Victims: shameless bishop is guilt-tripping Catholics

Bishop Boyce’s shameless comments are a carefully calculated, pre-emptive strike by a bishop who is disingenuously posturing as a victim.

The Catholic church has enjoyed unhealthy and unquestioned authority in Ireland for ages. Its officials have repeatedly abused that power. To claim now that it’s “under attack” is preposterous.

If anything is “under attack,” it’s the heartless and criminal actions of hundreds of Catholic officials who have ignored and enabled heinous and very real attacks on children.

Boyce is trying to shame and guilt-trip Catholics and citizens into feeling sorry for the soon-to-be-exposed church bureaucrats who concealed the rape and abuse of kids for years. Shame on him.

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(SNAP, the Survivors Network of those Abused by Priests, is the world’s oldest and largest support group for clergy abuse victims. We’ve been around for 23 years and have more than 10,000 members. Despite the word “priest” in our title, we have members who were molested by religious figures of all denominations, including nuns, rabbis, bishops, and Protestant ministers. Our website is SNAPnetwork.org)

Contact - David Clohessy (+1-314-566-9790 cell, [email protected]), Barbara Blaine (+1-312-399-4747, [email protected]), Peter Isely (+1-414-429-7259, [email protected]), Barbara Dorris (+1-314-862-7688 home, +1-314-503-0003 cell, [email protected])

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Church attacked by 'arrows of Godless culture'

Updated: 11:48, Wednesday, 24 August 2011

The Catholic Bishop of Raphoe has said the church was being attacked from the outside by the arrows of a secular and Godless culture.

Catholic Bishop of Raphoe Dr Philip Boyce has said the Catholic Church is being attacked by the arrows of a secular and Godless culture.

Dr Boyce also said it was rocked from the inside by the sins and crimes of priests and consecrated people.

An independent review of diocesan files relating to child abuse allegations against priests is nearing completion in the bishop's Donegal diocese.

He has promised to publish the findings of the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church when he receives them, which is likely to be next month.

Bishop Boyce made his remarks last Saturday but they were not released to journalists until yesterday evening.

He told worshippers at the Novena at the Marian shrine in Knock, Co Mayo, that they were living through a testing moment of history and a spiritual dark night now engulfs the church.

The bishop urged Catholics to act hopefully and with patience and predicted that the church would rise again.