When Cardinal Tagle spoke to Trocaire about ‘political hijacking of religion’ this past week, it could not have been more ironic.
Cardinal Tagle said:
It is sad to note that in some cases religion is invoked as a justification to start and spread violence…Violence passes on destructive prejudices
In December 2019, the once beloved charity proudly attended a rally organised by the Far Left and Antifa outside Leinster House in Dublin. Trocaire not only attended it, but proudly boasted of it on their social media and blocked anyone who questioned such an inappropriate presence.
The tweet announcing their attendance at the violent far left rally is still in place on their Twitter account.
Comically named ‘Rally for Peace on Earth’, the event was said to be opposed to ‘hate speech’. The event was actually organised as a counter demo to an original demo that was planned to oppose draconian anti free speech laws that were drafted by Fine Gael.
The counter demonstration included not only such organisations as Sex Workers Alliance Ireland, but also Dissident Catholic groups such as We Are Church Ireland. We Are Church Ireland were not the only kinds of dissidents present, however. Dissident Republican group Saoradh, a group many link to the New IRA, were also present at the event, standing only yards away from Trocaire and their proudly lofted sign. The sight of Communist flags was enough of a shameful sight for a charity paid for by Catholics and their bishops, but the disgusting violence which followed, with a number of arrests of far left activists, was even worse.
Worse still, was the fact that only months earlier, Saoradh’s offices in Derry were daubed in handprints made of red paint. The reason for that happening was as a form of stark and emotional protest, by those angry at the shooting of journalist Lyra McKee by the New IRA.
Trocaire has never explained, nor apologised for, their presence at this event. The Catholic Bishops have never acknowledged the inappropriateness of this, nor the potential scandal to the church from being associated with groups of this description.
The reaction from Irish people on social media at the time was one of complete disgust.
In his talk with Trocaire this week, Cardinal Antonio Tagle spoke of his concern over the return of:
the powerful big-boss-type of people, some of whom….hijack religion.
Tagle also talked of political figures who use religion as a ‘convenient way’ of getting followers.
The speech might have won some applause on the night, but in a wider sense it is completely out of step with the Irish church, which of late has a problem with cavorting with the far left, not the far right.
One popular priest in Ireland, for example, recently put his name to an organisation alongside some notoriously anti Catholic figures. The ‘anti discrimination’ NGO in question features members who have posed in intentionally blasphemous photos mocking the Mass and mocking the Eucharist. Better yet, it features one member who posted promotional material for his events with images of St. Patrick and Jesus Christ covered with semen. Seriously. The priest in question no doubt considers this acceptable because NGOs, regardless of far left infiltration, have become a higher cause to many than the church itself.
The sad reality is that these important cases are happening regularly and nothing is being done about them, because as is the case with Ireland’s governments, the tail wags the dog. NGOs tell the people who fund them what to do instead of vice versa.
With a Synod approaching, this should be one thing that Catholics mention when in consultation with the bishops. Our hard earned money should not be going towards organisations that attend rallies alongside Communists, alongside groups believed to be the political wing of the New IRA or alongside any other group of that ilk. If it such a thing does happen, we should at least receive an apology.
As for Cardinal Tagle, this is the sort of faux pas that has blighted Pope Francis’s time in the Vatican, with people like Evgeny Afineevsky allowed to make a complete joke of our church for his own political benefit, with little push back. If the Vatican invests in one thing between now and the next pope, it should be investment into people who can vet groups and individuals who have access to the pope and the senior hierarchy.