Revolt Grows: Dublin Bishop Tells Pope, “Time For A Reality Check” & Political Leader Tweets “F*** Yeah !”, by Jerry Slevin, Christian Catholicism (May 23, 2015)

Revolt Grows: Dublin Bishop Tells Pope, “Time For A Reality Check” & Political Leader Tweets “F*** Yeah !”

By Jerry Slevin
Christian Catholicism
May 23, 2015

http://christiancatholicism.com/revolt-grows-dublin-bishop-tells-pope-time-for-a-reality-check-political-leader-tweets-f-yeah/

Pope Francis’ honeymoon with Catholics is definitely over! Predominantly Catholic Ireland has now overwhelmingly rejected in a landslide vote one of Pope Francis’ key positions by permitting same sex marriage. Surprising many who had predicted a generational divide, the support cut across age and gender, geography, and income, early results showed. This follows the recent Catholic revolt in a Chilean cathedral against Pope Francis’ controversial bishop appointment (see here and YouTube ). As a result, the Archbishop of Dublin has publicly and boldly challenged the pope to “get real”. The Irish voted to allow same-sex marriage, by direct referendum by almost a two to one margin, with one of highest voter turnouts ever at more than 60 per cent. This despite US funding of the anti-gay supporters, see “US Christians bankrolling “No Vote” in Ireland’s anti-gay marriage crusade” .

This is very bad news for the pope and his “low tax” US Republican billionaire backers with their “anti-gay marriage” crusade now underway for next year’s US presidential elections. Catholics in the U.S. — white, Hispanic, and otherwise — support same-sex marriage at about the same rate as the Irish voted. As Mark Silk has noted, this Irish vote will resonate around the world, and perhaps even ring a bell with the two Irish Catholics on the U.S. Supreme Court, John Roberts and Anthony Kennedy, who represent the swing votes on next month’s (June’s) decision to determine whether same-sex couples have a constitutional right to be married in the United States.

An Irish government minister reflected expletively the reaction of many angry Catholics, worldwide, who overwhelming and emphatically reject the pope’s hypocritical and homophobic position in a Church with a signicant number of actively gay clerics. The minister tweeted after the Irish vote, “F*** Yeah!”

The pope’s main source of political power with right wing leaders worldwide derives from his potential ability in elections to “bring out” targeted and mainly single issue fundamentalist voters on issues like gay marriage and abortion. That potential influence is declining rapidly due to the Vatican’s sex abuse cover-up and financial scandals. This has been clearly indicated by the Irish vote, as well as by recently popular petitions focused on Cardinals George Pell’s and Timothy Dolan’s alleged abuse cover-ups and callous disregard for abuse survivors. Indeed, the Vatican’s Irish anti-gay crusade paradoxically brought out more papal opposition voters, as is likely to occur in next year’s US elections as well.

Also, more than 65,000 people in just a few days have signed a petition calling for Cardinal George Pell to return to his native Australia and face a government commission on child sex abuse, after allegations that he tried to bribe the victim of a pedophile priest. It seems evident now, to me at least, that Pell fled Australia to get the benefit of the Vatican’s sovereign immunity protection from presecution, with Pope Francis’ knowledge and support, as Cardinal Bernard Law did earlier under Pope John Paul II. Addressed to Pope Francis, the Change.org petition calls for Pell — the Vatican’s financial chief and former archbishop of Sydney — to answer questions under oath. Please see “Political leader calls on Cardinal Pell to face Royal Commission” , “‘Australia’s worst pedophile priest’ ” , and “Cardinal Pell is ‘weak and ineffectual’and not very smart” .

A few days ago in a last minute and desperate Irish Times article, Dublin’s Archbishop Diarmuid Martin tried unsuccessfully to use Pope Francis’ media created popularity to influence Irish voters: “My position is that of Pope Francis, who, in the debates around same-sex marriage in Argentina, made it very clear that he was against legalising same-sex marriage, … “. Now after Irish Catholics overwhelmingly rejected the pope’s and Martin’s position, Martin reportedly has directly challenged the pope publicly in pertinent part (in italics): “It’s a social revolution {the Irish vote} that’s been going on – perhaps in the Church people have not been as clear in understanding what that involved, … We have to stop and have a reality check, not move into denial of the realities. We won’t begin again with a sense of renewal with a sense of denial, … I ask myself, most of these young people who voted yes {to allow same sex marriage} are products of our Catholic school system for 12 years. I’m saying there’s a big challenge there …” (emphasis mine)

In the weeks running up to the voting day and under Vatican direction evidentally, a series of Catholic bishops futilely issued public letters to their congregations outlining their objections to same sex marriage. The Primate of All Ireland, Archbishop Eamon Martin, even threatened that the Irish Catholic hierarchy might even reconsider its position on whether priests would continue to solemnise the civil aspect of a marriage if a vote approving same sex marriage were passed. That foolish threat backfired apparently.

The world’s most staunch Catholic country for centuries, Ireland, is very significantly the first to legalise same-sex marriage by a popular vote. Fr. Tony Flannery, a leader of the largest Irish priests’ group, referred to the vote as “amazing”, adding that even the priests’ group had been “split down the middle”. Flannery perceptively noted reportedly: “This is a conclusive indication that the power of the bishops in Ireland is gone. Even the older generation is not listening to them any more. The young generation came out in force; some even came home from abroad to vote. A new, and very different, Ireland has become a reality today.” He added: “The challenge for the Church leaders now is to tune in to this new Ireland. I am not hopeful they have the capacity to do so.” (emphasis mine)

Irish political leaders were quick to react positively to the voters’ overwhelming and broad based decision. Gerry Adams in this short video noted this is a huge day for equality . Ireland’s prime minister, Enda Kenny, pointed out that it was the movement of young people who were firmly behind the reforms. Kenny reportedly added: “I think from a young person’s perspective, particularly for those who travelled from wherever to wherever to put a simple mark on a paper, shows the value of the issue and the importance of politics, … .”

Undoubtedly, political leaders elsewhere, e.g., the USA, Australia, Germany, the UK, the Philippines, in Latin America, et al., also noticed the weak support for the pope’s position and the rejection of the popular pope’s directives. The media fanfare associated with Pope Francis’ unnecessary trips, photo ops, views on climate change and other clear efforts to distract from the Vatican’s continuing scandals, apparently cannot lead to getting most Catholics to accept the pope’s irrational approach to sexual morality.

It is becoming clear that Catholics, especially young ones, are not buying what Pope Francis is trying to sell. Indeed, the lay female president of New York’s Jesuit Le Moyne College recently weighed in perceptively, in connection with student and faculty protests over having Cardinal Dolan as the graduation speaker. She was asked “Was the level of protest coming from some students a surprise?” She reportedly replied: “To be completely forthcoming, yes it was. I never imagined the depth of concern. And, frankly, I underestimated our students. I underestimated their concern for social justice, their concern for those who have been abused and marginalized, their concerns for reparation for those who have been abused. My hat is off to these 20- and 21-year-olds, who are already beginning to see the big picture, …”.

Only celibate men living in the childless Vatican bubble could make these bad decisions. Pathetic and outrageous, really. Many Catholics will not have it!

This type of approach is the “death knell” for the pope’s flawed sexual morality, it would appear. The curtain is rising on the real Francis, no?

Moreover, US political leaders of both parties are shamefully continuing to give the pope a pass on the child abuse scandal, likely to try to gain political advantage in next year’s presidential and congressional elections.

What the Irish rejection of Pope Francis’ position on same sex marriage shows is that the pope’s media star image does not carry over to political influence !!!

Political leaders, please wake up.

Courageous UN leaders and political leaders in nations like Australia, the UK, Chile, Ireland, et al., are challenging the pope and his subordinates’ indefensible records, but leaders like the USA’s Obama and Clinton, and even Catholics like Boehner, Biden, Peter King, Nancy Pelosi, Jeb Bush, Rubio, Guiliani, Cuomo, Christie, Jindal, Panetta, Santorum, Jerry Brown, et al., look the other way too often on priest child abuse and bishops’ cover-ups. I was a classmate of Guiliani and King and went to the same law school as Obama. I know they know better and deeply believe the others do as well!

Why this political cowardice? Pope Francis’ high poll numbers, that’s why! Francis’ recently created media star image, created by opportunistic supporters, including low tax/less regulation billionaires like FOX’s Rupert Murdoch, appeals to desperate Republicans and scares unprincipled Democrats. Francis supports through his US bishops’ right wing policies, like anti-gay marriage, anti-contraception/abortion and pro Mideast war policies, as he winks disingenuously to the left with platitudes about helping the poor and controlling climate change, and signals to fundamentalist Latinos with references to the devil and Our Lady of Guadalupe, to calculated canonizations for Archbishop Romero and Franciscan Serra, and to empty promises about the desperate immigrants fleeing Latin American Catholic countries where cardinals too often politically pimp for plutocrats.

Meanwhile, most politicians try to ride the pope’s media made coattails, followed by a mostly complicit and robotic media echo chamber. Yet, well over a hundred thousand (the Vatican’s experts’ own estimate) USA children have reportedly been abused by priests, while the pope and his selfish old boys club spend billions on themselves and try to to shift the cost of helping priest abuse survivors and their families from the bishops to government welfare programs. At the same time, Francis limits entry to the priesthood by excluding married men and women, which only exacerbates the abuse crisis by narrowing the priest candidate pool.

The Irish vote proves Pope Francis’ poll numbers do not translate into a similar level of influence over Catholic voters.