Comments on: When self-fulfilling prophecies Knock

By: Carigeen

Carigeen — Mon, 02 Nov 2009 11:21:39 +0000

Not surprisingly, the multinational business that claims a monopoly on “apparitions” is not keen on outsiders muscling in on it’s territory.

The Catholic Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam had suggested that the promised “apparitions” risked misleading “God’s people and undermining faith.”

Liam Meehan had a wonderful response in Wednesday’s Irish Times:

“This is the same faith that believes a cosmic Jew who was his own father by a virgin can enable you to live forever if you symbolically eat his flesh, drink his blood and telepathically tell him you accept him as your master, so he can remove an evil force from something invisible called your soul that is present because a woman made from a rib was convinced by a talking snake to eat an apple from a magical tree.”

I’ve got news for Archbishop Neary. It’s not nonsensical “apparitions” that have undermined Catholic faith in Ireland. It’s the vile litany of abuse by Catholic religious over a seventy year period as documented in the Ryan Commission report http://www.childabusecommission.ie/

The nine-year investigation found that Catholic priests and nuns for decades terrorised thousands of boys and girls in the Irish Republic, while government inspectors failed to stop the chronic beatings, rape and humiliation.

Neary, and other senior managers in the Catholic hierarchy, ran this system for their own benefit and actively protected the abusers.

The people who gathered in Knock on Saturday are deluded fools but the Catholic church hierarchy are scoundrels. I’ll take an honest fool any day!

By: Spectroscope

Spectroscope — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 04:33:28 +0000

@ 24. Nigel Depledge Says:

Spectroscope (22) said:

Galileo Galilei stared at the Sun – to sketch and observe sunspots – and went permanently blind because didn’t he? Mind you, that was through a telescope albeit a very primitive and early model one.

No!
Galileo projected an image of the sun using a telescope and sketched that.

Okay, if you’re sure that’s how he did it. I’ve always heard he went blind from staring at the Sun & presumed through his scope. I could be wrong.

@ 36. slw Says:

Oh what delicious irony when an astronomer scoffs people for staring at the sky

Not the sky, dude the *SUN*.

There’s quite a difference between the two things you know.

Staring at the sky in order to learn about the stars and astronomy is one thing.

Staring at the Sun to claim you’ve had some blinding “magic visions” sent by God’s Mum in the afterimages are is quite another!

By: slw

slw — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 18:44:37 +0000

Oh what delicious irony when an astronomer scoffs people for staring at the sky

By: JB of Brisbane

JB of Brisbane — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 14:01:01 +0000

Thanks, Phil. You just explained the so-called “Miracle of the Sun” that was reported by many eyewitnesses (excuse the pun) at the final “appearance” at Fatima in 1917. I will have to check, but I think there was a similar report from Lourdes as well.

By: Len

Len — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:58:11 +0000

Its quiet unnecessary of the Times to single out the presence of the Travelling community as if to distance the rest of us from this crazy gathering.
“Oh look at all these crackpots, well its mostly Travellers, sure we expect this sort of behavior from them so its ok”.

I guarantee the Travellers were outnumbered by the frustrated old farmers wives.
So perhaps that line should better read “Quite a number of those present were morons”, that would be a bit more inclusive & accurate.

Oh and the “tree stump” virgin mary was clearly not a hoax, it had rosary beads around its neck ffs.

By: rob

rob — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:33:39 +0000

ach. it was a nefarious plot by Big Ophthalmology.

By: Eamon

Eamon — Fri, 30 Oct 2009 14:01:53 +0000

This kind of shite is sadly very common in Ireland, North and South. There’s a Faith Healer called Eddie Stone who’s actually endorsed by the Catholic Church in Ireland who feeds on people’s need to believe. A relative who went to see him was convinced when he said:

“There’s someone in this room who hasn’t been to Confession in 2 years.”

Now I’d have been more impressed if he’d continued in this fashion:

“…and 4 who haven’t been for a year, 20 haven’t been this month – and none of ye, save Mrs McArdle, have been today!”