Churchman of the Year
To me, there is one clear answer: Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
During a turbulent year in Ireland, with report after report detailing the appalling record of abuse and cover-up within the Irish church, archbishop Martin has been unwavering in his call for reform and victim support. His policy of transparency led to the bizarre situation of his predecessor, Cardinal Connell, suing him in an Irish court. He made no secret of his disgust with his fellow bishops and chancery officials who perpetuated the cover up and ignored the problem of predator priests. And now, after the Murphy report into his own Dublin diocese, Martin publicly called for the resignation of four bishops, two of them his auxiliaries, and two of them former auxiliaries – this came after the resignation of bishop Murray of Limerick, another ex-Dublin auxiliary. Martin said that these four did not resign, he would petition the Congregation of Bishops to remove them. Since then, one of the four has resigned.
This is the kind of leadership sorely needed by the Irish church. One of Martin’s great themes is that the Church has lost the confidence of the Irish people, especially the young people. He knows the Church needs to regain their trust, and that this will be an uphill battle. He realizes that the Irish Catholic Church must not only confront the grave errors of the past, but also engage openly on the pressing cultural issues of the day. It needs to cast off the cultural Jansenism that has enshrouded it for decades.
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Though I expect many Vox Novans will not agree with every point made by Steve Jalsevac in the following commentary, I am concerned that substantial agreement between VN and Lifesitenews (liking the same bishops!!) may mean the world will end well before 2012:
http://www.lifesitenews.com/ldn/2009/dec/09122214.html
Oh right, we also agree that abortion is a grave evil, a scourge on society, and should be illegal. How did I miss that?
“Churchman of the year” – what a load of poppycock! This man grew up in Dublin, was ordained in 1969 in Dublin and is obviously a political manouverer within the church. Do you really think it will wash that this man is pointing fingers at all and sundry around him, but wants us to believe he’s innocent while all those other are guilty of coverups?
If he wants any credibility in Ireland, it is he himself who should resign and go for an indefinite period to do penance at Lough Derg – leading by example…
Brett, Why didn’t Jalsevic state that this abuse is a part of the “culture of death” and that it even contributes to the act of abortion. It may be a loose connection on my part but I can tighten up that connection if there is a desire to know.
Ronald,
One of the things that frustrates me most about Lifesitenews is their inability to connect abortion with the other evils in the culture that express themselves in the demand for abortion. They seem to attribute the demand for abortion to baby-hating and the demand for same-sex marriage to family-hating. I find the whole thing quite myopic.
I would love to see them publish something about consumerism and abortion, for instance, but I don’t see it happening anytime soon.
I totally agree Brett. Have you ever had a face to face with any of them?
Anyway, Merry Christmas to all of you who have put this wonderful web together.
I know some younger people who are involved with the LSN crowd. From what I can tell, most of them are not always impressed with how Westen and Jalsevac run things. They were particularly embarassed by the Rosica fiasco.
I have only met one of them face-to-face. I won’t give the name or gender (to avoid slander) but I will say, lots of accusations of heresy and radical conspiracy theories. Very angry, especially about Harry Potter, of all things. Furious that a Latin teacher at my school would even allow the Latin Harry Potter in the classroom. On our first meeting I was informed that the Russians planted spies in all of the Canadian seminaries in the 40s and 50s so that the bulk of our episcopate through the 70s, 80s and 90s were actually communist atheists bent on destroying the Church. (I mean, if you were the communists and wanted to destroy the Church, of course you’d start in Quebec!) This person had been turned down by numerous religious orders and was/is very bitter. I could go on, but you get the drift. If you ever came across this individual’s personal blog you would be forgiven a shudder.
LSN does absolutely essential work. A pro-life news service is a key element in building a culture of life. The way they do that essential work is often, tragically, counterproductive.
Also, I have had e-mail exchanges with Westen. They are almost indescribable. The only way to convey what goes on in such exchanges is to post them here (which I think would be a cheap move since he was not informed his comments would be for public consumption) or encourage you to write him with your concerns and see what kind of response you get. It is genuinely shocking.