Irish Bishops praying for the Holy Spirit to execute Vatican demands for the renewal of the Irish laity.
The Irish Bishops have been in Rome to consult with the Vatican concerning the devastation multiple government investigations into clerical child abuse have had on Irish Catholicism. As far as any answer which might have had some credibility, the Irish Bishops might just as well have gone to Pluto. The Bishops are towing the Vatican line and calling for the renewal of the laity, not the reform of the clergy.
In Wake of Scandal, Irish Bishops Call For Renewal
CNA/EWTN - 10/23/2010 - Rome, Italy
The Irish bishops have announced plans for a year of prayer for renewal in the light of clergy sexual abuse scandals that have roiled the Church.
Using Pope Benedict XVI's guidance as the core of the initiative, the bishops hope to promote healing within the Church through reconciliation, adoration and Scripture reading. (What ever happened to reforming the clergy?)
At the conclusion of their annual meeting Oct. 19, the bishops indicated that their program would be based on suggestions made by Pope Benedict XVI in the pastoral letter he sent to Ireland’s Catholics in March.
Beginning with the first Sunday of Advent, Nov. 28, the Irish Church will begin a year of prayer, penance, and spiritual renewal.
In his March 19 letter, the Pope had invited Irish Catholics to devote their ordinary Friday penances to the intention of healing and “the long-term process of restoration.” He also encouraged them to fast, pray, read the Scriptures, and works of mercy "to obtain the grace of healing and renewal for the Church in Ireland."
He also encouraged them to go to confession more often and to spend more time in prayer before the Eucharist. (Maybe Benedict has gotten confused about this whole abuse issue, he seems to think it was about Irish laity and their children raping priests. Why else could he ask for conversion of the laity and leave out reformation of clergy?)
The bishops said they will put these suggestions into action, recognizing the need for "profound renewal." They proposed that the "first step" in the process to be the observance of the Year of St. Matthew.
The renewal will follow the Church’s liturgical reading of the Gospel of Matthew in the Sunday Mass celebrations. This, the bishops explained, will be "an opportunity for all to avail of Scripture-based prayer to guide the renewal of the Church in Ireland at this time." In addition, the bishops will encourage Catholics to participate in Eucharistic adoration, confession and Friday penance. They will also pray the special prayer for the Church of Ireland included at the end of the Pope’s March letter. (And make no institutional changes at all?)
In a statement, the bishops said they welcomed the upcoming Vatican investigation of certain dioceses as well as seminaries and religious congregations in the country. They hoped that it "will assist in purifying and healing the Church in Ireland and will help to restore the trust and hope of the faithful in our country." (In the country? What about restoring trust and hope in the Church and it's clergy?)
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How do these men think they have anything to say to a post modern society like the Irish, when they refuse to comply with the minimal ethical standards of what the Vatican terms 'secular relativism'? Minimal standards like accountability, transparency, and an attempt at some kind of integrity. Asking your victims to renew their commitment to the unreformed institutional structure which victimized them is a very good definition of insanity. Or abuse. Or rubbing salt in wounds, or whatever.
This is not just a request for the laity to return to Catholic sacramentality as a cure for what ails the clergy, but it's a request to return to a 1950's sacramental theology which was all about the transcendent magic of the clerical caste and it's sacramental system. This particular call for 'renewal' is truly an insult to thinking Irish Catholics. Essentially it's a call to renew the very lay thinking and attitudes which enabled the massive abuse numbers and the decades long cover up. It is not going to appeal to the large majority of Irish Catholics who have been legitimately offended and scandalized by the actions of the hierarchy.
I keep wondering why it is so difficult for these men to admit the system is rotten and abusive. I can see why men like Raymond Burke refuse to see it. It's taken him to the heights of his wildest personal fantasies, but there are others like Cardinal Schonborn and Archbishop Martin who see the truth. And yet Benedict suggests they shut up, and they do. Where is their integrity and what are they so afraid of? Do they have nightmares about the demise of JPI and Oscar Romero? Makes me wonder who is really calling the shots in the Vatican. It sure doesn't seem like who ever it is has any connection with Jesus Christ or the Holy Spirit. It doesn't seem like they give a damn about how many Catholics in the Western world leave, or why they do so. It doesn't seem that anything other than money and access to power really matters. (See Legionaries white wash.)
Given the apparent real agenda, money and power, I guess it's not surprising that the Vatican is insisting laity pray for their own renewal in the system which generated all the Vatican wealth and power. When I look at current trends though, I can see a scenario in which it all comes tumbling down. When it does it won't be pretty. It won't be the lapsed Catholics, or the dissident Catholics, or the Recovering Catholics, or the Episcopalian Catholics whose faith is utterly devastated. It will be the spiritually infantilized 'true Catholics' Benedict thinks of as 'the simple people'.
The truth is that the Vatican knows they have lost the vast majority of the West. They also know that unless there are radical changes in how the faith is formulated and presented, changes which directly impact how power and authority in the church is conceptualized and expressed, they can not recover the post modern Western mind. Instead they have turned their eyes to the South, where the fields appear greener. They have not however, allowed for anything like equal power sharing with their non European clerical brothers. Given the make up of Benedict's College of Cardinals, any real power sharing is not likely to happen in the near future. Roman Catholicism will continue to be dominated by the wealth and political power of white conservative westerners well into the later stages of this century.
And now for a jump shift.....My predictions only count if the Vatican survives in it's current manifestation and there are reasons to think a lot of our pet theological ideas and institutions won't survive in their current manifestations. In the last two weeks there has been more mainstream media UFO coverage than ever before. The linked website explores the idea of exopolitics and credible UFO sitings. That's a notion which calls for dealing with a much greater reality. For what it's worth, I can verify from a personal conversation with a Malmstrom AFB Intelligence Officer that UFO's have made that particular SAC base and it's missile command centers a frequent stop, and that the shut down of the two missile command centers in 1967 really did occur. It has also happened in the Soviet Union. I personally have seen the kind of flying lights mentioned in some of the articles. That's not surprising since the family ranch is right in the middle of two missile flights.
We have been kept in the dark and lied to about this phenomenon since the late forties. My guess is there are people in the Vatican who are well aware of the truth of this interaction and have been in the knowledge loop from the very beginning. That's why we are now getting articles like this one.
