites and Jews are committing apartheid and yet nobody speaks out as we can not be seen to ‘offend’ the sensitive Jews after what happened a century ago.

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And the 1.29 million Muslims in “re-education camps” in China? Ireland is very selective in the Muslims they defend. What about the 900k killed over 20 years due to war in Iraq and the aftermath?

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10.55 There are many Jews in Ukraine…The President of Ukraine is a Jew. Before the state of Israel, there was created a “Jewish State” in Russia…..the Jewish Autonomous Oblast, Article 65 of the Russian Constitution . Its all interconnected.

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Bill, Robert is aware of EVERYTHING, you don’t need to make the most intellectual ones aware of things they know already

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12.50 My comment was not in response to Robert…. and since you are cerebrally so gifted, there is no need to tell you which comment I was answering ( it’s printed at the outset. I think you need to invert in your own direction the latent sentiment you direct at myself.

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11.29am

For every scripture text there is an equal and opposite text – the sense of scripture seems clear that parading our good deeds, drawing attention to them and indulging the modern obsession with virtue signalling has a different sense from letting the inner light of God shine forth in us (joy, love, etc).

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Fr Fergal McDonagh stated that “he cannot let evil go unchallenged” in response to his Russian Embassy Gate protest.
Of course, in true RCC tradition, he has now been “silenced” by his Archbishop, Dermot Farrell. Clerics can protect abusers of all kinds within their church communities for decades but not Fr McDonaghs protest against a major humanitarian crisis triggered by his sight of a young Ukrainian couple carrying blood soaked bundle of a dead baby.

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@ 1:17

The title of today’s blog could easily be; Jesus- ‘don’t abuse little ones or else a millstone..’
The moral hypocrisy, inconsistency and double standards of the professional catholic clerical class is staggering.The ontologically altered have a major credibility problem
from the top down with systemic cover up of criminality worldwide which many now consider crimes against humanity. Many victims are dead as a direct consequence of abuse; many lives are ruined; while survivors are gaslighted. Clerics seem VERY selective when it comes to challenging evil in their midst.

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Dolphins Barns parish has had enough of this maniac priest. He is completely unhinged with bad temper issues.

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He is well liked. A poor woman came for help after her sons bike was stole and he went out and fought the person who stole it with his fists until he got it back for her.

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Sir Roman Abramovich is/claims to be be Jewish and holds an Israeli passport. It would be a real shame to see Chelski FC crumble because of his ties with Vladimir Putin. Cancel culture should not blame or punish Russian citizens for their leaders actions which are not supported by the majority of his people.

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@9.47am Len Brennan – you are the biggest of cowards. I am sure face to face you don’t have opinions and if you did with me, you would be medicated for life.

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Did you see the Indian guy who purchased two black panthers refusing to leave unless he could take them with him? Utter madness

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I posted at 11.40 advising whoever wanted to know who RN worked for to check his Facebook page. I just checked and was surprised to find that it has disappeared. Don’t worry Robert . Your secret is safe with me.

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I did comment some weeks ago that the c*nts who subsequently made phantom phone calls to his wife and kids would go after his work.

Who knows, it may even make him realize that the criminal institution he supports is exactly that and nothing more.

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Fr Francis OBrien stated today in mass he is open to housing Ukrainian refugees in the parochial house and openly encouraged all us to do the same.

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Fr Curry (Beragh) told us not to worry too much in the NW as we probably won’t get that many refugees anyway up here

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Dissenting voices are medicated, gaslighted and discredited as they are considered a threat to the establishment. Robert seems to have rattled clerical cages. I suspect calling for an investigation in the Thurles seminary matter caused consternation for some hierarchs.

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I got a latter from a priest involved in Thurles supporting me and my attempt to tackle that story. Church instructing those involved not to engage with me won’t make the problems go away. Waiting for Bishop lee to die. They could just address what happened. Anyway such is life, Preach one thing but do the opposite, and we wonder why the faith is being lost in Ireland. Christ can’t work in souls who live the double life. Ce la vie.

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How interesting! Waiting for Bishop Lee to die. I wonder why? Is there more to tumble out, I wonder.

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Anybody who takes a refugee is truly showing good example but de fact not taking in a refugee cannot be construed as bad example and surely the secret is to take in a refugee family but let’s just get on with it and refrain from trumpeting and parading it.
Let the left hand not know what the right is doing – let’s resist parading our good deeds like it’s a beauty contest and just knucke down and get on with it – what do people want? A medal?

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I want no medal.

But as a bishop and a Christian, am I not supposed to give a good example?

There are any number of good reasons, including limited circumstances, that mean people are not able to take refugees.

On that point, the UK government has announced today a grant of £ 350 per household, per month, to help.

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Because he actually is a good Bishop. He is a man of prayer. He might not get everything right, but he is a man who loves the faith.

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A good bishop does not publicly refuse a fellow priest Holy Communion, does he?

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You will never get a Bishop who gets everything right or pleases everyone. But as Irish Bishops go he actually does try his best. That would be my view. If we are waiting for Bishop Perfect we will be waiting a long time. I say this because I go to his daily online adoration prayer that he leads and it helps a lot. He seems to be the only Bishop doing this. And before the conspiracy starts, I’ve never met him, but he is well liked.

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2.47, as usual, Nugent ducks difficult issues with a load of distracting blarney.
Answer Pat’s question Nugent, directly. Show that you have some manners and courage. Was Phonsie correct to treat Pat in such a humiliating, unchristian way?

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At 2.47

RN’s non-answer to Pat’s question is typical of the ‘ah, sure! aren’t we all sinners?’, heads-in-the-sand excusers of RC clerical abuse. They did the same over the sexual abuse of children by priests.

People like RN won’t call out sin by priests, but they will virtue-signal for them, as RN just did for Bishop Cullinan.

It’ s almost amazing that these won’t call out sin for what it actually is, a deliberately missed opportunity to love others, but will preachily try to make others feel pressured by their own virtue-signalling.

I refuse to listen to anyone who makes so little of sin, especially a priests.

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Pat, I’m not surprised that Robert Nugent made an ambiguous reply to your question about the way in which you were publicly shunned and mistreated by Bishop Cullinane. Consider yourself fortunate: I received no reply at all to the questions I asked of Robert just a day or two ago.
Robert had categorically stated that those who don’t embrace the ‘one truth’ cannot claim to be ‘doing the Lord’s work’. This suggested to me, as an Irish Protestant, the old Latin aphorism: “Extra ecclesiam nulla salus” (“Outside the Church, there is no salvation.”). So I stated all of this and asked Robert, politely, to clarify his meaning. Disappointingly, he didn’t reply.
I suspect that Robert meant precisely this, but was too embarrassed, or cowardly, to make such public clarification. It seems to me an odd position to adopt: to lack the courage of one’s religious convictions and boldly state, in public, what one holds privately to be absolutely true and essential for salvation.
Robert’s reticence (his hiding a light under the bushel of …What? Fear?) starkly contrasts with the example of the lads and lassies at Church Militant, who make no bones about THEIR belief that Protestants, like me, are on the broad road of perdition. I guess their kind of Christianity requires courage to proclaim it; Robert, it seems, just doesn’t cut the mustard.
Which brings me to this question, Pat. Why do you provide Robert Nugent with such a public platform as your blog? Yes, I know you believe ‘everyone’ should be given a voice, but should this include those who want to profit from preaching to the audience of such a platform, while flatly refusing to be held accountable for what they say, however toxic and untrue?

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I’m disappointed, Pat, that you did not respond to my post at 5.09. It is a respectful comment, and it asked reasonable and pertinent questions in light of a certain post by Robert Nugent.

If I am right about Robert, he is promoting a deeply sectarian view not just of Protestants on the island of Ireland, but of anyone else, anywhere else (Jews. Muslims, Hindus, etc) who don’t, on deeply held religious conviction, embrace his ‘one truth’ in order to be ‘doing the Lord’s work’. He is presenting all these as ‘other’, behaviour history shows is often a precursor of violent religious pogrom. And he is using your blog to help accomplish this.

It is equally unsettling that you are facilitating his apparent sectarian bigotry.

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3:30

Is Opus Dei considered a fascist cult obsessed with money and power, ingratiating themselves with the upper echelon wealthy powerful social classes ?

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3.34 Cathal Daly used to say that if a priest isn’t praying, he is guilty of professional misconduct ( that’s before the exposure of scandals hit). I am not sure how Cathal Dalys prayer manifested in his life but clearly he did not bring it to his interactions with the then Father Buckley. He was very cruel in that scenario. He was not obeyed! A grievous offence to a bishop.

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Cahal Daly believed that when he spoke, God spoke. He told me so citing St Ignatius of Antioch’s teachings

As politely as possible, I asked him if when he broke wind, God broke wind.

He spilt his tea onto his saucer, and his corotid arteries pulsated.

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3:57
Maybe some member of the hierarchy can tell us who instructed Popes to systemically cover up CSA while hiding perpetrators? After all, these Popes are now canonized saints.

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3:40
You mean,
Is the church of Rome considered a fascist cult obsessed with money and power, ingratiating themselves with the upper echelon wealthy powerful social classes ?

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5.09:Excellent observations. Robert has resolutely refused to respond adequately and cogently to many questions asked of him. This is Pat’s blog, so he can decide its content and direction. But ever since RN has arrived on the scene, he’s been given a huge platform on this blog with his You Tube videos being used by Pat. Today’s contribution by Robert, while well intentioned, have provoked some hostile commentary. Why? Because he has phrased his narrative totally about himself, his family and has arrogantly presumed the rest of us perditious folk are going to hell for our lack of compassion! His style is one of lecturing, judgment and moral guilt tripping. I know he and Pat conversed about today’s blog but the responses, in most part, are horrendously unkind and both Pat and Robert have, inadvertently initiated a race or competition to see who is the most compassionate. This is scandalous. Why can’t we just care and stop boasting? God bless all Ukranians and the thousands who are kind, caring and compassionate and not just Christians…

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I agree priests are slow to see their own sin but quick to pass judgement on womens lives when he thinks they have sinned .

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IRISH PROTESTANT

Sorry for the delay in answering your question. I was working all afternoon with people recovering from cancer surgery.

I think Robert should answer ALL your questions.

I believe that all men and women if good will be on Heaven and that very much includes you.

Robert said in one of his videos that he wants to get me I to heaven. He may very well think that you will get into Heaven before a heretic and schismatic like me 😀

I have met Robert and believe him to be sincere.

I do not share his views about the Roman Catholic Church and its”magisterium”

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7.20

Thank you for replying to my posts, Pat.

That you believe Robert Nugent to be sincere is no excuse for his apparent sectarian bigotry, an opinion of mine now strengthened by the fact that he failed to address my questions on the subject. Nor should his sincerity entitle him to propagandise, unaccountably in particular, this nonsense on your blog, which in time could gain sufficient traction and become a dangerous meme. (Mighty oaks from little acorns…?)

Do you recall what you said of Christopher Stalford in your blog of 6 March 2022? ‘You cannot seek universal publicity on the one hand and demand absolute privacy on the other.”

This is the hypocritical refuge of Robert Nugent. He is insisting on the privacy of silence to avoid accountability for words of his that could encourage Catholics to think of Protestants, and others, only as ‘lesser than’. Isn’t this the way in which gay people, like you, have historically been treated; and it did not result in an effusion of universal love for them. Nugent is able to do this for no reason other than your enablement of him.

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@ IRISH PROTESTANT. Email me and I will talk. You obviously don’t know me and I’m too tired to reply. Where did you get the idea I see ANYONE as lesser people?? Bizarre. ranugent@iclould.com I’m the last person promoting sectarianism and anyone who knows me and my family would laugh at that accusation.

I could say more here, but there is a limit to all this. I’m finished with online debate with people I don’t know. People who DO know me would never ever accuse me of being what you are accusing me of.

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9.27

You sound irritated, Robert. And snappily ungracious with it.

Where did I get the idea that you are a sectarian bigot? Where else but your posts? Your words. And your failure to address questions I raised recently and today

If you believe that I am going to debate in private, out of the public eye, an issue you chose to air on a public blog, think again.

You debated commenters here today, and on other days. With people you undoubtedly do not, or did not, know. Not knowing them didn’t put you off debating them; don’t let it put you off debating me either.

I’ll debate you here; nowhere else.

YOU chose the ground. Now be man enough to step out upon it.

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Who wouldn’t say taking in a refugee isn’t a good thing – but I think you will find that A-D list celebrity, every influencer and Instagramer will shout it loud from the roof tops that they are doing the same – the lust to signal virtue is a modem curse – let’s just do it and get on with it – bearing in mind that visas, red tape, bureaucratic protocols, vetting and immigration Nazis, will hinder this humanitarian effort in a way that in actual fact the British government will take next to zero refugees compared to say Moldova (the poorest of nations) who have taken as many as they can and are just pressing on with it.

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2.48 Is that the Bishop of Down and Connor? 😂😂 ( Happily a very good man won that one.) ( The humour is light and I am aware of the gravity of the subject).

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Bishop Bill Walsh ( he was called Bill by all until his fullness of orders!) of Killaloe opened up the area surrounding his bishops house in Ennis to help Travellers at one stage. A very decent and Nazarene thing to do. But he fell foul of “ some” and was told ( or was directed to be told by the grey suits) that he needed to have planning permission, I think it was said that not even a bishop is beyond the planning laws. He was very decent on that occasion but “ they” were agin him. It’s a very old story and there is some of it as a backdrop to what’s current.

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3:28pm Nugent’s employers are obviously no good at monitoring time management targets for their employees. I’m at a loss to understand why Bishop Pat accommodates him on this blog – I also don’t believe Nugent when he says he hasn’t met Phonsie. He’s too “fair weather” to be trusted. With respect, I do hope that Bishop Pat does not live to regret getting mixed up with Robert Nugent.

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Who wouldn’t say taking in a refugee isn’t a good thing – but I think you will find that A-D list celebrity, every influencer and Instagramer will shout it loud from the roof tops that they are doing the same – the lust to signal virtue is a modem curse – let’s just do it and get on with it – bearing in mind that visas, red tape, bureaucratic protocols, vetting and immigration Nazis, will hinder this humanitarian effort in a way that in actual fact the British government will take next to zero refugees compared to say Moldova (the poorest of nations) who have taken as many as they can and are just pressing on with it.

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The Albert Gubay Fund will come in handy won’t it I’m sure the English bishops will be rushing to spend that lavish legacy on Ukraine refugees.

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I’m not sure what is happening with the Gubay Fund. In my diocese, the pezzi grossi were cooing about how they were going to to build this and do that, but everything seems to have gone quiet. I’m wondering if they had flights of fancy as to how much money was coming their way. I expect Vinnie will have made sure that he keeps hands of whatever is available, and will make sure it is doled out to his cronies as he wants. It would be good to have some transparency as to how this Fund and its monies is being used, who is getting it, what they are using it for, who is involved in the decisions about what it is used for. Or, as usual, will it be left to here today and gone tomorrow bishops for their vanity projects or scatter brained latest pastoral initiative ? Yes, perhaps some should be going to help out Ukrainian refugees. But, what has the say on that ? See, it’s just all clouded and veiled. Which is what the bishops want it to be so that they can retain influence and power.

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‘It would be good to have some transparency as to how this Fund and its monies is being used’
Not being funny but if you haven’t noticed that transparency and the church don’t go together, you haven’t been following. Also if you expect the hierarchy to spend money on anything other than keeping themselves going you’re incredibly naive.
To people like Vinnie the church is them.
The whole thing is a scam.
Hadn’t you noticed?

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Perhaps they could pay off the Cathedral debt in my diocese. It just keeps going up and up and nobody seems to think about addressing it. Priests come along and just carry on spending without thinking about where the money comes from or how they can do anything to address the debt. It’s in the £millions. A scandal. My parish would not be allowed to get away with that and we would all be told that we had to pay it off. I think they think that Gubay will help them out. But, I thought it was for charitable purposes, not to pay off a big debt incurred by careless clergy. Which diocese ? Have a think. Answers on a postcard please.

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One of these days you and your parish will no doubt be told to pay off the cathedral debt or a parish like yours will be closed to pay it

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6:50pm Our parish missed out on a large inheritance recently when the old dear willed only a small sum to the priest for parish needs but instead left a much larger amount to the laity church member who had also befriended her in recent years.

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RN at 2:47 argues that Phonsie is a “good bishop” because he “leads” and “helps a lot” with daily adoration. Would RN say the same about Dom Kirby? Was he a “good superior” because of adoration? Is Silverstream not a cult because they are “monks of perpetual adoration”? Doesn’t Our Lord in the Gospels expose as whitewashed sepulchres, full of dead bones, those whose outward religious observance was exemplary in every way?

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4:52 The Parish Priest found his own refugee allright – now he can put his basket away & claim the payment.

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£350 a month, per household. It won’t take long before this is exploited. Only this time a few months ago we were expected not to meet our own family and friends in our own houses, now we are expected to welcome strangers, who may be Jews, into our pork eating houses? Scandalous

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4:53pm the news that Covid numbers are rising quite significantly again is being overshadowed by war, energy and cost of living crisis reports.

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These Ukrainian refugees can fill the gaps in all the shops that are recruiting for employees as there are so many shortages everywhere. This is most welcome news. I will ask my refugee to clean the house for me and walk the dogs to keep them busy.

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I thought you had a houseboy for that, ‘father’. I don’t think they’ll let you choose a twink refugee, so I’m afraid you’ll be disappointed.

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6:32pm We do hope that this does not turn into another one of these Sex For Rent scandals that the Irish politicians and newspapers have been highlighting about landlords exploiting tenants down South in the housing and homeless crisis.

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“My refugee”? They are not damn slaves. The lower class will exploit these vulnerable people the most.

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6:32pm God, Father, wouldn’t it be terrible altogether if the lower classes got a chance to rise their leg. Down with that sort of thing! I doubt the lower classes, whoever they are, will treat others any worse than all those slaves were treated in laundries and in big houses and slaving on farms before modern machinery replaced them.

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6.13: Though you jest, I have no doubt some will abuse the Ukranians to do slave work. The choice of host families and individuals must be done very carefully. The visitors are not trophies to massage our egos for being “kind”. God bless all Ukranians and host families.

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8:51pm Indeed, Many in our street question how our neighbours managed to get Police Clearance for their very busy fostering business. They are very assertive and involved church people and clearly very well connected. Like many Cathbots, this family is dismal in the extreme in the neighbourly practice of being decent human beings. It’s all about who you know it seems.

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I must say I’ve enjoyed Bill’s contributions today. Much more interesting and to the point than his usual cryptic style

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7.57 Niall Hennessy. Christy Mitchell. Peter Charles. I can’t believe how naïveté I was. Innocent even.

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Gone are the days when good parishioners would surprise you by leaving a lovely gift of stew at the front door for your dinner for a few days.

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7.19 Someday I would hope to do it again . I hope you might have samphire with a John Dory ( reputedly what was cooked for the Nazarene on the lakeside).

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Bill sounds like the gentleman I have been waiting for, for years. All I need is to know he can cook good Indian food and I’m definitely in luck.

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Who is the priest that has a wee married smick as his bit on the side? Would regularly be seen on coffee shops and restaurants?

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8:05pm Lies. No priest is going to be seen on his own with a woman in public coffee shop or restaurant in this day and age. Priest in my sisters parish goes everywhere with a local married couple, the 3 Stooges the kids call them 🤣🤣, you’d see them anywhere, concerts, matches, anywhere at all but sure that’s grand.

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“The way to God lays through love of people. At the last judgement I shall not be asked whether I was successful in my ascetic exercises, nor how many bows and prostrations I made. Instead I shall be asked, Did I feed the hungry ? Cloth the naked ? Visit the sick, and prisoners ? That is all I shall be asked. About every poor, hungry, and imprisoned person the savior says, ” I ” ” I was hungry, and thirsty. I was sick, and in prison.”-Saint Maria of Paris

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10.18 I would like to correct an error I made much earlier today: I referred to the Irish Catholic Church. Of course, there is no such thing. I would have been accurate and wish to be by saying the Roman Catholic Church in Ireland. Thank you.

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7:29pm Fr Les – you are not a dog – paddle your own canoe & cook your own dinner. I wouldn’t even let my dog eat from a pot of grub found on doorstep these days. Keep Safe.

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As I have Covid I look after the sick and I have been feeding the hungry and clothing the naked every morning for as long as I remember; Im not sure if jesus knew Ireland he would have put in the one about giving drink to the thirsty unless it was a tea bag made into two cups and Ill have the other one. About visiting prisoners, I have some hesitation about that but if a prisoner wrote to me I’d certainly reply. I am a strong advocate for treating people as I find them – no a priori attitudes towards people on account of race, religion skin colour. If they are kind and considerate towards me, I try to respond to them in kind. I am a strong advocate for making our laws just, and not putting women with children in jail for not paying their TV License or such misjustices. This brings me to the the worrying fact that a very high proportion of the responses on the blog this day are from people belittling previous comments. After watching all night last night the six one hour eposites of ‘The Secret history of the Troubles BBC4 (number five I think) one about how the war ended after the IRA broke into the main centre of army intelligence (surely and oxymoron) they found that every level of Sinn Fein and the IRA had men on the British payroll, even ‘stakeknife’ whose popular name gives one a good idea of his methods, who was there for to investigate ‘leakages’ from ‘the Secret army’, and his victims ended up on lonely road somewhere with a bullet in the back of the head, hence the famous by now Irish neologism: ‘Nutted’. But since this is a blog devoted to the role of the Catholic Church promoting the universal God of Love and their role is most shameful of al. One episode was about a priest who acted as a middleman linking with Muslim Col Gadafi to smuggle Semtex into Ireland and to introduce a safer bomb mechanism to let off explosions where the would to kill the maximun number of Protestants, whose basic fear was that they would have to live under dev’s 1937 Catholic Constitution. How many eternities would be needed by priests on their knees to atone for the tears of isolated and frighted Protestant farmer and their children and all in their house who had lost brothers and father and sometimes small children who clubbed together to protect themselves from such murderers (leaving aside the abused infants and incarnated women in laundries in their thousands south of the border ) . Of course they come over as biggotet but only if you see our murderer and theistic bigot as a some kind of acceptable norm. When the full story of the Troubles eventually comes out the British courts will be busy trying to sort out how it was that some British subjects were being paid to murder and terrorise other British subject for some bit of Eighteenth century Romantic dream about being a Celtic spiritual Country Hadn’t england the same right to such a claim like the Irish that they had been a Celtic country. But they could claim to be a Roman country to match their own empire with something grander, but , until they . One can only read these point scoring entries on this blog and despair. Where are our readers of history who might help us see our way out of this quagmire and it is not necessary to make saints out of us, but to how we ended up in this miss of blood and tears.

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