Posted by Jim on September 17, 2014
I haven’t been in this much hot water since I made the comment, right after I arrived as your archbishop five-and-a-half years ago, that Stan Musial—my boyhood hero of my hometown St. Louis Cardinals—was a much better ballplayer than Joe DiMaggio!
Now I’m getting as much fiery mail and public criticism over my decision to accept the honor of Grand Marshal of this year’s St. Patrick’s Day Parade. According to the critics, I should have refused, due to the Parade Committee’s decision to allow a group of self-identified Gays of Irish ancestry to march in the parade with their own banner.
As with Stan Musial, I’ll stand by my decision. However, enough of you have courteously expressed some confusion and dismay, that, as your pastor, I owe you an explanation. Let me try.
For one, the decision to change the parade protocol was not mine. The archbishops of New York have never been “in charge” of the parade. Although my predecessors and I have always enjoyed friendly cooperation with the Parade Committee—and still do—and deeply appreciate the identity of the Parade as a celebration purely of Irish heritage, intimately linked to the Catholic Faith, we’ve never had a say in Parade policy or the choice of the Grand Marshal. Nor did we expect or want one!
So, in the current “brawl,” (they have been hardly rare in the Parade’s grand 253-year history!), I did not make the decision! You will recall that I in the past often expressed support for the former policy—that the only banners and identification to be carried was that the group was Irish—and that I found it logical and fair. To those who charged that the policy was “anti-Gay,” I often observed that no one person, Gay or not, was excluded from the parade. This was simply a reasonable policy about banners and public identification, not about the sexual inclinations of participants.
I did not oppose the former policy; nor did I push, condone, or oppose the new one. While the Parade committee was considerate in advising me of the change, they did not ask my approval, nor did they need to.
However, I admit that, for most folks, this is not the reason they are upset with me, and this brings us to point two. Many of you, while acknowledging that the decision to change policy was not mine, feel strongly that I should protest it, publicly condemn it, no longer support the Parade, and refuse the invitation to serve as Grand Marshal.
While a handful have been less than charitable in their reactions, I must admit that many of you have rather thoughtful reasons for criticizing the committee’s decision: you observe that the former policy was fair; you worry that this is but another example of a capitulation to an “aggressive Gay agenda,” which still will not appease their demands; and you wonder if this could make people think the Church no longer has a clear teaching on the nature of human sexuality.
Thank you for letting me know of such concerns. I share some of them.
However, the most important question I had to ask myself was this: does the new policy violate Catholic faith or morals? If it does, then the Committee has compromised the integrity of the Parade, and I must object and refuse to participate or support it.
From my review, it does not. Catholic teaching is clear: “being Gay” is not a sin, nor contrary to God’s revealed morals. Homosexual actions are—as are any sexual relations outside of the lifelong, faithful, loving, lifegiving bond of a man and woman in marriage—a moral teaching grounded in the Bible, reflected in nature, and faithfully taught by the Church.
So, while actions are immoral, identity is not! In fact, as the Catechism of the Catholic Church reminds us, people with same-sex attraction are God’s children, deserving dignity and respect, never to be treated with discrimination or injustice.
To the point: the committee’s decision allows a group to publicize its identity, not promote actions contrary to the values of the Church that are such an essential part of Irish culture. I have been assured that the new group marching is not promoting an agenda contrary to Church teaching, but simply identifying themselves as “Gay people of Irish ancestry.”
If the Parade Committee allowed a group to publicize its advocacy of any actions contrary to Church teaching, I’d object. As Cardinal John O’Connor remarked, we do not change the Creed—and I’d add, the Ten Commandments—to satisfy political correctness.
In fact, the leaders of the Parade Committee tried to be admirably sensitive to Church teaching. They worried that the former policy was being interpreted as bias, exclusion, and discrimination against a group in our city, which, if true, would also be contrary to Church teaching. While they were quick to acknowledge that, in reality, the policy was not unfair at all, they were also realistic in worrying that the public perception was the opposite, no matter how often they tried to explain its coherence and fairness.
I found their sensitivity wise, and publicly said so.
If, in doing so, I have shown an insensitivity to you, I apologize.
I share the hope of the organizers that the March 17th parade will be loyal to its proud heritage of celebrating Irish identity, culture, and contributions—all a beautiful part of Catholicism— thus bringing this great community together in unity and festivity, and look forward to leading it as Grand Marshal.
Posted by Jim on September 13, 2014
Sinn Fein has accepted that the North’s political process is in serious
trouble following a call by the DUP for the St Andrew’s Agreement to
be renegotiated.
On Tuesday, the North’s First Minister, DUP leader Peter Robinson called
for the 2006 peace deal to be revised, saying it had always been a
short-term solution, and said the failure to agree a spending budget had
brought the situation to a head.
“We have now come against an issue that doesn’t allow us to hang on with
the present process at Stormont,” he wrote. “The present process cannot
survive the welfare reform issue.”
He urged the British government to get involved in fresh negotiations
and to include the extreme unionist parties in the talks.
He said Stormont’s ‘mandatory coalition’ of the five main parties, led
by the DUP and Sinn Fein, could not continue in its present form. He
described Stormont as dysfunctional and no longer fit for purpose.
“Unless we face and conquer the deficiencies in our arrangements, we
will not be the guardians of a process regarded as a splendid exemplar
to the world but rather we will become a cautionary tale, warning of the
dangers of drift and dithering,” he wrote.
Members of the power-sharing government at Stormont have been at
loggerheads over issues including dealing with the legacy of the
conflict, sectarian marches and how to spend the diminishing block grant
from the British exchequer.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams warned that a “negative political axis” was
trying to destabilise the situation at Stormont.
He said: “As everyone knows, the political process in the North is
currently in serious difficulty. A negative political axis is currently
seeking to undermine the Good Friday Agreement and turn back the clock
on the progress of recent years.
“We now have the ludicrous position of unionist leaders, who repeatedly
walked away from talks, asking for new talks.”
He added: “Unionist political leaders may hanker after a return to
majority rule in the North but that is never, ever, going to happen. The
Orange State is gone forever.”
Mr Adams reserved his strongest condemnation for the current British
Direct Ruler, Therese Villiers.
He said: “Rather than seek to bring them to their senses, the British
Government’s interventions to date have merely encouraged unionist
intransigence.”
Last weekend, the 26 County Minister for Foreign Affairs Charlie
Flanagan foreshadowed Robinson’s comments when he said the Stormont
parties had failed to deliver “a functioning assembly”.
“I regret that, while there has been great progress over the last 16
years in civic society, the quality of change in political engagement
has been less than many would have wished,” he said.
“The deadlock between Sinn Fein and the DUP is all the more unfortunate
because it does not reflect the vibrant economy and positive atmosphere
evident on the streets of places like Belfast.”
Responding to the Minister, Mr Adams said the Dublin government also
needed to “lift its game” in relation to the political process. He said
the comments were inappropriate for a minister for foreign affairs who
“should be conscious of his government’s responsibilities as
co-guarantors of the Good Friday Agreement.”
Alliance leader David Ford warned that devolution was in real danger of
collapse if the two governments don’t quickly convene new talks. Mr Ford
said it was no longer good enough to “passively encourage” the DUP and
Sinn Fein to work together. “The governments must now broker the
agreements we need if devolution is to be saved.”
SDLP leader Alasdair McDonnell was scathing of Robinson’s call for
talks, and pointed to their walkout from a previous round of talks in
July over the parades issue.
“The first minister has much audacity in walking away from one set of
talks and now calling for another set of talks,” the South Belfast MP
said.
Ulster Unionist leader Mike Nesbitt said the “bad deal” negotiated by
the DUP at St Andrew’s was to blame for the current crisis. He said the
carve up between Sinn Fein and the DUP had become a “face off”.
“The very things Peter Robinson is complaining about are products of St
Andrew’s, which introduced the blocking mechanisms that have led to this
stalemate,” he said.
Another factor in the mix is the fear among the Stormont parties that
their plight may be overlooked amid the turmoil in London over
Scotland’s bid for independence. At previous times of crisis,
high-powered negotiations have been held in grand estates in Britain and
Ireland, and a return to high-profile ‘big house’ political negotiations
is being seen as a likely outcome.
Sinn Fein’s Martin Mr McGuinness was scornful of Mr Robinson’s
suggestion about involving the TUV and UKIP in talks. He warned the DUP
also wanted representatives of the loyalist paramilitaries and “elements
of the Orange Order” involved in discussions. However, he said he was
open to a new process.
“Sinn Fein is for negotiations and dialogue and we have been absolutely
clear that the British and Irish governments, as well as the US
administration are involved,” he said.
The Deputy First Minister complained about the First Minister’s
“counter-productive megaphone or media-based negotiations”, but was
optimistic of a resolution.
“We have overcome enormous challenges in the past by treating each other
with a degree of respect,” he said. With the support and engagement of
the two governments and the US administration I’m confident we can find
a resolution to our current difficulties.”
Posted by Jim on September 12, 2014
“We will have you up at the Battery for a free drink,” Liam Ryan joked, mixing Tyrone wit and Republican spirit, at my news of traveling to Dublin for weekend meetings between the Irish Northern Aid executive and Sinn Fein leadership. The same British ban used as a pretext for the Royal Ulster Constabulary murder of John Downes during their attack on a peaceful rally in Belfast, would insure that we might meet in Dublin, or Monaghan, but not in the Battery Bar in Ardboe, County Tyrone.
“Our friends have been about this last week,” he continued. It was a sort of Republican speak or code, meaning that the Royal Ulster Constabulary backed by British troopers had been patrolling heavily in the Ardboe area.
He added, “I may be back in the Bronx with you but will say more when I see you.” These words were ominous. My friend, Liam Ryan, had spent years in New York saving hard earned dollars with a dream of going home to Ardboe and buying the Battery Bar on scenic of Lough Neagh. He had married happily and was the proud father of a young son. For Liam to hint at leaving Ardboe meant that he was under serious threat which he would not talk about on a likely tapped telephone line, but would explain when we met.
I would never see him again. The following evening the crown forces which had been flooding the Ardboe area, would suddenly disappear. At closing, as Liam Ryan stood by the door, a loyalist death squad would arrive at precisely the correct time and place. Liam Ryan would be murdered as he attempted to slam the door shut and protect those patrons still inside. One of the customers would also be killed by a rifle powerful enough to permanently scare the structure.
There would be little doubt that British patrols had help pick and pinpoint Liam Ryan for death. It was taken for granted that the British had shepherded and shielded the arrival and escape of the murder gang. The RUC eventually arrived, smug smiles belying any pretense of sympathy.
My friend had been murdered .His son would grow up without a father; his wife was heartbroken, his parents, brothers and sisters devastated.
Many in New York and beyond shared their sorrow. He had lived at 3805 Review Place in the Bronx, was a member of Clan Na Gael, supporter of Irish Northern Aid, Con Ed employee, frequent visitor to GaelicPark and involved with many Tyrone groups. He became an American citizen but never forgot Ireland or his hopes that one day his native Tyrone would enjoy the same freedom and economic opportunities that he had found in America.
An Independent Republican Commemoration is being organized by Liam Ryan’s family in Ardboe, County Tyrone for November 29, 2014, the twenty-fifth anniversary of his murder. We have been asked to organize short video interviews with many of those who knew and remember him, to be played in Ardboe as part of the commemoration.
Anyone wishing to participate should call 718-324-8726.
Slan, Martin Galvin
Posted by Jim on
Politicians have been expressing their sympathy to the family of Ian
Paisley, the former loyalist and unionist leader whose intransigence
and hatred of Catholics were world famous, but who also succeeded in
making peace on his own terms. He died this Friday morning.
A leader of hardline unionism for four decades, the ‘firebrand
preacher’, as he was known in the mainstream media, was being credited
today by unionists for an unflinching defence of the union with Britain.
For most nationalists, however, Paisley will be remembered for his
blood-thirsty tirades against the influence of ‘Popery’ and Irish
Catholics on both sides of the border.
‘NEVER, NEVER, NEVER’
The first Moderator of the schismatic Free Presbyterian Church,
Paisley’s early involvement in politics came with his the vigilante
‘Ulster Protestant Action’ (UPA) group in the 1950s. The group
advocated fundamentalist ‘Biblical Protestantism’ and aimed to defend
Protestant supremacy over Catholics, particularly in jobs and housing,
and defeat the remnants of the old IRA.
Paisley later established the paramilitary ‘Ulster Protestant
Volunteers’ in 1966 before forming the modern DUP in 1971. He went on to
establish another paramilitary group, ‘Third Force’, in 1981 and
another, ‘Ulster Resistance’, in response to the signing of the
Anglo-Irish Agreement in 1985.
While he later moderated his supported for loyalist murder gangs, the
preacher’s speeches and sermons often included rabble-rousing,
bible-thumping rhetoric which fueled decades of sectarian killings.
Famously denouncing the Pope as the ‘anti-Christ’ at the European
Parliament, he once said of Catholics: “They breed like rabbits and
multiply like vermin”.
While nowadays cast as a peacemaker, Paisley saw the 1998 Good Friday
Agreement as his greatest challenge and worked to defeat it by
challenging his unionist opponent, UUP leader David Trimble, who had
signed it.
He won the support of the majority of unionists and secured an
alternative peace deal in 2006, the St Andrews Agreement. He hailed
that deal as providing a ‘triple lock’ on political change in the north
of Ireland and blocking any practical role for the Dublin government in
northern affairs.
The next year he was elected First Minister of the Six Counties.
Although he saw his mission to preserve the union with Britain as
essentially complete, Paisey continued to face criticism by loyalist
extremists for his decision to share powers with Sinn Fein at Stormont.
His good-humoured ‘chuckle brother’ appearances at Stormont alongside
Sinn Fein’s Martin McGuinness, a former IRA commander, continued to
provoke unrest within the party until he retired from the leadership of
the DUP in 2008. He was elevated to Westminster’s House of Lords
in 2010 as ‘Baron Bannside’.
FRIENDSHIP
Mr McGuinness today expressed regret and sadness at his passing.
“Over a number of decades we were political opponents and held very
different views on many, many issues but the one thing we were
absolutely united on was the principle that our people were better able
to govern themselves than any British government,” he said.
“I want to pay tribute to and comment on the work he did in the latter
days of his political life in building agreement and leading unionism
into a new accommodation with republicans and nationalists.
“In the brief period that we worked together in the Office of the First
and Deputy First Minister I developed a close working relationship with
him which developed into a friendship, which despite our many
differences lasted beyond his term in office.
“I want to send my sincere sympathy to his wife, Eileen, his children
and extended family.”
Former Taoiseach Bertie Ahern said: “Ian was a big man. He had a big
heart.
“In my younger days I found him a very difficult character but we ended
up very good friends. He was a valuable character in the peace process.”
Mr Ahern said Mr Paisley’s latter years saw him pay a big price
politically and personally, in friendships and in his vocation to the
Free Presbyterian Church, after some of his associates of the previous
40 or 50 years deserted him.
“I grew to admire him. The more I got to know him, the more I grew to
like him,” he told Irish radio.
Sinn Fein leader Gerry Adams also expressed deep shock and and sadness
at the death.
“There will be plenty of time for political analysis but at this point I
wish to extend my deepest sympathies to Ian’s wife Eileen and to the
Paisley family at this very sad time,” he said.
‘RIGHTEOUS’
Paisley successor as DUP leader, Peter Robinson said he had been drawn
towards politics “by the strength of Ian’s message and by his charisma”.
“He provided firm and decisive leadership when unionism lacked it most
and when it needed it most,” he said. “His enthusiasm and sheer joy of
life was infectious and he could energise an audience like no other
person I have met before or since.”
A “long and glorious period” of history had now closed, he said, with
Paisley taking his place in history alongside “the greats” of unionism.
“Like Paul of old he can say, ‘I have fought a good fight, I have
finished my course, I have kept the faith: Henceforth there is laid up
for me a crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge,
shall give me at that day: and not to me only, but unto all them also
that love his appearing.'”
Posted by Jim on September 10, 2014
When 9/11 arrives, remember the living
They sacrificed their health. Photo by MATT MOYER
BY Richard Alles , James Slevin
In a little more than a week, we will mark the 13th anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks.
Here in New York, the names of those killed in the attacks will be read aloud by their family members, friends and coworkers. Across the country, Americans will gather at memorials to honor the memories of those who died.
As a nation, we rightly resolved to never forget the attacks. But the truth is, we haven’t entirely kept that promise.
What many Americans may not know is that as the nation recovered, a public health disaster was just beginning to unfold. Thousands are sick because of the attacks, as well as the rescue and recovery operations that continued for months afterward.
In the days approaching this Sept. 11 and on the day itself, we ask Americans to remember all the victims of that terrible day — those who lost their lives, and the thousands of living victims who are sick and dying from illnesses and injuries, some of which have taken years to fully manifest.
We all know the outlines of the story. After 9/11, Americans from all 50 states rushed to Ground Zero to help in any way they could. Thousands of people worked in extremely hazardous conditions, often without proper protective equipment.
As they labored, the site smoldered, and rescue and recovery workers breathed in a toxic stew of chemicals, asbestos, pulverized cement and other health hazards released into the air when the towers fell.
The dust cloud that so unforgettably rolled through lower Manhattan after the attacks settled in homes, offices, buildings and elsewhere — exposing tens of thousands more to the same toxins.
Thirteen years later, more than 30,000 9/11 responders, as well as survivors of the attacks and area residents and workers, have an illness or injury caused by the attacks or their aftermath, and over two-thirds of those have more than one illness.
Many are disabled and can no longer work. They are suffering from a host of chronic diseases: asthma, obstructive pulmonary disease and gastroesophageal reflux disease, to name but a few.
Medical research has identified more than 60 types of cancer caused by 9/11 toxins. At least 2,800 people have been diagnosed with cancers caused or made worse by the aftermath of the attacks, a number that is sure to grow in the years to come.
More than 800 New York Fire Department members and more than 550 New York Police Department personnel are struggling with serious 9/11-related illnesses, many of them cancers, and have had to retire from their jobs for health reasons.
That is in addition to the more than 70 firefighters and 60 NYPD officers who have died from their 9/11-related illnesses.
Memorials and monuments to our losses continue to be built across the country in Arizona, Florida, Maryland, New Jersey and elsewhere. This outpouring of commemoration — not just in metal and stone, but in solemn ceremonies and prayer vigils, stair climbs and other events — is important to the American spirit. It is a source of comfort for those who lost loved ones and shows that the nation truly remembers those who lost their lives.
But sadly, there is still little mention that 9/11 is, on a daily basis, impacting the health of thousands of living Americans every day. That needs to change.
This Sept. 11, as Americans gather to honor and remember those who lost their lives that day, we are calling on the organizers of these memorials — governors, mayors, city councils and neighborhood and civic groups throughout America — to recognize the living victims of the attacks as well.
As your town or neighborhood holds a 9/11 remembrance, we hope you will remember and mention the thousands who struggle every day with illnesses or injuries caused by the attacks. These heroes need your support, too.
Alles is national legislative director with the Uniformed Fire Officers Association. Slevin is vice president of the Uniformed Firefighters Association. Both are members of the 9/11 Health Watch board of directors .
We shall never forget
We shall keep this day,
We shall keep the events and the tears
In our minds, our memory and our hearts
and take them with us as we carry on.