To think this behaviour regarding Pope's visit to Ireland is despicable

[user1485342611]

The Pope is visiting Ireland in August and two public Masses will be held. For Health and Safety reasons numbers attending have to be limited so free tickets are being allocated, on line, on a first come first served basis.

People who object to his visit are deliberately buying up thousands of tickets, booking in fake coach tours etc to ensure a low turn out and, in the process, deny tickets to those who want to attend.

AIBU to think that, whatever your religious beliefs, this is petty, vindictive, intolerant and downright despicable behaviour>

The Visit
For the women and the children and the men with broken hearts
Cobbling lives out of the ruins, innocence stolen, torn apart.
For the mothers and the babies, for their tears, their pain, their grief
For the love strangled by hatred, for cruelty dressed as belief.
Don’t expect a hero’s welcome, but come with humility
To recognise our sorrow, then I ask you ‘Stand by me’.
Our secrets and our silence guaranteed by gift of shame
Even now our blood must flood the decks of ferries, aisles of planes
Heading to our graves still mothers weep silently
For tiny bodies buried by our walls, under our trees.
Reveal the knives that stabbed and tore a stoic nation!
Clarity, humility. Truth then reconciliation.
No more secrets, no closed doors, no hiding what has gone before
In the name of all the dead and maimed, transparency evermore.
Can you offer now, for healing, honesty as soothing balm
Not a gloss of show and ritual designed to cover up and calm?
The depth of your humanity we are waiting here to see.
If you stand with us for justice -if you mean it - stand by me.

A MaryandMichael production from March this year. Can't help myself.

That's a lovely poem., Thank you.

On the one hand, I do think it's a very novel idea and actually it made me laugh as I read through the thread. I certainly don't have any love for the Catholic Church and, as a survivor of childhood SA (including things that happened in a convent girls' school), I really share your anger.

I think their stance on condoms is disgraceful, and they have blood on their hands. In Africa, this has meant that women are powerless to protect themselves from HIV infection, after their husbands have visited prostitutes. (Because they're not allowed to refuse to have sex with their husbands.)

I don't think this will achieve anything, though. As others have said, it's unlikely that there are going to be masses of people attending the mass anyway. And where do you think the money you've spent on all these tickets will be going? You'll be making very generous donations to the Catholic Church.

The tickets are free Lizzie

Okay, fair enough. In that case, it's definitely not a bad idea,

I suggest some of you move out of this echo chamber and actually listen to what most of the people of Ireland are saying. Our notoriously anti-Catholic media are unimpressed by this 'protest' and have used words like 'piteous' 'spoiled brats' 'cowards' and 'intolerant' to describe these people buying up tickets, while the general attitude is one of eyeballing at the 'nutters' doing this.
One of the main instigators has actually admitted, in the Irish Independent that he now regrets the whole thing.

Oh, and the organisers have said there will be very careful checks and validations required before they issue tickets to anyone.

The expression 'Animal Farm' is also being bandied about to describe these people.

Yes I'm Irish and the general attitude here is disgust mixed with amusement at the fact that these people are so thick they're boasting on line about how they've bought up loads of tickets to trick the organisers.

What a bunch of muppets

'eye rolling at the nutters' not 'eyeballing'.

eyeballing at the 'nutters' doing this

That exactly explains how little the catholic church care about the abuses they continue to have committed. I suppose its the expected reaction when a light is shone at a guilty party.

Time to order a few more tickets.

It's not the Catholic Church eyerolling, it's ordinary citizens including those who are no longer Catholics. But go ahead and deliberately misunderstand and quote lines out of context to excuse your behaviour.

user do you realise that you have promoted this protest on here and because of that people who didn't know about it have now booked up lots of tickets that won't be used?

Yes, but that's not why I started this thread and when I realised what was going on I reported it and asked for it to be deleted. But MNHQ ignored that request, so take any concerns up with them.

You're sounding like some crazed nurse ratchet walkingdead.

Quite disturbing in a rather pitiful way.

Jane this is widely known in Ireland. Everyone is aware it's going on. This thread is not responsible for anything. The annoying people telling all and sundry on here about their 'clever' behaviour would have done this anyway.

Doesn't excuse MNHQ though.

I think that whatever you think of this form of protest (I'm firmly on the fence about whether it's a good idea or not and I'm not Irish so my opinion doesn't matter anyway), but it really shows how much anger there is against the Catholic Church in Ireland and elsewhere, and it's entirely justified. A Papal visit isn't going to make it all magically go away. What's needed is action to put things right not just the Pope performing a Mass.

I'm in Ireland Atlast but the OP put it on a UK website which is read by millions.

Yes it is. Every country has visits from foreign dignitaries, why is the Pope's visit any different? Those who object to him - though I don't know why, he's the most liberal Pope to date - don't have to be involved or even watch him on TV. They shouldn't spoil the visit for others though.

It's not the Catholic Church eyerolling, it's ordinary citizens
So you are suggesting protesting against catholic abuse when the pope visits should be banned stopped? When did Ireland become a dictatorship?

If ordinary citizens are rolling their eyes against people protesting about catholic abuse then we need more protests to educate them on what has happened. WTAF

Well, I'm Irish, and I hadn't heard of the protest until the OP posted this.

I am also extremely cynical about a papal visit so soon after we voted yes on same-sex marriage and liberalising abortion. We haven't had a papal visit in nearly 40 years, and the RC church is vanishingly irrelevant. While I haven't booked any tickets, I support any protest that reduces the influence of this poisonous cult. Just because he's comparatively liberal does not mean his values have any place here.

Yes it's read by millions but the majority of them aren't petty, childish and piteous enough to block book tickets they have no intention of using. That takes a particularly pathetic mindset.

In any event if there's a low turnout now it will be put down to sabotage by a bunch of fanatics, not to the fact that there is no interest in seeing the Pope. So what have they achieved exactly?

No one's saying protesting should be stopped walkingdead. But this isn't protesting it's deliberately trying to sabotage the event.

Your burning anger suggests that the Church still occupies an important place in your heart and mind. Most people I know who've turned away from it just treat it with a detached indifference. They'd laugh at the idea of spending time and energy booking tickets for an event they're not interested in.

But it must be hurtful and conflicting to hate something that's obviously still very important to you.

My mind is boggling at the number of people who were killed by communism over the course of the 20th century.

So, shall I engage in similarly immature tactics next time a communist or Socialist Workers etc. event happens?

No.

Because people have the right to congregate at events.

Because I don't want tit-for-tat tactics at events that I might want to attend.

Because trying to stop people from attending the events only makes them feel more passionately about the cause in question--"Look how our enemies are shutting us down and trying to oppress us."

Because if you disagree with something, the best way to disagree is to let people go ahead and attend what events they like, and then argue constructively about it. You might even change some minds (which this kind of stupid tactic is never ever going to do).

Because we should show courtesy towards others even if we disagree with them.

Because most people who attend communism events are not there because "Bwahahaha, I just love the thought of Stalinesque style forced labor camps and genocide!!!" They are there because they believe that Stalinesque style forced labor camps and genocide represent a perversion of communism not the real thing, because they think that there are other good things in communism which should be celebrated, because they believe that communism might work better if more people supported it or learned about it, or in some cases they are just curious and want to know more or their friends are going. You can agree or disagree with whether these are sensible ideas or not, but it's possible to disagree without hating on and slagging off the people concerned.

Similarly, I don't think that many of the people who want to see the Pope are grinning gleefully about child abuse--most, if asked, will say things like "All organizations have problems and that is just one side of the CC," "My love for the CC is about the individual local church members that I am familiar with and who are not child abusers etc." or "If the church has problems, surely it's better that good people remain involved so that we can improve things?" Again, those arguments might or might not be sensible, but we can still show personal respect towards the people who express them, and recognize that most of them are not people who support child abuse etc.

I was brought up Irish catholic but I’m atheist.
Personally I couldn’t really be arsed if the pope comes or not - each to their own. But your right they shouldn’t be stopping other people from going that want to go.

Having said that I understand why people are angry.

It all depends on what he is.

Religious and spiritual leader who inspires and supports millions? Churlish and ugly to protest.

Leader of a rich, corrupt and interfering organization and influences governments into policies that hurt and kill people? Also the perpetrators of massive abuses of women and children, subsequently covering it up and protecting the evil child abusers? Right to protest.

Unfortunately the Catholic Church wants to be both. If it would just stay out of other people's rights, we'd be OK but It insists on behaving like the very worst of humanity; secretive, abusive and corrupt.

But deliberately trying to sabotage an event that the ordinary people of Ireland want to attend and doing so anonymously from the safety of your keyboard is just spiteful and petty. Surely just staying away from the event would be a more dignified action while openly and visibly voicing your objections would be more courageous.

This behaviour is neither and is just being viewed with pity and contempt by the vast vast majority of Irish people, Catholic and non Catholic.