JESUS of Nazareth spoke those words two thousand years ago, and just to illustrate how true this man was to his word and to his Mother, he said them shortly before he died, nailed to a cross of wood for all the sins of the world.
Since that time Christians have looked toward Rome and the pope for guidance. The popes through the centuries have been, to say the least, only attempting to stand in the ill-fitting shoes of the Fisherman, the first pope Peter.
The church has distanced itself more and more through the millennia from the teachings of JESUS CHRIST and paid far too much attention to strengthening the wealth of Rome than to strengthening the spirituality of its servants, the clergy, and its hierarchy. They have consistently been the tyrants of people who fall outside their own distorted idea of how people should live their lives. Anyone who did not live up to their idea of a Christian was quite literally targeted and demonized. Gay people, bisexuals, trans genders… all these people and more like them are human beings first and their preferences sexual or otherwise are of no consequence to a faith that began by its founder, Jesus, saying “LOVE YOUR NEIGHBOUR AS YOURSELF.” There was no prerequisite that said neighbor be a straight Christian, but then, you see, it has always been a case of DO AS I SAY, NOT AS I DO as far as the hierarchy of Rome has been concerned.
“SUFFER THE LITTLE CHILDREN TO COME UNTO ME” Jesus said these words too, and he said this- I believe- because he foresaw the flock of black garbed pedophiles swarming, ready to tear to pieces the innocence of many, many thousands of defenseless children over many, many decades. They have raped them at will, breaking their spirit and their bodies and minds in a vile orgy with not only the full knowledge of the might of Rome and its hierarchy, but with the full complicity of Rome. Were any of these black robed Devils ever handed over to the authorities? Well, the straight answer to that is only a token handful. One priest was widely reported to have raped over TWO HUNDRED DEAF BOYS in a home. He was given a retirement home to live out the rest of his life in peace. There are too many cases of absolute horror to publish here, but suffice it to say Rome has not only hidden this putrid laundry, but has, up to recent times, rejected its very existence. They have been in the process of damage limitation rather than resolution.
Just this week the findings of yet another report on the Magdalene laundries here in Ireland found our own Government responsible and complicit in the enslavement, starvation, and torture of tens of thousands of Irish girls. They were consigned in these pits of hell where they were forced to work twelve hour days on a bread and water diet. Those that died of pneumonia, starvation, or beatings were buried within the grounds of the convent with no ceremony or marker. Their captors were as tough and cruel as any Nazi camp commandant and they were Catholic nuns. One of the survivors of this regime is a very good friend of mine. She is eighty-two year old Ellen, whom I love as a mother. She has told me things that I will not recount here. Again I am merely skimming across the surface of these atrocities to give a small example of how far reaching homophobia, elitism and downright evil can flourish under the guise of self-righteous and arrogantly cruel people, even in a land renounced across the globe as the land of Saints and scholars.
Despite my country’s dark past and history of corrupt politics I still love my country. I love my people and despite the horrors that the Catholic Church has been complicit in, I am still a Catholic. Why, you may ask? Well it’s for the same reason that Jesus accepts us all…even with our failings. I believe that the good people in the church, and yes there are good people in the church, will eventually be heard. And I still believe that the church can survive all that it has been responsible for, but it will take radical and sweeping changes. Should celibacy be a choice? This has to be clarified and I believe implemented. Should we have women priests? Again this has to be discussed and I believe implemented. Should there be full accountability in the church? I believe it is vital to the rebuilding of the church’s respectability, which is in tatters, that every person in the church regardless of their prestige or office should be held responsible for not only their actions but their inaction with regard to child sex abuse and other forms of abuse. The question of a person’s sexual preferences or beliefs, i.e. Gay, Bi, Trans-gender or otherwise, certainly needs to be addressed. They have a right as human beings to be who they are and what their nature tells them they are.
“Now is the hour, the hour is at hand.” Jesus spoke these words as he was being arrested in the garden of Gethsemane and I firmly believe that now is the hour for the Catholic Church. This is their time to sweep out all of the filth that has contaminated the work of the fine priests and nuns who have ACTUALLY devoted their lives to God and to doing good. I said in a recent TV interview that the next church that Rome builds should be made of glass. By this I mean that transparency should be the foundation upon the rebuilding of our church. To do this…and change in a radical way of the thinking of the hierarchy…we need a Pope of real moral values who is pre Constantine in his beliefs. That is to say, more in line with the teachings of JESUS OF NAZARETH whose teachings hinged directly on being inclusive and not exclusive.
Women played a vital role in the teachings of Christ and their importance is always visible in His inclusion of them at key events. In fact, the very first miracle that Jesus performed was for his mother in the wedding at Cana. And no one can doubt the love of Mary of Magdala for her Savior, and His recognition of her is firmly set in stone and in thousands of paintings since the earliest times of recorded Christian history as being right there at the foot of the cross with his Mother Mary, his father Joseph, and the disciple Jesus loved most, John. Women priests would be a great addition to The New Catholic Church and without a doubt it cannot have escaped even the haughty attention of Rome that even conservative Catholics are at least asking, albeit in whispers, “why not?”
Yesterday Pope Benedict the 16th became the first pope in 600 years to resign as an electrical storm shattered the peace of the people of Rome and thunder clouds rumbled an ominous sign of change in the weather. It was as if God himself was angry at Rome’s many sins of scandals, corruption, and cover ups, its many dark and foreboding secrets that may never see the light of day, its intransigence at change, its insistence of innocence despite tons of evidence to the contrary, or even more galling, its inept and at times ridiculous explanations of atrocities that were hidden from the world. It was as if God himself thundered out “NO MORE!!” and a bolt of lightning actually struck the dome of ST PETERS. The very heart of Christendom was shaken to its ancient foundations. Who amongst the band of conservative cardinals that Benedict has surrounded himself with is God-like enough to take this poisoned chalice? I can see not one! There has to be a man, just one, who will fit the shoes of the Fisherman and actually be THE ROCK UPON WHICH THE NEW CHURCH OF JESUS CHRIST IS REBUILT. Who is he, where is he or she? Yes, she. For if there is to be change, it must be at the highest level and that starts with the Pope. We need a leader like Christ, we need a new Shepard who will gather the scattered flocks. We need someone who loves and is loving, who is brave enough to sweep aside centuries of dust and dominance. We need to feel that God speaks through this Pope and we need to feel that Jesus of Nazareth did not die in vain.
The clouds darken and move in as night falls. We are alone in the dark without a Shepard, just as the disciples were when the lightening flashed across the skies as Jesus died, but we must take comfort again in the words of our Savior. “REMEMBER I AM WITH YOU ALWAYS EVEN TO THE END OF TIME”
