Ireland has just elected its ninth president. He is 70-year-old Michael D.Higgins – women’s rights advocate, poet, humanitarian. Michael Higgins is also a Catholic and he takes up his office when the Catholic church in Ireland is in turmoil. Some Irish Catholics are leaving the church, others have stopped going to Mass and for most [...]
Posts Tagged ‘Catholic church’
IS THE VATICAN IN DECLINE?
November 13, 2011CAN THE CATHOLIC CHURCH LEARN FROM PENN STATE?
November 10, 2011Penn State and its football team are now embroiled in one of the greatest scandals in the history of American college football. It emerged that an assistant coach, Jerry Sandusky, was over a period sexually assaulting a group of boys. Other coaches including the famous Joe Paterno himself did not do enough to bring these [...]
SHOULD MORE CATHOLIC BISHOPS BE CHARGED WITH SEX ABUSE?
October 16, 2011For the first time in the history of American jurisprudence a Roman Catholic bishop has been charged with sex abuse. If convicted he could pay a fine and spend a year in jail. Bishop Robert Finn of Kansas City is in the crosshairs for protecting one of his abuser priests. The accusation involved a priest [...]
SHOULD THE CATHOLIC CHURCH RETURN THE MONEY?
August 8, 2011The Murdoch media scandal in the U.K continues to stain other institutions. First, it was the poliicians, then the journalists, then the police. And now it has reached he Catholic church in England and Wales. Just about a year ago now English Catholics were preparing for the Pope’s visit in September. It was going to [...]
IS THE VATICAN A VICTIM?
July 30, 2011Relations between Ireland and the Vatican are at their lowest ebb in history. In the latest move a group of septuagarian male celibates in Rome decided that the Vatican’s ambassador to Ireland should be called home. Now that’s a real laugher. Let me explain why. In 1996 the Irish bishops signed an agreement to turn [...]
DOES THE VATICAN DESERVE THIS BLAST?
July 22, 2011Not since Martin Luther nailed his theses to the Cathedral door, has such a broadside hit the Vatican. A broadside launched by the catholic Prime Minister of Ireland, Enda Kenny, on the floor of the Irish Parliament. Here is the context. In 1996 the Irish Catholic bishops signed an agreement to begin reporting suspected cases [...]
SHOULD THE POPE BAN ALTAR GIRLS?
July 7, 2011A coterie of septuagarian celibate male cardinals in Rome (including the present pope is trying to smuggle the latin mass back into the mainstream liturgy of the Catholic church. As well the Roman authorities have decreed that females of any age may not assist at the latin mass – in other words female altar servers [...]
WILL SINGLE-SEX DORMS HELP CATHOLIC STUDENTS LEAD HEALTHIER LIVES?
June 16, 2011Today more than 90 per cent of college housing is co-ed. No more at the Catholic University in Washington, D.C. The president, John Garvey, has just announced that coed dorms and rooms at Catholic U. will be phased out this fall, to be replacedby male and female separate student quarters. President Garvey says virtue and [...]
IS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH HOMOPHOBIC?
May 29, 2011The most homophobic institution on the face of the earth is, without question, the Roman Catholic church. Some time ago the Roman Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith wrote a letter to all American bishops. The Congregation was concerned that, apart from homosexual acts, some American bishops were putting too benign an interpretation on [...]
SHOULD THE PROTESTANTS APOLOGIZE?
May 22, 2011Pope Benedict is scheduled to visit his native Germany this September. Now a German Catholic bishop has inflamed Catholic-Protestant relations in that country. Bishop Ludwig Muellert has demanded that the Protestant Church officially apologize for Luther’s calling the Pope “Anti-Christ.” By doing so, the bishop contended that Luther “intended to strike the Catholic Church’s sacramental [...]
