Originally posted by 123roco
With the above points I am not arguing Catholic people are in anyway superior to others merely pointing out Cathoism has never held anyone back.
Unless of course you had a child out of wedlock (even if it was due to rape), in which case your family generally shipped you off to a lifetime of slave labour at the Catholic run Magdelene Sisters.
What kind of sick society places fear of religious ridicule over family member's welfare?
Do you not think that a child repeatedly brutalised and sodomised by a Catholic Priest won't "be held back"? Of course, we can point the finger at individual bad apples, and say these instances weren't representative of Catholicism, or we can look at the truth of the matter and discuss how known paedophiles, were shipped from diocese to diocese to prey on further victims rather than be kicked out of the Catholic church.
I don't agree that my point re Catholicism and alcoholism was easily dismissed. Would you drink alcohol in front of a friend who was a recovering alcoholic? Is it any coincidence that a law had to be introduced in Ireland to prevent families going straight to the pub after mass on a Sunday?
Please do back up your assertion that Ireland has one of the best education systems in Europe. I agree with you at the moment, but what I'm interested in seeing is a timeline. I'm fairly sure that the rise in standards in Irish education follows fairly closely with the rise of secularism (probably with a strong correlation to the rise of the Celtic Tiger).
My personal experience with Catholic teachers was of brutality, plain and simple. Listening to my older family members, some of whom (a woman) had 14 teeth knocked out from a punch by a Catholic Priest when she was 9 (this is only 30odd years ago) says that things have probably got better.
But then of course, we're all free to have our own opinions. If you choose to use that freedom to defend child beating paedophiles and slave drivers, who push alcohol on children, then that's your choice.
D