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| Striking gold at the end of the Irish rainbow |
Miss Maureen O'Connell, the late owner of "O'Connell's Pub" in Galway, Ireland, died in 1998. That is, she did not die 1000 years ago. No, she died in 1998. That means that if she had wanted to bequeath her estate to a homosexual-activist cause, she could have done so freely.
Instead, she decided to put in her will that proceeds coming from her estate (her pub, eventually sold in 2006) would be allocated to the Irish section of the Society of Saint Vincent de Paul (SVP), the great foundation of Blessed Frédéric Ozanam for assistance to the poorest in society. In Ireland, the SVP is not, in strict legal terms, under the control of the hierarchy. But its self-identification is clear: "The Society of St. Vincent de Paul is an international voluntary Catholic Christian organisation." And they have no qualms about being a "Catholic" organization when they lobby the Irish government for more funds (see, for instance, here). Or when they ask Irish Catholics for donations for their "charitable" activities.
So what does the SVP do with the proceeds coming from Miss O'Connell's estate, now the hefty "Maureen O'Connell Fund"? Well, for instance, it chose to make a 45,000-euro (58,000-dollar) grant to "Amach! LGBT Galway" so it can build its "resource center", which the group defines in its website as an "alcohol-free venue for social networking" for the homosexuals of Galway (that is, in plain words, a dry homosexual bar).
The Bishop of Galway, the Rev. Dr. Martin Drennan, was rightfully horrified with the use of charitable money given to a foundation that still collects most of its money from Irish Catholics in Irish churches to fund the establishment of a homosexual meeting spot in his diocese.
“On moral grounds we can’t support [the grant],” he told Galway Bay FM’s "The Keith Finnegan Show." “Homosexual activity is in our eyes morally wrong behavior and we cannot put funds at the service of what we don’t believe is morally correct.”He told the radio show that he hoped the matter could be resolved in a way that would restore the image of the society: “We want to keep in mind the good work that the St. Vincent de Paul does throughout the country,” he said
What did the SVP say in response to the Bishop? Did they, caught in the act, regret their folly and did they apologize to the Bishop for their outrageous decision?
Quite the contrary - here's what they said:
The decision was endorsed by the SVP National Management Council as providing support for an excluded and marginalised group in need of support. This is consistent with the SVP mission statement to support people in poverty, both material and emotional, and social justice initiatives. It is also a key element of the SVP Christian ethos to be non-judgmental when its assistance is sought....The grant does not come in any way from funds collected from the public in the diocese of Galway, at church gates or anywhere else.
Ah, yes, "non-judgmental"... If that were truly the case, they would just throw cash from their office windows onto the street - otherwise, they are always exercising some kind of "judgment", even if it is a wicked judgment. And of course the excuse that the money comes from the trust and not from collections made in Irish churches can only fool the dimwits the SVP thinks Irish Catholics must be: money given to the homosexual meeting spot is money not given to those Irish in true financial need, so of course, indirectly, it is money collected from Irish Catholics under the name of "charity," by an organization that calls itself "Catholic" when it wants to, making use of the name when it is in its interest to do so, funding given to promote an activity absolutely antithetical to everything that the Catholic Church has always defended and stood for.
Will this lead Irish bishops to cut all links with this society that has become a promoter of Anti-Catholic values? Quite unlikely... Will the Bishop of Galway at least respond to this unbelievable effrontery to his authority and Catholic moral doctrine represented by the SVP statement?
