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[Catholic Caucus] IRELAND: a post-mortem examination - by Roberto de Mattei (Revisited)
Rorate Caeli / Roberto de Mattei ^ | May 26, 2018 | New Catholic /

Posted on 05/26/2018 10:09:52 AM PDT by ebb tide

IRELAND: a post-mortem examination - by Roberto de Mattei (Revisited)

Almost exactly three years ago, in May 2015, following the "same-sex marriage" referendum in Ireland, Roberto de Mattei made his "post-mortem examination" of the formerly Catholic powerhouse.

On this sad Saturday, as vote tallies confirm that an overwhelming majority of Irish voters chose to remove the 8th amendment of the Irish Constitution, we take a moment to revisit his piece.

What did the 8th amendment say exactly? These words:

The State acknowledges the right to life of the unborn and, with due regard to the equal right to life of the mother, guarantees in its laws to respect, and, as far as practicable, by its laws to defend and vindicate that right.

Beautiful, noble, sound, correct, Catholic: all that Ireland has ceased to be.

___

IRELAND: a post-mortem examination

Roberto de Mattei
Corrispondeza Romana
May 27, 2015


In his masterpiece “The Soul of the Apostolate”, Dom Jean-Baptiste Chautard (1858-1935), Trappist Abbot of Sept-Fons, expressed this maxim: “A holy priest coincides with a fervent populace; a fervent priest - a pious populace; a pius priest - an honest populace; an honest priest - an impious populace” (Italian version, Rome 1967, p. 64). If it is true that there is always a degree less in the spiritual life between the clergy and the Catholic people, after the vote in Dublin on May 22, we should add: “An impious priest coincides with an apostate populace.”


Ireland in fact, is the first country where the legal recognition of homosexual unions has been introduced not from the top but from the bottom, through a popular referendum; yet Ireland is also one of the oldest Countries with a deep-rooted Catholic Tradition, where the influence of the clergy is still relatively strong in part of the population.


It is no novelty that the “yes” to “homosexual marriage” was supported by all the parties, the right, the left and the center; it is not surprising that all of the media sustained the LGTB campaign, nor that there has been massive financing from abroad on behalf of this campaign; the facts foreseen, were, that, of 60% of the population who voted, only 37% of the citizens expressed their “yes” and that the government had skillfully shuffled their cards introducing a law in January 2015, permitting adoption by homosexual couples, prior to the recognition of pseudo-homosexual-marriage. What provokes the greatest scandal are the silences, the omissions and the complicities by the Irish priests and bishops throughout the electoral campaign.

One example is enough for all the rest. Before the elections, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diamund Martin, declared that he would have voted against homosexual marriage but wouldn’t have told Catholics how to vote (LifeSiteNews.com, May 21). After the vote, he declared on Irish National Television that: “the evidence cannot be denied” and that the Church in Ireland “needs a reality-check” In merit of what happened Monsignor Martin added: “it isn’t only the outcome of a campaign for a “yes” and a “no” but it attests to a much deeper phenomenon” therefore “ we need to review the pastoral care of youth: the referendum was won with the votes of the young and 90% of the young who voted attended Catholic Schools.” (www.corriere.it/esteri/ May 24,2015)

This position reflects, in general (apart from a few exceptions) the Irish clergy who have adopted the line that Monsignor Nunzio Galantino, the Secretary General of the Episcopal Conference in Italy, had hoped for: to avoid polemics and clashes at all costs: “it is not about who makes the loudest outcries, the pasdaran [*Iranian Islamic Revolutionary Guards] of the two sides exclude themselves” (“Corriere della Sera”, May 24).

Which means, let’s set aside the preaching of the Gospel and the values of the Faith and Catholic Tradition, in order to look for a point of encounter and compromise with the adversaries. And yet on March 18th 2010, Benedict XVI in his “Letter to the Catholics of Ireland” had invited the Irish clergy and people to return “to the ideals of holiness, charity and transcendent wisdom”, “which in the past made Europe great and can still refound her” (no.3) and to “draw inspiration from the riches of a great religious and cultural tradition” (no.12), which has not faded, even if “fast-paced social change has occurred, often adversely affecting people’s traditional adherence to Catholic teaching and values” (no. 4) is opposed to it. In his “Letter to the Catholics of Ireland”, Benedict XVI states that in the 70s, it was “significant” , “the tendency on the part of priests and religious, to adopt ways of thinking and assessing secular realities without sufficient reference to the Gospel.” This tendency is the same one we find today.

It has been the cause of a process of degradation, which, since the years of the Second Vatican Council, like an avalanche, has swept away Catholic customs and institutions. If the Irish today, even by staying Catholic for the most part, abandon the faith, the cause is not only the loss of prestige and consensus of the Church following the scandals of sexual abuse. The true cause is the moral and cultural surrender to the world on the part of their pastors, who accept this degradation as sociological evidence, without posing the problem of their own responsibilities. In this sense their behavior has been impious, lacking in mercy and offensive with regard to religion, even if not formally heretical. Yet every Catholic who voted “yes”, and thus, the majority of Irish Catholics who went to the ballot boxes, have stained themselves with apostasy. The apostasy of a people whose constitution still opens with an invocation to the Most Holy Trinity.

Apostasy is a much graver sin than impiety, as it involves an explicit repudiation of Catholic faith and morals. However, the heaviest responsibility for this public sin lies with the pastors who have encouraged and tolerated it with their behavior. The consequences of this Irish referendum will now be devastating.

Forty-eight hours after the vote, the main exponents of the German, Swiss and French Episcopal Conferences, under the leadership of Cardinal Reinhard Marx, gathered together in Rome to plan their action in view of the upcoming Synod. According to the journalist present at the meetings, “marriage and divorce”, “sexuality as an expression of love” were the themes discussed. (“La Repubblica” May 26, 2015). The line is the one mapped out by Cardinal Kasper: secularization is an irreversible process which pastoral reality has to adapt to. And for Archbishop Bruno Forte, he who asked for “the codification of homosexual rights” at the last Synod, and who has been confirmed by the Pope as special Secretary to the Synod on the Family, “it is a cultural process of forced secularization in which Europe is fully involved.” (“Corriere della Sera”, May 25, 2015).

There is a final question that cannot be evaded: Pope Francis’ sepulchral silence on Ireland. During the Mass for the opening of the Caritas Assembly on May 12, the Pope thundered against “the powerful of the world” reminding them that “God will judge them one day, and will show if they have really tried to provide food for Him in every person and if they have worked so that the environment is not destroyed, so that it may produce this food”. On November 21, 2014, commenting on the excerpt from the Gospel where Jesus throws out the merchants from the Temple, the Pope launched his anathema, against a Church that thinks only about business affairs and commits “the sin of scandal”.

Francis often rails against corruption i.e. the traffic in slaves and arms along with the vanity of power and money. On June 11, 2014, in reference to corrupt politicians i.e. those who exploit “slave-work” and the “merchants of death” the Pope admonishes “may the fear of God make them understand that one day it will all end and they will have to give an account to God.” The “fear of God” opens the hearts of men “to the goodness, mercy and the caress of God”, but “it is also an alarm in the face of obstinate sin.

Yet isn’t the application of laws regarding the vice against nature incomparably graver than the sins that the Pope recalls so frequently? Why didn’t the Pope launch a vigorous and heartfelt appeal to the Irish in the days prior to the vote, reminding them that the violation of the Divine and Natural Law is a social sin which the people and their pastors will one day have to give account to God for? With this silence, has he not also been an accomplice to this scandal?


[A Rorate translation by contributor Francesca Romana.]


TOPICS: Apologetics; Catholic; Moral Issues; Religion & Politics
KEYWORDS: 36thamendment; 8thamendment; abortion; babykillers; eussr; fartyshadesofgreen; francischurch; homos; homosexualagenda; ireland; marriage
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1 posted on 05/26/2018 10:09:52 AM PDT by ebb tide
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To: ebb tide

Ireland has been lost for decades. Ever since the 70s at least.


2 posted on 05/26/2018 10:13:56 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: miss marmelstein

The Eighth Amendment was voted in back in 1983. So it wasn’t utterly lost in the 70s or even early 80s at least. The influence of the EU took a heavy toll on the island, morally speaking.


3 posted on 05/26/2018 10:44:01 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: miss marmelstein
Well, there were the bloody murderous "Troubles" for 30 years, from 1968-1998. That certainly bombed and blackened a part of the Irish soul. And yet, and yet...

Life = Life was the position that passed by 66.9% back in 1985, when Ireland was a "modern, democratic society" and the Irish enthusiastically marched, cheered and voted for their pro-life Amendment 8. So it's not true that Ireland was "lost" from the 1970's. Pro-Life was, until very recently, a principle that expressed the proud Exceptionalism of the Irish nation, one that could win. It was, and it did.

Something disastrous has happened in Ireland in just the last 35 years.

4 posted on 05/26/2018 10:47:50 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o (Abortion: the Sacrament of Hell.)
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To: Olog-hai

As someone who has been to Ireland many times, knew many Irish boys in NYC, I stand by my opinion.


5 posted on 05/26/2018 10:48:04 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: miss marmelstein

Don’t know what part of Ireland you were visiting, and “Irish boys in NYC” is not a measure for the whole island either. (I lived in Ireland.)

As things stand now, the only part of that island with an abortion ban is Northern Ireland.


6 posted on 05/26/2018 10:50:53 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Olog-hai

Catholic Ireland is gone. Wonder what James Joyce would say.


7 posted on 05/26/2018 10:57:15 AM PDT by madprof98
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To: Olog-hai

Try travelling the entire country with special emphasis on Dublin.

Irish boys who worked in America didn’t represent anything of their country? That’s simply your opinion.


8 posted on 05/26/2018 11:01:49 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Something disastrous has happened in Ireland in just the last 35 years.
________________

The Catholic hierarchy!


9 posted on 05/26/2018 11:10:41 AM PDT by amihow
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To: miss marmelstein

No, actually. They didn’t. Such people were most likely left-leaning and wanted to escape the then-conservative Church-influenced atmosphere, relocating to liberal and libertine enclaves such as NYC where they could exercise their proclivities without so much societal disapproval.

I spent most of my life in Ireland in Dublin, BTW. There were many trashy inner-city locations, and bad suburbs such as Ballyfermot, Ballymun, Blanchardstown, Finglas and Tallaght, but the majority of the city and county was not like that. Of course, that was four decades ago, when people even riding the bus home from work would perform the sign of the cross at every church building the bus passed.


10 posted on 05/26/2018 11:13:11 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: miss marmelstein

PS. I left out Cabra and parts of Crumlin. But even those weren’t all bad back in the day.


11 posted on 05/26/2018 11:17:07 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: Mrs. Don-o

Couldn’t be the European Union, could it?

There was no antisemitism that I could perceive when I was living there. Nobody said crazy things against Israel. My late father did not have to conceal being Jewish.


12 posted on 05/26/2018 11:21:41 AM PDT by Olog-hai ("No Republican, no matter how liberal, is going to woo a Democratic vote." -- Ronald Reagan, 1960)
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To: ebb tide

Catholic Ireland follows the path of Catholic Quebec - all, then, in a flash, nothing.

So what was DeValera’s revolution all about, anyway? In ten years, or less, there will be more Christianity in apostate England than in holy Ireland.

Is it something about Catholicism? Faith in an institution, in men as opposed to faith in God? Such a faith is built on sand.

But if there was no Catholic Church in Europe after Rome fell, no one today would know the name of Jesus the Christ.

They are drunkenly dancing in the streets in Ireland, celebrating the great, and unexpectedly massive, “victory”. But already the reception centers are full, with many more on the way from Africa and Asia, filling up and soon spilling over with people who do not lust to kill their babies.

The judgements of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.


13 posted on 05/26/2018 11:29:14 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers)
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To: madprof98

“Wonder what James Joyce would say”

He called his home a “priest-ridden bog”. I’m sure he would be delighted.


14 posted on 05/26/2018 11:31:02 AM PDT by Jim Noble (The more you tighten your grip, the more star systems will slip through your fingers)
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To: Olog-hai
So trashy, left-wing people shouldn't be counted in the population of Ireland? If that was true, I might agree that Ireland has always been daisies and leprechauns.
15 posted on 05/26/2018 11:44:21 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: Jim Noble

Great post!


16 posted on 05/26/2018 11:45:12 AM PDT by miss marmelstein
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To: Mrs. Don-o
Something disastrous has happened in Ireland in just the last 35 years.

In October, 1979, Pope John Paul II's visit to the Republic of Ireland was described as, "The 59-year-old Polish Pontiff is coming to ensure that Ireland remains faithful to the Church of Christ… and to honour the Blessed Virgin Mary, Mother of God, at Knock" by the Irish Independent.

In 1983, Ireland passed it's pro-life 8th amendment.

Fast forward to:

*March 2013 - Jorge Bergoglio is elected pope.

*May (the Month of Mary) 2015 - A referendum legalizes homo-marriage.

*May (the Month of Mary) 2018 - A referendum appears to have legalized voluntary abortion (infanticide).

Bergolio's silence on both of the latter referendums, his refusal to address the cardinals' dubia or the Filial Correction has been absolutely disgusting. He's more interested in communism, global warming hoaxes, artificial birth control and enabling muslim invaders of sovereign countries.

17 posted on 05/26/2018 11:56:24 AM PDT by ebb tide (We have a rogue curia in Rome.)
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To: Olog-hai
It's far beyond my knowledge level for me to make an intelligent judgment.

Polls just 3 weeks showed 92% Irish approval for the EU, with those aged 18-24 a full 97 per cent pro-EU.

How did the Irish keep their identity, their "Irish exceptionalism" through 350 years of Cromwell and his successors despising them, starving them and stomping them into the dirt, only to succumb to the EU crooning, "You'd be cooler if you were just like us, you know"?

18 posted on 05/26/2018 11:56:57 AM PDT by Mrs. Don-o ("For the time is come that judgment must begin at the house of God." - 1 Peter 4:17)
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To: ebb tide

Interesting image. Is that supposed to be Satan? Can you point to a passage in the Bible that describes him looking like that?


19 posted on 05/26/2018 12:04:55 PM PDT by Da_Shrimp
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To: ebb tide; Morganna

The Lord is watching Ireland and their recent vote to approve abortion.

They will pay for this wretched decision!


20 posted on 05/26/2018 12:07:08 PM PDT by Salvation ("With God all things are possible." Matthew 19:26)
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