Group funded by American billionaire launches complaint against Ireland’s pro-life laws

The Irish Council of Civil Liberties has launched a complaint to the Council of Europe, saying that Ireland’s refusal to legalise abortion is an obstruction to obtaining full “equality” for women. 

The ICCL is a project of Chuck Feeney, a US-based billionaire and philanthropist and one of the major forces for leftward “progressivist” change in Ireland. 
 
Pro-life advocates in Ireland say that one of their biggest problems is not the waffling of government officials, but the well-funded and highly coordinated lobbying campaigns by special interest groups, largely obscured from public view. Ironically, they say, the ICCL has highlighted these groups’ undemocratic mandate in their action to the Council of Europe. 

In its complaint the ICCL says that the Irish public and government are “resistant” to abortion legalisation, something pro-life groups have said is an indication of the ICCL’s contempt for the democratic process.

“The ICCL … operate pretty much independently of the Irish people, and if their funding sources are anything to go by, are answerable only to Chuck Feeney,” Niamh Uí Bhriain of the Life Institute said.

The ICCL issued a complaint in early October to the Minister of State with Special Responsibility for European Affairs, Lucinda Creighton TD, criticising the “political intransigence” of the Irish government in refusing to overturn the country’s constitutional protections for the unborn in response to the 2010 ruling by the European Court of Human Rights on the A, B and C case. 

An ICCL press release October 5th reveals the particularly anti-Catholic nature of the complaint, accusing Seán Brady, the Cardinal Primate of Ireland, of launching a “political campaign on this issue by the Church,” implying that Catholic priests and laity have no right to voice their objections to abortion. 

ICCL complained that Brady told the Dáil Deputies and Ministers that bishops and priests are ready to lobby the government should there be any attempt to legalise abortion.

“We wish the Committee of Ministers to be fully aware of the background of religious conservatism and political intransigence into which the report of the expert group on the implementation of this important judgment will be released,” ICCL Director Mark Kelly said. 

The ICCL’s submission is part of a larger coordinated project by various groups to try to force the government to interpret the ECHR ruling as a demand for abortion legalisation, an interpretation the court itself denied. 

The Irish Family Planning Association (IFPA) made a similar complaint to the Council of Europe. The IFPA is the same abortion advocacy agency that launched the ABC case to the ECHR, and is currently under investigation by Health Service Executive officials and police for allegedly giving dangerous and illegal abortion-related advice to pregnant women.

The ICCL complaint is a good sign for the pro-life side, however, said Uí Bhriain, and indicates that abortion campaigners are now “desperately appealing to every outside agency possible because they had failed to win the support of the Irish people, and feared that the political parties were becoming increasingly cautious of approaching the abortion issue.”

A facet of the pro-life fight that is not widely understood by the general public is the role of a small cadre of hard-left billionaires, sometimes called “champagne Socialists,” of whom Chuck Feeney, a dual American and Irish citizen, is a modest member. His Atlantic Philanthropies, to which he has transferred the bulk of his fortune, makes the abortionist and homosexualist agendas, particularly in the Irish Republic, a major interest. 

Founded in 1976 by, among others, the pro-abortion former Irish President Mary Robinson, ICCL boasts on its website of having influenced the Irish government to legalise divorce, “secure more effective protection of children’s rights,” decriminalise homosexual activity and introduce “enhanced equality legislation”. 

ICCL is a Feeney project, funded through Atlantic Philanthropies to the tune of US $7,727,700 since 2001. 

Discovering Atlantic Philanthropies and Feeney’s political agenda in Ireland is not difficult. 

The organisation issued a press release in July this year congratulating the grantee group the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN) for having successfully installed homosexual civil partnership legislation, and saying the “next stop” is “civil marriage”. 

GLEN has been supported by Atlantic Philanthropies for US $4,727,860 since 2005.

Lauded by academia and often plied with honourary doctorates, feted by the media who support their agenda, wealthy elites like Feeney have used their position and wealth to push for a radical re-ordering of the western world. 

Names like Maurice Strong, George Soros, and Warren Buffett are not often mentioned in news reports, but one of the major areas of their interest is furthering the population control efforts that were officially launched by the US government, at the instigation of Henry Kissinger in the 1970s. 

Better known among this group are names such as Ted Turner, Bill and Melinda Gates, the Ford Foundation and Hewlett-Packard.

Schools plan will end in formalised apartheid (Opinion)

The Minister’s approach to primary school patronage is inimical to the idea of a republic, and will be disastrous.

DON’T LAUGH, but suppose for a moment we were actually in the business of building a new republic from scratch. What’s the first thing you’d put down on the “to do” list?

Is it not this rather obvious idea: educate all your children together. 

A republic starts with the basic idea that citizens of all faiths and none share a common public life and civic values.

It’s hardly radical to think that these things should be learned from the moment children enter into a formal relationship with the public world – in the primary school system. 

Or that the most powerful way in which they learn them is by actually being together.

This is why Ruairí Quinn’s approach to the question of the patronage of primary schools is so disastrous. At one level, he deserves credit for at least acknowledging a problem that has been ignored by pusillanimous politicians for decades.

The cowardice of his predecessors has left us with a huge mismatch between, on the one hand, a population whose religious and spiritual beliefs are increasingly diverse and, on the other, a primary school system that has remained remarkably static, with 90 per cent of schools still under the patronage of the Catholic Church.

We now have nearly 15,000 primary school-age children who are atheists, agnostics or have no religion; 8,300 Muslim children in the same age group and thousands more who belong to religions that had a minimal presence in Ireland even a decade ago – Orthodox, Lutheran, Pentecostal and Apostolic Christians, Hindus, Buddhists, pantheists and Baha’i.

Because many of these faith groups are younger than the general population, the likelihood is that we will, over the next decade, have about 30,000 primary school children who are not members of the traditionally recognised churches. And this does not include those who are members of the latter but whose parents would prefer them to be educated in schools outside of church control.

It is depressing to live in a country where the mere recognition of such an obvious reality constitutes political courage, but at least Ruairí Quinn has not continued the disgraceful tradition of denial.

If we had an infinite amount of money, we could, in theory, build and staff more and more schools to cater for this diversity in a largely unchanged system. 

But we already have a very high number of primary schools per head of population and, of course, we don’t have money to throw at the problem.

Instead, we have an opportunity to ask ourselves a basic question: what kind of primary education system is best for a diverse 21st-century republic? 

But this isn’t just a question about education – schools are at the heart of their communities and the way we think about them is part of the way we think about democracy.

Ruairí Quinn, though, seems not to be thinking about democracy at all. His strategy has two parts. The first consists of doing nothing much for 1,700 schools that are the only ones in their area.

If you live in a rural area with just one primary school – tough. There will be nice talk about respect and diversity but the bottom line is that children from non-Catholic families will still have to attend schools where the Catholic ethos is pervasive and where all teachers must at least pretend to be practising Catholics.

All members of the boards of management will still be required by the deeds of trust to “manage the school in accordance with the doctrines, practices and traditions of the Roman Catholic Church” and to “make and keep themselves familiar with the ethos of the Roman Catholic Church” – active and explicit discrimination against non-Catholic parents who will still be in effect debarred from serving on boards of management. 

Ruairí Quinn has made it plain that for these schools “transfer of patronage is not an option”.

The assumption, apparently, is that rural parents are all happy with the existing regime. But a survey by the conservative Iona Institute found “very little difference” between rural and urban parents in this regard, with a slight majority favouring schools that teach either all religions or none over “a Catholic school”.

The second part of Ruairí Quinn’s strategy is for town folk, who are deemed fit to make a choice: surveys of parents of school-age children to determine whether they would like their schools to be denominational, interdenominational or multi-denominational.

This is very timid: as the advisory group on patronage put it, if the process “resulted in one school being transferred [from church control] in each of the areas selected, this would amount to less than 50 schools, out of a total of 3,169 primary schools”.

But the long-term result of the strategy would, in any case, be a formalised apartheid, with children roughly sorted into different faith groups.

Everything about this strategy is inimical to the idea of a republic.

It discriminates openly between people in rural and urban areas and envisages a future in which children are segregated from the age of four. 

Are these really the lessons we have learned from conflict and collapse?

Leader of pro-choice Catholic group clashes with bishops

Jon O’Brien says he’s a good Catholic.

Though his leadership of the group “Catholics for Choice” puts him in clear opposition to Church positions on contraception and reproduction, “I believe in the totality of Catholic teaching, and that includes the right to dissent and freedom of conscience,” he said.

“I’m a real traditionalist,” he adds, with a hint of the subversive humor prevalent in his hometown of Dublin, Ireland.

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops disagrees.

“Catholics for Choice is not a Catholic organization. It never has been and was established to oppose the Catholic position on abortion,” Sister Mary Ann Walsh said in an email from the conference.

National Right to Life has called Catholics for Choice “militantly pro-abortion.”

Catholics for Choice was founded in 1973 by three Catholic women responding to opposition to the Roe v. Wade case that legalized abortion. It has clashed for nearly 40 years with the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, which says the group is funded by “powerful and wealthy private foundations ... to promote abortion as a method of population control.”

Not so, according to Catholics for Choice, which operates on a $3 million annual budget. It describes itself as pro-choice — that is, that people should be able to choose to have as many, or as few, children as they want. 

“The Catholic hierarchy’s ban on contraception and abortion has a disastrous impact on women’s lives,” according to the CFC.

The group drew attention in 1984. 

Abortion was an exceptionally hot-button issue in the presidential campaign, especially because of the views of abortion-rights supporter Geraldine Ferraro — the Democratic candidate for vice president, and the first woman from a major party on the nation’s top ticket. Catholics for Choice took out an ad in the New York Times signed by Catholic theologians and clergy, saying committed Catholics had “a diversity of opinions” on abortion. 

O’Brien, 46, who has headed Catholics for Choice since 2007, is in town to accept an award from an abortion-rights group, Personal PAC.

“We’ve seen here in Illinois, even, bishops comparing the president to Stalin and Hitler;” he said, “condemning a Catholic governor for celebrating the bravery of a rape survivor in Chicago.”

O’Brien was speaking of two local controversies.

In a homily last April, Peoria Bishop Daniel Jenky linked Hitler and Stalin and President Barack Obama’s health care mandate. The plan has drawn strong opposition from Catholic and other faith-based institutions that say it infringes on their religious beliefs by requiring them to cover birth control.

In the U.S., “you’re granted freedom of religion and freedom from religion,” O’Brien said. 

“You can’t have one religion discriminating against other folk.”

Last year, Illinois bishops slammed Gov. Pat Quinn for his participation in a Personal PAC event. 

After it was revealed Quinn was presenting an award to a rape survivor — and the woman charged the bishops with insensitivity — Cardinal Francis George said he had not been given all the facts by the Catholic Conference of Illinois before he spoke against Quinn.

“The church is actually all of the people,” O’Brien said. “The bishops are part of it, but they’re not the church. We are all the church. Our position is people should be able to follow their consciences.”

He rejects the notion that so-called “cafeteria Catholics” — who pick and choose which official stances of their faith they accept — are not real Catholics.

“What makes you a Catholic,” he says, “is your Baptism.”

O’Brien’s life is intertwined with the gradual dilution of the Church’s power in overwhelmingly Roman Catholic Ireland, and the continuing battle between anti-abortion and abortion-rights supporters in America.

He previously worked at the Irish Family Planning Association. 

In the early 1990s, the organization was fined for selling condoms. “We got a call, that ‘the boys’ were very concerned about what was happening, and they wanted to help out,” O’Brien said.

“‘The Boys’ turned out to be U2,” he said. 

The rockers paid the fines. 

A watershed event occurred in 1992, when an Irish court prohibited a 14-year-old rape victim from traveling to England to get an abortion. 

The decision roiled Ireland. 

A higher court cleared the way for the termination, saying the girl had become suicidal and her life was in danger.

“If you grow up in a country where contraception was seriously restricted, abortion is illegal, and people couldn’t get divorced — the litany of personal rights taken away was unbelievable,” O’Brien said.

Priests call on hierarchy to help save Church from 'effective collapse'

The Association of Catholic Priests has called for all groups within the Irish church to join in planning how to save it from "effective collapse" in 20 years' time.

The ACP has asked the hierarchy to join priests and lay-people to discuss the future of the church in light of the decline in the number of priests.

It has called for the reality of the situation to be communicated to Rome and for space to be created at parish, diocesan and national level for discussion of the crisis.

Primate of All Ireland Seán Brady has been told that clerical gatherings are often characterised by dejection, depression and, sometimes, almost despair.

The ACP said there is energy, vibrancy and enthusiasm when lay-people attend assemblies with clergy.

It is disappointed that its request for a meeting with the Bishops' Conference on the crisis has been turned down.

It accepts Pope Benedict's call for the "renewal" of the church in Ireland and his emphasis on the opportunities offered by the upcoming "Year of Faith".

Last week, the hierarchy responded that bishops' engagement with the ACP would best take place at local level by using established structures such as the Councils of Priests.

1st Native American saint stirs pride, skepticism

Some traditional Mohawks are treating the naming of the nation's first Native American saint with skepticism and fear that the Roman Catholic Church is using it to shore up its image and marginalize traditional spiritual practices.
 
They see the story of Kateri Tekakwitha as yet another reminder of colonial atrocities and religious oppression.

"I was a recipient of these historical profanities and want to ensure this does not happen again," said Doug George-Kanentiio, a Mohawk writer who left Catholicism to follow traditional longhouse spiritual practices.

The daughter of a Mohawk chief and a Catholic Algonquin woman, Kateri was born in 1656 about 40 miles northwest of Albany and in the heart of the Iroquois Confederacy to which the Mohawks belong. She was orphaned at age 4 when smallpox wiped out her family and much of her village and left her blinded and disfigured.

A Catholic convert at 20, she settled in Kahnawake, a Mohawk settlement south of Montreal where Jesuits had a mission and where she and other women performed mortification rituals such as self-flogging as part of their faith. 

At her death at the age of 24, Kateri's smallpox scars reportedly vanished and later she was reported to appear before several people. She is buried at a shrine on Kahnawake.

Speaking in English and French at her canonization last Sunday week, Pope Benedict XVI noted how unusual it was in Kateri's culture for her to choose to devote herself to her Catholic faith.

"She's seen very much as a bridge" between native culture and Christianity, said the Rev. Jim Martin, a Jesuit priest. He said the Jesuit missionaries "took great pains to learn the native languages and tried their best to present the Christian faith using words, phrases and ideas from the native cultures."

Traditional Mohawks recognize the reverence their Catholic relatives and friends have for Kateri, said Chaz Kader, a Mohawk journalist who was raised Catholic but follows ancient longhouse traditions now. 

But many remain troubled by how the church portrays her life.

The story of Kateri told in various church writings describes her as maintaining her faith despite torment by her people, suffering ostracism and persecution at the hands of her own tribe and eventually fleeing to Canada.

"I disagree with the characterizations of the `other Mohawks' in the Jesuit accounts of Kateri," Kader said. "The contrast of good Mohawks and bad Mohawks still is affecting our people."

Traditional Mohawks have struggled to keep their spiritual traditions and ancient language alive despite pressure from non-Indians to adopt European religion, culture and language.

These traditionalists have established Mohawk language-immersion schools and follow a clan-based government separate from the elected tribal government recognized by the U.S., Canada and New York state. 

To outsiders, they are associated with an image of "bad Mohawks" who smuggle goods across the border and refuse to collect state taxes on cigarette sales, Kader said, and the "good Mohawks" are the ones who "went to Rome to celebrate Kateri," he added.

It's difficult to gauge just how widespread the feelings are given the factionalism that pervades the nation and the circumspection they favor when dealing with the media. 

But many Mohawks interviewed downplayed any controversy and joined Catholics who see Kateri as a uniting figure and hope her elevation to sainthood will help heal old wounds.

"It's so nice to see God showing all the flavors of the world," said Gene Caldwell, a Native American member of the Menominee reservation in Neopit, Wis., who attended Kateri's canonization with his wife, Linda. "The Native Americans are enthralled" to have Kateri attain sainthood, he said.

Russell Roundpoint, director of the Mohawk history and cultural center at Akwesasne, said her sainthood is "not a contentious issue by any stretch of the imagination.

"The Mohawk people are very proud of the fact that she has attained such a high level," he said.

Sister Jennifer Votraw is director of communications for the Ogdensburg Diocese in northern New York, where the Mohawk reservation is located. 

While the diocese doesn't provide direct pastoral care to the Mohawks, Votraw belongs to the order the Sisters of St. Joseph, nuns who regularly aid the priests who minister to the tribe. 

She said years of successful interactions between the church and the tribe demonstrate a mutual respect for each other.

Still, she knows there are traditional Mohawks who will never be swayed in their view of the church and may resent Kateri's canonization as a ploy to improve the church's image among Native Americans.

"They believe very firmly in their religion, which is Mohawk," she said. "You just have to respect that."

Orenda Boucher, a Mohawk humanities professor at Kiana Institution, a Native American college near Montreal, said there are "mixed feelings" and no easy answer to the question of what Kateri represents to Mohawks or the rest of the world.

"A lot of my friends who are traditionalists see Kateri as tied into the story of colonization that has deeply affected Kahnawake, and to the atrocities of the church," she said.

Boucher said to understand the complexities of Kateri's life, it's important for people to look beyond the biographies written by clergymen who focus on what they consider her Christian virtues.

George-Kanentiio said traditional Iroquois worry that Kateri's sainthood could be used as way to encourage Native Americans to eschew their ancestral values for Catholic dogma.

"It should never obscure the best elements of our aboriginal spirituality, nor should Kateri's personal behaviors, given their extremities, be endorsed as a model for women anywhere," he said, referring to her self-mutilation with whips, thorns and hot coals.

"Women in particular need not kneel in supplication to any man or any god but to rise to dance and sing in true joy," he said. "We can never accept any institution which actively suppresses women or qualifies their potential."

Church sex abuse exposé creates Oscar buzz

Alex Gibney, an award-winning documentary maker whose work has focussed on Lance Armstrong, Julian Assange, and Enron, has found his most contentious topic yet.

His Oscar-touted exposé, Mea Maxima Culpa: Silence in the House of God, traces a sex-abuse scandal from a Milwaukee Catholic church to the Vatican.

Gibney also shot parts of the film in Ireland and Italy and received €50,000 from the Irish Film Board. The movie was banned by the Venice and Rome film festivals this year.

According to the New York Post, Gibney said of its rejection: "I was disappointed. The Vatican exerts a very strong influence in Italy. There is a palpable sense of fear there. This film takes on the Vatican’s complicity [in covering it up]."

The film won the best documentary prize at the London Film Festival last week.

It was co-produced by Belfast’s Below the Radar production company, and is in cinemas in the US from Nov 16.

It follows the story of Fr Lawrence Murphy at the St John’s School for the Deaf in Wisconsin, who molested 200 pupils for 24 years. He was never disciplined, even after his actions were brought to the attention of the Vatican. Instead, he was moved to other schools.

"The direct connection of the Vatican to this sheds light on the way they’ve shoved this stuff under the carpet," said Gibney, who discovered a similar scandal involving deaf students in Verona in Italy while making the film.

Five students are interviewed in the film, and, as they use sign language, their words are voiced by actors.

Gibney said: "We play with the idea of silence in this film. How could this predatory behaviour exist with people so helpless?

"With the priests in Italy... there is very little sympathy for victims.

"Instead, there’s this resentment that people would attack the Church. What else is in this huge cache of documents in the secret Vatican archives that has been compiled for centuries?"

Vatican curators cast an eye on Sistine Chapel ceiling

ON October 31, 1512, the "Warrior Pope" Julius II, intent on restoring the glories of Rome, held a simple vespers prayer service for 17 cardinals to mark the completion of Michelangelo's Sistine Chapel ceiling.
 
Michelangelo's masterpiece, one of the great marvels of human achievement, is 500 years old this week. 

The Pope commemorated the half-millennium on Wednesday by repeating Julius II's vespers service beneath the magnificent 40m ceiling.

The anniversary comes amid renewed controversy over the overcrowding of the chapel, now visited by five million tourists a year. At peak season, as many as 25,000 sweaty, dusty people troop through the sacred space, posing a risk to the art they have come to see. 

The number has doubled in the past 20 years and new arrivals from Asia are sure to push attendances even higher.

"After 500 years, it's doing quite well. We want to make sure it remains in good condition for another 500 years," Antonio Paolucci, the director of the Vatican Museums and the man responsible for the chapel's preservation, said beneath the frescoes. 

"People bring dust, humidity and temperature and that mix can be a danger for the frescoes."

 

The chapel is the sacred venue of one of the most important functions in the Catholic Church: the conclave of cardinals to pick a new pope. 

 

Adjacent to the Apostolic Palace, it was modified by architect Baccio Pontelli from 1477 to 1481 to give it the dimensions of the lost Temple of Jerusalem.

In 1481, Pope Sixtus IV commissioned frescoes from the Tuscan and Umbrian artists Botticelli, Perugino, Ghirlandaio and Rosselli. 

But their work was overshadowed by the masterpiece commissioned by Julius II in 1508 from the 33-year-old Michelangelo. His centrepiece, The Creation of Adam, with God stretching out his finger to give life to Adam, is an iconic image.

Controversy over the flood of tourists broke out again last month when Pietro Citati, a leading Italian literary critic and biographer, protested about the "drunken herds", in the newspaper Corriere della Sera. 

"The church needs money for its various activities, but these monstrous conditions are not possible," the writer complained.

Former Italian culture minister Mr Paolucci hit back with an article in L'Osservatore Romano, the official Vatican newspaper, arguing that restricting numbers would deny visitors the chance to enjoy the church's historic culture.

The Vatican is working to install a new climate control system by the end of next year that can filter out dust and humidity to protect the frescoes. 

"If it does not work, we will have to resort to limiting numbers," Mr Paolucci said.

He said it was impossible to envision that, if the tourism doubles again in the next 20 years, there will be 10 million visitors to the chapel.

How the Benedictine Nuns have run Kylemore Abbey for the past 100 years - despite all the odds

They say that when you’re in Kylemore you are only two feet from heaven, and given the beauty one finds all around there, it could well be true. 

Kylemore Abbey, home to the Benedictine nuns, is one of the most beautiful places in Ireland. 

Surrounded by some 3,000 acres of woodland and lakes, the impressive Kylemore Castle sits at the base of a mountain, majestic, and in serene splendour. 

 This has been the home to the Benedictine nuns since 1920 when they fled for safety from Ypres, Belgium, during the First World War, their monastery there having been bombed by the Germans.

The nuns came to Ireland for safety, living in Wexford initially while trying to source a permanent place to live. When Kylemore came on the market it was acquired on behalf of the nuns who have cared for it since. 

In more recent times, regretfully, the famous international school was closed due to dwindling numbers and higher costs. With the recent appointment of a new Mother Abbess, plans are being finalised for the future.

Mother Marie Hickey OSB, the Mother Abbess, has outlined her plans for the future of the monastery in preparation for the centenary celebrations of the arrival of the nuns to Connemara. 

Some of the priorities of the development plan include a complete interior reconfiguration of the Castle itself in order to bring it and its facilities into the 21st century. New wiring, plumbing, and upgrades, are essential and necessary in order to facilitate the students of the future. 

Plans are also being prepared for an education centre which offers residential accommodation and a varied programme of education and training opportunities. 

Many Catholic universities around the world, and particularly from the United States, have expressed an interest in sending students to Kylemore in order to significantly enhance their education. Another important part of the development plan is to build a new “fit for purpose” monastery that is more appropriate to the monastic life of prayer and work. 

This new monastery will be able to cater for and facilitate up to 40 nuns, with en-suite bedrooms, day rooms, chapel, and monastic choir, there will be facilities for guests and for the soon to be founded Benedictine Oblates who will expand the Benedictine family in the area. New Community enterprises will be initiated to give local employment in energy, crafts, food, forestry, and tourism. 

These new developments will build on the already successful projects undertaking by the nuns, including the restoration of the Victorian Walled Gardens which won the prestigious European “Europa Nostra” award in 2002. 

Other successful projects include the extensive restoration of the Neo Gothic church, a miniature of Chichester Cathedral which Henry Mitchell, the original owner, had built for his wife. 

The Craft Centre and Tea Rooms-Restaurant has always been very successful and have catered well for the some 250,000 tourists who visit Kylemore every year. 

Mother Marie Hickey would also like to see a new Monastic church built which would have easy access for visitors. 

Currently the present chapel is difficult to access and there are a lot of stairs to walk up in order to find it. 

The proposed new church would make it easier for visitors to visit, and to spend some quite time in prayer and adoration, and when appropriate participating in the liturgy and the Holy Sacrifice of the mass. 

Another area that is planned is a hospitality centre, where tourists can be orientated and can meet one another in fraternity.

Kylemore Abbey plans to have these multimillion euro developments completed by 2020 when it becomes a centre of excellence in learning through education and catechesis. 

Inquiries about new vocations to the monastic life have been received and are being processed, with the first of the new aspirants due to enter shortly. 

 For further information on Kylemore Abbey for vocations and donations for the new development visit www.kylemoreabbey.com or email info@kylemoreabbey.ie.

Priests recharge batteries in advance of Christmas schedule

The Priests, the music group phenomenon of three singing priests from Northern Ireland, is recharging its batteries while the priests themselves are ministering in their parishes in advance of a hectic Christmas schedule.

Fr Eugene O’Hagan his brother Fr Martin O'Hagan and Fr David Delargy have been singing together since they were boarders together at St MacNissi's College in County Antrim, and exploded onto the music scene in 2008 when they were signed up by Sony BMG and produced an album that sold millions.

Speaking to ciNews, Fr Martin O’Hagan said that 2012 had been a good year for them including a tour in the United States that attracted, “good crowds.”  

“We are still on a big learning curve,” he added.

Unlike other famous groups, The Priests has a clause in its contract that allows the group to return to minister to their parishes for large chunks of the year.  

But is this very difficult?  

According to Fr O’Hagan it is a question of “constant juggling.” 

“We plan things well in advance.”  

He added that his colleagues were very supportive.  

“We rely on them heavily.”

Currently Fr Martin O’Hagan is parish priest to the parish of Newtownards, while his brother Eugene is parish priest / administrator of the rural parish of Ballyclare and Ballygowan.  

Fr David Delargy is parish priest in the rural parish of Hannahstown, west of Belfast in County Antrim.

Fr Martin O’Hagan said that the men enjoy both their time performing and the time back home when they, “recharge our batteries.” 

“It is a wonderful gift to have the opportunity to lift peoples’ hearts.  They need to go out [after the concerts] with a lift in their step,” he says.  

Their music is a mixture of, “the operatic, the secular and the sacred,” says Fr Martin, and they are not at all singing just to one, “particular constituency.”

The Priests sold 2 million copies of the debut album worldwide and produced the fastest selling classical debut album of all time.  

The rise to global stardom has been well documented in features in Time Magazine and the Washington Post and the group has appeared in TV shows across the world with artists from Tom Jones to The Killers including the BBC’s Jonathan Ross Show and the News at Ten with Sir Trevor MacDonald.

But is it difficult to reconcile this fame, with their vocation to be priests?  

“No it blends with the vocation God has given us,” Fr Martin insists.  “We can use music to reveal faith in a quiet way.  We are not on a crusade.  Everyone can enjoy the secular side of our concert.”

The Priests will be playing in the Metropolitan Cathedral in Liverpool, raising money for Jospice (a charity supporting terminally ill people) on November 16.  

On November 30, they will perform in Guernsey.  

In December they have big concerts lined up in Dublin (December 3 in the National Concert Hall), Toronto, Canada (December 6), Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada (December 7) and in Derry and Belfast (December 21 and 22 respectively).

Value people more than money and materials - bishop

The Bishop of Hereford has asked people to think about who and what they value most in the light of recent headlines.

Responding to the abduction of April Jones and reports of large scale abuse by Jimmy Savile, Bishop Anthony Priddis said the terrible headlines underlined the need for people to love and care for each other, particularly the young.

"So often we can give the impression that money or material things or fame come first, rather than people," he said.

"Few of us really believe that, but we can easily live as though that appears to be the case."

He urged people to put others first and do everything they can to let them know how valued and loved they are.

"This is the responsibility and joy for all of us as parents and grandparents, but it needs us also to care for those not just in our own families but among our friends and wider community," the bishop said.

He added: "There is no risk free society or risk free living. There are no perfect lives lived by you and me. We all need to let these tragic stories about children and young people help strengthen our loving concern for them and one another."

First book on Vatileaks affair is out

Vatican news correspondent, Enzo Romeo, has just published a book analysing the tensions in the Holy See over the past two years. The text reveals the involvement of a Vatican policeman in the Vatileaks inquiry.

“It does make one wonder what poison pen letter writers, moles and all this poison have to do with the announcement of Christ’s message, which should be the Church’s only priority. Nothing in theory…But money, power, scandals and gossip – even wars – are part of human history and the Church is immersed in this history…The Church must live with the failures which are a reminder that we need to constantly convert to the Gospel. It will also have to take recent events as a lesson and speed up that renewal which is vital if the Church is to engage in a dialogue with modern man and ensure that he does not forget the transcendental realm.”

These opening words are the key to reading “Guerre Vaticane” (“Vatican Wars” - Rubettino publishers, pp. 272, 13 Euros), the book written by Enzo Romeo, Vatican correspondent and editor-in-chief of Tg2’s world news section (Tg2 is Italian television channel Rai 2’s news programme, Ed.).

The book is the first attempt to analyse what has been going on in the Roman Curia over the past two years. What is interesting about Romeo’s book is that it gives a comprehensive interpretation of events, a “war” characterised by blows and counter-blows, anonymous letters and an unscrupulous use of the media, which caused clashes between various networks and groups.

One of the revelations the book makes is the involvement of a Vatican policeman in the inquiry into the leaked confidential documents. It is likely that the policeman had some kind of contact with the Pope’s self-confessed former butler who has now been sentenced to a year and a half in prison for the theft of secret documents from the papal apartment and for photocopying and sending them to Italian writer, Gianluigi Nuzzi. 

The policeman was initially suspended from service as a precaution and had no direct involvement in Gabriele’s trial.  He may do in the brief and less important trial against Vatican Secretariat of State computer technician, Claudio Sciarpelletti, on 5 November. However, it is likely Vatican investigators have not found enough evidence against him and this is probably the reason why his involvement has so far been kept secret.
 

The book’s real value lies in the fact that the “Paoletto” affair is presented within the context of a number of other events which may not be linked to the Paolo Gabriele case from a judicial point of view, but they formed the breeding ground for the Vatileaks scandal. 

Although the former papal butler’s sentence established that there were no accomplices or instigators involved, to believe that “Paoletto” was the only bad apple in a basket full of shiny, healthy apples, is simply not realistic. 

Romeo’s book included chapters on the Boffo case (which could be considered the opening chapter of the “Vatican wars”); the case of the Vatican Secretary of State, Carlo Maria Viganò; the saga surrounding the Toniolo Institute, the “safe” of Rome’s Catholic University of the Sacred Heart which caused a clash between the Vatican Secretary of State, Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone and the then Archbishop of Milan, Dionigi Tettamanzi; the Vatican bank scandal and the abrupt dismissal of its president, Ettore Gotti Tedeschi.

Romeo’s book presents readers with the facts, without bombarding them with interpretations. It shows that the explanations given by those who see Vatileaks only as the consequence of a clash between the “old diplomatic guard” and the “new guard” represented by Bertone and his men are inadequate. Just as inadequate are the theories which see events as a result of internal jealousies and resentment against Benedict XVI’s German entourage. 

Or as the result of a targeted attack against the Pope by individuals both inside and outside the Vatican who want to remove Benedict XVI from the helm of the Catholic Church. All these elements undoubtedly contributed to the Vatileaks scandal but they are not enough to explain the complete picture, which yet again reveals unresolved governance issues. 

“A lack of coordination has been one of the problems that has surfaced in the Roman Curia in recent years; a Curia marked by too much chaos and discord.”


In “Guerre Vaticane”, Romeo quotes a speech Ratzinger addressed to youth of the Pontifical Roman Major Seminary in 2009: “Instead of trying to enter into communion with Christ through the Body of Christ which is the Church, each person wants to be superior to others and in their intellectual arrogance they try to make others believe they are better. This gives rise to destructive controversies which makes a caricature of the Church, when it should be united and beat as one heart.” 

These words go hand in hand with Bishop Tonino Bello’s opening prayer at the start of the book: “Save me from the presumption that I know everything, from the arrogance of those who do not accept questions; from the toughness of those who do not tolerate delays; from the rigidity of those who do not forgive weaknesses; from the hypocrisy of those who safeguard principles and kill people.”

Syria: Abducted Orthodox priest found dead

The lifeless body of a Syrian Orthodox priest was found north of the city of Damascus, not far from the place where he had been abducted in recent days by an unidentified armed group. 

The news was reported by residents of Qatana, a northern suburb of Damascus. Fr. Fadi Haddad was parish priest of Church of Saint Elias in Qatana.
 
Qatana’s inhabitants had reported the priest’s disappearance in recent days, accusing loyalist forces in the area and around the residential centre of abducting him, making the crime look as though it was committed by Muslim fundamentalists and “sparking a civil war among the local community.”
 
Other sources closet o the government in Damascus pointed the finger at armed groups who were close to the anti-regime rebels who had asked for a ransom in exchange for the release of Fr. Haddad. 

A statement released by Qatana residents who support the anti-regime revolt read: “We condemn this horrible criminal act committed by Assad's gangs who are not stopping in front of anything sacred.”
 
According to sources of Vatican news agency Fides, the abductors had asked the priest’s family and his church for a ransom of 50 million Syrian pounds (over 550 thousand Euros). 

This exorbitant sum, however, could not be gathered. 

One of Fides’ sources criticised “the terrible practice, present for months in this dirty war, of kidnapping and then killing innocent civilians."
 
The Greek Orthodox community is the largest of the various Christian communities present in Syria (it has about 500 thousand faithful) and is concentrated mainly in the western part of the country and in Damascus.

Cardinal Filoni: It’s time for a new high level Commission on China-Holy See relations

It’s time for China and the Holy See “to think of a new way for dialogue.” And they could benefit from a bilateral “high level” Commission for dealing with “questions of mutual interest.” 

The proposal is worth being taken seriously given where it has come from and the suggestions it makes. 

The man responsible for preparing it is Cardinal Fernando Filoni, Prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of People, the Vatican dicastery which is in charge of all of China’s ecclesiastical districts.

In a brief essay published by Hong Kong-based Catholic quarterly Tripod (which Fides news reported on in the West), the cardinal, taking his cue from the five years that passed since Benedict XVI sent a letter to Chinese Catholics (June 2007) to try to trigger a shift in the tense relations between the Holy See and China. Relations between the two are currently deadlocked.

The Prefect of Propaganda Fide recreated the context in which the papal letter from 2007 was written and the expectations it sparked for the present and future of Chinese Catholicism.  After years of study – the cardinal said – “After years of study, the Holy See clearly perceived that as a whole, the Church in China was never schismatic.”  

But the Vatican was hurt by internal conflicts between those who rejected the political control the Party exercised over ecclesial dynamics and those who adapted to it for existential reasons. These wounds were deepened by persistent interference from the regime in the Church life.

The main objective of the papal letter of 2007 was “to provide an orientation regarding the life of the Church and the work of evangelization in China.” But his Eminence explained that given the circumstances, the intention to foster ecclesial reconciliation involved opening dialogue channels between the Holy See and the upper echelons of Chinese political power. 

Hence, Benedict XVI’s letter to the Chinese Church “opens with the clear and public declaration that the Holy See is open to a respectful and constructive dialogue with the Beijing Authorities.” This active openness has so far not been reciprocated as rightfully expected.
 
These five years have been marked by highs and lows, Cardinal Filoni admitted. After what seemed like a promising phase – with frequent contact being made privately between Vatican officials and Beijing officials – the path has been obstructed yet again by a number of stumbling points. 

For example, the National Assembly of Chinese Catholics in 2010, which “sharpened the control of the State over the Church.” Rigorous control over the appointment of Bishops has led to the choice of controversial candidates, who were both morally and pastorally unacceptable, yet acceptable to the political authorities.” 

Not to mention the forced participation of illegitimate bishops in Episcopal ordination rites, which triggered “a dramatic crisis of conscience for both the Bishops being consecrated and those who were consecrating.” 
 
Faced with this deadlock, Cardinal Filoni has made a proposal that could change the landscape of Sino-Vatican relations: the creation of a bilateral Commission for relations between Beijing and the Holy See, similar to China and Taiwan’s stable high level commissions and to that of the “Holy See and Vietnam, [which] have found a modus operandi et progrediendi.” 

The facts themselves suggest the creation of a negotiation body  to guarantee “direct and stable contact between the two parties.” Quoting Benedict XVI’s letter to Chinese Catholics, the Prefect of Propaganda Fide, said that recent developments in the Sino-Vatican question confirm that “the solution to the current problems cannot be pursued within a state of perpetual conflict.” 

Filoni presented the papal letter as a valuable road map for dealing with and resolving the many anomalies that still exist in the Catholic world in China. The cardinal said: “After the uncertainties, doubts, fears and restrictions that slowed down its reading and comprehension, a time has now opened in which this Pontifical document can be better understood. Indeed, it can be a point of departure for a dialogue within the Church in China. It can also stimulate dialogue between the Holy See and the Government in Beijing.”
 
Cardinal Filoni’s proposal and the arguments he put forward in the text published by Fides news agency, demonstrate his informed sensitivity towards the “Chinese question”. Filoni lived in Hong Kong from 1992 to 2001 as head of the study centre (a sort of unofficial apostolic delegation) which the Holy See runs in the former British colony. 

In his essay’s opening lines, the cardinal mentions the visits he paid to Beijing during that period and how he “was struck by the economic development of the country.” Given his profile and skill set the Prefect of Propaganda Fide looks destined to play a key role in the future management of the delicate Sino-Vatican dossier. 

After his proposal for the revival of dialogue – which was announced just days before the Communist Party’s Congress which will set out the direction to be taken by China’s political leadership – frank and concrete answers are also now expected from beyond the Great Wall.

Germany: Who is behind pseudo-Catholic website kreuz.net?

Who administers kreuz.net (cross.net) – a German website which hides behind the “Catholic news” label to spread anti-Semitic, homophobic, Holocaust revisionist and anti-Muslim propaganda? 

Set on discovering who is behind this, Berlin-based publishing house Bruno Gmünder Verlag, which publishes books and magazines for homosexuals, is offering a reward of 15.000 Euro to whoever is able to provide information that can help reveal the website’s anonymous administrators. 

The publishing house has also written to the German Bishops’ Conference, urging it to back the initiative and raise the reward sum.

Kreuz.net, which been online since 2004 and is hosted on an American server, describes itself as “an initiative of international private Catholic groups in Europe and the U.S.  which serve the Church.” 

The German Bishops’ Conference has often tried to distance itself from the ideas expressed on the portal. According to “Stop kreuz.net” (launched by Bruno Gmünder Verlag) campaign leaders, there are strong indications that ecclesiastical staff are behind the website’s content; it is even likely some have positions high up in the Catholic Church. 

Homosexual theologian David Berger told Süddeutsche Zeitung that there is a German speaking bishop working for the website. Traces seem to lead back t Austria.
 
The website, which seems to express rather Lefebvrian ideas, even though there is no proof of a link, stands out for its ultra-conservative stance and radical rhetoric which borders on insulting: Protestants, for example, are called “Protestunten”, a word which combines “Protestanten” which means “Protestants” and “Tunte” which means “queer”/“fairy”.
 
Kreuz.net has been at the centre of criticism for years. Germany’s secret services have been keeping a close eye in it, with the same division that deals with right-wing extremism. 

The final straw was a comment published after the death of German popular television comedian, Dirk Back. 

In a piece entitled “Now burn in the eternal fire of hell”, Bach, a self-declared homosexual, was defined as a “disturbed homosexual” and a “degenerate”. 

Following that comment, the website received a number of formal complaints.