Monday, July 29, 2024

Repeat Christian Brother child abuser given another jail term for indecent assault

A former Christian Brother teacher in jail for indecently assaulting several boys has been sentenced to five years imprisonment for the indecent assault of another four children nearly 50 years ago.

The 72-year-old man is already serving a sentence for the historic indecent assault of a number of boys at a primary school in County Kilkenny.

He has gone through five trials pertaining to these offences and has a total of 80 previous convictions for indecent assault. The sentence he is currently serving is due to expire in September 2030.

In the most recent case for which he was sentenced on Monday, the man was found guilty by a jury of 23 counts of indecently assaulting four boys in the Co Kilkenny school where he was teaching between September 1976 and June 1977.

The verdicts were handed down following a Dublin Circuit Criminal Court trial last June.

The court heard that the man, who can't be named for legal reasons, does not accept the verdicts of the jury. He has similar matters pending before the courts.

The court heard the indecent assaults occurred when he called each boy up to the top of the classroom where he would put his hands down their trousers and touch their buttocks and genitals.

Sentencing the man today/yesterday (MON), Judge Elma Sheahan said the offending involved “the degradation and abuse of these boys in the school setting in the presence of their peers”. She noted that as their teacher, the man was the person in charge and in a position of power.

She said it was a “significant breach of trust” and repetitious, noting that he has a lengthy history of similar offending.

The judge handed down a sentence of five years, which she backdated to when the man was convicted of these offences in June. The sentence handed down means he will not spend further time in jail in relation to these offences.

In victim impact statements read out in court by prosecuting counsel Geraldine Small, SC, one of the complainants, described how he was a “confident, cheerful boy” who loved going to school until the man became his teacher.

He said after the abuse began, he “fell apart” and lost all his confidence. He had previously done very well in school, but his schoolwork started to deteriorate as a result of the abuse. He said he struggled to sleep, was anxious and nervous and dreaded school. He said the abuse continued to affect him into his adult years.

Another complainant described how the abuse stays with him to this day, even though it was over 45 years ago.

“I feel like this man is a monster,” he said. “He used his power to take advantage of young boys.” The man said he struggled with alcohol abuse in his adult life as a result.

Ronan Kennedy SC, defending, said the man went on to work in a number of other schools in his career, and no other complaints were made against him in respect of these schools. He has also worked in other areas, including in the Christian Brother missions abroad.

He said the man entered the Christian Brothers as a teenager. He said the man will be in custody until his late 70s as a result of his offending and he urged the court to be as lenient as possible.

Sunday, July 28, 2024

Thousands climb Croagh Patrick for Reek Sunday

Thousands of people are taking part in the annual Reek Sunday pilgrimage, climbing to the top of Croagh Patrick in Co Mayo.

People from all around the country and of all ages are taking part, slowly ascending the rocky 765-metre holy mountain located a few kilometers outside Westport.

At least eight mountain rescue teams led by Mayo Mountain Rescue have been on Croagh Patrick since last night to aid any climber that sustains injury.

There were a number of minor injuries among the climbers, who were treated by paramedics.

An air ambulance helicopter that was located at the base of the mountain throughout the day was not required for any medivacs.

Traffic management and a parking plan were in place in Murrisk at the foot of the mountain, with plenty of parking available as some local people had opened access to roadside fields.

Pope Francis: 'an applause for all grandparents!'

Today, 28 July 2024, the Church commemorates the Fourth World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly, and the Holy Father has taken this to heart.

Following his Sunday Angelus address to the faithful gathered in St. Peter's Square, Pope Francis, who instituted the day in 2021, recalled the occasion, whose theme this year is "Do not cast me off in my old age" (cf. Psalm 71:9)
Cannot be abandoned

"Today we celebrate World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly," the Pope remembered, saying we cannot grow accustomed to abandoning the elderly. For many elderly people in these summer days, he decried, "loneliness risks becoming a difficult burden to bear."

"The Day calls us to listen to the voice of the elderly who say, “Do not abandon me!”, and to answer, “I will not abandon you!”

With this in mind, the Pope urged all faithful to work "to strengthen the alliance between grandparents and grandchildren, between young people and the elderly."
A round of applause for all grandparents

"Let us say “no” to the loneliness of the elderly!" he appealed, noting, "Our future depends a great deal on how grandparents and grandchildren learn to live together."

"Let us not forget the elderly!" the Pope exclaimed, adding: "And a round of applause for all the grandparents, all of them."

    “A round of applause for all the grandparents, all of them.”

Ahead of the Day, Pope Francis had issued a Message for the occasion, which can be read below in its entirety.

***

MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS POPE FRANCIS FOR THE IV WORLD DAY FOR GRANDPARENTS AND THE ELDERLY - 28 July 2024


“Do not cast me off in my old age” (cf. Ps 71:9)


Dear brothers and sisters,

God never abandons his children, never. Even when our age advances and our powers decline, when our hair grows white and our role in society lessens, when our lives become less productive and can risk appearing useless. God does not regard appearances (cf. 1 Sam 16:7); he does not disdain to choose those who, to many people, may seem irrelevant. God discards no stone; indeed, the “oldest” are the firm foundation on which “new” stones can rest, in order to join in erecting a spiritual edifice (cf. 1 Peter 2:5).

Sacred Scripture as a whole is a story of the Lord’s faithful love. It offers us the comforting certainty that God constantly shows us his mercy, always, at every stage of life, in whatever situation we find ourselves, even in our betrayals. The Psalms are filled with the wonder of the human heart before God who cares for us despite our insignificance (cf. Ps 144:3-4); they assure us that God has fashioned each one of us from our mother’s womb (cf. Ps 139:13) and that even in hell he will not abandon our life (cf. Ps 16:10). We can be certain, then, that he will be close to us also in old age, all the more because, in the Bible, growing old is a sign of blessing.

At the same time, in the Psalms we also find this heartfelt plea to the Lord: “In my old age do not abandon me” (cf. Ps 71:9). Words that are strong, even crude. They make us think of the extreme suffering of Jesus, who cried out on the cross: “My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?” (Mt 27:46).

In the Bible, then, we find both the certainty of God’s closeness at every stage of life and the fear of abandonment, particularly in old age and in times of pain. There is no contradiction here. If we look around, we have no difficulty seeing that its words reflect an utterly evident reality. All too often, loneliness is the bleak companion of our lives as elderly persons and grandparents. Often, when I was Bishop of Buenos Aires, I would visit rest homes and realize how rarely those people received visits. Some had not seen their family members for many months.

There are many reasons for this loneliness: in many places, above all in the poorer countries, the elderly find themselves alone because their children are forced to emigrate. I think too of the many situations of conflict. How many of the elderly are left alone because men – youths and adults – have been called to battle, and women, above all women with small children, have left the country in order to ensure safety for their children. In cities and villages devastated by war, many elderly people are left alone; they are the only signs of life in areas where abandonment and death seem to reign supreme. In other parts of the world, we encounter a false belief, deeply rooted in certain local cultures, that causes hostility towards the elderly, who are suspected of using witchcraft to sap the vital energies of the young; when premature death or sickness, or any other misfortune strike the young, the guilt is laid at the door of some elderly person. This mentality must be combatted and eliminated. It is one of those groundless prejudices from which the Christian faith has set us free, yet which continues to fuel generational conflict between the young and the elderly.

Yet if we think about it, this accusation that the elderly “rob the young of their future” is nowadays present everywhere. It appears under other guises even in the most advanced and modern societies. For example, there is now a widespread conviction that the elderly are burdening the young with the high cost of the social services that they require, and in this way are diverting resources from the development of the community and thus from the young. This is a distorted perception of reality. It assumes that the survival of the elderly puts that of the young at risk, that to favour the young, it is necessary to neglect or even suppress the elderly. Intergenerational conflict is a fallacy and the poisoned fruit of a culture of conflict. To set the young against the old is an unacceptable form of manipulation: “What is important is the unity of the different ages of life, which is the real point of reference for understanding and valuing human life in its entirety” (Catechesis, 23 February 2022).

The Psalm cited above – with its plea not to be abandoned in old age – speaks to a conspiracy surrounding the life of the elderly. This may seem an exaggeration, but not if we consider that the loneliness and abandonment of the elderly is not by chance or inevitable, but the fruit of decisions – political, economic, social and personal decisions – that fail to acknowledge the infinite dignity of each person, “beyond every circumstance, state or situation the person may ever encounter” (Declaration Dignitas Infinita, 1). This happens once we lose sight of the value of each individual and people are then judged in terms of their cost, which is in some cases considered too high to pay. Even worse, often the elderly themselves fall victim to this mindset; they are made to consider themselves a burden and to feel that they should be the first to step aside.

Then too nowadays many women and men seek personal fulfilment in a life as independent as possible and detached from other people. Group memberships are in crisis and individualism is celebrated: the passage from “us” to “me” is one of the most evident signs of our times. The family, which is the first and most radical argument against the notion that we can save ourselves by ourselves, has been one of the victims of this individualistic culture. Yet once we grow old and our powers begin to decline, the illusion of individualism, that we need no one and can live without social bonds, is revealed for what it is. Indeed, we find ourselves needing everything, but at a point in life when we are alone, no longer with others to help, with no one whom we can count on. It is a grim discovery that many people make only when it is too late.

Solitude and abandonment have become recurrent elements in today’s social landscape. They have multiple roots. In some cases, they are the result of calculated exclusion, a sort of deplorable “social conspiracy”; in others, tragically, a matter of an individual’s personal decision. In still other cases, the elderly submit to this reality, pretending that it is their free choice. Increasingly, we have lost “the taste of fraternity” (Fratelli Tutti, 33); we find it difficult even to think of an alternative.

In many older persons we can observe the sense of resignation described in the Book of Ruth, which tells the story of the elderly Naomi who, after the death of her husband and children, encourages her two daughters-in-law, Orpah and Ruth, to return to their native towns and their homes (cf. Ruth 1:8). Naomi – like many elderly people today – is afraid of remaining alone, yet she cannot imagine anything different. As a widow, she knows that she is of little value in the eyes of society; she sees herself as a burden for those two young woman who, unlike herself, have their whole lives before them. For this reason, she considers it best to step aside, and so she tells her young daughters-in-law to leave her and to build a future in other places (cf. Ruth 1:11-13). Her words reflect the rigid social and religious conventions of her day, which apparently seal her own fate.

The biblical narrative then presents us with two different responses to Naomi’s words and to old age itself. One of the two daughters-in-law, Orpah, who loves Naomi, kisses her and, accepting what seemed the only solution possible, goes her way. Ruth, however, does not leave Naomi’s side and, to her surprise, tells her: “Do not press me to leave you” (Ruth 1:16). Ruth is not afraid to challenge customs and inbred patterns of thought. She senses that the elderly woman needs her and she courageously remains at her side in what will be the start of a new journey for both. To all of us, who are accustomed to the idea that solitude is our unavoidable lot, Ruth teaches that in response to the plea “Do not abandon me”, it is possible to say, “I will not abandon you”. Ruth does not hesitate to subvert what seemed to be an irreversible situation: living alone need not be the only alternative! Not by chance, Ruth – who remained at the side of the elderly Naomi – was an ancestor of the Messiah (cf. Mt 1:5), of Jesus, Immanuel, “God with us”, the one who brings God’s own closeness and proximity to all people, of all ages and states of life.

Ruth’s freedom and courage invite us to take a new path. Let us follow in her footsteps. Let us set out with this young foreign woman and the elderly Naomi, and not be afraid to change our habits and imagine a different kind of future for our elderly. May we express our gratitude to all those people who, often at great sacrifice, follow in practice the example of Ruth, as they care for an older person or simply demonstrate daily closeness to relatives or acquaintances who no longer have anyone else. Ruth, who chose to remain close to Naomi, was then blessed with a happy marriage, a family, a new home.  This is always the case: by remaining close to the elderly and acknowledging their unique role in the family, in society and in the Church, we will ourselves receive many gifts, many graces, many blessings!

On this Fourth World Day devoted to them, let us show our tender love for the grandparents and the elderly members of our families. Let us spend time with those who are disheartened and no longer hope in the possibility of a different future. In place of the self-centred attitude that leads to loneliness and abandonment, let us instead show the open heart and the joyful face of men and women who have the courage to say “I will not abandon you”, and to set out on a different path.

To all of you, dear grandparents and elderly persons, and to all those who are close to you I send my blessing, accompanied by my prayers. And I ask you, please, not to forget to pray for me.

Rome, Saint John Lateran, 25 April 2024

FRANCIS

Catholic church in Paris vandalized with pro-Muslim graffiti ahead of Olympics

Blog | HPRG

Another Catholic church in France has been vandalized. 

According to French website CNEWS, Notre-Dame-du-Travail had its exterior spray-painted with pro-Muslim, anti-Catholic graffiti. The church also had one of its statues of Mary cut in the throat with a knife. 

The vandalism reportedly took place between Sunday, July 14 and Monday, July 15.  

In March 2023, Sacred Heart Church in Bordeaux was desecrated when perpetrators marked its doors and walls with satanic and communist phrases and symbols. A fire was also lit in the church’s courtyard, but it was extinguished before causing damage to the building.  

In February 2024, the church of St. John the Baptist (Saint-Jean Baptiste) in the small town of Val-de-la-Haye had several sacred objects stolen, including the Blessed Sacrament in the form of consecrated hosts.

In October 2020, LifeSite reported that three Catholics were killed in an attack on Our Lady of the Assumption parish in Nice, France, by an Islamic terrorist. A similar attack occurred in Nice in April 2022, when a 31-year-old French national stabbed a priest and nun multiple times shortly before the 10 a.m. Sunday Mass at the church of Saint Pierre d’Arène. 

The graffiti on Notre-Dame-du-Travail, which is located in Paris and in English means “Our Lady of Labor,” included slogans like infidels needing to pray to Allah, the Catholic Church is of Satan, and that heads of Christians will be cut off. CNEWS also reports that the vandals entered through an emergency exit door and broke cabinet doors and burned papers.  

While LifeSite’s Paris correspondent Jeanne Smith has previously argued that attacks on church in France are “often tracked down to ‘native’ French vandals, the majority of whom are adolescents or young adults,” one of the most notable acts of evil carried out in a church was the death of Fr. Jacques Hamel in 2016. 

Hamel, who was 85, was saying Mass on July 26 in the parish church of Saint-Etienne-du-Rouvray, Normandy. During his sermon, two Islamic terrorists slit his throat. His last words were, “Go away, Satan!” Hamel was called a “martyr” by many Catholics across the world.

Bishop Eleganti says COVID shots did ‘great damage’ to millions of people

Swiss Bishop Marian Eleganti said that people “were exposed to a great […] human experiment” during the COVID crisis in an exclusive interview with LifeSiteNews.

During the interview with LifeSiteNews journalist Maike Hickson, Bishop Eleganti discussed a wide range of topics, including the COVID crisis, the war in Ukraine, the Traditional Latin Mass, and the excommunication of Archbishop Carlo Maria Viganò.

The former auxiliary bishop of Chur in Switzerland said that he thought something was wrong with the “COVID pandemic” from the beginning. He felt “that there must be a master plan behind” it to establish “a system of controlling [the people].”

He said the COVID shots were “experimental” and that people were exposed “to a great experiment, [a] human experiment.”

He stressed that the COVID injections “didn’t help, but they [did] great damage to many millions of persons.”

The bishop was also highly critical of the behavior of many in the Church hierarchy during the COVID crisis, as they acted “as if the Church would lose its supernatural faith.”

“How can you treat the Holy Eucharist as a […] contaminated thing?” he questioned. Bishop Eleganti also criticized the removal of holy water from churches, as the sacramental is meant to protect the faithful from evil.

‘Hidden agenda’ behind war in Europe

When discussing the ongoing war in Ukraine, the prelate said it is essential to see the war from both parties’ perspectives and not simply divide it into the “good” and the “bad” sides.

“I have never seen such a promotion of war by politics in Europe,” Bishop Eleganti stated. “It’s really crazy.”

“And there are powerful people with [a lot of] money who have their own hidden agenda.”

The bishop stressed that people should turn towards God and “pray that the Lord does not allow this catastrophe” of the war to escalate further.

The Traditional Latin Mass should be allowed

Hickson asked Bishop Eleganti if the Traditional Latin Mass (TLM) should have a place in the Church, to which the Swiss bishop replied: “Yes, it should have a place in the Church.”

“We have 24 rites” in the Church, the bishop said, naming the Ambrosian rite, which is similar to the TLM, as an example.

“One could handle that without too much ideology,” he stressed, adding the TLM is “a beautiful rite, deep, with prayer and reverence to the holy, sacred reality.”

He said the liturgical reform after the Second Vatican Council made “a great mistake” by turning the liturgy into “a workshop.”

Bishop Eleganti told LifeSiteNews that he believes Pope Benedict XVI had a better answer to this question than Pope Francis by granting a general allowance to celebrate the TLM.

When asked whether it is legitimate to criticize certain passages of the Vatican II documents, the bishop said, “As a young man, I realized that some passages in the text are not clear enough, so they are open to interpretations, and there was a revolutionary impact on many liberals” who interpreted the texts in a heterodox manner.

Archbishop Viganò’s criticism should be taken seriously

Addressing the question of the recent late sententiae excommunication of Archbishop Viganò announced by the Vatican, Bishop Eleganti said that he thinks the situation is tragic. However, he said he thinks that if someone does not recognize the Roman Pontiff, “it’s very difficult” for the Vatican “not to act.”

Bishop Eleganti said he would not have excommunicated Archbishop Viganò if he were in Pope Francis’s situation “because, in his faith and his sacramental piety, he [Viganò] is not heretical.”

While he believes that the archbishop might have gone “too far” by not recognizing Francis as pope, “one should take it very seriously, what [Viganò] reproaches and what he criticizes.”

Bishop Casey's secrets - inside the controversial documentary

What's on? Top 10 TV and streaming tips ...

This was seismic. 

Neither complaint had received any public attention. 

Everyone in Ireland knew that Bishop Casey had been forced to resign in 1992, after the revelation that he had fathered a child, eighteen years previously, with his distant American cousin, Annie Murphy. 

However, in comparison with many of the shocking revelations of child abuse and cover-up that came to light after that, that consensual adult affair had come to seem relatively venial. 

People were also aware that the charismatic bishop had spent several years working among the poor in Ecuador, atoning for his transgression.

By 2016, Bishop Eamonn Casey was living in a nursing home in Co Clare, aged 88, and was suffering from Alzheimer's disease. He would die a year later and 1600 people, including President Michael D. Higgins, would attend his funeral in his former cathedral, where he was interred in the crypt alongside his predecessors.

But in 2016, my source was revealing that there might be another darker chapter to Bishop Casey’s extraordinary life story, one which had already brought such trouble upon the Catholic Church in Ireland.

The Vatican has now confirmed to RTÉ, in an exceptional statement, that Bishop Casey was removed from public ministry in 2006, following unspecified "allegations", which, we have established, included at least two complaints of child sexual abuse and a further "safeguarding concern". The statement also revealed that the sanction had been "reiterated formally" in 2007, and remained in place until Dr Casey died, on 13th March, 2017.

And yet, that sanction and the reason for it was never publicly disclosed by the Church in Bishop Casey’s lifetime.

Eamonn Casey, I discovered, had consistently denied all allegations against him. He was never laicised and remained a Bishop to his dying day. Although all the complaints of child sexual abuse were reported to, and investigated by, An Garda Síochána, he was never charged with, nor convicted of, any sexual crime.

I soon learned through local sources that the allegations against Bishop Casey were more shocking than anyone could have imagined. But I also discovered that they were shrouded in secrecy. A Limerick woman, who initiated a complaint in 2014, did not wish to speak to me, I was told. That is still her position and is unlikely to change. She signed a confidentiality agreement after being awarded a settlement of more than €100,000 by the Diocese of Limerick, in 2017. Her complaint related to alleged events in the 1960s, when the then Father Casey was a curate at St John’s Cathedral and a chaplain to St Joseph’s Reformatory School and the Magdalene Laundry run by the Good Shepherd Sisters, where hundreds of women and girls were incarcerated.

My enquiries as to the whereabouts of the other accuser, who had taken a case against Bishop Casey in the High Court in 2001, hit a dead end, until two years later, when a third woman contacted me, after I had joined the Irish Mail on Sunday in Dublin.

Her name was Patricia Donovan. She is Bishop Casey’s niece and last Monday night, viewers finally heard her story for the first time on camera. It is a story she had waited more than 50 years to share.

After the first piece I wrote for the Limerick Leader, in 2016, Patricia, who was living in the UK, read the story online. She claims this was when she learned for the first time that she was not alone in accusing Bishop Eamonn Casey of child sexual abuse.

Taken aback by my report, Patricia Donovan picked up the phone to Tommy Dalton, a solicitor in Limerick, who had acted on behalf of the 2014 complainant. Patricia offered to help in any way possible with that case, sharing her story with Mr Dalton for the first time. But it was another two years before she contacted me.

By that time, I thought my investigation was going nowhere, until an email from her arrived out of the blue.

I was aware that she was the niece of Bishop Casey and that she had made a complaint of child sexual abuse against him in 2005, reporting it to authorities in the UK - first of all to the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton in England, where Dr Casey was then working, and then to the UK police, and later to An Garda Siochána and her native diocese of Limerick.

I spent many hours on the phone talking to Patricia, specifically about the abuse she alleged she had suffered at Eamonn Casey’s hands. She told me the abuse began when she was five years old, in 1967, and continued for at least another 10 years.

I travelled to the UK to meet her. Patricia had agreed to leave copies of all her documentation at the hotel where I was staying in advance of our first meeting.

Tommy Dalton had helped Patricia retrieve files relating to her complaints post-2005 from the Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, as well as from Limerick and Galway. There, in the documentation that Patricia had left for me, was the name of the woman who took the 2001 case.

It stated in black and white, on a file marked E.C. [Eamonn Casey] from the Diocese of Arundel & Brighton: 'EC has informed Fr [X] that there was another historical case dealt with by his solicitors in Dublin. Name of alleged victim was Ellen Murphy. She made a claim through the Residential Institutions Redress Board and was awarded compensation.’

The priest in question was a safeguarding officer, who, in 2005, after Patricia’s complaint, saw to it that Dr Casey was suspended from all his priestly duties and was requested to avoid all contact with children.

A copy of this correspondence which had been forwarded to Mr Dalton by Limerick Diocese had been extensively blacked out and, had it not been for the unredacted version sent by Arundel & Brighton, Patricia would not have discovered the existence of the 2001 complainant.

The documentary, Bishop Casey's Buried Secrets, produced by RTÉ in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday, publicly revealed the identity of this first accuser for the first time with the consent of her son, Niall Murphy. He told us that his mother, the late Ellen Murphy, was only ever motivated by the pursuit of justice, when she brought her case. It was never about financial compensation. Eventually, Ellen accepted a settlement of €40,000 from the Residential Institutions Redress Board, plus a similar amount in costs, for abuse she claimed to have suffered in a number of Catholic institutions, including, specifically, two instances of alleged sexual abuse by a young Father Casey, during her teenage years. As a condition of that settlement, however, Ellen was obliged to halt her legal action and to agree never to discuss her complaint publicly again.

From the UK, I rang my news editor in Dublin to relay the news: we now had knowledge of three women, two of whom had received settlements, but had, as a result, accepted non-disclosure agreements. Ms Donovan, who had never received compensation, now wanted to tell me the story of how the Catholic Church had handled her allegations.

We had a long way to go in substantiating as much as we could, not just about Patricia's claims, but also the claims of others and, crucially, where the Church stood in its position on Bishop Casey.

It would be many more months before the story went to print, in March 2019, on the front page of the Irish Mail on Sunday and six pages inside, with more to follow thereafter.

A day after the story appeared in the Mail, I received an e-mail from Roger Childs, Head of Religious Programmes in RTÉ, asking if I would be willing to discuss the content of the Mail on Sunday article. Shortly after, I was introduced to Birthe Tonseth, who would become the producer and director of the TV documentary. It would take many months of rigorous investigation before we were fully satisfied that we could bring to air a documentary that was accurate and fair to all parties.

After what began as an anonymous tip off eight years ago, Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets aired last Monday night, 22nd July, on RTÉ One at 9.35pm. It can be viewed on the RTÉ Player here.

But is this the end of Bishop Casey’s story and his secret life or are there yet more chapters to be written?

Bishop Donal McKeown announces number of clerical changes to Derry Diocese

The Bishop of Derry, Bishop Donal McKeown has announced the following clerical changes, effective from August 31:

  • Rev Seamus Kelly, PP Dungiven to be Priest-in-Residence Dungiven

  • Rev Declan Boland, PP Camus to be Priest-in-Residence Camus, Clonleigh and Leckpatrick

  • Rev Michael McCaughey, PP Three Patrons, to be PP Camus and PP Clonleigh and PP Leckpatrick

  • Rev Colm O’Doherty, PP Clonleigh, to be PP Moville Lower

  • Rev Gerard Sweeney, PP Leckpatrick, to be PP Dungiven

  • Rev Dermot McGirr, CC Ballinascreen and Desertmartin, to be PP Banagher

  • Rev Micheál McGavigan, Adm Banagher, to be PP Three Patrons, in addition to his existing appointments as Judicial Vicar, Director of the Diocesan Pastoral Centre and Instructor for the Armagh Inter-diocesan Marriage Tribunal

  • Rev Edward Gallagher, PP Moville Lower, to be CC Camus and CC Clonleigh and CC Leckpatrick

  • Rev Michael McCaul, CC Drumragh, to be CC Ballinascreen and Desertmartin

  • Rev Joseph Varghese, CC Dungiven, to be CC Drumragh

  • Rev Oliver Crilly, Priest-in-Residence Urney and Castlefin, to retire

Consider victims in decision on whether to move Bishop Casey's remains - Taoiseach


TAOISEACH Simon Harris has urged the Church to ensure their further consideration and consultation on Bishop Eamonn Casey’s remains being at Galway Cathedral is victim focused.

In the lead story in last week’s Limerick Leader, the diocese of Galway said they needed to “reflect” after watching the major documentary, Bishop Casey’s Buried Secrets, on whether Bishop Casey’s remains should stay interred in the crypt at the cathedral.

The programme on Monday night revealed that there were at least five complaints of alleged child sexual abuse made against Bishop Casey - three in Limerick. The Church received four separate complaints of childhood sexual abuse against Bishop Casey and one further ‘child safeguarding concern’. 

The RTÉ documentary is in association with the Irish Mail on Sunday and Daily Mail news editor Anne Sheridan, formerly a journalist with the Limerick Leader. It aired on Monday night with over half a million views thus far.

Bishop Casey was a native of Kerry but was brought up in Adare, where his father was a creamery manager. He attended St Munchin's College before being ordained a priest for the Diocese of Limerick. His first parish was St John’s in the city.

On Saturday, a statement from the Diocese of Galway said “the interment of the remains of Bishop Casey in the crypt beneath Galway Cathedral is a very sensitive issue that deeply affects people in different ways, and which has different facets”.

“The interment of Bishop Casey in the Cathedral crypt now requires a period of careful consideration and consultation, which has already begun.  

“Time and space are required to adequately and appropriately bring this undertaking to completion. We will not be making any further public comment until we are in a position to provide an update.” 

It said it was in the context of a statement last Tuesday by the Bishop of Galway Michael Duignan relating to the life and legacy of Bishop Eamonn Casey, clearly expressing his commitment to “working with anybody affected, to help bring truth, healing and peace to such terribly painful situations.”

The Mail on Sunday received a statement from Taoiseach Simon Harris, who thanked the victims of Eamonn Casey for coming forward and sharing their stories. 

“Without them and without this documentary, we would never have known the extent of evidence of abuse against Eamonn Casey. An Garda Siochana has now initiated a review of the case, and I welcome that.”

The Taoiseach also noted the church’s comment on Eamon Casey’s remains being at Galway Cathedral and “urged them to ensure their further consideration and consultation is victim focused”. 

“In the past week Irish society has learned there was something much darker behind Eamon Casey’s estrangement from the church than many believed. The evidence in the documentary has only added to the sense of betrayal that people feel about the Catholic Church in Ireland and the concealment seen in the case of Eamon Casey.

"There are serious questions for church authorities to answer once again as to why this was the case,” said Mr Harris in the statement to the Mail on Sunday.

New Grindr lawsuit revives ethical debate over priests and privacy (Opinion)

The Pillar investigation of Msgr ...

Monsignor Jeffrey Burrill, the former secretary general of the U.S. bishops’ conference whose sudden resignation three years ago over disclosures regarding his use of a gay dating app created a contretemps over journalistic ethics, is back in the news this week after filing a new lawsuit against Grindr.

Lawyers representing Burrill filed the suit in Los Angeles County Superior Court against Grindr LLC, whose corporate headquarters are in West Hollywood. In essence, Burrill is claiming that Grindr falsely claimed his personal information would be safe, and then sold it to third parties without alerting him that it could be used to identify him.

Grindr has said in a statement that the company plans to dispute the charges “vigorously.”

To recap, here’s the Burrill story in a nutshell.

A native of Marshfield, Wisconsin, and a priest of the Diocese of La Crosse ordained in 1998, Burrill began his service at the USCCB as associate general secretary in 2016 after stints in Rome. He moved up to the general secretary position in 2020, effectively making him chief of staff.

In July 2021, the Catholic news site Pillar published a story based on what it described as information obtained from commercially available data from Grindr, which purported to show that a mobile phone belonging to Burrill had transmitted signals from Grindr on a nearly daily basis in 2018, 2019, and 2020, often placing the phone in gay bars and bathhouses even when Burrill was traveling for the bishops’ conference.

In the storm that ensued, Burrill resigned his position, at least ostensibly “to avoid becoming a distraction to the operations and ongoing work of the conference,” in the words of a statement from Archbishop Jose Gomez of Los Angeles, at the time the President of the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops.

Burrill was returned to active ministry in La Crosse in 2022 after a leave of absence.

The story created intense debate about the ethical propriety of harvesting private information about Catholic figures and then using it to discredit them publicly, especially when doing so may appear to serve a political agenda. (Not only is the USCCB sometimes criticized for alleged liberal bias, but subsequent subjects of similar Pillar reports, including the Archdiocese of Newark, were also viewed as left-leaning, while The Pillar is typically seen as conservative.)

Supporters of the Pillar report argued that one key lesson from the clerical sexual abuse scandals is that where there’s smoke, there’s often fire, and the church ignores such warning signs at its peril. Critics, however, complained of McCarthyite tactics and also anti-gay prejudice.

For whatever it’s worth, I wrote an analysis at the time in which I concluded that based on Crux’s own editorial standards, we would not have carried the story given the information provided. I never published it, but since the case is back in the news, I’ll provide the gist of it here.

Let me be clear that this is a tough call, about which fair-minded and ethically responsible people will disagree. The Pillar generally provides serious news and analysis on Catholic affairs, and I don’t envy the headaches this situation must have caused.  I revisit it now only because the new lawsuit is a reminder that the issues raised three years ago have hardly gone away.

My conclusion rested on five points.

First, the initial test is whether the information being provided in a news report concerns a public figure with reduced expectations of privacy. The Pillar justified its decision about Burrill on his position at the bishops’ conference, describing him as “effectively the highest-ranking American cleric who is not a bishop” and suggesting he played a key role in decisions about the sexual abuse crisis, including the Theodore McCarrick scandal.

Both are debatable propositions.

To begin with, it’s not necessarily the case that being secretary general of a bishops’ conference invests a priest with any real power. One could make a strong argument that serving as vicar general of a major archdiocese is a far more important position, for instance, given that an episcopal conference is mostly an advisory body, while a diocese has wide latitude to govern its own affairs. The secretary’s role is usually limited to executing policy set by bishops.

Moreover, the assertion that Burrill was involved in the McCarrick affair is supposition, not fact. It’s worth noting that in the Vatican’s own exhaustive 449-page report on the McCarrick case, issued in November 2020, Burrill’s name is never mentioned.

In other words, there’s a serious question about whether information about Burrill’s private life ever was truly in the public interest.

Second, Burrill was presented as guilty of sexual misconduct when the evidence didn’t clearly establish that conclusion. Use of a gay hookup app on a phone is troubling, but not, in itself, direct proof of sexual activity or other violations of one’s priestly vows. For all we know, a priest with similar cellular data could have been seeking company, friendship, or even pastoral and ministerial opportunities.

A possible over-interpretation of the evidence could suggest a desire to inflict the maximum amount of damage – or, at a minimum, to attract the maximum number of readers, perhaps without adequate concern for the fallout for the person whose reputation is being irreparably harmed.

It’s worth recalling St. Thomas Aquinas’s injunction from the Summa regarding what he called iniuria verborum: “If by his words the speaker intends to dishonor another person … this is no less a mortal sin than theft or robbery, since a person does not love his honor any less than his possessions.”

Third, the article’s implication of a causal link between the presence of homosexuals in the Catholic priesthood and the clerical sexual abuse crisis is troubling, even if the point seemed less about the nature of the same-sex orientation and more about the dynamics of cover-up and mutual protection among any subset of clergy with secrets to keep.

At the very least, the article could have included assessments from independent experts on child sexual abuse regarding whether sexual orientation, in itself, plays a role, and whether the use of dating apps is a true red flag. The choice not to do so can suggest either recklessness, or, more alarming, a deliberate desire to raise doubts about all gay clergy, even those (presumably the majority) faithful to their vows who’ve never abused anyone.

Fourth, the lack of transparency about where the data was obtained, who obtained it (if not by name, at least a general characterization of the source), whether payments were involved and, if so, how much, are all omissions with regard to accepted journalistic practice.

Exceptions can be justified under certain circumstances, as few rules in journalism are absolute, but, in this case, they leave important questions relevant to assessing the credibility of the report unanswered.

Fifth, the political overtones of the report are also alarming, given the clear right v. left tensions among the various parties. That simply may have been happenstance, but for a news outlet, even the appearance of a political axe to grind ought to be an additional motive for caution.

To recapitulate, these are extremely difficult choices, and I make no claim to infallibility in trying to settle them. All I know for sure is that we need to think through the questions raised now, because the new realities of the information age, for reporting on the Catholic Church and every other subject under the sun, are here to stay.

New bishop in South Sudan hopes for reconciliation

The bishop of the new diocese of Bentiu in South Sudan, Christian Carlassare, hopes for reconciliation in a country torn apart by ethnic conflict. 

"The wounds of recent years have left traumas and led to enmities between the communities that need to be overcome," he told the portal "Vatican News" (Sunday), referring in particular to the conflicts between the Dinka and Nuer ethnic groups. "Both the Dinka and the Nuer feel victimised and treated unfairly," said the 46-year-old. "The question is how we can overcome these narratives and become the engine of reconciliation, for a better future for all, where there is development and a dignified life for all," said Carlassare.

Pope Francis established the new diocese of Bentiu on 4 July and appointed the Italian-born Comboni missionary as its first bishop. He has been working in South Sudan for almost 20 years, most recently as Bishop of Rumbek. 

Shortly before his planned consecration as bishop in 2021, he was seriously injured in an assassination attempt in his parsonage. Several perpetrators attacked him in his sleep and shot him in both legs. The motive was thought to be an internal church dispute. Three men are in prison for the offence.

Getting to know the gospel while on the run

The ethnic conflict of recent years had particularly hurt Bentiu, said Calassare. "But the people are strong, they have faith, they have a great history of faith." The diocese of Bentiu, which was created from areas of the huge diocese of Malakal, lies partly in the federal state of Unity and partly in the autonomous administrative zone of Rouen. Of the total population of around 1.2 million, a good 620,000 are Catholics. Three of the seven parishes are located in the area of the Dinka tribe, four in the area of the Nuer tribe.

The history of the new diocese was also influenced by the civil war, says Carlassare. Many people had learnt about the gospel when they fled to the city and passed it on to the people when they returned to their communities. 

"As a result, conversions have multiplied since the 1990s and numerous Christian communities have sprung up that are led by competent catechists," said the new bishop. "Even though the number of priests in this area has always been low, the communities are vibrant thanks to the commitment of many lay people."

After mostly negative response, Vatican deletes online poll on ‘synodality’

After a strongly negative response from several thousand users, the Vatican quickly took down an online poll this week on the concept of “synodality,” which is at the heart of Pope Francis’s high-profile consultation process set to conclude in October with a Synod of Bishops in Rome.

Published the morning of July 25, the poll asked the question, “Do you believe that synodality as a path of conversion and reform can enhance the mission and participation of all the baptized?” It offered offered either “yes” or “no” as a response.

The poll was published by the official accounts for the Vatican’s Synod of Bishops office on both X, formerly known as Twitter, and Facebook.

These type of social media polls generally last for 24 hours, and as time went by, the answer “no” quickly began to rack up far more votes than the answer “yes.”

A screenshot taken by Spanish-language news site Info Vaticana, which followed participation in the online poll for the 24 hours it was up, at one point showed that 88 percent of participants in the poll on X had selected “no,” while just 12 percent had selected “yes” as their response.

According to Info Vaticana, the “no” option on X sat steadily between 85-90 percent for the entire 24 hours the poll was up. However, with around 10 minutes left to go, the poll had been removed from both X and Facebook, with comments and responses to it on both platforms largely negative.

With seven minutes left for the poll, 6,938 people had voted on X, while on Facebook less than 800 had cast a vote.

The Vatican’s office for the Synod of Bishops did not respond to a Crux request for comment on why the poll was taken down.

The potentially embarrassing response for the Vatican comes as the Church is gearing up for the final session of Pope Francis’s controversial Synod of Bishops on Synodality, a global multi-year process involving consultation at the local level which many believe is a legacy-defining event for Pope Francis.

Formally opened by Pope Francis in October 2021, the Synod of Bishops on Synodality is titled, “For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, Mission,” and is a multi-stage process that has included consultations at the local, continental, and universal levels, with the first of two Rome-based month-long meetings occuring in October 2023.

A second Rome-based discussion will be held from Oct. 2-27, bringing the process to a close.

From the beginning, the “Synod on Synodality” was a difficult sell for many faithful, as the concept of “synodality” was abstract and difficult to define.

Still a difficult concept to define for many, “synodality” is generally understood to refer to a collaborative and consultative style of management in which all members, clerical and lay, participate in making decisions about the church’s life and mission.

Organizers have repeatedly insisted that the exercise is aimed at making the church a more open and welcoming place, driven less by a clerical power-structure and more on collaborative leadership.

However, the process became controversial when reports based on local consultation appeared touching on issues such as married priests, women’s ordination and the welcome of LGBTQ+ individuals.

These topics were included in the official working document, called the Instrumentum Laboris, for last year’s October synod discussion, and they were among the most emotional and contested points of discussion.

When the final summarizing document of last year’s discussion was published, the references to these topics were vague, and there was no consensus. When the instrumentum laboris for this year’s October discussion was published earlier this summer, these issues were practically absent.

Instead, the pope opted to form various working groups in the Roman Curia dedicated to studying these and other topics, allowing, organizers have said, the discussion to focus on the implementation of synodality, rather than getting bogged down or sidetracked with single issues.

After pulling the online poll, the Vatican has received blowback from some who bemoan a lack of transparency and accuse officials of acting against the very process they are trying so hard to sell.

One Catholic television and streaming site, Catholic Sat, responded to the decision to take the poll down in an ironic public post on X, saying, “In the name of true Synodality, why delete the tweet? This goes against everything Pope Francis has been trying to do on this Synodal Journey of Synodality to the Synod in October on Synodality.”

“If 7,001 people voted and the result was the other way round this tweet would not have been deleted. Have some credibility and stand by your convictions, you either want to hear people’s opinions or you don’t,” the post said.

It is unclear who participated in the social media poll, and precisely what motivated the strongly negative response.

CWI : Operation Laonia (30)

Well now Fintan, that's another cermony done and dusted, and perhaps another feather in your mitre (or rather an extra row of tassels on the galero)...and not a bit of trouble at the ceremony yesterday.

Having plain clothes members of An Garda Síochána would see to that once they all knew (or thought they knew) who they were watching out for.

Regrettably, and not for the first time, and no doubt not the last, you were not telling the truth about people Fintan...

1. In your secret meetings with Parolin, did you tell him the truth?

2. If so Fintan, how did it feel telling the truth seeing as it is something with which you do not having a normal working relationship?

3. Did you tell him why a forged signature was on submitted paperwork to Rome?

4. Did you tell him the truth about your formal interview with An Garda Síochána a few weeks ago?

5. Did you advise him that such an interview was as part of an ongoing criminal investigation that was necessitated by your failure to carry out such an investigation?

6. Did you advise him that Cleo Yates rang a Garda Station, thereby interfering with same said ongoing criminal investigation?

7. Did you tell him that she did so whilst lying about the reason she claimed she was making such a call?

8. Did you advise him that Cleo was told by the Garda (at least twice) that she was interfering in an ongoing investigation before she was effectively warned she could be arrested for such interference?

9. Did you also tell Parolin that in fact you sought laicisation of 2 priests under false pretexts - in other words Fintan, you lied?

10. Did you tell him about your trips around the diocese - and further afar (Dublin City Marathon) - with Spandex Lady - who hangs around the front gates of Westbourne like a hooker - waiting for you to join her for a bit of jogging? Whether such jogging becomes horizontal or remains vertical - or both - is a source of scandal at the moment - and in your own warped and untruthful ways - would merit application to Rome for laicisation. Hypocrite much Fintan?

11. Did you advise him of the names of the 2 (biological) daddies in the diocese, and seek their laicisation?

12. Did you advise him of the names of priests in the diocese who are in both emotional and full on sexual relationships - and seek their laicisations?

13. Have you sought from Parolin the laicisation of the criminally convicted Jerry 'The Wanker' Carey? If not, why not?

14. The Master of Cermonies was Ger 'The Invisible Priest' Jones, and yet he has failed to carry out any First Friday visits (one now has to make an appointment by telephone to get a hold of him). He has not involved himself in his parish, visited any of the parishoners, engaged with the youth or supported efforts to seek to provide calm in a very challenging environment.

Of course, as he has put it himself, he doesn't 'do' ne'er do wells.....he will make a great bishop yet so!!

Have you recommended him for such an appointment to Parolin?

15. Now Fintan, here is the bigger question of them all - will you meet with us here in CW, and together we trawl through the evidence we have of all of what we have ever published here about you?

The only thing Fintan is this - all we ask you to do - and it is a big ask for you - is to tell the truth once and for all....and if you cannot do that, then we regrettably know that no meeting can take place.

You can bring your solicitor with you as we will have ours there as well so it will be all fair etc etc....and not just you bullying your way as heretofore.

This is your chance, and we hope you take us up on it.

_ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _

AODHÁN DE FAOITE

Eagarthóir / Editor

Catholic leaders join French bishops in condemning Last Supper scene at Paris Olympics opening

Paris 2024 Olympics Opening Ceremony ...

Bishops and prominent prelates from around the world have joined the French Bishops’ Conference and U.S. bishops in criticizing the Paris Olympics opening ceremony held on July 26 for its depiction of the Last Supper, calling it a deeply deplorable derision of Christianity.

The controversial scene, part of the 1.5 billion euros (about $1.62 billion) spectacle to kick off the 2024 Summer Olympics in a rain-soaked French capital on Friday, featured drag queens portraying the apostles and an overweight DJ as Jesus in what appeared to be a part of a fashion show — apparently mocking Leonardo da Vinci’s famous painting.

The official Olympics Twitter account described part of the scene as depicting “the Greek God Dionysus“ making people “aware of the absurdity of violence between human beings.“

In a statement released Saturday, the French bishops expressed deep regret over “scenes of derision and mockery of Christianity, which we deeply deplore.”

“We thank the members of other religious denominations who have expressed their solidarity,” the statement on July 27 continued.

“This morning, we think of all Christians on all continents who have been hurt by the outrage and provocation of certain scenes.”

The bishops added: “We hope they understand that the Olympic celebration extends far beyond the ideological preferences of some artists.”

Archbishop Charles Scicluna of Malta said on X he had sent messages to the French Ambassador to Malta, expressing his “distress and great disappointment at the insult to us Christians during the opening ceremony of the Paris 2024 Olympics when a group of drag artists parodied the Last Supper of Jesus.”

The prelate, who also is a Vatican official, said he encouraged others to write the ambassador.

Bishop Andrew Cozzens, chair of the U.S. Bishops' Committee on Evangelization and Catechesis, issued a statement calling on Catholics to respond to the Paris incident with prayer and fasting.

Referencing the recent National Eucharistic Congress, Bishop Cozzens wrote, “Jesus experienced his Passion anew Friday night in Paris when his Last Supper was publicly defamed.“

“France and the entire world are saved by the love poured out through the Mass, which came to us through the Last Supper. Inspired by the many martyrs who shed their blood to witness to the truth of the Mass, we will not stand aside and quietly abide as the world mocks our greatest gift from the Lord Jesus,“ the bishop wrote.

“Rather, through our prayer and fasting, we will ask the Holy Spirit to strengthen us with the virtue of fortitude so that we may preach Christ—our Lord and Savior, truly present in the Eucharist—for the Glory of God and the Salvation of Souls.“

Bishop Robert Barron of Winona-Rochester called on Catholics to “make their voices heard” in response to what he termed “the gross mockery of the Last Supper.”

The Archbishop of Santiago de Chile, Archbishop Fernando Chomali, expressed disappointment with “the grotesque parody of the most sacred thing we Catholics have, the Eucharist,” ACI Prensa, CNA’s Spanish-language news partner, reported.

“The intolerance of the ‘tolerant’ has no limit. This is not the way to build a fraternal society. We witnessed nihilism at its maximum expression,” he added.

German Bishop Stefan Oster called the “queer Last Supper” scene “a low point and completely superfluous in the staging,” in a post by the German Bishops’ Conference.

Fray Nelson Medina, a well-known Colombian Dominican priest with a vast social media apostolate, stated that he “will not watch a single scene from the Olympic Games. How disgusting what they have done mocking the Lord Jesus Christ and his supreme gift of love. And they are cowards: they wouldn’t mess with Muhammad.”

Archbishop Peter Comensoli of Melbourne, Australia, commented on X: “I prefer the original.”

‘A minority of the left’

Javier Tebas Medrano, president of La Liga, Spain’s top professional football division, strongly condemned the Parisian drag queen scenes on social media. ACI Prensa reported that Medrano posted an image of the performance with the statement: “Unacceptable, disrespectful, infamous! Using the image of the Last Supper in the Paris Olympic Games is an insult to those of us who are Christians. Where is the respect for religious beliefs?”

Marion Maréchal, a French member of the European Parliament and granddaughter of the famous right-wing leader Jean Marie Le-Pen, addressed “all Christians who felt insulted by this drag queen parody of the Last Supper” on X, stating: “Know that it is not France that is speaking” in the inauguration “but a minority of the left ready for any provocation.”