Thursday 17 November 2016

PRIEST'S CHILDREN

PRIEST'S CHILDREN





THE FACT THAT MANY PRIESTS HAVE FATHERED CHILDREN will be brought home to us once again today when a priest of Armagh Diocese - Father Arthur McAnerney - will be laid to rest in Armagh Cathedral.


FATHER ARTHUR MC ANERNEY


Father McEnerney ended his life in the priesthood as a Pastor Emeritus and Assistant Priest in the Parish of Magherafelt in Co. Derry.

His remains were received into Magherafelt Parish Church on Tuesday evenning by the Parish Priest - Father John Gates.


FATHER JOHN GATES PP MAGHERAFELT
Father Gates invited Father McAnerney's daughter, Derbhala from Drogheda, to read a poem at the end of the Magherafelt Mass. The daughter also thanked all those present for being so kind to her Dad, the priest.

In 1998 the following article appeared in the IRISH INDEPENDENT newspaper:


A VILLAGE was last night rallying around its parish priest who admitted from the altar he has fathered a child. Parishioners applauded Father Arthur McAnerney after he made the sensational statement to Mass goers on Sunday and spoke about it again yesterday.Last night Fr McAnerney told the Irish Independent he had been contacted by the Archbishop of Armagh, Dr Sean Brady, about the revelation. ``He seemed to be happy about the way things are,'' the priest said last night. He said had not been asked to meet the Archbishop and intended continuing his ministry in the parish.







The parish priest said he was embarrassed by the applause which followed his announcement on Sunday to parishioners at the Church of the Immaculate Conception in Beragh, Co Tyrone. ``There has been a lot of goodwill,'' he added.

His daughter, now in her teens, lives in Drogheda with her mother. ``I made my choice many years ago,'' said Fr McAnerney. ``I made the choice to remain a priest. People have been very understanding and supportive and I hope this will not make any difference.''
He said he had always kept in touch with the child and her mother and had tried to support them as best he could and ``used only my own resources, nothing from the parish or the dioceses was ever used to support them.''
He said no one knew he was a parent until the weekend. ``It was my secret.''
Fr McAnerney, who is in his 50s, is understood to have become involved with the woman when he worked in Drogheda in the 1980s before being moved. He became parish priest in Beragh six years ago.
Recently he was one of the clergymen who comforted the relatives of those killed and injured in the Omagh outrage.
Yesterday, the woman at the centre of the revelation issued a statement through her solicitor confirming that Fr McAnerney is the father of her daughter. She refused to comment further on the matter.
Last night a senior member of the Beragh community said people had expressed admiration of Fr McAnerney for his public admission.
Paddy Joe McClean who works with the priest on cross community projects said: 
``People clapped him because of the courageous step he took. They admire the way he handled it. I haven't met one person who would be anti what he is doing.''

PAT SAYS:

Many many children have been fathered by Catholic priests in Ireland and around the world.

BISHOP CASEY AND HIS SON PETER


The most famous clerics in Ireland to father children are BISHOP EAMON CASEY and FATHER MICHAEL CLEARY.

FATHER MICHAEL CLEARY, HIS PARTNER PHYLIS AND HIS SON ROSS


Father Cleary admitted to fathering TWO CHILDREN but there are rumours among the clergy that he father more than tw.

Bishop Casey admits ONE CHILD but there are other rumours too.

Over the years I have counselled many women who have had children for priests and indeed many priest's children.

One woman I know in England had THREE CHILDREN for an Irish parish priest.

The priest's archbishop refused to meet the woman and the children.

In the past bishops have PAID OFF many women out of CHURCH SLUSH FUNDS if they promised to remain silent and never see the priest again.

Here in Ireland priests fathering children is shown by some surnames:

MAC ENESPIE - The Son of the Bishop.

Mac Entaggart - The Son of the Priest.

Mac Nabb - The Son of the Abbot.

I know for a fact that many IRISH MISSIONARY PRIESTS have left thousands of children behind them in Africa and South America.

The Church, bishops and priests try and pretend that most priests are celibate.

That is PURE SPIN.

A great many priests are or have been sexually active during their lifetimes.

I have also counselled women who were made pregnant by priests and were brought to England by the priest to have an abortion.

Some of these same priests will condemn abortion from the pulpit.

Many priests have a better sex life than married men.

19 comments:

  1. Well done Fr McInerney. Pitty about the secrecy though. The Anglicans have an uncomfortable silence about gay vicars partners and views from acceptance to rejection but no condemnation outright. Perhaps the RC is going the same rout re priests/children/partners. Still a long way to go. Lots of hurt and healing to address

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  2. Money always talks

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  3. Talk back today listen. Fr Horans comments discussed by enda.

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  4. As you said in your great interview 'do as I say not as I do'. What I find strange is how inconsistent bishops can be in dealing with different priests, often for the same or a similar set of problems. Compare your own unfair dismissal to that of many a rogue priest who strayed in ministry for egregious reasons and yet were protected by their bishops. There's something in us Irish that loves a rogue who manages to outwit the system by giving it the two fingers. Just look at the politicians people elect. It's the same with the Church-many a blind eye turned. That dynamic surely was a major factor in all the abuse cover ups, the abuse of children as well as adults and is still the way of doing things.

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    1. "There's something in us Irish that loves a rogue outwitting the system..."
      I've pondered on that one before, and years ago explained it to a group of English friends as something inbuilt over generations in our psyche as a reaction against living under the yoke of the foreign oppressor. My friends had virtually no knowledge of the history of Ireland's subjugation under the crown. One chap Oxbridge educated but from Scottish parentage drew parallels with Scotland's history of land clearances.
      So I think our love of outwitting the system is historical from admiration of devious ploys used by native Irish against the foreign ruling class.
      It is also of course a normal human psychological reaction where we support the underdog.
      But the morality boundaries can be readily breached for the wrong reasons.
      MMM

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  5. He was from wealthy family....money always talks

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  6. Who is Fr magill...sorry off topic, he is on talk back now.
    Seems a bishop bullied a priest...you should connect to this discussion, Pat

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    1. Thanks for that. I tuned in as soon as you commented.

      Father Martin Magill is the parish priest of Ballyclare here near Larne.

      He has just moved there from being the PP in Sacred Heart Parish Belfast.

      I think very highly of Father Martin. People are constantly telling me about his care and compassion.

      I regard him as being one of the best priests in Down and Connor.

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  7. PS: What priest was bullied by a bishop ?

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    1. It's not impossible to think also of situations where bishops have been bullied by individual priests and even other bishops. They used to try to tell us that the Church is a Perfect Society but the evidence is very much against it.

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    2. Bullying is part if the clerical structure :-(

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  8. That reference was made by Fr Horans and he agreed that the problems
    He was on about are Southern Ireland.unfortunately the discussion was short lived.
    I was thinking of your previous life Pat.

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    1. Indeed. I am a bullying survivor :-)

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    2. To be a smart Alec
      I presume that you mean -
      I am a survivor of bullying
      Rather than -
      I am a bully who survived.

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  9. God Rest you Fr McAnerney, good and Faithful servant. We all fall to human weakness, just like Fr McAnerney. But remember God' is an ever forgiving God and forgives all sin.

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    1. Everything is forgiven? That's not an entirely new one on me but even the Buddhists don't believe that. For Christians it is entirely contrary to Jesus' constant references to hell, direct and indirect. Who to believe, now let me see.....

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  10. Surely the real fault for many such men is that they fall victim to a human requirement of celibacy?

    I still believe that there is a great deal of difference between a priest who falls in love with a woman and a priest/seminarian who has casual sex with multiple partners. One shows the potential depth of humanity while the other shows the potential shallowness of human existence.

    I met the Eamon Casey chap once. He seemed nice. I'd love to have had him as my PP, and he surely couldn't be worse than many of today's bishops?

    CR

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  11. Agree with your post CR to a certain extent, but just wonder how a priest lives out his celibacy after this affair, even if his parishioners Clap for him.And the fact was had the media not got wind of this liaison Would we ever have known..or more importantly Would it have continued.


    No Casy was a hypocrite for many years, so it would take a lot for me to be comfortable with him being my pp

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