[9thLife]

Last time I checked, a "great apostacy" was part of the plan.

And none to soon in coming, for my money.

[NYer]

RELATED: How Catholic Ireland Became the First Country to Vote for Same-Sex ‘Marriage’

Worth reading!

[GeronL]

I wonder how many of those voters had ever heard an argument from the other side?

[demshateGod]

Marginalize 40% of the population just so 1% can avoid the shame of depravity.

[MeganC]

The Catholic Church itself contributed to the falling away as their scandalous acts particularly involving the infamous “Laundries” became widely known. Enslaving rape victims because they had the temerity to fall pregnant from their attackers is the absolute height of tyranny and hypocrisy.

It is no wonder then that a popular cynicism would set in regarding the Catholic Church in which young people would find no attraction in an institution that institutionalized oppression.

[Impy]

In fact, the archbishop himself, perhaps thinking it would avoid a political backlash, said last week that he personally was voting “No,” but would not tell anyone else how to vote.

Profiles in courage.

You know personally, I think Hindenburg would be a better President than Hitler but I won't presume to tell anyone else how to vote.

[allendale]

Ireland has forsaken Christianity and jumped into the epicurean, neo pagan, decadent toilet.

[yefragetuwrabrumuy]

In all fairness, the Catholic church in Ireland has invited tremendous public disdain for things such as horrific corruption and scandal, and even enslaving women and children with the tacit approval of Ireland’s government as late as 1996. When that government finally fell, there was reform as great as when the Soviet Union collapsed.

http://americablog.com/2013/02/magdalen-laundries-catholic-ireland-irish-apology.html

“The Irish Prime Minister gave a partial apology today for the government’s role in a 74-year scandal in which, a new official government report says, over 10,000 women were forced to work without pay at commercial laundries called Magdalene Laundries, operated by the Catholic Church for “crimes” as small as not paying a train ticket.

“...the estimate of the number of women who were used as forced slave labor by the Catholic Church in Ireland alone goes as high as 30,000 over the entire time the Magdalene laundries were in operation.

“The women were locked in and not permitted to leave. And if they tried to get away, the cops would catch them and bring them back. They were quite literally Catholic slave labor working for the government and even Guinness, which would pay the laundries for the women’s slave labor.

“Half of the girls enslaved in these Catholic Church prisons were under the age of 23. The youngest entrant was 9 years old.”

The bottom line is that the name of the Catholic church in Ireland right now is “mud”. They are lucky that as an institution, the government is not demanding hundreds of millions of Euros in compensation to its victims.

[Honorary Serb]

Look who’s been funding the campaign that led to the sodomite victory in Ireland:

http://www.atlanticphilanthropies.org/sites/default/files/uploads/Atlantic-LGBTCluster-ROI.pdf

http://www.massresistance.org/docs/gen2/15b/Ireland-marriage-vote/index.html

Before the late 12th century Norman invasion, Ireland was Orthodox. As they were resisting and finally getting rid of English rule, they never thought about going back. If they did, might they have been as resistant to foreign “gay” propaganda as Russia or Serbia? I don’t know!!

[El Cid]

How is it that the Irish, like others who have left the Catholic Church, have not, in large numbers, become atheists – which is to say outright non-believers – but in their spirituality and religiosity have turned to something other than classic Christianity?

"Classic Christianity"?
I'm not sure that I find a dime's worth of difference between the atheists and these folks who have made a god who they think is acceptable (i.e., thinks like they think. A god made in their own image).
Sure, idolaters are not atheists - but they are not worshiping God nor seeking to worship God.

[Albion Wilde]

Is it not possible that the One-Worlders and the pro-caliphates funded and carried out massive voter fraud? They have certainly been active in this country, which is much larger. Queering the vote in Ireland is small potatoes in comparison.

[Unam Sanctam]

Very depressed about this vote. But Robert Royal is right, there has been no proper catechesis in the Church for decades, and this vote is just the fruit of that betrayal by bishops and the clergy.

[who_would_fardels_bear]

"It’s a sound Thomistic insight that most people are not and cannot become philosophers and theologians. Most people who want to think themselves Christian have to be confident that there are people they trust – and revere – who have Christian answers to difficult moral and spiritual questions, even if most Christians don’t know the arguments themselves."

In a communitarian culture people who are not experts in theology will defer to theologians. However, in an individualistic culture people will tend to depend on their own intuitions.

Even in our individualistic culture, people are willing to defer to scientists when the math gets too difficult, but not so for philosophy or theology.

I think one problem is that most people think that philosophy is much easier than it really is. So lots of people feel that they can make intelligent choices with regard to what is moral and good.

Part of any religious training should be exposure to how difficult moral reasoning can be so that amateurs know they can go wrong if they depend on their own limited reasoning skills.

Just telling people "Trust us, homosexuality is deviant" won't cut it. Also, coming up with very simplistic arguments like "Here, look at this verse in Leviticus" won't cut it either.

A lot of the arguments I see here on FR against gay "marriage" are so simplistic and lame that I can understand why they are not compelling to anyone but the choir. There is also a general disdain for philosophy and theology here on FR. "Just read your Bible" seems to be the ready answer to most controversies.

If the level of discourse from the conservative side doesn't rise above circular reasoning and ad hominem attacks then there is no reason to hope for a turnaround any time soon.