The Irish Catholic of October 31 carries a number of articles on topics including The re-paganising of Ireland; No country for young people; Halloween being a wasteland of tack and pointless gory imagery; Simplistic to present the 1980s as a dark and repressive time; Love in the age of anti-Catholicism, Halloween and the worship of false gods.
Is Ireland really as bad and nasty as this? Unlikely.
Yes, Halloween has become a commercial tawdry event, where silly skeletal figures are placed in shops and houses are festooned with gaudy vulgar plastic. It is nonsensical, making a lot of money for the grocery and other trades. Children are persuaded to indulge in the worst of food and waste money on ugly plastic rubbish.
There may well be something about it all that is not right but is it not an exaggeration to argue that it is a sign of our returning to paganism?
There are many questions to be asked, reality is always nuanced.
Anyone who saw Leathered on RTÉ 1 Television on Wednesday evening would realise that our State was a sick place when children were systematically tortured in the classroom, many of them by religious sisters, brothers and priests. The State allowed it to happen. Provincials and bishops turned a blind eye to the bad behaviour of their members. Our schools are a much safer and healthier place today. Today children like going to school. In ‘Catholic Ireland' they were frightened beyond belief as a result of the savagery that was meted out to them.
Ireland is a far better place today under the law of the State than it was under the control of Canon Law.
All words of kindness are much more effective, far more convincing and authentic than condemning and criticising the vagaries of the day.
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