Sr Stanislaus Kennedy
First in a series.
“I have thought a lot about this. I am going to vote Yes in recognition of the gay community as full members of society. They should have an entitlement to marry. It is a civil right and a human right.”
Sr Stan, age 75, a member of the congregation of the Religious Sisters of Charity and founder of the homeless support organisation Focus Ireland.
Sr Stan to vote in favour of same sex marriage (Irish Times)
Previously: Priests For Yes
(Photocall Ireland)
Sponsored Link
christians behaving like christians , who would have thunk it …
Don’t let that Iona lot fool you, there’s more of them than you’d think.
It’s almost like they actually get the message of the Bible rather than reading just the really old bit and arbitaryily picking which rules they follow
They’re such a mixed bag, the Catholics. I don’t think anyone could argue that this woman has given a lifetime of invaluable service to some of the most neglected in this country, and it’s that kind of spirit that informs her reflections on this debate as well. If a person of her dignity and integrity is voting yes, surely that must signal to those who believe what she believes that it’s the only possible course of action?
It seems to be the way of the RCC. The good, decent priests and nuns on the ground are real people, with compassion and humanity, they’re actually modelling themselves on Jesus.
But the people who get promoted to the hierarchy are the opposite – rigid, merciless doctrinaires who treat human lived life as an academic question. I don’t know why the lower ranks haven’t risen against the leadership, it seems you can’t get ahead in the organisation without first losing your humanity and christianity. You can’t get promoted unless you drop actually helping people and improving lives to take up politics.
…..sounds about right to me.
But according to ABM we’re not fit to criticise or comment on how RCC runs its affairs, we’re supposed to take what they do as divine…. or so his argument has gone in the past, yet he himself disagrees with El Papa on the gays.
“Christians” like ABM have only a passing knowledge of Jesus Christ methinks. They’re denomination exclusively, not Christian broadly.
All the loudest, most vocal ‘christians’ like ABM and various bible-bashing, poor-hating politicians espouse the opposite of what Christ believed – the quiet, good people of faith like Stan and McVerry are actually following in his footsteps.
Well, precisely. Were it only the case that people would close look at the type of person advocating a Yes vote and those advocating a NO vote. Sadly, the majority won’t.
Ah they will, and they will see the smug and sanctimonious people like the bs gang. Then they will see Stan.
The smugness of the yes campaign is more than outweighed by those declaring it to be smug
Well said Jane.
They are such a mixed bag the yes voters. On one hand you have genuine people who care, on the other you have shrieking witches who are up themselves and total fumbally fascists. More interested in homophobes than happiness. Lolz
Who are the shrieking witches? Who’s fascist?
“Please, please, please be so kind as to gift us these legal protections you enjoy, as a favour” = the nice, suitably humble kind, a supplicant.
“In a Republic you and I should be equal citizens, entitled to the same protections and recognition by our state. If you agree with this, vote yes” = uppity, smug, shrieking – a bully.
Right? You want to be beseeched, begged to deign to ‘grant’ something so you can avoid the fact that voting No actually says something about you and how you view other people.
+1
No it doesn’t mean she is right. Gay people already have a civil union in Ireland. So I’m not quite sure why the nun is saying that, if in fact she said it recently. The Pope is also a loving giving person but he follows the teaching of the church and the natural law, and says No to same sex marriage. I will follow him as he is the Leader of our church on earth.
she is in the bag with peter mcverry – always on the side of the person who robs your gaff and your handbag.
just saying…
the only person in the whole of the gospels that jesus says will be in heaven is the thief on the cross beside him. the only one.
Heh… is that right :)
Interesting thesis. If you’re correct, you’re actually fairly wrong. If all homeless people are thieves, surely the way to stop the crime of theft is to help people into accomodation, rendering them no longer homeless and making Sr Stanislaus and Fr Peter far more effective in reducing crime than the gardai.
my point, and gospels’ point, is that christ didn’t give a crap about property. he wants us all to look after each other, to share what we have.
When you’ve done 10% of the good in the world people like McVerry and Stan have done, you can dismiss them like that.
My feelings are very mixed on this subject, while my heart and head rejoice in the idea that we will have a very broad, inclusive established acceptance that heterosexual and homosexual couples are equal in terms of love and commitment to each other, I am aware that what we are being asked to vote on is not actually the right to marry, but to change the status of marriage as being one the units the male, female pair, who can have children, and that law is the only law that is there to say that it is best and a right for a child to be brought up by and know both its parents. The reality is that there are all sorts of couples or Mum and Daughter, or people on their own doing a great job bringing up children. I know that same sex couples all over the world are making pretty good jobs of bringing up children. But I also know I am extremely uncomfortable about the idea of normalising and encouraging soragosy as established way for us to have babies. I believe a child born to its mother, brought up by its mother and if possible brought up with its father is best. I’ve thought and read alot about this, and no matter which way I think about it, I come to this conclusion. I feel we were luckier as a species when we knew we could not have it all. I’m concerned about the energetic ramifications of artificial conception and gestation. I would love to hear rational, thoughtful arguments that remove this fear.
In my “happy world” I see all couples as equal in terms of their adult love and commitment to each other, having pride in the results of their bond…babies, creative spaces, homes that are warm and inviting…whatever it is that is the positive results of a marriage, we should be proud of.
But for us to feel that homosexual couples have a right to replicate the results that are only naturally possible (not always possible) within a heterosexual union… The result in question here; their own family…I don’t see that we can judge it “a right”, it can be achieved only as something made outside their union???? Or am I way off here?
Homophobe