Christianity all but vanquished - why the cardinal was right to say so
That the archbishop’s conclusion is well founded is borne out by the depressing revelations in the correspondence in the Irish Examiner over recent weeks referring to the shocking attempted cover-up by the Vatican of clerical and religious crimes such as those referred to by Patrick Geaney (Irish Examiner letters, May 24) concerning “priests and religious (who) sexually abuse trusting, helpless, innocent boys and girls and “brute beasts” such as cats and dogs.”
When “church crimes” such as these are being deliberately covered up by popes and clergy, then indeed “Christianity has been vanquished.” If such crimes are the evil fruits in the lives of the papal and clerical promoters of Christianity, then indeed the world would be better rid of such a system.
That these crimes are not confined to Catholic clergy is confirmed by the reports of the British- based victims of the clerical sex abuse organisation, MACSAS.
Its ‘victim statements’ make depressing reading of sexual abuses committed against children and adults by clergy of all Christian denominations such as the Catholic, Anglican, Baptists, Methodists, Presbyterians, etc.
These abuses follow a similar pattern of sexual exploitation by the professional clergy and church leaders often under the guise of spiritual and physical healing. Most of these clergy have multiple victims, often concurrently.
They deceive their victims in a number of different ways. They may tell the woman that sex will help ‘cure’ them of some difficulty or dysfunction (therapeutic deception) or that God has asked him to do these things in a ‘healing’ ministry (theological/spiritual deception).
Barrett’s Worldwide Encyclopedia of Christianity records, in the 1988 edition: “In Christianity there are in the region of 28,000 different denominations,” describing this as “sectarianism run riot.” This official Christian encyclopedia also says that “(the members of) these distinct denominations all hate one another.” Here in Northern Ireland our peoples are bearing the brunt of the consequences of the divisions and hatreds springing from the hundreds of factions which Christianity has spawned. I recently counted six distinct factions of Catholicism, 10 Baptist, 13 Presbyterian and five Methodist.
To these we can now add the evil fruits of religious sex abuse. I say to all the denominations of Christianity, a plague on all of your houses.
Samuel Crone
Ballylesson
Lisburn
Co Antrim
