Sorry for late publication of blog. Big party yesterday 🤪
A SHORT REFLECTION ON REACHING 70
When I was younger 70 seemed really old.
Now I am 70 I pause to think – and feel that I’m 30 – on the inside.
I must count my blessings:
The Blessing of having the gift of Life.
The Blessing of having the gift of Faith.
The Blessing of having the gift of Priesthood.
The Blessing of having the gift of Good Parents – especially a Great Mother.
The Blessing of having some close Family, Good Friends and all my Oratory Family in Larne and beyond.
The Blessing of never haven been Homeless or Hungry.
The Blessing of having relatively Good Health and access to Health Care
The Blessing of being spared from Serious Mental Illness.
The Blessing of Life’s Pleasures – food, clothing, a drink, holidays, a car etc.
The Blessing of having ministered to so many thousands of people in so many ways – giving my life a sense of purpose, meaning, satisfaction and gratitude.
THE SAD MEMORIES:
Of course looking back I have sad memories:
The death of my parents Jim and Jojo and my younger siblings Margaret, Seamus and Sandra and my five little baby sisters buried in the Angel’s Plot in Carlow cemetery. Also remembering my grandparents aunts and uncles and other deceased family members and friends.
Remembering the pain of being abused aged 6 and all the psychological suffering that lasted years and decades – that is now very healed.
The pain of the guilt and shame I suffered for decades in “The Closet”.
The things I suffered at hands of bishops, priests and others in the RCC.
My own sins and failings – some remembered and God knows how many unremembered.
A HAPPY PLACE
Currently, in life, I am in a place of happiness and peace.
I believe I’ve always had courage but now have the wisdom to balance the courage.
If I had my way I’d live to be a 100.
But, of course I have no control over that.
But I place my full and absolute trust in the HAND that is on the tiller
( tiller – a horizontal bar fitted to the head of a boat’s rudder post and used for steering).
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
128 replies on ““THREE SCORE AND TEN” 2 nd MAY 2022.”
How was the party 🎉
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God Bless You Pat. Ad Multos Annos.
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Wonderful.
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Ad Multos Annos, +Pat. Was St. Canice’s a De La Salle School?
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11.02
No. C.B.S., just beside O’Connell School.
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Happy Birthday Pat.
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9.43: Not RN again looking for notice. Well done Pat on reaching 70 years of age. Beannachtai De leat igconai.
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3:21pm Whatever one’s personal view of Robert Nugent may be, the same as everyone else, Mr Nugent is perfectly entitled to wish Bishop Pat well today. Could you not resist the devils temptation to have a pop at Robert Nugent & in the same birthday greeting message to Pat! So blatantly insincere. Gut churning! 🤮. At least Robert Nugent is brave enough to come on here & use his real name – the rest of us look forward to being safely able to do so in due course Thanks to brave people like Bishop Pat & Robert Nugent. It was disgraceful & frightening to learn how Mr Nugent’s personal life & family was targeted here recently plus damage to Carole’s property etc. Thanks very much for further proving what dangerous individuals represent the RCC in Ireland & elsewhere.
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3:21pm Whatever one’s personal view of Robert Nugent may be, the same as everyone else, Mr Nugent is perfectly entitled to wish Bishop Pat well today. Could you not resist the devils temptation to have a pop at Robert Nugent & in the same birthday greeting message to Pat! So blatantly insincere. Gut churning! 🤮. At least Robert Nugent is brave enough to come on here & use his real name – the rest of us look forward to being safely able to do so in due course Thanks to brave people like Bishop Pat & Robert Nugent. It was disgraceful & frightening to learn how Mr Nugent’s personal life & family was targeted here recently plus damage to Carole’s property etc. Thanks very much for further proving what dangerous individuals represent the RCC in Ireland & elsewhere.
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7:42pm. As I said “regardless of one’s views on RN, he has the right to express good wishes & no need for your insincere sentiment re same. I have, of course, long ago formed my own views on RN’s work & won’t be sharing those positive or otherwise nor indeed anything else with a nosey & deviant RCC on a fishing trip except to say Your Ilk have truly earned any disdain & disrespect you might note in my reply. Goodnight Father! Don’t let the bedbugs bite!
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Thanks Robert.
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6.20 and 6.26: You obviously haven’t been following the blog sufficiently to understand the reference to RN. You should look at his You Tube videos..You’ll understand then. Many commenters expressed their irritation and disgust at some of the commentary from RN about certain issues. Sadly, Robert discovered quickly that once you make accusations, express strange opinions, condemn literally all clerics (he’s still doing so) and refuse to answer all legitimate questions asked of him, he left himself very open to criticisms. Pat deserves good wishes on his 70th. And my wishes were sincere. I notice you too are “anonymous”, father!! What’s your excuse?
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Happy birthday!
Many a cleric will have been hoping when you went quiet yesterday and are now disappointed!
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9:44am having personal experience of how spiteful & narcissistic some clerics & their cohort can be, sadly, in this case, you are speaking the truth. When they preach about forgiveness bringing peace, they mean that they want everyone else to forgive & forget, fill their coffers & leave them in peace to focus on their Grinder, Fiddling the Till, being wined & dined by their influential cronies etc.
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I know a priest and I know his secret
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What is his secret?
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He’s gay?! Shock waves through the community…….
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10:04am – Don’t we all, Dear! So does his Bishop, but “Frankly, my Dear, he don’t give a damn”. 😇
Yours sincerely
The Return of The Saint!
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Happy birthday and May you have many more
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Happy Birthday Bishop Pat – from all the people of the Archdiocese of Armagh.
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At first glance (and not looking properly) I thought you had died and it was a death notice. Then I re read it. I hope you have an enjoyable day.
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Happy Birthday Bishop Pat & Thank You for offering Mass for our Family.
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Happy birthday Pat from all the seminarians in Maynooth, you inspire us.
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Happy Birthday! Ad multos annos +Pat!
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Happy Birthday, Pat. Thank you for your ministry.
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Happy birthday Bishop Pat and thank you for your work in the service of justice.
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Happy Birthday Pat and what a fabulous blog piece 👏🤩🎂🎉🥳🎊!!! I loved all the photographs…it’s like something out of “This is your life”. Congratulations and thank you for always standing up for the truth! Looking forward to a belated birthday toast when you visit next month. Slainte 🥂.
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10:46, is +Pat on a tour of the country?
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@ Seamus – Pat is going to be in this part of the country for a special occasion…he might even celebrate Mass at my place🙏.
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Lucky you Carole! It will be like a Station Mass of old! 🙏
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It’s easy to see now why Phonsie does not like you. I wonder has he seen the photo of Lady Bracknell. He kicked out RG for something much the same. I know a few that were in Saint John’s in Waterford in the 1970’s and 80’s. You dont have the names of those in the two college photo’s taken there. Would be interested to see do I know or would have known any of them.
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Ad Multos Annos, +Pat
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I have ordered you a book as a gift on your seventieth.
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Thank you
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Happy Birthday to the Bishop of thr Irish Sea Border
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😁
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Elsie smirks when your name is mentioned. He recognises you as a bishop and is not daft but astute. He is not as black as they make out, like yourself Pat. A wiley old fox he is. He coined your name of the + Irish Sea Border. He knows the score.
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Happy Birthday Pat. 🥂🎂🌻🌷 Hope you have many more. Still a lot of good work to be done. Love the photos. You have a lovely family. As an only child I envy you.
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Pat, I didn’t know you did a Shirley dressing up in the 70’s.
It looked like great craic.
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😄
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Happy Birthday Pat
Bishop Pat
A true loyal and compassionate servant of God our heavenly creator.
You surely travelled the road less travelled by and that makes all the difference.
Ethel xxx
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Happy Birthday Patrick
Your Friend and Confidant
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Lá Breithe Shona Duit! 🥳
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Lá is masculine, a Shéamuis!
Lá breithe sona!
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1:29, it is of course masculine. A typewriter malfunction! Nollaig is feminine but that is a discussion for another day. TG4 seemed happy enough with my cúpla focal as Gaeilge. They were very polite and courteous to deal with.
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Birthday greetings, Pat!
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Pat you look tired and may need a good rest. Maybe Michael Mullaney can spare a week for you to rest in his villa in Cap d’Agde. The villa has a pool, small bar and the resort is really nice. Booking details can be easily obtained via michael.mullaney@spcm.ie
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I’m off to Vienna for a week soon
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Safe flight Pat and enjoy. 😊✈, Love from your vast intelligence network 👍
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Its beautiful. Make sure you visit Salzburg as well
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If time allows, pop into Kunsthistorisches Museum to view Hunters in the Snow by Pieter Bruegel. I hope to return one day to show it to the younger generation 🙏
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I think the opposite @12.06pm , I think the picture of Pat looks really refreshed. An opinion is like an arsehole, everyone has one.
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Perhaps it is him…..😂🎣
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How rude of you, you must be in circle of Ryan McAleer 🤔
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As a priest in the Armagh Archdiocese, for obvious reasons I will not be sharing my identity. I feel compelled to share my alarm at what this blog has said over the past few months. Has either bishop in either jurisdiction acknowledged the concerns Pat?
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12:06 +Pat We can see that you are an Oscar Wilde fan who famously declared “I can resist everything but temptation” but please do try & steer clear of Jerry Carey’s Villa in Malaga 🤣🤣🤣.
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3:54pm Ah! Stop! Sure ye haven’t lived at all until ye’ve partied on The Costas! Forget Daniel O’Donnell & his Cruise – that Fr Brian D’Arcy & the rest of that crowd only THINKS that they are Cool😎
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3:54pm why do these Irish priests not just stay at home & say Mass & look after their flock??? My Ryanair flights have been a pure waste of time lately!! Even the beach gigolos & waiters are running for cover around here!
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3.54;4.19 & 5.46 – pathetic, same commenter answering herself god help us all.
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Happy Birthday Pat, thank you for your perseverance for justice for those impacted by Ger,Jerry Carey, Michael Collins, Ryan McAleer, Rory Coyle, Stephen Wilson and Kevin Connolly.
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Now you are talking! Maybe you will get a weekend invite to London or Belgium Pat for your 70th!!! 😂😂😂
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London or Belgium good choices and why stop there?? I am sure +Pat has more interesting places and events to go with his birthday year. A very touching blog today and the photos. You were dealt a very bad injustice and they know it. Slainte
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12.27:::::Or to the boiler house courtesy of DP….😁😁😂😂🤣🤣🤣
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@ 11.46 Yes Bishop Pat, you suffered a terrible injustice.
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@12.10pm You left out poor Dev
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1:32pm. After Dunmanway, The “Real Dev” warned Anti-Treaty Forces on the consequences of “tarnishing their reputations” by targeting “minorities”. Shame RCC failed to take note viz a viz Mother & Baby Homes etc.
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12.10
Seven Weeks til Stephen becomes a Priest.
Come and enjoy the Celebrations.
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Party Bus Tour of Ireland. Come join…
It’ll be bangin’
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4:13pm PaddyWagon Tours take bookings & tea can be booked by prior appointment at the real Fr Ted House that has a private history far more interesting than the tv show filmed there. But they won’t tell you that as they probably don’t know it themselves. Wait until ye’ve had the Tay before ye go nosing & asking cheeky questions or ye might have to go hungry! 🤣😉🍯
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Happy birthday +Pat and may you continue to thrive ad multos annos
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ad multos annos was a false song sung in the seminary falsely when a returning ordained sem returned.
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Today’s Irish News advertisement by the Catholic Bishops of Northern Ireland entitled ‘Make Your Voices Heard’ is a beautiful example of hypocrisy. ‘Integrity’, ‘Catholic social teaching … which has the well-being and dignity of every person at their core’.
The RCC ensures protection for those breaking the moral code and as you blog has highlighted in Waterford and Armagh – these bishops should keep out of people’s lives and go back to the weird places from whence they came.
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Happy Birthday Pat and many more to come.
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BIRTHDAY
Thanks for all the birthday greetings.
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Happy birthday Pat. We really loved you exposing us for the two faced shagging hypocrites that we are. We will be toasting your 70th next time we are in the hot tub getting a wee fiddle although our new boss has our cards marked we are hearing.
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@12.43pm If you have nothing good to say then don’t say it you fool. Your attempt at comedy is a laugh in itself.
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The Daisy Chain the cards are well marked and your New Boss has a reputation to keep with people like Despard and others who are well known to him.
You Boss Jailed Paul Moore for 9 years and has listed the victim back on the directory and the other one he jailed for 18 months and the 90K was paid back but still got kicked out.
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Happy Birthday Pat. The pictures are terrific and show the amazing and interesting life you had. Here’s to many more years!
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🥳
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Happy Birthday +Pat (Sorry it’s late). From all in Waterford & Lismore 🎈
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Kevin McDonald liked dressing up at Oscott but complained that he got all the ‘lady parts’ he shouldn’t have worried as we all know it wasn’t the lady parts he was interested in!!
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Yesterday some blogged on Mass revised Mass attendance in Clifton (down form 28,000 to 9300) and Portsmouth (down from 35,000 to 15,000).
Does anybody know stats for other dioceses:
Westminster
Southwark
Liverpool
Birmingham
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The Mass attendance figures come from the annual report and accounts that each diocese submits to the Charity Commission. The reports are available on the Commission’s website.
I’ve looked up two more dioceses. The figures relate to pre-covid Mass attendance compated with the latest available figures.
Archdiocese of Liverpool 85,351 down to 14,148.
Archdiocese of Southwark 81,197 down to 31,043.
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Birmingham:
53,300 in 2019, down to 22,200 in October 2021.
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Those five dioceses alone have seen a combined drop of 190,800. The national total must be catastrophic. I dare say there is a similar picture in Ireland, perhaps more so, as many of the people there went out of habit and the habit has been broken.
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Brilliant. Nobody can say there’s never any good news on this blog. 👍
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@1.05 pm
Many have not returned to Mass.
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Pat, congratulations on this milestone. Wonder what the member of your Clonliffe class think? Sime who continued are still with us, all very good in their ministry. Yesterday you claimed in your blog that 2 monks were suppose to be living in Silverstream but a commenter seemed certain that wasn’t true. Can you confirm 8f what you said is true or not?
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Anonymous @1.10
If you think that Willy Nolan doesn’t know about the antics of the Daisy Chain then it’s you that’s the fool and the laugh’s on you
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Ad multos annos +Pat. Hopefully many, many birthdays to come.
Off topic, but the +Barron-Grunow World On Fire crew seem to be on fire, so to speak. Their muscleman ‘Assistant Content Director’ Joey Gloor ($130,000 pa) has been sacked for inappropriate conduct with women (actually that’s surprising, I thought it’d be with young men):
https://chrisdamian.substack.com/p/sexual-misconduct-and-employee-intimidation?utm_source=%2Fprofile%2F11988131-chris-damian&utm_medium=reader2&s=r
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I didn’t know Pat about your Sisters RIP in Carlow. Everyone has a story to tell.
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Happy Birthday Pat! met you briefly in Belfast a few years ago.
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Pat. Is there any chance you might get the nuncio’s job on the departure of Ab Oko.
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2.20pm
Wow!! Those drops are staggering and quite the reality check.
Very good of you to do this – did you have to read through their accounts to find these figures in the small print or is there a ‘at a glance’ page where turnover, surplus and Mass attendance can be seen.
On Birminghams website it says that they serve 400,000 Catholics suggesting that the clergy and diocese are busy serving this many whereas the true figure is 22,000!!!
Liverpool is precipitous too – Westminster and Southwark will be interesting –
Mind you John Wilson is busy as 40 teachers just went on strike because he stopped gay author coming to school in his diocese.
Jeez whatever next – stopping a priest from saying Mass because he’s gay?!!
Elsie will be glad for the Gubay money and the property portfolio is substantial but parish closures, redundancy for lay people and state pension only for most clergy – bishops though will be taken care of in their dotage!!
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I found the figures by searching in the docs for the word “attendance” and comparing with the 2019 reports. The figures are there, but hidden deep in rather turgid text. Southwark and Westminster are holding up well, perhaps thanks to immigration to London, but elsewhere it is bleak.
It reminds me of Wetherspoon’s. Their customer age profile is similar to the RCC’s. Wetherspoon’s has had a significant, apparently permanent loss of customers who have either lost the habit of going there, or are still frightened of covid and unwilling to go back to crowded places.
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But Wetherspoon’s (or Witherspoon’s as its customers refer to it) is tacky and full of chavs!
Oh, actually, I see your point.
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This indicates that only 5% of Catholics in the Birmingham archdiocese are Massgoers now.
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I sometimes give you a hard time Pstsy. Many happy returns.
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Thank you.
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I always give him a hard time, happy birthday pat 🥳😂😊💪
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Happy Birthday Pat and good health for your many years ahead. Keep up the great work. You have packed in a lot during your 70 years.
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Why do they still refer to nonce priests as ‘members of the cloth’ in Ireland? https://www.irishexaminer.com/news/courtandcrime/arid-40862120.html
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When was the last time someone referred to a nonce priest @4.17pm? Enligten me please?
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I think you’ll find its common parlance amongst ordinary folk who believe the two are inextricably linked.
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Round here we don’t even bother with the priest bit any more.
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5.56
Homophobic prejudice.
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Gosh, just five years ’til you submit your letter of retirement to Rome… wonder if they’ll accept straight away? ;D
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😄
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@5.56pm You and ordinary folk. Enough said.
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No sign of the Tiktok priest resuming duties in Galway diocese.
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5:12pm
Hickory Dickory Dock
The mouse ran up the clock
The clock struck one
The mouse ran down
Hickory Dickory Dock
Tick Tock Tick Tock!
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I can’t find you in the Waterford 1974 photo, Pat. What row are you in?
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Best wishes Pat and please God many more birthdays to you.
Trying to keep up with the blog now and again but mother taking a lot of time now .She’s deteriorating rapidly.
I’ve tried for 8 years to help and have been living with her but unfortunately it’s getting very close. Very difficult to see her condition.
Perhaps you could say a prayer for her.
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https://www.bishop-accountability.org/2022/05/the-pedophilia-of-italian-priests-that-the-bishops-want-to-keep-hidden/
The pedophilia of Italian priests that the bishops want to keep hidden
(ITALY)
Domani [Rome, Italy]
April 28, 2022
By Federica Tourn
” Pedophiles in the church are not “bad apples” as the church hierarchies say. When the pieces of the mosaic, dispersed in the local chronicles and then forgotten, are put together, a picture of endemic violence emerges that concerns every area of the life of the Church.”
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6.08
And yet a fixation on the numbers involved risks missing the fuller picture that more than 70% of the sexual abuse of children happens within the family or close local community.
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And communities, unlike unholy mother church, aren’t eager to forget it.
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Happy birthday Pat , have a good one ! 🥳
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Happy birthday bishop buckley
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It’s the week for Princess birthdays with yourself and Charlotte sharing the same day 👑, only you are true royalty
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You are looking fantastic. I love this blog. Many happy returns and keep up your great work.
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Says the creep from seminary, go and raise your funds lol
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That’s Tom Marsh in the St John’s photo. It’s a first time to see him in a soutane.
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Pat, an eventful life well lived. Congratulations
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Pat. I’m fascinated by the Istanbul picture. What was the occasion.?
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Scan back from vets. Pups due on Fathers Day – Sunday 19th June.
Thriving on the Bob Martins & Chips.
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Do you think maybe you should slow down and close the blog, its work having been completed, and get some me time?
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Happy birthday bishop buckley
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