Atheist Ireland Forum

The silencing of Fr Flannery may be the rallying point for those in the Catholic Church who are fed up with Roman authoritarian attitudes.
Today, I notice in the papers and on websites a growing correspondence both for and against conservative values in the church.

Hopefully the split will be large enough to weaken the wing that believes in hanging on to temporal influence. Hopefully, the other camp - the people who would 'allow' women priests, contraception etc - will be more respectful of the rights of others.

Meanwhile, it's a great show. I can't wait for the Iona crowd and the holy columnists of the Irish Times to show their hands.

I've been following that too, some of the comments on the Independent site make entertaining reading (from both camps). The RCC Ltd don't really do change though, they've been in the business a long time and are happy to play the waiting game. For a small few (clergy and laity) this may be the straw that breaks the camels back and leave but most will grudgingly fall back into line.

http://www.independent.ie/opinion/analy ... 80035.html
The Pope Quinn in fine form. He's going to burst a blood vessel.

I've been reading a bit on this, it encapsulates the Irish catholic mindset nicely, the whole thing of "yes I'm a catholic but I don't go to mass and I'll happily ride anything that moves while wearing a condom and roaring the lord's name". Shouldn't it be either you're in or you're out?

Yer man Quinn has some gas quotes on this: "The teaching should be changed only if what was previously taught turns out to be false....What is really needed then is more and better explanation of why the church believes what it believes."

OK, so how can they turn around and say "well, that stuff about homosexuality, we were kind of wrong there, from now on the whole of Leviticus is a fable, OK? But the rest of the bible's still OK, apart from the other fairy story bits we covered earlier..."

And how would they even start to rationally explain beliefs that are based on faith?

If you think Quinn is as mad as a hatter, John Waters has finally signed himself into the loony bin...

http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/opi ... 81378.html

Second last par is a classic Watersism: "At the back of this is the agenda of a dense ideological cadre whose thinking extends to the circumference of positivist apprehension and no further, and who extrapolate from this limited assessment of reality the most pessimistic interpretation of what is possible".

My head's going to explode. Does anybody understand this gobbledigook?

Here's some more light-hearted stuff: "No longer will our children be told they are Christ’s chosen ones, but instead the accidental offspring of the pointless oozing of primordial slime, units of meat and bone, existing for random junctures by bread and rules in an originless, meaningless and indifferent universe."

Waters should have plenty to think about in that padded cell with David Quinn. They deserve each other.

The remarkable thing about that Waters article is that it is not an April Fool but his 'real' thoughts. But isn't it great to see them tearing themselves apart, ranting and raving and screaming their paranoia to deaf ears after all those years of lording it over the country?

By the way, the next meeting of the Dense Ideological Cadre is in the snug of the usual place on Wednesday night. Members are requested to refrain from any pointless oozing of slime , as being merely units of meat and bone it has no eternal purpose.

Heard the Marian Finucane show today 15-April.

Guests: Patricia Casey, IONA and Gary O’Sullivan, editor of Irish Catholic newspaper.

Fr. Gabriel Daly, an Augustinian priest and theologian was well worth a listen.

http://www.rte.ie/radio1/marianfinucane/
Part1 starting at 27min.
Fr. Gabriel Daly 33min-end


Gary O’Sullivan said his in favour of a married clergy.

Direct link to part1 podcast:
http://www.rte.ie/podcasts/2012/pc/pod- ... _audio.mp3

'Celebrity' priest Brian D'Arcy has also come into the crosshairs of the Vatican. He has always seemed to be on the more liberal wing of the RCC and seemed popular with a lot of the church going faithful (my grandmother thought he was great anyway), so I don't think this'll be popular in the pews.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-northern-ireland-17857980

As a columnist, Brian D'Arcy has been a member of the NUJ. It will be interesting to see how the media Catholics handle this latest attack on free speech. I can't wait to read Holy Waters in the Irish Times.

I think I might organise myself and a small group of people to join my local golf club and start a campaign to get everyone in the club to play rugby instead of golf, but absolutely insist it's still a golf club and that we're all allowed to call ourselves golfers.

Then I might print myself some business cards. In the bottom right hand corner will read...

Bipedalhumanoid
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