Cardinal Timothy Dolan, Archbishop of New York, has compared Islamic State with the IRA. I imagine a few retired IRA commanders, while acknowledging that Isis State, in its current form, would have taken NI back from the British in a while of an afternoon, will nevertheless be flattered by the comparison. Of course, the cardinal has not been honouring their military prowess. He has been condemning the IRA and Islamic State jointly as “religious perverts”.
I will not defend Islamic State and I will set aside the historical argument that the IRA fought for a political, not a religious cause. Instead, I will take a look at the career of Cardinal Dolan himself. He should be well informed about religious perverts because he was the man appointed by erstwhile Cardinal Ratzinger, later Pope Benedict, to seek out perverts among the clergy of St Louis and bring them to account. Cardinal Dolan subsequently, while Archbishop of Milwaukee, dismayed victims of religious perverts in his dioceses by making payments of up to $20,000 to clerical abusers, to encourage them to quit the priesthood immediately and save the Church the nuisance of laicizing them.
As Archbishop of New York, he engaged in a little bit of religious perversion himself when he sought permission from the Vatican to remove €59,000,000 from diocesan funds because, in his own words, “By transferring these assets to the trust, I foresee an improved protection of these funds from any legal claim and liability.” The Vatican, to its shame, approved this application to deprive abuse victims of financial redress. Before Cardinal Dolan speaks of religious perverts, he should look into his own heart and see what sort of religious perversion lurks there.
UUP MLA Tom Elliott enthusiastically endorses the Cardinal’s condemnation of the IRA and questions whether Irish Catholic Clergy have ever gone far enough in their condemnation. “Those religious leaders must be more forceful in their opposition to those who are causing the violence and murder, and causing it in the name of that religion,” Tom says. At the same time he overlooks entirely the religious perverts in his own community where religious fundamentalism and loyalist violence have always gone hand in hand. As the UVF resumes its recruitment of young people in NI, isn’t it time for Tom Elliott to follow the Cardinal’s lead and condemn these Protestant men of violence as the “religious perverts” they are?
Fr. Mc Manus on Cardinal Dolan’s IRA Rant
Capitol Hill. March 5, 2015— Fr. Sean Mc Manus, President of the Capitol Hill-based Irish National Caucus, released this statement on Cardinal Dolan’s appalling outburst.
The Irish National Caucus is non-violent, with no foreign principal. It has never sent funds to Ireland, for any reason.
Fr. Mc Manus said the Cardinal’s statement, equating the IRA to ISIS was:
“Profoundly ignorant, totally irresponsible and lacking all credibility. It is sadly consistent with a man who for forty years never opened his mouth about the oppression of Catholics in Northern Ireland. Such a person as Cardinal Dolan — who was complicit by his silence in British torture of political prisoners, anti-Catholic discrimination, British murder gangs and the wholesale denial of human rights— has now no moral authority to comment on the struggle of an oppressed people. He forfeited that right by his complicity and collusion. His johnny-come-lately and cowardly outburst only further deepens his own complicity, and further abuses his spiritual power.”
Fr. Sean Mc Manus
President
Irish National Caucus
P.O. BOX 15128
Capitol Hill
Washington, DC 20003-0849
Tel. 202-544-0568
Fax. 202-488-7537
sean@irishnationalcaucus.org
Go re maith agat Fr McManus. Perfectly stated
Fr Mc Manus is he still around? I thought he had been taken to a padded room a long long time ago
http://www.historyireland.com/18th-19th-century-history/the-catholic-church-and-fenianism/
Cardinal or not the statement made by this man is idiotic in the extreme and he has made himself look very foolish and ilimformed.
If anyone wants to start a movement to rid us of these bloated “princes of the church” count me in.
Usually when someone holds forth on a subject they hopefully have a reasonable grasp of the subject matter in hand. Cardinal Dolan, in his diatribe, appears to be the exception to the rule.
Who in the IRA ever claimed to represent the Catholic religion, or the Catholic Church?
Soinbhe
Before people jump on the bandwagon and condemn Tom Elliot as you have, can I point out that he was asked by William Crawley about loyalists.
Having said that he could see a comparison between the IRA and IS Elliot was asked would he say the same about loyalists.
“Absolutely”
Gio – don’t do that. I read quickly and mistook you to say ‘a comparison between the IRA and TS Eliot’. Unfair comparison I thought. But then I read again and saw the error of my ways. Btw – would you say poor Tom was as eloquent on the subject of unionist/loyalist terrorists as he was on republican terrorists?
Jude
The answer is no of course. He is much happier condemning themuns, a condition I am afraid you share!
But he did condemn the loyalist groupings nonetheless, which Soinbhe apparently overlooked.
Regarding the otherT Eliot perhaps his Macavity is appropriate for the RA, as he was a monster of depravity,and of course like Gerry Adams whatever time the crime took place Macavity was not there!
Och gio – you’re an unforgiving man (or woman, you’ve never made clear your sex/gender OR YOUR NAME). I suppose I do come from a different perspective on life than Tom but I’d like to think that I’d be readier to admit that republicans or the republican side in the conflict was guilty of some terrible and barbaric deeds. As I said in a radio discussion earlier this week, IRA members were guilty of sectarian atrocities. But by and large their targets were those actively involved in the conflict – British army, RUC, UDR etc. I don’t think that was the unionist/loyalist strategy: they attacked innocent Catholics with the belief that if enough were killed, sympathy for the IRA would dry up in those areas where they were strong, and they would be defeated.
I think many share your view as stated. Republicans committed some horrendous acts, but they did not act in a vacuum. I beleive that ‘for the most part” republicans tended to attack state forces and those in their employ(UVF UDA etc). This does not excuse their actions, however it always seems to be a bit rich to me when the Unionist spokesmen describe the conflict in one sided terms. The DUP contingents hand are certainly not without dirt on them
Jude
I could give you my name but as I have copyright on it I would have to charge you a fee everytime you addressed me.
And I’ll get my mates to come on here and harangue you (if I had any mates!).
Soinbhe Lally I look forward to your contributions, please carry on!
Why anyone bothers taking what that terrorist Tom Elliot says serious is beyond me.
He made a complete idiot of himself.
Have this Dolan fellow talk to Fr Raymond Murray if he wants to learn the truth. Torture of prisoners, internment without trial, plastic/rubber bullet deaths, collusion and state violence, the list goes on. Dolan needs to remove the blinders to his own misdeeds
Unionists like Tom Elliot will, when pushed of course, condemn the likes of the UDA/UVF etc, but will never, ever, condemn the forces of the crown…..who worked with the self same UDA/UVF. Go figure.
To be fair to poor Tom, he did say on the Nolan TV show last Wed that he extended the condemnation to everyone including state forces…
I don`t remember plane loads of Swedish Lutherans and Spanish Catholics arriving here to fight for their co-religionists…….
ANOTHER JUDE
I can’t say I heard of Spaniards coming to Ireland either. I’ve heard of Irish Catholics who went to Spain to fight for their co-religionists and ended up getting into a few scraps with Shankill Road republicans.
Yes, like one of your other contributors I was surprised that Fr. Sean MacManus was still active, I thought he had been consigned to the dustbin of history some time ago. I vividly recall watching a television interview he gave many years ago : asked repeatedly by one of the Dimbleby brothers to condemn the I.R.A.’s campaign, he steadfastly refused to do so. Apparently his deep concern for human rights didn’t stretch to the many people murdered and maimed by them. At the time I thought it was a shocking performance from an ordained Christian priest.
I listened to Elliott’s interview with Nolan and he condemned both Loyalist terrorists and those members of the state forces who acted outside the law. As to eloquence, since when have U.U.P. people been eloquent, this is a Party renowned for the dullness of its leaders, going back to Molyneaux and West. But, of course, Dolan, like most Irish Americans was talking nonsense.