Yesterday in this blog, mention was given to the upcoming provincial chapter of the Irish Dominicans.
Before a chapter 'officials' have to present a report or account of their office, which is then discussed at the chapter.
The vocations director, Fr Gerard Dunne, has presented his report. In it, he refers to a blog of a private individual and he is of the opinion the blog should be closed down.
There is no mention of the blogger's name or the name of the blog. It can only be presumed it is this blog.
Why could Fr Dunne not mention the blogger by name? This is a great example of all that is horrible and nasty in the worst form of clericalism.
This criticism coming from such a source is indeed a great compliment.
This blog attempts to paint reality as it is, certainly as it is seen and experienced by the author.
The line from Khaled Hosseini, the author of the Kite Runner, might well be applicable here. He writes; "Better to get hurt by truth than comforted with a lie."
There is one positive aspect in the report. At least this time Fr Dunne writes his comment in the public forum and that is a step in the right direction. It represents a positive change of heart.
Fr Dunne manages the website of the Irish Dominican Province. The site lay dormant for a long period of time. Once this blog began to analyse and criticise the site did it begin to come to life. But it is still an appalling website, with little or no interesting material posted on it. It is a poor version of an FDJ news sheet, which would have been produced in the former GDR.
This comment by Fr Dunne in his report represents all that is terrible within the institutional church. It is an example of clericalism par excellence. It is also a paradigm of how people can run with the hare and chase with the hound.
This blogger still has great trust and belief in the Dominican ideal, the ideal of truth - veritas - the motto of the order.
No doubt the provincial of the Irish province will not call for the closure of this blog. How can or could he? Then again, there has been a nasty side to the order. There was the Inquisition.
This blog is out in the public forum to be read. It is also fully archived. There is nothing hidden. The only 'hidden' material is the names of the authors, who remain anonymous. It has a different style from that practised by Fr Dunne and his team.
Indeed, part of the reason for the setting up of this blog was to criticise an ethic of anonymity, which unfortunately is far too evident within the clerical church.
Can one censor the truth?
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5 comments:
So they want to shut you down? Perhaps it was only a matter of time. Thank God for the internet, and the fact that no Chinese-style Great Firewall can be imposed in Ireland, yet. You should take it as a form of flattery, and as proof that you're touching a few nerves. I presume you will be attending the Chapter...?
As John Stuart Mill wrote in On Liberty: 'We can never be sure that the opinion we are endeavoring to stifle is a false opinion; and if we were sure, stifling it would be an evil still'.
Apt quote from John Stuart Mill. Thank you for your comment and support.
If the blog author is correct, and the anonymous reference in the vocations director's report is to this blog, then it is truly an appalling state of affairs.
The blog author/owner is a man of great courage and deep conviction, who is unafraid to express his opinions and who does not hid behind a cloak of anonymity.
His blog is not one I always agree with and, indeed, one with to which I have taken exception in th4e past, for example in a passing reference to Ferns that was ambiguous.
On the other hand I am deeply impressed by his interest and his form of expression in the affairs of the Church, both within and without the Dominican family (of which I am not a member). In particular I admire his courage in challenging the powerful and chronically ill structures of Church governance and their allied cancer of clericalism and clerical control, something I have experienced as utterly stifling in the Church.
Let me call a spade a spade: many of this blog's critics are cowards, spineless individuals who are not prepared to voice their criticisms in public, choosing instead to hide behind a cloak of anonymity from which they snipe, deluding themselves that their detraction is somehow appropriate to the values of the gospel. It is readily evident that many of those anonymous carpings come only on foot of a blog entry related to the Dominicans, and it would seem logical to infer that it is a member or members of that family (in all probability a 'cleric' or 'clerics')who lie(s) behind these snivelling diatribes. How sad that it might be sons of Dominic that are doing this. So much for preaching the Word.
I also wonder if the vocations director's report also calls for Alive to be shut down?
To Michael Commane I say this: don't let the guttersniping pygmies get you down. The very existence of criticism like this is a sign that you are doing something right. Continue to preach the word, in season and out, and welcome or unwelcome, insist upon it.
Michael,
Thank you for your comment and words of support.
MC
It is doubtful there will be any anonymous comments on this issue.
But the usual people will do their work in darkness. A pity.
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