Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches

@THE_Chris wrote:

Reading those paragraphs, it seems to me that the entire law can be taken by both parties. The “For” crowd can read it and say they are perfectly in their rights to do it, and the “Against” crowd can read it and say that they have no right to do it. The law is wishy-washy in its makeup.

Especially 08, where the “For” crowd claimed they were respecting the Cathedral architecture, and the “Against” crowd saying they were not respecting it.

Both parties then go steaming into a battle, of the sort that has, regrettably, divided Cobh 🙁

The section of the Guidelines relating to the Catholic Church were drawn up under the guidance of Fr. Paddy Jones, Bishop John Magee and some friends following a number of meetings they had with the then Minister Martin Cullen. All very cozy.
As for steaming into battle, the church authorities in Cobh never really entered into battle in any meaningful sense as they were so confident they would get their way. They believed this up until June 2nd last year when the ABP ruling finally came out. If you were at the hearing in Midelton you will have seen that they made no attempt whatsoever to answer any of the points put up by An Taisce, The Georgian Society or the Friends. They saw no need to explain what they meant by “Liturgical Requirement”, and appeared confident that the Guidelines they had been involved in writing would be sufficient to win the day.
It is one of the stranger aspects of this whole saga that never has any member of the diocesan clergy felt the need to explain to the people what they meant by Liturgical Requirement – they just kept repeating the phrase as if that sufficed in itself.