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Post by hibernicus on Apr 18, 2021 22:41:46 GMT
The current PHOENIX notes the mealy-mouthed comments of the Bishop of Achonry on pastoral responses to same-sex unions, and goes on to slate both him and Pope Francis for not going far enough. Pastoral strategy bedamned - Goldvulture and his heroine Mary McAleese want a formal change in doctrine, which they assume can and should be carried out by simple fiat and without regard to St Paul and the like. Le roi de France defend a Dieu...
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Post by hibernicus on Apr 23, 2021 21:40:27 GMT
The new PHOENIX has an item jeering at Bishop Denis Nulty of Kildare and Leighlin for referring to St Mary Magdalen as having had a dubious past. Referring to Bishop Nulty as "a theological lightweight" and "lace-loving" (the sort of innuendo to be expected from Goldvulture's religious correspondent) the commenter states that Mary Magdalen was in fact "a female apostle whose pulchritude was immortalised by artists such as Fra Bartolomeo, Bernini and Titian". This is an odd choice of examples, since the artists (especially Titian) portray Magdalen as a penitent. The identification of Magdalen with the penitent who wiped Jesus' feet with her hair and with Mary of Bethany was developed by St Gregory the Great - it is not obligatory and has never been adopted by the Eastern Churches - but it is not so obviously untrue as to be a sign of ignorance to advocate it. Of course it is not incompatible with her being a great saint, any more than St Peter's having run away and denied Jesus was incompatible with his becoming Jesus's Vicar on Earth. One revealing detail in the piece is that Brendan Butler (who happened to be listening to the broadcast Mass in which Bishop Nulty made the remark) immediately set about naming and shaming him with the assistance of We Are Church Ireland, Phyllis Zagano and the US National Catholic Reporter. I believe the Gospel has some harsh words about detractors and talebearers and those who go out of their way to judge others.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Apr 26, 2021 9:24:52 GMT
Brendan Butler seems to have a direct line to Goldvulture alright. He might have a few colleagues in We Are Church, but no more. Phyllis Zagano is embittered as her project of opening the diaconate to women hasn't materialised. A few people with lots of time on their hands
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Post by hibernicus on May 6, 2021 20:59:03 GMT
The current PHOENIX has a great deal of jeering at NI evangelicals for being so benighted as to oppose "abortion rights" and same-sex marriage, such opposition being equated by Goldvulture with their genuinely ridiculous views such as young-earth creationism. An item notes that Brendan Butler has been sending letters to the papers and the TV stations lamenting that so little coverage was given to hans Kung's death. One way of looking at this is that "liberal Catholics" were used as stalking-horses by secularists, and now find themselves discarded when the secularists decide they no longer need naive decoy-ducks. Some splits and intrigues on the Irish far-right. One of these people apparently has claimed on the media that he distorted his video of the March for Choice to discredit it. Goldvulture doesn't say which year this was (March for Choice is an annual event) and what form the supposed distortion took. For once I agree with Goldvulture, however; far-rightists, active or professing repentance, should be treated with great suspicion, especially when they ask for money.
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 16, 2021 23:07:22 GMT
In the current PHOENIX Goldvulture correctly notes, what no-one else dare point out, that the IRISH TIMES slanted its coverage of the Dublin Bay South by-election towards Ivana BAcik. Unfortunately Goldvulture also manages the considerable feat of finding something Bacik is right about (her opposition to normalising prostitution) and criticising her for it. What really stands out in the current PHOENIX, however, is a disgusting smear-job "profile" of John McGuirk of GRIPT, which goes as close as possible to calling him a fascist on the following grounds (a) Justin Barrett is a fascist and was in Youth Defence; therefore everyone who was ever in Youth Defence (as were some Gript contributors) is guilty by association, and so in turn is everyone who associates with THEM. (b) Conservatives prepare the ground for fascism by stirring up anger and despair without ever offering any concrete solutions. Unfortunately for Goldvulture, the same is true of Trots who present everyone to the right of Felix Dzerzhinsky as Nazis, Dark Greens who howl and wail that unless we close down Irish agriculture next week climate change will reduce us to puddles of melted lard by the end of the month, people whose approach to foreign affairs is to see which side the US are on and then support their enemies, and dissident or not-so-dissident republicans who claim that any official interference with their paramilitary activities means that MI5 and the PSNI are preparing Ireland for a reconquista. Where, o where might Goldvulture find a journal that promotes such politically correct fearmongers?
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 29, 2021 18:41:48 GMT
The latest PHOENIX covers the clash between SSPX-Resistance and the autism activist Fiona O'Leary, who attacked them on her blog because of their promotion of holocaust denial and anti-semitism as well as of Covid anti-vax conspiracy theories. It appears that the SSPX resistance have acquired a farmhouse near Dunmanway in West Cork, which they call a priory and use as their HQ. There are two other priests with Fr Ballini, and Fr Paul Kramer is also involved with them. Ms O'Leary's blog, which I will not link to as she is involved in a number of disputes among autism activists, refers to them as "priests" and Richard Williamson as a "bishop" in inverted commas, although they are validly ordained. www.irishexaminer.com/news/arid-40344509.html In general, however, Ms O'Leary's criticisms seem well supported by evidence - e.g an online recording of Williamson at the "priory" claiming the Jews invented Covid, start wars and manipulate the stock market, are in contact with the devil etc. This is exactly what we have come to expect from Williamson. There is also a tweet received by Ms O'Leary claiming the SSPX-Resistance are trying to recruit among Latin massgoers in St Peter and Paul's Church, Cork by posing as a "rosary group". These people should not be touched with a bargepole. Goldvulture characteristically insinuates that all EF devotees are implicated in the antics of the Williamsonites and that this justifies Pope Francis cracking down on the TLM. Of course the so-called Resistance will not be affected at all since they are in schism already. Goldvulture also sneers at "Blessed Breda O'Brien' and David Quinn for defending Latin Massgoers, and drags in Archbishop McQuaid (who was still dead the last I heard) and his association with Archbishop Lefebvre, for some reason only explicable in terms of Goldvulture's personal obsessions. The same issue of the PHOENIX btw describes an encounter between John Cooney and the late Des O'Malley in which O'Malley described Cooney as writing fiction about McQuaid and Cooney accused O'Malley of covering up McQuaid's alleged crimes.
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Post by hibernicus on Jul 29, 2021 18:46:00 GMT
I forgot to note the item in the same issue about rows within the National Party over responsibility for their debacle in the Dublin Bay South by-election, in which a great deal of money was spent on posters, activists came from all over the country and went canvassing every night, and the result was less than 200 first preferences. Apparently the deputy leader James Reynolds is being set up to take the blame, since Justin ha sempre ragione. I didn't know Reynolds had been in Youth Defence BTW, and Goldvulture uses some of his alleged verbal effusions to tar everyone who was ever in YD.
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 28, 2021 0:10:44 GMT
The current issue of the PHOENIX has a profile of Michael McGrath, the Cork FF cabinet minister and possible leadership contender, whose sneers at him include a reference to his opposition to repeal of the Pro-Life Amendment as marking him out as a blast from the past. More amusingly, it reports that various TCD student groups are trying to orchestrate a boycott of the IRISH TIMES on the grounds that it is showing itself to be "transphobic" by publishing expressions of the view that a man cannot become a woman (or vice versa) simply by saying so. Many of the strongest exponents of this view are radical feminists who until yesterday were in the vanguard of wokeness and now find themselves denounced as the second coming of Fr Denis Fahey for their reluctance to accept that men can get pregnant, rapists should be accommodated in women's prisons if they say so, and other such lunacies which are now officially described as common sense. I advise readers not to laugh, because this insanity is rapidly taking on the status of a state religion - of the persecuting variety. I suspect the IRISH TIMES will soon be found grovelling.
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Post by hibernicus on Aug 30, 2021 21:31:26 GMT
Oh, I forgot to mention that it also sneers that Kevin Myers may be "finding God" because he took part in this year's Douglas Hyde Summer School which had a number of Catholic speakers. At this rate we'll soon be told anyone who talks to a Catholic is a fascist.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Sept 14, 2021 17:40:10 GMT
I don't believe Kevin Myers ever left the Church, even if he has been critical at times. I know he has a brother who is a Rosminian priest. And I also believe he had the late Dublin auxiliary Bishop James Kavanagh as a lecturer in UCD.
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Post by hibernicus on Oct 22, 2021 21:46:50 GMT
The current PHOENIX has more on the SSPX-Resistance in Ireland, including the involvement with them of John Bruton's son Matthew (which has been covered in several newspapers). Williamson and his followers are as usual providing copious quotations on the so-called Great Jewish Conspiracy. Ireland needs this malevolent looneyism about as much as it needs the Biblical plagues of Egypt. I would recommend to them the statement that the sins of Christians are more to blame than the actions of those who crucified Jesus, because they did not know what they were doing whereas when we crucify Him with our sins we know what we are doing.
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Post by hibernicus on Oct 22, 2021 21:56:01 GMT
The Rosminian brother is not surprising, since Myers attended Ratcliffe College, the Rosminian secondary school near Leicester. The impression I get from Myers' memoirs and journalism is that he is an agnostic or atheist, who sees the world as meaningless and absurd. He may be rethinking a bit as he gets older, or he may be sinking into despair. A prayer or two might not go amiss: kevinmyers.ie/2021/08/30/confessions-of-an-idiot/kevinmyers.ie/2021/10/13/behold-our-very-own-32-county-paraguay/Incidentally, I found out recently that one of the actresses who made an exhibition of herself on Game of Thrones is a descendant of Ambrose Phillips de Lisle, the founder of Ratcliffe!
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Post by hibernicus on Nov 21, 2021 21:10:07 GMT
The current PHOENIX annual's section on clerical affairs claims that the recent scandals concerning Fr Marmion SJ and the cover-up of abuse by a sports coach at Terenure College are more examples of "the curse of McQuaid". Oddly, although the writer praises Cooney's biography of John Charles McQuaid s/he fails to note its point that John Charles had limited authority over the religious orders in Dublin and believed they should be made subordinate to the bishop. The "Curse of McQuaid" is taken to a self-defeating extent, since blaming him for everything implies there would have been no clerical abuse if someone else had become archbishop instead. There is also a long rant and jeer about the recent Armagh service on the centenary of partition, which starts from the presumption that it was a celebration rather than a commemoration/acknowledgment. A prominent "reform Catholic" - I think I can guess who - is quoted as calling it "pseudo-religious" and saying it wouldn't have happened if "Tom O Fiaich" was alive.
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Post by hibernicus on Mar 26, 2022 18:51:05 GMT
The current PHOENIX has a profile of Marian Keyes, the popular "chick lit" novelist, which contains some interesting analysis of how the IRISH TIMES promotes books produced by its columnists and cronies. It describes how Keyes propagandises for abortion in her novels, and how during the campaign to repeal the Pro-Life Amendment she publicly recalled how when living in London she kept an 'open house' for women travelling from Ireland for abortions. This is an example of how the Irish imagination has been reshaped while certain people were focussing on alleged private revelations.
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Post by Alaisdir Ua Séaghdha on Sept 13, 2022 13:03:12 GMT
This issue of The Phoenix has yet another patronising portrait of Archbishop Éamon Martin, focussing on the lack of red hat. It continues to champion the retired Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, still hasn't noticed that the current Dublin Archbishop is both a blood relative of and beneficiary of patronage from the former Maynooth president, Mgr Micheál Ledwith and still behaves as if Mary McAleese's opinion counts for something. They also quote Brendan Butler, who has never been able to see he doesn't speak for anyone other than himself. It just shows how weak the magazine is on religious affairs, though it is strong in many other areas.
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