Spreading God's Word starts with getting God's Word into our own lives

The head of the Scottish Bible Society Elaine Duncan has encouraged Christians to fall back in love with the Word of God.

She was speaking to members of the Church of Scotland at their General Assembly in Edinburgh on Saturday.

Duncan told the story of a woman in a church in Cambodia who was frustrated at having to share a Bible and longed to have her own copy so that she could "savour every word".

Duncan said such an attitude was a "challenge" to Christians living in Scotland and the Western world, many of whom have several copies each in their homes.

"We just take it a little bit for granted don't we," she said.

Duncan said the Bible needed to be a part of the lives of Christians in Scotland if they were to be "geared up" for taking the Gospel to the five million people in the country, many of whom are living without any real knowledge of it.

"To empower them to live that holy life we need to get the Bible back into our own lives, to read it and to savour it word for word, because in that way our relationship with the living God is nurtured and nourished and we become better followers and disciples of our Lord Jesus Christ," she said.

She ended her address by presenting a Bible to the new Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland, the Reverend Lorna Hood.

Upon presenting the Bible, she told the Moderator: "I read this week that a disciple is someone whose goal in life is to live as Jesus would if He were in their place. Our prayer is that this Bible will help you to do just that."

New Church of Scotland Moderator installed

Reverend Lorna Hood has spoken of the "honour and privilege" of becoming the new Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

She was installed at the start of the General Assembly in Edinburgh last Saturday.

Addressing the Assembly, she paid tribute to her predecessor the Reverend Albert Bogle for maintaining the profile of the Church in society and the media.

"You have not been reticent on speaking out on social and political issues," she said. "The Church offers you and [wife] Martha heartfelt thanks for a good job well done."

Mrs Hood also took a moment to reassure Bogle over the loss of a historic cross and the Moderatorial gold ring at Edinburgh Airport last month.

Despite a substantial reward being offered, neither object has been returned.

The ring has traditionally been passed on to each successive Moderator but during the installation, Bogle quipped "gold and silver I do not have", referring to Acts 3.

Addressing Bogle personally, Mrs Hood said: "I know how deeply you have been troubled by the disappearance of the ring and the cross - you have tortured yourself. Not one person in this General Assembly has not felt for you over that, but we also want to say now, don't let it mar what has been a wonderful year. They can be replaced - and they will - but your memories and the work you did on behalf of the Church, they are quite unique, thank you."

Mrs Hood went on to say how "overwhelmed" she had been by the promises of prayer she had received from people from around the world since being nominated as Moderator.

"Such an assurance is so uplifting as well as making me feel very, very humble," she said. "At the General Assembly let us pray for one another, let us pray for one another in all that will happen, in all that will transpire this year, and let us ask for God's blessing to be with us."
 
Mrs Hood, originally from Kilmarnock, is a Queen's Chaplain and has served on various committees in the Church of Scotland.

In 2001 she was appointed a General Trustee and is presently Vice Convener of the Assembly Arrangements Committee and Vice Convener of the Business Committee of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland.

Former Moderator says Church of Scotland is facing crisis of leadership

The former Moderator of the General Assembly of the Church of Scotland has warned of the need to attract more people to the ministry.

The Very Reverend Albert Bogle handed over the Moderatorial baton to his successor the Reverend Lorna Hood on the first day of the General Assembly on Saturday.

In his retiral address, Mr Bogle said the Church would need to recruit 650 ministers in the next 15 years to address the shortage.

However, he said there was a challenge in attracting more men and women to come forward and offer themselves for ministry.

Those already in ministry are also suffering the strain of taking on more work to cope with the reorganisation of parishes, he continued.

"This year in partnership with the Ministries Council I have met with ministers to engage with some of the issues that they felt to be important," he said.

"I found a tremendous group of committed people who were working very hard in spite of facing very difficult and uncertain futures.

"We soon became aware of the challenges facing the Church at a local level. If we are going to continue to do the church in the same way with the same number of ministers we have today, we need to recruit 650 ministers in the next 15-years."

Mr Bogle also called for a reduction in the length of time it takes to train people for ministry, and a discussion around increasing funding for ministry.

"Perhaps there is a need to set up a bursary support scheme to encourage members in our congregations to come forward for ministry," he said.

"We also need to consider the ways we train our ministers so that it does not require six-and-a-half years from calling to ordinations. We have much to do and I believe that we need to hear the wake-up call."

Marriage advocates plan to sue IRS over leaks

The National Organization for Marriage is filing a lawsuit against the Internal Revenue Service, after its confidential tax return was leaked from the agency to the group's chief political opposition.
“In March 2012 Human Rights Campaign posted a copy of our confidential tax return on its website...and we know for a fact that the source for this was within the IRS,” National Organization for Marriage chairman John Eastman told CNA May 17.
The National Organization for Marriage qualifies as a 501(c)(4) nonprofit organization. They are obliged to make public their tax returns, “ but there are parts of those tax returns that are explicitly confidential, including schedule B, our list of donors and their addresses.”
On or about March 30, 2012, the Human Rights Campaign posted National Organization for Marriage's 2008 Schedule B on its website as a PDF.
“It had some redactions on it, and our computer guys were able to unlayer the PDF to get beyond the redactions and look at the original document, which is stamped with internal IRS markings,” Eastman said.
Human Rights Campaign posted a version with retractions, showing a white bar diagonally across the pages. When this layer is removed, it reveals an Internal Revenue Service tracking number, as well as statements at the bottom and top of each page reading, “This is a copy of a live return from SMIPS. Official use only.”
SMIPS is the tax agency's internal computer system. It is a felony offense for Internal Revenue Service officials to disclose private tax returns.
Eastman offered the three possible ways that the Human Rights Campaign obtained National Organization for Marriage's tax return from the tax agency.
“Either someone hacked into the IRS computer system...or someone fraudulently impersonated an officer of the NOM...or someone at the IRS disclosed this.”
“Of those three, the one that's clearly the most plausible is the latter,” Eastman said.
The tax return was quickly republished by the Huffington Post and other media outlets and blogs.
On April 11, the National Organization for Marriage requested that both the Treasury department's inspector general and the Department of Justice investigate the leak of their private documents.
When both departments, and the Internal Revenue Service, proved to be uncooperative, the nonprofit began filing requests under the Freedom of Information Act.
“Frankly we've been stonewalled...and they didn't give us any of the actually relevant information,” said Eastman.
Having exhausted their means of recourse regarding investigations and requests for information, the National Organization for Marriage decided on May 6 to begin pursuing a civil suit against the Internal Revenue Service.
“Our final round of having to go through hurdles of FOIA requests is now concluded, and we're teeing up that lawsuit now,” Eastman said.
Human Rights Campaign is an LGBT advocacy group promoting same-sex marriage. The group “had been trying to get our donor list for a long time, because then they can publish it on the internet and then people start harassing our donors and boycotting their businesses.”
Eastman finds its significant that Human Rights Campaign's president in March 2012 was Joe Solmonese, who the month before had been named a co-chair of the campaign to re-elect President Obama.
“What a coincidence,” Eastman said, that shortly after Solmonese was given a prominent position in Obama's re-election campaign, “somebody at the IRS discloses to that very same person our confidential tax returns, and commits a felony in doing so.”
Eastman considers the idea risible that a low-level employee at the Internal Revenue Service would have taken the risk of committing such a felony without direction from a highly-placed supervisor.
“Given who was involved in this that we know, it seems pretty implausible,” Eastman stated, that there wasn't “some involvement” from “high level political appointees at the Department of Justice or the Treasury department, as well as with the campaign folks.”
The news of the pro-marriage organization's lawsuit comes as the tax agency is embroiled in scandal. On May 10, the government agency apologized for subjecting politically conservative “tea party” groups to additional scrutiny beginning in 2010. The agency asked some groups for donor lists, violating its own policies.
Since then, several nonprofit pro-life groups have also come forward with allegations of harassment and intimidation at the hands of Internal Revenue Service employees.
On May 15, Internal Revenue Service commissioner Steve Miller submitted his resignation to Treasury Secretary Jack Lew, who had requested it, becoming the first official to resign over “IRS-gate.”
Joseph Grant, the commissioner for the tax agency's tax-exempt division, announced his resignation May 16.
At a Congressional hearing May 17, Miller told representatives of the House ways and means committee that the additional scrutiny given to politically and socially conservative groups was neither partisan nor politically motivated.

Donohue says IRS probe triggered by Catholics United

Bill Donohue of the Catholic League said he was “stunned” that the IRS investigated his organization in 2008, charging that the Democrat-leaning group Catholics United filed the complaint and used it to argue that CNN should drop him as a commentator.

“This was a fishing expedition meant to intimidate me and create a chilling effect on my freedom of speech,” Donohue said.

“I still couldn’t believe that a couple of weeks after the election, I was being asked to spend my entire Thanksgiving trying to defend the Catholic League about something which we’re not guilty of,” Donohue told CNA May 17.

“We don’t give money. We don’t do endorsements. I’m not a Republican. I’m not a Democrat,” he said. “Of course I address the issues. That’s what I’m supposed to do. That’s my freedom of speech.”

Donohue recounted the inquiry in a May 16 essay for Newsmax. He said that Catholics United’s lawyers sent a June 5, 2008 letter to Marsha Ramirez, the Internal Revenue Service’s Director of Exempt Organizations Examinations, and to Lois G. Lerner, director  of the IRS’ Exempt Organizations Division. The letter asked the IRS to question the sources of the Catholic League’s new funding.

Donohue said the Catholics United complaint was leaked to him by a CNN employee in October 2008.  “It was miraculously almost the same document that I got a month later from the IRS,” Donohue told CNA.

On Nov. 24, 2008, the IRS sent the Catholic League a letter notifying the Catholic League that it was under investigation for possibly violating IRS rules on political activities for 501(c)(3) tax exempt organizations. The letter included news releases and articles Donohue had written about the presidential campaign.

Donohue said that Catholics United used its own complaint as evidence in its push to remove him from television.

In October 2008, Donohue criticized Catholics United and its allied organizations, saying they are backed by organizations funded by the Democrat-leaning billionaire George Soros. CNN invited Donohue to go on air as a commentator, but Catholics United’s then-executive director Chris Korzen lobbied the news channel to rescind the invitation, Donohue said.

Catholics United asked CNN to drop the Donohue interview or put on Alexia Kelley, then-executive director of its allied group Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good. Catholics United sent CNN its complaint to the IRS, arguing that the Catholic League was not a legitimate Catholic organization.

“It wasn’t good enough just to get the Catholic League involved with the IRS. They tried to deny me to get on television,” Donohue told CNA. “It shows you the kind of ruthlessness we have come to expect from the Catholic left.”

The IRS ruled that the Catholic League had “intervened in a political campaign” but in a way that did not threaten its tax exempt status because the violation was “unintentional, isolated, non-egregious and non-recurring.”

Donohue said he rejected the charge. The Catholic League is not the only critic of Catholics United and Catholics in Alliance for the Common Good to have faced an IRS inquiry.

Anne Hendershott, a sociology professor and Catholic writer, has said IRS officials in a 2010 audit inquired about her writings for The Catholic Advocate, many of which were critical of President Obama’s health care legislation and groups like Catholics United which supported it.

IRS employees questioned her about who paid for her writings. She feared the audit was politically motivated and she became less likely to criticize the administration in writing.

Donohue said Catholics United and similar groups have their roots in the 2004 election when “values voters” helped President George W. Bush win the election. He charged that they are “faux organizations” set up to compete with the Catholic League and other groups by those on the political left.

He said he kept quiet about the IRS inquiry into the Catholic League to avoid “any extra grief from anybody.”

“I’ve been in the news all the time. You have to take your lumps like anybody else. I thought this was below the belt, and so I held on to everything.

“I have all the evidence. I’ve kept it all. This is not hearsay.”

The IRS faces accusations of excessively burdening tax exempt status applications from both Republican-leaning tea party groups and pro-life organizations. An IRS employee may have leaked to the press and to “gay marriage” advocates a confidential document from the National Organization for Marriage.

Some accusers charge that the agency’s actions are evidence of politically motivated corruption.

“Now I know why they went after me. I know about the politics of the whole game,” Donohue said. “When the issue became big over the past week, I thought the time had come to make a revelatory statement.”

Catholics United has backed the Obama administration in many areas where its policies diverge from Catholic teaching, including the religious freedom controversy over the HHS mandate. It has defended the appointment of pro-abortion rights Catholic HHS Secretary Kathleen Sebelius and it is increasingly hostile to defenders of traditional marriage.

Ahead of the November 2012 elections, Catholics United wrote Florida Catholic priests saying it was monitoring illegal political activity in church.

In an Oct. 22, 2012 letter to Florida pastors, Catholics United executive director James Salt criticized “numerous IRS violations” in local Catholic parishes such as partisan references during homilies, political endorsements in church bulletins, and distribution of partisan literature in church parking lots.

“To help prevent the misuse of Catholic parishes for partisan activity, Catholics United has retained a law firm to help protect you and your parish community from losing your 501(c)(3) tax-exempt status,” Salt said. “We have also recruited a network of local volunteers to monitor parishes and document the nature of all partisan activity taking place there.”

Salt’s letter asked pastors to “protect your parish from losing its tax-exempt status” by taking a pledge. He said this would demonstrate pastors’ commitment to “keep partisan politics out of the pulpit” and help ensure their parish is free from “any illegal political activity.”

Catholics United has recently added its voice to the complaints against the IRS. On May 15 the group said that its affiliate the Catholics United Education Fund also suffered from long delays in IRS approval of its tax-exempt status application, which it initiated in 2010.

In 2011, the education fund received a $116,000 grant from the San Francisco-based The Energy Foundation to recruit Catholic clergy in Michigan, Minnesota, Ohio and Pennsylvania to support the Environmental Protection Agency’s regulatory authority. The grant made up all but $200 of the organization’s 2011 budget, tax forms and grant announcements indicate.

American seminarians win Clericus Cup second time

The North American Martyrs succeeded in clinching the Clericus Cup for the second year in a row, beating the seminarians from Mater Ecclesiae by a score of 1-0.
The game was closely fought, with the Martyrs scoring the game’s only goal about 25 minutes into the second half on a break away down the right-hand side of the field.
The match was primarily a showcase of defense, with the Martyrs appearing to have a slight edge over Mater Ecclesiae throughout the game.
In keeping with tradition, the boisterous American fans showed up dressed as super heroes, including Batman, Captain America and Uncle Sam. They sang patriotic songs, chanted as a drum thumped out the beat, and blew air horns.
The Mater Ecclesiae supporters also turned out for the game in strong numbers, filling the stands and backing their team with the occasional cheer and beating of a drum.
The match was held at the Knights of Columbus Fields, which meant the seminarians could see St. Peter’s Basilica in the background as they duked it out.
As the final whistle sounded, the North American Martyrs fans could be heard changing their chant from “We believe we will win,” to “We believe we have won!”
The Clericus Cup is organized by the Centro Sportivo Italiano, and this year it brought together 13 teams from local Roman seminaries to compete for the prize.

Catholic Charities USA laments food assistance cuts

Catholic Charities USA and other agencies across the country harshly criticized a $21 billion cut to the Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program included in the Farm Bill introduced recently to Congress.
“SNAP meets critical needs for low-income working families, seniors, children, and individuals struggling to get by,” said Father Larry Snyder, president of Catholic Charities USA.
 “We as a society have a special obligation to consider first the needs of the poor, even as we act through government. The proposed cuts to this vital program put a disproportionate burden on the very people our Catholic tradition teaches us to elevate in our public consciousness.”
The May 15 statement, put out by Feeding America, national network of food banks and another critic of the food assistance budget cuts, also included statements by leaders of Bread for the World and United Way Worldwide.
The statement followed the introduction of the Farm Bill by the House Agriculture Committee to Congress earlier that day.
The Farm Bill is the primary guide for agricultural and food policy in the United States, and includes a variety of programs and regulations in the food and agriculture industries. The Food, Conservation, and Energy Act of 2008, currently regulates the agricultural industry until it expires on September 30, 2013.
The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program is the nation’s largest nutrition assistance program.  The statement noted that the cuts in funding “would restrict states’ flexibility” in administering food aid.
The statement warned that if the cuts take effect, “2 million individuals would lose their SNAP benefits entirely, 210,000 children would lose access to free school meals, and 850,000 households would see their SNAP benefits cut by an average $90 per month,” resulting in an estimated 8 billion lost meals.
These cuts would be in addition to existing reductions in benefits for families who use the program to feed their families. Effective Nov. 1, the average household will receive $20 to $25 less in benefits, “increasing hardship for participants and shifting even more need to charitable food providers that are facing high demand and few resources,” said the statement.
Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program beneficiaries currently receive, on average, $133.79 a month, or a little less than $1.50 a meal.
Feeding America president and CEO Bob Aiken said that there “is no way that charity would be able to make up the difference” for food assistance that would be lost through these cuts. The statement cited declining donations to churches and charities coupled with a rise in families seeking food assistance as contributing factor for the inability of charity to meet the demand for food.
The statement explained that food “from federal nutrition programs totaled $96.9 billion in 2011, compared to an estimated $4.1 billion worth of food distributed by private charity.”
“We are already stretched thin meeting sustained high need, and we simply do not have the resources to prevent hunger in all of the families who would be impacted by these cuts,” Aiken said.
The signers urged congress to restore the cuts to the program as the bill continues through the revision process.
“Strong communities require public-private partnership,” said Steve Taylor, Senior Vice President and Counsel for Policy at United Way Worldwide.
“Every day local charities see this partnership reflected in the generous support of volunteers and donors, and this value is reflected in Washington through important programs like SNAP. We’re all in this together. SNAP and the families it serves must be protected from cuts.”

Illawarra Catholic Church hands over abuse documents

Wollongong's Catholic Bishop Peter Ingham has again offered his apology to victims of clergy abuse in the Illawarra and says he's fully complying with requests from the royal commission.

A meeting of 120 clergy, school principals and catholic care staff was held in Wollongong this week to bring them up to date about the royal commission process.

Bishop Peter Ingham says he's been asked to supply all documents about child sex abuse in the Illawarra from 1975 to now.

He says a large amount of material has been handed over which includes details of complaints against clergy and how the investigations were handled.

"We're cooperating fully with the royal commission and we're going to be fully open to the wisdom that it's going to offer us to ensure greater protection for our children," he said.

Bishop Ingham has also apologised again to anyone impacted by abuse.

"My sincere apologies to anyone in our diocese who's been harmed," he said.

Bishop Ingham is urging anyone with a complaint against the church to report it to the police or to the Catholic Care office.

A website has also been launched through the church's Truth, Justice and Healing Council to explain the commission and offer support.

The website address is: www.tjhcouncil.org.au

Agenda: Now is the time for hierarchy of Catholic Church in Scotland to show leadership

Three months of agony may well be over for the Scottish Catholic in the pew, now that the Vatican has finally taken action on the Cardinal Keith O'Brien affair.

But uncertainty remains over what may happen at the end of his six-months' purdah, and there are disturbing questions about what really went on in seminaries in the past. 


And why was Cardinal O'Brien made both archbishop and cardinal when his failings must have been well known to many in the Scottish hierarchy and in the Vatican?


But, above all, ordinary Catholics are hurting. It has been shaming, embarrassing and faith-challenging to watch the whole sorry tale staggering on over three months, as the church ties itself in knots over its internal procedures, giving credence to the charge of it keeping parishioners and media alike guessing. 

There has been a lack of leadership and a woeful lack of appreciation of the damage done by the whole affair to the church's reputation and, by association, to that of all Christian denominations in Scotland.


What has been lacking, from day one, has been a statement to parishioners, an apology for failings, and a clear indication of how matters will be put right. Instead, ordinary Catholics have been gleaning what they can about their church's discomfort and actions, or lack of them, by scouring the media for crumbs of conjecture. 

The church has committed the ultimate sin of public relations, by failing to communicate, first and foremost, directly with its own stakeholders.


And all of the people of Scotland, those who agree with the church and those who do not, but all of whom have come to regard it as championing certain views on social and moral issues, also deserve that statement if the church is to regain its credibility as a force for good at a time when Scotland is facing fundamental decisions in so many aspects of society, culture and politics.


The vast majority of Scottish priests, hard-working, spiritual and conscientious men, also need that statement, rather than being left to find their own way through the needlessly-elongated crisis. 

Work needs to start immediately to rebuild the confidence, standing and authority of the priesthood. If this means that those who feel they can't live up to their vows have to admit that and go, then so be it, for there is no room for further revelations, scandals and damage. 

The vast majority of the laity will simply not stomach that and their already sorely-tried faith may not withstand it either.


Like many Catholics across Scotland, I rated and liked Cardinal Keith O'Brien and knew and suspected nothing amiss about his private life. 

The shock of the revelations about him has been severe, but, after the shock and sadness comes anger, anger about the fact that the Scottish hierarchy jointly and severally, must have known about his failings, yet seem to have done nothing.

Cardinals, archbishops and bishops are powerful people. They apply the laws of the Catholic Church to fellow clerics of lower rank and to the laity. They sit on tribunals, decide whose marriage can be annulled, who can be ordained, and who can be a Catholic teacher. 

That is why, as interpreters and enforcers of the law, they have to be beyond reproach. 

Anything else is unacceptable both morally and operationally, and the truth will out, bringing the sort of damage the O'Brien scandal has brought, and continues to bring, in its wake.


The faith of Scottish Catholics, which has survived a great deal historically, and which values forgiveness, cannot sustain more self-inflicted damage, so let's have a clear and definitive statement from the Catholic Church in Scotland charting out the way forward in both Christian charity and in faith.

Everyone involved, Cardinal O'Brien included, deserves as much. Better late than never.

Church to celebrate St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi

On May 25, the Catholic Church celebrates Saint Mary Magdalene de Pazzi, an Italian noblewoman of the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries who became a Carmelite nun distinguished for her intense prayer life and devotion to frequent Holy Communion.
In 2007, Pope Benedict XVI marked the 400th anniversary of St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi’s death in a letter to the Archbishop of Florence, her birthplace. He described her as “a symbolic figure of a living love that recalls the essential mystical dimension of every Christian life.”
“May the great mystic,” the Pope wrote, “still make her voice heard in all the Church, spreading to every human creature the proclamation to love God.”
Born on April 2, 1566, the future “Mary Magdalene” was given the name of Caterina at the time of her birth. She was the only daughter of her parents, who both came from prominent families. Caterina was drawn to the Holy Eucharist from a young age, and she resolved to serve God as a consecrated virgin shortly after receiving her First Communion at age 10.
Late in the year 1582 she entered a strictly traditional Carmelite monastery, where Holy Communion was – unusually for the time period – administered daily. Receiving her religious habit the next year, she took the name of Mary Magdalene.
From March to May of 1584, Mary became seriously ill and was thought to be in danger of death. On May 27 of that year she made her religious vows while lying sick upon a pallet. Her recovery marked the start of an extended mystical experience, which lasted 40 days and involved extraordinary experiences taken down by her religious sisters in a set of manuscripts.
Mary served the monastery in a series of teaching and supervisory positions, while also contributing to her community through manual work. Her fellow Carmelites respected her strict sense of discipline, which was accompanied by profound charity and practical wisdom. Her experiences of suffering and temptation helped her to guide and inspire others.
Extraordinary spiritual occurrences were a frequent feature of this Carmelite nun’s life, to a much greater degree than is typical in the tradition of Catholic mysticism. Many of her experiences of God were documented by others in her community, although Mary herself disliked the attention and would seemingly have preferred for these events to remain private.
She did wish, however, to call attention to God’s love, which she saw as tragically underappreciated and unreciprocated by mankind. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi is remembered for making dramatic gestures – running through the halls of her monastery, or ringing its bells at night – while proclaiming the urgent need for all people to awaken to God’s love, and respond in kind.
Her earthly life came to an end on May 25, 1607, after an excruciating illness lasting nearly three years. Pope Clement IX canonized St. Mary Magdalene de Pazzi in 1669.

Catholic Church powerless in face of extreme fringe

A radical group that sent emails to MPs saying they were "on the road to hell for all eternity" if they voted in favour of the Marriage Amendment Bill has been told to stop claiming to be Catholic - but the Catholic Church admits it has no power to enforce the ruling. 

The Catholic Bishops Conference has told the Catholic Action Group it doesn't have permission to use the church's name. 

But Archbishop John Dew told the Sunday Star-Times he could not excommunicate the group's leader, Whangarei man Arthur Skinner, if he ignored the ruling. 

Skinner says he will defy them because he believes the bishops have abandoned the church's true teachings and should resign.

Catholic Action's track record includes vandalising a poster at the Auckland Anglican church St Matthew in the City and leading protests at Te Papa when it exhibited the sculpture Virgin in a Condom.

"We have made it known to them and to others that they haven't sought permission from the bishops to use the name Catholic, and we've told them not to use it," Dew said, "but there isn't actually anything else we can do. It would have to be something heretical to be excommunicated."

Catholic Action's submissions on the Marriage Amendment Bill were not heard by the select committee as they were deemed inappropriate.

The group sent follow-up emails to MPs, including Green MP Kevin Hague, that said homosexuality was "an abomination crying out to Heaven for vengeance", and accused Hague and Labour MP Ruth Dyson of having "an agenda promoting abominable perversity". 

The emails also said homosexuality was a mortal sin that would see people "cast into hell to suffer eternal punishment".

New Zealand Catholic reported MPs' outrage: Labour MP Clare Curran called the emails "objectionable and ugly" and colleague Darien Fenton said "this kind of nasty email has zero chance of changing my vote". 

Hague said that although it was an internal matter for the church, if it was unable to act against Skinner, then people would assume his group spoke for Catholicism.

But he noted the church, like Catholic Action, had taken a vigorous opposition to the bill.

"It's interesting whether the Catholic bishops are effectively saying the same thing, but in a more genteel way," he said.

"Do the Catholic bishops also believe I am going to burn in hell for eternity? Actually, they probably do, they just don't take the trouble to mention that when we are chatting . . . If they don't, they certainly haven't gone out of the way to say so.

"It's probably incumbent on the bishops to say where the substantial differences are between their position and that of the Catholic Action group."

Asked how much Catholic Action's view diverged from the church's own teaching, Dew, who didn't see the group's submissions or emails in advance, said: "We try and say whatever is done should be done in charity, and so using language which is inflammatory is not charitable language, not a part of who we are as gospel people."

Dew said he'd had no response to his letter to Skinner and didn't expect one. It was the first time he'd been aware of a group using the church's name without permission.

An unrepentant Skinner said the bishops should resign and leave church property because they "don't have a mandate any more because they have abandoned the Catholic faith . . .

"Basically they have become politicians, and as a result of that we are having to take this [issue] on. We have to come in and do their job, which we don't want to do."

Skinner said he would act again if necessary. "If these political issues come up again where the Catholic faith has to be affirmed . . . we will be in there, boots and all. I would like to think I would get to heaven one day, but you don't fall into heaven, you climb up - you've got to do things that are unpleasant sometimes." 

Meanwhile, Dew said the church was taking legal advice on one consequence of the Marriage Amendment Bill, which meant churches that usually hired out facilities to the public would breach the Human Rights Act if they refused hireage to same-sex couples seeking to be married.

"We want to clarify that," Dew said.

Pope Francis answers a new calling: Catholic Church's iPad app

This apple has nothing to do with Adam.

The Catholic Church unveiled a new iPad application this past week, intended to keep the faithful abreast of Vatican comings-and-goings, as well as other news from the church’s missions throughout the world.

Called the MISSIO App, the new software debuted during a ceremony hosted this week by newly-minted Pope Francis in the Vatican’s Clementine Hall, according to the Catholic News Agency, or CNA.

“I push here?” the Pope reportedly asked, when presented with an iPad from Father Andrew Small, U.S. national director of the Pontifical Mission Societies.

“As soon as the Holy Father hit the button, a little notice came across the top …and it said, ‘Pope Francis has unlocked the MISSIO App,’" the Rev. Small told CNA. “He sort of looked a little bit surprised.”

The app is reportedly available in English, Spanish, Italian, German, French, Portuguese, Chinese and Arabic.

“I was quite anxious that we were going to get the signal and it was all going to work,” Small told CNA.

The MISSIO App was reportedly developed by Little iApps and is available for free in the iTunes App Store and on Google Play.

The Pope is putting “the missionary Gospel in the pockets of millions of people, young and old, rich and poor, believer and searcher,” Small reportedly added. 

“Ever since his election, Pope Francis has reached far beyond the Vatican, touching people's lives in simple and meaningful ways.”

More than one message in apparition at Knock (Comment)

A FEW weeks ago, when some TDs allegedly felt threatened by excommunication over abortion, Rev Eoin De Bhaldraithe, of the Cistercian Abbey at Moone, wrote a lucid letter to the Irish Times, explaining why those who voted for abortion – as distinct from those who directly carried one out – were not liable for excommunication.

My scepticism about some of those sounding off – I believe these sounds would subside swiftly if their pensions were put in danger by a Coalition collapse – in no way detracts from Eoin De Bhaldraithe's admirable desire to reassure anybody with a crisis of conscience. 

But I also admire him as the author of The Apparition at Knock – the Ecumenical Dimension, a short book, but more intensely rich in insights than many a pretentious academic tome, which has three strands.

First, it's a fair-minded account of the "Second Reformation" (1800-1850) – the Protestant evangelical drive to convert Irish Catholics, which was followed by a sometimes violent Catholic counter-reformation.

Both crusades affected Knock, and fed into the apparition saga. Second, it's a profound theological meditation on the spiritual meaning of the images associated with the apparition. Finally, it's a visionary appeal for Knock to become the engine of an ecumenical effort to end the conflict between Catholic Protestant and Dissenter on the island.

Eoin De Bhaldraithe's succinct review of the Second Reformation, as it affected Knock, breaks new ground. This global, Protestant evangelical crusade gave us the "Bible wars" and indeed the "Bible belt". It was so popular with the common people that Pope Leo XII condemned the translation of the Bible into local languages, and urged bishops to turn people away from what he called these "pernicious pastures".

Unlike some sour clerics I met in the past, De Bhaldraithe is generous to these evangelical missioners. He corrects the Catholic-nationalist folklore that conversions were simply "souperism", the result of starvation: "Catholics today tend to believe it coincided with the Great Famine, and that soup was offered as an incentive to conversion. Yet the truth is that thousands had already become Protestants before the Famine, especially in Connemara."

All of which I find riveting for two reasons. First, my own position on the Knock apparition is one of inherited scepticism. My Roscommon mother told me that my maternal grandfather, Owen Beirne, a small farmer and strong Christian, who daily read the devotions of Thomas A Kempis, believed the apparition had been mechanically produced by a magic lantern, worked by a practical joker in the RIC.

But the source of his scepticism always intrigued me.

For example, my mother added that my grandfather was also fond of reading the Bible, a practice not common among Catholics early in the last century.

At the same time he had a casual attitude to some Catholic devotional practices, being sceptical of scapulars and the like. All of which raised questions in my mind as I found out more about the missioners in the west of Ireland.

Clearly my grandfather considered himself a good Christian. But in recent years I have wondered whether his scepticism about Knock together with his passion for the Bible, was perhaps connected with the evangelical crusade. Could he have come into contact with local "lapsed Protestants", people whose parents had dallied a while with Protestant missioners?

My second reason is the result of a fascination with the Second Reformation and the Irish language. This led to a controversial play called Souper Sullivan about mass conversions of Roman Catholics at Tooremore, west Cork, during the Famine, which was staged at the Abbey Theatre in 1985. The events on Mizen Head echoed those in other parts of Ireland and caused me to come to three general conclusions.

First, I believe Pope Leo's antipathy to translating the Bible into the language of the common people was particularly popular among strong farmers in 19th-Century Ireland. 

They would not have been happy to see their common labourers, the spalpeens, taught to interpret the Bible for themselves, in Irish or English, in case it gave them notions above their station in life. And most bishops and priests, being the sons of farmers, would have shared their antipathy.

Second, I believe that it was not manipulated poor peasants, but educated Roman Catholics, particularly national school teachers, who were most likely to engage with missioners. This interest had less to do with religion and more to do with the Irish Bible, or intellectual stimulation or with challenging the coercive control of the local Catholic clergy. National school teachers in my day would have agreed with me on the last point.

Finally, I believe that since, as Eoin De Bhaldraithe says, "thousands" converted in Connemara, isn't it likely that many more flirted with Luther than later Catholic folklore cared to admit?

Furthermore, I think it likely that even when conversions did not last, contacts with Protestant missioners left cultural marks that could be found in families for generations, and formed a kind of "sublimated protestantism".

In sum, the Second Reformation was about a lot more than taking soup.

One of the most intriguing stories Eoin De Bhaldraithe tells is that of the assistant principal of Knock national school, Master Waldron, who engaged deeply with evangelicals and paid a high price. (As Waldron is De Bhaldraithe in Irish he may well be an ancestor of Eoin's – the author does not say).

Unlike the Fine Gael TDs, Master Waldron was personally threatened with excommunication, forced to repent to keep his job, and was generally given the works.

A contemporary's account says he was compelled to make a public repentance and came "bare-headed and bare-footed into the church and asked forgiveness for his offence against the Church. So he was once more restored to the friendship of the priest and the people."

But who knows what he felt privately?

At any rate, we must be grateful the Waldron clan continues Master Waldron's habit of independent intellectual and spiritual introspection. Because Eoin De Bhaldraithe believes that the modern message of Knock is essentially ecumenical, and "urges us to review our relations with our nearest neighbour. The Church of Ireland is the closest to us theologically and yet, like a family feud, our enmity towards them often seems greatest."

He goes on to speculate that this Christian reconciliation could be the foundation of a new political harmony on the island. And while he does not spell it out, this union of hearts does not seem too distant from Wolfe Tone's noble vision of a union of Protestants, Catholics and Dissenters.

Eoin De Bhaldraithe concludes: "These are political dreams, but the co-existence and harmony of Catholics and Protestants in Ireland is the great challenge of the future." Amen to that.

No sex, please, we're ultra-orthodox Jews – and it's just not kosher (Contribution)

The men stand at the front of the bus dressed in full-length, heavy black coats and wide-brimmed hats. 

The women sit at the back, huddled together to protect their dignity from physical contact or prying eyes.

As I boarded the bus in the stifling 34C heat I realised living in Israel can at times feel like a bizarre cross between 1950s Ireland and 1980s South Africa.

Married couples have even been asked to produce their marriage licences if they want to sit together on the "kosher" buses.

All this in an effort to maintain the strict religious rules surrounding modesty, enforced not by law but by the ultra-orthodox Jewish men who stand guard.

Scuffles are sparked when someone tries to flout this segregation of the sexes, which is standard on a number of bus routes servicing religious communities. 

But in this heat I am in no mood to go toe-to-toe with a group of rotund, bearded religious fanatics and take my seat at the front with the other men.

Most secular Israelis see kosher buses as sexist and discriminatory, but the ultra-orthodox community here could care little what the outside world thinks.

"Are you Jew," I was asked by one after I turned down his offer of a blessing on a holy day. 

The moment the Hebrew word for "no" left my lips he turned his back and walked away. The ultra-orthodox treat outsiders with great suspicion and don't tend to mingle with gentiles.

But their desire for separation from the outside world is matched by strict segregation within their own community.

The women are not only kept apart from men on buses, but also in the synagogues, while walking the streets and on kosher beaches where each sex has their designated days to bathe.

And just as it once was in Ireland under the staunch guidance of the Catholic Church, sex before marriage is strictly forbidden. Hence most couples are clueless when it comes to canoodling on their wedding night.

But as I walked on the streets of Jerusalem recently there appeared to be a little twinkle in the eyes of those who follow the strict laws of the Old Testament. The question is, is this in anticipation of a new sex guide aimed at teaching the ultra-orthodox the "ins and outs" of married life before they tie the knot?

The birds and the bees is a taboo subject among the cosseted, God-fearing, orthodox Jews. 

So Dr David Ribner's The Newlywed's Guide to Physical Intimacy (pictured above) hopes to enlighten the sex lives of Judaism's most secretive and closed community and help make their time in the bedroom blossom from the outset.

"Sex is only appropriate within a marital context," says Dr Ribner. "So we wanted to give people a sense of not only where to put their sexual organs, but where to put their arms and legs."

The book begins with the basics and outlines the difference between the male and female body, but, to ensure not to offend, all illustrations are concealed in an envelope at the back of the book with an explicit warning.

The Fifty Shades of Grey phenomenon may have proved the Irish are no longer prudes when it comes to the sporty shenanigans carried on between the bed sheets, but the strict sex lives of the ultra-orthodox in Jerusalem would be unlikely even to make the Pope blush.

However, it is not just the sex lives of the Haredi (which in Hebrew means "trembling in the face of God") that are frozen in time.

Large families of eight or more children are still the norm thanks to the strict adherence to the Biblical commandment to "be fruitful and multiply".

And even though there are an estimated 1.3 million Haredi worldwide, most live apart from secular society, which they regard as intrinsically corrupt. 

Children are educated in strict religious schools and receive little or no sex education, while television, secular newspapers and visits to the cinema are forbidden, and use of the internet is treated with great suspicion.

Orthodox Judaism even forbids unmarried men and women from having any physical interaction, and some teenage boys are so worried about the consequences of masturbating they go so far as to tie their hands behind their backs.

While it is an urban myth that ultra-Orthodox Jews are so modest that couples have sex through a hole in a bedsheet, relations between the sexes are stringently policed, and arranged marriages are the norm.

Special classes that guide them through the very basics of male and female genitalia and "how a baby is made" are attended just weeks before they are married.

"In an Orthodox community, most people's first taste of sex will be within marriage, even down to hand touching and kissing," says Dr Ribner.

"So a manual that breaks down the inhibitions of asking questions and enables couples to get it right, is of great value. Especially because the knowledge about sex in these communities is very limited."

But while the book is set to be published in Hebrew in the coming weeks, very few bookshops in Jerusalem's religious neighbourhoods are likely to stock up on the sex manual for fear of offending customers.

So while the sexual revolution may have taken far longer than the swinging Sixties to set Irish bedrooms alight, it appears little is likely to change when it comes to the sex lives of the God-fearing uber-religious in Jerusalem.

Historic celebration: Limerick place of worship for 1,600 years marked

THE ANNIVERSARY of all anniversaries has taken place in Castleconnell with 1,600 years of continuous Christian worship celebrated in Stradbally.

Tradition claims St Patrick established Christianity there during his missionary travels in County Limerick.

Church of Ireland and Roman Catholic clergy joined with their flocks to mark this historic occasion in All Saints Church.

“What we are doing here today, links us to those down the centuries who were doing the very same thing, coming together in this place to worship together as a Christian community,” said Bishop of Limerick and Killaloe, Trevor Williams, who was the preacher.

By the time the Diocese of Killaloe emerged in the O’Brien territories in the 12th century, the church in Stradbally was already some 600 years old.

In the ninth century Vikings started appearing up the Shannon, raiding villages and monasteries. They carried villagers off as slaves, looted and burned the church.

In the 12th Century the village was moved from Stradbally to its present site after the Normans built Castleconnell Castle for the protection it offered.

But the church remained in Stradbally with the villagers continuing to walk up each Sunday and holy day.

The ruins that stand behind All Saints date from 1400-1410, and was part of a wave of new church building. In 1765, it fell into disrepair and had to be abandoned.

In 1809, the present All Saints Church was completed and has continued as a centre of worship since.

This chequered history was remembered at the event attended by parish priest, Fr Brendan Kyne; local young priest, Fr Ger Fitzgerald; Canon Donough O’Malley; Abbot of Glenstal, Mark Patrick Hederman; Dean of Limerick, and Rector of St Michael’s Church, Sandra Pragnell, and Reverend Stan Evans. 

The hard-working ecumenical committee of Edward Richardson, Peggy Tyrell, Rita Harris and local author and historian, Mary A Moloney, spent five months planning the day.

The choir from St Mary’s Cathedral and Janet Harbison provided the music. The service was recorded by RTE for broadcast in the future. All ages were in attendance as children from fifth class in Castleconnell National School gave their rendition of St Patrick’s Breastplate. 

While Sunday school children, under the guidance of Barbara Hartigan, created a mural. It portrays a number of local legends such as St Patrick’s footprints on the stones by the river and the burning of Clonlara to name but two. 

It has been a busy time in the church’s history. Then Australian ambassador, Bruce Davis, visited the church last year to see the ancestral home and burial place of Sir Richard Bourke.

Born to Cappamore parents he was appointed Governor of New South Wales in 1831 and his contribution to the early decades of the country is taught to every child in school.

Anger as gay porn incident cleric is made parish priest

A CLERIC who accidentally showed gay porn to parents of schoolchildren in the North has been appointed parish priest of Clogherhead.

The appointment, which was made without any warning to parishioners, has brought complaints from angry parents in the Co Louth village.

It is nearly a year since Fr Martin McVeigh decided to take a sabbatical after the images flashed up on a screen as he made a presentation to the parents of children preparing for confession in advance of their First Holy Communion.

"He wants us to give him a chance, and he seems to be sincere about it, but we are still very angry at the way this has happened," said one parishioner.

At a meeting in the village last week, Fr McVeigh maintained his innocence, insisting that he had no idea where the gay porn images had come from.

Parishioners were told earlier this month by Cardinal Sean Brady that Fr McVeigh was going to be their new parish priest.

It is believed he had expressed a wish to return to Pomeroy, Co Tyrone, where the incident happened.

The cardinal's spokesman, Martin Long, said he understood Fr McVeigh was now the parish priest of Clogherhead, but declined to speculate if he would continue in the role if the parishioners were unhappy.

Parishioners' anger at the way they feel they have been forced to accept the appointment of Fr McVeigh is palpable in the small seaside community.

One schoolteacher confirmed that a number of parents had expressed their concerns.

However, it is understood that Fr Paul Clayton-Lea, who had been the parish priest in Clogherhead and who is extremely popular, will officiate at the forthcoming First Holy Communion and Confirmation days.

Patricia nun the worse for leap of faith

She’s not likely to make a habit of it, but 76-year-old Presentation nun Sr Patricia Wall successfully completed her charity skydive at a sun- drenched Galway last Saturday.

Buoyed by a dozen friends and family members, Sr Patricia completed the 3.2km tandem jump in aid of Aware and local charities in Slieveradagh, Co Tipperary.

A beaming Sr Patricia was thrilled to have finally got the chance to jump, after poor weather conditions foiled earlier attempts, but she thinks she might have to wait a few years before experiencing the buzz again.

A little over 25 minutes after she took off, Sr Patricia returned gently to solid ground thanks to the guidance of tandem jumper Dean Cocozza.

She may have been momentarily stunned by her trip, but after taking a moment to come to terms with her experience, she was delighted.

“I’ll need time to recover from that,” she said. “It was amazing. I don’t think [I’ll do it any time soon]. I’ll have to think about it. Not at the moment anyway, but it was very good. I’ll do the next one when I turn 90.

“I was trying to follow all the instructions and to enjoy it. So now it is done, it’s done. I hadn’t time to think about God. It’s done. And I’m not allowed brandy now for another eight hours,” said Sr Patricia, who hopes to raise over €100,000 for her selected charities.

Before undertaking her training with Sky Dive Ireland, which moved its base from Birr to Galway earlier this year, Sr Patricia said she had little or no nerves about the jump.

Others seemed more worried about it that she did herself, she said.

“Four local people did it so I said I’d do it to raise money for Aware and a couple of community projects. Nobody tried to talk me out of it.

“The only thing they wanted was a doctor’s cert and my GP gave me that.

“I’m not nervous, they all know I’m mad anyway. My superior asked me if I was sure about doing it at my age. But the skydive people have had people doing this in their 80s,” she said.

Her brother, Michael Wall, and other family members were cheering her on from the ground at Galway Airport and Michael paid tribute to her bravery.

“She’s great to do it at her age. She told us last October. At her age I thought she was crazy, but all credit to her.

“I’m not really worried for her. They’ve only had seven broken ankles in seven years,” he said.

And would she advise any other septuagenarians to take the plunge? 

“Oh I don’t know, they’d have to think about it and see themselves, but it was great,” said Sr Patricia.

* To donate see ‘The Flying Nun’ on www.mycharity.ie.

A bishop undaunted by differences (Contribution)

One of the greatest annual demonstrations of faith in these islands is Clonard Novena in Belfast each June. 

One of its salient features is the ecumenical day when a Protestant minister is invited to preach.  

Each year the visitor is given a typically warm Clonard welcome but in its history the reception given to Bishop Harold Miller of Down and Dromore in 2008 stands out.

Before and after his homily there was generous  applause – as there is each year for the guest - but the response to Bishop Harold was more intense than usual both inside and outside the church. 

And what really struck those of us who witnessed it was the way he was mobbed by worshippers outside after an afternoon service, later documented by reporter Malachi O’Doherty on BBC Radio Ulster’s Sunday Sequence programme.

The memory of that occasion prompted one to introduce Bishop Harold to Irish Catholic readers. His evangelical fervour, political acuity and winning personality combine to make him ‘stand out from the pack’.

In relation to current ‘hot topics’ he has strong views on same-sex marriage, abortion and the concept of ‘a Shared Future’ in Northern Ireland.

In our interview he made a point, for example, in admitting being “confused” by the fact that no Catholic MLA (Member of the Legislative Assembly at Stormont) voted in support of their Church’s teaching on marriage in the April 29 vote on a Sinn Féin motion calling on the Executive to support same-sex marriage. 

The motion was blocked by the DUP - who tabled a petition of concern which meant it required cross-community consent.  Eight of the SDLP’s 14 MLAs supported the motion and six either abstained or were not present.

Speaking before last week’s statement by the First Minister and Deputy First Minister on the issue Bishop Miller said the Churches should consider coming together to work out a shared vision for Northern Ireland if the politicians failed to do it.

Harold Miller, aged 63,  was baptised a Methodist and grew up in the Shore Road area of north Belfast before studying English and philosophy at Trinity College Dublin where he met his future wife, Liz (nee Harper)  the mother of their four children. 

Earlier, at the age of 15, on a Boys Brigade camp on the Isle of Man he recalls “a life-transforming experience of Christ”. He received his training for ordination at St John’s College, Nottingham and studied theology at Nottingham University.

After ordination as a priest in 1977 he saw various  spells in Carrickfergus, Nottingham, Queen’s University (where he was Church of Ireland chaplain) and Co. Cork before taking over at Down and Dromore,  his Church’s second largest diocese, in 1997.  

With 100 ordained clergy it serves some 64,500 people over 77 parishes stretching from Bangor in the north right down to the Border. Bishop Harold is one of the leaders of the evangelical wing of the Church of Ireland but he is also a confirmed ecumenist. 

Many inside and outside his Church would see a contradiction between the two but he rejects this insisting they are both Christian imperatives.

“The Gospel imperative for ecumenism is John 17 where the Lord prays three times that we may be one - that the world may believe. So that means actually not just one but seen [his emphasis] to be to be one. I don’t think that is an institutional thing but I think it needs to be visible to people, particularly in places of division and sectarianism. “

The imperative for evangelism is “the great commission in Matthew 28 to go out to the whole world to preach the Gospel".

He says people on both sides often exaggerate the differences between the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland but that doesn’t mean “that the doctrines on which we disagree are not important”.

Asked to identify the critical difference between the two Churches he doesn’t mention authority or Transubstantiation: “To me the most important difference is the understanding of Justification by grace through faith and that changes how you see the sacraments because for an evangelical person a sacrament is God offering his grace to us but can only be received by faith.”

He adds: “Our salvation is totally dependent on faith, an entrusting of [ourselves] to Christ. Our salvation is totally dependent on faith not on works. That does not mean that works are not important.”

He thinks most Catholics would believe that when you are baptised you are “regenerate” and then by the way you work you “keep that in place”.

“Protestants would generally not see works as any part of our salvation other than a response of thanks and gratitude.”

He is anxious to see “more intentional working” through the differences between Rome and Anglicanism and commends the “phenomenal” work of the Anglican Roman Catholic International Commission (ARCIC) down the years. 

Reaffirming the Church of Ireland view that “marriage is between one man and one woman”   he is not short of observations on the current controversy around the issue in Northern Ireland and the rest of the UK and seems at a loss to understand why it has become a “hot issue” so suddenly.

He says as recently as 18 months ago no one was arguing for it and “gay couples were saying we don’t want same sex marriage, we want civil partnerships”.

There seems, he states, “ a sudden change in tack  or philosophical position to move towards same-sex marriage” and rejects the notion of “marriage equality” quoting his All-Primate, Dr Richard Clarke, who said shortly after his arrival in Armagh: “Equality is not equivalence.”

Bishop Harold adds: The fact that somebody isn’t able to do one thing doesn’t mean they are less equal in other ways. If marriage is by definition what it has been for a very long time in Scripture, a relationship between one man and one woman, then it does not apply to same gender relationships.”

He admits to being “deeply confused” by the failure of any Catholic MLA “not one!” to support Catholic Church teaching on marriage by voting against same-sex marriage. He thinks this would not happen in Britain or the Republic and wonders why MLAs are not given a free vote on such an issue.

He hopes he is not misrepresenting anyone stating: “I don’t know what’s going on there. I don’t know whether it’s because one side [mainly the DUP] vote one way the other side [mainly Sinn Féin] automatically vote the other way but that didn’t happen in relation to abortion.”

He wonders if  it’s because people in the past were so fed up with the Catholic Church telling them what to do  that they steer away  from it as much as possible  and ignore the teaching as they have done in relation to contraception which is “not a teaching that has integrity in the lives of the people”.

The bishop then adds colourfully it may be because Catholic politicians have embraced “if you are being kind” what he calls “the theology of the Alliance Party which appears to me to be that a politician is there to legislate for a liberal environment in which the Church is protected - so that you legislate for same sex marriage but you legislate safeguards for faith communities”.

“My first reaction to that is if I were a Muslim or a Mormon who believed in having several wives I’d be very comforted. “

On abortion Bishop Miller says evangelicals and Catholics are “very close together” and they must not forget that.

The Church of Ireland view is that abortion is only to be considered when the mother’s actual life as distinct from her “mental life” is in real danger and “that is a very very very very rare circumstance” though the church does support legislation to “provide clarity”.

Turning to the post conflict situation in Northern Ireland the bishop acknowledges “it is good we have generally transferred the battle from the streets to Stormont but I see a Shared Future getting further and further on to the backburner and I fear that a Shared Future may not be the preferred option for the two major parties”.

“I’ve often wondered if it is not possible for the politicians to paint a picture of a shared future would it be possible for the Churches” though he volunteers the “reality has been the Churches have seen an advantage in having separate territory as well.”

The challenge for the Churches, he says is to “repent” of that mind-set, to change and accept that it is not good to have a world of two different communities in this part of Ireland.

The flag protests demonstrated “a disjunction between Protestant inner-city communities and politicians” for which his Church “must take some ownership” pointing out that until the mid-twentieth century it was very strong in such working class areas.

Bishop Miller talks about “the absolute magical quality” of having a new Archbishop of Canterbury and a new Pope inaugurated in the same week. “I don’t think it was missed on many people that both men spoke with a great deal of humility and grace and straightforwardness that was immediately accessible and understandable.

Reflecting on that welcome in Clonard five years ago he says he never experienced anything as warm in a Protestant church. “I don’t think the people there were applauding the person. I think they are applauding the fact that we can meet together in this kind of way because I am old enough to remember the day when Catholics didn’t go into Protestant churches, in fact they were forbidden from doing do and Protestants didn’t go into Catholic churches.”