AGAINST CATHOLIC CLERICALISM
The Catholic priesthood led to quite a strong undercurrent of anticlericalism in Ireland. This was not without reason.
The priests demanded money from the impoverished even if it meant the
children would go hungry. The priests visited houses after people had died to
collect money for their services. People had to pay up at the funeral - the Mass
Offerings system. Those who went to mourn and pay their respects had to pay more
than just their respects for the privilege.
Catholicism preached that you must never help others except to please God. This
led to children feeling deprived of parental affection. Emotional neglect of the
child was rife. The Church was an enthusiastic supporter of corporal punishment
of the worst kind. Fathers were domineering and distant. The result of this was
children seeking in God what their own parents would not give them. No wonder
vocations to the priesthood were high. Being deprived of warmth and true love as
baby, damages a person for life and leads to celibacy and disparagement of
becoming a parent.
Catholics sought to cover up the clerical sex abuse scandal. Because of that
Albert Reynold's government collapsed. Bertie Ahern, an icon of duplicity, took
over and brought the country to ruin and a recession horrendous beyond belief.
The Church never required clerics to report clerics who were a danger to
children to the civil authorities. It only required it recently because under
media and social pressure it had no choice. Even then the Church to date has
refused to instruct its bishops to report suspected cases of abuse to police,
saying they need only do so when required by local laws. This has led bishops
who are thus required to make the excuse that under their interpretation of the
law they were not required in many particular cases. Priests who are not
protesting are collaborators in the scheme and they are compromising with evil.
The Church and state collaborated to get the tax payer to pay the abuse
compensation bill. The taxes of the abused and their families were stolen so
that the Church could be better off financially.
The Church offered cheap forgiveness and conditioned politicians to feel they
could be good Catholics while stealing from the nation and lying to the poor.
Charles Haughey was a good example of that! The Church made morality look stupid
and thus the conscience of the blackguard was silenced. Nobody can seriously
care if the nation is robbed and lied to if they are conditioned to imagine that
it is a sin deserving an eternity of Hellfire to freely engage even in one second
of masturbation?
The believer in God says prayers looking for this and that. Prayers can be said
for healing or for peace of mind. That's two examples. Answer to prayer would be
the chief evidence for the existence of God. Rational proofs or evidences for
God would be dubious without indications that God is with his people and
supports them. If miracles happen, they would be inferior to answers to prayer
in terms of being signs or indications of God's loving presence. It would be
very strange if people who pray for peace in their hearts don't get it while God
does miracles such as making Jesus go up to Heaven on a cloud. It would indicate
that God has no concern for the spiritual dimension but just likes showing off
and acting like an entertainer.
The believer remembers the times he prays for something and when what he asks
for happens. He forgets the times nothing happened. He forgets how he asked for
contentment and got manic depression and suicidal tendencies. This forgetting
and ignoring the failures is wilful. Prayer develops the "skill" of
self-deception. Politicians have to switch off the part of their brain that
accuses them of being liars in order to fool the people. Self-deception is
really about deceiving others only.
The Church pays no taxes. It does not pay the household charge of 2012. It
pretends to be a charity. Reiki groups then should be charities too as well as
any group saying that wheatgerm is a sacrament. The Church even gets money from
the taxpayer if donors fill out a form.
FINALLY-
The Village Atheists should shout the truth out. The Catholic priesthood is a
force for evil and the evil of superstition. Jesus had a point about wolves in
the clothing of sheep. And he was not referring to violent or blatantly evil
people but those who with charm and religious lies and craftiness take advantage
of the sheep. The apostles were sent out in the midst of such "wolves" and
nobody violently harmed them or threatened to.
The good deeds of a few individual priests or nuns cannot be cited as overall
evidence that the Church is benign and good as a Church or system. Is it any
wonder parents let their children be molested by a priest on the grounds that
the abuser is sometimes kind? That kindness stops the parent believing and
supporting the child. It is not true kindness for it is needed to facilitate
evil. People can be evil in principle and still do loads of good works. For
example, many Protestant nurses did outstanding work but their hearts were still
devoted primarily to a Calvinist God who sends people to Hell for the fun of it.
