‘There is a growing polarisation within the Catholic Church and by certain groups who seem to think that they have a right, self-righteously, to proclaim threats in the name of how they understand the truth. We have seen examples in our own days. The truth will only be attained in love. Error will only be refuted in love. Nastiness and hatred betray the message of love’.
Those were the words of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin earlier this year when he was asked to publicly comment on peaceful protests against abortion and quickie divorce advocate Josepha Madigan. Madigan had drawn public criticism from Martin months previous when she was widely reported to have ‘said Mass’ at St. Therese Church in Mount Merrion, part of Martin’s Diocese. Martin was following up on comments that he made in January, where he also appeared to condemn prolife protestors staging peaceful vigils on days where abortion providing GPs were closed, ‘I’m not a person personally for protest, what the Church should be doing is strengthening its resolve to help women in crisis and to educate people’.
There have been no public pronouncements by Martin on the involvement of pro abortion politicians in the Catholic Church. Although he criticised Madigan of 'furthering an agenda’ when she ‘said Mass’ in the absence of a priest last summer, he has not publicly criticised her presence at Mass every other weekend. He has not got involved in a public debate on why pro abortion politicians are being allowed to read at Mass, perform roles each week as Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion or to be allowed to make collections for pro abortion parties outside Catholic Churches.
He has, however, said the following regarding certain persistent public sinners being afforded funerals.
‘‘It’s a Catholic thing that these people, when it comes to one of their major people being damaged, that they go for a show funeral.
The thing about these show funerals is that the very young people, that we are trying to keep out of this sort of thing, will be attracted by this.
We will provide, and do provide, religious services for the family of the bereaved but will not have gatherings of the comrades of these people to be able to show off.
"Priests everyday are dealing with families who are bereaved and they have to say to people, 'look this song would be inappropriate for a funeral and people accept it.
"But if people say no we want to do something different, we can say 'please that isn’t suitable, go somewhere else'.
"Priests have to do it by their good pastoral tact. If people are insisting on things that go beyond the solemn arrival of the remains of the church.... then the entire church will have to say simply, no this isn't appropriate."
About abortionists? No, of course not. He was speaking about drug dealers.
Drug dealing, as opposed to drug taking, is not as common amongst the respectable classes in Ireland as it with those of a lower social rank. Although commendable that Martin is probably the only public figure in Ireland to speak about a growing epidemic of drug violence here, it is hard not to feel as though the media and even the Archbishop are being selective (perhaps unconsciously) in who they choose to publicly suggest denying the sacraments to.
While it is a tired feature of the online Catholic world to offer a knee jerk blaming of the Bishop and to talk about how bad of a job they are doing, it still needs to be pointed out that allowing pro abortion politicians to take part in Mass is something that simply cannot be tolerated. Ever.
The ‘unprecedented level of depravity’ which Martin speaks of in relation to drug crime applies also to recent revelations of the abortion regime instituted by Fine Gael and Fianna Fail.
1,000 abortions a month.
The HSE advising people to flush the remains of their aborted child down the toilet.
Stories of healthy babies being aborted after doctors misdiagnosed them with fatal illnesses and advised the parents to terminate.
And we haven’t even any official reports yet, we might never get them knowing the wilful cognitive dissonance of the Irish abortion lobby.
This is hell on Earth. This is every bit as depraved as drug dealers shooting one another and causing misery in those whom they get addicted to their ‘products’.
‘It’s all being done by people who are just trying to secure their own wealth by exploiting young people, putting young people through the sale of drugs, dragging young people, weak young people into their clutches so that it is almost impossible for them to get out,’ Martin also said.
Think of the depraved celebrations in Dublin Castle last year. So many young faces in the crowd. The ecstatic celebrations by the politicians on stage were not necessarily for abortion per se, they were also for themselves. The excitement on behalf of Fine Gael and Fianna Fail politicians was as much for their own careers as for abortion. Just as the gauche horse drawn carriages, the exquisite floral arrangements are there to show off, as Martin points out, the wealth of the drug dealer, so too is involvement within the Church there to show off the power and social wealth of the agents of the state’s pro abortion politicians. How many of our young people are seeing such behaviour, then seeing these people at Mass and then thinking that the Church endorses abortion?
Last week, Pope Francis made headlines when he condemned abortion as he asked ‘‘Is it permissible to contract a hitman to solve a problem?”
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has condemned one type of hitman already this week and rightfully put them in their place within the Church’s sacramental life.
But, and I could be mistaken, I do not think that there are many drug dealers each Sunday reading at Mass, handling Communion or making collections outside the Church.
If we are to get serious about fixing our Church from within, we cannot be blind to the crimes against the unborn just because those who commit them wear suits and head parish councils. Just because those agents of abortion appear cleaner on the surface, does not mean that the injections into the hearts of babies, the forceps tearing them apart or the saline burning them alive are any sweeter or more respectable.
Yes, let us commend Archbishop Martin on standing up to the drug dealers.
But let us also ask why the abortion fanatics are allowed to parade around God’s house like they are any better.
Perhaps a pastoral solution to both issues would be a charitable donation to Gianna Care or some other prolife group in order to be admitted to the Church?