On Irish State Media today, Bilderberg member Simon Coveney openly bragged of travelling to Kenya and Somalia in recent days.
The controversial former prolifer has attended pointless junkets in locations as far flung as Iran and Turkey as his own people were under de facto house arrest during much of 2021.
The hypocrisy of Coveney, and others, was often highlighted during increasingly draconian attacks against religious freedom in the Irish State. Some of these attacks included Gardai being sent to confront priests who were distributing Communion, national newspapers watching webcam footage of Catholic funerals and reporting on 5 (yes 5) extra mourners and even footage of Gardai storming a church before Mass in Athlone in images that shocked the world.
Now, in the wake of a stream of images of Taoiseach in Waiting Leo Varadkar regularly attending large outdoor events for ‘Dublin Pride’, the Catholic Bishops have finally said ‘enough’.
In a statement released yesterday, the bishops stated that they would be allowing Communions, Confirmations and Baptisms to proceed as planned. The anti Catholic government have repeatedly strung the church along on allowing these events only to change their minds at the last minute, leaving the religious authorities to deal with angry parents and disappointed children.
Yes, there is a merit to children arriving to Mass on any given day to receive their First Holy Communion as some have suggested, but perhaps that is better off as a future initiative. Right now, the church were being made fools of by a government that has repeatedly mocked and derided them in the Dail, yet now expected them to accept their discriminatory decisions as being made in good faith.
The increasingly maligned Taoiseach Micheal Martin, who will step aside to allow for Leo Varadkar to resume the role soon, has reacted angrily to Bishop Kevin Doran's statement on the matter.
Martin stated he opposed ‘‘any unilateral breaching of regulations no matter what quarter they come from”. The Fianna Fail leader, who was once prolife but turned his party into a pro abortion outfit, continued ‘I'd say to the church authorities that the Government's only motivation here in terms of the regulations we have brought in, in respect of gatherings and congregations, is to protect people and to protect people's health. That is our only motivation and I think that should be accepted in good faith’.
His anger eminated from Bishop Doran's statement that ‘‘The mission of the Church cannot be put on hold indefinitely”. Surely even the most ardent anti Catholic could not say with a straight face that the church should think of the discriminatory behaviour of the past year as being ‘in good faith'.
The bishops have done the right thing. They have been singled out because of bigotry and spite, for no other reason. It is impossible to take in ‘good faith's such restrictions from the same politicians who were hissing and abusing Catholics praying outside churches during lockdown and who were recording videos of processions and uploading them to media to encourage bullying of people of faith, not to mention those who picketed a Catholic church recently to demand that they fly certain flags.
Stand by your bishops and support them.
Between now and when the government attempts to inevitably shut down Masses at Christmas again, we are all in this battle together.