RC church on politics?

so-crates said:
What restraints do you envision the bishops can put on such individuals? What avenues do they have open to them? How would such "lunatic fringe" individuals respond to the imposition of these measures?

Chocks Away - face up to it. They did the most sensible and politically the most neutral thing. In answer to your original question, they didn't overstep the mark.

It would seem to me that in your eyes it is a case of damned if you do and damned if you don't. If they had kept their mouths shut and allowed Cóir et al to pretend to be their mouthpiece you would have believed them to be making a political statement. By explicitly distancing themselves from such organisations and stating categorically that they take no position on it and that it is a political matter for individual catholics to decide you accuse them of interfering.

I can only assume from all of that that your only preference in the matter is that they disappear altogether - hardly an unbiased position to start from in commenting on them.
Click to expand...


Well said.
 
Considering the amount of (what turned out to be) bad advice that has eminated from them over the centuries, might it not be about time that they kept stum in some areas?
 
Chocks away

As has already been said, many times, don't listen to them if you don't want to. But don't try and censor them for those who do.
 
Chocks away said:
Considering the amount of (what turned out to be) bad advice that has eminated from them over the centuries, might it not be about time that they kept stum in some areas?
Click to expand...

Who decides what areas? You?

I agree Liaconn time for this to close.
 
Chocks away said:
Considering the amount of (what turned out to be) bad advice that has eminated from them over the centuries, might it not be about time that they kept stum in some areas?
Click to expand...

As we are dragging up the past.

So we should vote 'no' because of what the Germans did twice last century ?
 
jhegarty said:
As we are dragging up the past.

So we should vote 'no' because of what the Germans did twice last century ?
Click to expand...
In Hitler's Pope it was stated that Rome exhorted young Germans to join Hitler's youth movement. They being deemed a better bet than communists.
 
Chocks away said:
In Hitler's Pope it was stated that Rome exhorted young Germans to join Hitler's youth movement. They being deemed a better bet than communists.
Click to expand...


This thread is starting to go way over the top. I agree that it should be closed.
 
I don't see how giving a true example should cause a thread to be closed. Unless you believe in censorship.
 
Chocks away said:
Considering the amount of (what turned out to be) bad advice that has eminated from them over the centuries, might it not be about time that they kept stum in some areas?
Click to expand...

Chocks away said:
Yes, basically that was my point. But I also feel that the top brass in the church should have reined in the rightwingers in Coir and Alive mag. How can two sides of the same organisation have such conflicting ideals? On both sides this is not freedom of speech, it is the manipulation of their position to influence people that kowtow to them. The time has come [IMHO] for the separation of church and state.
Click to expand...

Chocks away said:
I don't see how giving a true example should cause a thread to be closed. Unless you believe in censorship.
Click to expand...
Good grief not at all, however it seems from the above that you do believe in and indeed advocate it.
 
Last edited:
Giving advice is a little like censorship, ie different sides of the same coin. If you promote something, then you ignore/castigate the opposite. Like all organisations, the church cannot give impartial advice. The rudimentary tenet of growing a business is by pushing it's agenda either openly or by subterfuge. Of course, if you don't agree that the church is a business .........
 
The Church is there to state the Church's view, they are not the referendum Commission. I don't know what your agenda is but, as has now been said about a million times, don't listen to them if you don't want to.
 
liaconn said:
The Church is there to state the Church's view, they are not the referendum Commission. I don't know what your agenda is but, as has now been said about a million times, don't listen to them if you don't want to.
Click to expand...
You cannot help but listen/read/see. It was on all the news reels on radio and TV and got front page in the papers. And they should have specified that it was OK to vote either way. No?
 
Chocks away said:
You cannot help but listen/read/see. It was on all the news reels on radio and TV and got front page in the papers. And they should have specified that it was OK to vote either way. No?
Click to expand...

What on earth are you on about? Either take their view on board if it matters to you, or don't. Or are you saying that anyone whose views you don't like or agree with should not get any airtime or media coverage?
 
Personally I hope the YES vote gets through. But I don't think the church should get involved - trying to sway support either way. That was, and still is, my gripe.
 
So all the practising Catholics in the country, who want to know the Church's view, should not be entitled to hear it?

What was it you said about censorship?
 
Conscience should dictate. After all, that is what it's for. As Hamlet said "Conscience makes cowards of us all".
 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top