Illinois is not the only place where the fortunes of the Catholic Church are not flourishing. A new survey in Ireland shows the Catholic Church to be rapidly headed towards collapse. Thus, given the continued sex abuse lawsuits (and continued large awards to victims of sexual abuse by priests), the shortage of priests, and the growing disconnect between the laity and the hierarchy, the U.S. bishops would have bigger issues to worry about rather than a continued anti-gay jihad. But such is not the case. One can only hope that the refusal to address the REAL problems surrounding the Church, the U.S. bishops are hastening the day when survey results in the U.S. will mirror what's being seen in Ireland. This blog post lays out what's happening in Ireland. Here are some highlights:It wasn’t too long ago before the Catholic Church had an iron grip on Ireland, having to approve nearly every bit of “sensitive” legislation that was passed. Abortion was illegal, condoms weren’t available, and non-Catholics were apostates in the Republic of Ireland. That’s changing rapidly now. . . .
It is important not to underestimate the value of Ireland to the Roman Catholic Church. Ireland was, and still is, the only English speaking majority Catholic country. It houses several seminaries and religious academies that historically produced highly educated priests, nuns and Christian brothers who were exported around the world . . .
[A] recent series of Irish government reports dealing with child abuse have brought the church and its role into question. While the Catholic Church has been heavily criticized in both the media and by the Irish leader, it has been unclear to what extent, if any, support amongst the general population of Ireland has been damaged.
To examine this question, the Dublin based Iona Institute, a conservative religious lobby group that promotes Vatican approved catholic values, recently commissioned a survey of public opinion on Catholicism in Ireland.
The findings include"
Catholicism continues its steady decline in Ireland – 69% of those surveyed said they were Catholic, down from 87% in 2006.
30% went to mass in the previous week, down from 48% in 2006 – and from over 90% in the 1970s!
Only 20% agreed that the Irish government was “excessively hostile” towards the Catholic Church. 40% disagreed that the government was hostile with a further 34% saying that the government was essentially neutral towards the church.
[O]lder individuals (over 55s) were the only ones to have a favorable opinion of the Catholic Church (55% favorable, 44% unfavorable). None of the other age groups surveyed exceeded a 19% favorable rating for the church.
The reality is that the Irish population has a relatively accurate view of the extent of church abuse and its response to the abuse – and the picture they see is sufficient to condemn the church.
This behavior surely shows the desperation of apologists to whitewash the results of a survey that reveals no good news for the Catholic Church in Ireland, which continues its precipitous decline. Far from being a perennial and unquestionable force, Church, according to the results of this survey, is heading the way of the Irish Elk.
For those not in the know, the Irish Elk became extinct about 11,000 years ago. When will U.S. Catholics wake up the the reality that the Church hierarchy is a veritable cesspool and that by continuing to fund their local parishes they are indirectly financing evil?
2 comments:
There has never been much I respected about the Catholic Church. There is little doubt that on balance it has been a force for evil rather than good throughout the centuries.
The church hierarchy has never understood the Gospel of Christ. Instead they have substituted a litany of rules designed to maintain power over the masses and keep them content with what little they have in this world while looking towards the next while the Church's Bishops and the Pope live in splendor.
I did have some measure of respect for Pope John Paul II. He seemed like he was truly a man who loved the people of the church and who wanted to point them and the church in a different way. But with his death, Pope Benedict XVI has begun to quickly dismantle much of what Pope John Paul had tried to change in the Church.
Pope Benedict is trying to return to traditional Catholic values to counter the secularism of America and other developed countries. To accomplish this he is attempting to rule with an iron hand.
He has undone and is undoing all ecumenical ties to other Christian faiths and indeed has declared that one cannot be a Christian outside the Catholic Church.
I suspect that people are now smarter than the Pope and will not stand for all this controlling crap. I suspect that instead of strengthening the Church, Pope Benedict has sealed its fate and its eventual demise.
I talk to a lot of Catholics and former Catholics who years after leaving the church still suffer from the guilt and shame that was inflicted upon them by the Church. That is not religion, it is emotional abuse.
I have little doubt the world would be a better place without the Catholic Church as Pope Benedict is trying to remold it.
Jack Scott
good ridance to the church of the endless hidden molestation of children world wide.
One only needs to google "catholic church molestation - (country)" to become sickened.
And then there is the German pope Benedict, who in 2009 UNexcommunciated Bishop Williamson, a holocaust denier / minimizer.
Belonging to this church is the superhighway to purgatory or hell.
http://www.usnews.com/opinion/blogs/erbe/2009/02/05/pope-should-excommunicate-holocaust-denying-bishop-williamson
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