The Death of Ireland

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In the not too distant future, citizens of the Republic of Ireland will vote on whether or not to repeal the eighth amendment.  The eighth amendment bans abortion in the vast majority of cases.  With this amendment gone, Irish citizens will have a clear path to abortion.  Based on all of the polling data I’ve seen, abortion will most likely be legalized.

We were discussing this after Church on Sunday.  Someone mentioned that this is happening because Ireland has an anti-Catholic government.  I told them that Ireland has lived under a far worse anti-Catholic government in past centuries and come out with their faith stronger than ever.  The Irish suffered horrifically under the English Penal Laws to keep their faith, which they did.  In 2015, Ireland voted for the legalization of homosexual “marriage” by a majority of 64%.  The country that once showed the greatest faith has become a giant whorehouse.

God promised us that the gates of hell wouldn’t prevail against His Church.  He never promised that any specific lands would remain Christian.  In the first millennium of the Church, no one would have guessed that the area where the modern state of Turkey occupies would become Muslim.  Many countries that are Muslim today were once Christian.  Turkey wasn’t just a Christian country, it was THE Christian country.  Numerous Saints come from those lands.  The first eight ecumenical councils were held there, and although in the first half of the second millennium of the faith, we saw the Latin and Greek Church fall out of communion with each other, the sack of Constantinople by the Turks in 1453 AD made things really hard on both Churches.

At least the Greeks fought tooth and nail with the Turks to prevent Constantinople from becoming a Muslim city.  Ireland is simply tossing out its faith with both hands to embrace the empty promises of the world.

When I see more traditional countries in Eastern Europe make laws against homosexual propaganda to prevent depravity from ruining their society I think to myself that there is hope.  Eastern Europe is not invincible to this ultra-secularism that is coming out of the West, but it’s certainly taking steps to guard themselves against it.  Will they win?  We can only hope and pray.

We can hope and pray for Ireland as well.  It doesn’t look good, but they at least have to go through the voting process.  I’ve seen the rot here in Canada over my whole adult life.  From 2006 to 2015, Canada had a conservative government, and things remained stagnant.  They didn’t recover but they didn’t get worse.  Upon Trudeau becoming Prime Minister, he easily made up for lost ground over the decade when Harper was Prime Minister.  The rot became apparent over a matter of weeks after the victory!

I don’t know how the West is going to win this battle.  God never promised that Western Europe and North America would remain Christian.  He never promised that any specific land would remain Christian.

I think as time goes on, more and more people in the West are starting to believe that the enlightenment was a mistake.  I remember that I came to this conclusion in 2014.  We’re always taught about the enlightenment in school but we’re never taught about the counter-enlightenment. We always hear about Voltaire and Rousseau.  Everyone in the West knows about them.  How many people in the West have heard of Rene de Chateaubriand, Louis de Bonald or Joseph de Maistre?  Almost none.  Even less people have studied their writings.

We need to read Scripture more often.  We need to read the counter-enlightenment thinkers.  We need to spend much time in prayer.  We need to hope that Ireland chooses correctly.  The enemies of God seem invincible at this point.  Although, no matter how tough they look, it doesn’t absolve us of the obligation to fight them.

 

 

 

I’m currently reading this book.  Everyone else should as well.

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8 thoughts on “The Death of Ireland”

  1. Allan,

    I will be brief and perhaps ambiguous. This was the issue that deconverted me. It was the Midway of my Catholic faith. Learning about it sunk the Kaga, Akagi, and Soryu, and I never recovered from that, like the real Imperial Japanese Navy. So after, defeat was inevitable: when I made the decision to deconvert, I euphemistically called said I was “turning away”. During my last campaign to keep my faith, I decided that it was not worth to continue sail on to Leyte Gulf, and subsequently I gave the order to turn around northward back to the San Bernardino Strait.

    I really don’t want to discuss my own opinion or the precise details that made me disillusioned with Catholic, but I do want to focus on the current state of the Church and the significance of its victory.

    I would say that people do not stress the recent victories of Roman Catholicism. Now one may question what I mean by “victory” or who exactly “won”; but Catholicism has won in South America in the Southern Cone, Catholicism had won in Nicaragua, Catholicism had won in El Salvador. The Church had a very conservative Pope during the critical years of the Cold War that suppressed dissent (and supporters of the Church even bragged about its victory in Latin America [see the first link]). Why not acknowledge the victory? Why was there little celebration now?

    There was no new “threat” that emerged after that.

    Concerning this victory:

    https://www.catholicculture.org/culture/library/view.cfm?recnum=643
    http://www.latinamericanstudies.org/theo/echo.htm (look how dejected the loser, Ernesto Cardenal, was… he clearly was defeated with the Church triumphant)

    Regardless of the victory, Catholicism is declining in Latin America.

    Reply

    • Hi Latias,

      Thanks for sharing. So opposition to abortion deconverted you? I suppose I’ll share that last night I was in a pro-life banquet back in my hometown. So you’re pro-choice? I know that you like philosophy but I think this debate revolves around the area of biology more than anything.

      I’m well aware of the victories of the Church, even in recent years. We’re a very global religion. In some areas we’re doing great, in other areas, not so much.

      I find it odd that you lost your faith over this issue. May I ask: Was it more to do with the stance or the participation in the culture war?

      I hope that you’re not offended by what I’m about to say, but you sound like a secularist with religious humanism sprinkled over the surface. It sounds like your Catholicism was like this and from what I know, your faith in Islam is probably like this as well.

      I wish you well.

      God Bless,

      Allan

      Reply

      • No opposition to abortion did not convert me, at leas not directly. I did not say that, although I was intentionally ambiguous. As you will see with the following excerpts, I am more motivated by anti-imperialism than social liberalism.

        However, I do not consider myself a “secularist”, but I a suspicious of religious authority. I am largely a religious humanist, perhaps similar to the American Reformed Baptist Roger Williams or a Confucian [even though that is, for the most part, a “secular” ideology]. I have no problem being associated with those non-Muslim figures. But I am less secular now: remember what I said about “historical Islam”. There were excellent civilizations run by Muslims under some semblance of Islamic law (sharia as the legal code). Muslims can be proud of this, and the benign influence of the sharia.

        When Catholics ask me if I wanted to subject them and tax them in an Islamic civilization. My response was first to evade the question to say that there are multiple types of Islamic states that exist on a spectrum: the harshest type of state would be like Saudi Arabia. While the other type would be a state where Muslims are not allowed to sell or drink alcohol; no ribald Carl’s Jr/Hardees commercials of scantily clad women eating hamburgers, no public advertisements of pork products, and no eating in public in Ramadan. I also said that I am skeptical of the notion of an “Islamic state” in general, since it may turn out to be like Saudi Arabia, and allied with imperialist Western powers. (If you give me a choice between East Germany, a secular state, and Saudi Arabia, I would instantly pick one of the options eagerly.)

        She then asked me if I wanted to tax her as a dhimmi, and I said that I need to consult the maqasid (reason) for such a prescription and the circumstances of the state. I didn’t say that I was a secularist and that I wouldn’t. But I am practically a secularist, since I do not see how my vision of an Islamic state can come into fruition in the United States. However, I am not like the French secularists; Muslims prefer to attend Catholics schools there since they can religiously express themselves by praying and wearing hijab. No I am not that liberal, like Asra Nomani who advocated publicly for a gender-mixed communal prayer (and a self-described liberal who voted for Trump, not someone such as Jill Stein).

        I want to make it clear that my main grievance was NOT with the culture war. It was certainly a “war” where people were disappeared and tortured if that can be called a war.

        What does the Southern Cone, Nicaragua, and El Salvador have in common?

        I mean the Church won when Bishops such as (Chile) Jorge Medina and Angelo Sodano had more power, favor, and influence over the Vatican than Raul Silva Enriquez; (Nicaragua) Miguel Obando y Bravo over the Cardenal brothers and Miguel d’Escoto Brockman; (El Salvador) Fernando Sáenz Lacalle over Oscar Romero.

        Here is what the US Embassy says about Archbishop Saenz Lacalle:

        1. SUMMARY: In the last 17 years [written in 2005], the Roman Catholic Church has lost 12 percent of its share of the nation’s population, falling from 64 to 52 percent, and Catholicism seems to have declined in power since the end of the country’s 1980-1992 civil war. The proportion of Salvadorans belonging to Protestant sects has almost doubled, from approximately 16 to 29 percent. However, the nation’s most affluent families are still predominantly Catholic, and the most active Catholics join Protestants in supporting the ruling center-right Nationalist Republican Alliance (ARENA). Non-practitioners and atheists tend to vote for the opposition leftist Farabundo Marti National Liberation Front (FMLN). END SUMMARY.

        [Section 2 is called a “Swing from Left to Right]

        6. The Salvadoran Catholic Church has in effect been “re- Romanized”, and now centers its message on individual salvation and morality. In 1998, Saenz Lacalle succeeded in an effort to prohibit legally all types of abortion, by busing Catholic schoolchildren to the Legislative Assembly to stage anti-abortion demonstrations. In an effort to influence legislators, Opus Dei also solicited thousands of signatures for anti-abortion petitions from churchgoers after Mass; some political observers viewed this as an inappropriate intervention in national policy on the part of the Catholic Church. Archbishop Saenz Lacalle has also defended the family as society’s core institution, and has been outspoken in his stand against homosexual marriage.

        The Church won!

        “Monsignor Romero faced at that moment the enmity of most of the members of his episcopal conference [Latias: why the enmity? who are the bishops aligned with?]; he had received attention calls from the Vatican for multiplying his denunciations against the armed forces [Latias: So the Vatican at least tacitly supported the government of El Salvador?]; He had sent a letter to US President Jimmy Carter to stop military aid to El Salvador. The station broadcasting his homilies had suffered several dynamite attacks and that March 23, when Sáenz Lacalle called him by telephone to invite him to the sea, Romero had just celebrated the most dangerous of his homilies in the Cathedral: he ordered the soldiers Do not shoot at your brothers. “It’s not like that day he had been an erupting volcano, he was already carrying it,” says Sáenz Lacalle.

        On March 24, very early, the archbishop of San Salvador went with Sáenz Lacalle to the beaches of La Libertad. There they met with other priests. As they did not find who opened the house they had borrowed, they had to enter the beach and jump over the wall, and they spent the rest of the day in the spiritual gathering.

        Almost nothing has been written about the hours leading up to the fateful Mass in honor of Sara de Pinto at the Hospitalito de la Divina Providencia [Latias: on March 24, 1980, and yes I memorized that date]; and its main witness, Fernando Sáenz Lacalle, has more and more problems in rescuing from his memory the events of a long life. Thirty-five years later, we sat down to talk about the sunny part of that day that ended so dark.

        Our conversation is incomplete. Not only for his memory problems but, above all, for the interruption of people from the residence who made the decision to end our meeting before he could ask Sáenz Lacalle about his activities as an army chaplain shortly after the signing of the peace agreements or their relationship with Marco Revelo, a bishop who declared war on Monsignor Romero and who blessed the warplanes sent by the United States.[Latias: well that shows the bishop’s side in that war.]

        Sáenz Lacalle, as he did during the most public part of his life, as archbishop of San Salvador, avoids talking about anything that seems political anyway. When a question bothers him, his white complexion turns red and he smiles. But it does not yield.
        ”

        From the google translation of https://elfaro.net/es/201603/el_salvador/18268/La-%C3%BAltima-ma%C3%B1ana-de-Monse%C3%B1or-Romero.htm

        I typed in “Fernando Sáenz Lacalle” and “Romero” and search engine to see what I would now get.

        Sáenz, Urioste said, is hardworking, organized and dedicated to what he defines as priorities. But the direction of the archdiocese reflects “a clear proximity to the structures of economic and political power.”

        The ecclesial tensions affecting the faithful in El Salvador reflect a broader angst felt among some Catholics worldwide as the papacy of John Paul II continues its long crackdown on theologians and others who raise questions the Vatican considers inappropriate.

        Bishop Rosa Chávez, who at one time was expected to head the Salvadoran church, raised the global perspective when queried about the shifting priorities of the Salvadoran church under Sáenz: “There is a tendency throughout the church to close in on herself, to coil up like a snail, to lean toward a disembodied spirituality, to be absent from the immense problems facing the world. This is not only happening in the church of El Salvador.”

        http://www.natcath.org/NCR_Online/archives2/1997b/041197/041197a.htm

        It was an article written in 1997. There is angst, and the Church won. The Church did not lose. See the link above with recounted a brief conversation with Father Ernesto Cardenal.

        Reply

        • Latias,

          You have me confused. I hope Allan doesn’t mind if I step in on something that is not related to this particular blog, but I have tried to follow your contributions to various threads for some time without really understanding your position. I hesitate to interfere but I am puzzled.

          I note that you left Catholicism and adopted Islam. There is a great deal of detail in what you write but I am unsure what is behind your professed adherence to Islam. If you could take the time to answer the following question we might all learn something and perhaps understand your view on things.

          Why do you choose to believe what Mohammed had to say?

          Reply

          • Christopher. I am sorry that I did not see your query.

            I suppose I did so for a multiplicity of reasons.

            1. The theology of the tawhid is much simpler.

            2. Now, I am much more sympathetic to Calvinism because it affirms the sovereignty of God similar to Islam and they are devoted to their Holy Book. I also suppose I do like their low church practices, similar to Islam.

            3. I don’t like Catholic philosophy, i.e. modern Thomism and natural law. I think a better justification for the prohibition of alcohol and pork (ex cetra.) is God commanded it, and those subject to him should obey.

            4. Similar to 2. A Muslim told me ten months ago that she loves being a Muslim because there is no one mediating her relationship between her and Allah. There are no priests or other authorities.

            Cheers

            I may say more though.

          • Hi Latias,

            Thanks for sharing. Christopher wanted to know why you embraced Islam. I’d like to know why you initially embraced Catholicism. I know that you’ve said positive things about St. Augustine before. I find that odd since I know that you’re not a fan of the doctrine of Original Sin. Either way, I’d find that interesting if you’re open to sharing.

            God Bless,

            Allan

          • Thanks for replying Latias. I am very interested in your perspective.

            I am of course interested in what attracted you to Islam, but what I asked was “Why do you choose to believe what Mohammed had to say?”

            I note that feelings come into your conversion (3 of your 4 points mention likes and dislikes). That is an important part of trying to find contentment with something but a fundamental part is whether a view of what is True is justified by reason.