Vatican embassy decision to be reviewed

[LamportsEdge]

Bloody hell- are there people in Ireland who think that contraception was only introduced to the human race in the 1950's/1960' with the pill?

Next thing they'll be telling us the pill was invented by Vatican II to undermine catholicism. The permanent whinge of priests down through the ages and long before catholicism was even invented as a sect is that all the world's ills are because people aren't religious enough towards whatever deity happens to be popular at the time and in that place.

Harvest bad? Didn't sacrifice to the gods enough... economy broken? Not enough time spent on the knees in church. It would be nice to think that we had moved slightly beyond the awestruck peasant stage wide-eyed at whatever witchdoctor chancer happens to be surfing society's superstitions this week.

Funny how in Ireland's case with recent events in society that so few catholics have come up with the rather obvious conclusion that their god is not happy with the people who run his church isn't it? Oh no- intead they've managed to swerve around that awkward corner and come up with the notion that the social ills are down to not praying hard enough.

Its no wonder the country is screwed with cross-eyed nonsense like that rumbling around.

[WTTR]

Yeah in the thousands of years of human history sex only became a fun activity with the invention of the pill

Yea! The whole of future society is being sacrificed to this activity. Sex is being used to sell everything; even housing estates at the height of the boom had sexual orientated advertisement bill boards. This all cost money resulting in a few wealthy people, an ageing population and massive long term debt. Mainland Europe is about twenty years ahead of us along this road; a living reality lesson that we Irish refuse to learn or even recognise. Making money is the supreme short term goal of our society and the association with sex is manna from heaven for some sections of society. Long term is no longer in our vocabulary. What could we have learned from the Europe experience?

A dog does not hoard sausage.

Going into debt is fun at the beginning. The fun stops when one sits atop the debt and must pay the interest. In the past, the topic could be pushed aside by pointing to the wealthy future generations. But this is no longer an option. Firstly, since 1995 Germany is the country with the lowest growth rate anywhere. Where then is the future wealth to come from? Secondly, the future generations are shrinking due to the Germans’ low birth rates. There is probably no country in the world in which the number of births relative to the population is as low as in Germany. The baby-boomers that were born in 1964 are now forty years old. Not many people are coming after them. Even the age cohort of the thirty-year olds is 40% smaller, and the following age cohorts will continue to shrink. No, the idea that future generations will help us out of the mess is ridiculous. We ourselves are the “wealthy future generations” of whom the politicians of the past were speaking. It is us who will have to pay the bill.

Interest on the public debt amounts to more than 68 billion euro this year, although interest rates are as low today as never before. When interest rates normalise again, the interest burden will rise by half and exceed 100 billion euro. Even today, the interest burden is higher than the net borrowing of 65 billion euro permitted by the Stability and Growth Pact.

The ironic thing is that you will have great efforts from the International Financial Buccaneers etc to bring back some sort of religious structure. There is much long term debt to be paid off, and this will only be done if people have a strong sense of responsibility. So, I think that your era of sexual fun activity will be coming to an end because the moneymen will now demand it. My stance would be to bring back some sort of order with firstly large amounts of debt write-off.

The alternative is to go on living like dogs or massive austerity. The problem is young pups need just six weeks of motherly nourishment whereas as the modern child needs up to twenty five years. When family structures are broken, then society will inevitably revert back to savagery.

[o gara60]

With Sean Garland being questioned so extensively about his relations with North Korea has anyone investigated the Tanaistes visits to Pyongyang.

[Cato]

From 'Last Refuse' in tomorrow's Phoenix;

IF Labour backbenchers believe that Fine Gael is walking all over them on economic issues then the coalition could be in real trouble as the Blueshirts believe that the opposite is true when it comes to ideological questions. That unanimous reaction from the FG parliamentary party to Eamon Gilmore’s axing of the Vatican embassy was inspired by the party’s base in Middle Ireland but it was also motivated by a felt need to put manners on Labour.
...

Which is not to say that every other minister was in sync with the motion, especially as it allowed former rebels like Lucinda ‘Loose-Lips’ Creighton to posture as defenders of the faith – and implicitly criticise leader, Enda Kenny. Michael ‘Baldy’ Noonan, James ‘Bottler’ Reilly and Leo ‘Vlad’ Varadkar made Jesuitical speeches that defended the cabinet decision while also allowing that an easing of Government finances could allow a re-opening of the embassy over time.

...

An unspoken motivation behind the FG backlash was the dawning realisation amongst some of the more aware Catholics in the party that the 50th International Eucharistic Congress is due to take place in Ireland in June. Ireland may be a different society than in 1932 but thousands of worldwide Catholics will descend on Croke Park in June for the culmination of the week-long events. Stalin may have scoffed at the Vatican’s lack of battalions but Gilmore would do well to recognise that his party could suffer real damage in any confrontation with the Swiss Guards.

...

Another irony is that the same FG TDs believe ministers rely too heavily on opinion polls and focus groups instead of listening to their parliamentary colleagues, which is exactly what Labour TDs also believe is the trouble with their ministers.

This little scrap could yet become interesting.

[IvoShandor]

Very nice article by Martina Devlin in todays Indo. Hits the nail on the head several times.

Martina Devlin: What will FG tax or cut to reopen Vatican embassy? - Martina Devlin, Columnists - Independent.ie

[ergo2]

We were glad of the Vatican good offices during the war of independence.

imho it should be reopened

[Tomas Mor]

Can anyone support claim by Christ's Vicar on Earth having the need to have "embassies and ambassadors" while (s)he has bishops and cardinals in same countries. And nonsense about (s)he being head of state is laugable, a few hundred people in an enclave in a small part of Rome.

[pragmaticapproach]

We were glad of the Vatican good offices during the war of independence.

imho it should be reopened

Different era, now completely irrelevant.

If catholics want an embassy in the vatican let them start a voluntary fund. As an atheist i would resent having to contribute towards its reopening with state funds.

[Tomas Mor]

We were glad of the Vatican good offices during the war of independence.

imho it should be reopened

Did not Vatican give support to hunger strikers, probably on advice of famous Alibrandi, and Pope sent Magee to bless them and give them rosary beads as they starved themselves to death. Famous O Fiaich wrongly compared them to the poor wretches in Calcutta given that they smeared their cells with their own faeces