[Magdalen] Ireland

[James Oppenheimer-Crawford]

I mentioned him to Paul Moore one time and he just smiled and said he
always thought of Andy as a closet Episcopalian.

The RCC never could figure out what to do with him, and he would never jump
through the hoops the way the apparatchiks wanted him to.

Wrote some wonderful stuff.

An old anthology of short stories "All About Women" is a collection of just
marvelous gems.

One of his bishops asked him if a particular book was autobiographical.  In
it, if memory serves, the priest and a woman are in a lifelong relationship
that is deeply passionate but generally platonic (not completely).
When Andy said no, the bishop replied thoughtfully, "That's too bad."

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 4:21 PM, Jay Weigel <jay.weigel at gmail.com> wrote:

> As my friend Sheila (formerly RCC, now staunchly Episcopalian) has always
> said, "If priests were all like Fr. Greeley, we'd all be Catholic."
>
> On Tue, May 26, 2015 at 4:15 PM, James Oppenheimer-Crawford <
> oppenheimerjw at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> > 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
> > >
> >
>