Rachel Corrie honors Irish history, while Israel forgets its own

My friends,

When I think of an Irish ship on the sea filled with supplies for the needy, one image that does NOT come to mind is the picture of hundreds of ships from Ireland — then in the grip of The Great Hunger — sailing to England, the author of her agony, brimming with fresh cattle, sheep and dairy products meant for the fattened animals known as the English.

Since I do not believe our Loving Father deals in chance or coincidence, I think it no coincidence that the Irish flag ship Rachel Corrie is trying to deliver emergency aid to the impoverished residents of the Gaza Strip at precisely the moment we Irish recall the anniversary of An Gorta Mor.

Cecil Woodham-Smith, an authority on the Irish Famine, wrote in "The Great Hunger; Ireland 1845–1849," that no issue has provoked so much anger and embittered relations between England and Ireland as "the indisputable fact that huge quantities of food were exported from Ireland to England throughout the period when the people of Ireland were dying of starvation." Ireland remained a leading exporter of food to England throughout most of the five-year Famine.

Christine Kinealy, a University of Liverpool fellow and author of two texts on the famine, "Irish Famine: This Great Calamity" and "A Death-Dealing Famine," writes that Irish exports of calves, livestock (except pigs), bacon and ham actually increased during the Famine. The food was shipped under guard from the most Famine-stricken parts of Ireland. However, the poor Irish had no money to buy food."

The current — and excellent — edition of Irish America magazine (IrishCentral's sister publication) is devoted to an outstanding remembrance of the Famine, which you can read by clicking here. Unflinching and honest to a fault, it tells not only of the venom, hatred and prejudice that doomed millions of Irish, but to those good and noble hearts around the world who would not sit idly while a nation perished.

The Famine is rightly considered not only a human holocaust, but the birth of a special Irish spirit — perhaps a rebel spirit in that it would not accept double standards and double-dealing — that in many ways is alive and well today. I believe that even the uprising that has turned an Irish Cardinal's red hat into a scarlet letter and toppled the judgmental, all-powerful Irish Catholic Church from its self-made pedestal of power into "the defendant," is another expression of that spirit.

Which brings us to a modern-day Irish ship bobbing on the seas, the Rachel Corrie. It too is filled with Irish rebels, including Nobel Prize laureate Mairead Maguire, who insist on the right to deliver humanitarian supplies to the war-torn Gaza Strip. The Irish Government stands with them, and has attempted to negotiate these perilous waters with the government of Israel, which after much saber-rattling and threats of harm, is working on a compromise that the crew of the Rachel Corrie may or may not accept.

Ireland's most senior Catholic cleric, Cardinal Sean Brady, on Friday called for Israel to lift its military blockade of Gaza. The Primate of All-Ireland urged countries around the world to ensure international law is upheld by all parties in the region.

The Cardinal offered prayers for the families and friends of the nine Turks killed by Israeli commandos on an aid boat Monday.

"I deeply regret the loss of life and injury resulting from Israel's military takeover in international waters of the flotilla of humanitarian aid to Gaza this week," Brady said, mincing no words.

"Such loss of life is tragic and the violence associated with these events is reprehensible. It is clear that it is now time to lift the blockade on Gaza."

Brady, who visited Gaza in 2008, said he had been deeply moved by the "dire and unnecessary situation of human deprivation and need" in the terrorist Hamas stronghold.

It is said that man for man, Israel has the best fighting army in the world. Which, sadly, means that Israel is the most-frightened nation in the world. There is, of course, no shortage of people to fear in the "Holy Land," and historically, hard-line military policies are all that has "worked" for Israel in this bottle of scorpions.

The Shoah — the beyond-all-evil Nazi Holocaust that saw millions of Jews and others exterminated — was a monstrous moment in history that just keeps on "giving" — both for the good and the bad.

Instilling in the Jews the iron determination that "never again" would the horror of the Holocaust be permitted to happen, they built a democratic state of their own, a sanctuary in the Holy Land. But in fortifying themselves against the evil of history, have they also forgotten the good?

Hundreds of thousands of people liberated the Jews from Hitler's camps, tried the remaining evil-doers, and helped build the Jewish state — a state that did not exist in the camps, but which was certainly born there. The Jews know better than anyone on the planet what being a prisoner of war is, and what a holy thing an act of bravery and generosity is. Or do they? This is their moment to answer.

Tonight, let us pray that the Jewish people, so horribly abused throughout centuries, will also see the light of decency and goodness in their history, and in their hearts. We are only secure when we are in harmony with God's Own Will.

His Will be done.

God bless you all!

— Father Tim

An Irish nun, a Catholic hospital, a dying mother, an abortion, and...

My friends,

It has not taken long for news of the excommunication of an Irish nun in the misbegotten state of Arizona to reach around the world, even to the far-off mission in which I am blessed to serve.

You can read the whole story here, but in brief: Sister Margaret McBride, a longtime and faithful worker at St. Joseph's Hospital in Phoenix with some pioneering accomplishments helping the poor to her credit, has been excommunicated by local Bishop Thomas Olmsted. Sister Margaret was a member of the hospital's ethics committee, which faced a terrible decision. A patient with an 11-week-old fetus was dying in the hospital from a rare heart condition, in which the strains of pregnancy can tip the balance between life and death.

Founded in the then-"Wild West" by the Irish Sisters of Mercy, steeped in Catholic tradition and famous for its outreach programs to the impoverished and especially the large undocumented immigrant community, it was a wrenching choice. Doctors and medical experts were unanimous in their belief the mother would die unless her pregnancy was aborted.

Sister Margaret agreed with the hospital committee, and the abortion was performed.

Bishop Olmsted reacted even faster than the medical staff, which was facing an emergency life-and-death decision. Sister Margaret McBride is now Margaret McBride.

"An unborn child is not a disease. While medical professionals should certainly try to save a pregnant mother's life, the means by which they do it can never be by directly killing her unborn child. The end does not justify the means," the bishop declared.

Olmsted added that if a Catholic "formally cooperates" in an abortion, he or she is automatically excommunicated.

"The Catholic Church will continue to defend life and proclaim the evil of abortion without compromise, and must act to correct even her own members if they fail in this duty," the bishop said.

Although I cannot disagree with the bishop's theology and support the Church's protection of the sacredness of all life, I suspect he needs "medical" treatment himself: a strong injection of reality.

Most important is a simple reality: If the mother of an 11-week-old fetus dies, the fetus will also die. It is too soon in life for the child to survive outside the womb no matter what the hospital might try. That means two deaths. Is there really a morally defensible reason for two innocents to die when one can live? It's a hackneyed phrase, but what would Jesus have done?

Over the years, the Church's solid wall guarding all life has allowed an exception or two. For example, while euthanasia and so-called "mercy killing" is condemned, the Church has made it clear that there is no need to use "extraordinary means" to preserve life when, in the best judgment of all and with prayerful reflection, there is no real hope for the patient's recovery. Of course, this does not mean a call to the murderous "Doctor" Kevorkian, but usually the withdrawal of life-support equipment that is filling the patient's lungs with air and his heart with blood in a way that is more mechanical than medical.

In this matter, the Church has taken good counsel from the world of science to make a just and merciful clarification in doctrine. But while there has been considerable debate within the Church about the kind of dilemma faced by St. Joseph's Hospital, no "exceptions to the rule" on abortion have been forthcoming.

It is long past the time to reconsider this. If all life deserves our protection and is sacred to our Creator, then a mother's life is just as worthy as her child's. How has this become lost in the battle over abortion?

Bishop Olmsted is an intelligent and compassionate man. Like most in the religious community, he has spoken out forcefully against Arizona's immoral new "law" that is nothing more than an attack on the humanity of those who have sought a home and a life in America. While all agree that immigration reform is badly needed, human attack dogs and "camps" are not part of the answer. "Illegal" or not, a sick immigrant is welcome at St. Joseph's Hospital, even if the Diocese must foot the entire bill. God's Mandate to love all as one means charity for all.

It also means forgiveness, in this case, for Margaret McBride. She has spent a long career doing God's Own Work on earth, and even if you believe that she has erred in this heartbreaking moment, I believe her Catholic Ministry should continue.

In a world in which many, if not most people walk past the poor and suffering without a second's thought, Margaret McBride heard God's Call to Love and made answering it her life's work. I pray that Bishop Olmsted will deeply reflect on all Margaret McBride has done in the Name of God and the Church, and reconsider his decision so that the poor may continue to feel the love of Sister Margaret McBride.

God bless you all!

— Father Tim

Déjà vu: Phoebe Prince & Catholic Church scandal

My friends:

I doubt I am the only person who feels an uneasy sense of déjà vu in the ongoing child sex abuse scandals in the Catholic Church, and the bullying and subsequent tragic suicide of teenage Irish immigrant Phoebe Prince in South Hadley, MA.

On the surface, they are very different tragedies. But when you dig a bit deeper, the disquieting similarities cannot be ignored.

In both cases, God's innocent Children were tortured and violated.

In both cases, the adults in whose care they had been entrusted turned the other way and did nothing to help. While a deliberate institutional cover-up has already been established as fact in the Church scandals, there were almost certainly many adults with responsibility for South Hadley High students who remained silent or inactive, despite knowing the facts or knowing enough. Participating in this conspiracy of silence makes them no less guilty than lying bishops and cardinals.

In both cases, law-enforcement officials were not alerted and did not become involved until it was too late.

In any event, in both cases the crime was not even considered a crime: Priests were holier than police — than everybody, the way they had ordained it to be — for decades, especially in Ireland. Surely the stories of sex abuse were made up by "bad" boys and girls. And in Massachusetts, bullying is not even a minor crime, no matter the often-tragic results.

In both cases, lives that should have flowered were lost.

And in both, they were often lost to suicide: The only way the helpless victims saw to kill the pain was to kill themselves. What tragedy!

And finally, in both cases, there were the hateful destroyers of God-given Life. Whether they were texting teens and absent administrators or pedophile priests and conspiratorial Churchmen, they were creatures of darkness whose minds, hearts and souls dared to defy God's unequivocal Law of Love and His Power over Life.

Yes, in both cases, there are some circumstances to be considered "for the defense."

Although they would of course disagree, as they tend to do with all things, teenagers do not have the full complement of emotional machinery, maturity and life experience to fully understand all the possible consequences of their actions. Like all of God's Children, Phoebe was a unique and singular Creation, and it is possible that another teenage girl would not have felt the level of fear and hopelessness she did at the hands of her tormentors.

But that is immaterial. God does not measure Justice by how His Children react to pain inflicted upon them; He judges those who inflict the pain on His Innocents, and those who remain silent in its face.

In the Church scandal, it is understood that pedophilia is a serious and complicated mental illness, just as it is understood that compassion for the sick is a Gospel imperative.

But evil acts of pedophilia, and the criminal cover-up of these crimes, make the illness and Godly compassion for the sick almost immaterial as well.

What is it like to be an innocent and loving person singled out of the crowd, to be falsely accused of acts you did not commit, to be abandoned and left alone by what seems to be the entire world, to be judged guilty without explanation, and finally to be dragged to the end of your mortal life, with your killers still laughing at their "accomplished" mission of hate?

Phoebe knows, as does Her Loving Father, Who is with her in Heaven and has dried her tears. His Own Son, Jesus Christ, walked much of the same walk, albeit willingly as part of His Great and Holy Ministry to restore Eternal Life for us all.

Let us pray that Phoebe — though not fully God and fully man like Our Lord, Who was on a mission of ultimate sacrifice for others — restores something to us as well.

God bless Phoebe, and God bless you all!

— Father Tim

Archbishops of Canterbury who live in glass houses shouldn't throw stones

Talk about kicking someone when he's down...

The Anglican Archbishop of Canterbury, Rowan Williams, has taken inter-religious rivalry, and even prejudice, to a new low, attacking the Irish Catholic Church as it (and the entire Church) struggles to deal with a terrible and longstanding child sex-abuse scandal.

"I was speaking to an Irish friend recently," Williams told the BBC of a conversation with a likely non-existent person, "who was saying that it's quite difficult in some parts of Ireland to go down the street wearing a clerical collar now.

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin was so infuriated — and proper;y so — by Williams' outburst the he was compelled to release a statement about how Williams' "unequivocal and unqualified comment... has stunned me. Those working for renewal in the Catholic Church in Ireland did not need this comment on this Easter weekend and do not deserve it."

Well said. Perhaps the golden-throned Anglican leader should have consulted his own church's records before throwing the first stone from the glass house of his faith.

An Internet search of the words "Anglican" and pedophile" hardly comes up empty.

Here's just one story of many, and from this year in which a judge was "astonished" the Anglican Church allowed a priest jailed for sexually abusing three altar boys to re-enter the ministry and commit "strikingly similar" offenses.

"Judge Sydney Tilmouth today said he found it remarkable that Wilfred Edwin Dennis was left in a position by the Anglican Church to commit the abuse, after being found guilty of molesting three altar boys in the early 1970s.

"Outside court, Dennis' sister said the Anglican Church had allowed Dennis back into the ministry because they had trusted him."

Yet another case, this one involving an Anglican priest's "indecent assault" on a young girl, "caused a furor when it was learned that senior Anglicans knew of the allegations years earlier."

Then there's last year's case of the remorseless Anglican Church pedophile and Church of England Boys Society youth leader Andrew William Dawson-Ryan, who systematically abused boys "hundreds of times."

Between 1972 and 1988, he abused a number of boys entrusted into his care, and plied them with cigarettes, alcohol, marijuana and pornography.

There's a lot more, but you get the idea.

None of the much-smaller Anglican Church's shame excuses, in any way, shape or form, the criminal behavior of Catholic pedophile clergy or child-abusing priests, and certainly not the equally criminal cover-ups of those cases, which have both gone on in Ireland and other countries for decades. Like a small leak, the mounting charges have burst the dam, and it certainly can seem to the layman that "Catholic priest" and "pedophile" are one and the same.

But the Archbishop of Canterbury is not a layman, and should know better. His vicious comments amid the holy Easter season are so bizarre, ill-considered and horribly timed that they could only have come from the mouth of an anti-Catholic bigot.

As they did.

The Catholic Church, because of its size and far-reaching ministries, may well be the unfortunate flag-bearer of religions with the highest number of sex-abuse crimes and cover-ups in its closet. It's not any "honor," to be sure, and my readers are well-aware of my own thoughts on the sheer evil behind it all.

But there is nothing to be gained by self-righteous bigotry. A man of faith like Williams should be shoulder-to-shoulder with the MANY Catholics who are working for justice for God's Innocent Children, and for those who betrayed them.

God bless you all, and may you have a glorious Easter!

— Father Tim

Nobody buying what Catholic Church defenders selling

My friends:

The Catholic Church's "defenders of the fake" have begun their expected counterattack to those pesky critics who still don't believe -- despite Pope Benedict sending them a letter -- that the Church's leadership (if that's the right word) is serious about putting pedophile priests behind bars along with the conspiratorial clergy who covered up their heinous crimes.

In my adopted hometown of New York City, the Church's defensive lineup was especially pathetic, and even comical.

Archbishop Timothy Dolan, leader of some of the city's Catholics, used his Palm Sunday performance to compare Benedict to Jesus Christ, a hysterical analogy that may in fact become blasphemous if the Pope is found to have been complicit in cover-ups himself.

The best comment on this absurd remark came from a commenter on IrishCentral's Facebook page: "The Pope is like Jesus Christ as much as Britney Spears is like the Virgin Mary."

As an IrishCentral blogger, I'm obviously biased, but I found it absolutely remarkable to see the unanmity of opinion on several articles about the Church scandal, as well as its critics and defenders. The sheer number of comments was astounding, and barely one had anything but criticism and rage to vent at the Church hierarchy and those who think the Pope made everything better with a letter.

But as it turns out, Dolan was just a warm-up act for the star comedian, Catholic League president Bill Donohue. Of course, this "league" isn't exactly the NFL; the staff list begins and ends with Donohue, who can devote all his time to it now that he's divorced (Oops! A cheap shot! Sorry!).

Donohue donated several thousand dollars to the newspaper he considers to be the pen of the anti-Christ, The New York Times, to run an ad declaring that gay people and homosexuality -- not child abuse and certainly not any cover-up -- was the real problem.

Donohue is a gifted writer -- of fiction, and this pathetic attempt to shift the blame and find a scapegoat was the work of a veteran actor. It's a classic Donohue move, but it's like a re-run you've seen a few times too often.

The "reviews" on the IrishCentral Facebook page in this case are so severe I can only repeat a few without racing to the confessional: "Complete moron." "Total b---wipe." "Stupid man." "Eejit." "Jaysus, what a f---ing gobshite."

Donohue must have thought he had a sure winner by blaming it on gays. The priests were men, right? Most of the victims were boys, right? There ya go! Fags, right?

Wrong, and everybody saw through it like glass.

As I said in my last blog, pedophilia is a dangerous mental illness that is arguably one of the most-studied in psychiatry. While no truly effective therapy or medication exists to deal with it at present, it is well-established that almost all pedophiles are heterosexual. They are sexually attracted almost exclusively to children, not to adult members of their own sex or the opposite sex. Most were not sexually abused as children -- another common myth.

Johns Hopkins University psychiatrist Dr. Frederick Berlin, who runs a treatment program for offenders, says it's flawed to assume that men who molest young boys are gay, and are attracted to adult men.

Interestingly, he defines attraction to children as a separate "orientation" of its own.

As pedophilia relates to priests, psychotherapist Dr. A.W. Richard Sipe argues that the sexual deprivation that occurs in the priesthood could lead a sick individual to turn to children, and that boys are more accessible to priests and other male authority figures than girls. The same is true of prison rape, where male and female offenders are segregated.

Needless to say, Donohue is not a doctor -- although he may need one, for his thinking is delusional and his passion uncontrollable. Facts are facts for most people, but sadly and pathetically, not for him. I'm sure he considers generations of scientific studies of pedophilia to be the work of pedophiles, or socialists, or whomever else is handy as a scapegoat.

People's comments on this comedy act may have given me a brief smile, but there's nothing at all funny, really. Terrible, unspeakable crimes have been committed, with God's most-innocent the helpless victims. They were abused, beaten or raped by a clergy entrusted with their care. Almost as bad, their crimes were routinely covered up by the Church hierarchy -- perhaps even by Benedict -- and the perpetrators were left to prey on others. Church officials swore victims to secrecy and blamed them for their own abuse in acts of psychological torture. The Church used its self-made throne in society to hold police and political leaders at bay.

Until now, thank God.

The day of reckoning has arrived at last, and Our Heavenly Father has opened the dark skies to let His Light pour in. No one can escape God's Final Judgment, and let us pray that those who abused His Dear Children by vile act or vile cover-up, will not escape earthly judgment as well.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

Catholic Church is getting sex education the hard way

My friends:

A great deal of the rage and shock felt by the public about the Catholic Church's self-inflicted child sex abuse scandal centers on a simple question: WHY didn't those in authority DO SOMETHING right away when they heard about THE PROBLEM?

Of course, many of those in authority DID do something right away: They either ignored it, blamed the victims and swore them to silence after wrenching, blame-switching interrogations, or transferred the offending priest to another parish or even another country where he was free to renew his evil acts. A few sought to send the priest, or the victims, or all of them, to a Church psychiatrist (a responsibility I know well) -- hopefully to both sort out the truth, arrive at a just solution consistent with canon and civil law, and to help begin the process of emotional and spiritual healing needed by all.

Sadly but honestly though, this latter path was the exception rather than the rule. And an even less-followed path was simply calling the police, although in Ireland particularly, the Church had built itself a very high pedestal from which to "rule" its flock -- which the police were part of. They were not in the business of arresting priests on the word of a couple of young, probably "misbehaving" boys.

I am sure it will not shock you to hear that the Church has a BIG problem with sex. In fact, the pedophile scandal has probably forced the Vatican to use the word "sex" more often in the past couple of months than it has in the past couple of centuries. There is little in the Gospels to help it offer the Faithful a very clear "What would Jesus have done?" about anything relating to sex -- much less, sex crimes. And they haven't gotten very far with just "Be fruitful and multiply" and the strong implication that sex is for having children (and, oh yes, expressing love).

Whether or not the Church's asexual structure -- priests and nuns taking a vow of chastity and living in same-sex cloistered communities (as I do) -- helps or hurts the problem has been much debated. I don't intend to take it up here, not because I fear its honest discussion, but because it is a topic unto itself and one that the medical community's long-term studies of pedophilia simply do not seem to make relevant to the current scandal. It may be, it may not be -- but that is for another time. Put simply for now, there is almost no evidence to support a connection, as "logical" as it seems to many.

The Church's intense fear of sex has only grown more complicated and problematic as has sex itself over the years. There are variants (I'm sure some would prefer a harsher word) such as polygamy, bisexuality, homosexuality, transgenerdism. There is sexual addiction, rampant and degrading pornography, prostitution, and forced sterilization. There is the issue of sex education for the young and contraception for all. There is the crime of rape, and rape at its most-disturbing -- in acts of pedophilia against God's most-innocent. And of course, there is abortion, an assault on God-given Life that unbelievably is mandatory in some cultures.

So, if you're like many in the Church and can't bring yourself to say "penis" even if you teach biology, then dealing with the rest of the list is pretty much of a lost cause.

And that brings us to the Church and its dealing -- or not dealing -- with pedophile priests and their victims.

Pedophilia, one of the most-studied and researched areas of psychiatry, is a mental illness which, at the moment, is lacking either an effective therapeutic or medical treatment, much less a cure.

Acts of pedophilia, especially sexual acts involving another human being, are among the most-serious of crimes. Hiding or covering-up such acts is also a crime.

Although Jesus did not discuss pedophilia during His Ministry on Earth, He often spoke of the sick, and of justice. Compassion for the sick is a Gospel imperative. Justice and ultimately, God's Forgiveness, come through Confession of our sins to Him, AS WELL AS earthly atonement for them. These two elements, while separate, cannot be separated.

Although in law enforcement, the term "pedophile" is loosely used to describe those convicted of child sexual abuse or the sexual abuse of a minor, the American Psychiatric Association's authoritative "Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders" describes pedophilia as an illness in which a person either has intense sexual urges toward children, and experiences recurrent sexual urges toward and fantasies about children that they have either acted on, or which cause them severe distress and interpersonal problems.

The medical criteria does NOT require actual sexual activity with a prepubescent youth. The diagnosis can be made based on the presence of fantasies or sexual urges even if they have never been acted upon. Of course, a person who acts upon these urges yet experiences no distress about their fantasies or urges can also qualify for the diagnosis. Acting on such sexual urges is not limited to overt sex acts, and can sometimes include indecent exposure, voyeuristic behavior, or achieving sexual satisfaction from child pornography.

Given this scientifically and correctly broadened definition, it is probably not hard for some people to think of friends, co-workers or acquaintances who -- while they might not ever commit any kind of child sexual assault -- are nonetheless immersed in our hedonistic, youth-and-beauty worshiping society in a dangerous way. Many people are all too proud to admit over a beer how they "like 'em young, the younger the better!" Or, "if she was a just a couple of years older..."

Yes, most are probably lusting after teenagers or young adults, not children. But what would you say to a very dear friend who asked if he could tell you some dark secret about himself that he found deeply troubling, something awful that he could not stop - and it was that he craved sex with children, or indulged in child pornography? As a beloved friend, you'd likely urge him to immediately get professional help.

Would you have the courage, or desire, to ask the next question: "Have you ever actually...?" Would you really want to know the answer? And if the answer came and it was the one you feared, then what? Remember that the person facing you with this awful truth is someone you cherish.

Would you tell your dear friend that you would call the police? A psychiatrist -- despite the confidentiality of the doctor-patient relationship -- is required to. Would you? Perhaps the answer is yes -- I hope it would be.

But perhaps not. Your good friend might beg you not to ruin his life, destroy his family and career, and likely send him to prison. He might promise that the victim he told you about would be the last, that he would get help right away, that he would stop.

Whatever you did, it would probably be one of the most-difficult moments of your life. And this is how many "problem priests" first come to the attention of their superiors. Like you and your friend, they too are "brothers" who have shared much through their common vocations and work. It can be a wrenching moment.

But I'm sad to say that if I had to bet the rent, I'd be more trusting of a morally honest answer from you than from the Church. I believe that sooner or later, your conscience, guided always by the Holy Spirit, would lead you to do the right thing. And the right thing, without any question and despite any consequences, is to protect the children.

Why hasn't the Church done what you likely would have done -- and refused to do it repeatedly and over decades? And believe me, it has brushed under the carpet priests who are not agonized and sorrowful like your friend -- there have been unrepentant monsters who were gleeful, serial child-abusers, and escaped justice or even reprimand.

Why?

Of course, there are many answers - and all of them are bad. The misguided belief that serious pedophilia can be "counseled away." The sheer inertia of the Church's giant bureaucracy. The evil complicity with the abuser by hiding the truth. The fear that the ring-kissing respect many in the Church continue to believe they have would be lost. The worry that the Church would be financially ruined. The embarrassment of having to step down from their self-created royal pedestals and walk - as Jesus did - among the people, instead of ruling them and judging them from above.

But there is also this reality: A Church which will not let itself fathom the wide, ever-changing and expansive territory of human sexuality can never hope to deal with pedophile priests with an ounce of intellectual integrity, religious commitment, rigorous honesty, fidelity to canon and civil law, and ultimately, with God's Own Love for all, especially His innocents.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

Pope fights Irish Catholic Church nightmare with faith

My friends:

Many of my loyal readers emailed that they had expected an instant blog as soon as Pope Benedict XVI had issued his pastoral letter to the Faithful of Ireland, which will be read at all Masses today (Sunday), but is already very much public.

Given some of my past, angry posts about the decades-long debacle of child abuse by the Irish Catholic clergy and its criminal cover-up, I'm sure they expected me to be part of the Papal press lynch mob that has had such a fun and stimulating day lobbing verbal rockets at the Vatican.

Sorry, I'm not on that bandwagon. Maybe it's because I read the Holy Father's letter -- rather than just reading about it in the press. Maybe it's because -- before entering the Jesuit missionary service -- I have counseled priests and the victims of pedophilia as a psychiatrist. These chilling encounters and therapeutic work, especially with victims, will be with me forever.

Yet, if it all wasn't so tragic, it would be almost amusing to read the forests of reporting, commentary and "analysis" of Benedict's pastoral letter.

The best -- that is, the worst, and sadly, the majority -- strikes a dazzling, self-contradictory theme: After miles of lines decrying what Benedict didn't say about the scandal, many in the press ascend to the throne of self-righteousness and declare "there is nothing he could have said" about it, given its enormity.

Talk about having it both ways.

One commentator took it to the limit: "The greatest contribution the Pope could have made was to stop the abuse, and he's not even done that."

Come on, now. Is there anybody who thought a letter would achieve this deserved, prayed-for, and sought-after goal? Is there anybody who thinks the Pope would not "stop the abuse" in an instant if he could simply order it to stop as Jesus commanded a storm-tossed sea to be still?

Outside the walls of Vatican City, the Pope has few who are cheering his pastoral letter -- and many who might prefer to see him moved a few miles to the ancient Coliseum, where many Christians met a vicious and bloody end.

Believe me, my dear friends, when I say that I understand the pastoral letter -- both as a priest whose ultimate superior is Benedict, and also as a deeply angry and frustrated Catholic appalled by the sheer evil of this slaughter of the innocents and its disgusting, criminal cover-up.

As a priest, I thought the Pope spoke with great humility, sincerity and remorse -- and fully acknowledged the enormity of what has happened, and what has been allowed to happen. As a priest with strong Irish roots, I was deeply moved by his acknowledgement of the specialness of the Irish people and the Irish Church, and their mutual overcoming of overwhelming crises. At times, his words achieved a level of majesty and holiness that frankly, I did not think was in him. It apparently was, and is.

Vitally, he reminded us that faith in God and Jesus is "the rock from which we are hewn," and that now more than ever, faith is needed if the Church is to survive and flourish again. The Power of Faith is the Power of God's Own Love -- an unstoppable force against which any evil becomes but a frightened mouse. On a spiritual level, it is indeed all that is needed, for it is the Power of our Almighty God.

But, as just plain Tim the Catholic, the papal letter's almost total reliance on faith lets it travel only a few miles of a very long road, and feeds the cynicism of those who see his words as Church doubeltalk that sidesteps "the real issues."

I think that Terrence McKiernan, founder of the fine organization BishopAccountability.org, a group which monitors Church abuse cases, hits the nail on the head.

"There's a strong tendency to approach this as a problem of faith, when it is a problem of the Church's management and a lack of accountability," he said.

Actually, it's a problem of both -- Godly faith, and earthly management of the world's oldest institution. But Terrence is nonetheless right in reminding us that the Church is not some "thing" that floats on a cloud above the world. It is very much a part of the world, and that means it is a public citizen subject to the just laws of man and society.

At the individual and institutional levels, it has unquestionably committed crimes for which it must be held fully responsible. In this respect, it is terribly regrettable that the Pope's letter only makes a passing reference to cooperating with civil authorities, and makes no reference to reparations for its innocent victims.

Benedict also reminds those of us in his charge, both clergy and the faithful, to avail ourselves more often of the Power in the Sacrament of Reconciliation. As the old adage rightly says, "confession is good for the soul." Yet it is also suprising, that in a letter which is often so highly personal and introspective, that Benedict does not see himself in the mirror of this scandal and does not say that "I too have sinned."

I am not God, and I cannot say the Pope has sinned. But it is fair to point out as I have before, that as then-Cardinal Ratzinger, his Vatican offices would have made him the best-informed person in Rome as reports of clerical sex abuse poured in from around the world -- including during his own direct stewardship in Germany. "Let he who is without sin cast the first stone," Jesus said. Are the bishops of Ireland solely to blame, and are the Holy Father and the Curia blameless?

There are many more chapters to come in this unfolding mess, and I believe Benedict has given us a pastoral letter that goes farther and is more insightful than I had expected. But only the Word of God is the Word of God, in which we can truly place our complete trust, belief and love. He speaks to us through the Bible and, at every moment we open ourselves to Him, to our hearts, minds and souls. God's Word needs no judgment from us.

But Benedict's words are Benedict's words, and will be judged by his actions. Let us pray that the Holy Spirit guides his every step along the difficult journey to build and rebuild faith -- not just in Jesus Christ, but in His Church.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

My journey past alcoholism and to a real Saint Patrick's Day

My friends:

I'm Father Tim, and I'm an alcoholic.

Some of you will be familiar with the wording of my greeting; it's how recovering alcoholics (I'll be 15 years sober this Labor Day) introduce themselves before they speak at meetings of Alcoholics Anonymous.

I decided to "come out" to you, my dear readers, because Saint Patrick's Day is fast approaching, and sadly, it is a day that will see some recovering alcoholics "slip" and will help turn other drinkers into alcoholics. At AA meetings around the world, discussion has already turned to what is known to be a "slippery" time, when the temptation to drink, as well as the opportunity and not a small amount of social pressure, can increase to the breaking point.

As one of AA's trillion of on-the-mark slogans wisely says, "You're a lot closer to your next drink than you are from your last drink."

Veteran AA members have a good Irish sense of gallows humor when they see and read stories of bars, streets and trains filled with vomiting, out-of-control or unconscious parade revelers. "What amateurs!" they say with a smile.

For it's true that most "real" alcoholics don't stand out of the crowd. You may know some people who are alcoholics, or some you consider heavy drinkers -- but mostly, only those who have spent years afflicted with the insatiable, can't-live-a-day-without-it craving know what they are. And by then, since they have come to this realization, many have been able to stop.

I can tell you from long experience that "active" alcoholics live in a small, delusionary world -- and not just whe they're drinking or drunk. How many drunk drivers who have just mowed down some innocent soul been absolutely sure that they "just had a couple of beers" and were "okay to drive"? I have heard many of these true stories in AA meetings, in which people still weep years and even decades after imprisonment for incidents like this, after losing their jobs, spouses, families, friends, careers and reputations.

The Irish have a "reputation" when it comes to alcohol, and Saint Patrick's Day does little to improve it. Part of this reputation is truth, part is vicious prejudice, part is myth.

I could write -- and those with expertise far-greater than mine could write with even more authority -- a hundred blogs about the legendary Irish pub and its central role in ancient (and present) Irish life and society. I could write about the hardships the Irish have faced, living for years in what can only be called a state of apartheid and enforced poverty, in which a pint or two or three, especially by the warm fire of the pub surrounded by neighbors and friends, seemed a very small indulgence, and certainly not an illness when compared to the sick society inflicted upon them.

I could write about the legion of "Irish drinking songs" and the prevalence of alcohol in Irish literature and theater. Or, I could just say what many bigots say aloud or under their breath to this day -- that the Irish are just a bunch of drunks. For these people and many others, the facts that many countries have more-severe drinking problems than Ireland -- not to mention drug problems -- has no effect. That's the way bigotry works.

But ethnicity, ancestry, culture and history have very little to do with the problem. Alcoholism happens to one person at a time, and for reasons that are individual and unique. The bottle does not know its drinker.

Perhaps my own story, which I have recounted many times at AA meetings, will help make the point.

I do not come from an alcoholic family. I grew up near a giant steel plant in South Buffalo, NY, well within the long shadow cast by the nearby Our Lady of Victory Basilica and its well-known and feared school for misbehaving boys, run by the legendary basilica builder, Father Nelson Baker. I don't think I ever had more than a taste of alcohol until I was in college in New York City, and it was usually confined to a few beers on Friday night. Although I helped carry many a drunken friend home, I only needed the help myself on one occasion.

By the time I began my Formation in the Society of Jesus a few years after graduation, I was drinking more, and more regularly. Beer had been retired and the more-potent Jack Daniel's took its place. Jack was my good friend and companion for many years after and I relied upon him more and more. He was the perfect friend -- he was there to help me celebrate, and he was there to numb the blues. After a while, the occasion didn't matter. Neither did my drinking buddies. Jack and I spent our nights in my off-campus apartment, ignoring phone calls -- or making raving phone calls -- letting the world and its problems melt away until unconsciousness substituted for sleep as my dinner burned to ashes in the oven.

Yet, I was a model teacher and community worker as I continued on course to the priesthood. At the height of my drinking -- a liter of Jack every night -- my Father Superior told an audience of incoming novices that I was a model they should emulate, truly "a man for others," as we Jesuits say.

As my Jesuit Formation, education and devotion to Our Lord grew, the same Call that had brought me to this path came again. Again, and I thank God for this, my eyes were opened. I saw the man in the mirror, and I knew what I had become.

"They say" that knowing you have a problem means you're halfway to solving it -- but I'm not sure it applied to my alcoholism. I went to my first AA meeting, which was very, very far from campus, and couldn't believe that this bunch of weirdos and I had anything in common. I left at the first opportunity, supposedly to have a cigarette, and many months went by until I went back.

I went home to Jack.

My apartment was not faring well with its heavy-drinking tenant. I fell asleep -- drunk -- twice in the bathtub and almost washed away the building. I seldom emptied any trash, and flies greeted my every arrival. In some fit of anger, I had ripped my phone from the wall along with a few yards of wiring, and the corner pay phone became my only way to call anybody. .A tiny drip from the ceiling of my top-floor apartment soon became a stream whenever it rained, and a bit of cracked plaster became about eight square yards of fallen plaster.

I lived in fear that anybody -- the superintendent, a building inspector, the landlord, a friend -- would stop by. How could I let them in?

Although my work and progress continued, my world became small. There was no more room for friends or relatives, no reason to read or answer letters, bills or emails. The day was filled with work -- and I never drank during the day. But it was me and Jack all night.

I no longer had any doubts that I really was one of the "monsters" I had met at that AA meeting. I tried to drink less, to drink every other day, to take a different route home so I would miss the bars and liquour stores.

But I couldn't stop.

I went back to AA, and this time, I listened instead of judged. I began hearing my story coming from the mouths of others. I began to want the life these reformed drinkers had, and I began to see that it was possible. Somehow, an exceptional and beautiful book came to me, "Drinking: A Love Story" by the late Carolyn Maas.

I knew I had hit bottom, and, as AA says in its "Big Book," humbly surrendered to God, my "Higher Power" asking him to take this affliction from me. Soon, with His Grace and eternal Love, and the support and encouragement of my friends in AA, I stopped drinking.

After years of self-imposed darkness, God's Light had given my life back to me.

I owe an eternal thanksgiving to Him, and Alcoholics Anonymous, and Carolyn Maas, and many friends and strangers who held my unsteady, shaking hand. I have been sober ever since, and have continued to attend AA meetings and work with my brother and sister alcoholics. AA is truly everywhere -- even in the remote mission community in which I now live and work.

In the spirit of our patron Saint Patrick, a man with an iron will and a boundless heart, I pray that if you are suffering, you will seek the Help of God and the help of others, whose doors are always open. God loves His Dear Children with a changeless and unchangeable Love, and He will rush to your aid if you but ask Him with an open heart and mind. This is essential: God cannot do for you you what He cannot do through you.

As AA co-founder Bill Williams said, "Let go, and let God!"

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

Pope Benedict fails to lead his Church through crisis in Ireland

My friends:

As many of you know, the extraordinary "summit" in Rome between Pope Benedict XVI and the Bishops of Ireland has concluded. The official statements have been released -- as expected, deploring the terrible crime of child sex abuse in the Irish Catholic Church and acknowledging that nothing was done about it for decades in spite of it being widely known.

Language is very important to the Vatican, and this meeting in particular shows that the summit was nine parts strategy and one part theology. In a way, that is to be expected: After all, there is no theological disagreement about pedophile priests and the abuse, in any way, of innocent children.

But back to language: The Vatican statement is critical of the Church for its "failure to act."

That's honest and true -- as far as it goes. Nothing, however, is said about the acts the Church did take: deliberately covering up its crimes, coercing the abused into silence, transferring pedophile priests from parish to parish and even from Ireland to other countries, and refusing to cooperate with civilian authorities whose job it is to prosecute child abusers and those who conspire to cover up what is unquestionable criminal activity.

It was all just a terrible mistake, says the Pope: "There is no doubt that errors of judgment and omissions stand at the heart of the crisis."

Errors of judgment? What about crimes?

The Vatican seems to think the summit was "a good first step" -- an astonishing tone given the longevity and severity of the problem -- as well as Rome's knowledge of it.

Those who thought that the Holy Father would call for the resignations of more Bishops implicated in the various government reports on Ireland's shame went away very disappointed.

"It was not addressed," said Vatican spokesman Rev. Federico Lombardi.

And incredibly, Lombardi also defended the Pope's representative in Ireland for refusing to testify to lawmakers there about the decades of systematic cover-ups by the Church hierarchy.

With this utterance, we see the Vatican strategy coming into play, and sadly, it is still a strategy of avoiding the whole truth, and controlling the damage -- the extent of which it greatly fears and so far, can only imagine.

In its own language, the Church did not "make a good Confession."

It is always important for the Church -- or at least for the Vatican -- to speak of ITself rather than for the Pope or Bishops to speak of THEMselves. This is of course the correct stance when the Church speaks on matters of faith.

But it would be disastrous to delve into the personal level of individual responsibility when it comes to the child abuse scandal.

And who would know that better than the man at the head of the table, Pope Benedict himself?

In his pre-Papal days as Cardinal Ratzinger, he was probably the best-informed man in the Vatican, being both Prefect of the powerful Congregation of the Faith and Dean of the College of Cardinals. These offices mean that he was privy to the ever-swelling tide of reports on clerical sex abuse which poured into the Vatican during his tenure in office from every diocese in the world.

It's a little late in the game for him to be "shocked" by anything relating to pedophile priests, or be ignorant of any part of the huge problem in Ireland.

And of course, the Bishops who sat around the table with him all know that. If they ignored the problem, so did he. If they covered it up, so did he.

Nothing from the so-called summit will change a leaf of grass in Ireland. But there is still hope that the Ponstiff's pastoral letter to the Faithful of Ireland, coming on Ash Wednesday, will strike the right tone and at the very least, outline concrete steps on how the Church will deal with this terrible issue going forward.

Going forward, however, is not a typical direction for the Vatican to take. But it had better open the shutters and see the sun: If the Church doesn't handle the problem, prosecutors, police and judges will -- as they may anyway.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

Related story / Kelly's Corner: Pope Benedict fails victims of Irish child abuse

Why is Pope Benedict like a Toyota?

My friends:

As everybody knows by now, Toyota and their sticky gas pedals has become an even stickier mess for the giant automaker.

The company -- at first -- tried to manage their recall nightmare through the press, which, of course, was a complete disaster. They were eaten alive. A one-minute TV interview with some poor soul whose accelerator had stuck made a bigger impression on the public than their forest of press releases.

That the problem existed at all was bad enough. Their attempts to manage the intertwined, massive publicity problem made it look like their brains were stuck, too.

Finally, whatever public relations or advertising company Toyota uses grabbed the wheel before the whole company accelerated off a cliff. They unleashed a barrage of ads and commercials that, while a bit late in this game, will probably rescue the Toyota name.

It's happened before. A day or two after news reports about tampered Tylenol hit the airwaves, the company slickly went on the offensive. The message was the same:

1) You have always trusted us, and we have worked for decades to earn your trust.

2) There's a problem. Here's exactly what we're doing about it. We are not making any excuses, and we will not make any. This is our problem.

3) There is nothing we will not do to solve the problem, and to again make you a believer in us.

It worked for Tylenol. It worked when the great Irish-American business visionary, Don Keough, took over Coca-Cola in the midst of their mind-numbing replacement of Coke with "New Coke." It will probably work for Toyota, too.

The Pope has a major problem, too: the Irish Catholic Church, which is enmeshed in a child sex-abuse scandal and coverup that is a monstrous nightmare -- and one entirely of its own making. And with the recent but unsurprising news that "problem priests" may have been transferred a step ahead of the law from Ireland to the United States, the problem is growing. Fast.

The Pope and the Vatican have tried -- and sincerely tried -- to manage the problem after years of hoping it would "just go away." Benedict has repeatedly apologized for this terrible crime. He has publicly addressed the issue with humility and empathy for the abused. He has been contrite, and is not attempting to avoid the problem. He has given the Dublin Archdiocese considerable authority to rid itself of bishops named in government reports on the abuse. He has met on many occasions, face-to-face, with abuse victims, who have, almost to a one, found him to be sincere and deeply remorseful.

He knows the buck stops with him. Around Easter, we will hear his words on the crisis and plans to deal with it in a specific pastoral letter to the people of Ireland.

And what has been the general public reaction so far?

Well, let's be charitable and just say it has been negative, ranging from the somewhat benign "too little, too late" to "rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic" to "nothing will ever make up for the harm that has been done."

Like the customers of Toyota, Tylenol and Coke, many people's judgments about the Church scandal and its repair are formed by what they see in the media. Sadly, these sound bytes are usually created -- almost manufactured -- by those who live more by ratings than the often-cumbersome explanation that the truth deserves and requires.

I recall a recent interview with a high-ranking Vatican official that received a great deal of coverage. Probably 95% of what was said expressed shame for the scandal and compassion for its victims. But then the poor Churchman gave the sharks what they wanted: He told the interviewer that "most priests are good, decent people who faithfully follow and live the Gospel."

Bullseye! The beast had been fed. "Despite child sex scandal, Vatican claims 'priests are good'" roared the headlines repeated around the world.

What will it take to get the message -- or any message -- across? We can only hope that Divine Help will be enough. Otherwise, the next "American Idol" may have to "brought to you by the good people of the Catholic Church."

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

Fred Phelps and his 'church' of hate

One thing you've got to say about Fred Phelps, the "pastor" of the infamous Westboro Baptist "Church": He's an equal-opportunity hater.

This notorious, unhinged and laughable-but-dangerous bigot managed to attract a few hundred Cro-Magnan followers with his original "ministry," devoted to the non-Biblical teaching that "God hates fags." He has since added to his empire of prejudice with campaigns and websites devoted to other holy causes: JewsKilledJesus, BeastObama, PriestsRapeBoys, AmericasDoomed, and now, GodHatesIreland. You can read about why the Emerald Isle has wound up on the list of the condemned here, not that it's all that different from his central message of hatred that all evil in the world can be directly traced to homosexuals and anyone who preaches acceptance, understanding, or even tolerance.

Phelps may call himself a Baptist, but he's about as much a Baptist as he is a human. In fact, true Baptists treat him like a house on fire: The Westboro Baptist "Church" is not affiliated with any known Baptist associations, and is universally rejected by all conventions of the church. Indeed, when Phelps committed one of his most-shocking demonstrations -- picketing (complete with "God hates fags" signs) the funeral of Matthew Shepard, a 21-year-old gay student at the University of Wyoming who was tortured and murdered in 1998 -- even Baptist minister and Moral Majority founder Jerry Falwell said Phelps was "a first-class nut."

It probably won't surprise you to hear that Falwell's funeral in 2007 was also picketed by Phelps and his lunatic crew.

The "teachings" of Phelps are jaw-dropping, mainly for their sheer scope of vitriol and universal prejudice. Here's a short list:

At Camp Lejeune, followers of the Phelps Church of Hate chanted 1-2--3-4, God hates the Marine Corps -- one of many such protests against the Armed Forces for an almost-unreal variety of reasons. His merry band of madmen also found time to picket the funeral of children's television icon, Fred Rogers, Coretta Scott King, and many others.

According to Phelps, the Catholic Church is a "fag" church, and that a third of Catholic priests are active homosexuals, seducing helpless children and women. His apostles refer to priests as "vampires" and "Draculas" who suck semen out of children's genitals in the way mythical vampires sucked blood from their victims.

As for conservative Pope Benedict XVI, he is "The Godfather of Pedophiles" and the "Pervert Pope." The WBC also opposes any veneration of the Virgin Mary, who was just a "vessel" for the birth of Jesus Christ.

Islam? The founder of the giant religion, the prophet Mohammed, "was a demon-possessed whoremonger."

Judaism? Well, his "JewsKilledJesus" movement should give you a hint, but at a protest at the National Holocaust Museum, the WBC said: "Whatever righteous cause the Jewish victims of the 1930s–40s Nazi Holocaust had, (probably minuscule) ... it has been drowned in sodomite semen."

Hinduism? Phelps also has found the time to support a GodHatesIndia website, and as for its billions, of followers in the world's largest democracy: "A country full of idolatry inevitably results in a nation full of fags and fag-enablers. Stop going a-whoring after other gods!"

Enough of this wholly un-Christian nonsense! In a way, I regret even writing about this pale imitation of a human being, as he revels as much in dispensing hatred as he does in receiving it.

If there is anything Christian to be learned from this rebrobate, it is that all hatred is the same. If we let it enter our hearts, against any of God's Dear Children, it will make its home there. And it will grow there.

In that spirit, I can say with an honest mind and heart that I do not hate Fred Phelps.

But I hate everything he stands for.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim

News / Kansas anti-gay church claims that God hates Ireland / Click here

Helping Haiti: Let us all do God's work on Earth

My friends,

If you would truly do God's Work on Earth, then now is the time to do it, by helping the desparate people of earthquake-ravaged Haiti.

It almost goes without saying that the Power of Prayer to Our Loving Father is the surest and fastest way in which we all can help. God hears the voices of His Dear Children, and He is with them in this time of incredible need. Our prayers join our minds with His, and together make a mighty and unstoppable Force for good.

If prayer is all we can give, then God knows our gift is complete. But if we can do more, we must.

The Catholic Church has a strong presence in Haiti, and within minutes of the earthquake, Catholic Relief Services mobilized to help in every possible way. Because the island of Hispaniola has a sad history of natural disasters, CRS had food and relief supplies pre-positioned in Haiti. Additional supplies such as plastic sheeting, hygiene kits, mosquito nets and water-purification tablets are even now being loaded in the Dominican Republic for distribution in Haiti.

As dawn came to Port-au-Prince this morning, CRS was ready for a full-scale emergency response.

"We've been in Haiti for more than 55 years," said Bill Canny, who, before he became CRS' director of emergency operations, oversaw the organization's response to two massive hurricanes in 2008.

"This is going to be devastating," he said. "We're moving additional emergency staff in as quickly as possible, as we know it's chaos in Port-au-Prince and help is needed immediately."

CRS urgently needs your donations. It is a highly respected mission -- 93 percent of its funds go directly to emergency aid and assistance work, with only 7 percent for administration and fundraising.

Please go to the Catholic Relief Services donation website and give as generously as you can, and urge your friends, relatives, neighbors and fellow parishioners to do the same.

God bless you all!

-- Father Tim