RSS
News


Home Page > News > Irish bishops should 'get the hell out of your cathedrals' says American expert

Irish bishops should 'get the hell out of your cathedrals' says American expert

By
DARA KELLY,
IrishCentral.com Staff Writer
Published Sunday, August 22, 2010, 8:35 AM
Updated Sunday, August 22, 2010, 8:46 AM

print this article Print
email this articleE-mail
comment on article 13 Comments
 

Former Newsweek journalist Robert Blair Kaiser urges Ireland to take back the church.


Former Newsweek journalist Robert Blair Kaiser has made a dramatic call for Irish Catholics to establish their own home-grown church by demanding that the bishops "get the hell out of your cathedrals."

Blair Kaiser, who was speaking at the opening of the Humbert Summer School in Co Mayo, also said he believes that the Irish grandmother who is urging Irish women to boycott Mass in protest at the way women are treated in the Irish church has started a revolution.

The controversial author and journalist said he believes that for the Irish to fix what he calls their "broken church" they need to make it "more Irish, less Roman."

Blair Kaiser, who reported on the second Vatican Council for Time magazine, said that the battle for the Irish Catholic church has already been started by 80-year-old Jennifer Sleeman, who has called on Irish women to boycott Sunday mass on September 26 to let the Vatican and the Irish church know women are tired of being treated as second-class citizens.

Said Blair Kaiser: "I have every reason to believe that you can take back your church - your church, not the Pope's church, your church - not the bishops' church."

To accomplish this takeover the author suggested that Irish Catholics create what he called an autochthonous or local and from-the-ground-up church.

"Irish Catholics could establish a home-grown church by demanding bishops get the hell out of your cathedrals and elect their own bishops who would serve the people as listeners, not lords,' the author argued.

​
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail


13 Comments

See all comments

GeorgeDillon | Aug 24, 2010, 09:57 AM EDT
There is no doubt that there has always been a part of the Church which did not identify with Ireland or its people. Bishop Caulfield of Wexford deserves damnation for his characterization of the martyred Father Murphy as "the faeces of the church".

Report abuse

killowen | Aug 23, 2010, 06:33 PM EDT
No need to build from ground on up - use the approach employed by St Patrick which served well until Pope Adrian ordered Erin's occupier neighbor to do what they have with the natives. Caveat, that they collect some coin to flow Rome's way and get said natives back on board with rituals that Patrick had taken license with.

Report abuse

Carroll09 | Aug 23, 2010, 04:45 PM EDT
So, we should have one more "church" removed from the One, Holy, Catholic and Apostolic Church which was founded by Christ Himself - is 30,000 Protestant denominations not enough? Also, Mr Blair Kaiser's comment that people should take back "their" Church..."not the Pope's Church...not the bishops' Church" is one that really bugs me. We have people going around these days with that saying "we are the Church"...It seems to me that they are only the Church when it suits them, and use it as an excuse to disregard the teaching authority which Christ gave the Church when "being the Church" doesn't suit. Furthermore, like it or not, the Church and the bishops are as much the Church as any other Catholic...Blair Kaiser is right that the Church is not the Pope's or the bishops'- the Church is Christ's: from Christ and for Christ...the Church has never taught otherwise.

Report abuse

2BorNot2B | Aug 23, 2010, 02:54 PM EDT
dermot.r of the ACCDC, tell us when your congregation, which, by your own account, gathers in store-fronts, strip-mall low-rent cubbyholes and homes of disafected catholics, reaches 8 people (of which 3 quite possibly may be ex-priests who might have been having a curious problem with their zipper) so we can start to take you seriously. Maybe the Vatican will invite you to participate in the upcoming 'Vatican 28' where you may create new and wonderfully convenient dogmas that will suit the lifestyle of everyone. "To each one according to his need.. as Marx said. -- Hey, but why wait till 'the CC changes, there's already 2 other churches that might fullfill all your requirements: Episcopalian and Anglican. One puts at the head of each congregation whoever the H thinks him/her/it-self qualified to wear a roman collar, regardless of lifestyle choice; the other has a queen as head, duly descending from a guy who murdered 8 wives and died of syphillis for his troubles; and from a crazy-loon queen who was a figurehead for thieving prime-ministers, pirates and robber barons who wanted the CC out of the way to generously 'distribute the wealth' of its Abbeys, and the property of landed Catholics amongst themselves. What a start for a church, eh!

Report abuse

Cuanmara | Aug 23, 2010, 12:08 PM EDT
The problem with the Catholic Church is Ireland is not about pathetic bishops or disenchanted women--it has to do with what is ailing the entire Catholic Church and that is the progressive modernism that has prevailed since Vatican II. When the sacred Mass was cast aside, the novelties of the fabricated Novus Ordo began its infestation and purge of what had been the glorious Traditional Faith, not only in Ireland, but the world. For centuries Ireland could boast of being a Catholic Country, in every sense of the word. But sadly, the post conciliar Church is a floundering, anemic shadow of what was once a dynamic, glorious Faith. The only cure for Irish troubles is a return to the Traditional Mass and its graces. May St. Patrick once again drive the snakes of modernism from Irish soil. Holy Mother of God, pray for Ireland!

Report abuse

vincem13 | Aug 23, 2010, 10:55 AM EDT
An historical perspective: Until the mid-seventh century the Christian Church in Ireland WAS Irish- not Roman. Were there accidents of errors in interpretation? No doubt. What is happening today is far worse. What we have discovered is a system of abuse and crime deliberately covered up to avoid punishment for those criminals responsible- all of them Roman Catholic Clergy. Perhaps it is time, once again for an Irish Church.

Report abuse

barneyjo | Aug 23, 2010, 03:17 AM EDT
The Church has, and always will have enemies, from both without and within. But this is totally different. This is people in their 70s and 80s, who have raised large families within the faith who feel they have had one insult after another heaped upon them. The Bishop lied when interviewed on TV about what he knew about the activities of Paedophile Priests. He was caught mis-appropriating Parish donations as a contribution to the Irish Fund for settlement of Clerical abuse related cases, without having told either Priests or Parishoners (his own priests literally "downed tools" and made him return the money)He preached from the Alter in our Church to(rightly) condemn an act of vandalism on A Cross by several young people acting under the infulence of alcohol, but then went on to demand that the entire Parish should do Penance for this same act; suggesting "guilt by association" The general view in the Diocese is that he has lost his moral authority as a Bishop and that the diocese is rudderless. No outside enemy of the church did this; it was the enemy within the church, the same enemy which has brought it to its presently lowly state in the eyes of so many!!

Report abuse

vincentruane | Aug 22, 2010, 08:17 PM EDT
An organization as big as the Catholic Church regretfully will have its fair share of major sinners and also obviously it will have many enemies. It is time for the journalists on Irishcentral.com to start to question a little more deeply statements by people who are promoting 'A Divide and Conquer' strategy for the Catholic Church. This is just an attempt to get the Catholic men and women to fight against each other on a large scale. Divide and conquer always weakens and the enemies of the Catholic Church know that! There has been so many attacks against the Catholic Church through the media the last year or two, that while some of this is obviously genuine, some of it is well planned by the people who seek to destroy the Catholic Church completely. One would also think Blair Kaiser formerly from Newsweek(Is that the magazine that tried to launch a campaign claiming Mother Teresa did not believe in God)had never heard of Nuns. Also Blair Kaiser fails to call on all the spies who have been planted in the Catholic Church to destroy it from within to get out of the Catholic Church. As a journalist he must be well aware of this.

Report abuse

barneyjo | Aug 22, 2010, 04:39 PM EDT
We're ahead of this call in my locality. Our Bishop has been heavily criticised for the handling of Clerical Abuse and other issues. During a recent pastoral visit, a large section of the parishioners stayed away from the church in protest.

Report abuse

GeorgeDillon | Aug 22, 2010, 12:26 PM EDT
"American expert"???? In what? What nitwit writes the headlines on IrishCentral? And why doesn't this "expert" (in nothing) "get the hell out" of Ireland?

Report abuse

SeamusMor | Aug 22, 2010, 12:18 PM EDT
Blair Kaiser and Jennifer Sleeman can go to Hell!

Report abuse

dermot.r | Aug 22, 2010, 11:56 AM EDT
I agree! I was ordained a Roman priest but now serve as an American priest. My flock gather in the rented chapels of other demominations and in the homes of generous Catholics who allow their living rooms to become places of worship each Sunday. I love and respect the bishop of Rome and his symbolic primacy as the Rock upon which the Church was built, but I believe that over the millenia this centralized, bloated, corrupted form of leadership has caused the Church to fail in its mission. Today, God is clearly calling the Church back to its humble roots by calling bishops, not from the ranks of those who are to be rewarded by Rome for their allegiance to that power, but from the very people who they will serve and be accountable to locally. Thus, I now happily serve under the locally accountable leadership of my bishop who was called to that ministry by local clergy and lay people alike and who serves and leads us well because he knows and loves us because he is one of us - no more, no less. I am Fr. Dermot Rodgers - Priest of the the American Catholic Church, Diocese of California.

Report abuse

AmericanPatty | Aug 22, 2010, 11:39 AM EDT
WHAT???

Report abuse

 


IrishCentral logo
"Like" IrishCentral
IrishCentral Mobile QR code


Connect to IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or Sign-Up directly

Already Registered? Sign-In!

Welcome to IrishCentral!
Please provide the following information in order to create your account

Username:
E-Mail Address:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy


Already Registered? Sign-In!
Forgot my password

Welcome to IrishCentral!
All we need is the following information and you will be part of the #1 Irish community in the US

E-Mail Address:
First select a unique username:
Username:
Now choose a password:
Password:
Confirm Password:
I agree to the Terms of Use and Privacy Policy
Thank you!

Just one more step and you will be part of the largest Irish community in America! Tell us a little more about you to start enjoying all the features of IrishCentral.

Additional Information:

First Name:
Last Name:
Date of Birth:
Zip:
Gender: Male  Female 
Country:
Degree of Irishness:
Household Income:
Level of Education:

Subscribe to our newsletters:

The Best of IrishCentral - Daily Newsletter
Special Offers from our sponsors

or
Skip

You can edit your information at any time, just go to "my account" when you're logged in.

Log into IrishCentral with your Facebook account

or sign-in directly

E-Mail:
Password:
 Remember me Forgot my password
Not a member? Register Now!
submit to reddit
print this article Print
email this articleE-mail