This is from a Northern Ireland newspaper the Fermanagh Herald, which you can read HERE:
Firebrand pastor blames Catholic church abuse for same sex referendum result - See more at: http://fermanaghherald.com/2015/05/firebrand-pastor-blames-catholic-church-abuse-for-same-sex-referendum-result/#sthash.g7wApvWk.dpuf
LOCAL firebrand preacher Ivan Foster has launched a scathing attack on Irish Catholicism after the South’s landslide yes vote to legalising gay marriage saying the historic vote was a direct result of the Catholic Church sexual abuse scandals.Speaking after 62 per cent of people in the South voted in favour of changing the constitution to allow gay and lesbian couple to marry, the former minister of Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church went on to brand it as a “false religion” which has “cursed” Ireland.
In a statement sent to the Fermanagh Herald, the fundamentalist accused the South of defying God and “embracing sodomy”.
“This has been done in defiance of God’s Word. That, of course, is hardly surprising since the people of the land have been under the heel of Romanism for centuries and have thereby been taught to pay scant heed to what the Bible says, irrespective of the allegiance to the Word of God that the Church of Rome professes.
“Romanism is a false religion which masquerades as the religion of the Lord Jesus Christ. It has indoctrinated the Irish people in its falsehoods for centuries. What a curse its dark shadow has been to Ireland.
“But Ireland has not only had to bear the burden of false doctrine instigated by Rome, but the Irish people have been plagued by the licentious vileness of her ‘bachelor’ priests, many of whom used their position to molest and violate hundreds of children within this generation and countless multitudes in the centuries of her past dominance.
“In reaction to that and as a direct result of it, the majority in the Irish Republic have supported the legalising of sodomite marriage.”
Referring to a picture of Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams celebrating the yes vote with Ireland’s best known drag queen who is called Panti Bliss, he said: “The painted ‘female’ in the middle is Rory O’Neill, who performs as a ‘drag queen’.
“There you have it. The man who heads up Sinn Fein, the armed wing of which mounted a 30 year terror campaign in Northern Ireland, which resulted in hundreds of people, both Roman Catholic and Protestant, murdered and in thousands terrorised, robbed, injured, kidnapped and taken away and murdered and secretly buried, is at the heart of this “yes” vote.
“What an unholy caucus”
He appealed for prayer for the “Bible-believing minority” who he said would feel more isolated by the South’s decision to vote in favour of same-sex marriage.
He added: “Pray that many saddened, alarmed and troubled souls will seek out God’s Word and those who preach it and embrace the Truth of God in these evil times.”
Rev Ivan Foster is set to preach on the result of the Irish referendum at Kilskeery Free Presbyterian Church this Sunday, 31, at 7pm.
13 comments:
Well, he's right about in defiance of God's word, but protestants are even worse and have been going down this road for a long time. He is wrong, of course, about the Church in general. But, the Church is not doing herself any favors with her wishy-washy response to all this and with a Pope who could be a Methodist minister.
Uh, the UK allows same sex "marriage." They're not Catholic.
Father, please end this scandal. Your blog is causing me to lose faith. How can i continue to believe in a church as confused, disaterious divided as you represent? I will stop reading from this point on. But I had to write one last time to ask you to please consider ending this.
Your posts are constantly crtitical of the Church and question the Pope no matter how much you say you are faithful. And you do not really do a good job discerning what you allow from commenters. " a Pope who could be a Methodist minister" why do you allow it?
Stop it now while you still have some respect left. it is going fast. many of your parishioners find it offensive
More evidence of the failed initiative we call ecumenism. The only way of achieving authentic unity is to return to the age-old method we employed before hitting the self-destruct button: Hold fast to the requirement that all other faiths must convert to the Catholic Church.
No one is forced to read my posts or worse yet read the comments. I do censor some but not all and do make mistakes in posting some.
Because people are able to respond to my posts, there is a give and take and I will post comments critical of what I have written or posted.
I will certainly respect the anonymity of anyone who says something negative about me, but as adults, if one is truly offended and a parishioner, wouldn't it be more adult to make an appointment with me and discuss it face to face?
Hmmm---I wonder who produced the "Word of God" that this modern-day "Ian Paisley" seems to treasure? (Ian Paisley, recently deceased, was one of those Northern Ireland "Orangeman", a hellfire and brimstone Presbyterian minister, who was very anti-Catholic.) Without the Church, there would be no Bible---it isn't as if the Bible just floated down from Heaven one day (in King James English of course). Despite differences between Catholics and (Eastern) Orthodox, both would agree the Church preceded the Bible---not the other way around. The Church decided which books (of the Bible) were consistent with the oral tradition passed down from the apostles---and which "books" were not. Of course if the Bible were so easily understandable and not in need of interpretation, we would not today have thousands of denominations who claim to be "Bible-believing". Begs the question: if the reverend mentioned above thinks the Bible is infallible, then why doesn't he believe the Church which produced the Bible is too?
We who live in the British Isles are quite aware of Northern Irish Protestantism. Yet my father, a devout Catholic from the North, always maintained that Catholics in the North had more in common with their Protestant neighbours than they had with Catholics in the South. There is much to be written on this, but space prohibits it.
If a blog can cause you to lose your faith, it is a brittle faith, indeed. Are you really that fragile?
I can understand how reading a blog wherein the commenters point out the very real possibility that the pope isn't even Catholic or where people with "Fr." in front of their names seem to know very little about the faith could be a temptation against faith.
Both those things indicate simply that we have a grave obligation to learn the faith since we cannot trust our supposed leaders to teach it to us (since many of them don't know it or have rejected it). We aren't ultramontanists or donatists.
Our faith isn't in the pope or the priests, it is in Christ and his Church. He said the gates of hell wouldn't prevail. He didn't say they wouldn't try to prevail.
The headline of this post brings back memories. The very first time I heard we, the Church, were the Whore of Babylon was from my very anti-Catholic college roommate about three weeks into the start of my freshman year in college. She essentially spat the words at me in derision. I was so startled I couldn't even respond. Neophyte that I was, I didn't even know where she got that from!!! Ah, the first shot of artillery across the bow; the beginning of my personal war to defend my faith.
(Shortly after this she demanded I move out of our room, and when I refused, she arranged for one of the girls next door to switch with with her and move in with me. Because I was Catholic. Oh, those happy, carefree college days!)
Anonymous @8:56AM:
I hope you do not lose your faith over what is in a blog. The Church, in respect to its teaching, is not confused and divided. There is division within the Church among some of her members over such issues as contraception and same-sex marriage. Some of the issues which have been brought up on this blog and their relevance to the spiritual health of the members of the Church should spur you to pray more and include fasting with that prayer. Pray for the Pope, the bishops, and priests. As far as I know and am aware, Father McDonald believes all that the Church teaches. If you have any doubt about this you should discuss that with him. I would suggest that any parishioners that are offended by what is featured and discussed in the blog, should do likewise.
Anonymous 8:56 seems to me like a weak attempt at censorship, Father. Any Catholic these days will be aware of what is going on in the Church from all sorts of sources, particularly in the lead up to the Synod on the Family. Anonymous 8:56 should move on to the blog of the National Catholic Reporter - he won't find any censorhip of liberal goings on in the Church there and it may be better for his blood pressure.
Jan
A preacher in the Ian Paisley mould was haranguing his congregation on the perils if hell 'where there will be wailing and gnashing of teeth!' An old lady interjected: 'But minister, I don't have any teeth.' He thundered back: 'Teeth will be provided!'
Ian Paisley was a reincarnation of the nineteenth century preacher Hugh 'Roaring' Hanna, whose statue stands in Belfast. The growth of the Orange Order and violent sectarianism dates from about 1850 with the influx of Scottish Presbyterians to work in the linen mills and shipyards of Northern Ireland. Paisley referred to the pope as 'Old Red Socks' and cited this as proof that Paul VI was a communist.
The pontiff, of course, wears white socks, but this seems to have escaped his notice.
Post a Comment