A Roman Catholic Bishop in Ireland is being investigated under ”˜hate crime’ laws for delivering a homily that upset a humanist.
The Bishop’s unremarkable comments warned of “the arrows of a secular and godless culture” and that only believers “know in general terms that their life will not end in emptiness”.
Humanist John Colgan complained about the remarks to the police. Now prosecutors are investigating the Bishop of Raphoe, Dr Philip Boyce, under Ireland’s ”˜incitement to hatred’ laws.
Read it all (another from the long queue of should-have-already-been-posted material).
Ummmm – this link doesn’t seem to work! Or is it me?
[Thanks – link fixed – Elf]
Um, why was the “humanist” in the church listening to the homily if he doesn’t believe? Are the “humanists” now sending plants to churches so they can try to have religious leaders censored or to create a chilling effect?
Complete and utter nonsense. The Europeans really have to get the cobwebs out from between their ears on these hate-speech issues. No speech can be protected if the measure of its legality is whether it annoys others.
#3 NoVA Scout
Well, don’t you think that is says something about change in the way the RC church is looked at in Eire following recent events, that the Garda would take this sort of complaint seriously?
It is extraordinary considering how anchored the RC church was in all aspects of Irish life, not so long ago, being not so much the state church as the church state. It is a lot of trouble there.
Sorry, that should read: ‘It is in a lot of trouble there’.