The Hobby Horses of Belief (and assorted hazards)

SSPX Resistance's hideout in West Cork:

https://fionaolearyblog.wordpress.com/2020/08/14/sspx-resistance-cult-operating-out-of-a-farmhouse-in-west-cork/

Saw on the Gemma O'Doherty thread that her crowd of loons and Continuity SSPX carried out an exorcism on the Dail last night. Apparently they were looking for "politicians with the mark of the Beast who are trying to turn us into transhumanists to please Satan" :rolleyes:

New Dubbelin head shed:

https://www.irishcatholic.com/dermot-farrell-is-the-right-man-for-a-challenging-appointment-in-dublin/

Rather a bit more lengthy than it needs to be, but can be summed up as:

- Diarmuid Martin stopped peado cover ups but didn't do much else.

- The new fella Fardile was bishop of Ossory wherever that is for 3 years and is a great "reformer" but the nature of these reforms remains largely mysterious.

As this newspaper revealed in December, Dublin is running desperately short on funds with some predicting that there is just enough money to pay priests for two more months.

:rolleyes: as they sit on unused and under-utilised land banks in Dublin worth gazillions. There's a supposedly laity-led :rolleyes: campaign in my local area to "preserve" a rather ugly stone built convent, now empty, which sits on large grounds next to a surburban village, behind an ugly high stone wall. But eejits on facebook are trying to convince everyone that this is a vital local amenity (which no-one can access) and building housing on it would be totes awfuls - with opportunist councillors jumping on the bandwagon. Feck the lot of them. :mad:

"Reform" is the ultimate weasel word and whenever I see it I see dishonesty and it boils my piss. It implies that anyone opposed to the proposed change is wrong before they can even begin to make an argument. It implies that change for the sake of it is good - but ironically this word is inevitably used by right-wingers and the changes they seek are to enhance the rights of large corporations and diminish the rights of citizens.

More problems for Falwell at Liberty 'University'. Seems like there's a think tank there (can an oxymoron be stateful? Think tank at Liberty U?). And the students don't like it, say it's not really Christian but 'Conservative' and the two aren't the same thing. Oh, and Charlie Kirk, that beauty, is one of the cofounders, plus at least 1 of Trump's embarrasment of attorneys, Jenna Ellis, is an alum

https://www.ecumenicalnews.com/article/christianity-and-trumpism-collide-at-liberty-university-as-student-leaders-say-gospel-comes-first/60815.htm

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

It's also rather intereting that there is not a single mention of school divestment, one way or the other.

There is a strong implication that some churches will have to be shut down to save money, but the fiction that they can administer 90% of primary schools in any meaningful way despite their lack of resources and bodies on the ground remains.

I don't have a link, but I think the Irish Times coverage of this appointment did mention school divestment as a priority for the new guy.

My impression is that the diocese has been keen to offload schools, and for the reason that you point out - they are a drain on the diocese's declining personnel and other resources, and the diocese is keen to rebalance its resource allocation by patronising fewer schools. The problem they are encountering is bottom-up resistance from lay churchy types, who attach a lto of importance to church patronage of schools - especially, but not exclusively, the schools that their kids attend. They're afraid of alienating what might be a signficant chunk of their remaining lay supporters.

Basically, they are more concerned about pissing off churchgoers who value churchy domination of the education system than they are about pissing off non-churchgoers who want real school choice.

Church and General still exists, I think. Allianz is the majority shareholder and C&G does most of its business under the Allianz name, presumably under licence from the parent company. Irish Life has a large minority stake, but I think the Catholic church still has, or at any rate had for many years, a non-trivial stake (5%?) and that, together with the fact that insurance church property is a signficant specialism for Allianz in Ireland probably explains the presence of a churchy type on the board.

magicbastarder wrote: »

"Stephanie Walsh is a retired teacher who specialised in Relationships and Sexuality Education."
ouch

Can't imagine it went much further than "Don't be doing the bold thing"

smacl wrote: »

In with todays post I got the flyer below from some thoroughly obnoxious evangelical group called UCKG inviting people to a congregation this Friday in the middle of deadly pandemic. The irony of it being titled "Spiritual Cleansing" and giving a free bottle of holy water to attendees absolutely beggars belief. Not sure whether the arrogance or gross stupidity is more appalling. Reported it to the Gardaí.

that lot used to be at the O'Connell street end of Henry St in the before times.

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

That Wiki article is ehh, interesting...

Very

Bishop Edir Macedo of the Universal Church of the Kingdom of God stated in a 2019 sermon that daughters should not be allowed to seek out higher education, because if they do they will be "smarter than their husbands", and that he personally would not allow his daughters to go to college because he believes that an educated woman cannot have a happy marriage: "When they [my daughters] went out, I said they would just go to high school and they wouldn’t go to college. My wife supported me, but the relatives found it absurd. Why don’t you go to college? Because if you graduate from a particular profession, you will serve yourself, you will work for yourself. But I don’t want that, you came to serve God. Because if (…) she was a doctor and had a high degree of knowledge and found a boy who had a low degree of knowledge, he would not be the head, she would be the head. And if it were the head, it would not serve God’s will. I want my daughters to marry a male. A man who has to be head. They have to be head. Because if they are not head their marriage is doomed to failure.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Universal_Church_of_the_Kingdom_of_God#Opposing_women's_higher_education


which is very close to

Two men in Indonesia’s Aceh province have been publicly caned 77 times each after they were reported to police by vigilantes who claimed they had witnessed the men having sex.

The men, aged 27 and 29, were arrested in November after a crowd of local residents broke into their room and allegedly found them having sex. They were sentenced to 80 strokes by a Shariah court last month, but were flogged 77 times because they had spent time in prison.

Four other people received 17 strokes for extra-marital relations and 40 strokes for drinking alcohol. People caught gambling, or women who wear tight clothes can also be punished by caning.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2021/jan/29/gay-men-caned-77-times-in-medieval-punishment-in-indonesian-province?CMP=fb_gu&utm_medium=Social&utm_source=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1XW7cxgdo5dpsQJPc2iK6mJpfKmy5gjGvd4ZatSfe3SUvUFabpNfs-puI#Echobox=1611906067

Hotblack Desiato wrote: »

Sounds like a really fun place :rolleyes:

O yeah

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indonesian_mass_killings_of_1965%E2%80%9366

The Minister represents Kildare, which of course has an association with St. Brigid. No doubt Kildare would hope to capitalise commercially on a St. Brigid's festival. So it may not be the simple faith of a peasant which motivates this suggestion.

He may have another argument, though. 1 Jan to 17 March is I think the second-longest period we have without a bank holiday. The longest is from the first Monday in June to the last Monday in October, but great bulk of people take an annual summer holiday at some point during this period, so it's not as if it's an unbroken period of work. In general, internationally, public holidays tend not to be created at time when, or close to when, many people would be on holiday anyway, unless the facts of history pretty much require it - e.g. 14 July.

Still, February is generally pretty horrible, weather-wise, and on a typical February day I'd almost rather be at work then feel I was wasting a bank holiday because of wind and rain. I kind of fancy early to mid September. I'm sure we can find an obscure name on the Calender of Irish Saints whose feast day falls around then.

smacl wrote: »

Can't think of any particular reason we have to name holidays for saints at this point in our history? St Bridgid rather sounds like a refugee from Father Ted, the latter of whom would be far more worthy of a national holiday were it a popularity contest.

Ah, but it would be one of very few public holidays worldwide in honour of a women*. That has to be worth a few brownie points.

If we shift it to 4 February, it could be in honour of Constance Markievicz. That's her birthday. Would that satisfy people?

* [If we diseregard the many, many public holidays in honour of the Virgin Mary.]

smacl wrote: »

Can't think of any particular reason we have to name holidays for saints at this point in our history? St Bridgid rather sounds like a refugee from Father Ted, the latter of whom would be far more worthy of a national holiday were it a popularity contest.

She was a pre Christian Celtic Godess so I would be ok with it.

Easter is another holiday named after a woman.