"Mary McAleese Put Manners on Anti- Women Ordination Rome" by John Cooney, Dublin, Ireland

Mary McAleese, former President of Ireland

Sexual gender staged the bristling battleground in 2015 Between progressive and conservative Catholics in same sex marriage Ireland and in Pope Francis's Rome, Where his world synod of male celibate bishops - "the old boys club" according to Mary McAleese - spent three weeks debating family matters auld out like dried prunes.

To acclaim from Western political leaders the vote - 62 per cent 38 per cent Against Yes No in the constitutional referendum of May 22 - cut across age and gender, geography, and income, making Ireland the first country to approve same sex marriage in law by popular vote.

The euphoria, Which Brought Thousands Including the gay icons David Norris, Katherine Zappone and Ann Louise Gilligan flocking into the Dublin Castle courtyard to celebrate an emphatic win Against traditional Catholic doctrine of marriage Exclusively Between Being a husband and wife with the primary purpose of procreating children was not shared by the Church leadership in Rome and palaces in Drumcondra. Cardinal Pietro Parolin, Vatican secretary of state, excoriated the referendum result as "a defeat for humanity".

However, a more calibrated statement from the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, called it a "social revolution That did not begin yesterday."

The no longer boyish Martin, lowest turned 70 in April and has led the Church in the Republic for over a decade, was duly lauded for His comment That the Church needed "a reality check" and Predicted the Church faced a huge task to get STI message across to young people, as "most of These young People Who Voted Yes are products of our Catholic schools for 12 years."

During the campaign Martin revealed His intention not to vote after a lengthy address I Gave to David Quinn's Iona Institute, the think tank of "ultra-Catholic Ireland ', was Deemed unworthy of reporting by the  Irish Catholic  and the  Catholic Voice . Pointedly, in Tralee just weeks before polling I Complained That rational reflection inspired by religious belief "Being was reduced to the level of belief in leprechauns."

The result confirmed That Martin, Who has long bamboozled the chattering class Irish With His public relations skills, is running out of time as a credible reformist. More convincing than the prelate was the former President, Mary McAleese, Who Was named by novelist Colm Toibin as "Perhaps the jewel in the crown" in the campaign. "As the mother of a gay man, she Underlined That there was a great deal at stake for her personally, as for many other parents. She Moved the staff and the political closer to each other They Had Been HAD than at any other time in the campaign, "Toibin Observed.

Later in the year, During the October discussions in Rome of the Synod on the Family, McAleese, a qualified canon lawyer, robustly disposed of the Archbishop of Philadelphia Charles Chaput for saying the Catholic Church That Never Were Said disordered homosexuals. In an Interview with Irish Times Religious Affairs Correspondent, Patsy McGarry, McAleese quoted Popes Paul VI, John Paul II and Benedict XVI Insisting That the Church's description of homosexuality was "intrinsically disordered" with a tendency to "evil" Which she added, led to homophobia. Were Episcopal cages rattled as woman reduced to mere clerical Chaput to the clown of the American Church.

Chaput's compatriot, the New York-born Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown Also Contributed to Goldhawk's scorn When in August in an extended interview in the Irish Times - His first in three years - I have congratulated himself on masterminding the appointment of 10 new Including bishops Bishop William Crean of Cloyne in the wake of the clerical child abuse scandals. But Brown let down promptly Believe When It Was Reported That I HAD Cloyne distressed the faithful by Continuing to rent a diocesan-owned house to Fr Dan Duane Who Had Been found guilty of child abuse by the Vatican Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, CDF , even after it Became That the errant cleric HAD broken His public censure of not saying Mass in public.   

This interview Further Blackfired on Brown critics Compared When the lax treatment of Duane vendetta Against dissident to the Redemptorist priest, Fr Tony Flannery. In September vigilant Bishop Crean Flannery banned from addressing Killeagh-Inch parishioners after a self-appointed group of conservative Catholics Complained to the Lord Bishop. Local parish priest, Fr Timothy Hazelwood, later revealed That "the first indication That Might there be a problem was when i met With the Bishop With regard to a letter of complaint about me from a group of" concerned Catholics', a self-appointed WHO oversee orthodoxy watchdog group in the south of Ireland. They Were complaining Because I Said I was voting 'Yes' in the recent [marriage-equality] referendum. "

Also Complained That Hazelwood Fr David Quinn in the  Irish Catholic  and Margaret Hickey in the  Examiner , were "very Catholic" in What They wrote but not very Christian in my opinion. "He claims neither scribe Contacted him or any member of the pastoral council. Earlier, Flannery retorted That" The Ease With Which the bishop dismissed the pastoral council "illustrated how" is meaningless all this talk of giving more power to the laity, "particularly "In the age of Pope Francis." 

This was the third successive year That Flannery felt the wrath of overzealous 'Defenders of the Faith'. In 2012, I was suspended from public ministry by the CDF for His liberal views on women priests, homosexuality and contraception. Crean's ban, however, did not Prevent the popular preacher Being a star speaker on the ordination of women in Philadelphia, just days before Pope Francis, on His tour of Cuba and the United States, stayed With His host - Archbishop Chaput! A supporter Flannery, Laois-born Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the excommunicated Association of Roman Catholic Women Priests spoke enthusiastically of how American Catholics Attended the Irishman's talks and devoured His books.  

Archbishop Brown Appeared to protest too much When I insisted it was His former bosses at the CDF, and not himself, silenced WHO Flannery, Whose marginalization from public ministry at home is more than matched by His celebrity abroad.

In November t welve issued turbulent Catholic priests called for open discussion on the need for equality for women in the church, Including access to priesthood. The priests, many prominent in the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) Were headed - surprise, surprise! - By Fr Tony Flannery, with Kevin Hegarty, Sean McDonagh, Eamonn McCarthy, Roy Donovan, Padraig Standun, Adrian Egan, Benny Bohan, John D Kirwin, Ned Quinn, Donagh O'Meara and Tony Conry.

However, neither Pope nor Francis Were His synod of bishops prepared to countenance women priests or accept the views of Irish grannies and granddads That homosexuality is not "an intrinsic disorder." Neither of the two Martins, the Elder of Dublin Diarmuid, and Eamon 'the Younger' of Armagh articulated the beliefs of the majority of Irish Catholics on contraception, divorce and homosexual activities Being not sinful.

Nor Have Archbishop Brown shown any sign of Realising the enormity of Mother Church's defeat in the marriage equality referendum. Meanwhile, Brendan Butler of the lay Catholic movement, We Are Church Ireland, Who is no stranger to protests outside the papal nunciature in Cabra, Threw down the gauntlet to the post-referendum church elite. This was Martin When He Told Archbishop of Armagh That "if the Catholic Church is to regain credibility not only with the gay and lesbian community But Also With the wider Catholic community Existing Then Catholic teaching needs to change". Drawing attention to the Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the pastoral care of homosexual persons , issued in 1986 by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger Then on to, now Pope Benedict XVI Emeritus, Butler dismissed it as "morally offensive" as it described "as homosexual orientation an objective disorder and ordered towards an intrinsic moral evil. " 

Overall, however, the bishops Deliberations of the world made ​​little impact on public opinion in Ireland and elsewhere, not even the flexibility Which Gave it to Pope Francis to issue a report Allowing some Catholic couples divorced admission to Holy Communion, possibly on December 8 the feast of the Immaculate Conception and, coincidentally, the fiftieth anniversary of the end of Vatican Two.  

Over the next three years the leadership of the Church under the Two Martins will be focussed on parishes preparing for the anticipated visit to Ireland in summer 2018 of Pope Francis. It was in Philadelphia Told That Pope Francis Dublin Diarmuid That was the Elder Chosen as the next venue for the World Assembly of Families.  

 A sign of the times was heralded in August When Taoiseach Enda Kenny, WHO only a few years ago lambasted the narcissism of the Roman Curia, Pauline Took the Road to Knock Shrine in His native County Mayo to join his best friend in welcoming new Archbishop Brown a pilgrimage led by New York Cardinal Timothy Dolan. A hail-fellow-well-met type of conservative hue, Dolan upset the Irish hierarchy for His Visitator's Report During the Murphy Commission of Inquiry That led to the sacking of staff at the Irish College in Rome. Oblivious of esta, Beatus Inda , wearing a shiny warden's uniform, looked more like a latter day John A. Costello than the leader of an independent secular state.

Perhaps Inda is the altar-boy perfecting His genuflection ahead of Pope Francis's arrival. 2018 Ireland Mary McAleese again Might need to put manners on Rome, as she did in 2015.   

Bridget Mary's Response:
Mary McAleese is a prophetic voice for the rights of the baptized in our church. As an advocate for women priests and a student of canon law, Mary carries the banner for women's rights as equal rights in the Catholic Church.  I'd love to see her in one of the top Vatican Posts! Now that would bring a much needed shakeup to the hierarchy!
Bridget Mary Meehan, ARCWP, www.arcwp.org