Sinead O'Connor says Catholicism is beautiful but deeply flawed

I think what Sinead is saying makes perfect sense, and her opinion in my view is an enlightened one. I hear her say there is a difference between Religion and Spirituality...Religion is flawed but the spirit or energy is beautiful and free to land on anyone. I agree with her and think she is very brave to voice what most of us are really thinking anyway...how can you sit there and say there is no evil in the vatican? to ignore the danger is to deserve the disaster...in my humble one opinion. Hey Sinead...love and light to you and yours!

Really? Should we care what Sinead O'Connor says about anything?

Catholicism is beautiful, unfortunately the "men" who have run it are not perfect. Not even the Pope. We have turned wile other have suffered and we have hid evil doers. We can ask for giveness but we need to become right with Our Lord. Pope John PaulII did a wonderful amends for the beginning of the new millenium, it now time to clean up our church and start new. Honor the Our Lord and Mary the Mother of our beloved church

Only 5 months ago, Ms O'Connor wrote in "The Irish Times" and "Irish Independent": "from the Pope on down, through the Vatican and therefore through the lower echelons, the whole organisation, in my belief, is utterly anti-Christian and evil". In that comment, not only did she call the Pope evil or my bishop evil, but the WHOLE organisation. Her letters to the press only a matter of months ago were seething with anti-Catholic (ergo, anti-Christian) views, and she had the temerity to brand over one billion people as evil...And now the Church is beautiful? I agree with her - it is beautiful: how could it not be having being founded by Christ Himself? What is flawed are the individual members who are all sinners...the first pope, Peter, was a sinner as we know, as is the present pope, as will be the next pope. What Ms O'Connor could do with, as I have often suggested, is to find out what the Church ACTUALLY teaches rather than judging the Church on the shortcomings of its individual members.

LIKE SINEAD IS AN EXPERT ON RELIGION. STICK TO WHAT EVER IT IS YOU DO...

I have a high regard for Sinead as a singer and performer. Beyond that she is merely another human being, entitled to her views as everybody else is. If Sinead has a bipolar condition, then that should be taken into consideration every time her interviews or letters turn up in media forums. A bipolar condition is not a pleasant state for the mind of a person – too many swing moods from nice to bad and back again that can have pretty bad results when out of control. Many artistes like Sinead O’Connor - painter Van Gogh, Lindsay Lohan, Britney Spears, the Gallagher Brothers (Oasis) and others - are suspected to have this condition and so we should respect their expressed views with a cautious mind. Or else accept that their behaviours are nothing less than attempts at getting bad publicity which some say is good publicity!

I agree Catholicism is beautiful. That’s why it’s my freely chosen religion. I urge everybody who doesn’t know it to find its beauty and may the Holy Spirit guide you on your voyage of discovery of it.

Oh lighten up, Wounded Knee. I'm glad Sinead is feeling comfortable enough to talk about her life, now.

Islam is a very beautiful religion also, the wrong people are running it.

BalinaLass: "Sinead's "ordination" is in fact addressed in the article". That's nonsense. What we need to know is how O'Connor is fulfilling her ministry as a priest. The prima facie evidence is that the "ordination" was a farce and that O'C did not and does not take it seriously. Why then should we take her seriously? Of course we are not helped by the appallingly incompetent interviewer Fitzgerald, who asks none of these questions.

Searlit: "Sinead is a survivor of parental abuse." Oh really? But I thought O'Connor et al were telling us that the only ones who did the abuse were priests & nuns?

the Holy Spirit certainly needs to do some serious housekeeping. The Catholic faith IS beautiful, the Church, needs fixing.

Great column. The Catholic Church needs a few more "boat rockers" like Sinead.

Sinead: " I was a lucky person in that I never sponged up anything but the good of Catholicism.” -- Wow! That's why she now is the paragon of 'good Catholic habits'she portrays every time she feels like commenting on the faith she 'never sponged up' from!

Sinead is a survivor of parental abuse. God Bless her! She has every right to question authority. It was an interesting article.