Friday, April 10, 2009

Does The Horror Ever End?


News out of Dublin is that a report on further abuses of children by the Catholic Church is going to horrify everyone with the depth and magnitude of it all.

The good news is: that this statement was made by Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin and from the pulpit of the Pro-Cathedral in Dublin. Taking ownership, as it were, for destroying the lives of thousands of children.

The bad news (apart from the obvious atrocities) is: that there seems to be an underlying issue of self-service to this admission of guilt:

"We have no time to waste," Martin said yesterday. "There is a dramatic and growing rift between the church and our younger generations, and the blame does not lie principally with young people. Our young people are generous and idealistic but such generosity and idealism does not seem to find a home in the church."

He also illuminated the recruitment crisis in Irish Catholicism, in a country that once used to export its priests and nuns all over the world. "In the [Dublin] diocese there are 10 times more priests over 70 than under 40. In just a few years we will only have a little over 200 diocesan priests to minister to our almost 200 parishes."


Read all about it in The Guardian here

Ah, qu'elle surprise!, the attendance at church by the young Catholics of Ireland is abysmal and the attraction of new vocations just about zero.

I did the math and came up with this:

Low attendance+low number of clergy=empty collection plates.


A few of my family have been severely affected by clergy abuses, but those are their stories and not mine.

All I can recall is this drunken old priest hearing confessions when I was a child, nodding off over my recounting of my 'sins', asking me to repeat how saucy I was to my mother, how I stole the sweetie off the counter at the post office, and then snoring while I tried to wake him - "Father, Father?" to give me my penance so that I could fulfill my obligation before I left the church. Secure in the knowledge that if a bus knocked me down on the way home I didn't have to suffer in the fires of hell. For ALL eternity.

As a dear friend from Ireland always maintains: Ireland: The greatest open air lunatic asylum in the world.

Amen to that, brother, amen to that.

16 comments:

  1. That's such a very sad statement about organized religion, especially about one in which the main characters are supposed to be pious and celibate and above suspicion. I think it's an abnormal situation the catholic church puts those priests in. Abnormal situations create abnormal sets of behavior, especially when it's going against the very nature of man. Men are sexual beings and need a safe normal outlet for their urges. The catholic church denies them that. Hence the fight with self and booze and child abuse begins.

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  2. I sometimes wonder if the church will ever recover. I think the days allowing the ordination of women are fast approaching whether the men like it or not.

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  3. Hmmm, I think there are plenty of countries far more lunatic than Ireland - Zimbabwe to name but one. As Grannymar says, will the Catholic church ever recover from the endless abuse revelations and its increasing irrelevance to the young? Not to mention the typical religious tendency to condemn every other religion and those with no religion at all.

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  4. I think the days of the Roman Catholic church are numbered, WWW.

    Didn't Malachy prophecy this, and later.........

    In 1909, while granting an audience, pope Pius X leaned back and closed his eyes. Suddenly he "awoke" and cried out: "What I see is terrifying. Will it be myself? Will it be my successor? What is certain is that the pope will quit Rome, and in leaving the Vatican, he will have to walk over the dead bodies of his priests."

    I think there's a way to go yet, but it's there, on the far horizon.

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  5. Irene;
    I also believe that by its very nature the priesthood was attracting many paedophiles due to accessibility of young boys and girls.
    Repression of sexuality is another
    contributing factor.
    XO
    WWW

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  6. GM:
    A dear friend of mine, long a nun, is only waiting for the day when she can be ordained.
    But this latest blow to Mother Church is going to be severe.
    XO
    WWW

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  7. Nick:
    I think one had to grow up like many of my era in Ireland in the fifties and sixties to get a full flavour of the many lunacies of our upbringings. And then emigrate as we did so we can look back and share the stories.
    Seriously. I've written articles about the craziness then. And I really should blog about it also.
    I think Mother Church should be put out to pasture or into the care of the women who might run it with more care.
    XO
    WWW

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  8. T:
    I'm with you on that one and it can't be soon enough. So many atrocities, so many children's lives destroyed. I personally know of 2 suicides of young men and there are many, many more.
    I know there are good priests also but the church is a lumbering, ignorant behemoth far removed from the flock it is supposed to serve.
    As in: no condoms in Africa, how can it be taken seriously?
    XO
    WWW

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  9. it is indeed horrifying, and it's not limited to ireland.

    you should google attorney jeff anderson of minneapolis. he is doing wonderful work suing the church over and over again, trying to get it to make amends and pay up--and, primarily, GET THESE GUYS OUT OF COMMISSION so they aren't just moved to offend again. which is the usual response of the catholic church.

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  10. The thing is, Laurie, we thought we were somehow finished with all the cases in Ireland. All these are NEW cases yet to unfold and quite recent.
    XO
    WWW

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  11. Way too little way too late - I think your maths sums up a great deal!

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  12. As a non-believer who was once a believer(Anglican)none of this surprises me. I have seen this abuse of personal power in every religion I have looked at .... perhaps the saving grace for Roman Catholicism is that there are people ready to admit that these things happen.
    Unfortunately it appears to me that organised religions were all, historically, about the control of the many by the few (men) by manipulating the (natural)fears and lack of knowledge of the ordinary man or woman, and the innocence of children.

    However, there are a majority in the Church... who are good...as there are in every group of humans.

    My thoughts are with those who follow the Roman Church at this time.

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  13. Conor:
    That old logical brain of mine!!
    XO
    WWW

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  14. Magpie:
    It has taken so long for the RC to admit wrongdoing but once they started it was avalanche after avalanche of it.
    I also feel badly for the really good priests (and I know a few) who get tarred with this brush of evil.
    XO
    WWW

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  15. What atrocities, what destruction of human life ! AS I read I cry, the tears are not invited they just flow. Sadness and disgust that the innocent children with no one to care for them and no place to seek shelter jhad to be tortured. Dignity taken away, lives destroyed never to be restored, their very souls were buried in misery. The pope should come to their rescue & support them to the end of their lives, what's left. Shame, shame Catholic Church where I once prayed.

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  16. I cannot get it in my head that so many miserable, ugly and out of control imbeciles could inflict such suffering on another human being.
    Shame on the Catholic Church, shame on each and every one of these hypocrites. I am in tears for the suffering on the innocent.
    The Pope should hide his head in shame & step forward with financial help for every soul that his church destroyed. This is a human catastrophe of imeasurable porportions. We can't accept an apology & think it will go away. Remember the churche's destruction of the orphans must stay with us.

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