Church using police to try and silence me, claim Buckley

A controversial former Catholic priest has accused the hierarchy of the Church in Ireland of using the PSNI to conduct a vendetta against him over an online religious affairs blog he runs.

Larne-based independent bishop Pat Buckley said that a potential case against him involving accusations of incitement to hatred has been dropped, but the 11-month long saga has convinced him that his former Church is attempting to silence him by closing the site down.

Mr Buckley was excommunicated in 1998 as a result of his ordination as a bishop into an independent church.

A year later he came out as gay, and in 2010 married his partner in a civil ceremony.

In 2013 he admitted his involvement and was convicted for his part in 14 sham marriages in Northern Ireland with the purpose of flouting immigration laws.

He received a three-and-a-half-year jail term, suspended for three years.

"I run a blog called 'Thinking Catholicism', which is critical of the Catholic Church hierarchy and they don't like it," Mr Buckley told the Belfast Telegraph. On the 6th of January this year Archbishop Eamon Martin reported a comment made on the blog to the PSNI as incitement to hatred. This comment wasn't made by me, but someone who comments on the blog.

"It involved scandals in the Catholic Church, namely the 'gay sex scandal' at Maynooth. It was something like 'a flamethrower should be taken to the lot of them'. It was figurative language. No one would have thought this was to be taken literally.

"So, on January 17 I was interviewed under caution at Larne police station by two officers and was told I would be informed whether or not I would be prosecuted within 14 days. The police told me that I had nothing to worry about and I wouldn't be prosecuted. But, despite repeated requests, it took 11 months before I received a decision from the Public Prosecution Service.

"The police were sent to my home on three separate occasions about three different blogs after that. There are people out there, probably pro-Catholic Church people, who do not like the blog and who are using the PSNI to close the blog down.

"Depending on the topic being discussed, there are between 4,000 and 15,000 people on the site each day. It's quite clearly a waste of police time."

Mr Buckley was pressed by the Belfast Telegraph on whether he was sure that he had been told the identity of the complainant by the PSNI.

He said: "Archbishop Eamon Martin sent the Church's child protection officer Aidan Gordon to the police station to make the complaint even though there were no child protection issues involved in this. I suppose if you stretch his job description this complaint would fall under a kind of safeguarding in regard to this complaint."

When this allegation was put to the PSNI, it said: "Police received a complaint in relation to content posted on a blog in January, 2017. A file was sent to the Public Prosecution Service in relation to the matter in March, 2017."

The PPS said: "The PPS can confirm that a file relating to this case was received from police in February, 2017.

"After careful consideration of all the available evidence, the rest for prosecution was applied in line with the PPS code for prosecutors. It has been decided not to prosecute anyone in relation to this incident on the basis that the case did not pass the evidential test."

Mr Buckley added: "It was a worry that elements in the Catholic Church used the PSNI to target me. It could start a fashion that is very unhealthy in terms of freedom of speech etc, particularly over the Maynooth issue."

The Belfast Telegraph contacted the Catholic Church for a response on numerous occasions by phone and email over a number of days, but received no reply.

Bishop Pat is streets ahead on Shankill as he sups in the Rangers' Club

Rebel Catholic bishop Pat Buckley enjoyed a pint yesterday in one of Ulster loyalism's most hallowed halls - the Shankill Rangers Supporters' Club.

The maverick clergyman had been invited to the club after donating two signs from long-demolished Shankill streets to a local museum.

The signs for Blaney Street and Brennan Street honour Catholic priests who had nursed Protestants from the area in 1832 during a cholera outbreak.

Bishop Buckley and a clerical colleague liberated the signs back in the 1970s when the old terraced streets of the area were being knocked down.

There were originally four Shankill streets named after priests who had helped the local people, but two of the signs - for Loftus Street and Meenan Street - have since disappeared. But for almost 40 years, Bishop Buckley had kept his two hanging in his kitchen

And yesterday they returned to their origins at the museum housed in the premises of Action for Community Transformation (ACT), a loyalist conflict transformation project. 

"I think the signs are going on display fairly quickly," Bishop Buckley said.

"They'll be on display at the premises of ACT. The signs are there now."

The cleric had asked ACT representatives to take him to the most loyalist drinking spot on the Shankill Road for a pint after the handover, a wish they were very happy to fulfil.

After the brief handing over ceremony, he accompanied ACT representatives - including co-ordinator Stephen Pollock - to the the Rangers Supporters' Club for a pint.

The clergyman said he had been made to feel at home in the loyalist redoubt.

"Obviously, it's on the Shankill, and I wouldn't think there are too many Catholics who go in and out of it," he said.

"I was made very welcome by the staff and by everyone present.

"I was shown around the club, and I was pictured standing around beside the UVF plaques and memorabilia."

However, the visit didn't run completely smoothly.

Bishop Buckley explained: "I was looking for a pint of ale - but they didn't have any.

"So I had to settle for what is probably the best beer in the world, a Carlsberg!"

Still, it was a satisfying way to toast the memory of four 19th century Catholic priests who came to the aid of the Shankill's poor at a time of need.

"Everything passed off well. There was no third world war," he laughed.

USA : Chicago archdiocese agrees to pay another $3.15 million to McCormack victims

The Archdiocese of Chicago has agreed to pay $3.15 million to settle the latest in a series of lawsuits stemming from sexual abuse by the laicized priest Daniel McCormack.

The archdiocese has now committed to pay over $10 million to victims of McCormack. 

In separate lawsuits, these victims have demonstrated that church officials had evidence that McCormack could be a threat to young people as far back as 1994 — before he was ordained by the late Cardinal Joseph Bernardin — but allowed him to continue in ministry until 2006. 

McCormack was jailed in 2007 after pleading guilty to several counts of sexual abuse. 

When he became eligible for parole in 2009, prosecutors invoked an Illinois law that allowed them to keep him under confinement, saying that he remained an imminent threat. 

He was laicized in 2007.

EUROPE : Cause opened for beatification of French priest slain at altar last year

The Archdiocese of Rouen has opened a formal cause for the beatification of Father Jacques Hamel, who was killed by Islamic terrorists last July while he was celebrating Mass in the church of St. Etienne du Rouvray.

Ordinarily the Vatican requires a five-year waiting period after the death of a candidate before a cause can be opened. 

But Pope Francis waived that rule in the case of Father Hamel, responding to pleas from French Catholics. 

Archbishop Dominique Lebrun of Rouen announced the opening of the cause during the Chrism Mass in his archdiocese on Holy Thursday.

PALESTINE : Leader hopes papal visit to Egypt will strengthen moderate Muslims

Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas has written to Pope Francis, offering his best wishes that the Pope’s visit to Egypt later this month will strengthen moderate Muslims.

Abbas said that the Pope’s plan to visit Egypt “reflects your commitment to achieve justice and peace and encourage moderate voices all over the world, especially in our region.”

SYRIA : 2 Franciscan friars minister in area under ISIS control

Two of the 15 Franciscan friars who minister in Syria do so in territory controlled by the Islamic State.

As a condition for staying with the families, ISIS imposed upon the friars the condition of removing Christian symbols.

The friars “are living in two villages, 25 and 40 kilometers from Aleppo,” Father Michael Perry, minister general of the Franciscan order, told Catholic News Service.

“They have been able to negotiate space and pay what is necessary,” he said, in order to remain with “those who are too poor or too weak to find another place to go.”

April - Prayer to The Holy Spirit

Holy Spirit, be with me today.
Be my teacher, my guide, my counselor, my friend.

Fill me with your gifts, especially the gifts of
wisdom, discernment, knowledge, understanding, compassion,
love, and awe in God's presence.

In all that I think, say, and do, let it be in accordance
with your most holy and perfect will.

I ask this in Jesus' name.

AMEN.

Lent calendar prayer and reflection for 16 April - Easter Sunday

“They have taken the Lord out of the tomb” she said “and we don’t know where they have put him.”

John 20:1-9

It can be hard to identify with Mary and the disciples when we listen to the Easter story because we know the ending: we know that Jesus has risen! At this point in the story Mary seems angry, distraught, confused. 

All of us can identify with these feelings when we go through dark times in our lives. And often it needs the support and understanding of others for our despair to turn into hope.

The Sisters of the Sacred Hearts of Jesus and Mary in Mbala, Zambia, often meet people who have lost everything including their money and homes, looking for someone who will ‘cure’ them of their HIV. 

Sister Yvonne says: “Once they’ve exhausted everything and they are very sick – they’ve no energy or strength – then they are taken to the hospitals and most of the time this is when we come into contact with them, at the point when they are really ill and have lost everything. 

“So we support them in that state, then we will provide medication, counselling, and once they are healthier, then there is that great need to support with a livelihood to bring them back to where they were.”

The Sisters are there to meet those who are despairing and to walk with them on their transformational journey of body, mind and spirit; a journey from near-death to life in its fullness.

Easter Sunday prayer

Almighty God, on this day when we remember and celebrate your resurrection, your triumph over death, inspire us to reach out to others, sharing your joy and your hope. Let us pray for the flourishing of all your creation. Amen.

USA : Jailed former head of St. Luke Institute agrees to mental-health counseling

A laicized New Hampshire priest, the former chancellor of the Manchester diocese, has agreed to undergo mental-health counseling, as a condition for his release from prison, where he is completing a four-year term for misappropriating church funds.

Edward Arsenault entered a guilty plea in 2014 to charges that he took more than $300,000 from the Manchester diocese. 

He reportedly used the money to support a homosexual affair.

The diocese announced last week that Arsenault had been laicized. 

Arsenault’s agreement to undergo counseling was ironic because he once served as the chief executive of the St. Luke Institute, the Maryland facility that has provided counseling for many priests charged with sexual abuse.

VATICAN : Papal liturgy will honor ‘New Martyrs’

Pope Francis will preside on April 22 at a special Liturgy of the Word to honor the “new martyrs” of the past century, the Vatican has announced.

The ceremony, organized by the Sant’Egidio community, will be held at the basilica of St. Bartholomew in Rome. 

The Sant’Egidio community, announcing the event, noted that the basilica was designated by St. John Paul II to honor recent martyrs during the Jubilee Year 2000.

VATICAN : New stamps for 90th birthday of Benedict XVI, 100th anniversary of Fatima apparitions

The Vatican will issue new stamps in May to commemorate the 90th birthday of Pope-emeritus Benedict and the 100th anniversary of the apparitions at Fatima.

The stamp honoring Benedict XVI, which shows the retired Pontiff praying the Rosary, is “our affectionate tribute to him,” the Vatican numismatic office announced. 

The former Pope will turn 90 on April 16.

The Fatima stamp shows a representation of the Virgin Mary, clothed in brilliant white, speaking to the three children at Fatima. 

The first apparitions at Fatima took place on May 13, 1917. 

The Vatican will also issue a stamp marking the 1,950th anniversary of the martyrdom of Sts. Peter and Paul.

USA : Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel to close, as her religious order shrinks

The National Shrine of St. Katharine Drexel, in Bensalem, Pennsylvania, will be closed at the end of this calendar year, its administrators have announced.

The shrine, which contains relics of St. Katharine Drexel, is located alongside the motherhouse of the order she founded, the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament. 

The order has been forced to sell properties, primarily because of a drop in the number of members. 

The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament, who once boasted 600 members, now have only 100, most of them living in retirement.