Saturday 7 October 2017

"ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER" BEGINS AT HOME!

LAST NIGHT TWO INTELLECTUAL SOIREES TOOK PLACE ON THE THEME OF DIALOGUE AND INVOLVEMENT WITH OTHER PEOPLE.


In Maynooth Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was speaking at an ecumenical gathering on the theme: ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER.


While in Belfast the great and the good gathered to hear a Vatican archbishop wax lyrical about Cahal Daly on the theme: GO THE EXTRA MILE - CAHAL DALY - REFLECTIONS ON THE PRACTICE OF DIALOGUE.
Of course, there is no real harm in having these intellectual naval gazing sessions followed by finger food and wine. 

But the question has to be asked: "DOES DIALOGUE, LIKE CHARITY, NOT BEGIN AT HOME?

DIARMUID MARTIN:




Diarmuid Martin is never done travelling the world and giving speeches on every topic under the sun. He has the knack of making the very PC soundbite and having all his words worshipped by the Dublin 4 crowd and his friends in The Irish Times. Dermo has hardly ever uttered an unpublished word. He is the doyen of the great and the good and the patron saint of the cucumber sandwich brigade. He smiles with the smiley brigade and weeps with the weepy brigade. He is all things to all men - a man for all seasons. In Rome, he is a Roman. In Dublin, he is a jackeen. In Paris, he is a francophile. If he was a film and stage actor his mantlepiece would be coming down with Oscars.

And last night he was speaking about ENCOUNTERING THE OTHER. 

His main responsibility in life is to be a pastor - a father to his priests and his people.

But there is hardly a bishop anywhere with a poorer relationship with his priests - with the exception of that small number of priests who are his favourites and his lapdogs.

Dublin used to have a very efficient personnel panel to advise him on clerical appointments. He abolished that and now makes his appointment on his own - with the help of archbishop@s house favourites.

There was a time when Dublin parishes had PP and curates. Diarmuid has watered those positions down to titles like "moderator" and CO PP in order to reduce people's rights in canon law.

Dublin used to publish its clerical appointments. Nowadays Dermo fails to publish and the appointments are all secret.

He appears to have the most empathy for Dublin priests who gay?

There is nothing at all wrong with encountering the others in the Anglican churches and others around the globe.

But what about Dermo's failures to encounter the other in his very own priests?

And as I say - does encountering the other, like charity, not begin at home?

CAHAL DALY:




Cahal Daly had a great name for "reaching out" to Protestants. 

However, that reaching was done in a formal and non-challenging manner. Little visits to Protestant churches. Little invitation of Protestants to Catholic churches - without Holy Communion of course. Nicely prepared intellectual talks - later published in pamphlets or in The Irish News. Expensive Christmas cards sent to COI bishops, Presbyterian moderators and Methodist presidents. Church Unity Week services in the better-heeled suburbs of Belfast. 

Bt at the very time, he was preaching about Catholic and Protestant reconciliation he was refusing to meet me or be reconciled with me. 

When I wrote to him asking for reconciliation he answered: "The fact that I have removed you from the diocese was an administrative action that does not affect our personal relationship"!!!

Really?

So he was saying that as my line manager he sacked me but we were still loiving Christian friends?

Is not one of the worst forms of dualism. It's saying: "In my capacity as your manager I am sacking you - but there is nothing personal in it and we can still be friends"?

The fact that he refused to meet me and refused to be reconciled with me made it necessary for me to stand in front of him in public on three occasions - to try and bring it home to him that you cannot preach about Catholic/Protestant reconciliation if you are refusing to have dialogue/reconciliation with one of your priests.



Once when I was in Divis Flats a young man came to my door with a very bloodied face. I brought him in, let him wash and made him tea and sandwiches as we sat down for a chat.

He told me that his father was a violent tyrant who beat his mother and his children on a regular basis.

I offered to go with him to his family home to have a chat with his dad.

When we arrived at the house I was shocked to see whose his father was. He was a local leader in several charismatic prayer meetings, carried a great big Bible and claimed to have the gift of healing.

When we entered the house the father was sitting in his armchair being waited on hand and foot by his wife and his cowering children were sitting around the room in silence.

At first, he greeted me but when he spotted his son behind me he became very aggressive.

He stormed out of the room, Bible under arm, ordering his wife to bring his food to his bedroom on a tray.

HYPOCRITE!

The world is full of street angels who are house devils.

The world is full of people who portray themselves on the world stage as sages and prophets but whose "home lives" are far from wise, prophetic, caring and loving.

There is such a phenomenon as a wolf in shepherd's clothing!












61 comments:

  1. What did Daly say when you stood in front of him, Pat?

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    Replies
    1. He said nothing. He looked down and read him homily. I only stood while he was preaching. I did not wish to disrupt the actual Eucharist.

      He was clearly angry and embarrassed.

      I did it on 3 occasions:

      1. Midnight Christmas Mass.
      2. A cathedral youth Mass.
      3. A church unity week service.

      After the 3rd time Cabal had 6 heavies travel with him to physically eject me if I showed up.

      I did not. I had no desire to engage in a physical altercation with men who had nothing to do with the issues involved.

      My point in appearing before him was to say: "You are preaching about reconciliation, but refusing to be reconciled with me.

      Delete
    2. Pat Buckley tells about Cahal Daly employing 'heavies' but you also have heavies to escort you around and prevent people getting close to you from what I'm told.

      Delete
    3. Well, 15:16, I should imagine that is because Bishop Pat has been physically threatened. He, on the other hand, never phydically threatened Cahal Daly.

      Delete
  2. I still don't fully try to advise you on understand exactly WHY you became persons non grata, Pat.. You often refer to the bishop's faults and how unjustly you are were treated.
    But even "wise sages" among us cannot really advise(-would you listen!) or try to help you if you haven't the honesty and courage to tell us both sides of your story. There are always two sides,Pat and nobody can help until we are trusted enough to hear the bad as well as the good. Here is a tough challenge (-probably too tough..)
    Write a paragraph from solely the bishop's point of view describing why he finally decided Fr Buckley had to go. Don't cover up. Don't say that you don't know why. You do!
    Above all don't make excuses and simply re-write your own version of events. That's of no real help to us as it won't move the situation on one iota.
    However, if this is too painful for you or you can only write your "own story" then I suppose we have to accept that the challenge is too difficult. But remember that the moment you put the unvarnished facts down is the moment when someone can unemotionally stand back and use their professional skills to detect the cause/effect/cause patterns and maybe give you some insights. But every word must be from the bishop's viewpoint ONLY. What do you think he would write? In all honesty...

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    1. @1.14

      You sound like somebody new to this blogspace. Pat has often written here on the topic you mention.

      It is very clear that +Pat stood up to the bullies. Who won when he did that? I think +Pat won and I think his ministry has given comfort to many who could not have been comforted by the conventional priest.
      CR

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    2. Of course there are two sides to every story - and then there is the truth.

      I cannot enter into Dalys mind but I can try and do what you ask.

      Daly believed in there being a certain "order in the Church with the bishop at the top. He believed, with Saint Ignatius of Antioch that the voice of the bishop was the voice of God

      He believed that in a diocese there should only be one voice - the voice of the bishop. And other voice, saying different things, was a question of disunity.

      At the time of our dispute I was in St Peter's in the middle of Divis Flats. I was living in a grand presbytery where the lifestyle was Malone Road and not Falls Road. I found that contradictory. I thought that we priests (or some of us, or me) could have lived in a flat among the people. I asked if I could live in such a flat and was told no.

      I felt the bishop should live in the big house in the middle of his suffering people. I suggested this to Daly.

      I was involved in the schools, the youth clubs, the joyriding problem, Long Mesh, loading with the IRA, THE RUC, the British Army, the demolition of Divis etc.

      Delete
    3. 11

      My social involvement annoyed my fellow clergy who reported me to CD for being disobedient and disruptive.

      CD agreed with them and also thought that my high profile in the media was casting a shadow on him as bishop. I was a discordant voice. I was disrupting the established order.

      Daly felt that if he moved me and then removed me order and quiet would be restored.

      Really it was a clash between two visions of church and two visions of ministry. Daly believed in ministry WITHIN the Church structures.

      I believed in taking ministry to the streets.

      Daly was born in 1917 and was ordained in pre Vatican 11 1941. I was ordai ed in post Vatican 11 1976.

      Daly believed in Thomistic philosophy and theology. I believed in new things like pastoral theology and even liberation theology.

      It was like the meeting of a dinosaur and an astronaut :-)

      Daly believed that the voice of the bishop was the voice of God - vox epuscopi vox Dei. I believed in vox populi vox Dei- the voice of the people is the voice of God.

      In the end what made the difference was that he was the master and I was the servant. In a house where there is a dispute between the master and the servant - the servant has to go.

      Delete
    4. CR @ 10:15

      Thank you for that comment. No matter who we are we all need affirmation.

      It was sad that there had to be any winner or loser :-(

      My removal certainly jetsoned me into a new orbit of no fostering to "black sheep - those convention would not or could not help.

      Here at The Oratory I have:

      Ministered to divorced Catholics whom the Church said were living in sin.

      Mixed religion marriages - a massive problem in N Ireland in the 80s and 90s.

      To many homeless people by letting them live here while getting their own home.

      To alcoholics on their road to sobriety.

      I have personally detoxed heroine addicts here.

      To the gay community.

      Much of the work I have done could not have been dine in an ordinary presbytery.

      Imagine me bringing a heroine addict to breakfast in the presbytery in Navan or Dublins Pro Cathedral :-) :-)

      Delete
    5. We judge other people by their actions, but we judge ourselves by our intentions

      Delete
  3. You were, and you are, Bishop Pat, a good priest. But the Cains (among them Cahal B. Daly) sought to destroy your goodness. But they failed.

    Please don't allow any personal bitterness to achieve what they, individually (and even collectively), could not achieve.

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Magna.

      I think that you might only know me from this blog???

      I do not live in bitterness. I am as critical of DM as I am of CD and DM has never done anything to me personally.

      I have spent 30 plus years ministering to people whose lives have been destroyed by many of these men.

      We saw on the Blog the other day two priests whose lives had been derailed by CD. I know many others.

      In fact, in my own case, Daly did me a favour. Being outside the system has been at the heart of my ministry and has allowed me to be the "black shepherd of the black sheep.

      It's about telling the truth and about not allowing history to canonise these characters.

      Delete
  4. My memories of Christian unity week in Sligo are limited. There was the odd service and that kept us going for another year. Sligo is fortunate to have a number of different church which provides opportunity to work together. Back then the unsaid precept was we are right and they are less right. That was then. Now I wonder if anything has changed

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    Replies
    1. You can imagine the difference between church unity week in leafy Sligo and church unity week in war torn and bomb littered Belfast.

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  5. The poster at 01-14 asked some serious questions and made excellent suggestions and I believe you tried best to answer them honestly. Perhaps I could be allowed to throw my penny worth in. Daly, from cradle to grave, was a churchman. From earliest days in Loughguile right to the end of his days in Rosetta the church was first, last and everything in between. All his study and diligent research was church related. He became wrapped in a mindset where the primacy of matters ecclesiastical took precedence over almost everything else. I'm sure if you asked CBD to boil an egg or fix a plug he would have been stumped. Had you dropped him in the middle of London and gave him £100 and told him to survive for a week he would have collapsed with fear!
    All his friends were clergy, usually academics while his non clergy acquaintances were handpicked, usually dyed in the wool, fawning catholic and non threatening. Those friends he had of " other persuasions" would almost certainly been from the upper classes.
    So Pat a naughty, disobedient boy like you who failed to obey the strict bidding of one who firmly believed in the bishops voice being Gods voice must have been anathema to him. That you had the audacity to publicly confront him must have made him apoplectic. Indeed I was told of his rage in the sacristy after one of your episodes.
    Pat, if it is any consolation to you I know many priests who, although they hadn't the balls to do what you did and hated him, admired you and often recounted the confrontation. Dalys expression of rage and anger filled them with much amusement!
    Anyway Pat, despite all his abuse of clergy, and there was plenty of that and his narrow minded thinking that most priests ( non roman stufents) were a lesser caste, he's gone and largely forgotten. I'm sure if he came back today for an hour and witnessed the state of "secular" Ireland and all the clergy scandals now being exposed he would probably ask himself if all his work and study in the furtherance of Holy Mother Church in Ireland was worth it. Your ministry on the other hand certainly is. Keep it up.

    Dalriada Dick

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  6. Diarmuid Martin stated from the eord go that he didn't want to come to Dublin, he is a wildly ambitious fellow and had his sights on higher office in the diplomatic world. The priests of the diocese have long since sussed him out and see him for what he really is. He couldn't give a tuppeny f*&k for them. I think he fears they are all abusers who haven't yet been caught.
    After years of a dopey academic like Desmond Connell Dublin needed a real pastor not someone who would use his office to open doors abroad as DM has done.
    The concept of an absentee bishop is abhorrent to the role of bishop as clearly spelled out by Pope Francis - in fact he warned about airport bishops. DM must have enough air miles to travel free for the rest of his days, and he has even been known to take circuitous routes to build them up. I wonder does the diocese pay for all these trips? or can he do it all on his salary from his mensal parishes - approx €120,000 - Not bad for a part timer eh?

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  7. ‘The Dialogical Imperative’

    What is dialogue? What are the goals of dialogue between faiths? Are they attainable? Are they compatible with Christian faith? This important book addresses the issue of dialogue from a different, even unique, perspective: as the relationships, in social and historical context, between faiths. David Lochhead first differentiates between several ideological stances (often categorized as simply "exclusivity" or "inclusivity") that have defined Christian attitudes toward other faiths. He considers the sociological as well as theological dimensions of these stances, concluding that a theology of interfaith dialogue "must ultimately be grounded in a theology of the world."

    After examining several views of the ultimate goals of dialogue (as understanding, as negotiation, as integration, or as activity) Lochhead concludes by explicating the import of the dialogical imperative for Christian theology and mission.

    "The Dialogical Imperative is an uncommonly wise and helpful book. Challenging some of the most widely held tenets of conventional theological wisdom, it shows why faithfulness to Jesus Christ itself requires that 'openness to the world' which makes interreligious dialogue a Christian imperative." (Schubert M. Ogden, University Distinguished Professor of Theology, Southern Methodist University.)

    David Lochhead (1936-1999) was Emeritus Professor of Systematic Theology at Vancouver School of Theology, British Columbia, and a minister of the United Church of Canada. Lochhead insists that dialogue is not an option, but an imperative for the church, that it does not require the modification of existing theology but rather its implementation.

    ‘Nemo potest dare quod non habet.
    (You can’t give what you haven’t got)

    This aphorism is often quoted to me by Bishop Pat. How on earth can a mitred prelate lecture on the subject of interfaith dialogue when his interpersonal relationship with his presbyterate is determined by the caprious balance of his hormones, whatever wins the race to his head and the prejudice of his favoured minions? A bishop’s preoccupation must surely be the totality of the welfare of his priests and the People of God to whom they minister in his ‘portio populi Dei’, (the canonical circumscription of a diocese) to whom he really ought to care like a father and a mother, exhibiting the wholesome characteristics of both maternity and paternity, insofar as he is able. Otherwise he is supported by a quaking sod (!) that gives no firm footing.

    In faith
    Brother Jim

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  8. Cahal Daly destroyed my brothers life as a Priest. There were no issues involved, he made him a total wreck. I invite those on here defending Daly to come with me and visit my brother. He not only ruined my brothers life but our family life too. For those indicating there must have been more to the story, let me take you to my brother.

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    1. I am sorry to hear this.

      Can you IN CONFIDENCE email me the story.

      I promise you I will not publish.

      If I can help please let me know.

      Pat

      bishopbuckley1@outlook.com

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    2. 14.46 I am sorry to hear about your brother. Idiot Bishops seem to have existed in more than one location and I believe some priests were afraid to retaliate because they knew no other way of life. We are fimiliar with domestic violence. From what you imply clerical violence is also a reality and needs to be addressed as such.

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    3. A very good point, Sean, about clerical (episcopal) violence.

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  9. Pat, you didn't do us any favours by standing in front of Cahal. He was in a nasty foul temper in the Sacristy after you interrupted his tv performance. So much so he moved a Priest from his Parish because he dared to laugh at the incident and Cahal overheard him.
    Retired PP Down & Connor

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    Replies
    1. Never heard that story.

      I hope you are having a good retirement :-)

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  10. Dermot Clifford ruined my life as a priest. And he protected the priest who abused me years earlier because they were friends. I have come to the conclusion that bishops who desire unquestioned power are a root cause of much evil.

    @14.46. I am sorry to hear about your brother. I shall pray for him.

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  11. I find 14.46 post very sad indeed. Is there anyway Bishop Pat someone could go with this person to visit his/her brother. I fear from what they say that the damage has already been done. How many others suffer like this that we don't know about? Very sad reading indeed.

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    Replies
    1. I would love to reach out.

      Maybe I am too "controversial?

      Delete
  12. Dermot Clifford was another bully. So many young and not so young Priests left Cashel & Emly because of him. Whatever became of Fr John Middleton who lectured in Thurles? Did he not join an English diocese? Is it true Pat many Irish men joined English dioceses to escape Irish bully bishop's? Just wondering.

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    1. It is a shame Clifford didn't fatally fall down the stairs.

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    2. An uncharitable thought?

      Is is not more of a shame that some Cashel & Emly priests did not rise up against him?

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    3. My thought was uncharitable but speaks of the pain behind it.

      For a group of priests to rise against Clifford would be inconceivable given his relentless oppressive responses. He was an autocrat and never left priests know his reasoning, just his decisions. Discussion was impossible with the man - and more often than not he was incapable of following a conversation anyway.

      And if I heard one more homily based on a 30 degree was (as opposed to a 40 degree wash) I'd have stuck him in a 90 degree wash.

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    4. 15.57 I think you mean Fr John Littleton. He fell out with Clifford and got banished.

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    5. John Littleton was the constantly complaining shop steward of the National Conference of Priests of Ireland, which was the prototype of that moaners' circle, the Association of Catholic Priests.

      John Middleton was a right misery guts in Maynooth too. Why he pursued priesthood when it caused such pain before and after ordination is a mystery.

      1-0 to ++Clifford.

      Delete
    6. John Littleton was re-elected President of NCPI.

      Can you substantiate your claim about his complaining?

      Perhaps it was priesthood (i.e. The Holy Spirit) who pursued him rather than the other way around.

      I think most sane observers would conclude that it was game set and match to Father Littleton.

      Delete
  13. 14.46. I am very sorry to hear about your brother and I know of another priest who was to suffer a similar fate.
    I also know a very talented and dedicated teacher who's career was absolutely wrecked by Cahal Daly in what eventually turned out to be a case of wrong information supplied to him by a PP. And when the PP. concerned found out the error some years later he had neither the Christian charity or the guts to make good the terrible wrong.
    Daly was advised by a third party that a serious error had occurred and the reputation of the good teacher rubbished.
    Daly did sfa to remedy the wrong.
    He voice was not gods but was an empty gong and a cymbal clashing.
    That PP is still alive.

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    Replies
    1. You are not talking of a teacher called Buckley who Cahal Daly though was my brother are you?

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  14. My goodness Pat, are Fr Michael Commane OP and yourself swapping blog Ideas? It is uncanny that for the last 2 days you both have had similar themes. Fr Commane’s theme today is on bad leadership also.
    From today blog ‘Occasional Scribbles’ by Irish Dominican Fr Michael Commane OP.

    ‘An excerpt from the editorial in the current issue of 'Spirituality'.

    An interesting read indeed.

    One of the glaring deficiencies of Church practice in recent times is the failure of leadership to respect the individual. Consider the number of priests silenced or removed from office because of their expressed views, and without being afforded an opportunity of defending themselves.

    There are also memebrs of religious orders, who profess obedience to a fraternal and democratic way of living, ignored and disrespected by those elected to lead.

    Failure to respect the individual undermines the whole organisation and leads to paralysis of mission, and weakens the mandate and witness of the Church.’

    Now you may think ‘what is so remarkable about this?’ Well the ‘Editor’ of spirituality magazine is also an Irish Dominican called Fr Tom Jordan, known in Dominican circles as the ‘Lady’.
    He was provincial in the 1980’s. There are many who lived through his provincilate who say that he did not respect the individual, but instead was arrogant and dictatorial. Worst of all he did nothing, save move the predator around, about the crime of child sex abuse. Tom Jordan’s defence to this day, heard publically, is ‘I did not know that child abuse was illegal’. Now he feels he is, like Sean ‘the wounded healer’ Brady, the voice of justice and reform!

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    Replies
    1. I wonder whether you would stand over these defamatory remarks if your cover of anonymity were removed.

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  15. Isn't he in the Black Abbey in Kilkenny?

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  16. (I am poster from 1.14 who asked Pat to. explain his situation much earlier today.)

    First of all I apologise for delay in acknowl'g your very sincere and detailed reply, Pat. Thank you for that. (I also thank Dalriada D. for his correct and helpful comments later on..)
    I am not as new to the blog as it may have appeared. On many visits to it, I became aware of Pat's mindset on Bishop Daly and on many other aspects of the Church, Maynooth, clerical life etc - many snapshots of where he stood on issues. But since no-one arrives overnight in a situation like that and generally problems and difficulties evolve and have their cause/"effect patterns developing over time, I was trying to understand the full picture.
    Such things don't occur in a vacuum.
    I also know that many people actually find it a healing and cathartic exercise to try and stand back and look objectively as possible at a chain of events and one's own role in it and more challenging still of course, to try and envisage how someone else probably viewed the events. That wasn't easy.
    Pat is very clear and honest on where the roots of the problem lay and I understand it a good deal better now. Thank you again..
    It is obvious that the ongoing situation was exacerbated by not only a personality clash (--people of more similar types could have solved the odd difference over a coffee or a pint of beer on the sofa and even enjoyed the banter of an odd argument but it was never likely to happen - -) but also by different visions of the best ways to administer to the pastoral needs of a fractured Falls Rd society at the height of the Troubles. Pat increasingly became a lone voice, not afraid to speak his mind and do what needed to be done out there where things were raw and lawless and anything but ideal. He pushed the boundaries and that probably didn't endear him to his superiors. Bishop Daly perceived this as at best an example of someone lacking in deference and at worst someone who was happy to challenge authority and therefore who needed to be curtailed into line before he became an embarrassment! After a few verbal exchanges, Pat became increasingly aware of being outside the circle and increasingly aware of the frustrating lack of support for his pastoral efforts and even more damaging, no emotional support or encouragement in a difficult demanding vocation. That was nothing short of a tragedy to my mind.
    How different it could have been!
    If the bishop, who was a lot older than Pat was at the time, had had a different skill set adequate to his role, he could have handled things so much better and made things easier for both of them if truth be told. Very unhappy people are affected in their jobs, in their families and in their relationships. Pat made heroic efforts to carve his own niche when all clerical chips were down. He had the blessing of some good friends and excellent family members who stood by him. They still do, from both sides of Eternity in my belief.
    Who knows what work lies ahead for Pat but one thing we can be sure of.. He will "know it when he sees it"!

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    Replies
    1. Thank you for that very compassionate and thoughtful analysis.

      You did right to challenge me in the positive way you did.

      My heart is in the right place and in spite of my very many failings and weaknesses sincerely desire to serve God and others.

      Delete
    2. Thanks for your reply, Pat.
      (You got a fair hearing me anyway!)

      Delete
  17. Pat,
    I'm sorry to report that the present incumbent of the See of Down & Connor has a fairly stubborn autocratic streak.
    Bishop Treanor exhibits the same mindset of Cahal Daly, namely : 'I know better than everyone else'.
    He pretends to listen to people, but then does the exact opposite, often with bad consequences.
    I and some of my co-diocesan Priests no longer participate in this "game" of pretence.
    Sadly Bishop Walsh suffered from a similar delusion of omniscience.
    Their hubris would be laughable were it not such a sad situation.

    Priest of Down & Connor Diocese.

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    Replies
    1. Is there any such thing as an effective bishop? Or is the role simply too onerous for any single individual to fulfill? Maybe a conciliar system in each diocese is what is needed now. Maybe the role of monarchical governance has had its day.

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    2. That is not my experience of Noel. He is nothing like either PW or CBD.

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    3. Monarchichal governance having had its day? It never should have had a day!

      Delete
  18. I have really been moved by the compassion of many of you towards each other today. Seems to me it's always the wrong type that gets the mitre,not in all cases, but the vast majority yes.
    I have an apology to you Pat. Until today I was very judgemental of you, but now realise the awful treatment you recieved for being a young priest with differing ideals than the old Church around you. God bless your ministry Pat. Xx

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    1. The ordinary folk in the pew never knows the truth of what priests suffer at the hands of many bishops... probably the majority of bishops in Ireland.

      The only thing worse is a bishops secretary who forgets their not the bishop.

      God bless you anon 20.48.

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    2. Reference to Cork and Ross one presumes.

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    3. The want to be bishop, Tommy Deenihan. Oh my has he burnt a lot of bridges with his peers.

      I'm sure many other bishops secretaries have similar track records

      Delete
  19. Bishop P., I've just looked again at the pic (above) of your silent and dignified protest against the self-satisfied arrogance of Daly.

    Christ! You have admirable (and bloody rare!) backbone.

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  20. The episcopate really demands a mature and well integrated personality. Kindness, patience, compassion, empathy, humility, tolerance, wisdom, impartiality. It demands great strength of personality, self knowledge, emotional intelligence. A man who is equable, slow to anger. You'd wonder how many schisms were in part caused by the intransigence, wilfulness, pride, neuroticism and even psychopathy of church leaders. Control freaks can cause a lot of damage. Let's pray for bishops that they will use their power responsibly.

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  21. I'm afraid our man Noel was made look a right arse during the Ian Elliot business. Clogher man having to eat shit not a pretty sight. His Street Fred hasn't recovered.
    D&C Priest

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  22. You are the Edward Snowden of the priest-world Pat

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  23. Fantastic blog today that helped me in healing the loneliness of my pain suffered from some of the hierarchy of the church. God bless you Pat!

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  24. Good for you, 20:48. You, at least, have a moral compass.

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  25. No, Bishop P. I have never met you . But I know how I should meet you, should the occasion arise: on two knees.

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  26. I am a lay person and I don't like our bishop. I think he is an autocrat. I don't like his secretary. He is a bully. I have worked with a number of priests and can read between the lines. The problem is that the laity think that the office sanctifies the person. The laity are incredibly infantile.

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