The Winds
of Spiritual Change
It’s hard to believe the litany
of travesties that have occurred in this country at the hands of the
authorities of the Roman Tradition. I don’t think I need list them all out. The
hypocrisy, treachery, and unparalleled deceit of its leaders has left the
ground crew reeling and utterly lost as to ways to redeem themselves in the
eyes of the flock whom they were sworn to protect but whom they fed to their
sadistic and paedophilic wolves. I have, over the years, endeavoured to defend
the institution but they have made this impossible.
I have argued that the sexual
depravity that was prevalent among the servants of the Roman tradition was tied
to the general depravity of the time. When the tradition had its peak
membership, back when it was ‘fashionable’ to have a priest or nun in the
family, Ireland was a very different country. Almost one hundred years ago the
nation was still reeling from the two blows of the Great Famine and the Civil
War. In the wake of these tragedies there was virtually no education, no
industry, no money wherewith to travel, very little hope. Further, we suffered under
the rule of a spiritually blind and despotic theocracy. And if that wasn’t bad
enough, only Russia, under Stalin, had more people per capita locked up in
Psychiatric Hospitals – if they could even be called that. Abuse of this system
and within this system was endemic; to say that this system was not fit for
purpose would be something of an understatement.
The ban on contraception insured large
families, while widespread economic and intellectual poverty insured high
infant mortality rates. These large and unsustainable families were fodder for
the Roman institution. The religious orders, under Dev, established and ran the
education system. The parents of children that were noted to be bright were
often approached with a proposition: give the child to us, we’ll raise him/her,
they’ll be found, fed, clothed, and educated, they’ll have a career, and – sure
– wouldn’t it be lovely to have a priest/brother/nun in the family? Thus the
ranks swelled, and the Orders became populated mainly by ordinary folk whose
only reasons for membership was that they were a bit bright and their folks
couldn’t afford to feed them, not because the gospel illuminated their lives
and they craved to share that light with the world. Bitterness, ignorance,
depravity, spiritual blindness, a culture of violence, secrecy, and shame,
pretty much did the rest.
The image of the Roman Catholic
Church as a bastion of morality and righteousness was a branding exercise that
had almost no basis in fact. I’m not saying that there weren’t good and decent
men and women who served God and man, there most certainly were, but they were
in the minority. They might have lived and loved the gospel which would have
meant challenging the authorities and so would have been shifted to where they
‘could be of more use.’ Nuff said.
When you thus consider some of
the factors of the age you can understand how the Irish people were deluded by
their own ignorance and their childish and fanciful notions about the so-called
‘Church’. Sexual abuse of children was rife in the nation, not just amongst the
servants of Rome. Rape was permitted in marriage. A woman might have been able
to vote but she had almost no other rights. If you weren’t getting it from the
local priest, you were being beaten by a nun, and if they didn’t get you you
may have been unfortunate enough to end up in psychiatric ‘care’ where you were
guaranteed to be abused by a member of staff [non-religious], and such was the
nature of those institutions you could be imprisoned for life and without
trial, to say nothing of the corruption in our government and its collusion
with Rome. Dark days indeed!
When we look back now and see the
litany of travesties we are stunned and we are stunned because our tiny little
nation has been so profoundly transformed by industry, education, and travel. Our
culture and lives are so radically different from even our recent ancestors that
we simply cannot imagine how backward and twisted people were back then, we
cannot connect psychologically with the cultural factors that made it so. We
have held a false notion of the church in our minds and measured its
performance by the highest standards, utterly oblivious to the underlying
mundane realities. Go back in time fifty years, to a Third World country; pick a
couple of random kids from a classroom, send them off to be educated/indoctrinated,
then force
them to be priests. That’s whose been running the show; ordinary, corrupt,
weak, bitter, ignorant, depraved, spiritually blind, culturally backward,
slightly bright, average Joe’s, and when you consider things from this context
the state of affairs is not too surprising. In fairness, you’d have to say to
yourself – what else could you have expected?
But to fling the bodies of infants
and children into a pit, like they were so much human refuse, is indefensible
no matter what else was going on. The people who did this were/are monsters. A
friend, and native of Tuam, told me just the other day that, as a child, he peered
into that pit and he said he couldn’t believe his eyes, “They were just flung
there Barry. No attempt to even bury them, and do you know what else?” he said,
“Over on the other side, when the diggers were in to build the housing estate,
they pulled up loads more bones. When we were kids we used to kick the skulls
around like footballs and throw them to one another!” How fucking dark is
that?! It makes me think of the Khmer Rouge. This was known about more than
thirty years ago and was covered up but on whose authority? This shameful
policy of covering-up, paying off, or in some other manner silencing those
whose urge was to speak out makes all involved [institutions and individuals]
actually complicit in the crimes, complicit in the murder, sexual abuse,
enslavement of children and young women.
The institutions of Rome and her
servants cannot be defended. The wickedness and self serving corruption
exemplified by these authorities baffles me and my horror is amplified by the
fact that these monsters claimed to be serving the Master. Well did Jesus say, "Watch
out for false prophets. They come to you in sheep's clothing, but inwardly they
are ferocious wolves.” Matt. 7:15 How can Rome hope to escape the judgement of
the Master’s proclamation that, "If anyone causes one of these little
ones--those who believe in me--to stumble, it would be better for them to have
a large millstone hung around their neck and to be drowned in the depths of the
sea.” Matt. 18:6 NIV. For surely these wayward men have cause many to stumble
over the spectacular inconsistency between their teachings and their behaviour.
Average Joe wants nothing to do with these men or whatever they are selling.
Their guilt and shame hangs about their necks like a milestone, their
corruption will bury them.
The words Jesus spoke to the
religious authorities of his day, the Scribes and Pharisee’s, and the people are
just as valid today as they were two thousand years ago, “do not do what they
do, for they do not practice what they preach.” Matt. 23:3 NIV. One fundamental
spiritual tenet insures the collapse of this particular system of theology and
ministry, at least in Ireland, and that is, “If you try to hang on to your
life, you will lose it. But if you give up your life for my sake, you will save
it.” Luke 9:24 For what else have these guys been trying to do but stay out of
jail, save their own skins, to save their jobs, to save the ‘church’, but in so
doing they have lost everything. Given the profound spiritual ineptitude of its
leaders is it any wonder, then, that the Roman institution in Ireland is
haemorrhaging souls?
Now, here we are, sheep without a
shepherd. Perhaps now we will learn to listen to the voice of God within and,
with daring faith, be willing to follow the Master in standing up for
righteousness, for truth, and justice, to condemn wickedness and corruption in
high places, even if it costs us every worldly thing – even if it cost us our
lives, anything less is hardly living the gospel. Personally, I’m not adverse
to rounding them all up and deporting everyone that hasn’t already renounced
their allegiance to Rome. It’s time for a change. It’s time to ‘do something
Irish!’ I have a few ideas, if anyone is interested. ;-)
For further reading here are a
few other articles on the subject.
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