Just two days after Archbishop Gerhard M�ller, Vatican Prefect, speaking in Glasgow, Scotland, touted Catholic education as �a critical component of the Church�, President Barack Obama stood before a crowd of 2,000 young people this morning and called for an end to Catholic education in Northern Ireland.
�If towns remain divided,� said the U.S. President, �if Catholics have their schools and buildings and Protestants have theirs, if we can�t see ourselves in one another and fear or resentment are allowed to harden�that too encourages division and discourages cooperation.�
Obama, who arrived in Northern Ireland this morning to attend the two-day G-8 Summit at the Lough Erne resort in Enneskillen, made the disproved claim on Monday, speaking before an audience which included many Catholics.

His speech was in sharp contrast to remarks delivered on Saturday by Archbishop Gerhard M�ller, prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith. Archbishop M�ller was in Scotland to present the prestigious Cardinal Winning Lecture on Saturday, to officially launch the St Andrews Foundation for Catholic teacher education at Glasgow University. According to the Scottish Catholic Observer, the CDF head said that Catholic education provided a rare place where �intellectual training, moral discipline and religious commitment would come together.� The evening before, at a Friday evening mass at St. Andrew�s Cathedral in Glasgow, Archbishop M�ller said that �the Catholic school is vitally important�. a critical component of the Church.� He added that Catholic education provides young people with a wonderful opportunity to �grow up with Jesus.�
He contrasted St. Augustine�s view, which is founded in the thought of Aristotle and Plato, with that of contemporary relativists and warned that relativism, if pursued to its logical conclusion, would lead to the breakdown of society.
The Prefect�s remarks on education are reported fully in the National Catholic Register.

http://www.patheos.com/blogs/kathys...-catholic-education-in-northern-ireland/

Well, what would you expect from Hussein, he and his wife are very obviously extreme racists and religious bigots and he also seems to think that he knows what is best for the Irish far more than they do.......rather a typical form of azzholian behaviour from him.

[bleep] IRA [bleep] the bed this time.

I am shocked that Muslim schooled in a Radical madras would criticize a Catholic based educational system.

The Irish, both Protestant and Catholic, should rise up as a united people and chase his black azz out of Ireland.

my dumass twin brother works in London and thinks Obama is the bees knees and so does 90% of Eurotrashtards

stoopid moosesilme..........

Oberry Education = Brain washing

If he craps on 3 more countries, he gets a free set of steak knives.....

Who in Ireland could possibly take him seriously, advising them when he is completely incompetent as our president?

If ya have had smoke blown up your butt all your life, you are sure that you know everything about everything. Shows.

So if religion is a cause of dissension in the estimation of the state the answer is to eliminate religion? Strikes me as fairly Marxist. Why am I not surprised.

Beheading so-called infidels is A-OK however!

So ALL followers of Islam (infidels to most of us) must convert or die?

I am sure he would love to outlaw parochial education in this nation as well as home school.

Gotta get all the little tykes in the same class room in order to form proper little statists.

The guy is a buffoon. Must have looked like a fool to the Irish people. Like pal said, he has proven himself incompetent as our president. Can't see this dumb [bleep] go away fast enough.

Obama makes most Americans proud to call themselves Canadians, ay?

As much as I hate to say it, but in the context of Northern Ireland, Obama's remarks make a lot of sense in an idealistic sort of way.

Religious sectarianism dominated many aspects of life in Northern Ireland and ones religion defined where you could live, what schools you could attend, the friends you could have, and where you worked ect..

Things have improved slightly, but many people of both religions want to hang on to the old divides as it means retaining personal power and influence.

Making schools religiously neutral, and getting kids from all denominations mixing at schools from a young age is the best way to fight religious intollerance and sectarisum in the future..

Re the second half of the original article, of course the Catholic Church supports Catholic schools as it allows them to indoctrinate children from a young age which means more future recruits for the Catholic Church. Whether that is good for the wider society is a different debate..

I shall take your word on this one Pete as I am not up to speed on Northern Ireland.

Well, except that the mad buggers drink and party like lunatics when they come here, and I notice they have no problems partying together.

If you read the original comments by Obamma, he is not talking about simply ending Catholic education, he is talking about reducing the divides between Catholics and Protestants..In the context of Northern Ireland, its the sort of "happy clappy" idealistic comment I would expect from a visiting US President or other Head of State.



That is what is so silly..on their home turfs, old loyalities and a degree of "tribalism" seems to hold sway..Put the same people in a different culture/country and the majority seem to get along fine with differences of religious and political opinion seeming to be kept personal.

The only real old divide is the continued English stranglehold on Irish territory that should have been sceded back to Ireland.

I am sure that Indians and Aboriginals would agree with you...see how this blame thing works.

History shows its not that simple. For a start, the English originally went over that at the invitation of one of the Irish kings to help him maintain power. Later, that presence was endorsed by the Pope of the time as the English crown at that stage was Catholic..

Come forward to today, and the Catholic and Potestant divide has little to do with the main land UK, except we step in from time to time to stop them slaughtering each other as happened in 1969..

Yeah, the English, certainly "stepped in" under Trevelyan during the "Celtic Holocaust", when shiploads of Irish foods went every day from Ireland to "Merrye Englande" while the Irish who produced this food starved.

Then, we have the "Easter Rising" in 1916 and the subsequent murder by English firing squads of many heroic Irish patriots ON IRISH SOIL. The most famous, now, was the talented, Roman Catholic poet, Joseph Mary Plunkett, a man whose murder by the Limeys inspired one of the most haunting ballads I know of, especially sung by Ireland's currently finest tenor, Anthony Kearns...."Grace".... listen to it on "Youtube".

Another of the Sassenach's little bag of helpful tricks was "Bloody Sunday" where the slaughter of unarmed Irish civilians by the British Army, was among the issues that finally made many of my family and friends and myself decide that the time to end the "Monarchy" here in Canada, had come and this was only one of scores of murders by these generous "peacemakers".

Funny, I was born, raised, educated a Roman Catholic and have always had friends that were of divers other religions and we have never had the problems here in Canada, that the Irish have suffered......the REAL issue is NOT Roman Catholic schools, usually the best of their kind in any jurisdiction, but, the presence in "The Emerald Isle" of the English business class and the brutal army that supports them.

That said, Obama, is a buffoon and he is the WORST president in US history, even Nixon, was not quite as total an azzhole and boob.

I guess the halfrican is not content to [bleep] up just America, but feels driven to [bleep] up Ireland as well.

Thanks Kute, that man can really sing...but Gaelic sung by women is what moves my soul. Not sure why, unless we have a connection to our predecessors that lingers.

And of course your forefathers never fought/oppressed the native Canadian Indians when they took their land?

Anyway, back to NI, what about the other 1000 or so years of English/ Irish history?

I ask because the fanatics on both sides hold grudges that go back far longer than 1800's, and that is part of the problem..

Peronally, I would be happy to see a referendum and let the people of NI decide their own fate, but what ever the outcome
I doubt "the other side" would accept it peacefully and their in lies the problem *today*...

Speaking to a work associate over there yesterday, their biggest compaint was that two of the major motorways in the Province were shut down for the day to allow Obama's security detail/motorcade to travel between various points..Needless to say the locals were not happy about the disruption at all...

Tiocfaidh �r l�

same thing happened here in Miami a few weeks ago. King hussein did a fund raiser over on Miami Beach. His entourage shut down the I-295 causeway for an hour, coming and going.

Oh,and Pete, my forefathers, or at least a few of them, came over in 1850 from Cork County. The English had taken their land, starved them near to death, and then welcomed them to leave.
That side of the family still has no love for the English.

No, actually, MY forefathers here in Canada, DID NOT ...oppress... ANYONE and half of them WERE British, but, Scots, not English.

The situation here from when my Norse ethnic forbearers first came to "Vinland" circa AD 885 and then my actual family arrived with Sir William Alexander, in the 17thC. and the horrific behaviour of the English, specifically in the late 18th, the 19th and the 20thC.s IN IRELAND to the indigenous Irish people is much different.

Perhaps, the best comment on this affair, the responsibility of the English, is found in the 19thC. Irish saying, among the survivors of "The Famine" and it is, "God sent the potato blight, but, the English sent the Famine".

The FACT is that continual shiploads of foods produced in Ireland were taken by the rapacious English to their island while the Irish starved and some 1-2 million people are said to have perished in that genocidal tragedy largely as a result of English perfidy and brutal suppression of Irish people.

The best thing that could happen to Ireland is reunification under the republic and to get the English out of their country.

Erin Go Bragh!

I wish I knew the answer which would give a peaceful solution that was acceptable to the great majority, but I don't.

Things have improved since the 1970's, but any sense of First World "normality" is still only a veneer..

Certainly changes to increase equality and stop discrimination on the basis of the religon have helped and so has the increased economic prosperity that came with the so called Peace Dividend.

The ironic thing is that Ireland as a whole is a beautiful country and if you avoid politics and religon, the majority of its people are warm and friendly to visitor.

If you ever decide to visit Eire and let it be known you have Irish ancestry, you will be treated like royality...

TRUST me!!!!!!!!!!!! There are "those" that think exactly the same. When will we EVER learn. Carter, Clibton, and now THIS!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Given that the proportion of Catholics in Northern Ireland is increasing, that might be a feasible solution one day..

Personally, I think an independent Northern Ireland is a more likely scenario first, perhaps with unification happening sometime later when the British were out of the picture..

Oh please spare me the anti-British rant. There's plenty of hatred to go around.

There's plenty of hatred for the brits because they have it coming.

Jorge, don't be utterly ridiculous, I did NOT refer to the "British", but, to certain ENGLISH actions and I AM half-British by birth.

There is NO poster on this site that has consistently been more "pro"British than I and I still am and always will be. However, I do not ignore certain aspects of historical reality and to do so would be to encourage such behaviour in the future.

he is an a44hole, what else is new?

Is it true that he's been spelling his name "O'Bama" while on the Emerald Isle?

Yeah, the hateful baztards stood alone against Hitler and Stalin just to honour a century old treaty with Poland........

MANY ACTIONS by MANY different peoples, deserve to be hated...and, that is the important point, IMO.

Fearfully reflective of his thoughts on how our own freedoms should be trounced when it comes to private education I'm sure.

It certainly reflects the post modern view that religion is by definition a fuel for ignorance, hatred, and bigotry. He is a Liberal and will, if given the chance (which certainly appears to have been offered freely), destroy our great Republic.

wouldnt use our Norse forebearers as an example.....we didnt like the indians back in 885 and faught them.....we beat the chit out of both the English and Irish which is why Iceland has significant Irish blood from the Irish women kidnapped on the way over to set up shop....

the British Isles is one of the most fought over pieces of ground in the last 2000 years.....it rivals the chunk of land currently owned by Israel when it comes to various groups including outsiders shedding blood over possession....whole lot of early English kings refused to lower themselves to speaking English, they were French and not heathen English

I must have misread your post then. And of course not to mention IRA rebellion in 1916 (with German help) and of course their collaboration with the NAZIS during WWII. I see Pira continues his inexorable quest for Forum Buffoon...

Is there no end to this Buffoonery?

This "thing" is an embarrassment

Really

Snake

So, you consider yourself a political Irishman?

Has the Islamic lawn jockey ever went to a Muslim country and told a certain tribe of camel humpers to stop educating their children in a certain denomination of Islam? Doubt that will ever happen, halfbreed was educated in a religious school himself as a yute.

That would be the best thing, the Irish should have their own future in their own hands.

What, descendant of Bama...doubt it.

If this "Bama" was a rank idiot, I can believe it.

Now that was funny!

0bama wants all the children to go to public schools and learn morality from The Church of State.

yeah? And how about the treaty with Czechoslovakia? Does Munich means anything to you?

Refresher:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peace_for_our_time

What Treaty? Yes Munich does and so does Winston Churchill, so what's your point?

Tiocfaidh �r l� = "our day will come", for those wondering....

He should already have his set of knives

This has nothing to do with the Irish,not really.

This is about Obama's war on the Catholic church.

The Catholic church is the largest Christian organization in the world,with over 1 billion members.

The Catholic church is the largest provider of health care in this nation,antithetical to Obamacare.

The Catholic church is the largest adoption agency in this nation.

The Catholic church apposes adoption to homosexuals.

The Catholic church apposes abortion.

The Catholic church is responsible for the founding of over 200 colleges and universities,whose adherents teach Christian principles, which are antithetical to Obama's Islamic,communist world views.

Amen.
The Catholic Church is antithetical to the Church of State.

The french and british were supposed to stand for Czechoslovakia - and sided with Hitler instead. Does not hurt to say the whole story when you mention Poland.

There was no treaty.

The comments in this thread are what I believe to be an example of one of my grandpa's favorite axioms.

"You can't see the forest for the trees."


Wake up men!

Whatever you want to believe. France had a treaty with Czechoslovakia and UK with France (Locarn treaty)

Just worth mentioning, when you boast how UK "stood with Poland"

Quite a shameful part of British history, no matter how you spin it.

Both Great Britain and France went public guaranteeing Polish Sovereignty. There was no such treaty with the Czechs (sad to say). Locarno had nothing to do with this. Now that the Brits SHOULD have stepped in then, we are in complete agreement, but shameful? not hardly.

Just do some reading, Locarno had everything do with it. French HAD treaty with Czechoslovakia and Britain was bound to help France. All they did was to bend over for Hitler to get farked. Did not help then any on the end, did it?

On the other hand Czechs paid them back with their blood - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Battle_of_Britain

"was bound" was there a treaty (there was, Locarno but was there verbage guaranteeing this by England?) or just speculation on your part? Locarno did not apply to the Brits. As to the link, I am well versed on their heroic deeds and contributions, but I think they had a vested interest (revenge) other than dying for queen & country.

Lots of stuff out there on Locarno, it was never much of a traty:
Locarno Pact [ləʊˈkɑːnəʊ]
n
(Historical Terms) a series of treaties, concluded in Locarno, Switzerland in 1925, between Germany, France, Belgium, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, and Czechoslovakia. The principal treaty, between Germany, France, and Belgium, concerned the maintenance of their existing frontiers, settlement of disputes by arbitration without resort to force, and the demilitarization of the Rhineland. This treaty was guaranteed by the United Kingdom and Italy but was violated when Germany occupied the Rhineland in 1936 Also called Treaties of Locarno

During the 2008 campaign Obama spoke at the convention center in Pendleton. He said that we shouldn't worry about Iran because "Iran was a small country far away". This was/is reminiscent of Neville Chamberlain's comment after he endorsed the annexation of Czechoslovakia by Hitler's Germany in the mid-thirties. At the time it appeared that he (Obama) thought he was speaking to a bunch of rustics and hayseeds. Maybe Obama should consider moving out of his circle of sychophants and explore the real world....which will never happen.

What about the Czech collaborators who fought for Germany? Was that not also shameful?

Guys, let's not go there. This is the trap of moral equivalencies. The "Yeah, but..."s never stop.

So exactly how much weight does he carry in Ireland?

Unfortunately, as the US President, quite a lot of clout although I doubt this particular speech is going to have any effect..

In the horrific carnage that was "The Great War", 1914-1919, we of the British Commonwealth went to war to honour certain treaties and we lost 1.7 MILLION of our finest people, almost an entire generation of our young men to help the Euros.

One of our two major enemies, was "The Austro-Hungarian Empire" and this included a people called the Czechs.....a mere 20 years later, still suffering from our sacrifice in the first one, we somehow "owed" it to these people to come to their aid and save those who killed many of our people from their former allies...........???????????

Geez, somehow, this just does not compute for me, but, I tend to wonder about Hungarians, former Nazis themselves, these other eastern Euros and the Belgians, who, after what we did for them the first time, REFUSED to allow British troops to cross their soil in the opening battles of WWII, which could have saved British lives and then whined for help after Adolf and his gang invaded them.

One MIGHT think that IF all of these Euros, were such mighty warriors, they would and should and could have held WWII and whipped the Nazis alone, without even MORE of our blood spilled to help them.

The British made pawns of the Canadians.

It's their nature.

They tried to make pawns of the Americans in WW2, but Eisenhower told Montgomery that if he wanted to run the show, he was more than welcome to do so,...but the Americans would go home.

Montgomery shut his fuggin' mouth after that.

There's never been any future in throwin' in with them British sumbitches,...but their attitude had to crush their empire before anybody got a clue.

The Americans figured them out during WW1,...but the Aussies and the Canadians continued to take it up the butt from the Brits for another 25 years or so.

Now,..England's pussified "leaders" have allowed the multiculturists to flood the country with illegals and have disarmed the British people. (all in the name of Shalom, of course)

Canada will be next if the people allow it,...and the flood of Somalis into Ottawa suggests that they're indeed doing so.

The commie faction in the U.S. are on board with the nonsense also,...but they're going to have to kill a significant number of people to see it through.

Maybe it'll play out,...maybe it won't.

Who knows?

And that is a fair take on the situation Kute.

Is there nothing this puke isn't an expert on?

,...lot's of pukes on here,...myself included.

You'll need to be more specific.

He is not a world leader.
He is not a leader of any kind.
He should mind his own business.
I'm so sick of him and all the jerks that work for him.

To which puke are you referring...we are all in contention for the title.

Bingo

http://cpnagasaki.wordpress.com/2013/06/19/obama-catholic-schools-cause-violence-should-be-banned/

What happened to all the elites who made fun of Bush's manner of speaking and said he was an embarrassment to the USA?

Obama is a total disgrace and no one says a word.

Source? here's a hint Ike did not have the power to make such a statement. But I'll wait for the source..

When, I read Bristoe's comments yesterday, I WAS going to reply, but, given the obvious issues with his rant, I realized that serious historical discussion with him would be a waste of time.

JorgeI, you are, of course, correct, but, all one has to do is to look at the understanding between Sir Bernard and "Ike", to SEE what the latter REALLY understood about the reality of "The Battle of Normandy" and "Ike's" decision there to give "Monty" what he required very probably was THE crucial decision in our combined Allied victory and subsequent advance to Berlin.

I just, finally, got the third and last volume in Atkinson's "Liberation Trilogy" and it concerns the Euro. campaign from "Neptune" onward.....boy, what a horrific slaughter and of so many fine young men as well as innocent civilians.......

The enormous price in British, American,Canadian and other Allied lives seems forgotten by so many Euros, today and I honestly find their behaviour, the Dutch excepted, f**king revolting....next time, let them do it alone.

Plus the RC Church strongly affirms the nuclear family, sanctity of marriage, and rejects divorce.

Bristoe and Jstuart, the puke I was referring to is the puke in the WH.

Grew up in England, all my grandparents were Irish Catholics.

Obama doesn't have a [bleep]' clue as to the depth of the hatreds in Ulster, mostly I'm eternally grateful to my parents and grandparents and their siblings (who have an impeccable combat record in both World Wars) that we were willfully raised free of such hatred.

My impression was that the Brits would LOVE to get out of Ulster, but cannot until a million plus Prods voluntarily relinquish their British passports. If the British unilaterally pulled out, a bloodbath would result, or would have back then. Prob'ly still would.

I dunno how the Brits get to be evil personified in Ireland, and yet were the most benevolent of Colonial overlords everywhere else who did more to plant the seeds of human rights and eventual universal suffrage than anyone wherever the Empire spread.

As is true of most everywhere, IIRC prior to total occupation more Irish died at the hands of other Irish than the Brits ever killed.

As for the famine, saying the landowners were "cruel" for exporting wheat during the famine is about like saying folks back then were being "cruel" for doing anything we regret today.

The Irish population, fueled by the potato, exploded only AFTER total domination/dispossession by the English. Looking for WHY the Irish population didn't explode until after forced subjugation from outside I'd take a long look at incessant clan warfare.

Expecting the powers that be in Ireland to have suddenly turned into saints during the great famine and given their all to the millions of impoverished peasants that surrounded them is a bit much.

The potato famine was a catastrophe without precedent, and even among the Native Irish, I don't recall that the Irish who weren't starving were any more forthcoming to their dying peers than the were the Brits.

Actually, their were charitable famine-relief endeavors among the English to succor the Irish during the famine that were remarkable in their time and place. Heck, even today we'd have problems feeding four million people suddenly starving overnight.

O'Birdwatcher

Bravo.

The difference between "history" and popular myth is often most obvious in the sort of commentary where the writer NEVER gives sources for his questionable assertions. One,sees this sort of pathetic drivel here so often and usually from the same poster(s) whose "knowledge" is to factual history as "poteen" is to Glenmorangie.

Just one minor point, as I am not going to waste time with rebuttal of specious assertions based on little other than some supposed "family legends", however, "The Celtic Holocaust" was NOT ONLY "The Great Hunger" and certainly was NOT Ireland and the adjacent island nation's ... catastrophe without precedent.... The "Black Death" some 500 years previously killed probably 10 times as many Celtic peoples in the same area as did the "Famine".

Anyone interested in FACTS, not the usual bloviation, might just research "Trevelyan" and see who he was, what he did and what the effects of his bigotry, greed and appalling behaviour to innocent starving people was. THEN, consider the animus between the religious factions both then and now and form your own conclusions.

There is some basic information on "Wikipedia" and the literature is considerable and largely scholastic, rather than of the genre one reads in about Grade Seven.

Well hey Kute, its been awhile since you had occasion to denigrate me personally



Oh, you musta forgot about that whole Gwynn Jones "Vikings" thing
(never mind, just gratuitously yanking yer chain there )

I speak the truth, tho its been a bit since I read up on the famine. But folks can make their own conclusions as to my veracity.

With respect to the other catastrophies you mentioned; people died is all, just as they did with the famine. The Irish situation was unique tho. An Irish population approximately twice what it is even today, fed by a single crop, suddenly taken away.

To put things in context I'd be interested in Irish survival stories. This weren't no American Indian extinction event, even AFTER the famine Irish Catholics were still easily the majority in Ireland. How did all those croppies survive?

Also, look at how England and most everybody else, treated their OWN poor. For mass starvation resulting from direct government policy look to the enclosures acts, where droves of poor folks were kicked off all means of sustenance. Specific to the Famine, I dunno what the level of actual starvation in London slums was in that era, but by modern standards it was certainly appalling in a time and place where young girls routinely turned to prostitution for mere survival and infants were abandoned in the streets.

I stand by my assertion regarding the degree of British charity efforts during the famine, I'm far from home just now, but folks interested can look it up for themselves. I myself read up on it long before the internet era.

As for "family legends", we don't got any that go clear back to the 1840's tho we're still on parish ledgers back in County Cork, my forebearers didn't leave Ireland until after 1900. My grandfather's wandering brother fell at Gallipoli, after being Mentioned in Dispatches to Whitehall. My great-grandfather on the other side served with the Anzacs, and was wounded in action at Beersheeba. In the second go-round my other grandfather, to old to enlist, was a fireman in the Blitz. My one uncle survived Guadalcanal, the other survived Iwo Jima, and my father set foot on Okinawa a private in the 6th Marines but stepped off it as the youngest Staff Sergeant in the USMC at the time.

Me, I was in the Peace Corps

Birdwatcher

Prob'ly couldn't find anybody there who "could have been his son if he had one".

He went over there under a false impression about the "Black Irish".

I attended a Catholic school

as did two of my sons

My wife attended nothing but Catholic schools until she went to Duke.

Obwan is a fool

and

a

Bozo

O'Puka