The various catholic disease. . .I mean, diocese of Ireland are in panic mode. Within a few years, they won’t have enough priests to run their ATMs and rip off the populace. They will eventually have to close many of their churches due to operating costs and declining number of suckers. I mean, revenue.
Don’t you just love the arrival of good news? It’s the best news I’ve heard since learning boomers will start dying off in numbers after 2028.
‘Great change’ needed in Dublin’s ageing Catholic Archdiocese, says report
Almost half of the 312 priests in Dublin’s Catholic Archdiocese are more than 70 years old, with just two students preparing for priesthood.
Catholic priests retire at 75, which means that the 139 now more than 70 will have retired by 2026, leaving 173 ageing clergy to serve Dublin’s 1.1 million Catholics.
According to the last census in 2016, 70 per cent of Dublin’s 1.57 million population identified as Roman Catholic. Of those aged 25-29 then, just more than half identified as Roman Catholic, while a fifth of Dublin’s total population recorded no religion.
Oddly, the COVID-19 pandemic has played a role in this. Because people stayed home instead of obeying the cult, they realized they had more free time on their hands. And once the lockdowns ended, many never went back.
‘A possible disaster’: Catholic Church reckons with declining interest post-pandemic
In a pastoral reflection on the future of the Catholic Church last month, one of the church’s newest and youngest bishops, Bishop of Clonfert Michael Duignan (50), pondered the challenges that lie ahead.
“I fear that we might mistakenly think that once the current Covid restrictions are lifted and once we return to public worship, everything will be all right,” said the bishop. Instead, he believes the future will be “very different”.
Some “fear a possible disaster”, he said, with “fewer people practising, financial difficulties, children and families further distanced from the sacraments and congregations permanently migrating to the comfort of online attendance”.
“There may even be a growing realisation that, although much of what we normally do as church was absent these last months, for many people, it was not really missed,” said Bishop Duignan.
Obviously the pandemic isn’t the sole reason for the decline, but public awareness of the cult’s crimes (the mass murder of children in orphanages, the torture, slavery, and abuse of women in the Magdelene Laundries, and the rampant pedophilia and rape perpetrated by their clergy) has done them no favours. It’s hard to claim “moral leadership” when your leaders have been guilty of the worst moral depravities.
Why would Irish people need “moral leadership” from a cult when their own sense of morality is superior (e.g. leglization of abortion, marriage equality, guaranteed LGBTQIA rights)?
I try hard to not learn anything about the current bleatings of the catholic church, so I can only imagine they were smart enough not to offer any stupid advice (or blame) for the pandemic. You know, “this is god’s punishment for you persecuting us for our child-fucking ways!” or maybe “pray and the COVID will go away!”
Come to think of it, the catholic church really hasn’t got anything to say that isn’t stupid, wrong, or unhelpful. It does kind of put them in a bind, doesn’t it? I sure hope that atheists in Ireland pointed out how conspicuously helpless religion is against a pandemic; it hardly even offers solace. Sad old deluded men in dresses, muttering to themselves and pretending someone is listening. Don’t let the door hit you in the arse on your way out, pal.
Marcus Ranum @ # 1: … the catholic church really hasn’t got anything to say that isn’t stupid, wrong, or unhelpful.
Catholics are nominally anti-war and anti-death-penalty, though they don’t put 1% of the energy into those issues as they do those connected with their sexual obsessions. They also provide some food, clothing, shelter, etc to the needy, though not likely more than a rounding error in the books of their overall operation. And we probably should acknowledge some charitable write-offs within their medical facilities, though that of course does not offset the crime of obstructing health care which conflicts with aforesaid sexual fixations.
I’d also give them a little credit for maintaining a lot of classic historic architecture which otherwise would deteriorate dangerously or require taxpayer support. All that said, they still deserve, at best, a “D” on their ecclesiastical report card.
Catholics are nominally anti-war and anti-death-penalty
They haven’t been very effective at stopping wars, since they gave up starting them. They provide some shelter for the needy, so that they can sexually harass them. And their charities, like the Magdalene Laundries were especially, um, charitable.
I am quite sure that any valuable buildings that they sell to pay off various judgements against them will be well-maintained by their new owners, and the ones that aren’t valuable will join the many old bits of rubble that grace Ireland’s beautiful countryside. The place is full of old ruined towers, castles, this and that, going back in time. The ruins of catholicism will fit right in, and to hell with them.
So the Catholics are running out of priests? Gosh. No more Catholic masses! And there might even be undesirable consequences, too…