[Magdalen] Ireland

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I recall reading Andy Greeley's discussion of RCC members in TUSA.

He said, essentially, that they would mostly never stop being members of
TRCC, but they no longer felt bound  by most of the specific teachings of
the Church.

The younger RCC members use birth control as seems right to them.  I don't
recall him addressing abortion, so I won't comment on that.  I do recall
that I was at a RCC retreat center and at the end of the session it was
announced that the chapel would have mass very shortly.

I explained that I was an Episcopalian.  "Oh, we don't care about that
here!  Please come if you wish!" It was a nice way to round out the day....

His work in sociology was formidable.

James W. Oppenheimer-Crawford
*“A life is like a garden. Perfect moments can be had, but not preserved,
except in memory. LLAP**”  -- *Leonard Nimoy

On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 12:01 PM, Jim Guthrie <jguthrie at pipeline.com> wrote:

> When the Irish republic was established the overwhelming majoroty of the
>> population were practising Roman Catholics.  As has been onserved before
>>
>
> There's apparently an interesting parallel -- though it's hard to
> determine the difference among what the RC Bishops believe to be their
> membership, what people when polled believe to be members, and the actual
> number of people attending RC parishes. The Bishops know the difference
> between their official view and boots on the ground, but it is not in their
> political interests to proclaim that practicing RCs constitute about 20% of
> their claimed membership <g>.
>
> That said, an fairly substantial majority of U.S. Rc's support same
> sex-marriage. That's the largest single cohort in favor (if you start with
> the Bishop's "Official" number).
>
> Our Canadian friends may fill in the details, but I believe overwhelmingly
> RC Quebec was the first to pass gay rights laws and support same-sex
> marriage.
>
> I won’t get into the European experience since church membership appears
> to be a pretend number in most countries <g>, but consider the counties
> that have supported same-sec marriage vs their supposed denominational
> preference.
>
> So I suspect the Irish experience may not be so unique.
>
>  This thread is about Ireland, not the USA.
>>
>
> I'm not so quick to dismiss the U.S. experience, given the relatively
> substantial money from the USA  (based upon US mythology on marriage) that
> went to Ireland to support the "No" campaign.  Now there may have been
> foreign interference on the "Yes" side as well, but I'm not aware of it.
>
> Cheers,
> Jim
>