A piece read at Ikon's thing at greenbelt last year

Ikon from Belfast did a theo-drama thing at Greenbelt last year which included this piece being read by Shirley McMillan.  It was written by Jon Hatch and includes some colorful profanity (for once not my own)

It takes Phylis Tickle's Rummage Sale idea one step farther.

The clerical child abuse scandal within the industrial schools run for decades by the Catholic Church in Ireland have for years been an open wound for many Irish people, whether they be Catholic, lapsed Catholic, never-Catholic, or would-be Catholic.

Now, thanks to an independent government report that has thrown light onto the devastating full scale of the child abuse-

over 800 known serial abusers;

over 200 Catholic institutions;

over 35 years;

abuse not accidental, sporadic, or opportunistic;

not a tragic failure of the system, but, horrifically, the system itself-

we understand why the scandal is being referred to, I believe without an ounce of hyperbole, as ‘Ireland’s gulag’ and ‘the map of an Irish hell."

Reading the Government Commission documents (and I have read them), I feel as if I have stared the antichrist full in the face. I feel that I now know why someone as compassionate as Jesus would suggest such a cruel and unusual use for a millstone. I have never been so sad, sick and enraged. I feel the inner scream that many Christians have heard ring in their heads when their fellow Christian’s fingers have been found stained with the shit of the Crusades, anti-Semitism, martyrs, slavery, imperialism, Auschwitz, Rwanda, unwanted Irish children, or simply a failure to stop the destruction of the ‘least of these’, whether they were across the world or down the road.

In the case of these decades of unwanted Irish children, many now in their damaged middle age, The Church’s reaction has been, I believe, the very embodiment of the word ‘inadequate’. There has been silence, and where there has not been silence there has been noise; obfuscation, platitudes, and rationalization, making many of us, heads cradled in our hands, beg, please in the name of Christ will you SHUT UP AND FUCK OFF!!!

What would happen if, as one, The Church said, “We have sinned; we are sorry; we humbly repent, and as penance, we will shut ourselves down, collectively give up our vocation, sell all we have and give it to the poor and the abused. God forgive us. God bless you. Goodbye”?

The Church would end.

But through its self-destruction, through this self-immolation, I wonder if, in time, the Church might be reborn.

I believe that many Irish men and women who had abandoned the Church for decades, dumfounded at this sudden moment of... I don’t know, Christianity?- would say, “That’s what I’ve been yearning to hear.” Those of us who weekly drag our own selves dejectedly to the 11am Service of Holy Eucharist, now that there wasn’t one to drag ourselves off to, might feel a new stirring.

Over time, as has happened on these islands for millennia, men and women would feel the call of God. They would pray and they would serve. They would heal each other’s bodies and souls. They would to meet together over bread and wine and feel God in their midst. And each morning, as the first of us did, they would face the rising sun and worship the three-in-one, singing,

“As it was in the beginning, it is now and ever shall be.”

And they might think of keeping a sledgehammer, a can of petrol, and a box of matches readily at hand... For the next time.

Here is a link to the post: http://mistertumnus.blogspot.com/2009/11/irelands-gulag.html

Comments

[cary]

this is one of the many reasons i love Jon.

so glad to be reminded of this piece of hardcore faith.

c,x

[Rachel]

Simply stunning.

[Eric]

A stirring...

A love so impossible...

Renouncing self, accepting death, to give life to the least

[Laurie Woodward]

Very interesting. Enjoyed
this site and am looking forward to more.Laurie Woodward.