The story of Betty Broderick illustrates how a strong religious upbringing cannot always prevent acts of betrayal and violence.
Category Archives: Roman Catholic Church
Another reason to despise the Catholic Church!
(Note: part of this was originally posted as a comment here.)
I am even more disgusted with the Roman Catholic Church than ever! Why? Because of this:
http://www.countmeout.ie/suspension/
This is a website based in Ireland telling people how to leave the Church. However……
Suspension of the Defection Process
In April of this year, the Catholic Church modified the Code of Canon Law to remove all references to the act of formal defection, the process used by those who wish to formally renounce their membership of the Church.
Since then, the Catholic Church in Ireland has been reflecting on the implications of this change for those who wish to leave the Catholic Church. Despite our requests for clarification, the Church have yet to reach a firm position on how or whether they will continue to accept requests for the annotation of the baptismal register.
In recent weeks we have been contacted by an increasing number of people whose defections have not been processed, due to the limbo created by this canon law amendment.
Because of this uncertainty, we have taken the decision to suspend the creation of declarations of defection via CountMeOut.ie from today (12th October 2010).
In response to this, the Church in Ireland released the following statement to RTE News:
The Holy See confirmed at the end of August that it was introducing changes to Canon Law and as a result it will no longer be possible to formally defect from the Catholic Church. This will not alter the fact that many people can defect from the Church, and continue to do so, albeit not through a formal process. This is a change that will affect the Church throughout the world. The Archdiocese of Dublin plans to maintain a register to note the expressed desire of those who wish to defect. Details will be communicated to those involved in the process when they are finalised. Last year 229 people formally defected from the Church through the Archdiocese of Dublin. 312 have done so, so far this year.
Look, you do not need permission of the Catholic Church to leave it. To even bother to go through any “”Declaration of Defection” process is to acknowledge the authority of the Church over you.
If you were baptised as a Catholic you are still counted among the congregation of the church, regardless of what beliefs you currently hold.
Which is of course a grievous lie! And you can publicly and loudly condemn the Church for this.
Go here to send messages of condemnation:
http://www.catholicireland.net/contact-us
Now, for those who do wish to abandon Catholicism but don’t wish to submit to the Church’s hoop jumping, there are alternatives. By joining another religious body, you make your rejection of Catholicism beyond dispute.
Ex-Catholics who are still Christian: Join a Protestant church. Protestants are growing as a strong minority in Latin American countries and have always been common in Europe, where the Protestant movement began. Start here: http://www.lutheranworld.org/lwf/ The Lutherans seem to be the closest in nature to Catholicism, which makes sense when you consider that they were the first to break away and were conservative compared to the Protestant movements that arose later.
Ex-Catholics who are no longer Christian but still believe in the God of the Jewish Bible : Join a Jewish Synagogue. Most Jewish groups make it difficult to join, so you may have to spend a long time convincing the rabbi that you are sincere and willing to follow the Jewish rituals and standards. The Reform Jews seem to be the ones most likely to fit you, since they are not as dogmatic and stuck in the past as others. http://urj.org/ http://www.wupj.org/index.asp
Ex-Catholics who are theists and believe that prophets came after Jesus: Join an Islamic community or a Bahai comunity. Not just any Islamic or Bahai community, but ones that allow you to think for yourself. Look here: http://www.liberalislam.net/ or here: http://www.unitarianbahai.org/
Ex-Catholics that are deist or non-theist: The best option for you is to join a Unitarian Universalist (UU) church, since deists and non-theists are welcome there. http://www.uua.org/ There is even a ministry for those who do not live near a UU church: http://clf.uua.org/ Once you are established as a UU, you can freely explore other options without having to ever leave that congregation. There are even UU Christians, UU Jews, UU Pagans and UU Buddhists that have their own groups within the Unitarian Universalist Association.
The important thing is that you identify as anything other than Catholic and that if you have children they not be raised Catholic. If enough people around the world do this, the power and influence of the Roman Catholic Church will be broken.
Priestly Celibacy is unbiblical and stupid!
Cover via Amazon
For many centuries, all clergy in the Roman Catholic Church have been required to be celibate, despite the total absence of any scriptural basis for this policy. Indeed, there is a clear statement in the New Testament against it!
http://www.biblegateway.com/passage/?search=1%20Timothy%203&version=NIV
1 Timothy 3
1 Here is a trustworthy saying: Whoever aspires to be an overseer desires a noble task. 2 Now the overseer is to be above reproach, faithful to his wife, temperate, self-controlled, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, 3 not given to drunkenness, not violent but gentle, not quarrelsome, not a lover of money. 4 He must manage his own family well and see that his children obey him, and he must do so in a manner worthy of full[a] respect. 5 (If anyone does not know how to manage his own family, how can he take care of God’s church?)
The Irish people must abandon Catholicism!
It is painful for me to proclaim that, despite being a non-theist who was never a Catholic. I know all too well how deeply embedded Catholicism is in the spirit of Ireland; a major theme of past Irish rebellion against English domination was the British being Protestant and the Irish being Catholic. Without the support of the Catholic Church, Ireland might never have won its political freedom. But now the time has come for the Irish people to seek their spiritual freedom as well, and so they must throw off the Catholic dogmas and institutions too!
Why? Because of this report:
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20110118/ap_on_re_eu/eu_ireland_catholic_abuse
Is the Baha’i Faith becoming like the Roman Catholic Church?
I just saw this blog entry which shocked me:
The Pope must be removed from office!
I never thought I’d see anyone as tone deaf to the realities of the world and its problems as I see in charge of the Roman Catholic Church right now. Clearly, that institution is on its deathbed and it is time to pull the plug on it and leave it to die!
This article just left me stunned in its inanity:
The arrogance of Catholic League President Bill Donohue
Look at these videos:
Question: Is the Empire State Building (ESB) owned by the Catholic Church? Is it even a religious building at all? And would Mother Teresa herself have insisted on this sort of thing?
If the answer to any of these questions is no, then the refusal of the owners of the ESB to set aside a special night to honor Mother Teresa is their right. The whole point of owning private property is doing with it whatever you wish, not what someone else wants. Bill Donohue is an @$$hole! A very loud farting one!
Here is the scheduel for the lighting of the ESB over the past year:
http://www.esbnyc.com/tourism/tourism_lightingschedule.cfm?CFID=38563048&CFTOKEN=63757689
It should be noted that Mother Teresa, as beloved as she was, is not even yet an official Saint in the Catholic Church. Perhaps someday she will be declared as such. And there are so many ways to honor her, within Catholic Churches as well as anywhere else. Why make such an issue of the ESB?
Because Bill Donohue needs something to scream about to make his name appear in the news and look like he is doing something good, when he is just spitting in the wind. And even if he gets his wish, I don’t see how lighting the ESB a certain way for one night will save a single life or otherwise do anything beneficial for the building, its owners, or the businesses that work within it. Does anyone?
The Catholic Church hits an all time low!
Seriously, read this!
http://www.cnn.com/2010/CRIME/04/11/connecticut.abuse.bill/index.html?hpt=T1
Connecticut bishops fight sex abuse bill
From Jamie Guzzardo, CNN
April 11, 2010 10:30 p.m. EDT
Hartford, Connecticut (CNN) — A bill in Connecticut’s legislature that would remove the statute of limitations on child sexual abuse cases has sparked a fervent response from the state’s Roman Catholic bishops, who released a letter to parishioners Saturday imploring them to oppose the measure.
Under current Connecticut law, sexual abuse victims have 30 years past their 18th birthday to file a lawsuit. The proposed change to the law would rescind that statute of limitations.
The proposed change to the law would put “all Church institutions, including your parish, at risk,” says the letter, which was signed by Connecticut’s three Roman Catholic bishops.
The letter is posted on the Web site of the Connecticut Catholic Public Affairs Conference, the public policy and advocacy office of Connecticut’s Catholic bishops. It asks parishioners to contact their legislators in opposition of the bill.
The “legislation would undermine the mission of the Catholic Church in Connecticut, threatening our parishes, our schools, and our Catholic Charities,” the letter says.
The Catholic archdiocese of Hartford also published a pulpit announcement on its Web site, which was to be read during Mass on Sunday, urging parishioners to express opposition to the bill.
The bill has been revised to address some of the church’s concerns about frivolous abuse claims against it, according to Connecticut state Rep. Beth Bye, one of the bill’s sponsors.
“The church didn’t recognize that this bill makes improvements,” Bye said. “The victims — their lives have been changed and some will never recover from years of sexual abuse. For me, it’s about giving them access to the courts.”
Under the bill’s provisions, anyone older than 48 who makes a sex abuse claim against the church would need to join an existing claim filed by someone 48 or younger. Older claimants would need to show substantial proof that they were abused.
“They were worried about frivolous lawsuits and so we made the bar high,” Bye said.
The bill does not target the Catholic Church, she said.
The bishops’ letter raised concerns that the bill would allow claims that are 70 years or older, in which “key individuals are deceased, memories have been faded, and documents and other evidence have been lost.” The letter said that the majority of cases would be driven by “trial lawyers hoping to profit from these cases.”
The bill passed in Connecticut’s House of Representatives, and Bye said the state Senate should vote on it in the next week or two.
Clearly, the Catholic Church is doing absolutely the wrong thing! Perhaps this will finally motivate most of Connecticut’s Catholics to bolt from the Church, along with millions of others!
Sinead O’Connor was both wrong and right.
In 1992, this Irish singer took a stand against the Roman Catholic Church for abusing children, yet when she did so, she failed to make a connection to her audience. Instead of just telling people what the problem was, she tried to shock people as a way of getting their attention. That only damaged her career.
Soon afterwards, she made an public appearance where she was booed by the audience. They simply did not understand or appreciate what she’d been trying to warn them about.
Nearly two decades and many more abused children later, O’Connor corrected herself with an appearance on CNN. By now, most people were ready to listen to her and she spoke about the issue with grace and understanding, as she should have done in the first place.
Let this be an object lesson for activists of all types: You CANNOT force people to listen to what they are simply not ready to hear, and both timing and method are crucial to make your case. Ripping up a picture of the Pope did no good. Ripping up the Pope in writing or speech detailing what he may have done wrong does and always will do good.
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