Wednesday 12 October 2016

IRISH BISHOPS REVIEWED

THE IRISH BISHOPS - A REVIEW


BLOG READERS have been requesting a review of the Irish Bishops on the Blog. Let us begin that today with a look at the bishop's of the Northern or Armagh province. 


EAMON MARTIN - ARMAGH:



EAMON MARTIN made a point of announcing in the magazine HOT PRESS that he was a heterosexual man. 

He may very well be a heterosexual - but if he is he is an effeminate heterosexual man. 

He exudes an old fashioned type of piousity that does not strike me at all as a substantial spirituality. 

He is a "mammy's boy" and he has had a habit of posting pictures of himself on his twitter account like the one above eating his birthday cake in his mammy's house with a dunce's hat on his head. He even called that golden dunce's hat "MY NEW MITRE".

He also posted pictures of himself with his archbishop's pallium entitled: "Mammy gives me washing instructions for my pallium".


In a time of unprecedented crisis for the Roman Catholic Church we have the Primate of All Ireland posting pictures of himself eating birthday cake and washing his pallium!

If the Irish Catholic Church ever needed a HEAVY WEIGHT as it's leader it needs it now.

And instead it has a pious holy Mary type who loves to giggle helplessly and worry about his wardrobe.  




People writing serious letters to Eamon about Maynooth and other burning issues are receiving no replies - but acknowledgements offering warm wishes and Hail Mary's. 

Some people think he is only a front man / puppet and that Sean Baptist "The Wounded Healer" Brady is pulling Eamon's strings?

The words "disaster" and "useless" seem appropriate!



NOEL TREANOR - DOWN AND CONNOR:





Noel Treanor was pulled out of a 20 year desk job to become the bishop of Ireland's second largest populated diocese.

He never wanted to be in Down and Connor and if he got the chance of a Vatican / Euro / Diplomatic post he would be gone like a rocket. 

He is hopeless in person to person to the point where some are wondering if he is on the autistic scale. 

He has made bad decisions that have been publicly criticised - like spending a fortune on his Bishop's Palce - but has refused to reveal the figure - which is guesstimated at between 1 and 3 million pounds.

Reports from Tyrone workers who worked on the palace talked about £ 350 door handles and £ 100 per roll wallpaper.


He has also shown strange behavious when it comes to dealing with priests who have created major scandals - like Father Ciaran Dallat who made a parishioner pregnant and left her alone to have a miscarriage on her bathroom floor while he went out for dinner with friends.


After a few months "break" and in the face of public outrage Noel Treanor has allowed Dallat back to ministry and has appointed him to be chaplain to Maghaberry Prison where some of the prisoners are taunting him about his antics


The clergy is D&C are suffering from major loss of morale while Noel travels around Europe and the world.

In this case the words "out of touch", "aloof" and "non-engaged" come to mind.

What did D&C do to Rome to deserve this?


DONAL MC KEOWN - DERRY:


Oh God ! Where do you start with Donal McKeown? 

He was the president of St Malachy's College in Belfast when the parish priest of Bangor - Father James Donaghy was sexually abusing a seminarian - VICTIM A - IN the seminary.

He is basically a "waffler" who drones on for ages about issues that don't really affect people's ordinary lives - as we saw in a comment on the blog the other day from someone who attended one of his LONG confirmation ceremonies.

When Donal was a younger priest in Belfast I had hope and admiration for him.

But all that is gone now.

Since he became a bishop he has lost all originality. The longer he goes on you can see how he has sold out to the institution for his "promotion". 

In Derry the priests have not taken to him at all.



The priests describe their last 4 bishops like this:

EDWARD DALY - called HERO - for his hanky waving during "The Troubles".

SEAMUS HEGARTY - called NERO - because he ran Derry like his own empire.

FRANK LAGAN (auxiliary) called ZERO - because he was a non entity.

DONAL MC KEOWN - called GIRO - because of bike rides and his marathon running.

FROM LEFT: ZERO - NUNCIO - GIRO - NERO - HERO


HERO - NERO - ZERO AND GIRO.

Poor Derry.


JOHN MC AREAVY - DROMORE:


John McAreavy was the Professor of Canon Law in Maynooth and was rewarded for being the bishop's canon lawyer by being given his own - small - diocese.

Under his stewardship the diocesan clergy numbers have fallen from 43 to 23.

He worked hard for Cahal Daly by giving evidence against me in various court cases I brought against the Church in a bid to make them accountable.

Nowadays the word is that he does very little and does not stray too much from his Bishop's Pal
ace on the outskirts of Newry.

He did take a year off to travel the world on one of those "sabbaticals" and when he came back he went around the priests apologising to them for things he had done or not done.

Do not expect much renewal to come out of Dromore under John's stewardship.


PHILIP BOYCE - RAPHOE:

THE SMILING FACE OF CHRIST :-)
PHILIP BOYCE has already submitted his resignation to Rome and is therefore on the launching pad.

He was a religious order priest plucked from Rome and imposed on the good people of Donegal.

As you might expect he has not caused any ecclesiastical revolutions in Ireland's northerly diocese.

He is conservative, cautious and a follow the book man in all circumstances. 

His going will hardly be noticed. 

A man of the past and not of the future.


CLOGHER DIOCESE - EMPTY.


So that is our brief review of the Apostles of the North. 

We will sum up in the words of the Prophet Jeremiah:



"If I go out into the fields, I see the bodies of people slaughtered by the enemy. 
If I walk the city streets, I see people who have died of starvation. 
The prophets and priests continue with their work, but they don't know what they're doing.

(Jer 14:18)
--------------------------------------------



KING PUCK MAYNOOTH.

Last week we reported that Kerry's King Puck returned to Maynooth last Tuesday night.

His name and diocese were placed on his door.

Today we hear he only stayed TWO NIGHTS and then left again !!!

Did he get a drive home to Kerry with Bishop Ray Brown who left the Bishop's Conference meeting on Thursday?

Apparently other seminarians were uncomfortable at his presence.

Where has all the Puck charm gone?


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69 comments:

  1. Re: Tullamore: A post on this website has been brought to my attention. There is absolutely no charge for a coffin to be left in the parish Church over night. Music can be arranged with the local under taker, if it is a parish choir, there is no charge. The priest is given 100, at the families discretion. The parish issues no invoice for a funeral or any liturgical service. I would be grateful if you could amend the information posted. Tom Whelan, Parish Administrator.

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    Replies
    1. Tom, Glad to clarify that for you.

      As you may know I am from Tullamore and rang family members yesterday to check on the report we got.

      It is a common belief in Tullamore that the parish gets 150 for a deceased's overnight stay.

      Might be good to clarify it in the parish newsletter. Pat.

      Delete
    2. To my knowledge I've never herd of there being a charge for a coffin to spend the night in a church . However the priest sacristan and alter boys do get money . The undertaker will usually pay this on families behalf. This is normal practice in most religions nothing unusual about it . What is scandalous is the prices undertakers charge for funerals it's a discrace ! I have arranged several funerals for family members and have no problem in asking for quotes or going to another firm when 1st quote was too deer . You will very rarely find a price list in a undertakers and the most of them become very twitchy when u ask about money

      Delete
    3. My brother recently had to arrange a funeral and did indeed "shop around" and even haggled with an undertaker.

      The undertaker was flabbergasted.

      But my brother saved a lot of money and still provided a lovely and mraningful funeral.

      Needless to say there was no charge for the priest :-)

      Delete
    4. You have a smart brother . Wish everyone else could do the same . People don't like the money subject when it comes to death and the undertakers make the most of it

      Delete
  2. Part The First

    Pat, please allow me to share my view of the bishops. In my lifetime, the first great public rift in the modern Irish church occurred when Archbishop Diarmuid Martin stabbed his auxiliary bishops in the back when he called publicly for their resignations in the wake of The Murphy Report, drawing Tony Flannery’s ire: “ "These bishops are not recalcitrant teenagers; they are intelligent and mature men, so it was pathetic of Diarmuid Martin to use the media to communicate with them" and Martin Drennan’s response: “ "I don't know if Martin intended it or not but it has put a question mark over my integrity, yes.”

    The second most publicised rift in the modern Irish church was announced three days after Archbishop Diarmuid Martin’s extraordinary and unexpected press release about his sudden conversion to opposition to “strange goings on” in Maynooth. On August 4th, The Irish Independent ran with the headline: “Martin further isolated as six more bishops give support to Maynooth” and the article continued: “Following the lead of Archbishop Eamon Martin and Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, Archbishop Michael Neary said he would continue to send trainee priests to Maynooth.”

    Above everything, Martin needs to feel that his reputation - and therefore his legacy - will be judged more in the public domain and in the media than among his colleagues. His media profile and the consequent public estimation of same means absolutely everything to him. Anyone and everyone may be sacrificed to secure his standing as the reluctant but hard pressed reformer and if it takes a knife to remove opponents, the knife goes in.

    And yet when Martin was challenged about the potential resignation of Sean Brady over the Brendan Smyth controversy, he was able to exist in a contradictory bubble: “"I never tell people to resign. I never said people should stay. I ask for accountability.”

    Still in the contradictory bubble, Martin allowed his friend in The Irish Times Patsy McGarry to run the following story: “IRELAND’S CATHOLIC bishops have “a long history of a lack of unity” the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said, according to an English translation of the address he delivered in Italian at Rimini last Tuesday.” The address was to one of Martin’s favourite groups, Comunione E Assassinio (Communion and Assassination).

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  3. Part the Second

    So imagine then Msgr Hugh Gerard Connolly’s total shock and amazement when his fellow Camp Guard Martin publicly betrayed the Great Project – Maynooth – which he had unquestioningly followed for 12 years, rubber stamping all of the dismissals and complaint denials and effective cover ups of “strange goings on” in Maynooth.
    Martin reverted to type and issued yet another unexpected press release putting himself ahead of his fellows and situating himself pretty well in the public mind and why? Only because some former Dublin seminarian was potentially lighting a fuse under Maynooth’s decades of unbridled intimidation and bullying by doing the unthinkable – making a Garda complaint.

    Martin is a team player alright – in a team of One. In the Titanic’s sinking, Martin would have hijacked a lifeboat for the One and Only. It is God’s will that Martin should survive and thrive at the expense of everyone. While some survey the rounded buttocks of their fellows and imagine penetration, Martin’s cold fish-eye gaze is ever a little higher where penetration past the spine allows the dagger to reach the heart. Where Msgr Ledwith took flight from Maynooth’s “strange goings on” and landed in a wealthy American cult, Martin – if he ever flees the Irish church – will easily land a job in the Cosa Nostra as a knifeman par excellence.

    And so, getting back to gobsmacked Hugh Connolly, who as he felt Diarmuid’s cold steel penetrate his lumbar region must have repeated in his mind, “Et tu, Brute?” – should one feel any sympathy for Red Hugh of Dromore [Why not ask Stephen about the “strange goings on”, Hughie?]? – none, none at all. Hughie has been at the very heart of every single dismissal in Maynooth since Big Dermie was installed in Dublin. I’ll leave it to Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet to describe them:

    DERMEO
    Courage, man. The hurt cannot be much.

    HUGIO
    No, ’tis not so deep as a well nor so wide as a church-door, but ’tis enough, ’twill serve. Ask for me tomorrow, and you shall find me a grave man. I am peppered, I warrant, for this world. A plague o' both your houses! Zounds, a dog, a rat, a mouse, a cat to scratch a man to death! A braggart, a rogue, a villain that fights by the book of arithmetic! Why the devil came you between us?

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    Replies
    1. I thoroughly enjoyed your contributions and they give us a deep insight to the goings on and personalities.

      Delete
  4. Well now I think 100 is unacceptable
    Thought conducting services was part of your job, why expect money, do priests now get paid a salary
    I think it's wrong that any money is taken, you should give it back

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    Replies
    1. Yes priests get a salsry.

      Their salaries seem to be 20,000 + for a curate and some thousands extra for a PP.

      There are also extras paid that vary diocese to diocese.

      Many would say that 20,000 + plus a house is not bad for a single man?

      Delete
  5. I wd say that it should be looked into...discussed at parish meetings...far too much money given to priests
    Other professions don't have these perks...like a free house.
    Priests don't do family visits any more, thank God, I never wanted them to anyway.
    I like to go to mass or not go..it is not a sin to not go on a Sunday
    ..why were we instructed that it was.
    Yea a priest came to my house when I asked him to
    And yes I did give him money at a later date as a token of my appreciation.
    But money should not be expected to say a mass at a funeral

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    Replies
    1. If families spend thousands of euro for food and drink at a funeral I think the priest is entitled to a good donation. I would expect more than 100 euros. PP Meath Diocese.

      Delete
    2. And if a PP has a housekeeper and car and gets his meals prepared for him and his bills paid then no. My ass should he get 100 Euros. When are you priests ever going to realaize that been ordained is been called to serve God and his people.

      Delete
  6. I don't know about the South but in the North (or at least the parts I know) a young curate gets about 650-700 pounds a month plus housing. I think it is unacceptable that any gift is expected for a funeral. Weddings and baptisms I am less bothered about, but this should be a freewill offering, not an expectation. But it is part of the ministry, it is not a money making scheme. I think the custom arose in a time when priests really were fairly poor and relied on these offerings to get by.

    That said, I have seen a lot of posts about money and I can only assume that priests in some parts of Ireland are substantially richer than they are around here. Priests are not badly off, but neither could they be said to enjoy a standard of living that could be described as luxurious (generally speaking of my own area). Probably lower middle class is about the height of it - nothing wrong with that of course, but definitely if a priest is lining his pocket, then I hope that Thinking Catholicism will call him on it:-)

    I like this focus on the real issues in the past few days by the way.

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  7. Who is Stephen? is a very good question indeed. Let me say I have every sympathy for Stephen and pray for him regularly. He is in my thoughts very often. Stephen was a Dromore seminarian who was in Maynooth under the Deputy Presidency of Hugio Connolly of Dromore. He survived the gaze of Msgr Desmond Farrell, Des Hillery, Enda Cunningham, Donal O'Neill and all other formators.

    Stephen unfortunately was 'outed' in the media some months ago by The Sun newspaper as Father Stephen Crossan of St. Patrick's church, Banbridge, County Down, in a video snorting coke in his parish house with a group of revelers after what was described as a two day bender. The fact that the parish house was bedecked with Nazi memorabilia - which Stephen said in The Sun that he 'always collected' - is not really relevant.

    The question Who is Stephen? though involves the period when Maynooth effected the disappearance of the good Doctor Donnelly, the bad terrorist Shane O'Doherty, the good teacher PJ MacManus, the quiet man Michael Quilty, and the various hell-bent Kneeling Fraternity David Nugent, Declan Gibson and nearly but not quite got rid of the related Kneelers Sean Davidson and James Devine.

    Hugio Connolly could have enquired of his fellow Dromorian Stephen - if he didn't trust any other seminarian - if he and any of his particular colleagues were aware of any "strange goings on" in Maynooth. Somebody must have seen something. Somebody must have known about hetero-bashing, hetero-intimidating and so on.

    Stephen - so recently ordained - was one of the very few who seemed to get through all of the hurdles of Maynooth to ordination where others failed. Why not ask him?

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  8. The church is a commercial enterprise and many of its priests become mercenary over time and develop a great sense of entitlement. Money is one of the few things that keep them going. Religion is a business. Forget about talk of substantial spirituality and the transformational message of the Gospel. Many priests have abandoned or never even cared about those concerns. They conveniently ignore the many times Jesus challenged the rich and powerful and the one time he got really angry when he riled against the money changers. He was gentle with those whose sin was sexual in nature and far more challenging with the pharisees and tax collectors. The opposite is the case today. We punish the lay faithful in 'irregular unions' by excluding them from the Lord's table whilst we turn a blind eye to those engaged in the noble enterprise of greed and wealth accumulation. We always side with money. That has been the irish church always- favouring the wealthy. Many priests love to court wealthy parishioners. false religion is a respectable layer, a covering for the venality and greed lurking underneath that keeps the institution going. Many priests and bishops are just lawyers and accountants who happen to wear clerical collars. In their hearts they are no different to any other professional in the banking, accounting or legal world. We then wonder why so few bother to attend the sacraments anymore. The church is just another pillar of the establishment and people realise that. It has little authenticity. Simplicity, poverty, inclusion are not the radical words the clerical elite want to hear. Power, prestige, status, wealth is more the order of the day no different from many other institutions.

    ReplyDelete
  9. Pat, what about the inability of bishops in the North to make decisions on complaints made against their priests even when they have been cleared by the statutory authorities. There are many priests in suspension while bishops named above supposedly deliberate on their cases. Some cases are going on for many years and the priest is left on suspension from duties even when supported by parishioners and like in penal times they move from house to house saying their daily masses hiding away from the bishop's gaze.

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  10. What I find shocking about the priestly formation in Maynooth, Pat, is not the sexual bullying and faculty imtimidation and destruction of good vocations - I can live with this myself - what is most shocking of all is that many of the seminarians who spent years in Maynooth complaining in their rooms about being bullied and intimidated by Maynooth/formators and/or sexually predated by golden circle senior seminarians - that all of these implied that after ordination they would be free to speak out.

    And yet, since all of them were in recent years ordained NOT A SINGLE ONE OF THEM HAS SPOKEN OUT... Was it all for this? Was the Gospel, the Passion of Christ, the Redemption, the Resurrection, the birth of a Church of Forgiveness and Salvation for sinners - was the sum total of all of this to produce a blether of burst bladders of silent, fearful priestettes whose consciences are totally intimidated?

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    Replies
    1. Maybe in Maynooth they were afriaid of what their formators would do , like we have seen of those who have made complaints,;their shown the high road. Now they are afraid as ordained to speak out because of what their Bishop might do and they do not want to risk been an outcast in a horrible Parish for years.

      Delete
  11. Would Horrible Parishes please put your hands up so we can identify you? :))

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  12. There should be no such a thing as HORRIBLE PARISHES.

    Every parish contains God's people.

    EVERY parish should be a joy to serve God and people in.

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  13. Come off it Pat! Our gentler, more refined, intellectually and theologically able young priests ought not to be put in rougher, tougher horrors such as Turf Lodge, Short Strand, Bogside, Ballymun, Ballyfermot and so on... the rougher, tougher sort of lower grade priests (on a par with the Christian Brothers) should go to these. Like to like. We'll lose the better sort if we start them off in hell holes. Be fair!

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  14. Are there Plum Parishes then, Pat?

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    Replies
    1. Some priests go from plum to plum whilst others go from slum to slum!

      Delete
  15. But unfortunately with Bishops they have lists of Parishes they see as horrible and send the Priests they have a grudge against or who has done something bad.If I can use as an example when Cathal Daly sent Pat to the top of the mountains of mourne. Thats what Daly was thinking. I agree Pat no Parish is horrible or should never be seen as horrible.

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  16. Well said! --In any case it should be regarded as an honour and a privilege to be assigned to a " horrible"'parish if that implies that it is a part of the diocese where there is financial or spiritual special need.

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  17. As a priest I served in 7 parishes in total - 4 in Wales and 3 in Down and Connor.

    WALES:

    LLANRUMNEY, CARDIFF - working class.

    BRIDGEND, CARDIFF - middle class.

    BRITON FERRY, CARDIFF - MIDDLE / WORKING CLASS.

    WHITCHURCH, CARDIFF - UPPER CLASS - The Archbishop lived there :-)


    NORTHERN IRELAND:

    DIVIS FLATS - FALLS ROAD, BELFAST (1978 - 1983) massively socially deprived and troubled.

    KILKEEL.

    LARNE

    I loved ALL my parishes.

    I felt most needed and most useful in Divis.


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  18. Pat, why did you leave Wales to head to Belfast?

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  19. Good question 13;03

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  20. A perfectly valid question.

    I was ordained in 1976 for Cardiff, Wales and went to Wales in Sept 1976 with the full intention of spending my life there serving God and people.

    I immediately met a number of twisted and frankly sadistic parish priests who made my life a hell inside and outside the presbytery.

    I talked to the archbishop about that - who told me they were saintly men who would make me a saint :-)

    The archbishop sent me to a psychiatrist whose diagnosis was: "Pat is living in a purgatory / hell situation in a presbytery and needs to be moved.

    I was in trouble for being a complainer. After 2 years of it I left and came home to Ireland and was accepted into Down and Connor.

    For a fuller version of the story read my book A THORN IN THE SIDE - available on Amazon.

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  21. PS: Sorry to disappoint anyone looking for a scandal :-)

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  22. It makes perfect sense-

    You're life was made hell by other priests and bishops and now you want to make the lives of priests and bishops perfect hell.

    A very good explanation.

    ReplyDelete
  23. Not accurate.

    My life was made hell by SOME priests and SOME bishops.

    I want to challenge the corrupt system that facilitates SOME bishops and priests making other people's lives a hell.

    In other words I want to save others from suffering what I suffered.

    Is that a bad thing?

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  24. Serious question? What have you actually achieved? If not already achieved when do you hope to achieve it? Excuse my ignorance, but nothing has changed. Just saying?

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    Replies
    1. I am working with a number of others, clerical and lay, to lay bare a very large number of abuses with regard to the Irish Catholic Church - abuses that are as serious and maybe mpre widespread as the sexual abuse of children.

      This is a process. It is in hand.

      What will be achieved? The truth? Help and closure for victims? Purification of bad structures? Prosecutions? There is a lot to be achieved and I am not working alone.

      Delete
    2. The destructiveness and invalidation of being lied to and having your abuse denied can only be relieved by being believed. Those who don't believe a target of abuse repeat the abuse.
      If nothing else Pat achieves a public validation that there are depths of cruelty and depravity in the church which cannot be believed.
      That he has been a target of the church himself and bears the scars, is neither here nor there.
      Btw it is not only parishes perceived to be horrible that bishops use to punish priests. They also use extreme geographic moves in large dioceses away from family. One priest in this diocese kept secret for decades that he had been left money and bought a house just outside the diocese, for fear he would be moved to the opposite side of the diocese to make it difficult to go home on his day off. Another priest, of decided traditionalist views but nonetheless flexible and pastorally sensitive, was deliberately given the most liberal, hsppy-clappy church in the diocese, to make his life a living hell.

      Delete
  25. 10 . 30 Meath
    No wonder your part of ireland went broke...you all lost the run of yourselves during the Tiger..it was laughable watching yous
    Family member died,undertaker cost 1500 about and lunch, yes lunch ,750 in local resturant
    He was a pioneer, so no drink either in house and no one at funeral lunch went to the bar either, they went home after thier lunch.
    anyway none of your business even if they do spend a thousand, they earned their money .

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    Replies
    1. Excuse me! If people want to spend thousands on funeral booze I, as the one providing the most important part of the funeral, the Mass, am entitled to my stipend. I would regard 200 euros as the starting point. PP. Meath.

      Delete
    2. I do not believe that PP Meath is a real priest. If he is - God help his parish. But I think this poster is a messer.

      Delete
  26. Grow up Meath man and stop pretending u a pp

    Pat ,a lot of these posts are trying to wind u up..ignore and carry on your good work
    Yes saw you on tv last nite, prob a repeat of Sunday
    Good on you telling your flock about your impending dismissal
    What stood out for me was the full chapel
    Bet it has dwindled since

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  27. @15:11
    IF thousands is spent on funeral booze then perhaps €200 is appropriate. But where a family doesn't have thousands for funeral booze, struggles with the price of a grave/coffin/undertaker then lets hope you have the humility to forgo your stipend and remember the struggling family will have paid you already via the dues envelopes that appear two/three times a year.

    And regardless of the funeral stipend lets hope you remember to call into the bereaved families a few times over the next few months. Your job is far from finished when you complete the Mass and burial.

    PS; careful with the sense of entitlement, absence of humility and forgetfulness of your deaconate promises to serve.

    ReplyDelete
  28. Many countries don't bother with a funeral mass
    People need to realise that it is how one spends their life...work is prayer...that God notices
    Not a flashy funeral...and stupid silly talks by a priest about the dead person...families mostly don't want all this ballyhoo.
    Simplicity and respect is all good...and if family wish to talk with congregation from the altar...it's their chapel so why not
    I have heard of priests not liking this...then there are other priests who go over the top.

    ReplyDelete
  29. 15.29
    Whilst I don't agree with your first sentence...what is spent by families is their own business..should have nothing to do with the cash drop to the priest.
    You have made a good point about visiting the family after..no not a peep out of the local priest did I get.
    Anyway the poster who pretends to be a Meath pp is only a windup...believe me.or maybe he has been on the tipple

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  30. Pat how much do you charge for a wedding

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  31. I imagine you are asking this with an agenda.

    But I am totally open about it BECUASE it is my ONLY INCOME and I do not get a penny from the church or a salary from anyone.

    For a normal wedding I get £300.

    If I understand that people cannot afford that I simply tell them to put whatever they can afford in an envelope.

    The smallest I've received was £5 :-)

    I declare all my weddings to the tax man.

    I would be better off as a curate - never mind a PP :-)


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  32. I am aghast at some of the intrusive and silly questions people ask Pat on this blog. It's the same questions these people wouldn't dream of answering hemselves. Honestly, some have no decorum, manners or cop on.

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    Replies
    1. Its the "Catholic Rats" trying to set traps :-)

      My life, unlike theirs, is all out in the open.

      I have nothing to hide.

      And I'm working with others to shine light ibto their dark places.

      Delete
    2. Back to the anawim again.
      I wonder if 'PP Meath' knows what that means lol.

      Delete
  33. But you do great Ministry Pat. Never give up.

    ReplyDelete

  34. In a cathedral in the west - charge of 300 euro for using church for the night - deceased body has to be in the church by 7pm - if its not , the body is not allowed into the church - I have seen a family being turned away with their deceased relative by the ADM of the cathedral - SHOCKING BEHAVIOUR by this ADM. I would add there is talk that this very man will become a future bishop - if this happens - he won't be in the position for long. MONEY MAD priest!

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    Replies
    1. Sounds like perfect bishop material.
      But has anyone told him that most hotels insist on the body checking in *after* a certain time?

      Delete
  35. Priests like that should be asked directly and politely do they actually believe in God.

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  36. Don't believe a bit of it.

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  37. Expect some adm's think people are using the church instead of funeral parlour
    When I was in Portugal I witnessed a wedding in a chapel...there was no mass

    Also saw a body in a chapel with family sitting around the open coffin inside altar rails...there was no altar rails, it's just that I'm explaining where the body was.

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  38. Interesting overview of the pointy hat brigade in the Northern dioceses. Any priests from Derry care to comment on Donal. Pat says you haven't taken to him but I heard the priests and people of Derry thinks hes great - a breath of fresh air after auld Seamie Hegarty

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  39. He sounded a boring old fart...the day I witnessed him at a confirmation

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    Replies
    1. Donal does not really believe or stand for anything.

      He is all things to all men.

      I heard a shocking story today which will feature in a future blog.

      He is an empty blatherer :-(

      Delete
  40. Pat you didn't have to tell the blog i how much u charged for a wedding
    U could have replied...it varies depending if the couple ask me how much they should give
    May sound silly, but most only marry once or twice so it wd be ok if they asked
    Same with a funeral, people have no idea if money involved, so our undertaker explains everything including how and where a lunch can be done reasonably..how many courses..he recommended one. Lovel, lovely man
    Also I do know that only the kids get money for serving mass they def would not go....

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    1. The idea of giving money leading to submission was abused by Fr Richard White:
      http://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-2082037/Paedophile-monk-paid-schoolboy-50p-time-sexually-abused-locked-years.html

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  41. Irish Bishops Reviewed.. A great topic.

    I was in Maynooth. I saw the strange goings on. I fell victim to them. I was a celibate seminarian who happened to be heterosexual. Rumours abound in that place. All people had to do there was tell a Dean that so-and-so was seen with such-and-such a woman and the dean would go through a series of students asking if there was any truth in the rumour. A lot of the rumours started like this; spread by the deans who made innocent students pariahs from much of the community. In contrast if two seminarians spent vast quantities of time together in their bedrooms that was fine, that's just 'community bonding'. I was told I should be more like a guy in my class who was all into that type of 'community bonding'. In fact I was also told that I should have no friends outside the seminary community and should stop visiting my friends when I was on trips home. All I had done wrong was have friends who were not seminarians, to follow the seminary rules and to live the expected life of celibacy and prayer.

    Any way I had cause to make a complaint. I did so, like many others naive in how Maynooth responds to whistle-blowers. And by god did the dean make my life a living hell. I became nothing but his personal play thing.

    After Maynooth I decided I would complain to the trustees and to the nuncio about Maynooth's 'strange goings on'... and so I add my experience to the Irish Bishops reviewed.

    Papal Nuncio, Charles Brown - multiple letters were sent, none have been replied to, except the occasional acknowledgement of receipt on a few earlier letters.

    Cardinal Brady - attempted to have an investigation but told me he was vetoed by a group of Trustees responsible for Maynooth known as 'The Visitors'.

    Archbishop D. Martin - My complaint was discussed with him by a member of his staff. Almost a decade later there has been no reply.

    Archbishop E. Martin - No response.

    Archbishop Clifford - why did this man even become a priest?

    Archbishop O'Reilly - told me to write to Rome.

    Bishop Michael Smith - Apparently complaints against Maynooth have nothing to do with him.

    Bishop Philip Boyce - his secretary laughed at me, quite literally laughed at me.

    Bishop John Buckley - Might as well be talking to a wall.

    Bishop William Crean - The man will ponder on the problem until he can find a weak excuse not to act.

    Bishop Ray Brown - Actually acknowledged the hurt but said anything that happens outside of his diocese is not something he can look into, even if the troublesome priest was on loan from his diocese.

    Bishop John McAreavey - Again nothing to do with anything he can look into because the priest of his diocese running Maynooth is on loan outside his diocese.

    [interesting to note the excuse used of a priest being on loan outside of the diocese, something that was also an issue in the Brendan Smith affair].

    These bishops operate in their own little world. It is a defensive place, closed off from reality and thus truth. They drive on blindly, hiding behind the corners of cannon law that say something happened outside their bishopric's jurisdiction but forgetting that things fall squarely into their responsibility as Trustees of Maynooth. Yet the trust has been breached; what can we now call untrustworthy trustees?

    If they had admitted that Maynooth was even capable of a mistake all I would have asked for was reform in there. What I love is what the church is meant to be not the messed up place Maynooth is.

    An interesting development in the weeks before Hugh Connolly taking his extended holiday - he apologised to me for the fact that Maynooth made a complete mess of my formation. My bishop had told me Maynooth were the experts in formation and were not to be questioned... but Hugh says otherwise. His apology was verbal; it can never repair the breakdown in relationship with my bishop caused by Maynooth's written lies because the apology was not in writing. It can never repair a broken vocation because it was not in writing.

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    1. An amazing comment and amazingly sad.

      You were basically screwed.

      I would love to hear more from yo

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  42. This post at 23 .19 is shocking in the extreme....what an awful way to treat a sincere young man
    I pray and hope that your future life will be especially rewarding

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  43. I did think that the words 'horrible parish' was a joke
    Tbh it's a disgusting term..I know a very prestigious wealthy parish where many only go to church when they have to
    Example first communion, Confirmation..they never seen again

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  44. Answer the question please.

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  45. 23. 55
    Any word can be googled..look it up
    He / she prob gone to bed early lol

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  46. Why has the Irish Church deemed this Australian priest 'suspicious' and "banned from preaching in Ireland", and not it's own clerics?

    See

    http://www.smh.com.au/national/cardinal-pell-associate-banned-from-preaching-in-ireland-over-abuse-allegations-20161006-grwxlh.html

    http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-12-23/john-walshe-accused-of-sexual-abuse/7051050

    http://www.catholica.com.au/forum/index.php?id=190645

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