SHOULD POPE FRANCIS SACK CARDINAL BRADY?

SHOULD POPE FRANCIS SACK CARDINAL BRADY?

Church Victim - Brendan Boland

One of the victims of the notorious priest paedophile, Father Brendan Smyth, has just published a book about his abuse and how his case was handled by the Roman Catholic Church. The book is called: SWORN TO SILENCE.

Central to the book's story is the role played by the current Roman Archbishop of Armagh - Cardinal Sean Brady.

As a young priest of 36 then then Father Sean Brady, a canon lawyer, was despatched to interview Brendan Boland and another boy about their abuse by Father Smyth.

Sean Brady - "Prince of the Church"

On that occasion Sean Brady kept the boys parents out of the room and interviewed them and swore the boys to secrecy.

Bot only did Sean Brady speak to the boys about what Father Smyth did to them - but he went on to ask the boys about their own sexual desires and whether or not they had any fantasies about what Father Smyth did to them or whether or not they indulged in "impure thoughts" or "impure actions with themselves" about what Father Smyth did.

Maybe I am wrong - but if a Catholic priest today locked himself into a room with a 14 year old boy, swore him to secrecy and questioned him about his sexuality - that priest would find himself being accused of the most inappropriate behaviour - if not accused of abuse!

But in the 1970s thats what priests did to us all in the Confessional and elsewhere.

Sean Brady gave his written report to his bishop at the time and no one did anything. Father Brendan Smyth went on to abuse dozens of other children.

Father Brendan Smyth

Sean Brady's lack of action was partly responsible for the abuse of those other children. Brady knew about Smyth and should have been part of stopping him. But he did not. He claims now that he was a "note-taker".

If children are being abused what kind of priest, bishop, cardinal or pope stands back and gives the excuse: "I was merely a note-taker".

The kind of cleric who does that is not a Christian! The kind of cleric who does that is not even a decent human being! 

I wonder did any of the Nazis at Nuremburg offer the defence that they were merely Hitler's "note takers"?

And for his silence - and for his protection of the Catholic Church - Brady went on to be a monsignor, the rector of the Irish College in Rome, an archbishop and a cardinal.

Were these titles and offices Brady's 30 pieces of silver?

Quite simply - yes - they were!

Brady is now 74 year and 11 months old. He has lived a privileged life all his life. He will live a privileged retirement. He will want for nothing. When he dies they will bury him in the grounds of Armagh Cathedral in a beautiful grave and call him the.....successor of Saint Patrick!

When Brendan Smyth died they gave him a full funeral Mass in his Cavan Monastery at 4 am in the morning and filled in his grave with concrete to prevent it being vandalised.

I think that Pope Francis should sack Brady before he gets to him 75th birthday next month when he will automatically submit his retirement to Francis.

A sacking - even at this 11th hour would be some gesture towards Brendan Boland and the dozens of children whose lives Brendan Smyth destroyed. 

But I would not hold my breath.

Pope Francis has told us already that he is "A SON OF THE CHURCH".

What he has not explained to us is why so many of the so called "sons of the Church" also turned out to be the Sons of The Evil One? 

+Pat Buckley

24.7.2014

ARE YOU FOR ISRAEL OR PALESTINE?

ARE YOU FOR ISRAEL OR PALESTINE?

The Israel versus Palestine debate is polarising many people around the world.

In Northern Ireland, where I live the Roman Catholic/Nationalist communities are ignorantly flying the Palestinian flag in their areas.

On the other hand the Protestant/Unionist communities are ignorantly flying the flag of Israel.

Both Catholics and Protestants here are re-fighting the Irish/British war through the tragedy of the Middle East. I find this nausating and repugnant. No one, anywhere, should be jumping on a bandwagon about what is such an awful human tragedy.

The TRUTH is that BOTH the Israelis and the Palestinians have valid claims and arguments.

But the TRUTH also is that BOTH the Palestinians and Israelis are also doing wrong.

Because of its wealth and power Isreal is doing most wrong just now.

But if the Palestinians had Israel's wealth, power and weapons they would be doing the exact same as Israel is now doing - and maybe worse!

Both nations have a long sad history. Both nations have suffered greviously over the course of time. 

And the International Community - in history - has been part of the sufferings of both nations. 

It is a horrible thing that Israel's armed forces are killing hundreds of innocent civilians in Palestine.

But is it not also horrible that HAMAS is firing thousands of rockets into Israel from built up civilian areas - almost inviting retaliation?

In fact it suits Hamas' propaganda war that Israel kills hundreds of Palestinians. It's like the violent women with a child in her arms saying: "Are you going to hit me with the child in my arms". The child should not be there in the first place. 

Hamas cannot win a war against Israel. Israel cannot defeat Hamas by military means. 

They are BOTH coming at the tragedy from the wrong perspective. 

Only a peaceful solution can last.

The Israelis and the Palestinians are going to have to realise that the land they are fighting over is going to have to be shared by their two nations.

They are going to have to agree borders. They are going to have to learn to be good neighbours. 

They are going to have to share the city of Jerusalem - as a shared capital city.

They are going to have to decide that Allah and Jehovah is their ONE God who wants his children to live in peace. 

In the meantime those people around the world who are "taking sides" and regarding the tragedy as some kind of military "world cup" are going to have to come to their senses.

All reasonable, decent, moral people should only be on one side - the side of Peace and Reconciliation between Israel and Palestine. 

Anything else is a REMOTE partaking in the cup of hatred, bloodshed and death.

+Pat Buckley

22.7.2014.

THE CATHOLIC DISEASE - BEING RC+

THE CATHOLIC DISEASE - BEING RC+

Are you RC Postive - RC+

Do you suffer from the life desroying disease called CATHOLIC GUILT?

Its hard to believe it but in 2014 I am still coming across people whose lives are being destroyed by the deadly disease called Catholic Guilt.

Only this week I came across someone suffering from this disease to the point where their lives are been totally destroyed.

This person I cam across is a young man in his 30's from the West of Ireland. He happens to be gay. But he also happens to to go to Mass and Holy Communion several times a week and he has a strong Catholic faith.

He has not been able to tell anyone that he is gay. His mother and father are devout Mass goers and he feels that if he tells them who he really is that they will disown him and accuse him of bringing shame on the family and it's "good" name. In fact they will probably expel him from the house and he will be homeless.

He feels that he cannot tell his brothers and sisters is gay because they are all "straight" and married with kids and very involved with parish activities in the rural area in which he lives.

He feels that he cannot talk to his priest because he is quite sure the parish priest will throw him out of confession and maybe ban him from going to Communion.

He cannot tell his friends because he is afraid they will tell his "secret" to others on the locality.

He is afraid to go to Dublin to gay bars in case he meets anyone there that might know him.

He is afraid to meet another man because his Catholic brainwashing has him convinced that an encounter with another man will be a mortal sin.

If he has thoughts about another man he is riddled with guilt for having "impure thoughts".

If he relieves himself sexually he convinced that he is committing the serious sin of "self abuse"!

This young man is riddled with anxiety and is more and more prone to depression. 

In my view some one like him is in very serious danger of harming or killing himself.

He is already afraid that he will have a nervous breakdown and end up committed to a psychaitric unit.

His attidude to his sexuality is a product of the "moral" (or indeed immoral) religious education he had in his Catholic primary and secondary svhools.

His guilt has been further enforced by attendng Catholic retreats and by listening to sermons in Catholic churches. 

He is a prisoner of his guilt. It is gradually choking him - killing him.

He is alone and feels that he has no one to talk to.

He rang me in sheer desperation because he has heard and read things I have said over the years. But its very hard for me to help him sufficiently by telephone.

I will try and find someone in his own area that he can talk to - to see if we can rescue him from the irrational and mad guilt that is gradually sucking the life and happiness out of him.  

Thankfully people like this are becoming scarcer in our country since the Catholic Church has been exposed for the scandelous nonsense it has been filling Irish heads with for hundreds of years.

Young men like I describe are victims of the Catholic Church's mental, emotional, moral and sexual abuse.

And many of the men - the clerics - who have kept people like this young man in a Hell of Guilt have been off flying their own kites for decades or centuries - haveing sex with women, men and children - and covering it all up.

And they have come back with the smell of sex and abuse upon them and entered confession boxes and mounted pulpits and did everything in their power to condemn everybody else into miserable prisons of shame, of guilt, of despair, of Magdalen laundries, oh children's homes - and into early graves! 

The whole thing is a terrible and cynical con job.

The whole thing is an exercise of mind control and population control.

In fact it is nothing short of a work of evil!

Do you suffer from the disease called Catholic Guilt? Are you RC Positive?   Do you know people who are?  

Get help before its too late.

+Pat Buckley

20.7.2014

    

  

POPE SAYS 2% OF PRIESTS, BISHOPS AND CARDINALS,PEDOPHILES

POPE SAYS 2% OF PRIESTS, BISHOPS AND CARDINALS, PEDOPHILES

Pope Francis has told the founder of an Italian newspaper that some 2% of priests, bishops and cardinals are pedophiles.

If the popes figures are right that means that there are:

8,000 clerical pedophiles in the church worldwide.

and

100 clerical pedophiles in Ireland.

Many experts in the field says that the Pope's figures are at the lower end of world statistics and that the world average is about 4%.

If 4% is right it means that there are 16,000 clerical pedophiles world wide and 200 in Ireland.

That 4% is a figure for the whole community. But I think that the percentage of priest and bishop pedophiles in the priesthood is higher than in the population in general. This is true, I believe, for 2 very important reasons:

1. Catholic priests and bishops are more prone to sexual immaturity and problems because of the very unhealthy and negative approach to sexuality they are given in their entire formation in catholic schools and seminaries.

2. Catholic priests and bishops are more prone to sexual dysfunction given the imposition of compulsory clerical celibacy.

If you take a young child and from early on in their life tell them that their body, their sexuality, their feelings etc are "dirty" and sinful then you are setting them up for serious psychosexual dysfunction in later life. 

If you then ordain them, put them on a religious and social pedestal and give them power over people's bodies and souls you are going to discover that they will seek an outlet for their sexual dysfunctions in people they have power over - children, teenagers, women, men, people in confession, people in counselling situations. 

The majority of the people I have ministered to in my 38 years in the priesthood who were "abused" by priests - whether they were children, teenagers or vulnerable women and men - had their abuse begin either in the confessional, on school retreats or in counselling scenarios. 

Let me give you a few examples:

1. One young17 year old man I ministered to over 30 years ago went to a Belfast priest and confessed masturbation. After confession the priest asked him to go to the presbytery with him and remove his trousers and underwear so that he (the priest) could check that he had not damaged his genitals by masturbating. This allowed the priest to get sexual gratification by fondling the young man's privates.

2. A young married woman I ministered to some 20 years ago was having marriage problems. She went to the presbytery to discuss those problems with her local priest. Without any warning the priest physically pinned the woman to the wall and had intercourse with her and they ended up having a very dysfunctional sexual relationship for a number of years until the young woman got the strength to cut the priest out of her life.

3. A young man whose family I worked with wanted to be a priest. The local priest convinced the boy and his family that he should move into the presbytery with the priest at the age of 14 to begin his priestly formation. The priest abused the youth from day one and the young man had to endure years of sexual abuse before he finally broke free. However to this day the abuse has greatly overshadowed his life.   

Some years ago a priest giving the annual retreat to the priests of the Archdiocese of Dublin opened his retreat with these words to the assembled priests:

"Well we all get by Fathers, don't we, on the three excesses: excessive whiskey, excessive golf and excessive masturbation".

That priest - shockingly but truthfully hit the nail on the head. Many Catholic priests do a great deal of good.

But many (if not most) Catholic priests are also ticking sexual time bombs.

It is a miracle that there are not more cases of abuse - against children, teenagers, women and men.

Maybe we have the whiskey and the golf to thank for that?

We also are saved from the explosion by the number of Catholic priests who are in clandestine relationships with woman and men - these days - more men than women.

But every now and then a bomb goes off and we read of a priest abusing a child or a teenager.

If Pope Francis thinks that he only has a problem with 2% of his priests, bishops and cardinals he is deceiving himself.

The Catholic priesthood is NOT working. It is seriously dysfunctional.

The 2 main causes of this dysfunction are:

1. The Catholic Church's flat earth approach to human sexuality.

2. Obligatory celibacy for all priests, bishops and cardinals.

If Pope Francis were to resolve those 2 issues he would have far fewer worries abot his 2%

In fact he would have far few worries about his 100%

+Pat Buckley

15.7.2014

NEW MANAGER FOR SLIGO FISH PLANT

NEW MANAGER FOR SLIGO FISH PLANT

Kevin Doran

The multinational company RC Fisheries Ltd yesterday installed a new "area manager" or "big fish" to oversee their fish plant in the Slgo area of the Republic of Ireland.

The new area manager's name is Kevin Doran and I have known him since he was 17 when he and I entered the company's Clonliffe Filleting Facility in North Dublin in September 1970. Most of the class of 13 were 18 years old and Kevin Doran was a year younger than the rest. We were all immature and niave and Kevin being a year younger than the rest was probable the most immature and niave of us all. There was one thing that made him stand out from the rest of us and having mentioned that thing in a previous Blog - and been reprimanded for so doing by some of my readers - I am perfectly contrite and therefore not at liberty to mention it again.

We all entered the Clonliffe Filleting Facility conveyer belt as young, idealistic,whole and full of testosterone. But the filleting began imnmediately.

The first thing to be done in the process of making "filleted priests" was the removal of the head. This meant that from that day forward you would be incapable of thinking for yourself.

The second stage of the filleting involved the slitting of the underbelly and the removal of the guts. This meant that the "filleted priest" will never have any courage and never take a real stand for himself or others.

The final stage is the removal of the backbone - and this completes the process in the creation of the "filleted priest" and further ensures that there will be no expression of independence and courage.

At the end of this process RC Fisheries has produced the perfect fileted fish to proclaim RC company policy.

The filleted fish is then out into company areas called "parishes"  as "branch managers" where their mission to create fileted men and women followers out of the worthless little fish called pilchards and whitebait. 

Any fish in the fish plant or in the parishes who refuse to undergo the filleting process are rejected and any fish who accidentially escape the filleting process are are discovered later are also discarded.

A small number of these "branch managers" who show that they are perfectly filleted are chosen, over time and promoted to be "area managers" or, as they are called in the RC Fisheries policy documents "bishops".

An even smaller number of these filleted "area managers" are eventually brought to the RC Fisheries HQ in Italy and are put in charge of the company's international operations. Most of these filleted area managers who move on to international management are of the shark variety.

The whole operation is overseen by a big fish called The Great White who can be recognised by his all over white skin and a distinctive marking called The Fisherman's Ring.

The Great White personally appoints the world's area managers.

The "area managers" appoint the "branch managers".

And the "branch managers" control all the small fish who are really the company's worthless pilchards and whitebait.

The new area manager for Sligo has introduced the following new rules for the Sligo Plant:

1. All midwives must consult him about their work in all the country's maternity units.

2. Terminations to save the lives of mothers are now outlawed in difficult pregnancies.

3. The fish in the Sligo area have to produce 6 new fish to him to be filleted within the next 9 months.

4. No fish in the country can form a same sex marriage with another fish. 

5. Compulsory celibacy is mandated for all filleted fish worldwide as it makes them better fish.

CONCLUSION:

It stinks !

+Pat Buckley
14.7.2014

SUSPENDED TERRY BRADY FAILS TO APPEAL

SUSPENDED TERRY BRADY FAILS TO APPEAL

Suspended priest - Terry Brady

On Sunday 29th June 2014 I suspended Terry Brady as a priest of The Oratory Society for three reasons:

1. His lack of committment to the Society and to the congregation at Larne.

2. Serious concerns I had about his psychological stability.

3. The continued making of unsubstantiated - and unreported - claims of sexual abuse / harrassment against a wide number of Catholic bishops, priests and seminarians.

In keeping with natural justice I gave Terry 10 days to appeal my decision to the chairperson of The Oratory Society - a lay person - who has also been a loyal friend and supporter to Terry.

Those 10 days ended last night and Terry made no contact with the chair person and made no effort to lodge an appeal.

I had assured Terry in writing that our chair person had full authority to overturn my decision and that if she did so I would accept her decision without hesitation and that as far as I was concerned there would be absolutely no tension between him and I. 

However, during the past week Terry contacted me on a number of occasions.

Through a mutual friend he asked if it would be okay for him to telephone me. I agreed immediately. In fact That was on last Tuesday 1st July 2014 and I was travelling all day in the North of England. I texted him at 6.54 pm to tell him I was free to take his call.   

Five hours later - at 11.21 pm I received a text from him which read: "Apols Pat, I'm a little drunk and broken. Can I speak when sober"?

I immediately replied: "Absolutely".

For 24 hours I heard nothing and at 10.42 pm on July 2nd I texted him to say: "Thought you were gonna ring me today"?

That was the last I heard from Terry.

These texts in themselves show the problems I have been having with Terry for years. He makes arrangements and never keeps them. 

It is very difficult to have a working relationship with someone who says one thing and does another. 

Somehow I have come to believe that Terry lives in his own world - a world that does not always have connections with the real world.

But I am more concerned that he continues to make claims about people that are serious.

He has been saying recently that a retired bishop had him to dinner one evening and spent the whole meal talking about the male genitalia!

He claims that the same bishop has invited him to another dinner in the coming weeks. I do not know if the proposed meeting with this bishop is a reality - but I think that the bishop should show caution in arranging such a meeting.

Terry also claims that currently two priests of  an Irish diocese are trying to seduce him. If there are priests in touch with him then they need to know what is being said.

We all know that there is abuse, sexual harrassment etc alive and well in the Catholic Church. All such instances should be reported to the church authorities - and if a crime has been committed - or is going to be committed - then these matters should be reported to the police and/or social services.

However we all need to be very careful also about making accusations - because if innocent people are accused - then even if they are found to be untrue - in the current climate mud sticks.

+Pat Buckley
9.7.2014  

DEFROCKED NUNCIO WAS USING TEENAGE PROSTITUTES

DEFROCKED NUNCIO WAS USING TEENAGE PROSTITUTES

Archbishop Wesolowski

A contributor to this Blog - "a former Vatican official" has submitted a piece that gives us greater insight into the defrocking of the former nuncio Archbishop Wesolowski. He says:

"Pat I do agree with what you say, though the case of the disgraced former nuncio is a little more complex than appears.

I under stand from a trusted friend who knows the full details of the case that it was not the case of a sexual offender in the accepted sense of the term; ie., that of a predator sexually oppressing or assaulting pre or just pubescent children. Rather he was making frequent use of teenage male prostitutes at his former posting. The youths were all 15 years and older. Now this is no excuse for what by any standards is scandalous behaviour, but it is not "abuse" in the predatory sense of that word. I understand that this poor creature is also a total alcoholic.

Like you I am appalled at the thought of this man having to stand trial in the Vatican City State Court . This is nonsense. Rather like having to stand trial in Ruaratia, or Lilliput, or some other fictious place. This man needs help in order to address his offending behaviours and his addictions. He needs therapy. He needs containment and supervision, not trial and imprisonment. He has suffered punishment enough in the very total and public humiliation that he has suffered. 

There are many who see him as a convenient and useful scapegoat for Pope Francis to use to show a certain tuthlessness, not only confined to matters of sexual impropriety I can assure you. He is known as Stalin in the Vatican. 

Stalin ???????????

To get back to the former nuncio I cannot see that he has "victims" in the normative use of that term, in so far as I can understand the youthful prostitutes were willing participants, if not by desire, then by circumstance and poverty. 

Tragic though this may be, it is another matter.

So too with Cardinal Keith Patrick O'Brien (KPOB). He is in disgrace and has spectactularly fallen from grace, so much so that he is known the world over for the hypocrite he was. I say "was" because I understand that he has seriously begun to address his alcoholism and is deeply ashamed of the self hatred within himself that caused his outrageous homophobic remarks and policies. 

Pat, he too has been a victim of the Church, and how it chews us up, rewards us if we are good boys, and spits us out if we hit the buffers.

Like in my own life KPOB will see that he fall was the greatest thing that ever happened to him . Remember the Good Thief? Remember too that there but for the grace of God, go I, go you, go all of us. We are all wounded redeemed sinners. The lucky ones are the ones upon whom God intervenes while there is still a chance of change.

Forgive me for not putting my name to this. Former Vatican Official.

Pat replies:

First of all can I thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights with us on this blog.

What you have to say certainly calls upon us all to look on the case of Archbishop Wesolowski with a renewed sense of charity and the understanding of the complexities and woundedness of our human nature.

Not everyone will agree with your distinction between ordinary children and children who have found their way into prostitution - probably out of the desperation of poverty, homelessness and hunger. In many ways these wounded outcast children need more love and protection than other children? But I do understand the subtleties of the points you are trying to make.

The archbishop is probably a product of his native Roman Catholic Poland - a guilt ridden Roman Catholic faith and spirituality; the denial of his inner needs - probably as a homosexual man and a double life lived in some kind of quiet desperation.

I think that there is a strong case for the civil authorities to be allowed to put him on trial in any country he may have committed offences.

And while that is happening - and afterwards - therapy and assistance. 

It would also be good in the Church could, with the archbishop's help, find the young prostitutes and help them and their families.

After that I could see nothing wrong with the archbishop being allowed to live, if he wished, in a monastic setting where he could enjoy his latter years as a "real" person with a healthy spirituality. 

Alternatively he can return to Civvy Street and find love. 

+Pat Buckley

8.7.2014 

VATICAN ACTION ON ABUSING NUNCIO

VATICAN ACTION ON ABUSING NUNCIO

Archbishop Josef Wesolowski

The Vatican took a good and very important step last week when it "defrocked" the former nuncio to the Dominican Republic Archbishop Josef Wesolowski for sexually abusing minors.

The fact that Wesolowski has 2 months to appeal his punishment is also good - as it is an attempt by the Vatican to stick to the rules of natural justice. 

Up to now the Vatican has not been famous for transparent justice. Maybe Pope Francis is succeeding a little in changing things. I doubt if Wesolowski's fellow Pole, John Paul 11 had still been in place that this move would have even happened. 

However the thoughts of the Vatican putting Wesolowski on trial in a Vatican criminal court seems odd to say the least. If he is found guilty he would be put into prison in a cell within the Vatican.

To me there is something very strange about a church having prison cells. It harks back to the times of the Inquisition. Surely criminal proceedings and prison cells are the remit of civil jurisdictions and not churches who are supposed to be the preachers of the Gospel and the Good News- not to mention promoters of forgiveness.

But then again the Vatican is already an anomoly in being a civil state. Jesus never intended his church to be a civil state. But all that this proves I suppose is that the Roman Catholic Church is not the church of Jesus or the church Jesus intended.

The church is quite right to impose ecclesiastical sanctions on Josef Wesolowski.

But the Vatican should now hand him over to whatever state he committed the sexual abuse in for his civil and criminal trial and punishment.

His victims deserve to watch him go on trial in their own country - the county in which he abused them.

Not to hand him over to the civil authorities is in fact the church protecting him and shielding him from proper justice.

If he is just kept in a Vatican cell I'm sure he will have, as an archbishop, a very confortable existence. I can imagine the Swiss Guards bringing him his pasta and his red wine on a daily basis. 

If he abused in a particular country then he should face trial in that country. If he is to go to prison he should go to prison in the country where he committed him crimes and be imprisoned in the conditions that prevail in the prisons of that state - providing of course thery are not inhuman.

And now that Wesolowski has been sorted out we are still waiting for news of what the Vatican is going to do with Cardinal Keith O'Brien of Scotland.

Of course O'Brien is not accused of abusing minors. But he is accused of abusing trainee priests and young priests who he had total control over as their religious superior.

It will be very hard for the Vatican to act against a cardinal. But they must.

The Cardinal O'Brien case will give us a much better idea of how far the Vatican has gone down the road of justice and transparency than the Wesolowski case. 

We must wait and see,

+Pat Buckley

7.7.2014

THE "SWEET" JESUS versus THE REAL JESUS

THE "SWEET" JESUS versus THE REAL JESUS

Anybody who wants to call themselves a Christian must seek to discover who Jesus really was and what his teachings are really like.

It is very true that Jesus came to COMFORT THE DISTURBED. But is it not at least equally true that Jesus came to DISTURB THE COMFORTABLE?

Was not Jesus God's disturber of the false peace?

Was not Jesus God's agitator against all that was/is wrong and all that was / is mediocre?

Was not Jesus God's provocateur? 

Was Jesus a “nice” person? 

He most certainly was and he most certainly could be. He healed the sick, raised the dead, comforted the bereaved, accepted lepers and called those of disrepute to be his friends and disciples. Many people felt “good” in the presence of Jesus and went away feeling good when they left him.

But that was not the WHOLE story. Jesus was more than capable of being “difficult”, “disturbing” and “challenging”.

He called Herod: “that fox”.

He called the Pharisees: “a brood of vipers”.

He said to Peter: “Get behind me Satan”.

He said: “Would that you were either cold or hot; but you are lukewarm; I will spit you out of my mouth”.

Somehow I often wonder if we have tried to theologically and spiritually castrate Jesus? We talk about “Sweet Jesus”. I do not think that Herod and the Pharisees would have found him sweet to their taste at all.

As Christians we must have courage like Jesus had courage.

It took courage to stand up in the synagogue in Nazareth and preach to his own people and have them drag him to the edge of a cliff to throw him over.

It took courage to say and do things that made some of his family think he had lost his mind.

It took courage to stand in front of the High Priest, Pilate and Herod and challenge their “authority”.

It took courage to sweat blood in Gethsemane.

It took courage to walk the Via Dolorosa.

It took courage to die and to fight the despair that hit him just before he died.

THEOLOGICAL / SPIRITUAL DIABETES:

Are we in danger of having theological and spiritual diabetes – of having too much of the “sweet” Jesus running through our Christian and ecclesiastical veins?

I know Jesus told us to turn the other cheek. But he did not turn much cheek the day he took a whip into the Temple with him.

And what do you do when you run out of cheeks?

He did not say to the man who said “let me go and bury my dead and then I will follow you” – “that’s ok – catch up with me in Capernaum next week when you have done all you need to do. He said – unkindly – “Let the dead bury the dead”!

Does Jesus really want us to let it pass when someone decides to be manipulative and twist the truth?

Does Jesus really think its ok NOT to have courage, backbone or guts?

Is it always “Christian” to tolerate moral weakness and say: “Ah God love him”.

Is there a difference between being Christian and being “inoffensive”; “mousy” or “unassertive”?

Why did Jesus say that he came to cast a fire on the earth and wished that it was “already blazing”?

Why did Jesus say that he came to turn father against son, mother against daughter………..

Is our Christianity to be reduced to our ecumenism and be all about people in for coats and ermine robes eating crust-less and mild tasting cucumber sandwiches to that they will not hurt their precious gums or have indigestion?

The Jesus I feel I know was as capable of causing indigestion, restless nights, the skitters, nightmares and palpitations as he was of causing people to sleep like babies having “sweet” dreams.

DOES JESUS WANT US TO BE;

Mrs Sweetpea?

Mr Walk-All-Over-Me?

Sister Bonny-Face?

Brother Smiley?

Father Placid? 

or

Bishop Jolly?

I don't think so!

+Pat Buckley

3.7.2014