Well said :)

Eddie – if you loathe the Church then you loathe everyone in it too. The church is not just the hierarchy but also the people who claim to be catholic.

What about the “Doesn’t Mary have a lovely bottom” option?

@irelands Owen. Yet here you are :)

Was thinking the same thing Ireland’s Owen. The journal appears to have garnered a select, very small part of Irish society. Great to look at on occasion. Wonder what the advertisers make of this demographic.

@Brendan Cooney “a select, very small part of Irish society. Great to look at on occasion.”

That could describe the couple of thousand people going to the congress. The vast majority of Irish people just aren’t interested. Making the opening and closing ceremonies ticket only ensures protesters against the church’s crimes will be kept well away from view.

And you can call people pea brained ‘Irelands Owen’? You can’t even spell poll and it’s in the title of the page!

Do you see the irony of your comment?

Wow Gis Bayertz… Just… Wow.

I will pray for you Giz bayertz.

Or the “Hell no” option.

Yeah, each to their own beliefs is all well and good but this is an organisation that systematically covered up the horrendous abuse of children for decades. Moving child rapists from one parish to the next so they could continue to rape more children with impunity. And then the leader of this organisation on this island can wash his hands of any part in this conspiracy by simply saying he took notes on one instance of child rape and passed them on so it wasn’t his problem anymore. But, hey, he went away to reflect on the matter so we’re supposed to think everything is OK now. So if people want to support this organisation that’s their own choice but I for one will not stop pointing out how rotten and corrupt to the core this sham of an organisation is.

Each to their own is right Noel – the disgracefull faults of the catholic church shouldn’t be linked to those who follow the catholic faith.

Belief in a God and belief in a church are two very different things in my opinion. For me the first is a personal thing and each to their own as long as it doesn’t have a negative effect on any one else. The RCC is a whole different ball game and deserving of criticism and condemnation at every turn for the criminal acts it has knowingly covered up and abetted throughout its history both here and elsewhere. The day it becomes totally irrelevant in this country can’t come a day too soon.

At least someone isn’t a hateful bigot.

Now who thumbed this down, ’tis a fact isn’t it?
Then again, people would’ve thumbed it down if he stated that a2 + b2 = c2.

Todd the problem is faith. When people are gullible enough to believe these things their exploitation will be a foregone conclusion.

Questioning ones beliefs is what all adults do on a daily basis. The consensus of most historians would suggest those sources are far less credible as historical source than those present in the bible. The church is corruption like all organisations ultimately become but not as criminal as many corner boys would make it out to be.

Yes Robert, but the stories the bible is based upon were written in stone, a long time before the bible was edited by the council of Nicea in 400AD.. It’s just the earlier works weren’t about Jesus, they were about Horus, Mithra, Krishna or the other 2000 dudes who had Jesus’ life story..

And as for the old testament, the Ancient Sumerians wrote that.. Except they had Yahweh and Adonai as two different people – neither of whom were gods, there was a race of Adams, and they were created in POTS of clay.. Noah was asked to collect the seed of every animal for the Ark rather than 2 of every animal that would have eaten each other.. Really – the Ancient Sumerian fertility cults story of creation makes a lot more sense, and predates the bible by a substantial amount of time (oldest form of writing found YET), oh, and it’s written in stone..

John Marco Allegro, the one non Vatican scholar permitted access to the Dead Sea Scrolls came away firmly convinced that the entire Christian faith was a hybrid of the Ancient Sumerian Fertility cult and worship of the Amanita Muscaria. Evidence of which is all over the Vatican (of course his career was destroyed by the vengeful church, and his book detailing the mechanics of his conclusions was banned.. Jan Irvin of Gnostic Media has reprinted it though, and made a documentary based upon it – the Pharmacratic Inquisition, available on YouTube)

So, the bible being considered credible by historians show that those historians aren’t really observing history very well..

Many points have been made here on this thread. I don’t go to mass for many reasons including a general lack of faith and the crimes committed by the Church. I suppose I’m slow to accept that in going to mass and giving money to the collection you have a share in the blame whereby you are helping to cover up crimes and allow them to be committted.On reflection I understand this. I’ve always viewed mass and the church at a parish level rather than a national and international level and mass goers don’t believe that there money goes to the top and to cover-ups. Is the solution then to remove the Catholic Church from Ireland by bycott?

Lorraine, have you a link to this? I would be interested to read it. I was searching this topic before and was led to believe my statement was true. In the context of this discussion it’s rather trivial but it would be interesting to read the link all the same.

Who said you weren’t entitled to practice their faith? Of course you are entitled to.

And others are entitled to point out the countless crimes and sins the catholic church tried to cover up all the way to the Vatican. Including child rape and illegal imprisonment of young women for giving birth. Some people forget these things very easily so thankfully there are a few out there to remind them.

Has anyone said people are not entitled to practice their faith?

I’m all for freedom of religion. It’s one of the great enlightenment ideas which is one of the hallmarks of a civilized society. However freedom of religion does not mean religion is immune to criticism, or indeed, mockery.

If you don’t believe that the wafer you eat in mass is actually the flesh of Jesus then you’re not Catholic.

So can vegetarians eat that meat?

Not if you know what the gods flesh was in the beginning..

No Catholicism was already long entrenched in the country. As early as the 1860s when people who couldn’t read or write depended on the parish priest for even writing letters. The Irish language was in decline and so was most traditions therefore catholicism became a tenet of national identity to seperate ourselves from Protestant Britain. The congress of 1932 was just an expression of what was already there. If you look across Europe in the 1930s racism

*fascism and nationalism was on the rise. Religion was Ireland’s version of fascism. The decline of Catholicism is as much to do with the resurgence of Irish language and traditions as it is to do with the horrific crimes committed against the vulnerable.

Can’t understand how you know what’s right surely people are entitled to their own opinion why keep throwing stones

The whole thing is an irrelevance today, at least outside the domain of the fanatically dyed-in-the-wool faithful. Secularism is on the rise in Ireland today, as it is has been elsewhere for a long time. The Catholic church has done itself no favours by covering up the abuses perpetrated by its deviant priests. Let the deluded remnants enjoy their little knees-up, it might be the last one yet.

Paddy, it’s actually 14, the same as Italy.

Your correct Joe How many priests died in the famine They stood by an seen the English landlords throw people of their lands for the royals rent.Look at Slane estate taken of the Irish poor and the cheek of yer man to charge people to visit now.

@Richard Lennon,
Rewriting history, nice. You have never heard of Glenveagh I gather.

I totally agree.Poor women Magdalenes that suffered SO much.People forget too fast.

I went to a Jesuit school and believe I received an excellent education. I am an aethiest and never felt that my right not to believe in the teachings of the Catholic Church was challenged. I had religion classes every week during which we discussed ethical issues etc., and we were free to express our own opinions. Some of my Religion teachers were priests, others were laypeople who did not even believe in God or in anything the Church teaches. I don’t know what sort of experiences you may have had with the Catholic Church, but please don’t criminalise my teachers (who are just as Irish and patriotic as you or I). In my opinion, generalisations -such as labelling all priests “those creatures” -are dangerous and lead to discrimination.

Fiona, 1 in 14 Dublin priests has been charged with abuse. That means that there were also numbers of those who abused but were not charged, and even larger numbers of those who were complicit by knowledge and cover ups. By logic, at least some of your lovely teachers were in the know and complicit as there was simply no one who could say truthfully that they were innocent in this quagmire.
It was not only about the actual rapes and abuse, it was also about coverups, common knowledge and corporation culture. You were lucky not to be personally affected but it’s not a good enough reason to defend them.

You have to admit, they have one hell of an art collection.

Art collection, property, wealth . . . .
Obviously following the example of Jesus to the letter. Bless!

Noel, I see where you are coming from but I disagree with the idea of a subscription to the church and being part of the system simply by going to mass and putting money in the collection. A lot of the money, not all, goes to missions and good causes. A whole generation who grew up with the church who still go to mass and put a few coins towards the collection can hardly be linked to the crimes of the church.

So the 85% of people who declared themselves Catholic in the last census should be held responsible?

A few coins towards the collection may not contribute directly to the churches crimes, but they contribute directly to the continued indoctrination of childrens’ undeveloped minds (which is the real purpose of the missions). And such indoctrination is the root cause of all subsequent crimes.

Sean I fully believe that most of that 85% arent Catholic, they dont believe a lot of the teachings of the Church but fill it as a cultural perspective or their Mammy put them down as one. Look at how many go to Church to see the true figures because I dont know how someone can claim to be a Catholic but not go to something as fundamental and as pivotal to the Catholic faith as Mass?

I’m sorry but a corrupt institution is a corrupt institution no matter how much good it tries to do to counter-act the bad and no matter how many decent people are part of it.

You have to have the bigger picture in mind. If you’re a part of the Catholic church for example, you can’t just ignore all the absolutely horrible things it did and is still doing today – all its backwards teaching and hate speech. Even if in your own church it’s very progressive and positive, you’re still a part of the whole organisation.

And it sends out a clear message too, that you’re not ready – and we’re not ready as a country – to really stand up to the church at all. As a queer atheist, I’m actually terrified of how everyone’s just goes along with it and turn a blind eye to all the corruption. I’m young, I went to school in the 90s and I was routinely bullied by the local priest (to the point of tears sometimes) in front of all my classmates AND the teacher – and they never said a word. I was only 7 years old.

People need to put a stop to this asap. I’m all for everyone believing whatever they want, but supporting this institution (in no matter how small a way) will keep the bullies in power.

I’m sorry but I refuse to belive the notion of people who go to mass being supporters of the crimes of the Catholic Church.I belive they go there to pray. It’s their right to go to mass. The church has lost it’s power here. Mass numbers are falling. Priest numbers are falling. Once catholic schools fall under state ownership then communion and confirmation numbers will fall. The behaviour of the Catholic Church in this country is totally unacceptable. The Church is to blame… not the mass goers.

I’m not blaming ordinary mass goers for the crimes of the catholic church. I’m critical of their supporting the catholic church by going to mass, putting money into the collection and not thinking about the bigger organisation they’re ascribing to.

I just don’t believe that you can wash away all the crap they’ve done by saying “they’ve done good stuff too” and “our local priest is actually very progressive” and so on. It’s a double standard.

Cyril, theres no proof he ever existed

So are ‘black holes’. We just don’t know.

We know about transubstantiation. Even my spelling checker knows.

I think black holes are more credible than transubstantiation, Sean At least there’s more evidence.

They know people like you will be engage with them if they ask such questions.

It’s just nice to see evidence that the ultra-Catholic ideology which ruined this country is dying out is all.

I’d imagine it’s because they need to identify the deluded plonkers who go to things like this.

This country was not ruined by catholic ideals. It was ruined by shitty and corrupt yes-men politicians.
As for the church dying out…not gonna happen. We may even have world youth day here within ten years.