I am saddened by the death of Ray Davey, the Presbyterian Minister who was one of the founders of the Corrymeela Community. My wife was also there in the early days.
Ray was a Minister of the Broadway Church on the Falls Road, across the road from my paternal grandparents. It is now An Cultúrlann, the Irish language centre.
Better to light a candle than curse the darkness.
May he rest in peace. He deserves it.
Ian Parsley (described on Wikipedia as a “politician, business man and linguist”) fought the 2009 European Election for Alliance Party. In 2010 he was fighting for UUP_UCFNPU (or whatever) at Westminster, before being a Conservative Party member. Having canvassed in several constituencies for Alliance in Assembly 2011, he has announced that he is back in the Alliance fold…again.
So I don’t know how I should react to Mr Parsley contributing to “a nationalist only” thread on Slugger O’Toole-Stratagem.
Is he signing up to SDLP or Sinn Féin?
There is probably an easy explanation for all this. I think he collects Party membership cards.
An interesting thread…..or more accurately a potentially interesting thread has been developing over at Slugger’s place where the peerless Mick Fealty initiated a conversation “For Nationalists Only” ……”Whats Great About Living in the United Kingdom”.
A reasonable enough question and certainly asked sincerely. If a border poll is ahead of us then it might well interest a Public Relations company which might want to advocate for one side. Interestingly Quintin Oliver of Stratagem has written on Slugger about a Scottish Referendum. I digress. It is not a trick question.
Nationalists have a bizarre relationship with the “UK”. In olden days it was described by unionists as loyalty to the half-crown rather than the “Crown”. In other words nationalists took the dole money without ever expressing gratitude.
Guilty as charged. I receive a generous pension from Mrs Windsor…….I served her…. at times almost adequately for thirty-two years. I am indebted to her for the National Health Service, Manchester United FC, Celtic FC, Coronation Street, The Guardian Newspaper and Monty Python. But I dont have to like Mrs Windsor. In fact if I die midway thru a month, Id hate it. The thought of her owing me two weeks pension is very annoying.
Somebody once said (cant remember who) that the Irish hate England but love the English. English people profess to love Ireland but cant stand the Irish….except Graham Norton and Terry Wogan.
So as an Irish person . So naturally I try to avoid people that I like. I am much more comfortable with people who I don’t like. And if they don’t like me….well that’s ok also.
In fact I cant even bring myself to use the term “United Kingdom” without quotation marks. Indeed for me the “Kingdom” bit is much more significant than the “United” bit. I just dont do “kingdoms”.
But “liking aspects” of the “UK” implies that I don’t like other aspects.
The most negative aspect of the “United Kingdom” is the weight of their history with Ireland (specifically) and broader imperialism (and racism) and their exploitation of weaker nations. Watching Manchester United at Old Trafford or a Coronation Street box set cannot wipe all that away.
I made a contribution to Slugger-Stratagem thread. But I have asked for it to be deleted as unfortunately the basis of the thread “for nationalists only” has been compromised. That’s a pity. Because in the nature of Slugger whataboutery, tomorrow’s promised thread “for unionists only” will probably be compromised.
Perhaps a third thread for “lets get alongerists” is desirable. But would it work? It is after all the kind of apartheid which Slugger O’Toole and I deplore. But in the past Alliance Party members (a party bankrolled…£98,000 since 2007…. by Rowntree, who are advised by Stratagem which is partner of Slugger-O’Toole) has designated themselves cross-party and unionists for the “common good”.
On 16th April 1746, the Jacobite Rebellion ended in the Battle of Culloden and the subsequent massacre of Highland men women and children by Hanoverian forces under the command of Duke of Cumberland. No British regiment has Culloden on its battle honours.
It was the last battle fought on British soil. I have been at Culloden a few times. The first occasion was at the end of April in 1978. God it was cold, windy and wet. Just like it was in 1746 when about 6,000 half starved and exhausted Jacobites lined up against about 8,000 Hanoverians.
It would be too easy to describe the Battle as Scotland against England. There were still some English in the Jacobite lines. And a considerable number of Scots in the Hanoverian lines. Nor was it Highland Scot versus Lowland Scot. Highland regiments fought on the Hanoverian side. Lowlanders fought on the Jacobite side. Nor was it Catholic against Protestant. There were Episcopaleans and various dissenters fighting for “Prince” Charles Edward Stuart (a Catholic). And of course there were “French” regiments in the Jacobite Army.
“French” regiments but actually Scottish (350 Garde Ecosse) and Irish (300 “Wild Geese” Infantry and three troops (90 men) of Fitzjames Horse).
It was of course a disaster and all over within an hour. While the Jacobite Right retired in good order to the south, the Left was completely routed and butchered on the road west to Inverness. The Bonnie Prince himself was led off the field by his escort (15 men from Fitzjames Horse commanded by Capt Robert Shea/Shee).
The “French” saved several lives by their rearguard action. As regular soldiers in a real army, they must have known the situation was impossible long before the first shot was fired. But as the Scots were “rebels” and outside any rules of war and could be massacred at will…….hence their anxiety to escape the battle, the “French” knew that their likely fate was surrender, imprisonment and eventual exchange for British prisoners on the European Continent. So they were able to delay the persuit of vengeful Hanoverians. Of course several “French” were killed. In all 2,000 Jacobites died. many more transported to the West Indiesor Virginia colonies. Government losses seem to be around (eventually) 200.
The character of “Bonnie Prince” is interesting. Captain Shea would later write to him about unpaid gambling debts. He ended his days a drunken boorish ingrate who blamed the Scots on his defeat. Adolf Hitler would do the same nearly two centuries later. Worse the Bonnie Prince was a rapist and serial abuser of women.
And rather like Hitler in his bunker, Charles left the Scots, women and children to their inevitable fate. On 17th April 1746, Charles was already making his summer-long journey, hidden by loyal Scots thru the Highlands to a boat for France. And a wasted life which ended in Rome in 1788. His apologists blame the trauma of Culloden for his behaviour. Nonsense. He was a pampered boor long before Culloden.
The long suffering Scots never wanted him in Scotland in the first place. When he landed in Scotland in the summer of 1745, he was told to “go home” And typically he said “I am home”. A nonsensical boast. He had never been in Scotland before and would never return.
About 2,000 Jacobites rendezvoused at Ruthven Barracks on 17th April, expecting to find their Prince there. But he was long gone. Just a message to them that they should look to their own safety…the “shift for themselves” order. This of course is the release of any fealty to the Stuarts.
There were many factors in the Jacobite Rising………dynastic certainly……nationalism (Scottish and Irish) certainly….religion certainly. But the diverse supporters of Jacobitism were left leaderless. “Shifting for themselves” makes people decide. For many coming to terms with the new regime was the option. For many finding a new way to oppose the new regime becomes an option.
So Irish nationalism moves……eventually…… from a Kingdom of Ireland to a “Republic” of Ireland. Jacobitism to Jacobinism.
The downside of my interest in Jacobite (military) history is that I have often corresponded with people purporting to be “modern” (sic) Jacobites. They are of course nothing of the sort. They are tweed wearing, pompous buffoons who read the Daily Telegraph. They cling to a belief that there is a Divine Right of Kings. They denounce the “Whig Settlement” of 1688 and its “neo-Whig” modern Parliament. Republicanism is akin to Satanism (Satan thought he was as good as GOD after all)…….and they manage to vote Conservative while drinking silly toasts to the King over the Watter (sic).
Of course the Jacobite Rising of 1745-46 failed because English Jacobites did nothing. They continue to do nothing. Except of course denounce Irish and Scottish nationalism. They are of course neo-Jacobites. They owe little or nothing to 18th century Jacobitism but rather they owe a lot to 19th century European “legitimism”…..an entirely different concept.
Neo-Jacobites cling to absurd notion that “the Duke in Bavaria” is the rightful king of England….and Scotland…….and Wales………….and of course the “British Dominion of North America”……..Canada and the United States being, in their absurd terms ……”illegitimate” states.
Neo-Jacobites have made Jacobitism a laughing stock. Which is a pity. Because “King” Francis II is an entirely blameless individual who does not encourage anyone to believe he is King of England, Scotland and Ireland. His “saintly discretion” is not to advance his claims but rather he would prefer not to say that his “supporters” are absolute lunatics. Actually the man is quite saintly unlike most of his Stuart ancestors. His charitable work in the Balkans is well known.
But English recusancy and English Catholicisms view of itself as “aristocratic” perhaps unwittingly encourages neo-Jacobite eccentricity.
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These photographs which I too at the Church of the Assumption, Warwick Street (near Piccadilly Circus in London) is perhaps a good example. The Church dates from Penal Times when catholic Mass was illegal except in “embassy” buildings. At the time of the Jacobite Rising in 1745, it was the Portuguese Embassy Church….although it soon became the Bavarian Embassy Church. As such it is the “home” church of English neo-Jacobites. The Catholic Church authorities seem anxious to distance themselves from Jacobite nonsense and from the mid 20th century, the Church of the Assumption served Catholic hotel workers many of them Irish migrants. More recently, the Parish has been designated as the church serving Gay, Lesbian and Transgendered Catholics in London. The plaque, situated at the back of the Church is dedicated to the memory of “Crown Prince Rupert” of Bavaria who died in 1955. It describes him as the Head of Royal Houses including the Stuarts. In neo-Jacobite circles he was “King” Robert I…..grandfather of the present “King”. The third photograph was taken at Essex Street, near the Strand in London. Bonnie Prince Charlie stayed there incognito in 1750 and converted to Anglicanism (short lived)in a nearby Church in an attempt to curry favour with English subjects.
I have been interested in Jacobite military history for as long as I remember. A combination of “shortbread tin romanticism”, Robert Louis Stevenson and DK Broster novels, Thomas Davis songs which used 18th century “Wild Geese” history as a means of promoting Irish nationalism in the 19th century. But I think I owe a lot to the 1964 TV film “Culloden”, revolutionary in its day and available on You Tube, which was actually a drama-documentary acted out by amateurs from the Inverness area.
On Saturday……..being a loyal SDLP member I picked OrganisedConfusion for the Grand National. I choose political parties better than I choose horses.
The Grant National is something more than a horse race. It is an institution in Britain and Ireland. A ritual even. The office sweepstake, the family gathering round to pick a winner……….amateur punters (the kind the bookie likes),the once a year visit to the bookies. The ritual tearing up of the betting slip.
Actually I have had some good results. BobbyJo, Papillon, Hedgehunter…….choosing the best fancied Irish horse is my usual tactic. Probably 75% of the jockeys are Irish because they are the crazy enough to tackle the course. But there is something almost like a cavalry charge as forty horses gallop towards the first fence. Indeed that first quarter mile is probably the best part of the race.
But last year two horses were killed. This year another two were killed.
There is an uneasy feeling. I strongly believe in animal welfare. I hesitate to say animal “rights” because that would be hypocritical. I am not a vegetarian.
But I have enjoyed horse-riding. Much too old now. Horse Racing is for millionaires at one level and still a serious if not always profitable business at the lower end of the scale where the rewards are not about prize money……gambling is the real money maker.
Of course thoroughbreds are bred. But the ‘chasers are often geldings and after a working life are not always retired gracefully. Gamblers draw a discrete veil over this side of the “sport”. Yet there is something “noble”……..”honest” about a horse. The book and movie “War Horse” spell that out. And defenders of the Grand National will claim that it is not cruel……..havent the “bleeding hearts” and “city people ” and other “lefties” noticed that a horse which has fallen often carries on jumping. Indeed one of the horses “put down” on Saturday fell and raced on riderless to break its leg in a second fall. Well……..guilty as charged. I am a bleeding heart lefty and I feel slightly guilty….perhaps increasingly so….that on occasions horses die while giving me pleasure.
I am city born………but living now in a small village, I have had to get used to the fact that my neighbours shoot ducks and bunny rabbits. And they raise animals for profit (and I eat them after all) so I would be mightily unpopular and even hypocritical if I started waving placards and protesting.
We all have thresholds. Society has banned bear-baiting. And dog fighting. And cock fighting. But we know that “dog fights” are more common than we like to think. Greyhounds are rarely allowed to retire into graceful old age. Actually I dont care for greyhound racing.
But people might also say that it is wrong of me to have a pet cat. Try telling that to Keano.
The Grand National will get some bad publicity for a couple of days but basically the horse racing authorities will review safety and declare themselves happy. Just like last year.
Thats how life is. In Ireland we still have hare coursing. We still have fox hunting. I am not comfortable with it. Calling for bans (both are banned in England) would not be effective. Merely divisive. We are (still) a rural people with rural values. Tradition plays a part in our thinking. So does Hypocrisy.
According to legend, the hymn “Nearer My God To Thee” was played by musicians on the Titanic as it sank. It is probably true. And impossible (even thru a TV screen) not to get a little bit emotional to hear it fittingly played at the end of the Commemoration at Belfast City Hall yesterday.
The Commemoration, featuring the unveiling of a memorial listing all the Titanic dead (from several nations) was choreographed, overblown but dignified. We have actually matured enough to accept that the current Mayor of Belfast (Niall Ó Donnghaille), who led the commemoration and unveiled the memorial is a member of Sinn Féin.
But he was simply wrong when he tried to explain away the airbrushing of the Titanic out of History as “quietly set aside, the memory too painful, the loss too personal”. He was reading from the “new” script…..the “new” narrative. Likewise the assertion of another speaker that “the Titanic has finally come home to Belfast” is simply nonsense.
The Titanic was a ship, built in Belfast. It sank. Belfast built a lot of ships. Others sank. The Titanic was merely an icon of the late Edwardian Era…swept away as much by the First World War as an iceberg in the North Atlantic. I was born forty years after the Titanic sank. I dont recall anybody really getting emotional about it, even my Uncle Robbie who had worked on it……or so he said. My Uncle Robbie said a lot of things. But its not my feeling that people were too upset to talk about it.
This Titanic Exhibition Centre and Memorial is all …….new. Alien even to Belfast. A new narrative for a new age.
Previously the Titanic had been a Belfast “joke”. Tourist T-shirts “Titanic Swim Team 1912”, “Titanic built in Belfast……it was ok when it left here”, “Titanic built by the Irish…….sailed by the English”. Hilarious a few years ago……..but not so funny now. You can buy the 2012 “dignified” memorabalia in the same stores that you could buy the “funny” T-shirts. A sale is a sale after all.
Perhaps a public announcement would help” The citizens of Belfast are politely requested NOT to mention to Tourists that until this year we all thought the Titanic was a bit of a joke”.
If the Titanic is not a joke, then it is a metaphor……….we talk about re-arranging the deck chairs on the Titanic to demonstrate that we need to do serious things to deal with serious situations and somewhere up in my loft there is a Harry Chapin album “The Dance Band on the Titanic” indicating that we are providing amusement and diversion for each other while heading straight into an iceberg.
Of course it does not help that I am from West Belfast, not East Belfast. According to unionists the work force in the shipyard was unbalanced in favour of unionists/Protestants because it was situated in East Belfast. A reasonable enough point if it wasnt for the fact that the shipyard was (obviously) ON the river and central (and that would not explain the 100% Protestant work force at Sirocco in 100% Catholic Short Strand or the unbalanced work force in Mackies on the “Catholic” part of the Springfield Road.
Because…….whisper it softly in 2012…….Catholics in West Belfast detested the shipyard and all it stood for. The Titanic Experience will give schoolchildren the interactive experience of working in Belfast shipyards in early 20th century. Alas the authenicity will not extend to throwing Catholic schoolchildren into the River Lagan and pelting them with rivets, nuts and bolts etc. “Belfast Shipyard Confetti”………hmmm no T-shirts available I suppose. Thus when shipbuilding in Belfast went into decline in the 1970s and 1980s and local TV News told us about massive lay-offs at “The Yard”, nobody who I knew ever expressed any concern………….other than “serves them right”, “the Pope will be annoyed about that” and “sore hearts on the Falls Road about that”. See in Belfast……..we do Irony.
The thing is………most of all this Titanic crap is NOT about 1912. It is actually about 2012. New Century. New Narrative. Dont rock the boat (no pun intended).
And for God’s sake dont point out that the plaque with 1,500 names of Titanic victims “from all over the world” is just a few metres away from where Reverend Joseph Parker used to stand.
The name “Joseph Parker” will be familiar to may of us who passed the City Hall in the mid 1970s. He was the Presbyterian minister whose son Stephen (14) was blown to pieces by an IRA bomb on “Bloody Friday” in 1972. Grief-stricken he used to stand at City Hall adding (almost daily) a small cross for each victim at an impromptu memorial. Some ridiculed him because he made no distinction about victims. Britis, Irish, innocent, gunman killed or bomber blown up by his own bomb was all the same to him. Eventually he left Belfast. Heartbroken.
But……hey……..some of us think that a memorial listing 3,800 victims of our Troubles 1966 to 1998 would be appropriate. Possibly more appropriate than the Titanic Memorial. But then we cannot even agree on the number. We cannot agree on the definition of “victim” and we cannot agree on who caused the deaths….nor agree on apportioning blame.
Which is why that iceberg in the Atlantivc Ocean in 1912 is so easy to blame.
My wife first met Dr Joe Hendron in the 1960s. Her family were patients and she remembers him with great affection.
I first met Dr Joe Hendron in May 1973 when I joined the SDLP. He was Chair of Falls Branch when I served as Secretary. I moved out of West Belfast in 1979. I had not seen Dr Joe for over thirty two years. Until yesterday.
We have many good and sad memories of West Belfast and the SDLP in the 1970s. Great people. Monday night meetings above a chip shop on the Glen Road and later in a terraced hose, just a few yards from Andersonstown RUC Station. Yesterday to mark the twentieth anniversary of his election as MP for West Belfast, he was Guest of Honour at the SDLP Youth Conference….fittingly in Beechmount.
Arguably when Joe Hendron defeated Gerry Adams in the 1992 Westminster Election, it ended a run of Sinn Fein successes which had begun with the Hunger Strikes in 1981. They had persued the “armalite and ballot box strategy” but the West Belfast reverse was “make your mind up time”. They had to choose between the two.
Joe Hendron spoke movingly yesterday about how he became motivated by his experiences as a family doctor in West Belfast. The young folks listened in awe…indeed so did older folks. He spoke about inequalities in health care and broken promises.
Dr Joe is a gentle man ……I dont think I have ever met a man who is more “gentle”. But he had a passion for Justice……and still retains that passion.
Many politicians are respected. Few are loved. Joe Hendron is respected and loved.
I am not usually a big fan of SDLP paying too much attention to “other voices”. At SDLP Annual Conference 2010, SDLP members were treated to a critique from (among others) Duncan Morrow, Rev Norman Hamilton and (God save us!) Davey Adams “a journalist”. Conference 2011 also had input from “other voices”.
Of course the SDLP has a record of listening to other people. Memorably John Hume listened to Gerry Adams and the consequence of the Peace Process and Agreement has been to bring Sinn Féin into the political system. This has been at the electoral expense of the SDLP. Although this is a rare example of honourable politicians putting Country before Political Advantage…….unionists are not exactly forgiving about it and Sinn Féin is not exactly grateful.
Yet listening to other voices is a key part of SDLPs “DNA”. Entirely honourable but it needs a degree of balance. Which is why Alasdair McDonnell’s conversation within SDLP is to be welcomed and is bearing fruit.
So I was initially disappointed that John McCallister was chosen as a keynote speaker at the SDLP Youth Conference (14th April). But two points. The notion that the Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party could address a SDLP Conference in the Beechmount area of West Belfast, without any security detail is refreshing. Indeed the SDLPs decision to have another conference (there was a recent seminar on Welfare changes) in the nationalist/republican capital of Norn Iron is a statement of intent in itself. The second point is that if I had to listen to “another voice” it would be John McCallister.
I dont think it is proper to “report” anything that John McCallister said. It was both entertaining and informative. But it was NOT “Outreach”. “Outreach” is a buzz word and little more than a political tactic. What John McCallister did was much more human…….he was revealing himself to be a very decent individual, at ease with himself and his own views and totally at ease with other people and their views. There is ………as they say in Belfast …….”no side to the man”.
But one note of caution. John McCallister is indeed Deputy Leader of the Ulster Unionist Party. But he is atypical. His bid for the Leadership of his Party was defeated by a margin of 81% to 19%.
There appears to be something of a backlash to the way that the media is treating the Titanic Centenary. Hand out enough access to enough journalists and you get a favourable press. That is after all how Journalism works.
Ask a motoring journalist to take a look at the latest hatchback and he may be more disposed to look favourably on the car if he is road testing it in (say) Japan. Ask a music journalist to review the latest CD by the latest boyband craze and flying the journo out to listen to the album in California might be a good idea. And dont start me on travel journalists for whom Life is one long freebie.
It is how Journalism works. But the combination of Leveson and general cynicism has made people wary of the never-ending puff pieces put out by the media in support of anything with the name “Titanic” on it.
Yet the Titanic was a “natural disaster”. The Iceberg was not culpable.
Consider therefore the fate of the RMS Lusitania which was lost at sea on a trans-atlantic crossing in 1915. Loss of life…….1,200 people. It sank even quicker than the Titanic, going down just fifteen miles off the County Cork coast. Sunk by a German U-boat.
Now I have been to County Cork on several occasions and there has always been recognition of the loss of the Lusitania. As I recall it is given some prominence in the Cobh Heritage Centre as well as memorials in Kinsale. In fact it has always had more prominence than the Titanic. Frankly the current hoopla around Titanic is due more to Kate Winslett and Leonardo di Caprio than any genuine outpouring of history in Belfast.
But the horrific death of 1,200 people on board Lusitania is surely at least equally horrific as the Titanic disaster. Perhaps more so……….as it was a deliberate “act of violence” rather than an iceberg.
Of course Lusitania WAS carrying contraband…….ammunition…….from (neutral) New York to Liverpool during First World War. The exploding ammunition caused the ship to sink much quicker and yes the German Embassy in United States did warn Lusitania passengers but it is still worthy of commemoration ………and I am sure it will be in 2015…….but not on the scale of Titanic.
But commemorating natural disaster is letting Humanity off the hook. We might have heard of RMS Lusitania (1915) or even the Holyhead ferry RMS Leinster in 1918. But what about Tsushima Maru (1,400 casualties, half of them schoolkids) sank by American Navy in 1944. Or the MV Wilhelm Gustloff (German refugee ship) sunk by Soviets in 1945 with 9,000 dead.
Not to mention the sinking of warships and troopships, leaving survivors in the seas. SS Conte Rosso (Italian 1942 sunk by British) SS Leopoldville (Begian 1944 sunk by Germans), Belgrano (Argentinian 1982 sunk by British).
These are merely examples of innocent lives and military lives taken by an act of violence.
Yet Humanity will let itself off the hook for these lonely, horrific deaths.
Much better to blame an Iceberg.
Just like it is better to blame a Tsunami for Japanese deaths. Lets not blame Hunity for the Japanese civilians killed and maimed and left to lingering lonely deaths under rubble in Hiroshima.
Although you wont see it mentioned much on anti-Catholic, hibernophobic websites, a statistic from the preliminary results of the 2011 Republic of Ireland Census shows that the population, the biggest in the “26 counties” since before the Famine in the 1840s is 84% Catholic.
Well of course people are not obliged to believe a Census……especially when a more comforting “Life and Times” Survey in the Belfast Telegraph will eventually emerge to please anti-Catholic hibernophobes. Yet 84% of 4.6 million is hard to dismiss, even allowing for the fact that 10% of the Republic’s population is now born outside the Republic, not all of course from Catholic Poland.
Indeed as noted in a report on Education on last night’s RTE News………in Killarney, County Kerry…..that most Irish of Irish towns……there are five primary schools and one of them St Olivers has pupils from forty seven nations. Ireland is changing. And will change a lot more.
Yet two decades of child abuse by some priests, dwindling vocations, a culture of cover-up and an unequal relationship with the Vatican has hardly dented the numbers self-identifying as “Catholic”. Bad news for northern “lets get alongerist” websites and the RTE Newsroom.
It raises the question of course who exactly is a Catholic? How can a “Catholic” be defined?
Well in the olden days……or fifty years ago……most Catholics were taught that a Catholic is someone who receives worthily the “Blessed Sacrament” during the Easter season. As I recall this is the period from Ash Wednesday to Trinity Sunday (the first Sunday after Pentecost).
Just over a year ago I attended a seminar for Catholic priests and lay people. It is perhaps a cliché that there are three generations of Irish priest…Father Jack, Father Ted and Father Dougal. Actually the three generations might be better defined as “My name is Monsignor M*****”, “my name is Father John” and “Just call me John”. At the seminar lunch, I was chatting to Father John and John. Father John baptised our second son, twenty six years ago. I reckon he is about 53 years old. John is 31 years old.
I put the 1960s definition of Catholic to them both……receiving worthily the Blessed Sacrament at Easter time. John had not even heard of this definition. Father John vaguely recalled it. But both felt that neither of them were proper persons to define a Catholic. It was not their business. Their business was merely to facilitate those who claim to be Catholic.
I have since talked about this conversation to other priests. Many agree. Other “conservative” or “Marian” priests think it is dangerous nonsense. That it effectively re-defines “Catholic” to a point where it becomes meaningless.
Yet I think Father John and John are right on the money with this. Pope Benedict XVI is a conservative. Not much different from Pope John Paul II. But the Polish Pope had a degree of charisma and gravitas. The Bavarian Pope is a dullard and remote. More importantly he is 85 years old.
A second successive long papacy seems unlikely. And I think that the Conclave of Cardinals in 2005 were very clever. It would have been impossible in 2005 to elect a “liberal” Pope……..but they practically insured the election of a “liberal” Pope next time around by simply choosing a conservative who is risible.
Of course, many conservative cardinals who also rallied behind Pope Benedict XVI are unable to vote thru age (indeed many have died since 2005) so seven years later, the electorate are very different. It would be a mistake that the cardinals created since 2005 are “conservative”. Ultimately they will be pragmatic.
Where does this leave the Irish Catholic Church? Empowered…….more or less. More thru Archbishop Martin in Dublin. Less thru Cardinal Brady of Armagh who has been damaged by the scandals. More importantly the attrition rate among priests (and other religious) since the 1970s has meant that there are actually more priests in their nneties than there are in their thirties. People from religious orders…including those who are “liberal” are working in parishes undermining traditionalists and empowering “liberals”.
I am not totally convinced about the Association of Catholic Priests. It is only in recent months that they have gone “public” and those with less to lose (members of religious orders who are beyond Vatican discipline and patronage) being more vocal than those ordained for parish work. Yet there are nearly four million Catholics in the Republic of Ireland the most ver in nearly two hundred years and probably the lowest number of priests to serve that population.
Something has to give. Priests and indeed Laity are in a unique bargaining position with Church authorities.
Catholicism will outlive Pope Benedict XVI.
Keeping An Eye On the Czar of Russia 