Wednesday 21 March 2018

FATHER MALACHY FINNEGAN - THE IRISH TIMES


Fr Malachy Finnegan: A child abuser and his victims

During therapy sessions for sex offenders, Finnegan insisted: ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’

Father Malachy Finnegan: when he was at Stroud treatment centre for sex offenders he  was parish priest at Clonduff/Hilltown near Newry and president of the local GAA club, where he looked after the juvenile football teams
Father Malachy Finnegan: when he was at Stroud treatment centre for sex offenders he was parish priest at Clonduff/Hilltown near Newry and president of the local GAA club, where he looked after the juvenile football teams
A former Catholic priest remembers Fr Malachy Finnegan when he was at the Stroud treatment centre for sex offenders in Gloucestershire, England. It was 1995, and the former priest had himself been sent there because he was gay and was considered a sex addict by church authorities.
He recalls Finnegan during group therapy sessions when everyone was expected to be open and honest about their activities as part of their treatment “He never opened his mouth for the four months he was there [at the sessions] except to say, with resolute stubbornness, ‘I’ve done nothing wrong’.”
If “he had admitted anything he would never have returned to ministry”, the former priest said. “Everything he would have said and done would have been reported back [to his bishop].”
Away from the therapy sessions he and Finnegan became friendly. It was how the former priest discovered Finnegan has spent some time in the South at a parish in Co Laois, and how he had claimed that he and the then bishop of Dromore diocese Francis Brooks had been classmates.
However, Bishop Brooks had been ordained a priest in 1949, four years before Finnegan.

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Finnegan had been sent to Stroud because of allegations that he had sexually abused a minor. In 1994, the Bishop of Dromore, John McAreavey, then professor of canon law at St Patrick’s College Maynooth, had been informed of this by Bishop Brooks and was asked to help the abused boy pastorally.
As Bishop McAreavey (who succeeded Bishop Brooks in 1999) put it in a statement last month,“ the first allegation against Malachy Finnegan came to light in 1994, some seven years after he left St Colman’s College. The second allegation came in 1998, and was not related to his tenure at St Colman’s. No further allegations emerged until after his death in January 2002.”
The first time any allegations were reported to the police by church authorities was in 2006. To date, 12 formal allegations have been made against Finnegan.
A BBC Spotlight programme last month raised serious questions about how the diocese of Dromore, which includes parishes in counties Antrim and Armagh but covers much of Co Down, handled child sex abuse allegations against Finnegan. The programme included interviews with three men abused by Finnegan as children.

Physical abuse

As more men came forward alleging sexual and physical abuse by the priest, Bishop McAreavey announced his resignation earlier this month, and former president Mary McAleese called for an independent inquiry into physical and sexual abuse at St Colman’s College, Newry, Co Down, where Finnegan had been president until 1987.

On RTÉ Radio 1’s Today with Sean O’Rourke programme last Monday, McAleese became upset as she recalled how her youngest brother, Clement Leneghan (49), had been “seriously, physically, sadistically” abused by Finnegan while a pupil at St Colman’s in the 1980s. McAleese said there were many people who knew what was going on and could have done something, but did not do so.
In a letter to the Belfast Telegraph some weeks ago, Leneghan wrote: “Throughout my seven years as a pupil at St Colman’s in the 1980s, something rotten was allowed to fester at the core of that school – I saw it every day.
“Thankfully I never experienced sexual abuse there – and I feel intense sadness for those who did – but I was one of many who suffered other forms of abuse, which Finnegan knew about and allowed to flourish.”
A second former pupil, “Donal”, told The Irish Times this week of a vicious beating by Finnegan when he was in the fourth year at the school, after which the priest “started asking sexual questions”.
“ ‘Do you masturbate?’ he asked me.” Then he asked Donal, “Do you have a girlfriend?” and “Do you have sex with her?” Donal said no. “You’re a liar,” the priest responded.
After Donal began crying, he was sent back to his class. On the way out Finnegan patted him on the bottom.

Juvenile football teams

When he was in Stroud Finnegan was parish priest at Clonduff/Hilltown near Newry, and president of the local GAA club, where he looked after the juvenile football teams. He had held both roles since 1988.
It was while there in 1990 that Finnegan began raping Sean Falloon at the age of 10, generally in the bedroom of the parochial house, known as Clonduff House, after Mass on Sundays. Mr Falloon spoke about this to the BBC recently.
When Finnegan was sent secretly to Stroud, all of Ireland was acutely alert to allegations of child sex abuse involving priests. In 1994, Fr Brendan Smyth was jailed in Belfast following over four decades of child sex abuse and his conviction for the sexual abuse of four members of one family in that city.
Later that year, in November 1994, the Republic’s government fell amid allegations about a delay in processing an RUC request for the extradition of Smyth from the Republic to face trial in Belfast.
It was in this climate that Finnegan was sent secretly by Bishop Brooks to Stroud in England for treatment, and that the then Fr McAreavey was asked to help one of Finnegan’s abuse victims.
It was also the climate in which Finnegan was allowed to return to his Clonduff parish in Dromore diocese that summer of 1995 and to its GAA club. Within two days of his return, he was raping Falloon again in the parochial house
Speaking to The Irish Times this week, the former priest who attended Stroud over the period Finnegan was there said he was very surprised Finnegan was allowed leave the centre without completing the seven-month course for sex offenders and which cost £30,000, particularly in the context of Finnegan’s refusal to actively and honestly take part in the therapy sessions.

Appointments

Finnegan was himself from Newry. Ordained in Maynooth by the Archbishop of Dublin, John Charles McQuaid, in June 1953, he served briefly in the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin at Mountmellick, Co Laois, from 1953 to 1956. No allegations of abuse have arisen from his three years there.
He returned to Dromore diocese, and had appointments at Warrenpoint, Co Down, from 1956 to 1959, at Derrymacash from 1959 to 1967, and began at St Colman’s College in 1967. He was there until 1971, and then served for a two-year period in Newry from 1971 to 1973.
St Colman’s is one of the leading Catholic boys’ secondary schools in Northern Ireland. Opened as the diocesan college (junior seminary) for Dromore in 1823, it was set up primarily as a boarding school, with some day pupils, to educate and recruit boys for the Catholic priesthood. This was a pattern repeated in almost every Irish Catholic diocese during the early 19th century.
St Colman’s has a long tradition of success at Gaelic football, having won the colleges’ all-Ireland final eight times. GAA founder Michael Cusack was a past pupil.
Other noteworthy past pupils include former IRA chief-of-staff, Fianna Fáil founder and tánaiste Frank Aiken; former chief justice of Northern Ireland and member of the UK supreme court Lord (Brian) Kerr; former UK ambassador to the Holy See (until 2011) and first Catholic to hold the post since the Reformation Francis Campbell; former Bishop of Cloyne John Magee; the late IRA hunger striker Raymond McCreesh; actors John Lynch, Michael Legge, and Kevin Traynor.

College staff

In the autumn of 1973, Finnegan returned to the staff at St Colman’s, and became the college president in January 1976, succeeding Dr Brooks who was ordained Bishop of Dromore that same January. Finnegan remained as president at St Colman’s until 1987.
Among his colleagues on the college staff were Fr McAreavey from 1978 to 1979, and Canon Liam Stevenson, whom Bishop McAreavey appointed this month as administrator of Dromore diocese until a new bishop takes over there.
Canon Stevenson was also on the staff at St Colman’s from 1973, becoming president in 1994, a position he held until 2000 when he was appointed parish priest at Seapatrick in Banbridge, Co Down, Bishop McAreavey’s hometown.
At a Mass in September 1999, Dr McAreavey was ordained Bishop of Dromore at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Newry. The main celebrant was then Catholic primate Archbishop Sean Brady, with Bishop Brooks and Bishop of Cloyne John Magee, a past pupil of St Colman’s, assisting.
Bishop Magee resigned as Bishop of Cloyne in 2010, and was severely criticised in the 2011 Cloyne report for his handling of clerical child sex abuse allegations there.
Archbishop, later Cardinal Sean Brady was criticised in the January 2017 Northern Ireland Historical Institutional Abuse inquiry report for having “effectively silenced” a 14-year-old boy in 1975 who had been sexually abused by Smyth.

Parish priest

In September 2000, Bishop Brooks, Finnegan, and Canon Stevenson took part in a concelebrated Mass at St Teresa’s Church in Banbridge to mark Canon Stevenson’s appointment there as the parish priest.
Weeks later in 2000, Bishop McAreavey took part in another concelebrated Mass with Finnegan, this time at Corduff parish, where Finnegan has been the parish priest, to mark the 150th anniversary of the church there. Church authorities in Dromore were already well aware then of clerical child sex abuse allegations against Finnegan, though none had been reported to police or any civil authorities.
At the end of his 11½-year tenure as president at St Colman’s, Finnegan served for a short period as parish priest of Dromore – from August 1987 until January 1988 – before being transferred to Clonduff as parish priest on January 17th, 1988.
He retired in September 1995, and died in Newry on January 15th, 2002. Following a funeral Mass celebrated by Bishop McAreavey, he was buried at Warrenpoint, Co Down.
The size of Dromore diocese, one of the smallest Catholic dioceses in Ireland with just 23 parishes, was found to present “significant challenges in responding to allegations of abuse, which are not evident in larger dioceses”, according to a 2011 review of child safeguarding there by the Catholic Church watchdog the National Board for Safeguarding Children.
“The smallness of the diocese and the ensuing close personal relationships created significant challenges for those working in the safeguarding structure, including the bishop, when dealing with allegations,” it said.

Lay principal

St Colman’s now has its first lay principal, Cormac McKinney, and 900 pupils.
Last month in a statement St Colman’s board of governors, chaired by Bishop of Dromore Dr McAreavey, announced that a claim against former president Finnegan had been settled, and it condemned “in the strongest possible terms the physical, sexual and emotional abuse” inflicted by him on pupils at the college while he was there. It is understood the settlement amount is in six figures.
The statement continued that “when informed in October 2017, that a case had been settled by the diocese of Dromore, the board of governors instructed that Malachy Finnegan’s image is removed from photographs which were on display in the college”.
It advised anyone abused by Finnegan to report it to the police.
PAT SAYS:
This is a good piece from Patsy Mc Garry and The Irish Times published on St. Patrick's Day.
It actually tells us things we did not know before:
1. That Dromore paid £30,000 for therapy for Finnegan.
2. That Finnegan failed to complete the course.
3. That he was in charge of the Hilltown YOUTH football teams in the GAA.
4. That at the time the Church considered gay priests to be sick!

As we hear more and more of this story we realise how very sick that Finnegan was and how very badly his illness was handled by the bishop and diocese of Dromore.
Dromore is a tiny diocese and it is inconceivable that many of its priests did not know about Finnegan - and Father Reid's - activities for a very long time.
I think that it is now in such a mess that it should be abolished as a diocese and joined on to either Armagh or Down and Connor. 


84 comments:

  1. It makes a very harrowing read.

    It seems impossible only pupils knew what was going on.

    As shocking as it sounds, it wouldn’t surprise me if some of the former pupils may have sent their own children to the school with the full knowledge of what went on at the hellhole.

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    Replies
    1. I hope that what you suggest is not true!

      Knowingly sending your child into an abusing situation!!!

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    2. The story in our family was that we were sent to the Christian Brothers, even though it was further away, because our father and our uncles had been boarders at the diocesan college.

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    3. @12:22

      Unfortunately, +Pat, it is entirely possible.

      For example, during one of the various reports commissioned by the Irish government to investigate the conduct of the Catholic church, one victim told how he had gone on to be married by the same priest who had previously abused him as a child.

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    4. But why would you blacken and blame the present Staff for something that happened away back when they, themselves were school kids? That would be grossly unfair and also extremely stupid as St Colman's in its results and care for pupils, now proves itself to be one of the top N Ireland schools.

      Delete
    5. @15:13

      Finnegan tenure was long enough for a genera-tional turnover at the school.

      No one is blaming the current staff you nitwit.

      Delete
    6. You are the "nitwit" you ill. mannered twat..

      Delete
    7. Why was the brother of the Primatess of All-Ireland and Theologian to the Papal Household at school in Newry? Mary McAleese mentions her Arydone upbringing at every opportunity.

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  2. Will the prospect of more claims and six-figure pay-outs since Spotlight (and ongoing harrowing testimonies on Nolan) hasten the demise of Dromore, or is the diocese like one previously estimated with £140 million?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. " .. the demise of Dromore ."?
      I have no idea.
      I wouldn't have thought so.
      It would be based on a wrong assumption that a new bigger diocese would be somehow safer and more easily governed. It wouldn't.

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  3. What subjects did Finnegan teach?
    God help those that were sitting in front of him...makes me shudder.
    Also I’m wondering what his knowledge of Mc Quaid was...was he ever in his rooms?...now that is another story

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    Replies
    1. Thank you Magna...wouldn’t have thought that he capable of teaching any subject.
      I did Latin for 3 years, haven’t remembered much.

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    2. Magna, have you finally outed yourself as the troubled Tony from Dromore? Maynooth entrant c.1984?

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    3. Arrrrrgh!😨

      Er, no, 23:54.😆

      Delete
  4. But it's also very important not to project blame and insinuations on to conscientious and blameless present-day Staff who are just as horrified about these revelations as as anyone else..

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  5. @ 13. 27
    I was thinking that also.
    I am quite surprised that no one else has pointed it out.

    ReplyDelete
  6. Corporal punishment was a national pastime in Irish schools until its abolition (March 1982 in the south, in 1986 in state schools in the UK, and in private schools in the north in 2003). Why are people who lived through the days of its use and who knew all about it expressing shock now?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Because they are pure evil, that’s why.

      Delete
    2. 13.58 is correct. I went to primary and secondary schools run entirely by lay staff and in the 70's we were firmly disciplined physically. All staff knew about some vicious beaters and said nothing. It was the accepted norm but so, so wrong. Apart from the priest abuser in St. Colmans, all staff, lay and clerical must have known of the abuse being inflicted. Abusers sadly were enabled to be abusers by the silence of all. Those who knew and said nothing have much to answer for.

      Delete
  7. I complained to Fr Faul about his beating of my son with his( my son’s) runner.

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    Replies
    1. I assume you mean ruler. What a bloody cheek these people had in the past.

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    2. "Runner" is a common synonym for "trainer" in the RoI, akin to "guttie" in NI. So he used the boy's own shoe.

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    3. What a nerve.

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    4. 18.37 Yes it was my son’s sneaker.. footwear.
      As well as getting smacked with the runner, it was costing me.
      Footware didn’t grown on trees, and I had other children to keep shod.
      corporal punishment had to stop during Fall’s tenure.
      I’ve no idea how he coped after that, maybe he retired.

      Delete
    5. 16.58 Sorry I never ment to associate being gay with paedophilia.
      I shouldn’t have typed about both in the same paragraph.
      I have no problem with anyone’s sexuality.

      Delete
  8. There was corporal punishment then there was sadistic corporal punishment.
    I know of one local Pp who came into the school and smacked a boy on his bare bum with a belt in ‘48....clear recollection.

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    1. Name the perv now and shame him, or his memory if he's no longer alive. The swine would be jailed nowadays.

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    2. English public schools allowed seniors and prefects to cane juniors often with trousers and underpants dropped. Isle of Man bare bum birching similarly. It was most certainly not unusual or unknown.

      Delete
    3. That’s true 19:29 - there was a culture of sadistic violence in places like Eton and Harrow - indeed almost the whole British public school system.

      It is well-documented that it was commonplace for boys trousers and underpants to be pulled down or removed and floggings, canings, were on the bare buttocks - sometimes in public.

      This abuse was perpetrated by both teachers and senior students/prefects.

      There is a very thin line between physical and sexual abuse.

      Delete
  9. 13.27
    Don’t see anyone blaming present day teachers.
    Please point it out?

    ReplyDelete
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    1. There is a strong implication of blaming the present-day teachers in posts 11.35 and 12.22.
      I was shocked at the unfairness as my sons love St Colman's and are doing very well

      Delete
    2. Sorry I still can’t see it.
      Please stop blaming posters for implying blame to present day teachers.
      Today’s teachers have problems enough, especially in catholic schools....where priests still hold authority.
      It’s time priests left our schools, or what I really mean...it’s time the Rc church left our schools.

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    3. I have a nephew who was bullied there. His parents complained to the last priest president, Canon Browne, now Adm at Newry Cathedral.

      His response: "what do you expect, they are country cubs". With that the meeting ended.

      Delete
  10. That is correct about the corporal punishment (@ 13.58)
    It was also very prevalent in even the best of households at that time. I remember the surprised reaction of some Irish people when stories began to appear in newspapers about how it was being banned in certain other European or Scandinavian countries . It was plain to me as a child that the adults thought that "these new-fangled ideas" of no slapping and caning were not a good idea and they hoped that they wouldn't catch on! My mother told me as a little sobbing five year old that it was her "duty to chastise me"! I had never heard that word before but I still cringe when I hear it.

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  11. I wonder who the priest who gave the details for today's blog was.
    I would be the last person on the planet to excuse or cover up for Finnegan, but having said that, there was something that perturbed me a little... Before any group therapy situation starts, the therapist or councillor reminds everyone present in the circle of the importance of trust and confidentiality as a sign of respect to the others present. The usual common promise from everyone is that "nothing you hear or notice is ever spoken about outside this room now or in future"
    The priest in today's blog violated that promise and I would never trust him again.
    Of course, it's nothing compared to how Finnegan violated the children.. It doesn't even start to compare. I know that. But nevertheless it is an important tenet of the group counselling experience and it shouldn't have happened. (Two wrongs don't make a right and victims need to know that there are safe places where your experiences are respected)

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    1. I don't care what confidences were assured, there is a larger, moral obligation to disclose information from these sessions if, for example, it could help prosecute a crime.

      Delete
    2. 15:35 you seem somewhat muddled in your thinking. The people in that group therapy were not victims. Some of them like Finnegan were perpetrators.

      The priest speaking out is not breaking any confidences in telling the world what we all know already: Finnegan was a predator in deep denial and his therapy was about as effective as pissing on a fire storm.

      Delete
    3. The Patsy McGarry talks about the Stroud whistleblower as a "former priest", who was presumably silent on this until recently? Or perhaps he expressed concerns to the church and was ignored?

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    4. I am not in the least "muddled". The fact is that group therapy situations are widely offered to and used by victims of all kinds, including victims of clerical abuse
      They need to understand that the confidentiality promise is real and sincere when they have picked up the courage to attend the group and finally speak about their problems in a "closed" situation.
      I can tell you that at least one such victim has been shocked at the priest disclosing to a newspaper! That's the point . That's not the same as speaking to authorities in confidence . It is done by the group leader in any case, if it has to happen--- and it is done with the knowledge of the perpetrator who also must be told.

      Delete
  12. There is no secrecy after the paedo died, and why should there be?
    The priest who informed us today is just being honest...what is wrong with honesty????
    Do you really think that he should have kept stumph?
    Oh , I forgot, the Rc church protects itself first and foremost....bad , bad priest for violating yourcoverups......lol

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. The rules about disclosure apply absolutely equally to the living and the dead. There are certain responsibilities on the group leader and these remain the same.

      Delete
  13. Be perturbed all you like....you obviously believe in secrets.
    Now where have I heard that before??

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    Replies
    1. The conversation in a group therapy should not have ever again been spoken about once the clients leave the room . It has nothing to do with clerical cover up in the sense that you mean.

      Delete
    2. 19:15, as far as I know, there is a legal obligation on therapists to report to police any criminal disclosure, like child abuse.

      Legally, there is no such thing as absolute confidentiality.

      Delete
    3. That's right Magna .. That's how it should have been handled....

      Delete
  14. Group counselling my hat. I’m sure the priest in today’s blog doesn’t give a fiddlers flute about your trust....he is gay.... end of..no amount of laity money can change that.
    There is no counselling effective where paedophilia is rife.
    How in god’s name would 30 gran of laity money help Finnegan the paedo?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I think you @, 16.58 are confusing several different issues in your easy generalisation.

      Delete
    2. I think group counselling is a load of bollocks, especially if conducted in a catholic environment.

      Delete
    3. @ 21.52
      Did you find group counselling difficult then?
      Not everybody can do it so don't worry but try not to re-offend.

      Delete
  15. Why is Donal Mc Keown spouting on bbc about the pope.?
    Would have fit him better to do his confirmations and be the bishop he is supposed to be rather than looking for the pope.

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. Bishop Mc Keown was invited to come on the BBC today as the actual August dates of the Pope's visit have been settled now.

      Delete
    2. Ach god love him....sure he only doing as he was asked...lol

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    3. Bishop McKeown actually came on the BBC? If it was before the 9pm watershed I hope it was done discreetly, otherwise there'll be a zinger of an e-mail from me to the Nuncio.

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    4. Why Donal McKeown?! Was a visit to Londonderry ever on the agenda?

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    5. It would never have been Derry. People expected an Armagh visit as it is the historical ecclesiastical capital .

      Delete
  16. What is this good news that the pope is bringing.
    Is he going to bring all the money that the abused have been denied?
    Isn’t it over a billion?

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. he's ordaining puck in the park.

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    2. Why not go and hear what "this good news" is for yourself? (@ 17.06)
      Have a
      day out and help to make history! The last time the Pope came in the late 1970s, I went to see him in Drogheda and I had to apologise to a lassie in the crowd near the gates when I tripped over her and she fell down and burst the knee out of her stocking! Luckily the Pope was in full preaching steam and too far up the field to hear what she called me for ruining her day and her best stockings. (It wasn't a quote from her prayer book) But anyway, I thought the least I could do was buy a cup of tea and offer a lift home.
      We will soon be having our 4th wedding anniversary if God spares us... That was some day....
      Go and enjoy yourself but watch where you're going . .

      Delete
    3. He could have Puck and Georgeous as the two Deacons at the Throne who sit either side of the Pope at Masses etc, with little liturgical function other than ornamentation. Three former JPII Irish visit destinations are dropped on scandal grounds: Galway (Casey); Knock (Tuam archdiocese and its babies); and Maynooth (strange goings-on).

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    4. The papal visit is only costing the Irish faithful €20m. Obviously there will be a few million here and there for security provided by the State and RTE broadcasting costs. A good bit short of a billion.

      Delete
  17. Gregg Burke....so the north of Ireland may be on the cards in the future.
    Really who cares?
    Is he going to abolish celibacy?
    Is he going to jail any paedos that still linger?
    Is he going the sack the bishops?
    Oh NO he is going to get Arleen and Michelle together.

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  18. Just heard eamon Martins mum has passed away . I know we took the micky out of him a bit but he has my sympathy today mums are very precious and there's something very special about irish mums in particular. Rip mrs martin

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    Replies
    1. @17:30 respect

      Mrs Martin passed away this morning. We don’t agree with all his works but today pray for him and his family. He is a human being!

      Delete
  19. The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury's evidence today to an abuse inquiry:

    http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-43485422

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    Replies
    1. There’s no other Archbishop of Canterbury.

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    2. There isn't even one Archbishop of Canterbury in the last few centuries. The line is extinct.

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    3. There has been no Archbishop of Canterbury since Cardinal Pole died in 1558.

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    4. Just adopting the usage of the BBC and many other British media outlets who refer, for example to the "Roman Catholic Archbishop of Westminster" or the "Roman Catholic Bishop of Hallam" even though there are no Anglican pretenders to these thrones.

      Yet John Sentamu and Justin Welby are routinely referred to as the Archbishop of York and the Archbishop of Canterbury without any label of Anglican or CofE (sic).

      The Ecclesiastical Titles Act is still in force.

      Delete
    5. Cantab has been Sede Vacante for centuries lol. We should make it a titular see for a Nuncio or the auxiliary bishop of Southwark.

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    6. Delusional diehards denying reality

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  20. Bishop Michael Smith of Meath was on RTÉ News. He’s as gay as Paul O’Grady’s tights.

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    Replies
    1. So what, Pope Francis would say we should accompany him pastorally.

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    2. He's straighter than Brian Darcy's Mercedes or the cheroots of the Clogher vocations director.

      Delete
  21. @ 19.10

    --And your point is what exactly ?

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    Replies
    1. @20:31 - does the church which he is a bishop not say it’s a disorder and an intrinsic moral evil?

      More hypocrisy?

      Delete
    2. That the Bishop of Meath is as gay as Paul O'Grady's tights?

      Delete
  22. Mrs Martin brought up a big family in what I’m sure were difficult and hard times. I don’t know them but I’m sure she was proud of her children and they of her. When it’s all said and done not many mothers live to see a son an archbishop. Well done her. And I know Emo gets lampooned on here now and then but today it’s condolences to him and his family.May she rest in peace.

    Mick from The Moy

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  23. 18.10: What indeed is your stupid observation meant to convey? Your comment is ignorant and bizarre. What kind of a**ehole are you?

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  24. What I see from this story is the power abusers have over abused and the warped sense of sexuality some church people have including a tollerance for bullying. The Pope will come and everyone will smile and doff their caps. Everything will be perfect. Amazing how things can be done depending on what it is. Why don't these gobshites get off their backsides and spend the money on sorting out this abuse stuff once and for all. Then invite the Pope and show him what they have done

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  25. Paedophilia is not an illness.
    It is an evil addiction.

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  26. @ 21.32.
    Your anecdote made my day! We were in stitches but it was lovely to hear your experience. Continue to be happy, both of you!

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