How the Irish Gay Marriage Debate Isn’t Like America’s
Scandals dog both European and American religious conservatives. So why are religious Europeans the only ones reacting to them?
Ireland may be Catholic, but the cathedral is a glass house.
If, as expected, today’s country-wide referendum on same-sex marriage passes, one major reason will be the loss of moral authority among those who pretend to speak with moral authority. Chiefly, in Ireland, this means the Catholic Church, which for decades tyrannized Irish politics before its tyranny of Irish boys was exposed beginning in the early 2000s.
It’s hard to make a case for family values when your institution systematically raped children—up to 30,000, it is estimated, in church-run orphanages alone.
Today, only 18 percent of Irish Catholics attend Mass weekly—down from 90 percent in the 1980s. In Dublin, there are only two priests under the age of 40.
Even the Dublin Archbishop’s “Pastoral Reflection on Marriage,” meant to encourage a “No” vote on the referendum, admitted that “I know that the severity with which the Irish Church treated gay and lesbian people in the past—and in some cases still today—makes it difficult for some to understand the Church’s position.”
Well, that and the systematic shielding of pedophiles.
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2015/05/22/how-irish-gay-marriage-isn-t-like-america-s.html
Harsh, but accurate analysis of what just happened in Ireland and why.
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