Father Tim

My friends,

When I think of an Irish ship on the sea filled with supplies for the needy, one image that does — Father Tim

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

My friends:

As many of you know, the extraordinary "summit" in Rome between Pope Benedict XVI and the Bishops of Ireland has concluded. The

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.

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

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.

My friends,
My friends,

The developments in the Irish Catholic Church child sex-abuse scandal over just the past few days have been nothing sort of astonishing.

While the dwindling band of "the faithful" have expressed their outrage in every form and through every medium imaginable, we now -- finally -- see government officials, judges, and even police commissioners on the attack against the sick clergymen, and women, who have desecrated the Church with their decades of attacks on helpless children -- and against those who even more disgracefully have covered up these crimes against humanity's most innocent.

Published Sunday, December 13, 2009, 12:19 AM

My friends,

I admit it. I may be the last Susan Boyle fan in the world to have just gotten a copy of her wonderful new album, "I Dreamed a Dream." It's a wonderful early Christmas present from an always-kind and considerate benefactor to our mission center.

Published Saturday, October 31, 2009, 3:31 PM

My friends,

Somewhere in Ireland right now, there are some sadly misguided Irish Catholic priests who are probably just plain dee-lighted that thousands of the faithful went home in disappointment from the Knock Shrine without having seen the Blessed Virgin Mary appear.

Published Friday, October 23, 2009, 3:10 PM

My friends:

Do you remember the Tylenol scare a few years back? The makers of the world's favorite pain-reliever had to cope with some nut who had poisoned a few bottles and caused the company to recall every single pill and capsule from every store shelf and hospital. Masterful management and savvy public relations saved the day, as well as the pharmaceutical giant's reputation — and bank account.

Published Sunday, September 13, 2009, 9:44 PM
Published Sunday, September 13, 2009, 9:44 PM

My friends:

This is how great Irish jokes, as well as great children, are born:

Posted by FatherTim at 9/22/2009 11:26 AM EDT
Posted by FatherTim at 9/22/2009 11:26 AM EDT
They're back!

The Freemasons, the group that is at the center of more conspiracy theories than any other in history — perhaps even more than the Catholic Church — have made another comeback of sorts in Dan ("The Da Vinci Code") Brown's new book, "The Lost Symbol." And as if this wasn't enough, a lawsuit in Ireland is beginning to excite the world with the prospect that the secrets of the organization will finally be revealed.

I don't imagine that this disclosure would be looked upon kindly by Freemasons. It's not much fun being part of a secret organization with its own rituals and initiations and handshakes if it's suddenly not secret. But I think it would be wonderful to finally know what makes the Masonic clock tick. (It would be nice to know what makes the Vatican tick, too, but we'll leave that for another time. And an author besides me!)

Posted by FatherTim at 8/24/2009 2:54 PM EDT
Posted by FatherTim at 8/24/2009 2:54 PM EDT
My friends,

One of my heroes in the Irish Catholic Church -- or he was, until he was "reassigned" to France in a rare example of how the Church can move very quickly when it suits its purposes, in this case, to silence a critic -- has popped up in the news again.

Fr. Adrian Troy, who became legendary in The Troubles as a parish priest at Holy Cross in north Belfast, and who famously walked with schoolkids in the bullet-riddled Ardoyne past a violent Protestant protest, has called on the Church to halt the recruitment of new priests until it addresses Ireland’s clerical child abuse scandal.

Posted by FatherTim at 8/7/2009 8:37 PM EDT
Posted by FatherTim at 8/7/2009 8:37 PM EDT
My friends,

Today's confirmation by the U.S. Senate of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the nation's highest court is a day for the record books, or history books, or religious books -- or some sort of book. Or not.

For the first time in history, there are six Catholics on the nine-member Supreme Court -- not just a majority, but what some have called a "supermajority."

Posted by FatherTim at 8/7/2009 8:37 PM EDT
Posted by FatherTim at 8/7/2009 8:37 PM EDT
My friends,

Today's confirmation by the U.S. Senate of Judge Sonia Sotomayor to be an Associate Justice of the nation's highest court is a day for the record books, or history books, or religious books -- or some sort of book. Or not.

For the first time in history, there are six Catholics on the nine-member Supreme Court -- not just a majority, but what some have called a "supermajority."

Posted by FatherTim at 8/2/2009 7:44 PM EDT
Posted by FatherTim at 8/2/2009 7:44 PM EDT
My friends,

Ironically, thanks to the power of the Internet in general and Facebook in particular, I have been able to read in my far-off mission of the remarks made by Britain's Archbishop of Westminster Vincent Nichols on Facebook and other social networks.

The press has (of course) gleefully taken his comments -- some very well-meaning and thoughtful, and some almost comedically old-fashioned -- to once again paint the Church into a corner as a finger-pointer and condemner of anything and everything that, well, people enjoy and that the Church did not either think of first or control.

Meanwhile, in Dublin...
Meanwhile, in Dublin...

I have been in touch with many fellow priests and friends in Ireland, and their vision must be sharper than mine when it comes to the Catholic Church child abuse scandal, which will soon be in the spotlight again. Although the horrid and monstrous abuse and cover-up will soon sprout more headlines, which constantly occupies my mind, my friends tell me they see -- perhaps only at the personal level, not the "CHURCH" level -- signs of love and forgiveness, signs that many Irish people are able to separate the decent and loving PEOPLE of the Church from the Church itself, which still seems to be an ugly, malignant infection of conspiracy, false moralizing, and, even at this late date, a criminal's preoccupation with escape from justice.

If this is so, it is a sign that God's Love is at work -- which is never really in doubt! If Irish Catholics can see the grace and goodness in just one priest, friar or nun -- without seeing them all as tentacles of this hateful treacherousness -- then there is hope for a new understanding, and indeed, a new Catholic Church, in Ireland. As Jesus showed in his own Life, "death," and Resurrection, the path to redemption is stony and steep. Although the Church's criminals -- both the predators and especially those who made their predation and depravity possible -- must face civil justice and punishment, and the church must pay for what it is solely responsible for, let us pray that the glimmer of light my friends speak of will grow into a new and wondrous star over Ireland. I would love to hear what you think...