Irish Catholic Church in 'terminal decline' after sexual abuse scandals
Ireland was once regarded as the most catholic Country in the World. That, though, is no longer the case.
Weekly Mass attendance which stood at 91% in 1975 was down to 36% in 2016 according to figures from the last Irish census.
According to critical members of the Church, there is only one way to sum up the effect that sex abuse scandals have had on Catholicism in Ireland.
“Catastrophic is the, really, the only answer for that," said Father John Collins, from the Association of Irish Catholic Priests. "We always had an issue before the child sexual abuse scandals broke in this country."
“There was an issue with the Church in a sense that many people who were coming forward [said] that the Church was too controlling and had too much control over their lives and people rejected that,” he added.
The behaviour of the Church in resisting to pay compensation and behaving as if nothing had happened has in the words of one catholic commentator, been detrimental to the Church in Ireland.
“The sex abuse scandals have been absolutely devastating for the Church, not just the actual abuse itself which of course was horrific for the victims, but the fact that when the victims came forward, when they spoke to those in leadership positions within the Church, they were ignored, they were told that they were making it up, it was minimised consistently,” explained Michael Kelly, editor at the Irish Catholic Newspaper.
By all accounts, the Catholic church in Ireland is in serious trouble. The feeling is that unless the Vatican modernises or changes the rules very quickly, the church in this Country will effectively cease to be in the years and decades to come.
https://www.news.yahoo.com/irish-catholi...24539.html
Ireland was once regarded as the most catholic Country in the World. That, though, is no longer the case.
Weekly Mass attendance which stood at 91% in 1975 was down to 36% in 2016 according to figures from the last Irish census.
According to critical members of the Church, there is only one way to sum up the effect that sex abuse scandals have had on Catholicism in Ireland.
“Catastrophic is the, really, the only answer for that," said Father John Collins, from the Association of Irish Catholic Priests. "We always had an issue before the child sexual abuse scandals broke in this country."
“There was an issue with the Church in a sense that many people who were coming forward [said] that the Church was too controlling and had too much control over their lives and people rejected that,” he added.
The behaviour of the Church in resisting to pay compensation and behaving as if nothing had happened has in the words of one catholic commentator, been detrimental to the Church in Ireland.
“The sex abuse scandals have been absolutely devastating for the Church, not just the actual abuse itself which of course was horrific for the victims, but the fact that when the victims came forward, when they spoke to those in leadership positions within the Church, they were ignored, they were told that they were making it up, it was minimised consistently,” explained Michael Kelly, editor at the Irish Catholic Newspaper.
By all accounts, the Catholic church in Ireland is in serious trouble. The feeling is that unless the Vatican modernises or changes the rules very quickly, the church in this Country will effectively cease to be in the years and decades to come.
https://www.news.yahoo.com/irish-catholi...24539.html
teachings of the Bible are so muddled and self-contradictory that it was possible for Christians to happily burn heretics alive for five long centuries. It was even possible for the most venerated patriarchs of the Church, like St. Augustine and St. Thomas Aquinas, to conclude that heretics should be tortured (Augustine) or killed outright (Aquinas). Martin Luther and John Calvin advocated the wholesale murder of heretics, apostates, Jews, and witches. - Sam Harris, "Letter To A Christian Nation"
