If you are Irish and reading this now - may I make a plea that when next year's census comes around, you answer the "religious affiliation" question truthfully. If you are not a Catholic in the fullness of your conscience and belief, then please do not say you are on the census form. We need concrete evidence, such as that provided within the census, that the Church no longer holds the mandate it use to in order to argue the case for removing its influence from our schools and hospitals.

Ditto. I have printed out the form (and I'm hoping it's the right one). Only problem is there is a space for a witness, and I'm wondering if that witness can be a family member and if the need for a witness implies a need for a notary. I also need to figure out where to send it, though I'm assuming it's to the parish you "belong" to. There's not a whole lot of direction included.

Any ideas?

My mom sure pulled a grim face when she saw the form, even though she has turned from the Catholic Church herself (due to the child rape scandals, of course.) She thinks it's childish and pointless. I told her about how they use their rosters, which are inflated with non-attending Catholics, to influence the government, but she still declared me "childish".

The Catholic church in Ireland has racked up a $14 million bill for victim compensation after letting sexual predators in the clergy run rampant for thirty years, and the Bishop of Ferns, Denis Brennan, is asking his parishioners to pass the collection plate to cover the costs.

This is somewhat factually incorrect, as I shall relate.

In fact the Catholic Church in Ireland has, so far, racked up a bill of around €1.2 billion (in our local euro currency). Let me explain how it is that the Catholic Church has been able to duck out of its liability for the vast majority of this bill, and how it is that the Bishop of Ferns (one of only 26 dioceses in Ireland) came to decide that such pennies as are left for the Church to shoulder, might conveniently be met by passing the plate (or is it passing the buck) to his diocesan flock.

In the dying days of one Irish government, on the eve of a national election, and at a time when the joint body representing the religious orders of Ireland was aware that investigations into their running of schools, orphanages and borstals were getting cranked up, these orders met with our then Minister for Education Michael Woods and sealed a deal (for details see the "controversy" section of the wikipedia page). Minister Woods took it upon himself to agree with the religious orders that the Irish state, which had always allowed such institutions to flourish with the Irish "light regulatory touch," should assume around half of the liability. The total bill then was calculated at around €250 million, and the Church pledged, for its part, to put together a package valued at €127 million - partly cash, partly land and buildings (some of which the state was already using - ie schools, hospitals, etc).

What made this deal infamous, was that Minister Woods then said, thanks very much, we will now indemnify you forever against any further compensation bills. And then signed the whole mess onto the new incoming government. And that is how our Department of Education, still struggling to provide primary schools with such basics as working toilets, running hot water, remedial teachers, school books, etc, has had to pay out over €1.1 billion and counting to the victims of industrial school abuse, and the Catholic church is not only sitting on its indemnity, but is looking for around €40 million to pay for all the lawyers that represented its members through the Ryan and Murphy investigations.

First they raped and tortured the children of previous generations, and now they are sticking the bill to this generation of Irish school children, who are paying for it in the currency of teachers, books and classrooms.

The €10 million (your $14 million figure) or so that has fallen to the Diocese of Ferns to contribute, is only a drop in the bucket of the total bill. The fact that he would ask his parishioners to shoulder even this small drop is obscene, but all of a piece with what has gone before. They lie and they steal, and they have no moral authority, whatsoever.

It does not matter which denomination we look at, they are all corrupt and rotten under a thin, shiny veneer of good works and sermons about God's love. Some, such as the cult of Pat Robertson, don't even make an effort at hiding their contempt of all humans other than those who attend their particular church. Every day, one can find news stories of child abuse, murder, rape, stealing of church funds, and a whole slew of other debaucheries in some church or other. The amazing thing is that there is no lack of people willing to ignore these crimes or to make excuses for them. The preachers are always given the unconditional support of the congregation, while the victims are left out in the cold. The sooner Christianity becomes extinct, the better off everyone will be.

...euthanasia is a false solution to the drama of suffering, a solution unworthy of man. Indeed, the true response cannot be to put someone to death, however "kindly", but rather to witness to the love that helps people to face their pain and agony in a human way.

This link, second paragraph:
http://www.vatican.va/holy_father/benedict_xvi/angelus/2009/documents/hf_ben-xvi_ang_20090201_en.html

The pope needs psychological help.

"As a result, euthanasia- the intentional killing of someone whose life is deemed to be no longer worth living- is preferred over a natural death that may involve suffering."

"If we try to escape suffering in a way that causes death, than part of who we truly are as an image of God dies too. But when we accept suffering in love so that others might live more fully, then paradoxically, we become more fully alive. This is the paschal mystery of Jesus' suffering, death, and Resurrection, which saved human beings from sin and death. We share in this mystery when we imitate his loving self-gift."

http://edition.cnn.com/2010/WORLD/europe/03/09/germany.catholic.abuse/index.html

Careful! 'Forcibly crammed' doesn't really convey what's going on. Keep in mind, these victims are typically comatose.

Typically yes, 2-D Man, but not always. The Times article I linked to starts off with the story of a woman, becoming incapacitated from Parkinson's disease but fully conscious, who deliberately decided to stop eating and drinking so she can die in peace.

If there are other people like this, as there surely will be, then this decision has ominous implications for them. Imagine a terminal patient at a Catholic hospital who wants to stop eating and drinking so they can die in peace, but also wants pain control or other comfort care that isn't available at home. If they can't find another hospital willing to take them, or if there's no such hospital near their family and loved ones, what then? What if they won't voluntarily cooperate with treatment they don't want? Are their doctors and nurses going to drug them or put them in restraints and put a feeding tube down their throat against their will? I feel a terrible certainty that there's going to be a case like that sooner or later if this decision stands.