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25 YEARS A BISHOP TODAY.

Today is the 25th anniversary of my consecration as a bishop.

My consecsecrating bishops were Bishop Michael Cox of Ireland and Archbishop Peter Paul Brennan of New York.

BISHOP COX
ARCHBISHOP BRENNAN

DUBLIN SUNDAY TRIBUNE 1998

LETTER FROM BISHOP WILLIE WALSH. BISHOP OF KILLALOE CIRCA 1997

THE MOTHER FRANCES POTRAIT

A CARD FROM A PROTESTANT FRIEND AT THE TIME

240 replies on “25 YEARS A BISHOP TODAY.”

Anyone spouting hate should be held accountable to the law. In a similar way, anyone suspected of harassment,bullying should also be held to account. That being the case when can we see the diocese of Down and Connor and it’s HR function being investigated for its anti Christian , anti employment laws stance? That we should even have to mention a so called Christian organisation in this regard is shocking and a disgraceful testamy to the stewardship of failed Bishop Bling and the self seeking MBE warbler who have presided over this debacle and allowed the very many poor exploits of its HR function to continue unabated or checked. Non clerical staff work in a climate of fear and retribution from HR while priests do their own thing. When challenged by staff, they are silenced. All crime and wrongdoing must be called out and exposed. Where is Christ in this whole debacle ? One thing is for sure, HE is not in Lisbreen

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How much went into the coffers of bishop bling from the sale of tieve tara,st pats home and land on the shore road along with the dioceses other assets? How much of this was redirected to the poor,hungry and needy? Christianity my arse. Its all about the dollar.

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In only a few short years, Meath has sunk from one of the premiere dioceses in Ireland to one of its most corrupt and infamous. Great job, Tom!

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Tom D is doing an outstanding job ruining or running Meath into the ground. Well Done, Bhoy.

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Happy Silver Anniversary Bishop Pat. Thank you very much for all that you do for those denied justice via any conceivable means.

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Pat
I have just watched the BBC News One World programme on the Canadian Indian Residential Schools concerning sexual and physical abuse inflicted by the Oblates of Mary Immaculate and the Sisters of St Anne.
Bastards, bastards,bastards.
3200 children died at the hands of these RCC monsters.
And then the cover up and the attempts by th Catholic Church to obfuscate by using the document dump method added further injury to the survivors.

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1:19 The abuse of indigenous peoples in New World countries is a whole subject in itself. The Irish religious have an atrocious record for its ongoing discrimination of its own indigenous Irish traveller Community as well as the church run Mother & Baby Institutions where thousands of former slaves and inmates who were financially & otherwise exploited and targeted because of their vulnerable status have died awaiting compensation for the horrors they endured at the hands of nuns and priests.

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6:46 the RC should be prevented from paying huge sums plus calling in “favours” from its corrupt lawyers to continue the ongoing abuse and exploitation of victims and survivors of church related abuse and criminality. RC assets should be seized and distributed to pay the outstanding debts that Fraudulent Frankie, his predecessors and their desk jockeys have been avoiding paying out via any possible means for decades.

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Most Bishops have their own oratory Chapel where they pray.
If they prayed regularly in the Cathedral Church, kneeling and clutching their prayer books, they’d appear holier than thou.

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I think that priests and bishops should be seen praying. It’s a good example and reassures people that their priest or bishop believes in God.

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6:52 if they do pray, it’s novenas hoping that victims and survivors will die and disappear. They do, of course, pray every day for “our wealthy faithful”. They focus on where their bread is buttered allright.

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Congratulations Bishop Pat. Both you and Fr. Pat Collins are authorities on truth and justice. You and Fr. Collins have so much in common. Ambassadors of truth.

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One strongly suspects that this particular phenomenon accounts for episcopal inaction in this blog’s two most infamous monastic sagas.

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I was on holiday in Budapest on the Feast of the Assumption. We joined many locals on their lunch break in the city centre for Mass at a Franciscan church. The homily went on for more than 45 minutes! People were walking out. An English guy standing at the back shouted “Come on! Hurry up!”

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8:37 how’s the book going on the Sagas! One doesn’t expect it will be stocked in Veritas nationwide! Unless perhaps it comes with a complimentary jar of smelling salts!

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Congratulations Bishop Pat on your Silver Anniversary as an Independent Bishop and thank you so much for all that you do to help and support your flock in so many different ways. It is much appreciated and will always be remembered.

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If anyone gets a chance, they should visit the Theodore Centre in Athens, it’s a great and intriguing centre about his life

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@3:01 they and their cohorts are on here fishing for clues to determine how much longer they’ve got left.

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There’s only a few commenting attempting to defend the indefensible while keeping an eye out for next batch to be exposed for duplicitous living it up at Baa Baas expense.

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7:24 who “exactly” are these baa baa’s as you call them? What’s in it for them? Is there more to this than meets the eye. Not many are “so naive” surely? Why would outwardly respectable looking families fund what is effectively a terrorist organisation given its ongoing and highly proactive regime of illegal activity geared to silence victims of sexual and financial abuse including ongoing exploitation and cover up and corruption practices by its members spanning decades.

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7:44 open your eyes Eamon. It’s not hard to see exactly who they are and to view what’s in it for them.

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Congratulations Bishop Buckley and I hope you will be celebrating in style today. I rang the parochial house the other week and was told by the priest to actually ring the emergency services as my matter was not one for a priest. My brother was experiencing an utter mental breakdown and the priest said he only deals with physically sick people. I know if that had of been your good self you would have attended to my brother.

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Maria, your parish is fortunate to have a parish priest who declares himself qualified to attend to physically sick people at least . Always useful, given the dangerous state of our public health services. Im surprised your priest avoided attending a mentally ill parishioner, priests and their members are frequently noted to scurrilously and falsely diagnose parishioners they’ve been proactively involved in exploiting and abusing as a regular strategy to cover up for their church related financial interests. The interests of the RC are paramount above all humans as the hundreds of thousands of unidentified bodies in mass or unmarked graves along with thousands of stories of ongoing suffering by vulnerable victims seeking justice in systems sympathetic to the wealthy and well connected church. This is exemplified in the ongoing ability of the Roman Catholic Church to obstruct and pervert the course of justice being denied to victims by RC in moving priests and inner circle personnel from one jurisdiction to the next and then moving them on again only AFTER they’ve abused again. A continual cycle of re-endangerment facilitated by RC under the very noses of international policing authorities.

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I am a very busy parish priest and I have not been on holiday for 4 years.
How my colleagues find the time and money on our basic wage I will never understand.
I rarely ask for cover, nor take a break and yet I am less thought off than my peers.

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3:23 you are a fool. The Parish priest here in this parish is what one would describe as a time management expert, he makes the time to do everything that the Bishop requires of him. Sadly, those instructions don’t have much resemblance to what a PP’s role used to be in a parish. Jesus wept. 🥲

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I am a cradle Catholic but for about a year I attended a Presbyterian church. I very much admired the people and was impressed by their faith and hope. I used to ask them why they had ministers, given that they didn’t have a theology of ministerial priesthood. Their view was that the minister was needed for the Communion service and baptism and weddings and funerals (an elder or deacon couldn’t do those things), which seemed like a sort of priesthood though not in name. Help me Pat

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I still can not believe I have to travel to England to have my abortions. You lot think you have the right to tell me what to do with my feminine body. Happy 25th anniversary Pat. Still sorting out the corrupt church.

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5:46 do yourself and us readers on this blog a long outstanding favour, Shiv, next time you take this well travelled route to dispose of the latest evidence of your well known liaison with your priest, do ask the nice English doctor to tie your Fallopian tubes for you. It’ll save parishioner funded petty cash too. Win, win, all round.

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The second largest Catholic population Mexico decriminalised abortion – illustrating that Catholic moral theology can’t withstand the tide of secularism and that liberal free democracies demand freedom of choice and resist the hypocrisy of protecting the innocent within the womb but sexually abusing the child outside the womb – the hypocrisy of Macial Marcial won’t have helped and the clerical hypocrisy regarding homosexuality (v high in Mexico) and child abuse/cover up was the nail in the coffin.

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@ 5:46am
You’re some piece of work right enough traveling to have your abortions plural! You’ll know all about it when you have to give an account of what you did to your feminine body. It will be the price of you.

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+Pat, congratulations on your 25th year anniversary consecration as Bishop. You have been far more of a Shepherd than my last three Diocesan Bishops. Have an enjoyable day! Thanks, Pat.

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Well done Bishop Buckley on reaching Silver.
I often wonder how some of the RCC knobheads
ever make the cut to be appointed bishop.

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Are young men still being questioned on the masturbating habits during confession or has this been stopped?

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6.54
Some years ago this happened in a Cork secondary school. In that case it was teenage boys rather than young men. It’s imperative the priest in question, a Dominican,has no longer had any direct contact with minors or with schools.

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6:54 sensible young men no longer inadvertently go looking for trouble from this perverted quarter so don’t attend confession nor indeed church unless it’s for a big family occasion or the odd funeral.

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7.16
Yours is an outsider’s view. And as such, is of value. Catholics don’t talk of attending confession.

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I think Jonathan Blake likes to bat for both sides , but he attempts to keep is very well hidden

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Donal McKeown has met his match with me. If he thinks he’s going to pile another parish or work on to me then he will be in for a surprise for it will NOT be happening

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The whole apostolic succession rationale/ justification is a complete nonsense – just like all that sacramental / ontological difference and setting apart codology. All that time spent trying to justify oneself and one’s ordination and presumed superiority. What really counts is if God calls someone to a particular ministry, and that they then undertake that ministry and live it honestly, truthfully and faithfully. Many of those who think that they have the justification of apostolic succession live lives in contradiction to the ministry they profess. We see that day after day in the behaviours of bishops outlined in this blog. The proof of the pudding is in the eating, and the crucial justification for a bishop (or priest) is the life and ministry they lead.

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I agree with a lot of what you say. I suppose we need some way of deciding who celebrates the sacrament of Holy Orders on behalf of the People of God. Maybe the laying on of hands by the People?

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I’m only an academic fellow and not a man so your mode of address is incorrect.
Still no proof for the immaculate conception 🤷

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Yes, I’d trust the People of God to choose the right man. That’s what used to happen in the Early Church – bishops and presbyters chosen by the people after prayer. Sounds like a plan !

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Congratulations, Pat. Ad multos annos. You were treated badly during your ministry, in Wales and in Belfast. May God forgive them. You found a creative solution to your exclusion. You organised to become a bishop. And let’s face it, isn’t that what bishops do, though not as transparently and overtly as you. In the CofE a priest applies for episcopal ministry. And there’s a lot to be said for that. In the RCC a pretence is maintained that no one appointed a bishop ever desired it, much less engineered it. And perhaps too, there is some wisdom in a person’s suitability for episcopal ministry being recognised externally and independently of his own ambition.
Apostolic succession is not something physical. It is not dependent on a corporeal laying-on of hands. It is a matter of continuity in the faith of Jesus, in both the objective and subjective senses of the term.

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Why no apology from any ‘Christmen’ i.e. the Church on behalf of Cathal Daly for abuse of power and treatment you received as a young priest. Don’t tell me; the ‘Christmen’ would have to acknowledge Daly was wrong.

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In the RCC, “everything” is a “pretence”. All well orchestrated BS organised by their overpaid public relations gurus. It would be interesting if any Diocese transparently declared what they spend on lawyers, public relations executives although some of this is done under the table by professionals who have multiple financial and other interests vested in collusion with their local Diocese.

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Bishop Willie Walsh of Killaloe – his letter speaks volumes on the ongoing double standards that has permeated from the toxic Diocese of Killaloe for decades. Now retired, Bishop Walsh spent considerable monies paying off witnesses including selling Diocesan property to fund the hush money fund during his tenure. Yet another fully paid up member of the Roscrea and Tipperary born mafia who have been at the core of Killaloe related corruption for decades. Don’t be wasting your time asking where their missing Killaloe born clergy are, they know “too much” so won’t be publicly humiliated or thrown to the wolves. Killaloe management and their members & associates reserve this odious practice to execute against victims and survivors of their cynical abuse and exploitative practices.

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So many horrific abuses of human rights have been executed in Killaloe. It goes from bad to worse as time goes on.

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If you have proof re Walsh I’d advise you spill it. Otherwise stfu! He is highly respected with no scandal on his person.

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7:02 the RC puts its own interests first, all the time and every time and makes zero apology and shows zero remorse apart from meaningless lip service and fake apologies for the death and destruction it has brought to the lives of innocent and vulnerable girls and orphans for decades. Just see how these wolves in sheep’s clothing and their white collared professional abusers on hire along with self serving lay crooks scheme and manoeuvre to ensure that victims and survivors never receive compensation for the abuses deliberately and knowingly inflicted on them.

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I agree. More and more over the years, the Congregation here is more involved.

To my knowledge, nobody has even been turned away from Mass or Holy Communion here.

I have made mistakes on ordinations here.

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There are laws to stop you expressing your beliefs when your beliefs are racist, homophobic etc

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There are laws to deal with those who persistently or occasionally engage in perverting the course of justice by engaging via various means in suppressing the legal right to freedom of expression on current and legitimate outstanding matters.

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Lisbreen is corrupt from Top Down. Donal allows gay priests to be active so long as they are discreet. Most of the gay active ones are all on holiday right now.

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Donal doesn’t care as long as his team of sexually active priests and their colleagues keep the punters sweet and the money rolling in. Bishop in this Diocese operates to an even lower standard than your Donal.

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Congrats Bishop Pat on your 25 years as a bishop. You are just as much a bishop as any on the episcopal bench in Ireland. You have chosen the road less traveled that of honesty and integrity qualities so lacking in RCC leadership right to the very top. They are afraid of you because you are fearless and call them out. They look down on you when you write to them as fellow bishops, but yet they read every word that appears on this blog. The things in darkness always come to the light.. You are an inspiration to so many of us gay men in the clergy who are too afraid to come out and live honest lives.. keep up the good work you are needed now more than ever.. ps on a footnote Bishop Willie Walsh a man I greatly admire, when you see what’s in Killaloe now.. has the dubious distinction of being.the one who ordained Richard Purcell a priest. He forgot to bring his oil of chrism to the church and one priest ran out to his car to get his personal stocks.. a very well known ex priest of Killaloe and former monk. Fr. Neill Dargan.!!

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Apostolic succession isn’t all its cracked up to be.. it has given us the likes of Brendan Casey cardinal Groer, cardinal Law, Theodore Mc Carrick.. the list is endless..they passed on to countess others.

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Can someone advise me please? A family friend has asked me to donate sperm for her and her partner. They have asked me because they know the family and want to know the genes I’d be contributing.
This feels like the kind of thing the Church would frown on. Can someone give me the official position please?

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I can’t remember the answers I got to this question when I asked it originally. Actually we didn’t go ahead and do it so I’m still not a father.

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The city state will definitely approve. Any child will not thank that couple or you, for making itself their / your idol. Cut this disgusting couple out of your life.

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If every priest was like bishop Pat there would be a great renewal of faith in Ireland – he promotes: freedom of speech and upholds human dignity – no wonder he attracts the wrath and venom of clergy – it’s because he is, what they are not.

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7.39: That’s a fallacious conclusion to make from your premise. Thank God we’re all different. Pat is Pat and makes an impact from his particular stand on faith, Church, prayer, theology and sense of the “people of God”. This doesn’t correspond with officialdom or the establishment. That’s fine with me so long as we don’t use our “own style” to inflict hurt on others or feel we are more superior. Pat has made a difference to many and challenged us all. However, we must also acknowledge the wonderful contribution, albeit quietly and dare I say, humbly, which many clerics have made and continue to do. Sadly, the ones who have criminally abused have tarnished the very concept of ministry and service. I worked with a priest once for 5 years and his daily visiting of parishioners, particularly the sick and housebound and the “poor” was exemplary. He inspired profoundly. Sometimes our work is done without the glare of publicity. Pat deserves a hearty congratulations today for his ministry. It’s sad in a way that he’s not been able to found more Oratories. If he had done so, who knows what the outcome might have been!

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We are soon to have an Oratory in Belfast and a hermit priest with a little Oratory at Banbridge.

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By Post Author

Bishop Pat well done, You do realize that now you’re ‘wiser’ and on your own in a parish, your younger colleagues say you’re the awkward one, don’t you?

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Maybe it’s time to let it go, Pat. You’ve done great work over the years. For so long yours was a voice crying in the wilderness, a voice of reason against the corruption of the Roman church. They’re never going to change, the rot runs throughout, it’s a sepsis that is killing the institution and the church is experiencing it’s period of palliative care. What you wrote is true and the people have known that for decades now, many were just too afraid of the what if and kept going to Mass to harbour their bets, then lockdown happened and people got used to not turning up, the world didn’t end, they didn’t suddenly burst into flames and now Mass attendance is at an all time low. What the church didn’t see was that their aeon was ending and one of a mature personal spirituality was being born. We don’t need men running around in white collars, we need emotional maturity and a direct experience of the divine. That’s coming on it’s own because it’s the will of God. So don’t waste your time fighting against a dying institution that is slipping into irrelevance, enjoy your life and keep being the wonderful pastor that you’ve always been. You’ll emerge on the right side of history when those corrupt clerics are forgotten.

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it is evident & confirmed by many priests just trying to eke out a peaceful existence as most of them ageing now that it is essential to be complicit in whatever level of wrong doing exists in any Diocese or life becomes hell on earth literally.

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&7:47 nothing peaceful about the existence some of them & their members inflict on others with their daily heinous activities.

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Popes ordering cover-up of abuse worldwide was un-CHRIST-like at its core. It didn’t stop Bishops doing what they were told.It took survivors, whistleblowers and the media as well as internet to bring it into the public domain otherwise wide-scale abuse would still be hidden.

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7.47
There was a time when avoiding scandal was the way to go. Good Pope John XXIII lived in that era.
Today, transparency is top of the list for our day.
It’s pointless judging past eras by today’s standards.

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Maynooth will announce the sale of most of its campus to Maynooth University and for private housing, and the departure of the seminary from its historic home.
This major reversal in fortunes is being dressed up as “A Vision for Renewal and Transformation”, though by disposing of the site, the literally faithless bishops clearly believe that they will never again have the seminary numbers of old.
The sight of a few sems rattling around St Mary’s Oratory is too depressing apparently, and even the GAA and soccer pitches on the Graf are being turned to meadows, with modern sems having no use for them.

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Congratulations Bishop Pat. You are out on your own and you are a breath of fresh air in Ireland. God Bless You Always 🙏

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The universal and persistent lack of respect for human rights plus all of the ongoing coverup and avoidance mechanisms utilised to redress abuse victims and survivors has driven away the former faithful and that’s before you even begin to look at all the ducking and diving and the boiler house and tindr and Grindr clerical gangs etc. Its one big corrupt farce at this stage

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Please pray for +Bishop John Kennan on this the 9th year of his episcopal ordination. A wonderful Bishop and daily reader of this blog. Our Lady of Paisley pray for him.

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Rcc in Rome have vast wealth worth in billions. It will take v v long time for that vast wealth to disappear. Can anyone confirm this, all religious organisation or diocese/s contribute a percentage of their income/monies from laity (Non taxable based o charity status)

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What is it with the weirdos here and these made up girl’s names for friend and foe? I suppose it’s a seminary thing, what happens in Maynooth, stays in Maynooth. One notable characteristic of these people is accusing others of their own vices and flaws (mental illness is no ground for discrimination but it is a flaw and posting gibberish online is no help for it).

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Fr. David Vard from the Maynooth summer of love is in a bit of a pickle at the minute, I hope this latest blunder doesn’t make it to the blog. No that’s a promise David, honestly

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Congrats Bishop and well done, due to shortage of vocations, priests do defy their Bishops more these days and all the better chances of success for them if they have their connections in the wider community to assist them in staying put.

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As the missionaries are religious it’s up to their order to sort staffing of their apostolates and also disciplinary matters if a priest won’t move.
Of course they would discuss changes with the bishop but as a courtesy UNLESS there is a concern about the priest.

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Our old blog friend, Fr Dr Marsden
Is he still as interested in homosexuals as he once was? (Or maybe I should have said ‘homosexuality’ ? ) Lord knows. (Or does he?) Lord knows if the Lord knows.
Dear Daktur Marsden looks as though he is taking part in dancing with the bishops

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Paula Bradshaw pretended it was her mothers fault she stood down as a MLA. Truth ~ she lost faith in the DUP over their handling of the Christopher Stalford death and the aftermath. Now she wants to make comeback a year later while her mother is in a nursing home

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Surprise Surprise that Mary Lou and Michelle have kept quiet about Stalford because they’ll know all about it. But they’ll not want tit for tat about themselves to come out.

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Our Bishop is 71
Hallowed be his aim
Thy kingdom cum
He will do son
On girth and In Kevin
Give us each gay
Our daily bred
And forgive us our gay asses
As we forgive those who gay ass us
And lead us into castration
But deliver us from evil
Gaymen

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Dear Bishop Pat, congratulations on the 25th anniversary of your episcopal consecration. I guess 25 year years ago the idea of bishop being gay was unimaginable. However, you tried to hide nothing, and after the last 25 years with all kinds of scandals your life seems positively virtuous. Back then there was a slight whiff of scandal with Cardinal Bernadin but the likes of Cardinals McCarrick and O’Brien have since eclipsed him.

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Trump was a world peace maker and the herd turned on him. No money in him for them. He had the measure of Rome and China.

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The church takes 7+ years to decide if someone is suitable and still manages to get it wrong so often, it’s remarkable.
Employers take at most a couple of days and if any employer made such a balls up of it they’d be out of business.

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Pat Buckley, I know you are not a fan of Bishop Oakley but he is a by product of Cove de Murville and further nurtured by Vinny Nichols.

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Peter and the other 11 were made APOSTLES. Apostles were not generally attached to one community. They were for the whole church and generally were not “overseeers” ( bishops) of particular churches. The exception was John who was the overseer/bishop in Antioch. There is nothing in the New Testament to say Peter was in Rome and certainly nothing to say he was the first bishop of Rome and the first pope. The early church developed various ministries.

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Well done you’ve health and experience on your side BP Pat. Enjoy life and be free to love who you want. I am so glad I did and lol back at those who stayed with sadness as they are shadows of their former selves. The church will eat away at your soul

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I do wish the odd bishop would read this and see what is being said by the clerical ranks, or at least those who can think for themselves.

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In Presbyterian polity the congregation call a minister to them. That would help stop bishops imposing priests and stop the priest thinking the church is his.

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I am pretty sure JC would be appalled at the RCC priesthood as currently constituted. He would probably have more in common with the extinction rebellion movement. The RCC has betrayed his teachings. I mean fat old Clergy waddling down the aisle in their capa magna claiming to personify him would make him burst into fits of laughter.

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Priesthood is a gift. Those who receive the gift have possession of it. But the gift must be used to serve and never to dictate. Far too many priests are dictators – like the current incumbent of St Joseph’s Hannahstown

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When I meet a priest I often think what else would or could this man do? If many or most were not priests I’m not sure many would be gainfully employed.
Many are not v hard working – I think the idea of hard graft is an anathema but being the centre of attention is the drug that keeps on giving – I find the idea that priests see themselves as Persona Christi repellent and depressing.
Surely we are all Persona Christi, as Paul says, ‘It is Christ who lives and I live in him’ or did he write this for clergy and clergy alone?
I think baptism is a gift whereas I think today’s priesthood of a gift has been fatally and irretrievably abused and trampled on – as gifts often can be by ungrateful recipients.

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Good priests are a blessing but as rare as hens teeth or unicorn droppings and they must surely suffer but perhaps that’s integral to your vocation.
I also believe good priests fight for renewal and refuse to accept the status quo and run the risk of being spat out by the institution they serve.

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Pope Francis is calling another synod on synodality in October – I think Pat should be invited as he’s a voice in the wilderness talking some good sense.
I always think it’s ironic that the RCC esteems dialogue but there is no institution on earth so opposed and resistant to dialogue and given to shitting discussion down.
Didn’t PJPII for example say any discussion on women’s ordination was banned and many clergy simply will not engage in a discussion if they sense hostility or resistance to their world view – rather like the Taliban I feel.

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There are many clergy that do not believe and do not pray. They are either trapped in the priesthood or use it as a cosy lifestyle to do their own thing. I do not at all think that my 51 years was based on sham beliefs. In fact, in spite of everything my own private faith is very strong. And I tend to agree with you Pat, despite me portraying otherwise

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Well done in giving the cathbots what they want – they don’t want to debate they want to silence any contrary voice. Are you so naive as not to see that they want that for you too?

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There is no shortage of theory on priesthood. The proof of the pudding is in the practice (praxis). This blog continuously highlights clerical/ hierarchical hypocrisy : do as I say not as I do. Why take priests/bishops/ priesthood seriously?

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10:15
I was thinking along the same lines earlier this week. The proof of the pudding is in the ‘praxis’ priests cathobs and ‘holier than thou brigade.

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Do we write off all parents because some parents are bad, indeed evil. Likewise, policemen, teachers, even – dare I say it social workers? Abusing priests acted against the moral law, the teachings of the church and the criminal law and deserve the severe punishments due to them. But you cannot rationally impute the guilt of some onto all priests.
In all of this, bishops got off largely unscathed. I firmly believe that the visitation of the Irish Church should have resulted in the Irish Church being put into special measures, even interdict, while a proper, thorough independent review was carried out. Pope Benedict should have forced the resignation of bishops who moved priests around or suppressed allegations or hid evidence. Sean Beady still popping up at events sickens me.

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Well done on this blog today, Pat. It is self evident that Christ intended the ministerial priesthood and, from the beginning, this developed. He did not intend “lords” indeed but servant priests.
Very often on your blog all priests are lumped together as “kiddie fiddlers” and other vicious verbiage. This “romanist priest” nonsense that sounds like some deranged Paisleyite in the 1970s.
I have known many priests in my long life and the majority by far were decent and good human beings who were a credit to their vocations.
I am glad you intervened today to stop the false, lying and tedious narrative of an individual driven by heaven knows what. This goes on day and daily from this source and it is quite simply untrue and unjust against priests in general.
Jesus warned us about false shepherds in the Gospel. He did not intend his priests to lord it over people. Certainly not – quite the opposite. Well said.

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I continue to feel frustrated and angry by the actions of Dom Richard Purcell and his cabal as they continue to betray their sacred vows. Purcell and his likes are causing ruin and division. I continue to serve the Church.

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What’s Richard Purcell’s connections to Abbot Coffey in Glenstal & Bishop Monahan in Killaloe? What is all that about?

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10:20
If the Cistercians AG Dom Peeters and the Vatican are in cahoots to protect Purcell, and Purcell is calling the shots due to ‘recordings’,
we have descended to the level of total complete and utter farce.
It’s time to ‘wipe the dust from your feet’.

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@ 5:37
Fr. Innocent, you are so right! After all the credible allegations made about Purcell he should have been dismissed with immediate effect. Will Dick Purcell ever be dismissed from the priesthood?

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4:57
Purcell seems to rule the roost in more than Waterford and Lismore through threatening others…
Armagh, watch your backs.

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10:03
You didn’t answer will Dick Purcell ever be dismissed from the priesthood?
Innocent you’re a very naughty bold boy. Do you have any respect for anyone?

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Pat
Can you explain why it’s so important for you to be in “episcopal orders “?
Could you not fulfil The same Ministry in Larne as a priest ?
In all Seriousness , and with no disrespect , why the need to clericalism and the grand title of Bishop ?!
Perhaps you can explain how
You became a bishop but , more importantly , what that title and clerical dress is important to your ministry ?

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A big part of my decision to take episcopal orders was to be able to ordain others in a Catholic (not necessarily RC) way.

Most people call me Pat, and I love that. Some insist on Bishop Pat or Fr Pat.

Last week a Protesrant man in the past office called me “Your Grace” 😀

I wear a ring and a pectoral cross.

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10.57: Pat, how many men or women did you ordain? If there are priests, what’s their apostolate? Is Mother Meigh still writing icons? Where is she now? Congratulations on this occasion.

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Thanks for that clarification, Pat- very interesting and much appreciated. I’m sorry to hear that the majority- 5 out of 8 ordained- got a thumbs down. Without breaking confidentiality of course, could you give us some sense of what wrong in general terms with these people?

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One simple thing

There is a massive difference between having a VOCATION TO THE PRIESTHOOD and having a PRIESTHOOD FANTASY the irrational belief that ordination will solve all your problems.

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By Post Author

Thanks Pat for telling us that Frances is still going strong- wonderful news. But how many men have you ordained and where are they now?

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Over 25 years

Mother Frances – 👍
Fr Richard – France – 👍
Fr Paul – Belfast – 👍
John – Co Down – in preparation – 👍

Conor – thumbs down 👎
David – 👎
Michael – 👎
Terry – 👎
Ed – 👎

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Pat, as an Ex colleague and friend, you surely you mean 30 or more years as Bishop? It is a daily challenge now for priests to rediscover the real meaning of being a “servant priest” but I believe that many of us in the past 25 years have been on this journey. We are in very different times than the 70’s since you and I began our studies. Soin after ordination the realities of life began to impact. Then we were plunged into chaos with the abuse scandals which have almost destroyed trust in any concept of priesthood. The sacraments are very special moments of grace but God is mediated to us through the wonderful people of grace and goodness we meet every day. There is an urgency in redefining service, ministry and being God’s people. Those of us who care – and there are many who do – try to recreate the spirit of the early Christian community in our daily work. We don’t go flying to heavy theological or ecclesiological documents to know how we should be a true Christ to all. The gospels are the source but a very challenging ideal. I pray for call priests daily. The vocation of priesthood is under threat by horrible corruption and carelessness by some but each of us has to consciously make a daily decision for Christ. Sometimes the task seems unmanageable and with so much brutalising commentary and judgment by some on this blog I feel fearful and unsafe and iften want to walk away. Yet, despite my many failings and disillusionment I trust in God alone. Were I not to do thus I would be dismantled and crushed. There’s rarely an acknowledgement of anything positive or creative that we engage in. All total negativity, denigration and condemnation. There’s consolation in Jesus’ words – “I have come to seek the lost and the stray…” It’s not bad company to keep!

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“We don’t go flying to heavy theological or ecclesiological documents to know how we should be a true Christ to all.”
Glad to see you oppose the continental stage corporation which told the untruth that baptism and conversion are theirs and not God’s.

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This blog, as badly trolled as it is by some, and despite many ulterior motives, still fills an important and necessary function, a gap in the market, switching a light on in the dark room, and the people in it, and scattering them like cockroaches, but it’s also a very skewed one sided version of reality. Yes, there are lots of problems, but there is much more good out there going on in the real lives of the faithful than bad.

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Seminarians are men with priests fantasies, not true Vocations. Or they are escaping their fear of being outed

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10:26 it’s somewhere to hang out in luxury for those who don’t really like people and require a safe wall to hide behind from where to fire their venom.

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11:28 if they lucky, they get to fill their little red book during the Seminary years. Set up for life then in the cabal.

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Are all seminaries knocking shop stables or is there actually a seminary where a devout young fella could go without fear of being groomed or gang raped or possibly killed? Looks like one would be safer joining the army or the guards.

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10:27
Cover ups by Popes, Bishops and complicit silence of vast numbers of priests was not for the ‘good of the Church,’ but rather for the good of
the priesthood. Survivor-victims are also members of the ‘Church’ but expendable.

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Clogher diocese Bishop, who does not even live in Clogher diocese. He has had an official portrait photo taken of himself, all dressed in black and with a clerical collar. Is that clericalist?

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@11:01am

If you saw what they’ve done to Monaghan Cathedral, God knows what the house is like. Although they wont have ruined it like they have that once beautiful Cathedral.

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Monaghan has 3 bishops and Clogher has 3 wannabe bishops. It’s a crowded field is Clogher.

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The biggest surprise is learning of an organist who has a wife. Or an undertaker with a wife – from Dublin

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I was thinking that. I do think it true to say that the church’s concern was that letting people loose on the bible without comments explaining the church’s position tends to end in them being Protestant. So I think it would be fair to say that the church directed the faithful to a selection of passages through the liturgy and to wider reading with apologetic commentary (for example the many older editions of Douay Rheims with comments) but still fair to say that the church tended to discourage open reading otherwise.
TBH I think this was well intentioned but a mistake and I think the church missed a trick in the counter reformation by not encouraging (or being seen to do so) bible reading more. Just because it looks like Catholics don’t read the bible.
(And many don’t, and the ones who try to usually misuse it, but both of these are other matters)

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Yes, totally agree Pat about the right to vote. One man one vote was a hard battle. Too many take it for granted. I voted for progressive people and not angry dinasouurs.

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Pat @2.08pm Lol. You were lucky Bishop Pat to have two Alliance and one Green on the ballot paper. Good for you.

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Pat Buckley, God bless you. You took on the RC Church for years and you spoke out and stood up to them and for the weak and vulnerable too. There is not many clergy and certainly not bishops that can do that these days. . They hate it when you stand up to them. I am in my dying days but you keep going. I was friend of Fr Des who spoke highly of you. God Bless.

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Well now, mainstream Catholic bishops appear to act unlawfully quite often…. such as when they might breach The Withholding Act 2012, of use money for purposes otherwise than what it was donated for (see yesterday’s blog)
…. so “valid but unlawful” seems fashionable in Catholic clerical circles.
… but importantly +Pat – well done on your years of standing up for the underdog, that is to say we’ll done on standing up for Christ, who is the One most Oppressed by the Church.

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Pat, what about the elevation to archbishop? Bishop Michael Fogarty was bishop of Killaloe from 1904. In 1954 after 50 years in office and at the age of 94 he was given the personal title of Archbishop.

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8.52
In the church, we think in centuries. You, au contraire, have the appearance of having come down in the last shower.

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A fine example to go by, there’s a whole book published on the cruel reign of (arch)Bishop Fogarty. Men like him are the foundations of today’s idiot bishops.

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Congratulations Bishop Pat! You are always in my thoughts and prayers. Long may you continue to serve and stand up for those victimised by the RCC. Thank you for all your care and concern for victims/survivors. Blessings and peace.

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Bishop Pat, I cannot understand clergy/bishops fixated on money. Didn’t Our Lord turn on the money people in the temple? I know some generous priests who are not that well off but I know alot of very greedy rich clerics who wouldn’t give you the droopings of their nose.

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There are many money grabbing clergy and they turn the younger generation off and they are resented as a result.

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Glad you are still standing Patsy even though I give you a bit of harmless stick. I have heard you are are very caring to clergy despite what others say about you. I raise my hat to you Patsy.

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Ad Multos Annos!
In the Roman Catholic liturgy, it was an element of the episcopal ordination rite first found in the Pontifical of Apamea from the 12th century the newly consecrated bishop sang this three times to his consecrator.

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11.11
Fascinating detail.
If he was a co-adjutor there would have been a certain irony there.
I don’t know when the concept of auxiliary bishops began.
It was often joked that there is no better way to make the health of a bishop perk up than to appoint a co-adjutor.

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Well done, + Pat, on your 25 years as a bishop. And even more years as a priest. I was ordained some 30 + years ago, and I am now in the process of retiring, early. Lucky, I guess, that I have options and am able to set down ministry in my early 60s. Why ? Well, you know, at a very practical level I am just tired of the ever increasing demands on me and ever increasing expectation that I simply take on more and more, and just keep going on and on. All this from a bishop and diocese that just wants to keep the show on the road and these days has little respect or care for the priests who do the work. However, more significantly, I have grown and developed over the years and now find myself out of step with so many significant things that the RC Church stands by and teaches. The Gospel values still stand strong for me, but the institutional Church offends me these days – everything from the clerically dominated hierarchical system of decision making and governance (I’ve already hinted at the distain and arrogance of the bishop and diocese to its priests), to the toxic and damaging clerical culture that leads so many of my brothers in to dysfunction and unhappiness, and a good number of them in to criminality as we have seen in such egregious abuse (and please don’t tell me that this has nothing to do with the way priests are trained, live, function, and fail !). Not to mention the hurtful burden of having to carry these sins myself as someone who is a priest of the Church and thereby guilty by association. I add also the dolt headed intransigence of the Church to seriously consider the role of women in ministry, especially when it is clear that young men are studiously avoiding the priesthood recognising that it is not a way as currently lived in the RC Church to happiness, fulfilment, or even to effective and holy service. And this especially resulting in people like me having to do more and more. So, why not ordain women, giving them rightful respect for their undoubted gifts and calling ? Why should I plough myself in to the ground when the Church will not help itself ? After many years of ministry, I have found myself required to hold so many people at bay from full inclusion in to the life of the Church, especially the sacraments – so often through difficulties in relationships and marriages. I’m tired of being the gatekeeper who bars the way, and even though I have always been as flexible and compassionate as I can be, there is only so much that I can do. And why do I have to continue to peddle a long outdated and discredited theology of sexuality, which is clearly wrong and hurtful and offensive to so many and keeps them at arm’s length ? So, even though Francis is perhaps making some way forward in some of these areas, it is too late for me and I am hanging up my hat. Life will be good and positive for me in the future, and I look forward to it. I fear for my brothers who do not have any options but to stay and find themselves subject to episcopal diktats, given even more parishes to run, and have to tacitly support Church policies, thinking and even theology that is clearly wrong and damaging. I feel some sense of abandonment leaving them to it, but after much time and thinking I know that I have to prioritise my health and wellbeing right now. I’ve tried hard enough and long enough, but enough is now and now I am offski ! The Bishop is pissed off, because it presents him with a problem, but he has not the slightest sense of care for me. I’m just a problem for him because I’m puling up stumps.

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