The Irish held out even against the attacks of the English Protestants. Our bishop here in St Augustine was the great (x times removed) grand nephew of Archbishop Dermott O’Hurley, who was captured in Dublin and tourtured for months and then hanged outside the gates of the city at the express orders of Elizabeth I in 1582.
What destroyed the Church in Ireland - and throughout the world - was Vatican II. This current Pope is the first one to go full steam ahead on it, and the Church is dissolving before our very eyes.
I think the schism is going to happen sooner rather than later. There will be a “gay marriage” in either Ireland or Germany, and the Pope will approve it. And then the tiny handful of the still faithful will be forced out.
First of all, the "Church" is not destroyed. Secondly, Vatican II had nothing to do with this vote. This is the result of a social revolution that began with the feminist movement which predates the council. This is history repeating itself. As one talk show host often comments, "history begins on the day you are born". Pause and reflect on that for a minute. Then turn to scripture. In the Book of Ecclesiastes, the author writes:
What has been, that will be; what has been done, that will be done. Nothing is new under the sun.Even the thing of which we say, “See, this is new!” has already existed in the ages that preceded us.
There is no remembrance of past generations;g nor will future generations be remembered by those who come after them.
Ecc 1:9-11
The issues with which the author deals and the questions he raises are aimed at those who would claim any absolute values in this life, including possessions, fame, success, or pleasure. Wisdom itself is challenged, but folly is condemned.
To single out VCII as the reason for an election gone wrong is naive and simplistic. Look around you ... we live in a society where sports, entertainment and shopping have replaced worshiping God. Vatican II did not change society, it attempted to respond to it. Human nature is weak and few are those who are willing to seek God until catastrophe strikes or they are on their death beds.
Today's gospel for Pentecost in the Maronite Church was John 14,15-20:
‘If you love me, you will keep my commandments. And I will ask the Father, and he will give you another Advocate, to be with you forever.This is the Spirit of truth, whom the world cannot receive, because it neither sees him nor knows him. You know him, because he abides with you, and he will be in you.
‘I will not leave you orphaned; I am coming to you.
In a little while the world will no longer see me, but you will see me; because I live, you also will live.
On that day you will know that I am in my Father, and you in me, and I in you.
In 2005, Pope Benedict predicted: "The church will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning." Source. Like Pope Paul VI's prophetic witness in Humanae Vitae, Pope Benedict has left us with his own predictions, that we will soon see manifested.