5 years to save the church

I suspect that, for the organizers, "save" does not mean "revive". They are not interested in increasing congregations and vocations, but redeeming the soul of the Church as they see it.

The 19th of May, which I now realise was the vigil of Pentecost came and went without any news from the "5 Years to save the Church Meeting". It was organised by Columba Press who will probably publish a book with the wisdom of Fr Brian D'Archy et al on how to save the church.

Outside on O Connell St on Saturday dozens of young save the 8th advocates were canvassing the public instead of sitting in the Gresham ballroom complaining that the church is too counter cultural. The 1960s radicals now sound tired and conservative (with a very small c I hasten to add!)

I just noticed in today's paper that Pope Francis has condemned the growing trend to encourage abortion after pre-natal disability testing "children should be accepted as God sends them, as God allows... The whole world was scandalised by what the nazis did to pursue the pureness of the race. Today we are doing the same thing with white gloves"
Symbolism there. Nazis would have used gloves also.
An opinion piece earlier in the newspaper by fairly conservative writer Andrew Bolt is perhaps an eye-opener against thinking that abuse of children has been tacitly encouraged by religions only. He started with mention of a communist and feminist poet and playwright named Dorothy Hewett, whose daughters have just said publicly that they were forced, by her, into abuse by older men from arts and intelligentsia circles. Hewett was against taboos of any sort.
He goes on to mention several artists, authors and journalists who portrayed these things openly in the 70s. A group called the National Council for Civil Liberties in Britain called, in '76, for the age of consent to be lowered to 10. Three pederasts were interviewed openly on ABC (Aust)radio in 1975, the ABC chairman defended this.
Bolt commented "how different things were then..." And although not a religious man, he points out, "(the 70s), when most paedophile priests were almost most active"

The Irish have become a herd of Gadarene swine, racing each other over a moral cliff.

I haven't seen the full text, only quotations, but I noticed that President Higgins had some decency to apologise to the victims of any abuse in Magdalene laundries on behalf of the Government also, thereby acknowledging that neglect wasn't the Church's responsibility only.
I've been reading POLLY FARMER A BIOGRAPHY, not a name anyone in Ireland would be expected to know(unless he ever went there for the International Rules competition) but he's a famous aboriginal Australian rules footballer, active in the 50s and 60s. One piece might be of interest for anyone who thinks that a murky relationship existed between welfare-religious orders and governments only in Ireland or in the Roman catholic sphere. Here we have Church of England nuns working with a government with an Anglican leaning but without any real establishment church:
"Sister Kate(Katherine Clutterbuck) belonged to the Sisters of the Church, an Anglican order devoted to the education and care of children which came to Perth in 1901 to establish a girls school.... Sister Kate's desire... resulted in a letter to A.O. Neville, then entering the third decade of his tenure as Western Australia's Chief Protector of Aborigines. 'I have always been interested in half castes and natives', she wrote,'and should very much like to work among them... We would, of course, like to have the poorest and most neglected children, not those who have mothers who love and care for them...those who are the most unwanted in the State.' One of Neville's major preoccupations was the future of part-aboriginal children. He was a leading proponent of biological assimilation which aimed at the breeding out of colour by controlled racial intermarriage... These mixed motives on the part of the two main figures were to cause confusion and tensions in the years to come. By 1933 the first cottage was established,and the first ten children, mostly under five years old, were selected by Neville from the Moore River Settlement on the basis that ' they were so white they should be given the benefit of the doubt"
Sister, it should be explained, didn't wish to remove full-blooded indigenous children from their environment. Part-European children were at times unwanted by both sides, something critics ignore. Catholic sisters who have had similar criticisms against them have said the same thing.
"the subsidy paid by the department was half that paid by the child welfare department to institutions caring for non-aboriginal children, but Sister Kate was able to draw on her network of contacts and supporters" (she was already 72 when starting this)
(Farmer was one success story. Established as a mechanic, he, however embraced and excelled at sport. A freeway in Perth bears his name today.)

I noticed a slender pamphlet in Veritas today retailing for €9.99 consisting of the theological outpourings of Mary Mc Aleese , Fr Brian D'arcy, the former abbot of Glenstal and others that resulted from the above conference.

I hadn't the time nor the inclination to browse it but the solution to our woes no doubt involves empowering middle class women to take over priestly roles, the church "listening" to a secular capitalist society and making the 6th and 9th commandments into optional ideals.