Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood

[Cato]

Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood

Ohhh c'mon, am I the only one to read that headline a certain way ?

No. On another website plenty of posters noted the danger of turning your back on a Catholic priest, particularly if your young. Not really a fair comment but it gives an idea of the low status that priests are afforded now.

[Radix]

What made you think that atheists mightn't believe in marriage and love? I'm not a materialist, I'm a philosophical naturalist.

Didn't think you mightn't believe in marriage and love Cato. (If you didn't I'd be worried.) The point is that the unity of the Lover, the Beloved and the Love between them (marriage), images the Trinitarian God that Christians believe in and your declaration of being an atheist (Atheist) is thus contradictory to said declaration.

[dresden8]

I really don't think so. In fact I think that's just more fearmongering propaganda by the establishment to scare people into line and maintain the status quo.

I think far too many people have had their eyes opened the last few years, I think far too many people now see the way this society is really run and for whose benefit, they see just who the real enemies of the Irish people really are. And it's not blacks or jews or poles.

It's Fianna feckin Fáil and all vermin associated with that rotten ship of fools and crooks.

Mindless guff and yelling that alternative parties are somehow in some unspecific way fascist or racist or even anti-Irish won't distract people any more, or scare them back into line behind "de Party". People are wise to all that nonsense now.

Well, I'm a public servant for the last 22 years. I turn up, do a days work and go home. Apparently I'm public enemy number 1. It didn't take any effort from Sir Anto or Lenny to turn us into scumbag public enemy number 1.

The mob is awake and the mob is hungry for revenge. The mob ain't after Sir Anto's blood. The mob is doing what they are told.

Maybe you do think there are too many public servants, it's a valid argument. Maybe a lot of us are overpaid, that's also a valid argument.

Valid arguments weren't used. Envy and hatred were. The mob was aroused. The blacks are an even easier target

Jaysus, I'm across several threads here.

[Fr. Hank Tree]

Valid arguments weren't used. Envy and hatred were. The mob was aroused.

Reminds me of the way many approach religion nowadays. If you engage in this sort of thing, you lose your right to complain about it.

[Newsy]

African priests.

I think that is how the bishops will deal with this issue.

[Harmonica]

Less priests = less parishes & less churches. It makes sense as less and less people attend masses regularily. Hopefully the church has less influence over the wider society and sticks to its own members.

[dresden8]

Reminds me of the way many approach religion nowadays. If you engage in this sort of thing, you lose your right to complain about it.

Oh, that explains the pension levy and the paycut. I thought it was the public finances.

Silly me.

[irish_bob]

Ireland's sons turn their backs on the priesthood - Home News, UK - The Independent



What are the consequences of this major change to Irish society going to be? Let's face it, like it or loath it, priests have been a major part of Irish society for some time. What are the consequences going to be for the Catholic church and for individual parishes? The bishops have done little to prepare for this crisis. They agreed to appoint permanent deacons and have agreed the norms for formation of same, but have not done anything beyond that.

When I went into the seminary in Maynooth in 1993 there were 48 men in my year. The next year the number dropped to 26 and the year after that it fell below 20. It has hovered around that mark since then. Less then half of those who go in make it through the full six/seven years to ordination.

shariah law will be firmly in place by 2028

[Cato]

Less priests = less parishes & less churches. It makes sense as less and less people attend masses regularily. Hopefully the church has less influence over the wider society and sticks to its own members.

This is true. With the lower levels of manpower, it will leave the RCC quite stretched in trying to stay directly involved in schools and hospitals. This can only be a good thing as long as the clerics are not replaced by even more regressive lay people. Certainly there is an opportunity coming to remove the RCC from the public sphere and relegate it to the solely private sphere of its own believers. They're currently on their knees and close to falling. Time to give them a kicking and make sure they stay down.

[Cato]

shariah law will be firmly in place by 2028

How do you see that happening?