Catholic Info
Traditional Catholic Faith => Crisis in the Church => Topic started by: Emile on November 16, 2023, 12:24:00 PM
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I found some of the observations in this article interesting and would especially like to hear the thoughts of our Irish friends.
Home (https://voiceofthefamily.com/) » Liam Gibson (https://voiceofthefamily.com/liam-gibson/) »
Ireland’s rebellion against God
By Liam Gibson | 15 November 2023
(https://voiceofthefamily.com/wp-content/uploads/2023/11/128W3.jpg)
In his 2015 book Black Earth: the h0Ɩ0cαųst as History and Warning, Timothy Snyder describes how, on 12 March 1938, the Jєωs of Vienna were made to scrub the streets of the city.1 Yet, as Snyder points out, this notorious incident was much more than a cruel and arbitrary act of public humiliation. In fact, it held an almost ritual significance. Prior to the nαzι seizure of power, the Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg had planned a referendum which he believed would decisively reject Hitler’s plans for a takeover. The government’s main propaganda slogan was just one word: Österreich — Austria. This slogan appeared everywhere, in newspapers, on posters, and in keeping with Austrian tradition, it was even painted on the streets. But no referendum took place. At 19:57 on Friday 11 March, Schuschnigg delivered a radio address informing the Austrian people that their country had ceased to exist as a sovereign nation. The next day, triumphant nαzι stormtroopers forced Viennese Jєωs to scrub the word Österreich from the roads and pavements. The message was clear; the old regime was being symbolically erased.
Snyder argues, quite convincingly, that it was the destruction of the states of central and eastern Europe that created the circuмstances in which the h0Ɩ0cαųst could occur. Across Poland, Ukraine, Belarus, and in the Baltic nations, those who sought to distance themselves from the old regimes invariably became the worst persecutors of the perceived enemies of the new order.
For those puzzled by the rapid social change that has swept through modern Ireland, the shifting loyalties of the people of occupied Europe may also help to explain how a solidly Catholic country has become filled with such vehement hatred for the Christian faith.
Irish independence and Catholic political influence
From the sixteenth century onward, being Irish was virtually synonymous with being Catholic.2 This association was so well established by 1912 that James Joyce, then living in Italy, wrote mockingly, “O Ireland my first and only love, Where Christ and Caesar are hand and glove!”3 Ten years later, the founding of the Free State meant this sarcastic remark would nearly become a reality. Men of genuine faith were leading the country. In a radio broadcast delivered on St Patrick’s Day 1943, Prime Minister Eamon de Valera described his hopes for Ireland:
“The ideal Ireland that we would have, the Ireland that we dreamed of, would be the home of a people who valued material wealth only as a basis for right living, of a people who, satisfied with frugal comfort, devoted their leisure to the things of the spirit… The home, in short, of a people living the life that God desires that men should live.”4
The Catholic Church came to be regarded by many as a junior partner in the unofficial government of Ireland. To Protestants in the North, the Republic was a priest-ridden country. To the disgruntled left-wing critics on the fringe of Irish politics the problem was a “yahoo-ridden” Church.5 Nevertheless, this relationship continued almost without interruption through decades of economic stagnation and hardship until the 1990s when de Valera’s “antiquated” vision was held up to merciless ridicule.
When child abuse scandals within the clergy (some of which both state and Church officials were aware) came to light, politicians who had spent their careers chasing the Catholic vote turned on the Church. As a consequence, the ferocity of the media inflicted damage on the bishops’ perception of their own authority. A blow from which they have not yet recovered. The truth, however, is that for years the facade of the Irish Church had been undermined from within.
The interpretation of omens
Like a financial collapse, Ireland’s moral bankruptcy happened in two ways — gradually then suddenly. It would be impossible to compile a comprehensive list of turning points in Ireland’s downward trajectory. Social scientists could chart the rise in the use of birth control and the decline in Mass attendance but, while statistics can reveal a trend, they cannot explain it. Perhaps the most significant factor consistently overlooked is the superstitious nature of Irish society. Unlike the rest of Western Europe, Ireland was not infected by the cynicism of the Enlightenment6 and largely untouched by the materialism of both the Industrial Revolution and Marxist theory. The centuries of persecution and the ever deepening poverty it produced ensured that the majority of Irish Catholics were uneducated, insular and convinced of the reality of folklore and myth. In Ireland, popular belief in banshees, fairies and pookas persisted long after similar myths across the Western world had been forgotten. After a visit to Ireland in 1989, the Lithuanian archaeologist and anthropologist, Marija Gimbutas wrote:
“Old European monuments stand here in all their majesty. In its legends and rituals, this country has preserved many elements which in other parts of Europe vanished long ago. Much that stems from pre-Indo-European times… is still very much alive in Ireland.”7
Generations of farmers whose lands held Neolithic tombs, or “fairy-forts”, left them untouched for fear that some misfortune should befall them.8 While these folk beliefs were held by a largely rural, Mass-going population, they were seldom problematic. Arguably, however, they have made the Irish a superstitious nation. For instance, on the planes of the Irish budget airline, Ryanair, the seats are numbered so as to omit row 13. In 2013, the system for numbering vehicle registrations was changed to avoid the number 13 on licence plates. The Irish preoccupation with good and bad omens has led foreigners to confuse the Shamrock, a symbol of the Blessed Trinity, with the lucky charm of the four-leafed clover. In the 1990s, when British late-night television was advertising sleazy chatlines, Irish TV was running ads for psychics and clairvoyants. And the interest in fortune tellers and mediums has only grown since then. Irish society has moved almost directly from a pre-enlightenment mentality to a post-Christian worldview.
The New Age cult has found fertile ground in modern Ireland, and the Church has not escaped its influence. Many people have been introduced to the use of enneagrams, centering prayers and transcendental meditation through Catholic institutions. One of the most troubling examples of this made its way into religious education in Catholic schools. In 1993, the Irish Bishops’ Conference launched a new RE program with the title Alive-O. Among the worst feature of this curriculum was a project called “Little Beings”. In a detail analysis of the program published in 2019 by Dr Éanna Johnson, he wrote the following:
“A particularly disturbing resource in Alive-O is the use of ‘little Beings’, which are plasticine models which each child is required to make. The ‘little Being’ can be anything the child imagines, with a personality and name which is not to be disclosed to anyone, not even their parents nor teacher. Parents will not even be aware of the existence of ‘little Beings’, because they are kept in school and are not mentioned in the Pupil’s Book. A ‘little Being’ could be harmless or malign, giving a dangerous opening for the sinister or even occult. Children are invited to place their ‘little Beings’ on their desks, pray in the presence of their ‘little Beings’, even hold the Being in their hands while going into deep meditation with altered mental consciousness when they are invited to talk to their ‘little Being’ and listen to what the ‘little Being’ is saying to them.”9
The Church has always taught that superstitious practices are a violation of the First Commandment. They can also open the door to demonic influence. The Catechism warns us that:
“All forms of divination are to be rejected: recourse to Satan or demons, conjuring up the dead or other practices falsely supposed to “unveil” the future. Consulting horoscopes, astrology, palm reading, interpretation of omens and lots, the phenomena of clairvoyance, and recourse to mediums all conceal a desire for power over time, history, and, in the last analysis, other human beings, as well as a wish to conciliate hidden powers. They contradict the honour, respect, and loving fear that we owe to God alone.” (CCC 2116)
The Irish Republic was the first nation in the world to legalise abortion through a popular vote. The ecstatic scenes that followed the result of the referendum repealing Ireland’s pro-life laws could be seen as evidence of a demonic influence. No doubt some of those celebrating owed their lives to Ireland’s abortion ban. Not satisfied with achieving their long-awaited goal, the political establishment has demonstrated its rejection of the past by criminalising pro-life vigils near abortion facilities.
In recent years, a new myth has sprung up. The Irish now see themselves as doubly oppressed, first of all by the English but then by the Catholic Church. Ironically, it was only the value their ancestors placed on their Catholic faith that drew down English persecution. Support for abortion in many cases is motivated by the rejection of the old order. The violent abuse wielded by groups like Antifa against Catholics praying in streets and public spaces reflects a burning hatred for Ireland’s Christian past and a fanatical determination to erase the little that remains.
Notes
1. Timothy Snyder, Black Earth: The h0Ɩ0cαųst as History and Warning (Duggan Books, 2015).
2. In a letter to John Thurloe, Secretary of State, dated 18 September 1655, Oliver Cromwell’s son Henry, a major-general of the Parliamentarian forces in Ireland, agreed to transport 1,500 to 2,000 teenage Irish Catholic boys to Jamaica. He expressed the opinion that slavery might be “a means to make them English-men, I mean rather, Christians”. The letter is cited by Sean O’Callaghan, in To Hell or Barbados: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ireland (Brandon, 2000) p 149. An estimated 50,000 Irish Catholic men, women and children were sent as slaves to British plantations in the Caribbean between 1652 and 1657.
3. James Joyce, Gas from a burner: A broadside in verse (Printed for the author: Trieste 1912).
4. Eamon de Valera (1882–1975), Radió Éireann, 17 March 1943.
5. “You see Ireland in my opinion is not a clerical-ridden country, but it’s a yahoo-ridden Church! and it’s the black bastards of the laity who are the trouble in Ireland. And you don’t get an anti-clericalism movement among workers. They may stop practising their religion like many of the Irish who go to England, but they are not anti-clerical. Anti-clericalism is a middle class manifestation.” Peadar O’Donnell, author and socialist, “Peadar O’Donnell talks to the Monday Circle”, Nusight magazine, ed. Vincent Browne (Dublin, September 1969) p 80.
6. The impact of Enlightenment thought was minimal despite figures like Bishop George Berkeley and Edmund Burke. When French troops landed in the west of the country in 1789, the local peasants who flocked to join them believed they were fighting for the freedom of the Catholic religion.
7. Marija Gimbutas, Journal of Indo-European Studies, (1989) 17, p 195.
8. These sites are now legally protected monuments. See “The superstitions and mysteries around Ireland’s ‘fairy forts’ (https://www.rte.ie/brainstorm/2021/1021/1237227-fairy-forts-ringforts-superstitions-rural-ireland/)”, Raidió Teilifís Éireann, 21 Oct 2021.
9. Éanna Johnson PhD, Alive-O Legacy: Let the Children come to Me? 2019, p 26.
https://voiceofthefamily.com/irelands-rebellion-against-god/
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The more I read about former Catholic countries, the more I am convinced that people with real faith were always a minority.
Even though most people and the state itself were officially Catholic, few of them had real faith.
This seems particularly clear in the part on which the article talks about superstition.
I am not talking about people with virtues and saints, I am merely talking about people who really have the Catholic faith. I mean, we all do have our sins, but we don't keep magic statues in our houses.
Having sins is different from having a lifestyle that is contrary to the faith, even if is just a little "devotion" to fairies and other magical creatures. You simply cannot have it both ways.
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The more I read about former Catholic countries, the more I am convinced that people with real faith were always a minority.
Even though most people and the state itself were officially Catholic, few of them had real faith.
This seems particularly clear in the part on which the article talks about superstition.
I am not talking about people with virtues and saints, I am merely talking about people who really have the Catholic faith. I mean, we all do have our sins, but we don't keep magic statues in our houses.
Having sins is different from having a lifestyle that is contrary to the faith, even if is just a little "devotion" to fairies and other magical creatures. You simply cannot have it both ways.
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I had exactly the same reaction reading this too, although to be fair the author fails to distinguish between pre- and post-Vatican 2 Ireland. But yeah, is it possible for someone to believe both in the Catholic Faith and in fairies? I don't see how.
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In his 2015 book Black Earth: the h0Ɩ0cαųst as History and Warning, Timothy Snyder describes how, on 12 March 1938, the Jєωs of Vienna were made to scrub the streets of the city.1 Yet, as Snyder points out, this notorious incident was much more than a cruel and arbitrary act of public humiliation. In fact, it held an almost ritual significance. Prior to the nαzι seizure of power, the Chancellor, Kurt Schuschnigg had planned a referendum which he believed would decisively reject Hitler’s plans for a takeover. The government’s main propaganda slogan was just one word: Österreich — Austria. This slogan appeared everywhere, in newspapers, on posters, and in keeping with Austrian tradition, it was even painted on the streets. But no referendum took place. At 19:57 on Friday 11 March, Schuschnigg delivered a radio address informing the Austrian people that their country had ceased to exist as a sovereign nation. The next day, triumphant nαzι stormtroopers forced Viennese Jєωs to scrub the word Österreich from the roads and pavements. The message was clear; the old regime was being symbolically erased.
Snyder argues, quite convincingly, that it was the destruction of the states of central and eastern Europe that created the circuмstances in which the h0Ɩ0cαųst could occur.
Boo-oh, poor jews! :laugh1:
Seriously, there must be a demon who whispers into the ear of these public figures to repeat these lies over and over again.
The more I read about former Catholic countries, the more I am convinced that people with real faith were always a minority.
Even though most people and the state itself were officially Catholic, few of them had real faith.
This seems particularly clear in the part on which the article talks about superstition.
I am not talking about people with virtues and saints, I am merely talking about people who really have the Catholic faith. I mean, we all do have our sins, but we don't keep magic statues in our houses.
Having sins is different from having a lifestyle that is contrary to the faith, even if is just a little "devotion" to fairies and other magical creatures. You simply cannot have it both ways.
I think it's more convoluted than the picture you're painting. Historians and sociologists, in my view, tend to exaggerate this sort of phenomena in Catholic countries to make Catholics look like syncretic fools. It's worth noting that in Ireland particularly the priests were always warning the people not to believe in this superstitious nonsense, and it seems most listened.
There were some rural Irish folk who gave stories to a certain Protestant Ascendancy aristocrat by the name of Lady Augusta Gregory about these fairies. However, it's not clear if the people who telling the stories really believe in this stuff. They told these stories to her (recorded within the book Visions and Beliefs in the West of Ireland, which was published in the 1920s) in order to receive items from her in return, because she was very interested in docuмenting this odd folklore. These fairy legends were to most of the Irish, so it seems, like stories about UFOs and Bigfoot here in the States. People will trade around stories about those two subjects (and there is a wide range of videos on the Internet about such things), even though most people involved in such discussions often do not believe in cryptids or UFOs themselves. It's an entertainment thing for them. Maybe the Irish saw the fairies in a similar light?
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I think it's more convoluted than the picture you're painting. Historians and sociologists, in my view, tend to exaggerate this sort of phenomena in Catholic countries to make Catholics look like syncretic fools. It's worth noting that in Ireland particularly the priests were always warning the people not to believe in this superstitious nonsense, and it seems most listened.
I think that it is probably somewhere between the two extremes.
I mean, how can we explain this?
Generations of farmers whose lands held Neolithic tombs, or “fairy-forts”, left them untouched for fear that some misfortune should befall them.8 While these folk beliefs were held by a largely rural, Mass-going population, they were seldom problematic. Arguably, however, they have made the Irish a superstitious nation. For instance, on the planes of the Irish budget airline, Ryanair, the seats are numbered so as to omit row 13. In 2013, the system for numbering vehicle registrations was changed to avoid the number 13 on licence plates.
This sounds like something that goes deep and is not somethings that just some fools believed.
Do you see any superstition in France?
I see plenty here in Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world. We are full of syncretism and superstition.
It would be really interesting to know if there was something like this in very Catholic countries like France and Portugal during the 1800s, for instance.
This kind of thing would be insignificant if people were deep and serious about their Catholic beliefs.
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I think that it is probably somewhere between the two extremes.
I mean, how can we explain this?
This sounds like something that goes deep and is not somethings that just some fools believed.
Do you see any superstition in France?
I see plenty here in Brazil, the largest Catholic country in the world. We are full of syncretism and superstition.
It would be really interesting to know if there was something like this in very Catholic countries like France and Portugal during the 1800s, for instance.
This kind of thing would be insignificant if people were deep and serious about their Catholic beliefs.
I agree.
The "fairy-forts" are an interesting case to be sure. It may be possible that fairies are really demons appearing as "angels of light" (which sounds a little funny at first, until you read the stories about how they kidnap children). If these tombs were also places of demonic ritual, it would make sense that demons "set up shop" there, so to speak. However, it may be possible that fairies are simply man-made superstitions with no basis in the natural or supernatural. Most Irish would not have known much or anything about the true history of those mysterious forts, making suspicion around them somewhat sensible. However, that does not justify the creation of superstitions to explain such things, yet that is unfortunately what often happens.
As for the number 13 being a bad omen, it seems like a stretch to say the least to attribute this to the tombs. There's many different explanations as to why 13 is considered an evil number, but I've never heard of these "fairy-forts" being one of those reasons. It seems like Ireland merely picked up that taboo from other Western countries.
I do not live in France, so I cannot say.
Well with Brazil in mind, I would assume that has really become a thing post VII. However, was there stuff of this sort going on there as well, and to what extent?
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The more I read about former Catholic countries, the more I am convinced that people with real faith were always a minority.
Even though most people and the state itself were officially Catholic, few of them had real faith.
This seems particularly clear in the part on which the article talks about superstition.
I am not talking about people with virtues and saints, I am merely talking about people who really have the Catholic faith. I mean, we all do have our sins, but we don't keep magic statues in our houses.
Having sins is different from having a lifestyle that is contrary to the faith, even if is just a little "devotion" to fairies and other magical creatures. You simply cannot have it both ways.
I guess for them they were just following 'the current thing'. Plus without the extra graces and miracles many cannot believe. And of course few are saved.
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I guess for them they were just following 'the current thing'. Plus without the extra graces and miracles many cannot believe. And of course few are saved.
It's also my conviction that throughout history, true faithful Catholics were in the minority. There are precious few fervent catholics in novels, poetry and theatre going as far back as the 16 th century. Even the pilgrims in Chaucer's Canterbury tales aren't particulary fervent. I suspect that the true faith was mainly upheld by catholic monarchs who had the graces of state to keep their nations under God. People will of course mention the Vendéens as proof of a genuine deep rooted faith, but their persecutors had also been raised 'traditional' catholics.
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Not Irish, only commenting on the logical premises of the article. Whatever valid points about the deliberate sins against the Faith by Irish politicians and NuChurch, the author makes no clear link whatsoever between the first three paragraphs and the main topic about which he writes. Thus, I'm a little skeptical. Why drag in and drop on the table those first three paragraphs?
Further, there's a bit much of the educated gawking at the odd beliefs of quaint country folk and nowhere near as much at the intellectual heirs of James Joyce. Easier to blame the culchies than to blame the swells, it seems.
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I agree.
The "fairy-forts" are an interesting case to be sure. It may be possible that fairies are really demons appearing as "angels of light" (which sounds a little funny at first, until you read the stories about how they kidnap children). If these tombs were also places of demonic ritual, it would make sense that demons "set up shop" there, so to speak. However, it may be possible that fairies are simply man-made superstitions with no basis in the natural or supernatural. Most Irish would not have known much or anything about the true history of those mysterious forts, making suspicion around them somewhat sensible. However, that does not justify the creation of superstitions to explain such things, yet that is unfortunately what often happens.
As for the number 13 being a bad omen, it seems like a stretch to say the least to attribute this to the tombs. There's many different explanations as to why 13 is considered an evil number, but I've never heard of these "fairy-forts" being one of those reasons. It seems like Ireland merely picked up that taboo from other Western countries.
I do not live in France, so I cannot say.
Well with Brazil in mind, I would assume that has really become a thing post VII. However, was there stuff of this sort going on there as well, and to what extent?
I was pretty sure that you were French. :confused: I must have confused you with someone else. Forgive me.
If fairies are just "cute" legends or actually demons is not the heart of the matter in my opinion. The mais problem is that people believe in them and are afraid to upset them or whatever. This attitude shows a lack of true faith.
Brazil has always had influence from several non-Catholic groups. Even though the country was something like 99% Catholic until the 1960s or so, there have always been the practise of "Folk Catholicism" along with true religion.
The first ѕуηαgσgυє of the Americas was built in Recife, Northeast Brazil, in the 1600s. We know how these folks like their superstitions.
Plus, there is a massive influence of African native religions. There are many groups similar to the Mexican Santeria or to the Voodoo of the Caribbean.
Even my mother, now in her 60s, tells stories of people getting "blessings" from old ladies. And we are talking about people living in medium sized and big cities, not in the countryside.
I imagine that most Catholic countries out of Europe are like this.
Some place like Portugal or France might be different, where there was less external influences, and they had more than a thousand years to wipe Paganism and superstition out.
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Part Irish (DNA verified)
I think the article was skewed to the trivial and lacked historical facts and insight into the Irish character.
(https://www.theirishstory.com/wp-content/uploads/2016/07/dun-laoghaire-1932.gif)
Irish Eucharistic Congress - Dublin 1932
It starts with image of Jєωs being forced by German soldiers to wash the streets of Austria.
In reality, the Jєωs instigated the murder over 6.2 million Irish with the Brit military forced starvation from 1845 to 1851. From which they effectively marketed as the "Irish Potato Famine".
The British army's occupation and embargo of every Irish county and confiscation of farmlands was instigated and funded by Mr. Rothschild.
The Irish h0Ɩ0cαųst (https://youtu.be/nqsMDWti-ys)
Jєωιѕн hate for Irish Catholics goes back to the days of St. Patrick, when God allowed him to defeat the Druids.
The Druids being the separated Northern tribes of the Jєωs.
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The Return of the Druids in Ireland (By John Horvat II May 29, 2018)
(https://tfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/The_Return_of_the_Druids_in_Ireland.jpg) (https://tfp.org/record-breaking-100000-rally-for-life-in-ireland/)
The Return of the Druids in Ireland
The abortion referendum in Ireland is over, and many are devastated by the tragic outcome. Some now conclude that Ireland has surrendered to the secular European agenda. It has lost its Catholic identity. The progressives are now giddy with joy proclaiming a new modern Ireland that has left behind the old.
However, there is nothing new in the present battle for the soul of Ireland. Throughout its history, the struggle for the Irish soul has always been over its Druids. Ireland only abandons the ardor of the Faith when it allows its hidden Druids to return and dominate.
What the Druids Believed
This is what has happened now. The Druid label fits perfectly on the political caste that has imposed divorce, same-sex “marriage” and now abortion on the Emerald Isle. The diviners, charmers, priest, magicians, astrologists and wizards of old were amazingly similar to their neo-pagan counterparts today.
The Druids’ principal doctrine supported a life without moral consequences since they believed the soul did not die but passed at death from one person to another. Although these frequenters of sacred oak groves are viewed as a priestly sect, they were quite secular. Their influence was much more social than religious since their role was mostly administrative and ceremonial. The Druids had no god of their own nor did they introduce any new divinity. They merely lived with the local gods as they were.
Finally, as a part of their duties, the Druids performed human sacrifices. It was their custom to have large wickerwork structures that were filled with people and then burned as part of their offerings to appease local divinities.
The Rise of the Neo-Druids
To those who have observed modern Ireland, these and other similarities make the Druid appear quite familiar. With the approval of abortion, modern Irish progressives are fully neo-Druids. With the killing of the unborn, they will lead the nation back to its cruel and barbarous origins. Likewise, they will be the bitterest opponents of Christianity (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/03712a.htm), not to be appeased until the light of Christ is snuffed out. That is how it was in the past, and is again today.
The battle for the Irish soul is over this return of the Druids. Abortion (https://tfp.org/10-reasons-why-abortion-is-evil/), same-sex “marriage” (https://tfp.org/10-reasons-why-ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖ-marriage-is-harmful-and-must-be-opposed/) and divorce (https://tfp.org/should-the-church-change-her-position-on-ɧoɱosɛҳųαƖity-and-divorce/) are the important issues that dominate the headlines, but the core debate is the titanic clash between two opposing irreconcilable worldviews.
(https://tfp.org/wp-content/uploads/2018/05/Saint_Patrick_Bishop_Apostle_of_Ireland.jpg) (https://tfp.org/piping-for-life-atop-croagh-patrick/)
The only way to fight Druids is with the bold audacity that so characterized Saint Patrick,
the Apostle of Ireland, and which even today molds the fiery Celtic souls of those he brought into the Church.
The Way to Fight Neo-Druids
This helps explains the devastating loss of the abortion (https://tfp.org/how-the-christian-democrats-helped-approve-abortion-in-italy/) referendum. Neo-Druids are not moved by emotional pleas for the lives of innocent unborn babies. They promote their immolation. Barbarians only think about gratifying their unbridled passions; they care little for who they hurt. They follow their radical urges and are unimpressed by those who defend their views weakly or are mired in mediocrity.
The only way to fight Druids is with the bold audacity that so characterized Saint Patrick (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/11554a.htm), the Apostle of Ireland, and which even today molds the fiery Celtic souls of those he brought into the Church. The dark passions and superstitions of the neo-Druids must be denounced and overturned. The liberating true Faith must be presented with zeal and daring.
The Example of Saint Patrick
Indeed, such was the scene on that fateful Easter (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/05224d.htm) vigil in 433 when a decree went forth over the kingdom of Erin that all fires were to be extinguished until the signal fire on the Hill of Tara was lit by the Druids at the royal palace. At the opposite end of the valley, atop the Hill of Slane, Saint Patrick kindled a massive Paschal fire in defiance. The Druids implored the king to take action for they claimed the “fire will blaze forever in this land unless it be this very night extinguished.”
By God’s protection, all efforts to put out this fire or harm the missionary archbishop failed, and the saint boldly led a procession with miter (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/10404a.htm) and crosier (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04515c.htm), arrayed in full episcopal attire (http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/12231b.htm), to the Hill of Tara where he confronted the Druids and put them to flight. The evangelization of Ireland (https://tfp.org/85-rosary-rallies-to-stop-abortion-in-ireland/) began with this confrontation. Many of the Druids were so astonished that they requested Baptism.
What Impresses Druids
The example of Saint Patrick is full of lessons on how to deal with Druids and today’s neo-Druids. Druids are impressed by faith-filled certainty and conviction. They are intimidated by a manly courage that despises and challenges their myths and superstitions. They are marveled by ceremonial beauty. Above all, God showers His graces upon those who dare to confront the evils of the day. He blesses their actions. Such is the stuff of the legends and song that are so much a part of the poetic Irish soul.
Alas, this dramatic example was not heeded in the referendum on abortion. It was judged “prudent” that the Church play a subdued part in the debate over the taking of innocent lives. There were no dramatic challenges on the part of churchmen to denounce the promiscuous neo-Druid lifestyles that are so much a part of the abortion culture (https://tfp.org/fighting-abortion-at-its-core-a-call-for-a-return-to-order/). There was no fire lit to illuminate the darkness of the postmodern wasteland that makes abortion so prevalent.
And that is why the center of the struggle for the Irish soul must always be over the return of its Druids. It is the only way Ireland (https://tfp.org/record-breaking-100000-rally-for-life-in-ireland/) will again be Catholic.
What is needed are fiery souls that will contest not just social issues, necessary for sure, but all the neo-Druid falsehoods that undermine the Faith. There must be an unapologetic proclamation of the Faith that defies the diktats of modern secular society. Ireland must implore Saint Patrick (https://tfp.org/piping-for-life-atop-croagh-patrick/) to raise new disciples who can rekindle the embers of Christianity that remain, so that the Pascal fire may yet continue to “blaze forever” on the Hill of Slane, and put the neo-Druids to flight.
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Implore Jesus Christ our King.
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The British army's occupation and embargo of every Irish county and confiscation of farmlands was instigated and funded by Mr. Rothschild.
Jєωιѕн hate for Irish Catholics goes back to the days of St. Patrick, when God allowed him to defeat the Druids.
The Druids being the separated Northern tribes of the Jєωs.
Ah, there's the connection on Irish territory at least, and also detailed further in the Horvat article. However, returning to the OP article, Mr. Gibson states:
the Jєωs of Vienna were made to scrub the streets of the city.1 Yet, as Snyder points out, this notorious incident was much more than a cruel and arbitrary act of public humiliation. In fact, it held an almost ritual significance. [...] The message was clear; the old regime was being symbolically erased. [...] those who sought to distance themselves from the old regimes invariably became the worst persecutors of the perceived enemies of the new order.
Never mind the considerable historical and geopolitical differences between Ireland and Central Europe. Despite his seemingly Catholic credentials, there are some odd contradictions in who Mr. Gibson is defending or accusing. Old regimes, new regimes. perceived enemies, country folk, Austrians, Irish....:confused: Maybe he should have included an explanatory flow chart of the various actors and their hypothesized alliances and unwitting similarities. As for Prof. Snyder,
He is the Richard C. Levin (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richard_C._Levin) Professor of History at Yale University (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yale_University) and a permanent fellow at the Institute for Human Sciences (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Institute_for_Human_Sciences) in Vienna.[2] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_D._Snyder#cite_note-2)[3] (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_D._Snyder#cite_note-3) [..] Snyder serves on the Committee on Conscience of the United States h0Ɩ0cαųst Memorial Museum (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_h0Ɩ0cαųst_Memorial_Museum). He is also a member of the Council on Foreign Relations (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Council_on_Foreign_Relations).
The rest of Snyder's wiki bio (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_D._Snyder) as well as that of his wife (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marci_Shore), well, pretty much what one would expect. Perhaps Liam Gibson should think twice about specious sociological comparisons and especially about the implications of the sources he chooses to quote.
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Further, there's a bit much of the educated gawking at the odd beliefs of quaint country folk
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These are not just odd beliefs, but ideas contrary to the Faith. So the question we're trying to figure out is, why would Catholics believe in ideas contrary to the Faith if they believed in the Catholic Faith?
and nowhere near as much at the intellectual heirs of James Joyce.
Since James Joyce didn't claim to be Catholic (https://daily.jstor.org/james-joyce-catholic-writer/), I don't think this is relevant.
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These are not just odd beliefs, but ideas contrary to the Faith. So the question we're trying to figure out is, why would Catholics believe in ideas contrary to the Faith if they believed in the Catholic Faith?
Since James Joyce didn't claim to be Catholic (https://daily.jstor.org/james-joyce-catholic-writer/), I don't think this is relevant.
It is most certainly relevant and central to the subterfuge of the article. I did not wave away those pagan beliefs that are indeed contrary to the Faith. My criticism of the article followed from those highly suspect opening paragraphs and their unexplained implications. Do those opening paragraphs not raise red flags? Following from that, the influence of the likes of anti-Catholics such as Joyce does indeed trace down to the current condition of Catholicism not only in Ireland but in the USA as well. Please note pasted below from the article in question (emphasis added):
The New Age cult has found fertile ground in modern Ireland, and the Church has not escaped its influence. Many people have been introduced to the use of enneagrams, centering prayers and transcendental meditation through Catholic institutions. One of the most troubling examples of this made its way into religious education in Catholic schools. In 1993, the Irish Bishops’ Conference launched a new RE program with the title Alive-O. Among the worst feature of this curriculum was a project called “Little Beings”. In a detail analysis of the program published in 2019 by Dr Éanna Johnson, he wrote the following:
Then follows a description, readable in the OP, of what was assigned to these innocent children whose parents were not to be told of this classroom activity. Sounds familiar to what is going on right now in classrooms locally too.
Who is it exactly who wrote and approved these curricula? Not the children's parents but rather the do-what-thou-wilt academics "Enlightening" their little pupils, and at the direction of the Irish Bishops Conference. If these educators even claim to be Catholic, it's not of the St. John Bosco sort. Do these children's parents, dad possibly tattooed with tribal runes and mom possibly a doppelganger for the stylings of Stevie Nicks, with elven Celtic home decor knickknacks made in China, have an accurate and coherent understanding of the Faith? Why not? Are we to blame their peasant forebears long since forced to leave the countryside for urban life, or do we blame the intelligentsia within the conciliar hierarchy that determine what passes for truth?
It's not as if the sheep were given a fair choice between true shepherds vs. hirelings. The Irish were fed enneagrams and Alive-O and Little Beings, in the USA we have the charismatics, elsewhere there are various other sorts of insidious false "enculturation". Did the flocks demand this, or was it served up to them for other motives? The Fogarty video and the Horvat article have the answers here.
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(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_Ouj07WQAAWnhq?format=jpg&name=small)
(https://pbs.twimg.com/media/F_OyOl2WwAACaEF?format=png&name=small)
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I was pretty sure that you were French. :confused: I must have confused you with someone else. Forgive me.
If fairies are just "cute" legends or actually demons is not the heart of the matter in my opinion. The mais problem is that people believe in them and are afraid to upset them or whatever. This attitude shows a lack of true faith.
Brazil has always had influence from several non-Catholic groups. Even though the country was something like 99% Catholic until the 1960s or so, there have always been the practise of "Folk Catholicism" along with true religion.
The first ѕуηαgσgυє of the Americas was built in Recife, Northeast Brazil, in the 1600s. We know how these folks like their superstitions.
Plus, there is a massive influence of African native religions. There are many groups similar to the Mexican Santeria or to the Voodoo of the Caribbean.
Even my mother, now in her 60s, tells stories of people getting "blessings" from old ladies. And we are talking about people living in medium sized and big cities, not in the countryside.
I imagine that most Catholic countries out of Europe are like this.
Some place like Portugal or France might be different, where there was less external influences, and they had more than a thousand years to wipe Paganism and superstition out.
Interesting. I am thankful for your response and the information you've provided.
Not Irish, only commenting on the logical premises of the article. Whatever valid points about the deliberate sins against the Faith by Irish politicians and NuChurch, the author makes no clear link whatsoever between the first three paragraphs and the main topic about which he writes. Thus, I'm a little skeptical. Why drag in and drop on the table those first three paragraphs?
Further, there's a bit much of the educated gawking at the odd beliefs of quaint country folk and nowhere near as much at the intellectual heirs of James Joyce. Easier to blame the culchies than to blame the swells, it seems.
Though Joyce did not believe in faeries, I think you are on to something here, considering William Butler Yeats (aka W.B. Yeats), the major figure of the Irish Cultural Revival of the 20th century, was a firm believer in them (a quirk among several others which invited many to poke fun at him). He was raised Protestant and later became an occultist. Notably, he was quite anti-Catholic his whole life—one poem of his called The Ballad of Father Gilligan, however, does stand out in how it positively portrays a priest giving the Last Rites.
Some more information (https://angelusnews.com/arts-culture/yeats-ballad-of-father-gilligan/) about Yeats and his friend Lady Gregory, who I mentioned in a previous post:
His co-foundress of the nationalist Abbey Theater, Lady Gregory, learned Gaelic and collected and translated many books of folktales but herself was Anglo-Irish. Once she admitted to Yeats that her identification with the country people had made her think of becoming Catholic, but she thought that to be closer to the peasants, it was better for her to remain a kind of neo-pagan.
She accepted all the ghost stories and faery tales of the country people as true, as did Yeats. But Yeats went a bit further than her because he was bewitched, according to Chesterton, by the extravagant Madame Blavatsky, a spiritualist fraud of international renown.
Chesterton knew and admired Yeats a great deal. He wrote of the Irish revival in his essay, “Celts and Celtophiles” in his book “Heretics,” and of his friendship with the poet in his autobiography. In fact, he knew the poet’s whole family, and praised the eloquence of John Yeats, William’s father, an artist and a famous talker.
Chesterton saw in Yeats a kindred spirit and applauded his romanticism, and his belief in the supernatural spirits and faeries that the Irish country people considered a part of their cosmos. Nevertheless, Chesterton realized that Yeats had gone too far in his swing away from Victorian materialism.
The Catholic writer loved Yeats’ play, “The Land of Heart’s Desire,” in which a faery tempts a newly married woman away from husband and home, but said at the end he was surprised he was more on the side of the family than the faery folk Yeats was extolling. “There is only one thing against ‘The Land of Heart’s Desire,’ ” Chesterton wrote. “The heart does not desire it.”
https://angelusnews.com/arts-culture/yeats-ballad-of-father-gilligan/ (https://angelusnews.com/arts-culture/yeats-ballad-of-father-gilligan/)