"well little sniper shaw hows about you enlighten us all or are you simply popping up to troll as you normally do when you have zilch to contribute."
So far this tragic and potentially contentious discussion has been conducted with the minimum of personal abuse and a fair degree of dignity and gravity-
Is it too much to expect that the victims of these events are treated with enough respect to not get this thread closed?
"If these priests had been heterosexual and were assaulting young girls you would be screaming for their blood.""
I don't "scream for blood" nor do I rant
The same thing I asked of Iains goes for you
Personal abuse aside, unlike you, I don't discriminate between heterosexual and homosexual crimes or Catholic or Muslin or Traveller or Irish crimes - a crime is a crime, whoever commits it.
Nor do I try to make any of these anything other than the criminal acts they are.
The Clerical abuse outrages have two distinct aspects.
I've never believed the "few bad apples" theory" - far too many incidents and far too long a history.
The celibate nature of clerical life may have something to do with it, but this abuse has gone hand in hand with centuries of power and influence wielded with draconian savagery - its weaponry ranges from divine blackmail to simple brute force and has been established by a Church that has been given access to children's minds from the moment they begin to think - I'm delighted somebody brought up "guilt"
The Irish church (I grew up with the phrase "Holy Ireland" ringing in my ears) is on the skids - congregations have dwindled, the numbers of masses have been reduced and in some towns, no longer take place, and there is a recruitment crisis in the priesthood.
And still the Vatican will not open its files to victims, Religious bodies will not pay legally demanded compensation and the victims of the savage MAGDALENE LAUNDRIES are still being described as "whores" and "the sweepings of the street".
These crimes have never really been generated by sex - it has always been about the wielding of power in order to establish superiority and control over subjects.
That power is coming to an end
Education here is now a pitched battle, with the church fighting desperately to maintain its 90% plus stranglehold on education
Yesterday it was announced that an inquiry is to be held into the use of nuns in the medical system (possibly something to do with a recently failed attempt to put Ireland's largest maternity hospital under the control of a religious body that believes pregnancy termination to be a 'mortal sin') - not to mention the deaths of women who have been forbidden treatment because "Ireland is a Catholic Country" (to quote a Galway Hospital medical attendant)
I find it beyond belief that a notorious homophobe should attempt to turn this into another campaign against homosexuality (sorry - I lie, given past behaviour, I would have been surprised if it hadn't become an issue).
Enough is enough Ake - homosexuality has been recognised as the nature=al state of being that it is - please try to keep up with what has been happening in the outside world for well over half a century.
Jim Carroll