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Post by cato on Jul 12, 2017 22:33:42 GMT
I just finished reading an old biography of John Charles Mc Quaid by John Feeney published shortly after the Archbishop's death .Pope Paul VI praised Mc Quaid's pastoral policies in Dublin and was very impressed by the enthusiastic levels of catholic participation and practice before the Vatican council. However Mc Quaid was pushed out of his post prematurely and in a rather humilating manner to his great upset, due to his less than enthusiastic response to the spirit of Vatican ii.
The Irish church was central to Irish conservatism. Ideologically it turned to the left after Vatican ii apart from sexual issues and the the pro life agenda. Catholic agencies like trocaire espouse a leftist world view , similarly the various episcopal spokespeople and agencies. Officially we emphasise our wonderful new liturgy and downplay aspects of our tradition. We dialogue with( but really imitate ) secular culture.
The church in short moved from being the conservative institution in Ireland to a body which not only welcomed change but became an active agent of change.The left will deny this but conservatives know by and large the Irish church is now cool if not hostile towards anything perceived as conservative or challenging the liberal consensus.
One example was the embrace of radical feminism by female religious. Minister Zappone's (our American born pro abortion zealot and children's minister) wife was a former nun and a theology lecturer. Ironically the modern secular feminists have turned quite savagely on the nuns for their behaviourin Tuam and elsewhere but have forgotten how the same religious orders in the 1970s and 1980s began to promote feminism in Irish universities ,schools ,parishes and towns.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jul 12, 2017 22:40:56 GMT
Nothing is more tragic than seeing the Catholic Church pander to a liberal-left establishment that will continue to hate it and cast it in the role of villain no matter how much it wants to be loved.
It has literally nothing to lose by confronting secular culture.
When the papal nuncio installed several new bishops a few years ago I hoped it meant the episcopate would be more orthodox and willing to fight. Other than Bishop Kevin Doran, this doesn't seem to be the case. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin in particular seems to put all his energy into batting for the opposition.
Mary Kenny's Goodbye to Catholic Ireland is a wonderful description of how this leftism seeped into the Church. Although it is only part of that book-- it would be good to see it treated at book length.
Ultimately I think the essence of the thing is the conviction that "the system" is the cause of sin, rather than the human heart. Of course there are evil systems, but once the primacy of human wickedness ceases to be emphasized, and structures become wicked rather than people, we have Catholic leftism become dominant. Ah, sure, you can't be too harsh on about your parishioners or penitents-- it's capitalism, or consumerism, or the educational system, or government, or something else to blame.
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Post by Maolsheachlann on Jul 12, 2017 22:43:07 GMT
It is funny how McQuaid was castigated for seeking a boycott of the Yugoslavian soccer team coming to Ireland, as a protest against that state's treatment of the Church. A different standard seemed to apply when it came to Apartheid South Africa.
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