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http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0822/church.html
http://www.rte.ie/news/2007/0822/church.html
"The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland Dr Seán Brady has hit out at 21st century Ireland saying that the land of saints and scholars has become the land of stocks and shares.
Dr Brady delivered the remarks in a sermon at the annual National Novena at Knock.
Dr Brady said people who spend money on palm reading, tarot cards and mediums would have more influence on the future if they gave their money to those in need.
Dr Brady made similar remarks when he spoke in the US earlier this month at an Irish festival in Milwaukee, Wisconsin."
Mark
8 Comments
Well arr! That's because the dollar has become more important than God. It's a different world.
Quote: Dr Brady said people who spend money on palm reading, tarot cards and mediums would have more influence on the future if they gave their money to those in need. EndQuote
Not sure about that. Say I don't go to the tarot reader and she does not give me a reading and I give the $20 (or whatever) to the woman next door who is less well off than me, I am surely ensuring that the tarot card reader is now poorer by $20. Sort of swings and roundabouts. Me neighbour feeds her kids instead of me mystic - where's the gain? Of course the neighbour didn't actually DO anything for her $20 whereas the spangly bearded la...sorry, spangly BEADED lady would have done (it's a lot of effort dealing cards and using them to predict the future - I know, I play poker). So there is actually a net loss.
If we take that net loss and extrapolate it, you can immediately see that the more we give to charity, the greater the overall loss - people wont work if they dont need to. That is natural, human and quite laudible.
In order to affect the future more, I would have to give my neighbour double what I would have given the witch. Or give TWO less-well-off neighbours $20 each. That would make ME less well off and so I would expect a $20 gift from some other person in similar circumstances to my former (pre-donation) ones. And if we're all going to go around tossing money at each other, it turns into a farce and becomes pointless.
I appreciate that I have substituted 'poorer' for 'in need'. I have a problem with the word 'needy'. I once brought a girl home from the pub. We sat on the sofa and she sat very close indeed, pushing up against me. She stroked my hair and whispered in my ear. "I'm needy", she said. I offered her $20 and she smacked me in the face - never did work that one out. So I avoid the word 'needy'.
I suspect the reason His Emminence said this was less about the needs of the smallfolk, and more about the devil-spawn that presumes to foreknowledge of God's Great Design denied to mere priests. Thou shalt not suffer a tarot reader to live' goeth the saying.
It's sad that the Archbishop has nothing better to complain about. He's going to have to work a lot harder than that to stay relevant in this changing world we live in.
"Primate of all Ireland" -- hah! Is that really part of his actual title? How funny. That one's just begging for a photoshop illustration -- but alas I don't have access to photoshop at the moment...
Aw shucks. Of course :o) But I thought it was funny.
"Primate of all Ireland". Funny - I never noticed that before. I just knew there had to be a way to legitimately find a point where creationists and evolutionists could meet. I never thought it'd be in irony.
I did however, like watching the first season of Medium on tv
Baldrick: Oh, I don't hold with this new fangle doctoring. Any problems, I go to the Wise woman!
Edmund: Yes Baldrick. I am long past on trusting my self to some deranged druid who gives her professional address as 1, Dunghill Mansions, Putney.
In Putney.
Edmund: Tell me Young crone, is this Putney?
Young Crone: That it be, that it be.
Edmund: "Yes it is". Not "that it be". You don't have to talk in that stupid voice to me. I'm not a tourist. I seek information about a Wisewoman.
Young Crone: Ah, the Wisewoman.. the Wisewoman.
Edmund: Yes, the Wisewoman.
Young Crone: Two things, my lord, must thee know of the Wisewoman. First, she is ... a woman, and second, she is ...
Edmund: .. wise?
Young Crone: You do know her then?
Edmund: No, just a wild stab in the dark which is incidentally what you'll be getting if you don't start being a bit more helpful.
Hey you know AdGuy always gets the last word! ;)