Is it all closed and lacking transparency? Tell us

"We are not going to get open, transparent answers from the Catholic Church."

A comment from Andrew Madden on RTE1 Radio lunchtime news today.

Andrew Madden was suxually abused by a priest of the Dublin diocese.

If his comment is untrue, then the Irish bishops should respond and correct it.

If it is true, what is to be done?

This is all appalling. What is worst of all is the silence right across the church. And even sadder is that the silent men think they are being so clever.

Shocking but also revealing.

The faltering and sad words of a bishop

John Magee's interview last evening adds to the sadness of the Irish church.

His words and behaviour are the product and result of an organisation that has perfected the art of talking out of both sides of its mouth at the same time.

One might ask are all large organisations as 'daft' as the institutional church appears at present?

So many bishops are stumbling and faltering over words it is difficult to know what they are saying and for what it is they stand.

That John Magee should say he is willing to meet victims is painful, sad and really silly. Who cares what John Magee does now?

A far more important question is how was this man ever appointed a bishop in Ireland.

The rule seems to be a 'safe pair of hands'.

If that is the deciding factor, then clearly a new strategy is urgently required.

These men not too long ago spoke with such certainty about all things concerning God and morality - always nebulous and nuanced topics - yet they knew exactly how to frame and formulate it all.

Were they, are they just simple spoofers?

Anyone who has been confirmed or ordained by a bishop must sit back and wonder.

Watch how they will tell us all the wonders of the new English translation of the Missal.

In public it will be all wonderful words. Privately it will be another show.

In spite of rumours Irish diplomats are alive

Garry Redmond, President of the Students Union of Ireland should be told that Irish diplomats are not dead.

Corpse and corps are two different words and pronounced differently.

So much for the great Irish education system

Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev

Twenty years ago tomorrow Mikhail Sergeyevich Gorbachev was put under house arrest in his summer residence in the Crimea.

That same day this blogger was in the former GDR town of Saalfeld. When local people heard the news they were concerned and the presence of Soviet tanks on the streets caused worry and foreboding.

In March Gorbachev celebrated his 80th birthday in London at a gala evening in the Royal Albert Hall hosted by Kevin Spacey and Sharon Stone. An eccentric array of singers performed.
The highlight was a performance on a large screen of Gorbachev singing a Russian love song.
He laughed. "If necessary I'll become a pop singer," he said. "Raisa liked it when I sang."

Bachmann knows too well what she is doing

There is a photograph in today's Irish Daily Star of US presidential hopeful Michele Bachmann. Bachmann is closely associated with the Tea Party.

Why did Bahmann allow such a photograph to be taken?

The similarities between Tea Party supporters and the right wing within the clerical Catholic Church are certainly worth noting.

Gay Byrne and the mad people in Brussels

TV personality' Gay Byrne's comment that Ireland is being run by 'mad people in Brussels' is an unfortunate comment.
Worse still is the comment of a senior Fianna Fail TD that Mr Byrne had 'his finger on the pulse'.

This is Ireland back at its old parochialism - what we do best.

Was Mr Byrne and the senior Fianna Fail TD saying that when the EU was giving us pound for pound building our institutes of technology, our roads, our rail carriages.

Mr Byrne's comments are appalling and actually racist.

Does he realise how many of the 'Mad Brussels' people are Irish? The mad Irish.

Hopefully he will decide not to run for the presidency.

A wall springs up around Berlin

Fifty years ago on Saturday the Berlin Wall was built.

It stayed in place 28 years.

Police were the ones to open fire

It has now been revealed that the young man shot dead in London by the Met did not fire any shot. The only people to use a weapon were the police.

It appears the Met are not too great at telling the truth.

Probably none of the thugs behaving in a thuggish fashion can offer high ranking police weekends in exclusive spas.

If people are neglected it is inevitable they will become thugs. And it will be even worse if the thugs see how their police behave towards them.

The looters and thugs have been observing the relationship between the Met and Murdoch's empire.

London violence is a social bushfire

The London riots are shocking. But so too iare the responses from the media and politicians.

And it could happen in Dublin, Cork, Limerick. We have close to half a million people without work.

Surely there is a link between years of neglect and this outbreak of violence.

Just some few weeks ago we saw how the police were in the pocket of the Murdoch press. And that's the murdoch press that the Cardinal Pell compares favourably to the Irish press.

London has no head of police as he had to resign for cosying up with Murdoch.

We read every day of the crass selfishness of the rich. That selfishness is simply filtering down to those who have been neglected.

The US is spending $85 million daily on its wars.

Neglected people can download all that information on their smart phones.

It takes the British prime minister three days to come home from his Italian holidays and still no sign of the Mayor of London.

How many of the looters and rioters have been at pubic school or a so-called 'elite' university?

The words used in media headlines this morning are ironically so similar to the words the Syrian government use when referring to their protestors.

Of course it is thugery. But why?

US Tea Party people called 'mad'

A respected commentator on US affairs remarked today on RTE 1's Sunday Morning Show that the US Tea Party people are mad.

That's the word he used.

And so too are the right wing in the Catholic Church. The perfect word - 'mad'. But dangerous too.

Drinking tea does not confer infallibility

Fr Brandan Hoban's comments on Fr Vincent Twomey as reported in yesterday's Irish Times give hope to our church.

He said that the new priests' association does not share in the Irish media's presumption that having tea with the pope once a year confers by osmosis some kind of creeping infallibility on Fr Twomey or anyone else.

He went on to say that the new missal "has more to do with living in the past than ministering in the presence or preparing for the future".

Cardinal Pell critical of Irish media

In the current issue of The Irish Catholic Rory Fitzgerald interviews the Archbishop of Sydney, George Pell. In the interview the cardinal says: "The main atheistic influence in Australia is in the media and academia. However, I don't think the Australian media would be in the same league as the Irish papers, in terms of being anti-Catholic".

It is worth noting that most Australian media is owned by one, Rupert Murdoch.

The cardinal's 'swipe' at the media should not be allowed go without a comment.

When the media kowtowed to the Irish church did George Pell complain.

We are fortunate to have a press that is more or less free.

The broadside at the media and academia is not worthy of the cardinal. That's the sort of comment made by despots and dictators who are criticised by the media.

The wonder of a great holiday

This column appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

By Michael Commane

It’s holiday time.

As a child, I spent my holidays on my granduncle’s farm on the Kilkenny-Tipperary border.

Looking back on those days now, it was idyllic.

Before we set off from our home in Dublin, I remember tidying up the car, Dad checking the oil and tyre pressure. Mum would have a picnic prepared for the journey. Sometimes we stopped on the Curragh to have our meal, on other occasions leaving it 'til later.

Usually, there would be some sort of dispute as to who would sit in the front: my brother wanting the prime seat, so, too, did my sister. Being the youngest, I was always in the back and in the middle. I was able to stand on the cover of the transmission-rod that ran back to the wheels. Standing there, it gave me a better view. In retrospect, I’m sort of baffled as to why Mum was not always in the front. That’s mothers for you.

They were great holidays: bringing in the hay, collecting eggs from the henhouse. While my brother and sister learned to horse-ride, I never managed it. Instead, I played about in the farmyard. On one occasion, my sister on a pony, I on a bicycle, went to the village of Crosspatrick, where we bought four Woodbine cigarettes. Later, we lit up in the henhouse. I was 10. My mother appeared and caught us at it. My first and last cigarette. Thank God for that: my mother was a smoker, later developing cancer of the larynx.

One day, I carved my name on a tall birch tree. Is proof of my delinquency still to be found?

In the late 1960s, the farm was sold to the Land Commission for approximately £20,000. A fabulous house with over 150 acres. All gone. At least, gone, out of my family.

50 years later, on my weekly rail-trip to and from Dublin, my mind strays back to those halcyon days as the train speeds through Thurles, Templemore, Ballybrophy. Now, watching people heading off on holidays, I’m always curious where they ‘re going and what they will be doing.

50 years ago Dublin Airport was a quiet spot – generally known as Collinstown. Today it’s the gateway for large numbers of people heading all over the world, whether on holiday or business. A short 20 years ago, it was unthinkable for most of us to go to Rome or Berlin for a weekend. These days, at work on Monday, I often hear people talking about a weekend in Milan or Paris. The summer holidays mean many head off for places as far away as Vietnam.

Maybe it’s a sign of getting older, but I’m less inclined now to fly off and away. There’s so much to see and experience at home in my own place. Last Friday I called on a friend, who lives in Limerick. On the Saturday morning, we went on a walk around the city. We retraced the streets Frank McCourt writes about in Angela’s Ashes. Later we went around by the Treaty Stone and visited the old Dominican priory, St Saviour’s in Barrack Street, built in the 13th century. It was my first time to see the monument recalling the Limerick Soviet in Clancy’s Strand overlooking the weir at Curraghgower.

While we were there a man was about to go fishing in low tide. The Shannon is tidal as far as there. A beautiful spot. I wonder what he was thinking. Looking at the man in the distance, with his fishing rod and wearing waders, it was clear he had a purpose. His was a stride, not a step. He knew what he was about.

Though too-cold a day for the end of July, it was great to be free, simply having the time to saunter, visiting out-of-the-way places I'd never seen before. It’s intriguing to observe people. I’m often tempted to stop and talk to strangers. I wonder what people are thinking, doing. What the hell it’s all about.

Of course it’s great to observe other cultures and people. But it’s fascinating to take a snapshot of our own people; of how we think and behave. I’m forever amazed how it  -  we -  all hold together.

It does. We do.

That’s the wonder.

The art of turning a blind eye

A number of years ago this blogger commented to a fellow Dominican that there was some similarity between living in 'religious community' or diocesan priesthood and living in the former GDR where people did not know who was working for the MfS - Stasi.

Is it at all possible for people to live in groupings where there are such disparate views and opinions, where people do not speak the truth to one another?

And then there is all the so-called theology spoof.

The current disclosures bombarding the church have their genesis in an underlying fundamental dishonesty that goes on within the so-called institutional church.

A good analogy - the recent rail crash in China might have to do with a signalling problem but there is a far deeper underlying problem in China.

If the church concentrates on cleaning up the current sex issues, refusing to look at the deeper issues, it will do very little in getting to the heart of the problem.

Hollinghurst says something very wise

Author Alan Hollinghurst's latest book  The Stranger's Child has been receiving favourable reviews.

Hollinghurst is an author and gay. He is quite fascinated by how not being able to say things creates a sort of tension.

That is a great line.

It should never be an issue whether a person is gay or not. But difficulties emerge when people are forced to hide their sexual orientation.

What happen then when gay men join religious orders, congregations and priesthood?

They find themselves in a society/community whose history and orthodoxy is opposed to homosexuality.

What happens when a significant number of gay men join such organisations?

It leads to secrecy, ternsion and a lifestyle of subterfuge, trickery too.

As long as the institutional church refuses to be open and honest on this issue, the church will remain incapable of being truthful in its mission.

Queueing in all sorts of places

This column appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

By Michael Commane
Queueing at a Dublin Bikes’ bay last week while waiting for someone to leave back a bike I had a flash back to other queueing I have done. I have an antipathy about queueing and can never understand why people spend time in queues, or lines, as they call them in the US.

We have gone from queueing for a bike, queueing at an ATM and before that queueing in a pew, waiting for ‘confession’. Not to mention the silly queueing that Irish Rail makes us endure.

So while standing at the Dublin Bikes’ stand I recalled queueing in the nearby Carmelite church in Clarendon Street maybe 50 years ago. My Dad and I had gone there to go to ‘confession’ for Christmas. I can still remember the pews upon pews of people that evening kneeling down and waiting to go to ‘confession’.

That was the norm back then. Large numbers of Catholics in this State did what their priests told them to do. They went to Mass. They went to ‘confession’. They believed that if they lived a particular type of life they would be rewarded with eternal life with God in Heaven.

Of course there were those who muttered under their breaths but it would seem the majority obeyed the rules of Holy Mother Church.

Was it a true personal faith conviction? Was it that people were simply subservient to an authority? Was it that people were afraid – afraid of authority and also afraid of going to Hell?

It is also worth asking how well that faith sat with people and what knowledge or understanding they had of this faith to which they subscribed.

Why was it that so many people simply sheepishly followed church authorities? It seems as if there was no real attempt or interest to have a grown-up understanding of the Christian faith.

We went to ‘confession’. And people still go to ‘confession’. Has no-one ever told us that ‘confession’ is only one aspect of the Sacrament. It is the Sacrament of Reconciliation where we confess our sins. Contrition is the most important part of the Sacrament. In many ways by calling the Sacrament by its incorrect name we have caricatured it – made a bags of it. What’s new?

We begin every Mass by asking God to forgive us our sins. Had the theologians been brave and prophetic enough there could have been a great renaissance of this Sacrament after Vatican II but instead, the hierarchical church has played a significant role in overseeing the demise of the Sacrament.

Right across every aspect of church governance there has been an appalling lack of leadership. Maybe that happens in all walks of life – wherever there are human beings. But the church seems to excel at inefficiency, fear and sycophancy. And when that’s mixed in with authoritarianism and the worst forms of that sycophancy then it spells disaster.

Back at the time of the queueuing for ‘confession’ we were told that if we did not go to Mass on Sunday we were in grave danger of losing eternal life. That was the worst and most idiotic reading of the crassest form of any theology.

I can still remember in secondary school laughing with others at the idea that you could ‘sin’ on a Friday night, go to ‘confession’ on a Saturday and then receive Communion on a Sunday.

I can also remember being told that you could be the greatest sinner of all time and then that moment before you died you asked for forgiveness and then, hey presto, you were with God in Heaven.

Everything to do with faith is nuanced and nothing is simple. It is impossible to talk about the mystery of God in clichés. Faith can never be confined to open and closed solutions.

But back in those ‘dark’ days, people simply did what they were told. The trouble is maybe today we are doing exactly the same. This time round we have just changed the star we are following.

The moral of the story might be that we all need to grow up and start thinking for ourselves. Still, we are herd animals and there is little we can do to change that.

Back in the ’60s, ’70s, ’80s and even ’90s it was seldom you would see glamorous women and men on bicycles. These days so many cyclists are head turners.

Most of us are slaves to fashion and the mores of the day. Unfortunately.

That’s the way it is.

Berlin profiles in Morgenpost

The Berliner Morgenpost is doing a series on people living in the German capital.

They have begun with a member of a religious community.

Here is a short description of what Petra Stelzner does.

Petra Stelzner ist 1985 der Ordensgemeinschaft der Schwestern der Hl. Maria Magdalena Postel beigetreten. „Der Schritt ins Kloster“, sagt sie, „war für mich ein Schritt in die Freiheit.“ 20 Jahre hat sie im Kloster gelebt. Dann schuf sie in Berlin-Wedding eine Insel. Keine Anlaufstelle für Arme und Kranke, keine Kapelle. Wer in die Lüderitzstraße kommt, muss nicht fromm sein. Er muss Kinder mögen.

Troubled and dangerous times

Last weekend in Norway a right wing fanatic, who is opposed to the Lisbon Treaty, slaughtered 79 people.

That same weekend a priest in Ireland is reported to have said in a sermon during Mass that the Irish Government has an agenda with the church. He pointed out that the Ministers for Education and Foreign Affairs are atheists and that the Minister for Justice is a non-practising Jew.

Outrageous.

We are living in troubled and dangerous times.

Rupert Murdoch and John Magee

Below is the Thinking Anew column in today's Irish Times.

Rupert Murdoch and John Magee are household names in Ireland these days. Household names for different reasons but  both men in some way or other might well  have considered  themselves untouchable.  Murdoch  built up one of the world's largest media corporations. And John Magee was a serving bishop in one of the world’s most influential and enduring organisations.

A colleague of mine who worked for a Murdoch-owned newspaper was of the opinion that News Corporation executives believed that their boss was infallible, and so could never err.  And  for that reason  subordinates were always slow to  challenge or sack appointments  made by him and his senior people.   People forget Hans Christian Andersen’s fable about the “emperor who had no clothes”.  It is generally accepted that Murdoch sought world domination in the media business. He got close to it.


It may be that John Magee, the former bishop of Cloyne, felt he was above the law of the land, and so dodged and fudged when it came to reporting matters of child sex abuse to the relevant authorities. He placed himself and the church above democratically appointed institutions. And this dangerous notion affected part of Rupert Murdoch’s business empire too, as we have seen in the past weeks.

Even today practising Catholics, including priests, are slow to criticise bishops. In the not-too-distant past people, especially priests, lived in dread and fear of their bishop. It was a most unhealthy relationship, which inevitably led to serious problems.

In tomorrow's Gospel, Matthew tells us that “the kingdom of heaven is like a merchant in search of fine pearls; on finding one pearl of great value, he went and sold all that he had and bought it.” (Matthew 13: 45 - 46)


No matter who we are or how important the world or our fellow citizens may consider us, we at all times are challenged by the Word of God to offer our allegiance to truth. Nothing else. Alas, far too often all of us are distracted in our search for the truth. And so too is the world.
As Christians we believe we fail and err - all of us. But far too often we make heroes of people and organisations.  For a while they can do no wrong.  The media have been adept at making "heroes"   and so too the church.
And when  the truth emerges,  and it all comes crumbling down in front of us, institutions and organisations go to great lengths to absolve themselves.

All the time the message of the Gospel is that our search, our loyalty is to the Word of God, who is truth and goodness and love.

Yes, we believe that we are a fallen people but we also believe because of the grace that God offers us we are capable of great goodness. So when ‘ordinary people’ are confronted with crime, dishonesty, cruelty, they innately see the wrongness of it and set about putting things right.

The hidden treasure that Matthew talks about is the treasure that fascinates all of us. Life throws up all sorts of confusions and distractions. But no matter how bad things may be, we believe in the word of God. who is always offering us the possibility and the chance to decipher the real pearls and treasures in life.

Sadly but so often the case, we offer undue loyalty to people and organisations. Far better to offer our loyalty to the truth, and in doing that we can be assured of the grace of God.

Something in the human psyche is vulnerable to and tempted by the trappings of power and importance. It happens all the time wherever there are human beings. When it happens in the church, with its arcane hierarchical structures,  traditional sycophancy and secrecy can make a bad situation a thousand times worse.

The Gospel is the story of God revealing divine truth, love and mercy. It challenges us to search for truth, even if this means standing up to the great and powerful, whoever and wherever they are. It also calls on us to be kind and merciful.
Treasure at times can be difficult to discern and many of us invariably miss it. Prophets are few and far between

The Jesus of Bethlehem, the Jesus of the Gospel,  leaves us with no alternative. That same Jesus spent his life being critical of the ruling classes. His inclination, temperament, his ideology was to side with the sick, the   suffering, the disenfranchised and marginalised.

And that’s the calling of every Christian.

-MC

US Dominican says it so well

The Dominican Order should be proud today of Tom Doyle's piece in today's Irish Times.
Tom talks about the virus that continues to corrupt the church to the point that the people of God are buried in anachronistic monarchism.
"The Taoiseach's groundbreaking speech buries the destructive myth that the institutional Catholic Church, with its monarchical governing structure, is some sort of superior or exalted political entity with self creative rights to subvert the civic order of any society that calls it to accountability for the behaviour of its privileged class."

Fabulous words and thoughts.

Taoiseach turns guns on Vatican's narcissism

Yesterday the Taoiseach said in the Dáil; “The Cloyne Report excavates the dysfunction, disconnection, elitism, the narcissism that dominate the Vatican to this day”.

CORI newsletter not the way to do it

CORI's newsletter surely is not a good example in media management.

What is it about church groups and messaging?

Has CORI a full-time press officer?

As a member of a body affiliated to CORI this blogger feels, to say the least, embarrassed and disappointed with recent press release.

Priest speaks terrible words from pulpit

Since this blog first went live it has tried to be 'cheeky' at times irreverent and certainly questioning of the institutional church.

It has a healthy readership. People from time to time make comments. Some are positive, some are negative and the really nasty and abusive ones are not published. The anonymous comments still keep coming.

Just an introduction for this entry.

It is a cold wet day in Dublin. Hard to believe it is summer. I cycled to Rathfarnham church in south Dublin to attend 4.30pm Mass. Afraid to leave the bicycle outside, so I brought it in and left it at the back of the church - on the advice of a parishioner.

The priest began Mass. He had sympathetic voice and sounded like a 'nice man.

He began his sermon saying that he had preached earlier in the day and felt the Holy Spirit was urging him to say it again.

He recalled how last Thursday was a terrible day for him - the media rolled out its usual people to condemn the church. He went on to say that the Irish Government was about to treat priests as they had been treated in penal times.

He said ony two per cent of priests were abusers.

Had the bike not been at the back it would have been easy to slip out but it would have been wrong of me to have stayed listening to this man any longer, so I simply went over to my bike, unlocked it and left the church.

Of course the Government was silly to introduce the seal of confession issue - all it did and does is give an excuse to such priests.

What to do?

Maybe we should be celebrating if all this means the demise of the current clerical institutional church.

Bishop behaves like overthrown despot

The no-show behaviour of Bishop John Magee is what overthrown despots and dictators do.

In recent years it was generally accpeted that the Cloyne diocese was 'attracting' large numbers of vocations. And part of the lore was that they 'were wonderful young men'.

That phenomenon is not just happening in Cloyne.

Bending the knee is never acceptable

In today's Guardian Timothy Garton Ash writes on the Murdoch saga. The theme of his piece is that powerful people bent the knee. He talks of how Blair wooed the press barons for all he was worth.
"Only as he was about to leave office, after 10 years, did he dare to denounce the British media for behaving 'like a feral beast'."

Is it too big a jump to compare that reality with the relationship between the Irish State and the Catholic Church?

A mindset that shows no sign of change

Anyone who reads today's RTE website's report of political comment on the Cloyne Report needs to keep in mind that the mindset that allowed these unspeakable crimes to take part is in the ascendancy in today's church.

The damning report and the invisible bishop

On the day after the publication of the Cloyne Report it is difficult for any normal person to remain composed.

Where was John Magee yesterday?

He was quite visible and public when he was prancing around in that ever so clerical manner when he was working in the Vatican. And all the talk and all the nonsense that went with the job. Back then it was excruciatingly embarrassing listening to the lore, watching the dress and all the clerical gestures that goes with that particular terrain.

It is also worth noting that on the day of the Cloyne Report the website entry for one religious order is -"Today is Wednesday of the 15th week of the year".

More nonsense but an interesting insight into the mindset of the clerical caste.

Bishop Magee's interaction with 17-year-old boy

The extract below is from the Cloyne Report published today.

One is forced to ask after all these years was the Guardian newspaper not far off the mark when it asked some pertinent questions.

This is the tip of a terrible iceberg and some brave church leader needs to be open and honest.

Bishop Magee is well known for his pious words and holy thoughts.

And this same piousity and holiness is in the ascendancy in the church today.

Was it not so obvious for so long. Is all the nonsense and humbug not as clear as the nose on our face?

It is.

It's well worth studying the Guardian newspaper in the context of some of the nonsensenical pious 'churchy' publications - electronic and hard copy.

Maybe our modern day saints are the women and men who work at that newspaper.

Toxic fits with Rupert Murdoch, who is a papal knight and his corporation. The term fits too with the word 'church' and its bishops and leaders.


What follows is from the Report.

1553 Bishop Magee: The inquiry also dealt with a personal complaint against the former bishop himself.

The report said concerns had been raised about Bishop John Magee's own interaction with a 17-year-old youth named as Joseph. As a result of the complaint, the bishop had to receive 'boundary counselling'.

The concerns relate to a meeting the young man had alone with the bishop after he had decided not to take up a priestly vocation.

Joseph reported that the bishop embraced him tightly for around a minute and at the same time asked it it 'felt good.' Joseph also said the bishop kissed him on the forehead, and that Magee told him he loved him and that he dreamt about him.

Cloyne Report out today

The Cloyne Report will be published later today.

It will an account of more unspeakable crimes and subsequent cover ups.

At one stage the Vatican tried to link the abuse issue with the worldwide in read in pornography etc.

The abuse and cover up is far older than CDs, DVDs and modern print, TV and radio media.

A brand that seems to be toxic

As in any group of people there are the good, the bad and the indifferent. But is there something about priesthood that makes men rude, selfish and at times downright horrible?

Certainly the Irish brand seems to thrive on the 'cute hoor' model - be inefficient, rude but never admit to getting things wrong.

An audit of Irish priesthood could make a great study. And none of this has anything to do with sexuality. But maybe it has and maybe that's where so many of the problems begin out on their horrible journey.

And so arrogant too.

German tanks head for Saudi Arabia

Germany is about to export €60 million worth of tanks to Saudi Arabia.

The world's three largest exporters of arms are the US, Russia and Germany.