Sunday, January 29, 2012

Ireland: Catholic bishop accused of "incitement to hatred" for sermon

A HOMILY delivered at Knock shrine by the Bishop of Raphoe, Philip Boyce, is being investigated by the Director of Public Prosecutions following a formal complaint by a leading humanist who claims the sermon was an incitement to hatred.

The gardai have confirmed to former Fine Gael election candidate John Colgan that they have prepared and forwarded a file to the DPP after he made allegations that the address by Dr Boyce was in breach of the Prohibition of Incitement to Hatred Act, 1989.

The homily, entitled: "To Trust in God" was delivered to worshippers during a novena at the Marian shrine in Co Mayo last August and subsequently reported in the media, including The Irish Times, under the headline: "'Godless culture' attacking church, says bishop."

Mr Colgan, a retired chartered engineer and economist from Leixlip, Co Kildare, referred in his formal complaint to two key passages in Dr Boyce's homily which he believes broke the law.

One of the passages referred to the Catholic Church in Ireland being "attacked from outside by the arrows of a secular and godless culture".

A second passage, which was included in the complaint, stated: "For the distinguishing mark of Christian believers is the fact they have a future; it is not that they know all the details that await them, but they know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness."
Read the rest here.

2 comments:

The Archer of the Forest said...

Yep, that sounds like its dripping with Genocide to me.

Anonymous said...

This doesn't surprise me, actually. I've been expecting the day would eventually come when pastors, preachers, priests, and bishops will be locked up for "hate crimes", simply for preaching the Gospel, because it's unpopular with secular humanists. I know a couple of pastors in Scandinavia (I think it was...) have already had this happen to them. Ironically, most devout believers of other faiths that I know of actually respect Christians who take their faith seriously and don't whitewash it or water it down in order to make it more "palatable" for non-believers.