Wednesday 28 November 2012



THE CARDINAL WHO COULD NOT CRY

 CAHAL DALY 

ON SEVERAL OCCASIONS ON THE MEDIA THE LATE CARDINAL CAHAL DALY SAID HE NEVER CRIED ?

I WROTE THE FOLLOWING PIECE FOR THE IRISH EDITION OF THE HOMELESS MAGAZINE THE BIG ISSUES

ONCE UPON A TIME there was a cardinal who couldn’t cry. Everyone called him Cardinal Dry Eyes. Cardinal Dry Eyes ruled over a vast kingdom of four million souls. His subjects affectionately called him “Eminence” and when they approached him they genuflected and kissed his hand.

The cardinal had everything a man could want. He had a big car, a chauffeur, a golden ring, a golden shepherd’s crook and many telephones and fax machines. He was invited to all the best parties and most months he travelled abroad as a VIP. Everyone gave him great respect and he had immense power.
But the cardinal was very sad. He couldn’t cry!  He knew that a good cardinal should be able to cry. So he called together all the members of his court and promised great rewards to the man who could make him cry.
The Archdeacon approached the throne and in an attempt to bring tears to the prelate’s eyes told him of all the married couples in his kingdom who could not cope with large families and who had resorted to the crime of contraception. As a result they had been designated “mortal sinners”, were banned from receiving Holy Communion and would go to Hell when they died. “Many of these poor people”, said the Venerable Archdeacon, “are living lives scarred by guilt and rejection”. Cardinal Dry Eyes thought about these people for a short while. But still he couldn’t cry.
The Dean approached the throne. He told the cardinal of the 100,000 subjects in his kingdom who marriages had broken down and were living in unblessed “second unions”. “They live, Your Eminence, as religious lepers and are in great pain and misery”. Again the cardinal thought briefly. But again he could not cry.
The Chancellor stood up. He described the plight of the homosexual community in the kingdom who are also made to feel unwanted and who must cope with marginalisation from the church as well as with all the other difficulties of being “different”. “Many of them have been forced to emigrate Your Eminence and others have taken their own lives”. The cardinal dwelt on these people. But no tears would come.
The Vicar General approached and bowed low. “What Your Eminence of the hundreds of priests in your kingdom who find their celibacy vows unbearable, and as a result become involved in secret affairs with women and with men or who turn to alcohol or the abuse of power in order to cope. And what of all the deserted partners of priests and what of all the secret priest’s children”? The cardinal thought and thought. But still he could not weep.
There were many other attempts by the Auxiliary Bishops, the Monsignors, the Canons, the Vicars Forane, the Consultors, the Episcopal Vicars, the Judicial Vicars, the Pastors Emeritus, the Parish Priests, the Administrators, the curates, the Media Relations Officers, the Diocesan Archivists, the Diocesan Historians and the Religious Superiors to make the cardinal weep. But all to no avail. Even an attempt by the Canon Lawyers to inject artificial tears into the cardinal’s eyes came to nothing. There was despair throughout the whole kingdom. Everyone, except the cardinal, sat and wept until a river of tears flowed up the hill and in under the palace door.
And then something wonderful happened. A court messenger arrived with a copy of THE IRISH TIMES. Even though he regarded it as a Protestant type of newspaper the cardinal browsed through its pages. His eminent eyes fell upon a column  by a certain Nuala O’Faolain. The heading was “No Excuse For Church In Scandal Of Priest Child Abuse”.
There the cardinal read of how he had failed to act after the came to know of clerical child abuse. His Eminence read on with ever opening eyes and saw himself being accused of doing little to stop offending priests apart from moving them from parish to parish where they abused again. He felt a lump in his throat as he saw himself being accused of being more interested in covering up for the Church than in the welfare and protection of little innocent children.    And his whole body visibly shook as he read Ms. O Faolain suggest that the Catholic Church in Ireland might not always be of God and that some senior clerics in it might be the present day Pharisees!
The cardinal felt a huge surge of anger and resentment. His lavender coloured lips trembled. Great beads of sweat appeared on his clerical collar. His breathing became laboured. He put is snow white head into his marble hands and as the court looked on am amazing scene unfolded. The courtiers saw huge, translucent tears stream out through the cardinal’s white fingers and fall upon the highly polished marble floor. His Eminence wept for hours and hours. At last he could cry.
Ms. O’Faolain’s name was immediately inserted into the Solemn Liturgy Of Personae Non Grata
Cardinal Dry Eyes changed his name by a no-deed poll to Cardinal Crocodile. The kingdom returned to “normal” and they all lived happily ever after.

Monday 26 November 2012

THE CRYING CARDINAL

On Saturday the Roman Catholic Bishop of Rome made Luis Antonio Tagle, the Archbishop of Manilla, a cardinal. 

Luis' nickname is "Chito". My Filipino friends tell me that Chito is a pet name and has no english translation.  However in Italian and Spanish it seems to mean the free one and is often used in Spain and Italy as a short name for the English name Francis.

I have watched several video interviews with Chito and he comes across extremely well. Those who know him say he is a very gifted theologian and is also famous for his humility. At 55 he is the second youngest cardinal in the world. From now until he is 80 he will be entitled to vote in papal elections. 

Could he be pope? Certainly he could be. Would he make a good pope ?  He certainly cant be any worse that many others who have been popes. 

At least he smiles and on TV this weekend he says that he cries very easily. Latinos do laugh and cry easily. They wear their hearts on their sleeves.

And the Roman Catholic Church certainly needs a good "crier" as its head. It has an awful lot to cry about. 

But we need bishops and priests who will not cry for themselves but for all the church's victims and not only the victims of sexual abuse. There are also the millions of victims around the world and over the years who have been saddened, abused, condemned, outlawed, by the abuse of power in the Roman Church and by its servants.

I'm not expecting Chito to make any difference either in Manilla or in Rome. He is a conservative Roman Catholic theologian and bishop.

I would really love it if he proves me wrong.

Bishop Pat Buckley
26.11.2012

RIGHT OF REPLY TO FATHER GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

Yesterday my blog was in response to Father Gerard Moloney's defence of priests. Today I have sent Father Gerard a copy of my blog offering him the right of reply on this blog - and a reply that I will publish ABSOLUTELY UNEDITED.

Watch this space
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Sunday 25 November 2012

REDEMPTORIST "US POOR PRIESTS" COMMENTS


FATHER  GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

The Redemptorist priest Father Gerard Moloney has, in recent days, launched a huge defence of Ireland's priests that reads like a "poor us, poor me" treatise.

He claims that Irish priests have problems in six areas:

1. Priests are over worked!
2. Priests are lonely!
3. Priests are suffering from the fall out of sex abuse by fellow priests!
4. Priests are finding it hard to pray!
5. Priests are suffering because the world has become more secular!
6. Priests are not getting enough support from each other and bishops!

1. PRIESTS OVERWORKED:

Its nonsense to say that priests are over worked. They might have to say a few Masses everyday and celebrate funerals and weddings. So what?

I am the oldest of 17 children. My Dad, Jim, initially worked 8 - 12 hours a day on a building site and in a factory just to put enough food on the table and to keep us warm and clothed. Later in life he had two jobs - a day job and an evening job that kept him going from 9am to Midnight. I never heard him complain that he was overworked - even though he was. What priest works as hard as that?

Most priests I know have a very easy life. They say a few Masses a day and do the odd wedding or funeral and have loads of time off to go golfing, attend clerical dinners and gambling sessions, wine and dine with middle and upper class parishioners and have several holidays a year.

They drive new / newish cars, build holiday and retirement homes, leave tens of thousands in their wills and have a free house for life with all their bills paid. 

I work seven days a week myself, travel the country celebrating weddings and my door bell and telephone never stops ringing. But I'm not complaining. I was ordained to serve God and others and I'd much prefer to be doing what I'm doing than having to spend 8 / 10 hours on a building site in hail, rain or show. And I have no income from the church and have to raise all my own income and pay my bills. I have no savings, no clerical pension to look forward to when and if I retire.

To say that most priests are over worked is bull shit.

2 PRIESTS ARE LONELY:

More bull shit. Most priests nowadays have secret partners in their lives - a man if they are gay and a woman if they are straight. They are also part of the "Clerical Club" and wine, dine and holiday. There might be the occasional oddball priest who is lonely. 

I run an organization called BETHANY for women who are or who have been involved with priests.  We have 120 women as members. They are all involved with or have been involved with secular priests (parishes) or Order priests like Father Moloney's Redemptorist. Several of them have had babies for priests and 6 of them have had priest babies aborted. 

Sometimes priests and nuns are involved in sexual relationships called "Spiritual Marriages". Lots of other priests are involved with married or single women. Many priests are "Jack the Lad" and keep several women on the go at a time.

Father Molomey says that if a priest has a female friend it should be in the open and involve family and friends. But family and friends are not always around when the priest and nun or women sneak off to a caravan, a country cottage or a hotel for a bit of "How's Your Father". I challenge Father Moloney to say publicly that he does not know of many priests with women and men in their lives.

3. THE FALL OUT OF SEXUAL ABUSE:

Of course all of us in the priesthood are affected by priestly sexual abuse. I have been verbally abused on the street of Dublin by people.  So what?

Those really hurt by the abuse are the victims. And If I, as a priest, have to be a channel for people's anger so be it. Its my Church and my priesthood too and if people need to vent their frustrations on me my shoulders are big enough to take it.  Jesus died on the Cross to take the blame for all of us. If I have to take a bit of verbal abuse as a follower of Jesus - BRING IT ON!

4. PRAYER:

I find it hard to always have faith and pray. But I persevere at it every day and as a leper among priests I have very little opportunity to pray with other priests. A few years ago when I tried to go on a retreat to the Redemptorists at their HQ at Marianela in Dublin they would not let me in their door in case my presence there embarrassed them with the Irish bishops. 

Trying to maintain a spiritual life in this world is not easy. It was never meant to be. Jesus told us we would have to take up our cross everyday and follow him. Fathers - get on with it!

5. THE SECULAR WORLD:

Of course the world is secular and materialistic. But we Christians and priests are supposed to be a Light in the Darkness, the Salt of the Earth and a Lamp Shining in a prominent place. That's our mission. For too long being a Christian and a priest in "Catholic Ireland" was cushy and easy. Not anymore. We have to earn our respect now. We have to wrestle with other ideologies. We have to leave the nice wooly white sheep and go off into the desert after the lost sheep. But that was the job description I signed up to 36 years ago and all priests sign up to. As they say in AA - WHEN THE GOING GETS TOUGH - THE TOUGH GET GOING.

6. PRIESTS NEED SUPPORT:

We all need support. When Cathal Daly threw me out of my parish 26 years ago I lost all support from the Church and priests. But that threw me back on the support of God, the people I work with and a few family and friends. And that has got me through this quarter of a century. Jesus had no support in the Garden of Gethsemane. At the Cross he only has 3 women and 1 man left supporting him out of the thousands who had cheered him on a week before. 

THE REAL PROBLEM

The real problem that most priests have today is that they have no balls!  On the one hand they want to be part of the Church organisation and on the other hand they want to talk liberal, have secret partners and not stand up to the bishops, the hierarchy and Rome. I'll give Father Moloney and his priest whingers a prescription for happiness and integrity:

1.   Take over your presbytery and church and tell your local bishop you are going to run it your own way from now on. Even if they bring you to court it will take them years to get you out and they will not bring HUNDREDS of priests to court.
2. Take a partner - be it a woman or a man - and love them openly before your people, your bishop and the Boys in Rome and then you won't be lonely.
3. Publicly state that you are in favour of married priests and women priests.
4. Start remarrying divorcees in your churches.
5. Start doing gay and lesbian and gay blessings for your gay and lesbian parishioners.
6. Appoint a good layman to run your parish finances.
7. Appoint good lay people to run the schools that you say takes up all your time.
8. Meet weekly with your fellow priests and their husbands and wives for prayer and a meal together.
9. Wear your collar proudly and if someone gives you grief over church scandals tell them you agree with their grievances.
10. Let more lay people help you if you have a busy parish or parishes and make use of married and women deacons.

 There is only one big question for you to answer father and it is this;

HAVE YOU ENOUGH TESTICULAR MATERIAL TO TAKE CONTROL OF YOUR LIFE AND CHANGE IT FOR THE BETTER ?

Bishop Pat Buckley
25.12.2012



Friday 23 November 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.

Wednesday 21 November 2012

GERRY ADAMS' PAST

 GERRY ADAMS

FOR THE PURPOSE OF THIS PARTICULAR BLOG CAN I MAKE IT ABSOLUTELY CLEAR THAT I AM NOT A "REPUBLICAN" OR A MEMBER OF SINN FEIN.

Time and time again politicians both North and South of Ireland go on ad nauseum about Gerry Adams past and whether or not he was a member of the IRA.

These politicians are being out and out hypocrites. Fianna Fail in the South is the descendent of Eamon DeValera and the OLD IRA. 

Enda Kenny, the current Taoiseach, and his part Fine Gael are the decendents of the Blueshirts.

In the North there are very few unionist or loyalist politicians who at some stage of their lives did not associate with and support Loyalist Paramilitaries.

The current British establishment are the descendents of the British Empire that for hundreds of years murdered, plundered, raped and pillaged half the world.

Only a few years ago Nelson Mandela, who has now being canonized as a Civic Saint was once written off and imprisoned as a "terrorist".

George Bush Jnr and the now devout Roman Catholic Tony Blair have quite rightly being called "international terrorists" by Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa









Very few people in this world do not have a past or skeletons in the cupboard. 

"EVERY SAINT HAS A PAST AND EVERY SINNER HAS A FUTURE"

When it comes to Gerry Adams we should remember that if it were not for him the war in Northern Ireland would still be continuing. John Hume, a good man, could not have pulled off the Peace Process on his own. It was Adams and McGuinness who delivered the IRA.

Gerry Adams has also played the major part, risking great personal danger, in taking the IRA and Sinn Fein into politics and abandoning the gun. Sinn Fein is now a very important part of political life on the island of Ireland - both North and South.

Years before other political parties had positions on the rights of women or gay people etc Sinn Fein had them.

I think that the establishment are afraid of Adams and Sinn Fein because Sinn Fein has a real chance of achieving power in the Republic of Ireland. Sinn Fein politicians only take a working wage and donate the rest of their salary to their political campaigns. 

How many other politicians, North and South take only part of their salary and take home just the living wage?

So let's stop harping on about people's pasts. Let's judge them by their present and their future hopes and dreams. 

When I was going through college I was taught that if you used the argumentum ad hominem (attack the man and not his argument) you had already shown the weakness of your own positions. 


 
Politicians !  Stop your playground bickering. Stop calling other people names. Remember:

TODAYS "TERRORISTS" ARE TOMORROW'S STATESMEN

Bishop Pat Buckley
21.11.2012  

Tuesday 20 November 2012

CHURCH STANCE ON ABORTION AND SOUL OF CHILD HAS VARIED OVER TIME

Patsy McGarry. Irish Times Religious Affairs Correspondent


PATSY MC GARRY

(In this article from today's Irish Times, Patsy McGarry taught me a few facts that I had never learned in my 6 years in the seminary and my 36 years as a priest. I am basically anti-abortion in the vast majority of cases but I do believe there are certain cases where a termination is the lesser of two evils - like to save the life of the mother. As this article demonstrates its very important to base our beliefs and arguments on good knowledge and information. Pat Buckley 20.11.2012)

From the vehement assertions of some on the “pro-life” side of the abortion debate, it could be assumed their views have always been Catholic teaching. It is not so.
In fact some of the church’s greatest teachers and saints believed no homicide was involved if abortion took place before the foetus was infused with a soul, known as “ensoulment”. This was believed to occur at “quickening”, when the mother detected the child move for the first time in her womb. In 1591, Pope Gregory XIV determined it at 166 days of pregnancy, almost 24 weeks.
The Catholic Church’s current position on abortion was established only 143 years ago, in 1869. Then Pope Pius IX outlawed abortion from the moment of conception.
This is said to have been influenced by science’s discovery of the ovum in 1827 and the human fertilisation process in the 1830s, neither of which gave any indication as to when ensoulment took place.
Among those who had a different view on the matter to that currently held by the church are some of its most eminent thinkers. These include at least three of the 33 “super saints” – Jerome, Augustine and Aquinas – all of them “Doctors of the Church”.
St Jerome (died 420) wrote, in his Epistle, “the seed gradually takes shape in the uterus, and it [abortion] does not count as killing until the individual elements have acquired their external appearance and their limbs”.
St Augustine (died 430) wrote in On Exodus that early abortion should not be regarded “as homicide, for there cannot be a living soul in a body that lacks sensation due to its not yet being fully formed”.
St Thomas Aquinas (died 1274) held “the vegetative soul, which comes first, when the embryo lives the life of a plant, is corrupted, and is succeeded by a more perfect soul, which is both nutritive and sensitive, and then the embryo lives an animal life; and when this is corrupted, it is succeeded by the rational soul introduced from without (ie by God)”.
This view of Aquinas was confirmed as Catholic dogma by the Council of Vienne in 1312, and has never been officially repudiated by Rome. Indeed, in 1974, the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith acknowledged that the issue of ensoulment was still an open question.
It is not an impression given by many on the “pro-life” side of this debate. What both sides can agree on is that human life begins at conception. Where there is disagreement is on whether that collection of chemical elements constitutes a person. It has been estimated that up to 55 per cent of fertilised ovums miscarry soon after conception. If it is held that the fertilised ovum is a person why were/are none of these “people” afforded any funeral rites?
But to look at the issue from another perspective, in his 1995 encyclical Evangelium
Vitae (the Gospel of Life) Pope John Paul II wrote that “no one can renounce the right to self-defence” and that “legitimate defence can be not only a right but a grave duty . . .”
He continued “unfortunately it happens that the need to render the aggressor incapable of causing harm sometimes involves taking his life. In this case, the fatal outcome is attributable to the aggressor whose action brought it about, even though he may not be morally responsible because of a lack of the use of reason”.
He is referring there to someone who, because insane, is morally innocent.
A foetus is morally innocent and yet can be a direct threat to the life of its mother. Has she “not only a right but a grave duty” to protect herself?

Monday 19 November 2012

THE MAN WHO CURED MY FEAR OF FLYING




Will Kuilder, pictured above is a Dutch / Canadian airline captain who a number of years ago cured my fear of flying.

Wim and his beautiful partner Sharon were in Northern Ireland for a summer working for a Canadian airline which had a summer contract to fly UK holiday makers to various holiday destinations. While in Northern Ireland Wim and Sharon decided to get married and granted me the privilege of being their wedding celebrant. They were married at the TEMPLE OF THE WINDS overlooking Strangford Lough, County Down in Northern Ireland which was built in 1785

TEMPLE OF THE  WINDS


Afterwards they had their wedding reception at a friends house in Holywood, County Down.

On the day of the wedding I had confessed to Wim that I was afraid of flying and with a twinkle in his eye he said: "Maybe I can help you with that one".

A few weeks later Wim invited me to join him at Belfast International Airport at 8.30 in the morning. He was taking a lovely new AIRBUS plane to Reus in Spain - empty - and flying back to Belfast with a full plane load of Northern Ireland holiday makers. 

On the morning of the flight I joined Captaim Wim as he conducted the pre flight external check of the airplane and then I joined him and his co-pilot in the cockpit for the outward and return flights to Spain. It was an exhilirating experience and during my six hour presence in the cockpit I came to fully understand how wonderful and safe that flying really is. 

My fear of flying was focused on my fear of turbulence. A colleague of Wim's pointed out to me something I never knew and really took away my fear of turbulence. He explained: "The wings of an airplane can bend 12 feet in either direction before they break. When you look out and see the wings shivering 2 or 3 inches just think of a birds wing flapping calmly in the air". 



After the return flight and that knowledge about wings my fears of flying evaporated completely. This year I did two 12 hour return flights from London to Capetown without a worry in the world.  

Nowadays, since 9/11 Wim would not have been able to bring me flying with him the way he did then. But many airlines conduct courses in simulators for passengers with a fear of flying. I would encourage anyone with a fear of flying to do such a course.

Its like everything else in life - we generally fear the things we don't understand. The one face to get rid of a fear is to face it down.

My friendship with Wim and Sharon has grown over the years and we meet when we can in spite of having the Atlantic ocean between us.

Wim is a very experience pilot. He started off his career flying in the Durch Airforce. Then he moved to the Canadian Airforce. For a while he flew Canadian Government jets and has a vast experience in flying commercial planes. His son Tom is also an airline captain. 

I will always be grateful to Wim for taking away my irrational fear of flying. Thank you Wim :-)

Bishop Pat Buckley
19.11.2012.

Saturday 17 November 2012

MONSIGNOR TOM TONER


TOM TONER


Monsignor Tom Toner of Belfast died this week at the age of 76. When I came to Belfast in 1978 he was secretary to Bishop William Philbin, the then Roman Catholic Bishop of Down and Connor. 

Within a year or two he was chaplain to Long Kesh Prison near Lisburn just outside Belfast.

I went into Long Kesh every Sunday morning to say Mass for the prisoners. During one of those visits I was asked to bring Holy Communion to a prisoner in the hospital wing of the prison. That prisoner turned out to be Bobby Sands the leader of the historic 1981 Hunger Strike when Maggie Thatcher  allowed ten Republican prisoners to die of starvation. 


 BOBBY SANDS

After that, at Sands request, I went and said Mass every Sunday morning in the hospital wing of the prison for the Hunger Strikers. After Mass we had many conversations.

Tom Toner was not liked by the Republican prisoners at Long Kesh. He was regarded as an establishment figure and as a chaplain who was more likely to be on the side of the prison governors and prison officers than on the side of the prisoners.

This was perfectly in line with Toner's Roman Catholic conservatism and fundamentalism.

When the Hunger Strikers died I was determined to attend all ten of their funerals. Toner told me not to attend those funerals as it would be seen as my supporting the Republican cause. I ignored Toner and went to all the funerals - not because I was a "Republican" - in fact I wasn't - but because I was a priest and I had ministered to the Hunger Strikers as they died.

At the time my boss was the Administrator of St peter's Cathedral in Belfast - Father Vincent McKinley. McKinley also tried to forbid me attending the funerals and even told me I was not allowed to pray for the Hunger Strikers at Mass or in church. I did not obey those orders. It was one of the causes for McKinley later attacking my physically and beating me up in the priest's house behind the cathedral.

Tom Toner later became the administrator of St Peter's Cathedral and a monsignor.

This week Toner was praised by Dr Joe Hendron of the political party the SDLP as a holy man and a man of the people. The SDLP is made up of middle class Catholics and is really the political wing of the Roman Catholic Church in Northern Ireland. 

My experience of Toner would not lead to say at all that he was holy man and a man of the people. He was a conservative Roman Catholic priest with right wing political views. 

The last time I met Toner was at the wake of a lady in a house in Andersonstown in Belfast. When Toner entered say say the prayers over the coffin I said: "Hello Tom". His response was to give me a look of contempt as he grunted something unpleasant.

As a Christian I hope that Tom has had his sins forgiven and has been allowed  into Heaven.

But I imagine he now understands that God is not the God of the powerful and the elite but the God of the poor and the powerless. 

I would not be at all surprised at all if God has handed Tom Toner into the care of the prisoners to whom he used to "minister" who will have a lot to teach him about justice, self-sacrifice and perhaps Tom is now a student of the Theology of Liberation under the watchful eye of Professor Bobby Sands.

Bishop Pat Buckley
17.11.2012.   

 



Friday 16 November 2012

WAS THE DEATH OF SAVITA HALAPPANAVAR SOCIETAL MANSLAUGHTER  ?




SAVITA HALAPPANAVAR (31) was allowed to die at GALWAY UNIVERSITY HOSPITAL, IRELAND by the doctors caring for her because the Irish Parliament, The Dail, has failed for 20 years to introduce legislation suggested by the Supreme Court in Ireland.

Savita was in the process of having a miscarriage but because the doctors detected a heartbeat from the foetus she was refused a termination for days and allowed to die. 

At one point some ignoramous in the hospital actually told her that she was in a "Catholic country".

She may have been in a "Catholic country" but obviously she was not in a Christian country nor even a rational and humane country!

I am not pro abortion. In fact in most cases I am anti abortion. 

Abortion can never, in my opinion, be called a "GOOD THING"

At the very best abortion is THE LESSER OF TWO EVILS.

But when you are faced with a decision between the life of the mother and the life of the unborn child the rational - and even the moral thing - is to save the life of the mother. This is especially true in cases like Savita's where there was no way the baby could be saved anyway.

The Irish Supreme Court paved the way 20 years ago for the Irish Legislature to legislate for exactly the situation that Savita and her husband found themselves in. 

But unprincipled, fearful and fundamentalist politicians have refused for 20 years to bring is such legislation. Many of the members of parliament are afraid of being criticized by the Roman Catholic Hierarchy and of losing votes if they legislate.   Many of them are also brainwashed Roman Catholics who wouldn't know an ethic or a moral principle if it slapped them in the face. 

Maybe something will be done now that a woman has died ? 

The truth is that as a result of Savita's tragic death Irish politicians, Irish medics, Irish churchmen and Irish citizens have blood on their hands. 

In many ways Savita's death was a case of societal manslaughter. 

If these Irish morons think that when they die their God will reward them for letting a woman die to defend their so called faith they have a nasty surprise ahead of them. 

God does not and will not reward those cowardly so called DEFENDERS OF THE FAITH who let innocent women's hearts stop beating so that we might all continue to serve the Panting Heart of Rome.

Bishop Pat Buckley
16.11.2012