Inquiry into child abuse at Catholic institutions in Ireland

priests are like celebrities

http://1.bp.blogspot.com/_qIv--4bRQ6M/SwvKuE6HYRI/AAAAAAAAAGs/RiY0HVJUn-I/s1600/elvis3.gif

"my knob was only resting there"

I mean one of the worst things about being an ex-Catholic is that it's just really really hard to fully wash your hands of the whole deal - if you could just go, OK, you know what, that's an irredeemable snakepit of horror, everybody needs to gtfo now, but there's always this hope of people righting the ship.

a lot of ppl who move to the periphery/outside of the church still feel committed to some dream of how the institution could be even when their whole ideology has been reworked, but catholics in particular seem to be stuck in orbit. ppl like mary grey have some good ideas about the church as a social institution in the community, but their commitment to that gets fudged w/ the appalling attitudes higher up, I would like ppl to assert the independent value of their churches over The Church, but thats prob my non-conformist background

big proposed boycott of mass on sun 26th september in protest of the unacknowledged role of women in the church is making big news over here. could turn into a general protest encompassing sexual abuse and the response to it as well.

i doubt ppl will actually pay heed to this

ppl who go to mass, or ppl who don't?

why does anyone even bother to be Catholic anymore

eh i don't know too many that hit 17 and decided to 'go for it' man?

ppl who go to mass.

i dunno about that- lol media, but it's gathering quite a bit of pace in the media

http://www.lrb.co.uk/v32/n16/colm-toibin/among-the-flutterers

this is good

It'll be interesting to see what happens with this strike thing. Most of the people who still attend Mass have a lot invested in their Catholic identity - especially the generations born before 1970 or so (to pick an arbitrary year). My parents, and as far as I can see most of their peers, go to Mass every Sunday, even though they happily endorse positions contrary to teaching on most of the controversial issues and will criticise the handling of the abuse scandals at every opportunity. As has been pointed out upthread, people often accept a disconnect between appreciating the church as it manifests at a local level - Mass every Sunday, good priests - and scorning the politics and power games of the higher levels of the Catholic hierarchy.

At a family event a few days ago I observed a conversation in which my father declared to a group of middle-aged solid Catholics that the current Pope is "insane", and everyone agreed. They also discussed the strike in approving terms. But I'll be (pleasantly) surprised if any of them do strike, if only for the reason that their current relationship with the Church basically seems to ignore the higher-ups that are the target of the strike.

wau @ that LRB piece. unfortunately i lack the nerve to forward it to all my still-practicing irish-armerican catholic relatives.

My dad and his sister, who have been devout Catholics their entire life and never disagree with anything emanating from throughout the Church, have passed on the opportunity to come down and attend the Pope's mass in Glasgow. I think, after 70 years, my dad's finally starting to see that what he gets on a spiritual and personal level from it does not necessarily translate throughout the Church. It will never take his faith away from him, but I couldn't have imagined a few years ago that he would pass up the opportunity to participate in a Papal visit.

Ogmor OTM about the being stuck in orbit thing, basically.

at least half of catholics in scotland come from the glasgow area, the rest of the area hates him but i doubt many will bother to protest

FWIW, I'd take my dad (and others like him) not attending the Papal Mass as a form of protest, it's not always about wielding pitchforks and twatting about outside Bellahouston Park with Jack Glass and Ian Paisley leading the crowds in a rendition of No Pope Of Rome. There have been a massive amount of tickets returned, and despite feeble "but it might be raining" noises, I can't believe the majority of people wanting to attend a Papal Mass would be put off by a bit of drizzle and a queue for the portaloos.

http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/pope-mass-briefs-are-returned-1.1045294

(quick sums show pfunkboy is claiming that over one and a half million people actively hate the Pope. I don't know anyone with much more than a "meh" to contribute about him and his visit, tbh, perhaps I should be thankful that I don't get out more)

seandalai kinda nails the disconnect btwn everyday mass and 'THE CHURCH'.

Yet more good news for the Catholic Church

those guys!

If they're not fiddling with kids, they're blowing them up, it's one thing after another with those guys

From the Guardian report:

An NIO official wrote back a week later confirming that the secretary of state, Willie Whitelaw, had held a meeting with Cardinal Conway, the head of the Catholic church in Ireland, and: "The cardinal said that he knew that the priest was a very bad man and would see what could be done. The cardinal mentioned the possibility of transferring him to Donegal."

A very bad man!

A terrible man for the nail bombing

Mr Shillington said he would "prefer a move to Tipperary". Tipperary is about 200 miles from the border.

It's a long way to Tipperary, it's a long way to go

http://web4.twitpic.com/img/162330200-fc0c12ffc51e71e7d2241ee09298924e.4c90d160-full.jpg

My mum doesnt like crowds, so she never went in 1982 and wont go now. But she wont listen to any criticism of the church at all. She refuses to listen.

londond shows sold out at a fiver a ticket, demand for the pope is highly price elastic. who knew?

“As we reflect on the sobering lessons of the atheist extremism of the 20th century...”

this dude is amazing

You don't get to be pope without a certain talent for inflexibility

hell of a welcoming committee

http://dl.dropbox.com/u/818963/1224279045776.jpg

tho wtf lawrie sanchez is doing there i dont know

this fucking guy
this fucking guy
this fucking guy
this fucking guy
this fucking guy
this fucking guy
this fucking guy

This Pope is pretty much the worst troll ever. "Sorry about the child abuse btw this is how Nazi Germany started". 15 suggest bans on his first post, guaranteed.

i didnt know Marcello was the pope!

Interesting how this has become the default thread for talking about Catholicism.

I <3 this Pope because he's doing a lot to kill off some of my lingering ex-Catholic sentimentalism

Why haven't Tatchell, Dawkins and Fry all linked arms and tried a citizen's arrest? Would expect the Pope's security is less likely to thump you than Mugabe goons.

More likely to hang you off a bridge with masonic symbols stuffed up your arse later on tho

I <3 this Pope because he's doing a lot to kill off some of my lingering ex-Catholic sentimentalism

― aerosmith: live at gunpoint (underrated aerosmith albums I have loved), Thursday, 16 September 2010 21:02 (41 minutes ago)

haha quite

isn't some BANTER expected when he comes to london?

john paul presented a jolly charismatic face of child rape denial.

this guy is like fucking weekend at benedicts

"The Queen gave the pope a set of modern prints of Hans Holbein the Younger's portraits of England's first Protestant monarchs"

lol zing

hahaha nice

was going to say "lol burn" but thought better not

john paul presented a jolly charismatic face of child rape denial.

He seemed so beatific and kindly when he was systematically covering up the widespread child abuse.

Yeah, I'm warming to Ben 16 because i'm so sick of hearing about how great JP II was when in reality he was a reactionary cunt

http://desmond.yfrog.com/Himg36/scaled.php?tn=0&server=36&filename=ve5y.jpg&xsize=640&ysize=640

STADIUM MASS!

hmm i dunno what you expect from the head of the roman catholic church, tbh. i'm always surprised by vehement hatred of any of them for their conservative political/social views, as if great social change was one of the expectations of the incumbent.

that looks like it could take off at glasto tbf

He totally jumped into the crowd at the end, I heard.

Eavis is a bit of a god-botherer, don't put that idea into his head.

He totally jumped into the crowd at the end, I heard.

Went down into the pit to distribute communion to all the pretty girls in the front row.