FROM OFFALY LIVE
The late Sr Oliver Wrafter
Last Sunday morning in Rahan, there were snowdrops on the altar to commemorate the one hundredth birthday of a most remarkable person.
Sister Oliver Wrafter (who passed away in April 2021) had no presence on social media, was an unassuming and softly-spoken person, but made an impact for the good in the Irish midlands that few people could hope to emulate. She and her fellow sisters were pioneers of education in Offaly. Against all the odds, and despite much opposition from the department of education, they succeeded in establishing a first-grade secondary school with Leaving Certificate status in a very rural setting.
So why the snowdrops?
When the young Ita Wrafter (the future Sister Oliver) was nearing the end of her time in secondary school, she couldn’t decide whether or not to enter the religious life. One morning, she asked the Lord for some heavenly assistance. If someone were to give her flowers that day, she would take it as a divine sign that she should enter a religious order. Later the same day, out of the blue, a schoolmate gave Ita a bunch of snowdrops. From that moment on, she never looked back. The humble sister with the ready smile and twinkling eyes would spend the rest of her life in Killina Presentation, working as a teacher, principal, and mentor to students and teachers alike.
The legacy of Sister Oliver and her fellow sisters is very much alive. This June, a group of students and teachers from Rahan Presentation secondary school will visit various projects in Zambia that were set up by Irish Presentation sisters. They include an orphanage and AIDS centre in an area of great poverty. The Zambia Immersion Project is of enormous educational benefit to these students from County Offaly. In addition, during their visit, they will provide material support to the projects founded by the Irish sisters.
PAT SAYS
I was very touched reading this piece about SISTER OLIVER of whom I had never heard.
Although its setting in RAHAN in Offaly has deep meaning for me as my branch of the Buckleys hail from near there, and I attended Sunday Mass in Rahan regularly at the Jesuit House of TULLABEG.
Sister Oliver reminds me of the millions of religious sisters and lay people who practised their faith in prayer and action without ever being known, heard tell of or acknowledged.
The fact that the sisters in this part of rural Ireland reached out to Africa to orphans and AIDS victims is astounding.
In many ways, the fact that this good work of so many has been overshadowed by all the scandal and corruption in the Church is so very, very sad.
But I’m sure that Oliver and others did all they did for Christ and that Christ, sees, remembers and rewards.
I wonder how Sr Oliver felt about all the scandals that enveloped her and others in the last 30 of her life?
BISHOP PAT BUCKLEY 
217 replies on “A GOOD STORY – LATE OFFALY NUN’S 100TH BIRTHDAY MARKED.”
Pat, this is a wonderful, amazing stiry abiyt Sr. Oliver which I’d read before. I have worked with Presentation Sisters and a finer Order of women you wint find. When I read the condolences part of R.I.P. I am inspired by the ubcrefuble tributes paid to rekuguiys sisters, to priests and religious brothers. Perhaps you do so but the Presentation and Mercy Sisters have list many sisters recently, all in their 90’s, a few 100 or over. The sentiments expressed by former pupils, staff, colleagues, friends and parishiiners are inspiring. Yes, despite the darkness of abuse, many, many religious men and women and priests live very Christ like lives. All my family are greatly indebted to the religious who gave us incredible educational opportunities in the 60’s and 70’s. How? Because they put their salaries back into providing the “best” for their schools and hospitals. We should acknowledge the immensely selfless people like Sr. Oliver. And there are many such in our midst. In our parish there are six returned missionary sisters who worked in China, Philippines, Peru, Africa, all now in their late 80’s and they visit the sick and housebound. Wonderful, inspiring women. Pat, thanks for this story.
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11:16 When you comment could you do us all a favour and have a go at hitting some of the right letters? ⌨️
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10.04: Thanks for the correction. I’m fastidious about spellings as taught to me by nuns. I can’t understand how a text can slip away having made some corrections….Perhaps I should have left my glass of wine on the table!! Gremlins at play!
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Sr. Oliver’s smiling face expresses a wonderful inner joy and peace which comes from a life of prayer, closeness to God and total service for others. She is a symbol of so many religious women of our country. Sadly, our secularist ideology wants to write these amazing women from history and some fanatical feminists and atheists despise these wonderful women who taught them and gave them their life’s oppirtunities. God will certainly embrace this humble Sister.
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Don’t anyone tell Martin how the cathbots think recounting the (ongoing) history of their cult’s crimes against children is anti cathbot. 😱
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10.06: You’re an idiot. Your comment is totally superfluous to the item Pat chose for today. Of course haters will always be haters. Honestly, where is your brain?
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Martin at 12:04 You mean you want to write my comment from history (and probably me as well if I wasn’t protected by the law)?
Are you part of the secular ideology to which you referred?
Vatican 2 really is infiltrating everywhere…
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12:04 – in his trousers same as your colleagues the clerical stars of this blog.
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12:37 it’s a widely acknowledged fact that erasing people from history and defaming the characters of the deceased in the personal and financial interests of clergy and their lay and professional members is a long practiced modus operandi. So, yes, you have and
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12:37 it’s a widely acknowledged fact that erasing people from history and defaming the characters of the deceased in the personal and financial interests of clergy and their lay and professional members is a long practiced modus operandi. So, yes, you have exactly identified what the likes of Martin and his lay and clerical types do.
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Pat Buckley has indeed acted responsibly here in trying to alert men who may have been infected with HIV to get themselves tested and, therefore, to help prevent further infection.
The critics are not being responsible: they would rather the matter were hushed up and to hell with those who might be infected through such moral inertia.
I suspect that most (if not all) these critics are priests, and that they are well practised in the dark art of covering up what should be publicly proclaimed. It is the modus operandi of the RC institutional church, which has learned little or nothing from the scandals its priests caused over child-sexual abuse and its concealment, from the police, from the Faithful, and, most important of all, from the children who were at risk of abuse by priests protected and enabled by other priests.
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She looks an amazing lady. She survived the horrors of formation and religious lived as it was practiced in Ireland and elsewhere pre V II. The nuns did better abroad. Ireland too inward looking ..naval gazing. My nieces today don’t even know what nuns are. Maybe they are lucky. Our family tree full of Mercy Sisters. Most for Australia. Huge toll on their own lives for pursuing their/ their mother’s vocation. 4 in one family.. that era is long gone..last one out now pull out the door..
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@ 12:17am
Very refreshing to hear about this wonderful religious who was lucky to have received her formation before the dreaded Vat. II, and stayed faithful to the Presentation Rule. This good Sister must have been horrified by what she saw happening in the Religious life in recent years. May she rest in peace.
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Drag artists, DJs, an LGBT festival like no other.
Venue:
The Inn at Dromoland
Newmarket on Fergus
Co Clare
Valentines Weekend
10th – 12th February 2023
http://www.TheOutingFestival.com
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&12:42
This won’t be of much interest maybe? Apart from the swingers and wankers, more of the remainder in Killaloe clerical circles appear to be heterosexual.
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Would this festival not have had a bigger audience in Armagh or is Killaloe the new gay capital of Ireland now?
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@4:01
Anything goes in Killaloe
They take it however they can get it, money, property, sex, eyebrows, whatever, you name it, they’re on it.
This certainly isn’t their first rodeo.
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Scripture has nothing to say about same-sex attraction because it post-dates it. Historically-critically speaking, the various biblical authors understood everyone as possessing only other-sex attraction and therefore consideted same-sex sexual activity as a deviation from one’s nature.
Today, with the benefit of two-thousand years of scientific God-given knowledge, we know that a significant number of the population experiences mainly or only same-sex attraction on the one hand, and on the other desire which transcends pure sexual action to include intimacy and love. Evolution is the primary vehicle of God’s creative impulse.
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11.25
An eloquent resumé. Thank you.
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11.25
Same-sex attraction ‘post-dates’ Scripture? Do you mean that there was no same-sex attraction when Scripture was written? Or do you mean just that the biblical authors were unaware of it? Your post is a tad ambiguous on this and, unfortunately, at an intellectually crucial juncture.
If you did mean the former, when did same-sex attraction begin? 1066? Later? The ‘sexual revolution’ of the 1960s? When?
If the latter, are you suggesting that the biblical writers would NOT have condemned homosexual acts (which, indeed, they do condemn) only had they known what you claim they did not know? That no one at the time was naturally same-sex attracted?
I have a problem with your point of view: it isn’t historical. The various biblical writers did not understand people as possessing only ‘other-sex attraction’; rather, they believed just that this is what they OUGHT to have possessed. You see the nuance?
Paul offers, in Romans, an explanation for the homosexual act, but, in attempting to explain its genesis (excessive lust), wasn’t he similtaneously acknowledging same-sex attraction in at least some people? What else did he mean by speaking of both men and women as burning with passion for their own gender and of God’s giving them over to this passion if not an implicit admission that these people were attracted sexually to their own sex?
Let’s be realistic. It’s a variant of the the chicken-and-egg conundrum, isn’t it? Which came first? The homosexual act, or the interest IN the act through attraction to one’s sex? Drat! I’ve given it away, haven’t I? Logic always wins out.
Even if Paul misunderstood the origin of same-sex attraction (do we fully understand it, even today?), he knew that it existed, and, yet. he still, unequivocally, condemns homosexual sex.
The biblical writers demonstrably knew of same-sex attraction; Paul among them. They may have misunderstood its origin, and they clearly didn’t want it to be normative, but they knew that it existed.
‘Historically-critically speaking’, you haven’t been ‘historically-critically speaking’ in any, even remotely meaningful way.
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3.13
More prolix nonsense from you.
Of course the poster was not saying there was no same-sex attraction in biblical times.
The nub of the comment is the biblical writers had no concept of sexual orientation, especially as we understand it. They imagined people attracted to the opposite sex engaging in same-sex sexual activity.
Obtuse or obdurate your comment lacks a modicum of enlightenment.
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3.40
That is precisely what the poster at 11.25 was saying, even if he meant something else. The relevant words in his post confirm this. His was the verbal clumsiness here, not mine.
If the biblical writers were aware of same-sex attraction, exclusively or constitutively of human sexuality (and, clearly, they were), then they were aware, too, of homosexuality as a sexual orientation, not by name, of course, but by substance. It doesn’t matter that their knowledge of this lacked the high-brow understanding of human sexuality affected by many today; they understood well enough.
No, these writers did not premise their condemnation of homosexual acts on the belief that everyone was heterosexually oriented and that such acts were a morally denounceable deviation from this, since they knew that some people were naturally attracted sexually to their own gender. They condemned these acts for themselves: morally wrong in every and all circumstances.
You, clearly, missed the nuance.
And, if by ‘enlightenment’, you mean ‘woke’ ideology on homosexuality, my resting point is that the exposition of truth is my goal, not mass appeal.
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4.58
Twice in your comment you used the word ‘clearly’ when what you predicated was anything but clear. You use it to mean ‘It’s my view, which I can’t substantiate with argumentation.’
Hellenestic thinkers of Late Antiquity had no sense at all of what we mean by sexual orientation, a concept which was formalised only in the 60s of the nineteenth century. To claim otherwise is to be guilty of unbridled anachronism.
Constructing straw men to attack them doesn’t move the debate on. It’s called intellectual rocking horse syndrome: it keeps you going but gets you nowhere.
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8.48
Yes, I used the word ‘clearly’, because it qualified statements for which I had provided evidence earlier. That you dismissed this evidence simply because it didn’t fit your preferred narrative about homosexuality among the Ancients is called ‘anti-intellectual’.
Amazingly, you erred in the way you unjustly accused me: you offered absolutely no evidence that the Ancients had ‘no sense’ of modern understanding of sexual orientation; you just made a bald statement to the effect. And you had the brass neck to stress this presumption with the intensifier phrase ‘at all’. This isn’t anti-intellectual; it’s just unintellectual.
If (as you claimed) sexual orientation conceptually was ‘formalised’ only in the sixties, then, logically, it had been preceeded by informal conceptualisations. Which is precisely the point I made about the Ancients at 3.13 and, particularly, at 4.58.
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Don’t knock it till you’ve tried it
The pink euro is welcome in County Clare any day of the week.
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But for some (like the good sisters) their work is not overshadowed. It could be the optics that we look at things through. If I only look for yellow cars on the road, then I only notice yellow cars. Don’t get me wrong, I’m not trying to downplay the wrongs in the church, but I just think this blog can ignore the good that happens too.
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But we have to ignore the ‘good’because all it is is a smokescreen for prolific abuse and other crime. 🤷 Sort your act out and society will start saying how good you are.
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1:13 the purpose of this blog is to support victims and survivors of Roman Catholic Church related abuse and wrong doing. The Roman Catholic Church has a well proven modus operandi of slandering, libelling and conspiring victims of church connected abuse.
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Pat decides what the purposes of this blog are. Not you.
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@10:13
Well said, this blog certainly does what it says on the tin, Bishop Buckley’s description on the main page is self-explanatory. The Bishops and their types try everything to censor Bishop Buckley therefore confirming their absolute and ongoing commitment to maintaining and strengthening their modus operandi of all manner of crime, corruption and criminality. Lovely bunch they are NOT.
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Big Mick’s mother was a Relihan… any comnection to Pat Relihan the Ex-Priest, Ex-CEO.
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10:17 not everyone with the same surname is related!!
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@1:06
A number of the Irish priests are related to each other, cousins and the like, different surnames but nevertheless related and keeping it all in-house.
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1:13 Actions speak louder than words
There are far more bad actions than good actions originating from the Roman Catholic Church that are being vigorously denied and defended via any means possible.
End your persecution of elderly, sick, deceased and vulnerable groups and their families whom your Church proactively continues to abuse via your self interested and self protecting frameworks. You are not Christians, you are a cynical business using religion as a front and you do not do what it says on your tin. In the real world you would be fined for false advertising at a minimum.
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“I wonder how Sr Oliver felt about all the scandals that enveloped her and others in the last 30 of her life?”
Rahan is in the Diocese of Meath? I wonder how she felt about the ongoing scandal enveloping the diocese by the current corrupt ordinary of the diocese?
The Meath Chronicle, Westmeath Examiner and the Offaly Express should invite Pat to write an article on the Silverstream scandal and the ongoing injustice surrounding it.
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6:53 Will those newspapers invite Bishop Pat to write about Silverstream though?
If they do not, those who know know why not……
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They cannot be upsetting their main advertisers now can they. Money speaks. Bishop Tom Deenihan has purchased serious loyalty with his locally well known penchant for all aspects of the property industry.
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6.53: Pat, you’ll have to stop the obsessed Seamus for sickening us daily with his hatred for Bishop Deenihan and His faux concern for Dom Benedict. We k ow the narrative about the wring done to Dom B but if this bore repeater is so, so, so concerned let him go to the market square and gather a support group to advance his cause for Dom B. Seamys’s game at this stage is bordering on the zany psychotic. Pat, it’s time to delete him until he actually does something constructive and fruitful. But he won’t because essentially his rantings won’t go above the parapet of this blog.
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12:11
Why are you so obsessed with Seamus highlighting injustice? You’re out
of order !! Your comment is disingenuous to say the least. Seamus is NOT
displaying hatred towards anyone nor is his ‘game at this stage bordering
on the zany psychotic’. What’s your game? Are you a friend of Deenihan?
Archbishop Eamon Martin needs to show leadership by intervening in
this matter. Episcopal leaders must lead and be seen to lead with integrity.
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I was taught by priests who were just like this nun. Dedicated, inspirational, loyal, trustworthy. All of it. Nothing that I know happened in other places by priests happened where I was. I’m really grateful for the great education and example that they gave me. So, like Sr Oliver, there are great and good priests and nuns about. Still are. But, it must be very difficult for them because of what is happening all around them, which we read about on this blog day in and day out. So, it’s good to hear this story about Sr Oliver and to celebrate the good priests and religious who are part of the Church and who minister faithfully. Not forgetting, of course, everything else that goes on and which we must be constantly vigilant over.
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‘Nothing that I know happened in other places by priests happened where I was.’
Your daily reminder that the Catholics make a point of not understanding how abusers function, here the assumption we have seen on this blog before that because the commenter didn’t know of abuse it couldn’t be happening.
Jesus, and you wonder why people equate your ‘church’ with child rape.
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10.12: Hold your wee brain a moment. I suspect logic isn’t your forte! Let me put it simply for you: THE COMMENTER SAID HE DIDN’T WITNESS ANYTHING (ABUSE)OF WHAT HAPPENED IN OTHER PLACES BY PRIESTS. How simple is this: THE MAN NEVER WITNESSED ANY ABUSE WHERE HE WAS TAUGHT BY PRIESTS OR RELIGIOUS. HE DOESN’T DENY THAT ABUSE DIDN’T HAPPEN ELSEWHERE BUT HE, IN HIS SCHOOL WITNESSED NO SUCH THING. You have great difficulty in understanding “premise” and “logic”. Perhaps a little time back in the philosophy class might be of assistance. Now, if you’re smart, read the last sentence of 9.27. The commenter, having praised Sr. Oliver and others like her, said, “..Not forgetting of course everything else that goes on and which we must be constantly vigilant over..” Go figure the logic. Do you think he’s talking about water fights or boozing or crosswords…? Find your brain….quickly.
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12:28 If you’d actually read his comment you would see you are wrong. He says it didn’t happen, in the sentence beginning Nothing…
Perhaps you could find a grown up to read it and explain it to you?
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12.28
Your interlocutor is like a spoiled child. He needs an outlet for his compulsions. A topic such as the one chosen by Pat for today is anathema to him because he can’t churn out his bile as easily as he could with other subjects. Commenting here is his daily fix. Today’s topic for him is an exercise in cold turkey. I hope that puts his comments into some perspective for you so no need for you to make any counter arguments.
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1:44 Pro-tip: using words of Latin etymology doesn’t make you look intelligent, it makes you look like 12:28.
In fact you might even be the same entity. 😂
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4.42
You mean such inaccessible words as asinine, anus and annual?
I’m not the poster at 12.28. If I were I would have been talking to myself. But of course, you do that in just a single comment.
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Catholicism has time and time again proven itself to be sexually dysfunctional – mainly because it is a near guaranteed way to infiltrate the mind of each person in the pew. Control the young via sex thoughts. Control the middle aged with school places for their children. Control the old with the offer of eternal life. Control the priest with his wallet. It is all about mind control.
God made sex. He also made love. They work best together. Neither is gender specific.
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Whilst it is regrettable that Sr Oliver’s contemporaries in the Roman Catholic Church continue to undermine the good works of her and others, today the priority must focus on the hundreds and thousands of deceased and living victims of physical, sexual and financial abuse and exploitation that continues in Roman Catholic Church communities. Evil prospers when good women and persons do nothing.
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Praying the gay away” just doesn’t work, Bishop Pat– I tried it many times with my ex, he kept coming back 🤣 haha x
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Off topic, I know……but has there been any news / leaks from the Thursday meeting between McMahon and the H&N clergy ? I’m sure there will have been all sorts of injunctions and threats imposed on the clergy there to say nothing, but in reality this is a public issue and since all the clergy, McMahon, Bobby Byrne and all the other characters involved are public figures who are paid for and supported by us, the punters in the pew, I think we have a right to know what was said and what is being done in our name and on our ticket. So, I’d be interested to know. I know that there will be an appeal to confidentiality and respecting the privacy of those involved, but in reality they have brought all of this upon themselves and can’t appeal to such things now. Should have thought of that before.
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Bp Pat.
https://cache.sharesome.com/file/sharesome/uploads/user-images/u936899/z5nncn-ihfph2migc-o.jpg
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Another Gay Day in the blog! Although having said that Ireland’s only heterosexual priest Ger Fitzgerald has been done to death over the last few years
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There’s nothing to suggest that Fr Gerard Fitzgerald is the only heterosexual priest in Ireland. Fr Aidan McCann didn’t go in the men’s toilet did he. Some as yet unnamed Irish priests are known to be engaged in bi sexual arrangements and others are alleged to have been moved about in the church system because they have fathered children, interfered in marriages etc. Whatever the truth is, they are all complicit in covering each other’s butts with zero regard and a vigorous determination to slander, villify and libel victims and survivors of church related abuse.
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9:54 Never mind Gay Day on this blog!
It’s Gay Weekend in Killaloe
10 -12 February, 2023
http://www.TheOutingFestival.com
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Kieran Conry – like Hume and Worlock to Elsie – strange how promotion is all part of the deal.
Heim v close to Pope John XXIII – weird that one – Martel suggests that Pope John XXIII a friend of Dorothy – who knows and can you judge a man by his friends.
Heim was bezzies with the Queen Mum – one old Queen enjoying the company of another old Queen.
Bummer with Pope John XXIII is he signed off on Crimen Solicit… can’t remember the Latin or Italian finish of that word but the one that ordered bishops all over the world to keep child abuse on the down low and threatened excommunication if they went to the police.
FFS what was that all about?!!
Crafty bugger was Pope John XXIII.
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@9.55am I’d say you would pass muster for a right old disgruntled Dorothy yourself by the way you go on. Sweeping statements, veey sweeping.
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If only the Vatican’s Mons. Stenico had been allowed to continue his undercover operation into Gay priests then I am sure we would have found a solution by now https://pridesource.com/article/27381/
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On a serious note: the sacred scriptures condemn unnatural sexual acts: that is people of heterosexual orientation performing homosexual acts just for fun. There is no idea or concept of homosexuality being an actual orentitation.
On the question of nature Vs nurture, if people are born with a homosexual orientation then the churches teaching is incorrect: gay sexual act are not ‘unatural’ but very natural if your homosexual orientation is in-built.
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To recap various fairly recent info: we have two Dr Martins and one Dr Farrell who know what seminarians know about what other people – some in England, Ireland and the USA – know about yet other people; we have seminarians exported – by who – to continue their hazing; we have parallel channels with ultra strange money arrangements, known (salami sliced) to different police / regulators; we have meddling in politics; we have the riskiness of turning coat; we have instruments drafted out of hot air; we have in several countries a dwindling residue of decent bishops and clergy worrying.
It’s easy for laity: just don’t “go up” for a year and a day. Perhaps “religionless christianity” implies not bothering with the Lord’s Table “ordinance”? There was going to be “reform” but cruelty in Ireland didn’t get reformed, as a sick variant on “hostage to fortune”.
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Was Conor Cunningham ever a dean in Maynooth? I remember him as a notably bumptious student.
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Where is Conor Cunningham now?
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I always predicted that this could become another Gallello situation, if homosexuality were every proven to be naturally in built, rather than a consequence of environment.
On another serious note, if you will indulge me: it is a very sad period for those of us who invested time and love into being members of the Catholic Church. The good memories, the joyful moments, the spiritual fulfilment and challenge the came with being a member. Now many of us are forlorn and left wandering in the desert.
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Facebook.
https://m.facebook.com/groups/CatholicClericalDress/permalink/1042929752778045/
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Pat, did you know that there’s a statue of Cackle Daly in St Peter’s Cathedral, like he’s some sort of saint?
https://www.waymarking.com/gallery/image.aspx?f=1&guid=64705730-f067-44a3-a798-fe9a6149e6d0
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For the record, I am opposed, totally, to so-called ‘Gay Conversion Therapy’, even more so when it is intended for minors. If anything is an abomination, it is this.
Pope Francis, however, supports it for minors, a morally disgraceful position.
Again for the record, I see nothing wrong with loving, monogamous gay unions (not so-called ‘marriages’), provided these refrain from any kind of sexual expression. In this circustance, these unions can be the seedbed of personal holiness.
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The Mirror reported the sordid details of Shield’s sex crime against the seminarian
https://www.mirror.co.uk/news/uk-news/ex-dean-lancaster-cathedral-stephen-shield-2923305
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Wow Satan really dwells among the Irish RCC priesthood. This shocks me to the core.
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These incidents do ‘sniff of the satanic’, because this is what they are. They add to the mounting pile of evidential caca that romanist priesthood is not sacred, but a means of spreading scandal and despair in Christ’s community.
How many people worldwide have given up their Christian faith because of what these arrogant Christ-betrayer have done, and continue to do?
Kiddie-fiddling by these parasites is more a danger to them these days, so they will find other avenues for releasing the innate evil to which romanist priesthood is actually oriented, primarily to self-service and self-advancement, the actual original sin, of pride, by Lucifer himself.
To paraphrase those wonderful words of Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI: romanist priesthood is objectively disordered.
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It is beyond comprehension that any priest would engage in such foul, filthy, immoral and disgusting acts of gross sexual indecency. Can these allegations be proved to be correct or is someone trying to cause trouble? If a priest is found guilty of such sacrilegious acts of filth in a church setting, he should be fired immediately. If it is necessary to inform the Gardai, that too should be done. I do not accept your opinion that these acts are frequent occurrences inside a church. One incident is one too many. Any priest who would desecrate an altar or a church in this way is a deeply, psychologically sick person and requires professional therapy and should be disbarred from ministry.
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Pat Buckley posted these pictures before that are completely awful to look at; I wish he would take them down immediately.
But upon reflection: Though I hope no vulnerable individuals look at this post, people do need to see in the most shocking way possible what an absolute, nauseating, putrid cesspit the Irish RCC has become.
This is not just priests misbehaving out of weakness. This is designed by the priests involved to be deliberate, satanic blasphemy.
The Church has disappeared from entire regions of the globe where the Faith once flourished (e.g. North Africa). It can happen to Ireland; no, it is happening to Ireland. No need for Islamic conquest: the Church’s pastors are doing a very fine job of it themselves.
I say, let it come, and let it come soon. “Let justice roll down like the waters” (Amos 5:24). Maybe, in God’s mercy and the prayers of the Saints, something authentically Christian can eventually grow again out of the ashes.
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I’m OK with gay priests. I’m OK with priests doing gay stuff occasionally. This is all pretty normal and human. But doing this desecration stuff in churches is a total rejection of all they profess to believe. They should be fired at once.
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Ask Fintan Monaghan regarding this issue as his Former Seminarian was a victim of an unique experience in which no young male should ever experience. Second Person to contact is Kevin Connolly. Kevin will be more than willing to share his information, he is good at sharing his displeasure of Clogher Clergy and Kevin Heery of meath.
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Killakoe, Clogher & Meath!
You can ask!
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10.05. What pictures are you talking about? Are we reading the same post?
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Having sex with a priest is kinky? Someone tell our parish priest then
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I love it when you post something like this and the cathbots’ heads explode because they can’t fit it into the carefully constructed narrative about the church they have in their heads. They resort to the ‘few bad apples’ explanation (see above) that they can’t use any more for clerical child abuse. They also can’t resort to the ‘it’s a problem for society’ and the ‘other churches are no better’ narratives that they use to minimize the abuse by their church.
The comparison with the Kildorrery incident means they also can’t say the church has come out and condemned these incidents, reconsecrated the altar, etc.
Since it is apparently a priest doing this they can’t even resort to their favourite comfort blanket that it is anti-catholic persecution.
It’s bound to leave them very shaken.
I doubt however that a day which shakes their world view to the ground will be used by any of them to face the reality that their church is a worldwide criminal organization which is actually about money, sex and power.
The historic write ups of the church in the future will comment particularly on how people were brainwashed to believe their nonsense.
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These churches must be deconsecrated after such diabolical acts. The priest need to literally have the sacred oil scraped off their consecrated hands. Vile beasts. Yet they defiled children too who are far more sacred than the altar. I despair.
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Pornography is corrupting society. Problems in society infiltrate the Church.
If the police were passing by, like in the Louisiana case, arrests could have been made.
The Church has failed to deal with pederasty going back to the third century. The Church’s failings are coming back to haunt them.
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Pat isn’t it remarkable how on days like this the cathbots are rather more subdued in their praise of The Greatest Institution in the World where everything is audited and nothing can possibly go wrong.
Their argument about looking at the Anglicans goes out of the window.
Even the claims that you hate everyone and it’s a few rotten apples are more subdued.
Perhaps even their cognitive dissonance is running out of ways to reconcile what they think about their church with its reality.
Hitler painted a lovely Madonna and child.
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Satanic is the only word which would help to explain what happened on the altar at Kildorrery. That the church has not been reconsecrated after it’s desecration is beyond belief.
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10:12 Fact is tragically stranger than fiction in the Roman Catholic Church
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Has any journalist contacted Bishop of Cloyne, William Crean for clarification on whether or not this altar has been reconsecrated. Bishop William Crean is the Chairman of Trocaire.
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The obvious conundrum here is why people continue to donste money to these institusionally enslaved parasites.
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The existence of any organised perverted sex group of any kind involving “professional” people of different backgrounds, including clergy, is very concerning, if true. To engage in sexual orgies in a Church is truly satanic and any person found doing so should be before a court. We must have facts though, not hearsay. There is sadly, a lessening of any sense of the sacred in our culture and a modern illness is that of experimenting with the human psyche through drugs, extreme sex, alcohol, sado masochistic rituals….Many of our younger people seem to accept this all too easily. If we speak about moral responsibilities, we are ridiculed. There is a spiritual malaise in our world that is being filled with the high of sex, alcohol and drugs. I do not know of a Dublin Church incident. Did it involve a priest? I know of a Church where druggies in broad daylight have had their fix in porchway – all caught in cctv. I am quite certain that the Bishop of Galway is aware of Fr. Conor’s sabatical. Absolutely nothing wring with this. Let’s not start conspiracy theories. Despite the sickening aspect of Fr. Lomanseys actions, i think he was a deeply troubled man and I hope he is at rest. Pat, I would like to be given real evidence about your summations rather than just “I heard” or “I believe”. The full truth matters.
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I have no idea if Fr Lomansey was involved in a Satanic group, but I doubt it somehow. Discovering he was HIV+ and a priest may have been enough to push him over the edge. There is also a distinct possibility he had no one to turn to in the awful situation he found himself in. Of course, he could have turned to you, Bp Pat, for support and guidance.
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The Kildare group for priests and sems is run by an ex priest from Galway who works in the midlands now corrupting teenagers by day.
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Does Denis Nulty know about the gay priests group operating in his diocese? At a recent meeting al fresco in a forest off the M7 in Kildare, the participants had to deposit a shot of semen in a chalice. When all the shots were in, some water and wine were added and the youngest semenary present had to drink it all. Disgusting! May Our Holy Mother wash away there sin.
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There will be a whole host (pun intended) of bishops and clergy who know about ‘Sex on The Altar’ bit will be deeply committed to the part of the playbook they do best – Cover Up and Omertà.
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Take note Bishop Crean. You really are thick Kerryman or in league with dark forces if you fail to implement the law “ Can. 1211 Sacred places are violated by gravely injurious actions done in them with scandal to the faithful, actions which, in the judgment of the local ordinary, are so grave and contrary to the holiness of the place that it is not permitted to carry on worship in them until the damage is repaired by a penitential rite according to the norm of the liturgical books”
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Has the Dominican who is HIV+ received any appointment from the new leader?
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Is he still teaching in their seminary in Dublin?
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I strongly believe that the missing link which explains the stories you have been covering today and yesterday is crystal methamphetamine. I understand this (and the associated chemsex scene) is now as rife in Dublin and Belfast as it is in London. The substance basically disables the inhibitory function in the brain causing reckless behaviour, and potentially giving free rein to any unintegrated aspects of the personality. This is likely to manifest itself in clergy and religious displaying an interest in the occult (the “shadow self”). Not wanting to overgeneralise, but clergy and religious are relatively likely to suffer a lack of integration because Catholic teaching and spiritual practice tend not to encourage the individual to accommodate the dark side of the personality in a mature way. Hence so much addiction.
The case of Stefano Brizzi shows what can go wrong.
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Hi Bishop Pat,
Do you know about the gay chain of priests here in Scotland?
From Senior Clergy down to Seminarians in several diocese.
Many of them say The Mass of the Ages.
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With reference to society it is blindingly clear that the ongoing inability of the church to select or control its clergy is a real problem for society. I personally favour states intervening to control the church if it won’t come to heel, however the laity must not forget the power they actually have. Don’t forget how they moaned because of lessened donations during lockdown (any stated financial problem was a lie, by the way). You have the power to force the church to change – come to think of it a church which is forced to use its amassed wealth to stay going would be a better church across the board.
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How about this for shallow generalised but accurate sound bytes:
Most RCC are gay – many are predatory and active – some are child abusers.
Most RCC couldn’t organise a party in a brewery.
Most RCC are sexually, financially and emotionally adolescents locked in an immature and dysfunctional mindset.
I could say more – just ask?
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bad bishops within the Church have failed to root out evil and have even protected evil. Shame on them.
Like any of the Birmingham Six, I am an innocent man who has been wronged.
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Leaving aside the truly scandalous aspect of the altar sex this is so sad. Sad because with treatment he may have lived and it must be devastating for those with whom he had sexual relations who must be feeling anxious. I think we all know who the deacon is, and his Bishop must urge him to be tested as a matter of urgency. All those who may have been intimate with Lomasney or the deacon need testing straight away. The alcoholism may help to explain his diabolical actions. We must pray for him and all those damaged by him.
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The Rainbow Project in Belfast offers free HIV testing, totally discreetly and without having to go via your GP.
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Replyto;Anonymoussays:
Feb 11, 2023 at 10:25 am
IRELAND
Did you know you can test for STIs at home?
This free service is available to anyone aged 17+ living in the Republic of Ireland. Tests include: chlamydia, gonorrhoea, HIV and syphilis (and hepatitis B and C if needed). People with symptoms should contact your nearest STI clinic.
Is HIV testing free UK?
HIV testing is provided to anyone free of charge on the NHS. Many clinics can give you the result on the same day.
Home testing and home sampling kits are also available. Some people are at particularly high risk of becoming infected with HIV and may be advised to have regular tests.
ENGLAND
People across England are being encouraged to take free finger-prick HIV tests in their own homes. To mark National HIV Testing Week, the tests can now be ordered free on the NHS via the website free testing. HIV.
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This is the kind of information priests should be providing at mass instead of standing up there all dressed up pretending they don’t have sex and that they know nothing about it.
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Whatever about the huge moral transgressions, this is a very sad outcome. We should pray that he is at peace and pray for his family and hope and trust that any person with whom he was in contact will seek professional help.
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Pat do not lower yourself to these reprobates as you are giving a sound Public health warning and it is Paramount that anyone intimate MUST get tested.
The Bishop has failed in his duty of care to his flock big time. However it say place of death Cork is that not Fintan Gavins dioceses as well.
Confidentiality will be upheld buy the health teams but they must come forward mow.
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I am an old queen now, like the poor +Aul Doll, but if I was still active, I would definitely try to find the money for Prep which dramatically reduces the chances of getting HIV. It only costs about £30.00 a month. It is even free on prescription in Scotland, which must come as a great relief to the Scottish bishops knowing it is also accessible for Scotland’s priests and seminarians (if any).
https://www.iwantprepnow.co.uk/
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+Pat, while it is right that we never speak ill of the dead, however, it is also right and proper that those in the grave do not perpetuate a legacy of harm — whether it be intentional/unintentional, so, you have absolutely done the right thing by putting this information into the public domain. You will be criticised for doing so, but you have done this as sensitively as possible; I suspect this is strongly informed by your own experience. I have great sympathy for the family of the late Fr. Lomasney. Those who may have been “involved” with the deceased would do well to heed your advice.
It is conceivable that Bishop Crean, (who was the third choice for Cloyne) was not aware of Fr. Lomasney’s medical conditions, so I am prepared to give him the benefit of the doubt. But in light of today’s blog I imagine he is now aware if not this development now, he will be soon.
This development gives much stronger credence to the allegations that have been made about the activities of the late priest of the church with a certain individual who has been repeatedly named on this blog. The silence of Bishop Crean about this event is no longer acceptable. While being sensitive to the family of Fr. Lomasney, he should reconsecrate the altar on the church in Kildorrery with all haste.
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I googled alcoholic steotosis. Turns out that is fatty liver, which many heavy drinkers get. It is reversible through diet, exercise and, vitally, total abstinence from alcohol. Without lifestyle changes it is liable to progress to far worse and more serious liver problems. I hope that blog readers with a heavy hand when pouring drinks will take note.
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An HIV diagnosis in most circumstances is a difficult thing to handle. For a priest like this man Lomansey it will have been even more difficult to handle, because of the not so subliminal culture of negativity and blame that comes from a Church and so called Christian people towards those whom they think of as being ‘dirty’ or ‘sinful’. So, if he hid his diagnosis, or even if he didn’t know his status it may well have beeb because he could have been afraid of knowing and because of what he would have had to endure from the Church. The situation would gave been very difficult for him. Of course, much of this comes down to the culture of sexual negativity and judgmentalism that the Church has engendered over history and inflicted on people – all the time while the clerical class of the Church has been living dysfunctionally and hypocritically themelves – take KOB, McCarrick, Maciel etc, all of whom would have imposed on others all sorts of burdens of guilt about sexual matters. So, whilst some of Lomasney’s behaviour, perhaps under the influence of various additions, wasn’t great, I still have a sense of sympathy for him in the situation he found himself as a gay HIV priest in a Church full of recrimination, judgmentalism, institutional hypocrisy and guilt.
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I remember the late 1980s, early 1990s, with the AIDS epidemic at its height, I still wanted to go out every night and meet someone, which I occasionally did. However, as friends and acquaintances passed away, I gradually stopped having sex altogether as the risk was too great. I missed sex, but even with the eventual antiviral medication, I never bothered about it again. Porn is fine for me now.
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I have information on the Dundalk monks… they have told certain parishioners that they are leaving the diocese and they are currently on holiday searching for a new place to establish their monastery.
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If this story wasn’t so tragic it would be hilarious – it’s like an especially saucy episode of Fr Ted – Crean is priceless fancy involving the police – he needs to get out of 1959 and re-enter the 21st Century- he’s playing that old photoshopped card because the truth is not only embarrassing it’s scandalous and sacrilegious – and must be blasphemous and don’t or didn’t Ireland have a blasphemy law etc. Mind you I know gay atheists who would be scandalised and offended that any one would have sex on an altar – the back ache and lack of cushion for a start.
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I feel I need to correct you in relation to your claim that Holy Cross Parish had provided 2 bishops. It did but I think you might be getting mixed up. Crossbill born were John Mone and Stephen McGill, both bishops of Paisley.
Hugh Bradley is from Croy parish He is not a native of Crosshill.
Bishop Jamie Ward was from Dumbarton.
Bishop Gray Graham was from Edinburgh.
They were both PPs in Holy Cross and were both already bishops when appointed to HC as they were not to the liking of the archbishops newly appointed to Glasgow and Edinburgh back in the day and sidelined to the plum parish of Holy Cross.They were not native to the parish.
Holy Cross was the home parish of the Abbot Donald McGlynn of Nunraw.
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I’m struggling to understand what the relevance of this past unfortunate episode is at the moment ? Okay, I get the outrage etc., but we all get over that. I get that the priest involved is dead. I get that the Bishop is a thicko and incompetent. I get that it is not a police matter. So, why is it flashing its lurid story at us again ? The only thing I can think of is that some seminarian is holding something over the bishop and other priests and seminarians as a threat in order not to have to face whatever sanctions should be coming his way for his involvement in this matter ? If that is the case, then it is worthy of being reported to authorities because it is threatening behaviour with elements of coercion and possible bribery. Other than that I can’t see much relevance, and it doesn’t really tell us anything that we don’t already know, or haven’t seen many times in the dysfunctional behaviour and lifestyle of the clerical and episcopal culture. Given that, I would suggest that the bishop and others be brave and deal with any threatening seminarian robustly, confident in the knowledge that whatever he could possibly reveal it will not surprise us because we have seen it so many times before and it is what we expect !
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Sexual harassment of any kind has no rightful place in any profession, or wider society let alone the priesthood. I am employed. Even if I committed verbal harassment, I would expect to be sacked. Stop using the idiosyncrasies of the Church as an excuse and turning it into a den of iniquity. Priests are ordained for the salvation of souls and therefore have a strict moral code.
The starting point for harassment should be suspension or dismissal from the clerical state.. Ecclesiastical Tribunals should only work back to a lesser sanction if there are clear mitigating factors (e.g. the harassment was low level, which would require a definition/guidance, or the perpetrator’s poor mental health was a clear contributing factor). Certain aggravating factors should necessitate disbarment unless there are clear exceptional circumstances. Repeat offender? Dismissal! Physical sexual harassment with explicit non-consent? Dismissal! A senior priest harassing someone who is inherently vulnerable by virtue of their junior rank (e.g. a curate, seminarian)? Dismissal!
I would also be keen to know from canonical minds if it would be lawful/ to capture priests who have evaded justice with weak sanctions under the current system (i.e. could existing sanctions be reviewed in exceptional circumstances)? It sickens me that some clerical abusers are still in situ and can still call themselves ‘father’’.
PS Have the bishops,ever spoken to the lay faithful about their expectations of their priest or put your view to them? There is no evidence that they do not care if priests commit harassment. There is, however, ample evidence to show that they don’t trust clergy. I wonder why. As a lay person myself , I damn right do care if my potential priest has committed harassment!
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Pat, it crossed my mind earlier this morning, you are unofficially leading the Catholic Church in Ireland- the only prophetic voice to be heard in the country.
Fair play, Pat.
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The new generation of Catholics, some of whom are studying for the priesthood at St. Patrick’s College, the national seminary in Maynooth, or the Pontifical Irish College in Rome, will “lead the church forward into the next decade,” he said. Young Catholics represent what is best in the tradition of Vatican II, “the idea of communicating the ancient unchanging faith in a new, vibrant and attractive way,” he said
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Someone mentioned The Giants Ring near Belfast recently in relation to the six counties
being called sex counties in clerical circles. What happens at The Giants
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A Dioceses has no responsibilities to a Seminarian until Diaconate.
So a seminarian would be class as vulnerable if the power of the priest or rector.
Sadly people not involved in safeguarding do not understand there is more to safeguarding that the learning disability or physical disability there is the POWER aspect.
And we see this with clergy who think they have power over the lay members off staff which makes the member of staff vulnerable.
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10:50
Power differential is an issue. Surely the Church has a duty of care to seminarians.
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National Catholic Reporter so it must be true.
https://www.ncronline.org/news/world/irish-priests-discuss-wrongful-abuse-accusations-safeguarding-their-rights
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10:52 Priests are well educated with moneyed networks and therefore well placed to defend themselves against allegations.
Sadly few of their victims possess such privilege and advantage.
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Bishop Paul Swarbrick is a nice man and prayerful, however he has no idea about leadership. He gets several complaints about Revs Etienne and Billing every week and ignores them, hoping it will all blow over. Mark my words – these 2 are trouble with a capital T.
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I think it’s a fairly safe bet that most clergy are homosexual and permanent deacons get off on power and partial to sadism as most nuns are lesbian and lean toward sadism.
The RCC has been a Corrupter of Boys since Constantine (Dyan Elliot) they never bargained for a fee pres, lack of deference and secular authorities having the moral compass to root out the plague of child abuse.
The child abuse scandal has destroyed the reputation of the Catholic Church and the idea of it being a moral or ethical guardian.
It will never recover – better for a millstone to be tird around it neck and drowned in the sea than harm a little one – who said that?!!
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Bad formation sets up men to be bad priests…’ ? Really? So seminarians … grown men … are so like little children, lacking such moral insight and discernment, that they are incapable of personally sifting formation wheat from chaff? This statement by you contradicts what you said about my post on the matter at 3.06: ‘A fair observation.’ If my observation was ‘fair’ (that is, ‘reasonable’), then your statement cannot be true, at least without considerable qualification.
If you are right that ‘all too often, modern formation focuses on one single aspect – the ability to APPEAR obedient’, then you have singlehandedly, and at a stroke, identified Romanist priesthood as a total charade: a moral illusion in which seminarians, grown men, are willing … freely willing … to cooperate, in order to achieve a goal they prize above all others, even the welfare of children: ordination to a globally discredited and shamed priesthood instituted not by Christ, but literally by men.
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Pat the loyalist South Antrim UDA loyalists are on your doorstep too supplying coke and more. I am not accusing you in anyway of anything but it’s not confined to Counties Tyrone or Down but all 32 counties. Most of the white and charlie is brought up over the border by tightly controlled Dublin cartels and they are not all native Irish either. Newtownabbey, Glengormley, Whiteabbey, Carrick and Larne are well known loyalist drug hotspots. Yes, clergymen are buying it all over the place but so are police judges, solicitors, teachers, the ordinary man/woman on the street. I’m not excusing clergy but just pointing out a reality.
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I remember a young curate who always had red marks around his nose. He would say he was suffering from a bad cold and was always blowing his nose. My son told me it was poppers burn marks. Apparently the EU changed the poppers formula for health reasons, and they are now less potent, so the Maynooth boys will no longer have to worry about that particular problem.
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Doug Beattie, a Ulster Unionist Meber of the NI Assembly, will this week introduce an attempt to outlaw conversion therapy, AKA “praying away the gay”. What do blog readers think?
I’m generally against banning things, unless it’s for a good reason and I suppose a lot will depend on what he means by conversion thereapy and what is in scope.
For example, a priest in the confessional at Westminster Cathedral told me it was ok to be gay, and even have a boyfriend, as long as we didn’t have any sexual activity of any kind. Would that advice be unlawful if Doug succeeds?
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Sky History2 tonight at 8pm ‘The Last Pope’ also repeated at Midnight. The prophecy of St Malachy that predicts Pope Francis as the last Pope.
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How bad is rcc in Ireland? Are they holding it on a fragile glass or slowly decimating away. Too many bishops and dioceses here for my liking or many lay person liking🤔.
Starting to see its false facade or a front with priests who have problems. If it stand divided as it would not unify it. Some bishops out there who don’t believe jesus christ nor did they experience their supernatural experience? Who was the 1st and 2nd choice before Crean?
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Reply to;Blind guysays:
Feb 11, 2023 at 11:17 am
In the West in vocations/ordinations falling, many priests over 60 years, amalgamation of parishes, Mass attendance very impacted, with huge % loss, fewer converts. However this organisation has risen from the ashes previously, and is thriving in African, Asia & although in Latin America Catholicism has decreased, but still 69% Roman Catholic.
Irish Catholic Church in ‘terminal decline’ after sexual abuse scandals
By Euronews • Updated: 02/02/2023
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I too suffered from depression. I often attribute it to the toxic environment of Maynooth in which Stephen and myself both found ourselves. I am grateful that I suffered without publicity. Please be kind to Stephen with your blog; there is enough suffering for him.
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The drug of choice for actively gay clergy will be poppers, which heighten for some the sense of sexual pleasure and enables relaxation of certain muscles which facilitate anal penetration. Although not all like them, with some avoiding use because of side effects like headaches after etc., poppers are legal in many jurisdictions and easily available from sex shops and online and by mail. There was some proposal in the UK to include them in a re-categorization of drugs a few years ago, but poppers were removed from the list after intervention of some MPs who are popper users themselves. Crispin Blunt MP comes to mind, and he stood up in Parliament and outed himself as a popper user. A posh, chipper, top drawer gay popper user, of course ! Amongst actively gay clergy, especially the younger ones, poppers will be a starting point. Some will move on to other drugs, illegal usually, in their usage development. Yes, I too wonder how come this is such a phenomenon amongst gay clergy. I mean, are they not able to get satisfaction and peace by praying their breviary, or fussing over their lace and brocade vestments. ?! Seems not.
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The Bible is clear: same-sex intercourse is morally wrong, gravely so. Many of those engaging in it, especially priests, will face consequences for it, and not just in this life.
It does not matter a jot how these relations are justified to self: there remains only one arbiter on this, the Word of God. And it is crystal clear on the subject.
If a person dies justifying to himself homosexual acts, he will remain in that state after death. I needn’t point out the consequence of this.
Please, homosexual acts are not worth suffering, after death, an eternity of sekf-inflicted consequences over.
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Poppers increase the likelihood of transmission of HIV because of their effects on blood vessels in the anus.
I don’t know of any other health effects. Anyone?
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Poor Arlene Foster aka Robbie Coltrane is seething today as we are headed for a united Ireland courtesy of Brexit. The wee Scotties are also headed for independence so having a pre lunch medium ice cold sherry to celebrate. Afore ye go and haste ye back and all that plus Robbie (sorry Arlene) keep her lit and keep wearing your wee crown brooch as it will soon be a harp your wearin.
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Arlene would get on like a house on fire with Bishop Fintan Monahan, 2 Hitlers in skirts and both well versed in the cash for ash business.
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A memorial event to mark the 80th anniversary of the orphanage fire disaster will take place at 6pm on Thursday 23rd February 2023 at the Market Square in Cavan town.
A candlelight procession will then lead off to walk the short distance down Main Street to the convent courtyard where the original Orphanage and Industrial School once stood.
Cavan ballad group, The High Stool Prophets, will provide some music.
All welcome.
We hope to conclude the outdoor events within one hour.
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Thanks +Pat for sharing this story about Sr Oliver. Nice to read something uplifting for a change. Currently reading Joseph O’Connor’s new book, ‘My Father’s House’’…a captivating piece of historical fiction based on the life of Fr Hugh O’Flaherty. Where have all the good priests gone? X
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A victim spoke to Katie Hannon on RTE Upfront this week confirming that as a mixed race baby in an Irish home for unmarried mothers, he was subjected to 5 clinical trials in 8 months. He also discovered that the nuns informed prospective parents interested in adopting him that he was “unsuitable for family life”. He considers that the redress system does not currently facilitate specific issues of targeted racial discrimination by clergy, medics and staff running the Irish mother and baby homes or the issue of financially exploiting babies and risking their lives by allowing companies to conduct clinical trials on these babies. This adds weight to the widely and reasonably held understanding that paedophile priests and their colleagues of “good standing” were also provide with access to women and children in these Irish church run institutions.
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11:48 There are more and more strands of church connected abuse not previously public knowledge being revealed. This new information presents very interesting ramifications for relevant parties.
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10.10am You are getting your undercrackers in a twist about the Cathbots on the blog this morning? Calm down dear it’s only a blog! You will give yourself indigestion obsessing about these Cathbots. Take some Rennies.
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‘I’m a Catholic, I love the faith as best I can, but I wouldn’t be a great one for kissing the altar rails. Not at all. Wouldn’t be a Holy Mary. There’s good people of every persuasion, and there’s 24-carat bastards. Life schools you the way no catechism will.’ ~My Father’s House, p. 12
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First time in ages that there is no “Pat says” section to the blog. I know it’s not an observation pertaining to the content but just have to say I missed it.
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+Pat: In relation to this blog, when I consider both the minimal responses, and additionally, the impoverished nature of existing responses, to my very regular stringent criticisms of religious belief, and in particular, RCC ecclesiology and practices, I wonder what value there may be in putting forward any comprehensive and much more impressive list of prominent atheists, both historically and present. Anyone interested can easily Google it by checking on prominent atheists. Please do!
For now, all I would say is, that having viewed many so called eminent religious believers debate their beliefs with prominent questioning atheists, the shibboleths of their religious beliefs are constantly readily shredded to the point of ridicule. And that’s not down to superior persuasive articulation, but rather strong supportive concrete evidence and sheer sensible logic, as opposed to the fatuous unsupported faith based claims of religiousbelievers. It’s really pathetic watching those convinced by the inadequacy of their own stupidity
I conclude with some quotes: “Faith means not wanting to know what is true.” Nietsche.
“The god who created the universe, if he created it, is clearly a maniac, totally selfish in requiring that we spend all our lives thanking him. So what kind of God is that?” Stephen Fry.
And, best of all, Yuri Gagarin, Soviet cosmonaut, “I didn’t see any God up there!”
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Anon@12:01. Well said! I share your views and have expressed similar many times on this blog over past 7-8 years.
Religious beliefs are simply deluded wishful thinking
MMM
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The Catholic Church doesn’t have great track record when it comes to science, preferring the biblical narrative. Think Gallileo, Copernicus and others. If they didn’t fit the bible version, they were against them, and persecuted them. It’s the same with so many other issues that face us today. Just the other day the US Bishops kicked off on Day 1 of Biden’s Presidency with the usual list of culture wars issues – abortion, sexuality, gender etc. In all these life and moral issues, the Church is still hugely mortgaged to the biblical understanding of these things. In start contrast the science presents a very different understanding and interpretation, which as the past has shown is generally correct, because it’s based on science and fact. I am not suggesting that the Church simply resorts to a laissez faire attitude in these matters. What it should do is realise and interpret these things in the light of scientific knowledge and stop being so know all and black and white about them, and so by causing so much trouble for themselves and for those who listen to them. The Church is fighting a rearguard action on these matters, while the rest of the world and mankind is beginning to see them in a different light and move forward with the science. For example, the ‘intrinsically disordered’ moniker that is ascribed to homosexuality is simply wrong, based as it is on a misunderstood and discredited understanding of humanity and human sexuality in the biblical narrative. The harm done by this to countless millions is not diminished by any ‘pastoral guidelines’ that are issued to be ‘nice’ to the gays ! The very basis of the Church’s understanding is wrong. They need to follow the science. I doubt if they will. The decisions are made by men who are by generation incestuously imbued with these values, and many of whom find themselves struggling with their own identity and often filled with self-loathing. No wonder they stick to a rigid understanding which they can inflict on others in their anger and self-hatred. It’s pitiful. I don’t expect much change from that quarter. So, I make up my own mind and conscience, and having listened them and to others, including the scientists, I believe I have a much more holistic, holy and God given understanding of these things than does the official Church. Many people are moving in the same direction as me, and the Church and its teaching on these matters is becoming increasingly irrelevant in our lives.
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Anon@ 12:11. You’ve made many excellent points so thank you.
I particularly like your focus on RCC decision making “by men who are incestuously imbued with these values…..”
No point in asking a donkey a sensible question: all it can do is bray!
MMM
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9:45
Where did you learn to bray: Maynooth as a seminarian or in social work polytechnic school where soft cops are trained as indoctrinated paid do-gooders but are paid agents of social control on behalf of the State.
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10:51
🤣😂😋🤔
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For a time Alister McGrath attended the Green High, a grammar school where I live, (Dowpatrick) before moving on to Methodist College, in Belfast.
The blog info on McGrath is incomplete: McGrath holds three, not two, doctorates. Not mentioned is his doctorate in intellectual history, that is, ‘the history of intellectual ideas’.
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The biggest laugh I had today was when some twit on the blog criticised someone else for saying DOWpatrick as opposed to DOWNpatrick. My reply was that it was near SaWEL and BallyNAYhinch. Some dicks on the blog are so serious they were quick to point out I had mispronounced Saul as SaWEL. Even you Pat fell into this trap to point out the mistake. Therein is the lesson for everybody. Stop being so serious and pointing out the faults/mistakes of others. Don’t be so quick to know it all and correct others. The laugh is on you including the clown who is neither Keiran or from r
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Bishop Pat, hoping timorrows blog will be more interesting, juicy and mouthwatering. Keep the scandals coming as we have nothing else to look forward to during lockdown. More on the druggie priests up north perhaps or some dirty scoundrel sex scandal priest.
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I’m from Magherafelt originally but came to study at Glasgow Uni and stayed. Best think I’ve ever done. Great city, rich in culture, music, Arts, sport etc. Fabulous restaurants and great, great people. I married one.
Every time I go back to Magherafelt and have spent time with family I can’t wait to get away from the parochial, narrow minded culture that prevails there. It’s so refreshing to get back to my adopted vibrant home city.
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12:16 the begrudging and jealous parochial types with myriads of personal grudges & issues become very irate when their inbuilt prejudices are roundly contradicted by solid evidence. Good for you. Keep enjoying the fruits of your honestly gained labours.
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Are you all that naïve, or just simply pretend to be out of fashions!!! Are you talking for the same “body of Christ” everywhere in East Market Street! That is scientist Blood of Christ!!!
Such a laugh stockers!!!
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You might understand the cloak and dagger behind ‘blaming’ an unnamed lay person, but what about everyone else? Or ordinary decent readers :). What about ordinary people reading the story and then viewing the first comment which appears as a statement of fact, ie. that some lay person is at fault? It is interesting that (i) nobody has been named (ii) the bishop hasn’t released a statement (iii) Minister Harris is more Christlike in his handling of the problem than any ordained minister (iv) yes, I’m a bit shocked at (iii) too, (v) there appears to be a pattern appearing in Meath with conservative outbursts
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Jesus and John were in cahoots. This is why I love to see Priests having girlfriends or boyfriends. It’s a lonely enough life.
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12:20 why be a priest at all? Then Roman Catholic priests could be free to have boyfriends and girlfriends. It’d save their lying pals having to create false narratives and engaging in intimidation tactics and antisocial behaviour on priests behalf as well. The truth will set them all free. Simples.
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In general. Priests are men. All men have sexuality. Celibacy was not introduced nor enforced by Jesus. It developed into practice in the 11 century. If your priest is straight, gay, bi or other, who cares? He made a vow of celibacy that is outdated and not defined by Jesus Christ. While you lot complain about my lack of celibacy, take a look at yourself. Are you perfect? We are only human, we are made to make mistakes, fall and get back up.
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A study released today shows 0.1% of NI population are transgender.
Yet it is their voices you hear all the time complaining.
The travellers would do well getting advice from the trans.
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Why are so many children being diagnosed with Autism? Is it our weak gene pool? The MMR vaccination?
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12:22 children are being diagnosed with many different conditions. Don’t worry about any possibility of a weak gene pool, the West is now blessed with new blood arriving daily. Every cloud has a silver lining, Father 😇
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Why are parishioners obsessed with Priests sexuality or sex lives?
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12:24 Roman Catholic priests cannot have sex lives, the rules stipulate celibacy as a condition of ordination and continuance in office as an ordained priest.
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6.27
Nonsense. Where have you been since married men began to be ordained in the Roman Catholic Church? Your absolutist bubble was burst decades ago.
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I’m not the one having sex in parks or public toilets am I? Can’t even take my children to the park for fear they will be subjected to obscene behaviour by the local gays.
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I had an abortion last year and it near killed me the guilt I felt afterwards. Please think ladies before you make harsh decisions
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So it’s ok for priests to be in a sexual relationship with each other? Very interesting.
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Tom Marsh was a wonderful human being a really good and genuine man.I can still see him checking out the lecture hall with The Blue Guitar. His Christology was quietly rooted in the human essentials. Way ahead of his time interiorily. Paddy Hannon also.they must have been martyrs to put up with the idocacy surrounding them
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Tom was a chain smoker and a heavy drinker. He died very young.
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Pat call an alcoholic an alcoholic- that’s what he was
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He died in the Roost pub, though that was hushed up.
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In 1996, in Buenos Aires a piece of bread spontaneously transformed into what looked like flesh and blood. The Archbishop, now Pope Francis, wanted it to be scientifically investigated. 20 years in the making, unseen original material seen for the first time,this is the official firsthand account of the investigation of Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires by Lawyer and Documentary Filmmaker, Ron Tesoriero. This miracle is included in Dr. Franco Serafini book. It includes comments from Richard Dawkins et al.
See https://reasontobelieve.com.au/ for more. Enjoy!
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bd16tBRbLXw
Blood of Christ Part 1: The Eucharistic Miracle of Buenos Aires
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I’m in two minds.
My partner is a massive drinker which is increasingly becoming problematic.
He told me once while very intoxicated he had slept with a priest on a number of occasions, but when sober denies it.
Do I challenge the priest?
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Or challenge your partner ?
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Where is Ryan McAleer?
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Priests in good standing order; Fr Martin Magill, Fr Patrick Sheehan, Fr Patrick Delargy, Fr Eamon Magorrian, Fr Brendan Hickland and Fr John McManus.
Bishop Buckley, correct me if I am wrong.
Fine and noble gentleman.
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David Delargy is an angry man
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Why.
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Pat what is the blog about today? I have lost track
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My gay icon is Cher – I just idolise the woman – was never a fan of Madonna
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My neighbour died suddenly last night at 36, will you say a prayer for her Pat
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Yes
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Was it drugs related?
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Yes
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12:58 many turn to drugs or alcohol as a way of attempting to cope with consequences of abuse.
Rest in peace.
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Can you explain Bishop Pat why when something you rightly call “a good story” turn into another succession of posts about gay priests etc. Obviously some people are not interested in anything good in the church.
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Meath diocese is full of theologically conservative priests……many of them ordained in the last fifteen years. Most of these younger clergy are very clearly in the closet, fawning over each other, admiring their lace and tassels and preening themselves. They criticise ordinary catholics for not adhering to the rules, yet they themselves are “at it” with one another. It’ not just the Kerry priest who’s into sweaty jockstraps. Meath diocese is a gay man’s paradise…….a bit like a child in a toy shop.
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The diocese of Meath website doesn’t have anything to say on the issue. It’s last posting is about Fr Kevin Heery attending a SEEK conference in Indianapolis. The conference, organised by the Fellowship of Catholic University Students (FOCUS), was attended by 18,000 participants.
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1.26
Why was it to this diocese that Tommy Deenihan, who left seminary without a degree was appointed?
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It’s grotesque that Dr Death (Simon Harris, abortionist-in-chief) weighs in on this. I thought he believed in separation of Church and State? If he does he should stay out of Church affairs and not attack doctrine addressed to faithful Church members.
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Like Bishop Pat, I’ve lived in a number of presbyteries, in Ireland, England, France and Italy. When the front door is locked and there are no lay people it’s not a pretty sight – bitchiness, poor personal and domestic hygiene, poor diet, gossip about the parishoners, laziness, phone calls ignored, insomnia, excessive tv watching, daytime sleeping, alcohol, porn, slipping out at night to destinations unknown, and no prayer.
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1.28: That must have been 40 years ago..for quite some decades with shortage of priests there’s generally just one cleric in a presbytery!! What a fantastical imagination you have…I do agree, like men anywhere who live alone, it is easy to fall into untidiness and poor hygiene. Most of us today are hygienically aware and keep clean, tidy presbyteries.
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Pat, it really is wrong to allow someone to post here that it was mentioned ‘somewhere’ that it was a lay person without backing it up.
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In my limited experience priests do not know their church’s teachings. They have tgeology degrees; they know the codology whispered in Maynooth; they know the popular (and often incorrect) stances on big issues; but has anybody ever seen a priest deliver a homily that links the gospel to the Catechism? Could they even do such a thing and teach the laity the churches teachings? I think not.
I hope they enjoyed the wine. If they were genuine priests they’d have invited you over for the Devine Office and a meal.
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Reply to; Anonymoussays:
Feb 11, 2023 at 1:30 pm
The Kerry priest Father Sean Sheedy did just that, and Roman Catholics walked out on him & he has been banned from further sermons
For God’s sake! He was even banned by his Roman Catholic Bishop from preaching the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, because he upset the parishioners, BY preaching Roman Catholic doctrine, they did not agree with the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church, nor the Catechism, nor Father Sheedy’s preaching on what the doctrine of the Roman Catholic church demands of it’s faithful.
Of course it happens on many levels all the time, Roman Catholic’s will use abortion, contraception, not attending Mass on Sundays, etc, etc, Catholic want to practice their religion on their terms, and nothing else, so teaching the laity the church teachings would be, water off a duck’s back, they will do only what they want to do, irrespective of what the church teaches.
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5.43: For once I agree with you Queenie….Were I to do what Fr. Sheehy did – which was courageous of him to do in our a la carte Catholicism – there’s be a walk out or parishioners wouldn’t return. People today have made up their own minds, rightly or wrongly, on the major moral issues of our time. I deeply regret that many have rejected the Church’s moral teachings but I understand why. The Church itself has contributed to the diminution of acceptance of its teachings for reasons discussed here and elsewhere. A rigid morality of the past thwarted many people’s relationships and emotional growth with placing huge guilt and shame on the smallest human failing while the Church’s hierarchical, misogynistic and privileged clerical world had its own hidden rottenness. An educated, learned generation was to discover the depth of this rot which sadly still affects our relationship with God, priesthood and being a Church. With the diminished energy I have left in me, I seek to accompany fellow Christians and parishioners in the deepest sense of pastoral care. I have watched priests give homilies promulgating the teachings of the Church but which have not made one bit of difference to their parish mass attendances. It is difficult to get the balance right but my life’s experiences teach me more each day that true pastoral kindness in its fullest meaning is what people want.
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Toronto mayor John Tory resigned abruptly as he apologised for a “serious error in judgement”. Troy has led the city since 2014.
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1:31 Mayor John Tory had sex with a younger colleague who was OVER the age of consent and of sound mind. A priest in the Roman Catholic Church can force themselves on a baby, a child, a vulnerable person and be promoted and supported courtesy of their vast legal and financial professionals topped off with a State style expensive funeral. Welcome to the closeted & overprivileged reality of a typical day in the life of a deviant Roman Catholic Cleric and his cohorts.
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Pat, a priest doesn’t need to refuse the sacraments to anyone. Those who voted for abortion have blood on their hands and have brought a curse on their children. Their reception of a sacrament without repenting simply condemns them because they seek to teach others that the way of the culture of death is the right way. Essentially that’s God’s business which He takes very seriously. If I were a priest, I would not get involved in the judgment. Let the priest be merciful and let the chips fall where they will. The blog story is a good insight into how the schism will take effect.
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‘have brought a curse on their children’
What a stupid comment. Their notional children have been aborted
😂
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What a most kindly, caring, joyful and serene peace-filled picture of Sr. Oliver. Only love of God in her heart. No hatred. Take note all haters on this blog. And you are a vile lot.
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1:41 Such a kind comment. Your unconditional love for all commenters here shines through. 🌞
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4.45: Thank you for the compliment…much appreciated!!😁🤣😂🤣
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5:43 Demonstrating the emotional intelligence which got every RC bishop where they are today. I hope you’ve demonstrated your willingness to cover up crime and give up your arse to your ecclesiastical superiors, and you’ll go far!
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1:41 desist with your hate campaigns against victims and survivors of church related abuse, Fathers & Co. Your own people and church instigated abuse and continue to defend the indefensible at great ongoing personal cost to victims & families. Take your head out of your butts for 5 minutes and smell the Coffey.
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5.43: 5.57 and 5.49: Let me burst your bubble: I’m not a cleric. I stand with all who are victims. My work allows me know only too well the reality of all and any abuse. I think it’s same commenter for all 3!! Incidentally Barista, the correct spelling is “COFFEE”!! 5.57: You don’t do “irony”, do you?? Take it easy girls!!
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6:59 Clerics & their catlicks cannot even handle the “idea” of meeting someone their own size so they feminize any commenters that pique their paranoia. 🤣🤣😇
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Sister Stanislaus, of happy memory, was another of the stalwarts of Rahan, Killina. So much good was done by these few simple women in the spirit of Nano Nagle.
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6.59: 👍👍👍👍👍…Brillo…those eejit of girlies you referred to are saddos….🤣🤣🤣😅😅😅…let them find calming pills.😁😋😃..
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The Presbyterian Church in Ireland has made it clear its policy of ordaining women ministers has not changed.
Although the next leader of the church, the Reverend Sam Mawhinney, is not in favour of female ordination, the church said it remains its “settled” policy.
Since Dr Mawhinney outlined his personal views on the issue, there has been debate within the church. This isn’t in, treating us women like second class citizens
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4.28 Why copy and paste from the BBC website? Are you a real person?
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4:41 Of course ‘she’ isn’t, the only time she’s referred to as she is among other priests. It’s a priest who gets off on pretending to be a lesbian on the blog. 😂
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God forbid that Christians should be able to discuss things calmly, agree to differ and put others first!
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Fr Patrick Ryan aged 49 from Doon, Co Limerick was found dead in a motel room in Odessa, Texas on 21 December 1981 located 80 miles from where he worked in the small Texan town of Denver City. Fr Ryan was a Pallottine priest and his death made headlines in the USA & Ireland. A 24 year old Apache Indian was wrongly convicted of the murder, he was released thanks to the efforts of the Innocence Project in 2012 and the hunt for the real killer continues amid recently discovered new evidence.
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Sorry to hear that his priest died. But, what was he doing in a motel room 80 miles from where he worked ? Murdered ? I suspect we can all guess what was going on there. No ?
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Everything comes out eventually.
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Sr. Oliver’s smile would brighten the darkest of days. The sense of joy that’s captured would touch the hardest of hearts. There’s no doubting the genuine, deep goodness of God in her life. A saint indeed.
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I genuinely wonder what it must be like to be straight and to be so willing to pronounce on whether non-straight people can fall in love and form relationships. There’s something really strange there – to be so sure of your opinion on something that objectively doesn’t affect you.
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