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Post by hibernicus on Aug 23, 2010 14:53:40 GMT
I have noticed over the last few weeks several columnists on Irish newspapers making a point of boasting that they have completed the countmeout formal defection process; Roisin Ingle of the IRISH TIMES described it (including formal meeting with a priest) a couple of months ago, a few weeks ago a columnist in the SUNDAY TRIBUNE (which publishes calls for defection so regularly it should be called the SUNDAY SOUPER) announced that he had only just got round to it and regretted not having done so long since, and last week a columnist in the IRISH EXAMINER announced that she was doing so because of (a) the abuse scandals (b) she felt hypocritical about marrying in church given that she was cohabiting, never practised and had no intention of practising. I think the countmeout site is doing, and what its cheerleaders in the media are encouraging, is projecting an image of defection as "cool" and part of adolescent identity-formation, like reading HOT PRESS, drinking WKD, or going commando to the school dance. The trouble is that they're succeeding to a considerable extent.
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Post by Beinidict Ó Niaidh on Aug 23, 2010 15:08:45 GMT
Adolescent appears to be the correct word to describe the media's interest in this business.
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 26, 2010 15:37:22 GMT
Yes, the media's attitude is pretty adolescent - the trouble is that attitudes acquired in adolescence can be very hard to shake off.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Aug 31, 2010 10:16:29 GMT
Indeed. Says a lot about the quality of Church-controlled schools.
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 31, 2010 11:01:19 GMT
Says a lot about the extent to which they have lost confidence in their mission and teaching authority. When you have teachers who to a considerable extent don't believe what they profess to believe and mechanically repeat the bare minimum, their pupils will pick up on the phoniness very easily and despise it.
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Post by hibernicus on Oct 13, 2010 11:34:42 GMT
Latest news is that the Dublin archdiocese has announced that the new code of canon law does not allow for formal defection from the Church (the process as it operates in Germany, Austria etc is a state process connected to the collection of church tax by the state). The archdiocese will no longer recognise formal defections but will keep a register of people who contact them wishing to defect. Una Mullaly was complaining about this in the SUNDAY TRIBUNE a week or two ago, but now the archdiocese has gone public on it. I presume this has something to do with the indelibility of baptism and the sacraments, but I must say it does seem odd that someone who goes to the trouble of formally applying to be excommunicated should not have their request granted.
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Post by hibernicus on Oct 13, 2010 11:38:14 GMT
It may also relate to the situation in Spain, where some defectors have been trying to get the record of their baptism formally expunged.
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Post by hibernicus on Nov 8, 2010 11:53:57 GMT
Una Mullally complained in her column yesterday that while the Dublin archdiocese has now notified her that her "de facto defection" has been registered, she wants to go the whole hog and defect absolutely. I suspect this whole problem arises from the fact that the concept of "defection" was originally devised with defection to another organised denomination in mind. Someone who has themselves chrismated in an Orthodox church, baptised by immersion as a Baptist, or recites the Islamic declaration of faith in front of the prescribed witnesses clearly has "defected" from Catholicism- the problem is measuring "defections" which are not to an organised body. Is it possible to formally apply to be excommunicated?
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