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FORMER PRESIDENT OF Ireland, Mary McAleese, has made a number of strong comments about the Catholic Church.
Speaking before a lecture at the Royal Society of Edinburgh, McAleese commented on homosexuality in the church and the treatment of gay people during an interview.
She also said that if former Cardinal Keith O’Brien – who retired following allegations he had engaged in inappropriate sexual activity with men – told his story it “could have been of great assistance to gay people”.
Her comments were welcomed by liberal Redemptorist priest Fr Tony Flannery today, and by the Gay and Lesbian Equality Network (GLEN).
The Herald Scotland reports that McAleese said that homosexuality is “not something that is perceived as something that is intrinsically disordered” nowadays, and that things written by figures such as former Pope Benedict are contradictory to the understanding of most Catholics today.
She said that the issue of homosexuality was “not so much the elephant in the room but a herd of elephants” for the Catholic Church.
McAleese added that she does not like the ‘love the sinner, hate the sin’ attitude that the Church has towards gay people. She said she has also studied suicide among young Irish males, many of whom were gay Catholics.
Speaking to Newstalk this morning, Fr Tony Flannery welcomed McAleese’s comments. He said he has spoken to her privately on the issue before and was aware she had “very strong views”.
He described it as “very useful that somebody like her would bring this out into the open” as it “needs to be discussed and talked about in the church”.
Fr Flannery added that some of his best friends would be homosexual in the priesthood, and “it is something we have been aware of for a long time”.
“The percentage of priests who are of homosexual orientation has undoubtedly increased right across the world in the last 10 years,” he added.
He said there is a tendency in the Catholic Church for people who have a particular weakness in their private life to become very moralistic about it in public life.
Fr Flannery also said Pope Benedict had caused big problems by using phrases such as “disordered” in relation to homosexuality. He said that Pope Francis “tends to start with the situation of the reality of people’s lives” rather than doctrine.
The priest said that he believes that church teaching on homosexuality and a number of areas to do with human sexuality “is in serious need of change and reform”.
Meanwhile, GLEN also welcomed McAleese’s comments.
Kieran Rose, chair of GLEN, said:
Mary McAleese continues to be a wonderful advocate for lesbian and gay people out of office just as she was as president. The comments by the former president will send a profoundly positive message to all lesbian and gay people.
He said that Irish attitudes towards LGBT have changed fundamentally in recent times.
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I got 99 problems but ice cream ain’t one
Well we’ve little or no use for it here during the summer, might as well export it to somewhere the sun shines :-)
@Spartacus Ireland: Wot r u babblin’ abou’ luv? Dis is not a *Caribbean* Island fer jaysus sakes. Wot were yew expecting?
This Summer has been the closest to non-Climate Change, Irish normal, in nearly a decade. Other than the persistent 20°C temperature. Usually we used to have a “Californian Winter” temperature of 14-18°C, with 20s to 23s being *”a heatwave”* for us.
Normal Irish Summers were always …”Soft” or “Bog” (mixed sun-cloud-showers with balmy moderate temperatures i.e. mid to high teens), and “Close” (moderately high Humidity).
Hence the Irish phrase:
“A sunshine shower only lasts a half an hour”.
Also – we happily gobble ice-cream in the depths of Winter.
….just to keep the foreign students and visitors totally and utterly off-balance…
A tactic retained from the time of the British Occupation – do the exact opposite to what they expect.
The madder, the better.
XD
We don’t need this “Sun” you speak of. We’re Irish, we eat ROCKS!!! Arrrrhh!!
Ice cream in Ireland is a thriving business due to the foresight of one man. Juan Cornetto
Wow, what a scoop!
The ice cream manufacturers are creaming it!!! Good news story.
This is great news for dairy farmers
@Sean Money: Unfortunately it’s only good news for a handful. Dairy farmers nowadays need to be enormous to turn a profit. Most will go as the ratio of effort to income continues to not make sense (only what I hear from my dairy farming neighbours).
@Thesaltyurchin: average dairy farm income is 175,000.00 per the national farm survey
@Ronan Meagle: Dropped from an unprecedented high in 2022 to €86,000 before tax in 2023. 7 days a week, 52 week a year, working on average 52 hours/week with many working 70 hours/week. €24 – €32/hour before tax. Most people aren’t cut out for the work that dairy farmers do – it ain’t easy!
@Ronan Meagle: As I mentioned, just from 3 conversations with locals. Doubtful that figure includes costs, employees, etc.
@Leslie Dwyer: They should sell up and get a 9 to 5 job then if farming is to poorly paid
@Leslie Dwyer: Thank you. I love dairy. Good bones ;-)
@Pat O Dwyer: Many are. There were 17,495 dairy farmers in 2020 compared with 31,809 in 2000 – a 45% reduction in 20 years. It won’t be long before that figure is 15,000.
But … look at the size of our national debt . One of the highest in the world . Why are the alarm bells not going off ?
@BL Music: The size if the debt is not important, it’s the ability to service it.
@BL Music: Debt per head is similar to the UK’s but they are tanking. Hopefully we won’t. Credit ratings are important for servicing it too. Macro economic prudence – less interesting than ice cream!
@Sean O’Dhubhghaill: Let’s not forget that Moody’s and S+P effd us to save the WASP countries, when we were in a fully appropriate, *post-Conflict*, *Peacetime*, economic *and property* upswing.
The proof is in the pudding right now – we can’t live up to our (Housing) obligations both to our indigenous population, and the most vulnerable populations of the world that we swore to shelter as we were once sheltered.
We got a small portion of our post-conflict “valuing life” Peace dividend, regaining respect for lives on the road (and, to a degree, in other contexts).
But we should still be reaping that benefit – if not for the *foreign instigated* (Russian sympathising American-Zionist, Brit’ Zionist, and Russo-Zionists) rise, and rise, of anti-Catholic, anti-Semite [Christian, Jew and Muslim], anti-Irish, anti-Democracy, Fascism.
We are *owed* our post-conflict Economic stability, growth, and Housing Stability.
Cool story
I scream, you scream, everybody loves ice cream :-)
@Patrice Ahern: ….we all scream for ice-cream*
Plenty of research confirms that diary’s not good for ones health. But sure, who cares?
@Charlie Arum: Anne Frank would probably agree
@Ronan McGrath: It’s a good job Anne Frank didn’t keep a journal. When discovered,every second page would read “comments closed”
@Charlie Arum: Always baffled my why we drink the baby food of an animal with multiple stomachs. Seems mad. I do like ice cream tho
@Larry Betts: Hur da sure knew what the white Ashkenazi Zionists had done to her, and to the non-white Semite Jewry of Europe.
He wouldn’t give dem White [Russo-] Zionists the time of day, for all the rest of his days.
He *knew*.
Is a ’69′ the one without a flake stuck in it?
Its like reporting that X is the tallest of the seven dwarfs, when he is still a midget.
@Pat Mcleran: 6 out of 7 dwarfs are not happy
Does “ice cream” include that powdered stuff they mix with water and squirm it into cones and stuff flakes that are not chocolate into?
A…whaaaaaaa???
We have/make ice-cream, other than HB (*now made in fekn Engalund*), that we export?
A-beg-a-puddin’?
Whaaaaaaaaaaaa? O.o
Show me this “Irish ice-cream” you speak of.
What brands? What types?
And jaysus, it had better not be “Gelato” or the Italians will abandon the Croatia case, and hit the roof altogether.
This is great news, I was quite “cone”cerned about the future of our dairy industry
With that amount of dairy here what do you expect?
* dairy’s *
have your say