He had seen priests as good men who were often at the mercy of authoritarian bishops and afraid to speak out on many issues, but he had never suspected some of them could commit such crimes against children.
We want to see women priests, clerical celibacy being optional, conscience being recognised as primary, everyone being allowed to participate in decision-making, and the church being inclusive of all. There are about 30 of us who meet once a month, and there are on our mailing list.
They feel the church is beyond reform and that it is a waste of time when they could be getting involved in social justice movements like Apollo House. Most of his friends have given up or joined other denominations including Unitarianism and Protestantism. Why stay? Butler believes in the message of Jesus and that Christianity is innately good but has been hijacked by men in search of power. They created the mindset that led to the Magdalene laundries and they have besmirched Mary Magdalene, apostle to the apostles, as a prostitute, because they wanted to blacken and subjugate women.
But there is a role in the church for a prophet to stand up to religion when it subverts society. All societies need ritual to mark major life events. But, among this number, there are quite a few lapsed Catholics who take part in the rituals because of family pressure, community expectation and a perceived lack of choice. Enter Karen Dempsey , 39, an ordained inter-faith minister. Like most Irish people, she was raised Catholic; her uncle is a priest.
She could call herself a Catholic, a Protestant, a humanist, an atheist, but none of them could help the woman on that middleground where she stood. Dempsey, who also has a master of science in psychotherapy, decided to become an interfaith minister. She presides over weddings, funerals and naming ceremonies and has taken a vow to be inclusive. Naming ceremonies proceed with a welcome, then there may be music and poetry.
She tends to light a candle to create a sacredness around the space. She might ask if the grandparents would like to offer a blessing for the baby because, while the couple may not be religious, their parents may be.
Nobody rejects Satan. Weddings are completely focused on the couple, and couples have to decide which elements of tradition to keep, which to jettison and, because tradition is always evolving, which to adapt. Do they enter the room together or will one wait at the top of the room? The core of the ceremony is the transitional moment when two people commit to each other — this can be for the rest of their days or as long as it is right for them; the vows are flexible.
I join hands and they exchange rings and reflect on what it means to them. The ceremony contains gravitas and respect for the institution of marriage and some of those from more traditional backgrounds who might have been wary are often surprised by it.
With the Vatican, it became about money. My Jesus is a lovely man who preached love, acceptance and inclusion above all else, but too often I see the church preaching exclusion and division.
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Sign up. Please update your payment details to keep enjoying your Irish Times subscription. Good Friday: Why are so many of us still Catholic? Modern Irish Catholics, from the cultural to the a la carte and conservative Fri, Apr 14, , Updated: Thu, Apr 20, , Peter McGuire.
Photograph: Aidan Crawley. Photograph: Aidan Crawley In the census figures, released last week, the percentage of the population who declared they have no religion rose from , 6 per cent in to , 10 per cent in More from The Irish Times Fashion. Those of us who remain must ask ourselves why. The first point to stress is that continuing to identify as a Catholic Christian is not necessarily, or at all, an endorsement of the management of the Church. Some individual bishops may attract respect and attention, but that does not imply anything for the breed overall.
The Catholic Church is not mainly or even importantly a hierarchical social entity. For most Catholics, their bishop is merely a name in the Eucharistic Prayer. We are a people, a tribe, if you will.
We are the largest cohort within the Christian People of God on pilgrimage to the Kingdom. While at times that pilgrimage may resemble a grand procession, more often it is a stream of refugees battered by life and trudging on in hope, supporting one another when we need it and savoring our various respites and joys along the way.
As a Catholic, I am one in that journeying throng that today and for 2, years has trudged through history, confident that God has not and never will abandon us whether we move on, stand still, fall or run back. What sustains us is the typically Catholic sacramental sense, the conviction that the whole universe and anything and anyone in it is an encounter with God, most present in the Eucharist.
We use bread and wine, oil and water, words and gestures, postures and songs, minds and bodies. We venerate our saints known and unknown and one of them famously speaks in prayer of the Sun as brother and the Moon and even Death as sisters. When I look at the Catholic Church, I see my sisters and brothers trying to be faithful and share their faith.
I see servants of the poor. I see soup kitchens, dispensaries, schools, orphanages, hospital and prison chaplaincies. I see saints and sinners. I see sad sacks serving sad sacks as we journey to God. In the community with which I worship, we sing it as an inspiriting march. That is why I remain a Catholic. There will be serious consequences unfolding for the rest of my life: a loss of souls; a shrinking membership; new costs, penalties and fines to be paid if not by me and other parishioners, by whom?
Plus, in a worldwide church of more than a billion people , there are going to be more horrible stories and we will have to face the filth in the church again. Don't call us 'Mormons' or 'LDS' anymore. Three ways Catholics can fight sexual abuse in the church. How does it feel to be Catholic this week?
Disgusted, ashamed, angry, betrayed and also dirty. Because as much as I would like to separate myself from the filth, to love the Catholic faith means I cannot. As repulsed as I am, these men are leaders of my church and we are united by baptism — one weak and wounded body. To show us that redemption is possible. Families with fewer children have less need to participate in organized religion.
Church attendance across Catholic Western Europe and the United States has been in steep decline for the last 60 years. Part of this decline in Church attendance can be attributed to the clergy abuse scandal, but only part of it.
A more reasonable explanation is resistance to religious authority in a predominantly secular society. The increasingly substantial presence of Islam in Europe and the United States further complicate matters.
The Church is accustomed to the arguments of secular critics. However, those arguments are substantially different from those posed by Islam. How does one settle the conflicts between the Bible and the Koran? And what about Jews?
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