Re: Re: reorganisation and destruction of irish catholic churches
Sirius is still not getting the point:
1. The FOSCC did everything possible to resolve the Cobh crisis in an in-house manner. The Trustees would have nothing to do with FOSCC.
2. By making a planning application, the Trustees dragged the liturgical question into the civil instances. The outcome, as they knew or should have known was inevitable. Do not blame the FOSCC for this. Blame the TRUSTEES. Indeed, the Trustees based their legal argument almost entirely on the liturgical question at the Oral Hearing. FOSCC tried to avoid mentioning that subject as much as possible.
3. The Bishop of Cloyne may not yet be out of the woods as regards a contentious case being brought against him by any member of the faithful in the diocese of Cloyne – and he has given sufficient canonical grounds under several headings to have such launched against him. The Roman tribunals can be pretty mean places when they start listening to how ecclesiastical (and civil) authority was abused in efforts to suppress Christ’s little ones. They could quite easily hand down a sentence that would make An Bord Pleanala look like a garden party at Buckingham Palace.
4. The are no such things as “diocesan liturgical requirements”. A bishop may decide in relation to liturgical matters in his diocese. But, he should remember, that every decision he makes is open to appeal to the justice tribunals of the Holy See. As far as the Catholic liturgy is concerned, there is only one head of the Roman Rite and that is the Bishop of Rome who is the highest authoirty on the matter and his decisions are final and without appeal.
The absurdity of the assertion of the Cloyne HACK that it decided what was liturgy in Cloyne should be clear. It is a position that I can imagine would warm the heart of any Inquisitor. It was not without reason that I refer to this body as semi-zwinglian.
5. I do not know what your problem about the civil authorities is. It is the norm in practically every european country that government conservation offices look after historic churches.
Of course, if the the Guardians of Faith and Morals in Ireland were a bit brighter, they might be able to see that if the civil authorities claim rights over ecclesiastical buildings in Ireland, then they must surely also have DUTIES in relation to them as well. If they thought about it, as they did in France after 1905, the penny might begin to drop that money for the upkeep of historical churches can now be wrung from the Irish government.
