Thursday 31 May 2012


SHOULD THE CHURCH MINISTER TO PAEDOPHILES?

Paedophilia is a most horrible crime deserving the strongest possible condemnation and punishment.
However, we Christians must ask ourselves the difficult and controversial question – “Should we minister to paedophiles”?
And I don’t only mean priest paedophiles. Only 3% of Catholic priests are paedophiles. Most paedophiles are family members known to the children that they abuse – fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, uncles and aunts. You also find paedophiles in all walks of life – labourers, carpenters, plumbers, teachers, doctors, politicians and lawyers.
To answer the question: “Should the Church minister to paedophiles” we must turn for an answer to that question to Jesus. He was very hard on people that hurt children. He said: “Better for that person to have a rock chained around their neck and be cast into the ocean”.
At the same time He was full of compassion to all the outcasts in society – lepers, tax collectors, prostitutes etc.
In my 36 years ministry as a priest and a bishop I have come across two basic classes of paedophile:
1.     Those who are truly sorry for what they did and want help never to hurt a child again.
2.     Those who have no guilt or sorrow for their actions and are determined to continue abusing children.
You can do nothing for Group 2 except to punish them and supervise them intensely until the day they die.
But I believe that Group 1 – the genuinely remorseful can be ministered to, worked with and helped.
Being a paedophile is a bit like being an alcoholic. An alcoholic is never “cured”. Once an alcoholic, always and alcoholic. It is a lifetime condition that must be managed on a daily basis – one day at a time. Paedophilia is a deep rooted psychosexual condition. There is no cure for it. It must be managed for a lifetime, one day at a time.
But if a person is willing to engage in a lifetime management of their condition then they can and should be helped and ministered to. Aspects of that management would be:
1.     Attending weekly lifestyle meetings preferably run by professionals and in which you are absolutely honest about your thoughts and fantasies.
2.     Having a core person to call on immediately if tempted or experiencing difficulties.
3.     Engaging in regular and on-going therapy with a regular focus on the issue from the point of view of victims.
4.     Never allowing yourself to be alone in the company of minors.
5.     Ensuring that you live in areas in which there are no families or schools.
6.     Taking responsibility to inform the police where you live or your past and your condition.
7.     If you attend church making the clergy and the designated child protection person in the parish fully aware of your situation.
If a guilty man or woman, who had served their time, were to follow these steps then I think that the Church community should minister to them. I think that the Jesus who “forgave” the Good Thief and who pardoned His own murderers would want us to do so. The disciples asked Jesus: “Lord how often should I forgive my enemies – as often as seven times”? Jesus replied: “Not seven times but seventy times seven times”. That’s 490 times!
It’s not easy to be a Christian. Being a real Christian is a real challenge as it nearly always challenges our prejudices, our blind spots and even our hysteria.
Bishop Pat Buckley
31/05/2012 

Wednesday 30 May 2012


MAYNOOTH IS A GAY SEMINARY
Last Sunday Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin ordained a number of deacons at St. Patrick’s Seminary, Maynooth, Ireland and told them not to make seminary life their whole focus but to think of their training in the context of the whole church and a life time of priestly service.
However the problem is that the seminary model for priestly training is seriously flawed and is currently producing young priests who are unbelievably immature, doctrinally right wing and sexually all screwed up!
I keep in contact regularly with a small number of Maynooth seminarians. They tell me that most of their colleagues are forced to pretend to be people that they are not. Many of the seminarians are secretly gay and are involved in sexual relationships with each other and visiting gay venues and cruising areas in Dublin. One seminarian, who is not gay, has been in a three year relationship with a young lady and they are sexually active as a couple. But he has to pretend that he is celibate and is committed to a life of priestly celibacy. But his true intention in to be a good priest on the one hand and continue to have a relationship with his partner. A couple of weeks ago he told me that after his ordination they are planning to have a baby.  His long term hope is that the Catholic Church will change its laws on celibacy so that he can live openly as a married priest.
Forcing people, either “straight” or “gay” to live a double life is a recipe for disaster.
I do not believe that celibacy is a direct cause of paedophilia in the priesthood. However giving people a screwed up theology of sex – as the Catholic Church does – and forcing them to lead double lives has been, in my opinion, a contributory factor to paedophilia.
I know many young and not so young priests in Irish dioceses who feel forced to live double lives. Most of them are gay but some of them are involved with women. From the pulpit they preach Catholic Church teaching on contraception, sex outside marriage and homosexuality but when Mass is over they take off their collars and head for their love nests. Spiritually people who are forced to live like this are spiritual schizophrenics!  In the long term living like this has to lead to psychological and personality difficulties. It also prevents priests developing a healthy and life supporting spirituality.
To sort out these serious issues the Catholic Church will have to address the following issues:
1.     Its whole theology of human sexuality.
2.     Its insistence on every priest being a celibate.
3.     Its requirement that every candidate for priesthood live in a quasi- monastic seminary.
I see no hope of any of these things changing in the near future. And so the Catholic Church will continue to lurch from scandal to scandal and from crisis to crisis. As the old people in Belfast say: “Jesus wept”.
Bishop Pat Buckley
30/05/2012

Monday 28 May 2012


ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS (IRELAND) ARE DISSIDENTS

A member of the leadership team of the Association of Catholic Priests (Ireland), Father Brendan Hoban, has said that his organisation of 900 + Irish priests are not “dissidents”.
In the dictionary the word “dissident” is defined as: rebellious, dissenting, unorthodox, non-conforming.
I was present at the ACP gathering in Dublin on May 7th 2012 and many voices from the floor called for the ordination of women, the abolition of compulsory celibacy for priests and the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in every aspect of Catholic Church life – including I imagine the ordination of gay men and lesbian women.
The Vatican and Roman Curia has ruled - out for all time – the ordination of women. They have declared that they have no intention of making celibacy optional for Catholic priests. They call gay and lesbian people GRAVELY DISORDERED and have no intention of ordaining them or blessing their unions.
The Pope, Curia and the world’s bishops say that they are the magisterium – the teaching authority of the Church. The Pope claims to be infallible on matters of faith and morals. He believes that what he says is what Jesus says!
In calling for the ordination of women, optional celibacy for priests and the full inclusion of gay and lesbian people in all aspects of Church life the ACT, Father Brendan Hoban, Father Sean McDonagh, Father PJ Madden, Father Kevin Hegarty, Father Gerry O’Connor, Father Tony Flannery, Father Adrian Egan and Brian Darcy are dissenting from the official teaching of the Roman Catholic Church and therefore they are DISSIDENTS!  In fact Rome would regard them as spreading heresy and promoting schism. If Rome wants to take it far enough it could suspend them from the priesthood.
The ACP is going to have to: “pee or get off the pot”.
 Verbal liberals, who just talk and never act, are more dangerous within the Church that right wing fundamentalists. At least you know exactly where you stand with right wing individuals like Father Vincent Twomey and scary organisations like Opus Dei and The Society of St Pius X.
Is the ACP just going to be another Catholic clerical talking shop or is it going to challenge what needs to be challenged? Time will tell. Current squeaky noises from the ACP are worrying.


Bishop Pat Buckley
28/05/2012

Sunday 27 May 2012

WOMEN'S ORDINATION
(Francis Croake)


Among the animals in the cold dank dark of a stable,
After the pain and the bleeding and the birthing;
Mary looked down at the baby lying across her legs
And said: "THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD".

In the shadows of the bleak Calvary hill,
    After the pain and the bleeding and the dying;
                 Mary looked down at the broken frame across her legs 
and said: "THIS IS MY BODY. THIS IS MY BLOOD".

  Its just as well that she said it to Him then.
.For now, dry old men,
    In brocaded robes belying barrenness,
       Ordain that she cannot say it to Him now.

Saturday 26 May 2012



I BELIEVE

(PAT BUCKLEY - 1994)


I BELIEVE THAT IN THIS WORLD IT IS IMPOSSIBLE TO UNDERSTAND GOD.
I BELIEVE THAT GOD MADE THIS WONDERFUL UNIVERSE AND ALL THAT EXISTS.
I CAN FIND GOD IN NATURE, IN ANIMALS, IN BIRDS AND THE ENVIRONMENT.
I BELIEVE THAT GOD MADE ALL MEN AND WOMEN.
THAT HE MADE THEM ALL EQUAL.
AND THAT HE LOVES AND CHERISHES THEM ALL EQUALLY.
I BELIEVE THAT THE WHOLE HUMAN RACE IS THE FAMILY OF GOD.
I BELIEVE THAT THERE MAY BE INTELLIGENT LIFE ON OTHER PLANETS
AND IF SO, THEY TOO ARE PART OF GOD'S FAMILY.
I HOLD THAT RELIGION AND FAITH ARE TWO DIFFERENT THINGS.
THAT RELIGION CAN BE BOTH GOOD AND BAD.
AND THAT IT IS SPIRITUALITY THAT COUNTS.
TO ME YOUR RELIGION IS AN ACCIDENT OF YOUR BIRTH
OR A GIFT OF GOD'S GREAT PROVIDENTIAL DIVERSITY.
THERE IS NO ONE, TRUE CHURCH.
ALL CHURCHES AND ALL RELIGIONS CONTAIN ASPECTS OF THE TRUTH.
BUT ONLY GOD IS TRUTH.
NO MAN IS INFALLIBLE.
A BUDDHIST OR A GOOD ATHEIST IS AS ACCEPTABLE TO GOD AS A GOOD CATHOLIC.
I BELIEVE THAT SEX IS GOOD AND SO IS THE BODY.
THE ONLY SEXUAL ACT THAT IS SINFUL IS THE ONE THAT USES OR ABUSES.
I BELIEVE IN PEOPLE, ESPECIALLY SUFFERING PEOPLE.
I BELIEVE IN THE POWER OF WEAKNESS.
I BELIEVE THAT ALL MEN AND WOMEN WILL BE SAVED.
I BELIEVE IN A PACKED HEAVEN AND AN EMPTY HELL.
AND EVEN SATAN MIGHT GET ANOTHER CHANCE.
I BELIEVE IN THE FREEDOM OF GOD'S SONS AND DAUGHTERS.
I BELIEVE THAT DOGMA IS OFTEN EVIL.
I BELIEVE THAT LIFE IS A JOURNEY TOWARDS GOD.
AND THAT NO ONE HAS THE RIGHT TO INSIST YOU GO A CERTAIN ROAD.
I BELIEVE THAT GOD AND REALITY ARE TOO BIG FOR MY POOR WORDS.
I BELIEVE, THEREFORE, THAT I AM ONLY AT A BEGINNING.
ONLY KNOCKING AT A DOOR.
AND I BELIEVE THAT THE BEST IS YET TO COME

Friday 25 May 2012


EIGHT PRIESTS WHO HAVE INSPIRED ME
(In alphabetical order)

CAMARA, Helder: (1909 – 1999) was the Archbishop of Recife in Brazil and nick nickname was “Bishop of the Slums”. He dedicated his life the “urban poor” – the people who lived in Brazil’s shanty towns. He was hated by the corrupt Brazilian government and army and by the powers that be in the Vatican – who always side with the rich and powerful. He has written several books. The one I like the most is A THOUSAND REASOND FOR LIVING. One of his best quotes is:
“WHEN I GIVE BREAD TO THE POOR THEY CALL ME A SAINT. WHEN I ASK WHY THE POOR ARE POOR THEY CALL ME A COMMUNIST”.
If we had a just and honourable Church (which of course we don’t) Camara would be St. Helder of Brazil.

HAYES, Tony: Father Tony Hayes was a priest of the Rosminian Order in Ireland and was based at their house in the Comeragh Mountains in C. Tipperary –just outside Clonmel.
For a time he was on the staff of Saint John’s College, Waterford, the seminary in which I completed my priestly studies between 1973 and 1976. During that time he was my spiritual director and confessor. Tony had a very commanding presence and was a wonderful teacher and preacher. When I was in his presence I felt the presence of God about him.

HYDE John: Father John Hyde was a Jesuit priest based at Tullabeg, Rahan, Co. Offaly and was a regular visitor to my childhood home. He was on the one hand a quiet simple man and also a profound theologian. He was a great friend to the sick and to people in need and he had a deep love of the Irish language. My granny and the whole population around Rahan believed that Father Hyde had the gift of healing. There are many stories of sick people making a complete recovery after been blessed by him. There is one story about him bring a young man who had drowned in the canal back to life. He made a deep impression on me in my childhood and may very well have inspired my priestly vocation. I continued to visit him in my adult life and was privileged to concelebrate his funeral Mass at the Jesuit church in Gardiner Street in Dublin. I believe that he a saint. I also think that his gifts and his saintliness have not been fully acknowledged by the Irish Jesuits. Another Irish Jesuit used to quote the following lines to me about the Jesuits:
“THE JOIN THE ORDER WITHOUT KNOWING EACH OTHER;
THEY LIVE TOGETHER WITH LOVING EACH OTHER;
AND THE DIE TOGETHER WITHOUT MOURNING EACH OTHER”

KUNG, Hans: (1928 - ) Father Hans Kung is the most famous and articulate Catholic theologian of the 20th and 21st centuries. He was born in Switzerland and for most of his life he has been a professor of theology at the University of Tubingen in Germany. Pope John XX111 made him a “peritus” or advisor at the Second Vatican Council in the early 1960’s. He has a 50 year association with Joseph Ratzinger the current pope. They last met in 2005. But while Ratzinger is right wing Hans Kung is a liberal thinker. He is still a “priest in good standing” in the Catholic Church (whatever that means) but decades ago the Vatican forbade him to teach in Catholic universities or institutions. He has suffered massive opposition, oppression and black propaganda at the hands of the Vatican but has remained steadfastly loyal to his faith and priesthood. I have admired him for many years for his principle, integrity and his refusal to be run off the road by the Vatican regime.
Currently I am reading a recent book of his which I am finding a source of immense spiritual inspiration – WHAT I BELIEVE which is available through Amazon on the internet.   

PIERCE, Canon John: Father John Pierce of the Archdiocese of Dublin had been a curate in Beechwood Avenue, Dublin for any years when he was appointed parish priest of Ballygall Parish in Dublin’s East Finglas area. He was my parish priest at the time I entered seminary in Dublin in 1970. He was later transferred to the Parish of Rathmines in Dublin and made a canon. He was a very spiritual man but also a man of the world. He was an elegant dressed wearing starched linen collars, fine suits and overcoats with brolly and black leather gloves and drove a very sporty car supplied to him by Matt McQuaid Motors – Matt being the brother of Archbishop John Charles McQuaid of Dublin.
Canon Pierce was extremely kind to me during my time in seminary and on occasions would have taken me out to a movie and a high class meal. He was also appointed by Archbishop McQuaid to be the chaplain to the Dublin prostitute community. He would scour the streets late at night, talk to the girls and bring them to a hostel for counselling, food and support. He was a heavenly man with his feet firmly planted in this world. What words would I use to sum him up? I think I would use the words spiritual, integrity and compassionate.

SHINE, Monsignor John: Father John Shine was the vice president of St John’s College, Waterford when I went there to study in 1973. He also taught me moral theology, canon law and pastoral studies. He later became college president. When he left teaching he became the parish priest of Tramore, Co. Waterford and was made a canon of the diocese, a monsignor by the pope and finally diocesan dean.
He had, and indeed has, a sharp wit, a very good logical mind and is a wonderful and compassionate pastor. I witnessed the streams of people who came to consult him at the college and watched as he faithfully went off to hear confessions every Saturday. I also regularly found him in prayer late at night in the college chapel. Like Canon Pierce he is not all other worldly. He has always liked his Toyota cars and his round of golf. He and I would disagree on many things. But he is a big enough man to agree to differ and remain friends.

TYRRELL, George SJ: (1861 – 1909). Father George Tyrrell was a native of Dublin and started off life as a member of the Church of Ireland (Anglican). He converted to Catholicism and entered the English Province of the Jesuits. He was a theological thinker and writer of utmost integrity and in the early 20th century he wrote very critically of the Roman Catholic Church establishment and the Vatican. Under pressure from Rome he was designated a “modernist” and was expelled from the Jesuits and finally excommunicated by Peter Amigo the Catholic Bishop of Southwark. He died in Storrington, England in 1909 and was refused a Catholic burial! He is interred in the Anglican cemetery in Storrington. In 2003, on the anniversary of his death I went to his grave in Storrington and celebrated a full funeral mass over his grave. On the same day I also went to visit the current Bishop of Arundel and Brighton, Kieran Conry and asked him to publicly apologise on behalf of the Church to George Tyrrell for the way he was treated. Nine years later Bishop Conry has still to act. I also believe that the Jesuits own George Tyrrell a big apology for their lack of principle and courage in not defending their brother from Roman tyranny.

WILSON, Father Des: Father Des Wilson was ordained a priest in 1949 for the Diocese of Down and Connor and for the last 63 years he has laboured tirelessly for the most needy in Northern Irish society. Originally he taught at St. Malachy’s College in Belfast and in 1975 he became a priest in the parish of Ballymurphy in West Belfast – where he encountered degrading housing conditions, state, police and British Army oppression of his people and a Down and Connor bishop and clergy doing little or nothing about his people’s sufferings. He fell foul of the out of touch bishop of the time – William Philbin and two diocesan “heavies” Canon Padraig Murphy (his parish priest) and Monsignor Mullally (the diocesan vicar general). Down and Connor is the only diocese in the Catholic world to have expelled Mother Teresa of Calcutta!
Father Des made his momentous “option for the poor” and moved into the same housing as his people and forever afterwards has worked in areas like housing, adult education and justice. I have watched him give himself unselfishly to his people – to a level that I would be incapable of. Since I came to Belfast in 1978 he has been both an inspiration and an example to me.  He is quite simply one of the greatest priests I have ever met.


Bishop Pat Buckley
25/05/2012

Wednesday 23 May 2012


MOST CATHOLIC PRIESTS ARE SEXUALLY ACTIVE

This week’s newspapers carry stories about Father Thomas Williams – the US Catholic priest and member of the scary religious order THE LEGIONARIES OF CHRIST   leading a double life and fathering a child. Father Williams is a much sought out preacher, media contributor and university speaker. He is also is the author of many books including one called: KNOWING RIGHT FROM WRONG. This week the head of his order revealed that he has known about Father Williams’ double life for at least seven years.
 But Father Williams is not the EXCEPTION. He is the RULE.
The majority of Catholic priests are leading double lives and are sexually active with women and men – depending on their sexual orientation.
Forty two years ago when I entered the seminary at Holy Cross College, Clonliffe, Dublin, homosexual activity was rife among the seminarians. Latterly it has also emerged that some of the seminarians were molesting altar boys who visited the seminary think of becoming priests.
Since being ordained in 1976 – 36 years ago – I have regularly come across priests living openly with a woman who was supposed to be his “housekeeper” but who in fact was his partner in every sense of the word.
Nor is the phenomenon of priests fathering children anything new. Just look at Irish surnames: McEntaggart (the son of the priest); MacAnespie (the son of the bishop); McNabb (the son of the abbot). In the early 1990 THE IRISH TIMES broke the story of Eamon Casey, the Bishop of Galway, who had a fling with the American divorcee Annie Murphy and fathered a child called Peter. The Vatican spirited Bishop Casey away to South America in the middle of the night. He now, in his 80’s lives under what might be called ecclesiastical “house arrest” in rural Galway.
Then there was the case of the arch-hypocrite Father Michael Cleary who was a “hit man” for the Irish Bishops who led a double life in a presbytery in Dublin and fathered at least two children. The Church and his priest pals covered up for him for decades.
I would estimate that at least 70% of priests are sexually active all during their life or at some stage of their life. Fifty years ago the priesthood  was a mixture of heterosexual and homosexual men. Today most Catholic priests are gay. One English priest, who studied in Rome and found himself in many a priestly and episcopal bed there, recently said to me: “In 2012 the Catholic priesthood is a gay profession”.
Here in Ireland many priests are dating men through web sites or by meeting them in gay saunas or gay cruising areas. Many members of the Dublin gay community have told me that when they wanted “action” they headed out to the wooded area behind St. Patrick’s Seminary, Maynooth just outside Dublin.
 The pope, the Roman curia and the world’s bishops know that most priests are not observing the celibacy rule. In fact the same English priest mentioned about told me that the Vatican is rife with homosexuality and that: “the way to get promoted in Rome is to do your superiors sexual favours”!
In one sense I do not blame any priest who is sexually active. Compulsory celibacy is a BAD LAW that needs to be changed. But I don’t like the idea of a sexually active priest, like Father Williams, condemning contraception, sex outside marriage and homosexuality from the pulpit. That makes them hypocrites.
Celibacy is a charism – a gift from God – a gift given to the few and not to the many. Compulsory celibacy is an insult to God and to human nature.
However it is all just part of a bigger problem – the problem of the Catholic Church having a medieval and “flat earth” approach to human sexuality.
Priests who live double lives may be human – but they are, by their silence and their hypocrisy, complicit with the Vatican’s antediluvian approach to one of God’s greatest gifts – the gift of our sexuality.  


Bishop Pat Buckley
23/05/2012

Tuesday 22 May 2012

THE PIECE BELOW WAS PREVIOUSLY SUBMITTED TO

THE ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS WEB SITE................NOT PUBLISHED !!!
IS THE ACP SILENCING PRIESTS TOO ???

THE IRISH TIMES LETTERS PAGE..............................................NOT PUBLISHED !!!


ASSOCIATION OF CATHOLIC PRIESTS - IRELAND

As a Catholic and priest who has been ploughing a very lonely furrow for nearly 30 years I was deeply impressed by many of the people who spoke recently at the ACP conference in Dublin. I found the contributions from the lady speakers inspiring and my “heart burned within me” as Father Tony Butler from Cork made his spirit filled contribution.
Before arriving at the conference I had made a very firm decision not to speak – in case I would be accused of trying to “hijack” the day in anyway. But as the day wore on I felt I had to say something.  
When we want to change an institution there is a very grave danger that we will get lost in a universe of meetings, conferences, words and written reports. We all know that actions speak louder than words. Our church will only be changed by actions and not by words. We need “orthopraxy” and not just orthodoxy”.
If we want optional priestly celibacy priests need to openly take partners and continue in ministry. If one Irish priest did this he would be annihilated. But if 900 + Irish priests did it the institution would have the problem – not the priests in love!
If we want women priests we should ordain women, concelebrate Mass with them and invite them to lead worship in our churches.
If we want to treat our gay and lesbian sisters and brothers with equality in our church we should openly celebrate liturgical ceremonies with them and ordain them if they feel so called.
If we want to minister compassionately to our sisters and brothers in “second unions” we should openly offer them marriage ceremonies according to the precedent set by St. Basil of Caesarea.
I would respectfully call upon the ACP and their supporters to recognise two realities:
1.     There was a very independent church in Ireland for well over a thousand years before it was “Romanised”.
2.     The Catholic Church which has 1.2 billion people has been hijacked by a small minority of its members (the Roman curia and episcopate) and that hijacking must be brought to an end by the majority in the Church, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit.
At the Dublin conference Father Tony Butler, quoting St Augustine, spoke of the two daughters of HOPE – ANGER and COURAGE.
In the Gospels Jesus asked His disciples: “Can you drink the cup that I must drink”?
To bring about the changes that are needed will involve suffering, rejection, suspension, charges of heresy and disloyalty and maybe even canonical excommunication.
If we wait around seeking the permission of the “Hierarchy” our great, great, great grandchildren will be exactly where we are now – or indeed may be back attending Mass in Latin, burying their miscarried babies in a field on their farm, getting “churched” after giving birth, fasting from midnight and receiving indulgences from kissing bishop’s rings containing relics of Saint John Paul of Krakow and Saint Benedict of Bavaria.
Today, in 2012 Jesus is saying to us all: “Can you drink the cup that I must drink”?

Bishop Pat Buckley
22/05/2012

Monday 21 May 2012

CLOSURE OF IRISH COLLEGE IN ROME!


This weekend Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin indicated that the Irish Catholic Bishops are considering closing the Irish College at Rome which has been in existence since 1628.
Dr Martin said that this was due to the falling numbers of men offering themselves for priesthood.


The Irish College in Rome and Maynooth Seminary near Dublin had been investigated in recent years as part of a Vatican investigation into the state of Irish Catholicism following the widespread sexual abuse of children by Irish priests and religious.


Recently the Maynooth seminarians have been segregated from the "lay" students attending university on the same campus.


The news of the closure of the Irish College in Rome does not come as news to me. Over the past couple of years I have had occasion to write to members of the Irish Hierarchy about sexual misconduct at the Irish College by seminarians. For many years there has been a very aggressive homosexual ring at the Irish College meeting once a week and calling themselves: THE CROCHET CLUB. They met to have sex with each other and to plan the seduction of new young seminarians arriving yearly. Members of the club also regularly attend gay venues in Rome and visit some of Rome's most prominent cruising sites. 


Some members of THE CROCHET CLUB are also active paedophiles and have been observed downloading child pornography on college computers.


A number of members of THE CROCHET CLUB are now ordained and are priests in Irish dioceses where apart from being curates in parishes are also chaplains to schools.


It is more than possible that the Irish Bishops are closing The Irish College before some of these scandals become public. 


Bishop Pat Buckley
21/05/2012