Saturday, May 23, 2009

Knowing ...

... and not knowing: A Century of Looking the Other Way. (Hat tip, Dave Lull.)

This brings to mind how enmity can forge a peculiar identification with the other. The Irish Catholic Church became a grotesque parody of its nemesis: Protestant Puritanism. I was educated mostly by a French order of nuns (the Religious of the Sacred Heart). The difference between my experience and those of friends of mine taught by other orders of mostly Irish nuns is startling. The Irish Church seems to have saved the Bark of Peter by tossing love overboard.

Some may find interesting what I had to say a few years regarding the sexual abuse scandal in the Archdiocese of Philadelphia: Toll the bell, close the book, quench the candle ...

Post bumped.

2 comments:

  1. Susan B.12:31 PM

    Yes, I think you lucked out. Unbelievable all the brutality and sexual abuse coming from Irish clergy -- and no doubt sadly overshadowing all the good priests and nuns from there.

    Did you also see that today's paper leads with the story of the former Archbishop Ryan h.s. president who not only stole nearly a million dollars (they can't figure out what he did with it and he's not saying), but also molested a (male) student? The boy later committed suicide. Sad, sad, sad.

    Absolute power corrupts absolutely.

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  2. Brian Moore called his native Ireland (though he was from Belfast) "a nation of masturbators under priestly instruction." Guess he didn't know the half of it.

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