Behind enemy lines: The rise of the Catholic resistance - Fr. Brendan Kilcoyne

i' sit for a bit if you don't mind um my name as you heard is is k k and um I'm Parish priest in County m in B near no I'm actually Parish priest in two parishes which is another side of the times uh and I asked for a quiet Parish so I got two quiet parishes that was the best they could do for me so I B Ne Me is completely rural very historic and it was once very famous and back in about the 7th Century or there about and it never really never really kept it going or or got back got back to its early Fame it was very famous for Saxon month so it's also known as May the Saxon uh the Saxon months used to come to study there um so I'm I'm in the very heart me and um I I suppose in the heart of the situation we're in I was in atam right before that um in that uh the church in the north is probably a bit stronger than the South I'm sure you're aware of that all the northern people warn me when I I'm too impressed by that to be careful because it's moving it's moving in the north it's just more slowly for obvious reasons it's more complex history but in the South it's it's um it's pretty much a modern European country at this stage with all of that inails the POS as well um the situation is developing in the south I mean the cultural political situation is developing in the South with the predictability that is actually startling uh sometimes predictability is startling you predict something but it's quite shocking when it obligingly happens uh in the same ways you can on a sad note you can expect a death in your family somebody could have been a long time ding you may been looking at it's still a shot when it actually happens uh which is strange because you think You' be more prepared for it and in the same way I suppose you know the uh the the first of the referendum 2015 referendum on on marriage um that was very significant referendum that was hugely significant philosophically culturally uh and it was passed to to a considerable extent on you know is a masterly manipulation sentiment but at the end of the day as John mcor reminded Us in an article it's John isn't the man grip in an excellent article he he he advised Catholics do you remember the way we were all going on if only we done this if only we' done that a few years later abortion was passed in a landslide you know in landside and I thought we'd lose abortion but that we'd lose it very it be very tight and you know tomorrow is another day we were hammered it was a decisive rejection of tradition and Val and reading of irishness as it was understood it was the end of Irish pism I thought as it was known maybe something else would be there but it wasn't what be known and I remember mcar saying you know that we need to stop going on if only we've done this if only more of the priests had spoken the priests a lot of the priests that by the way I just going to say that no no just so I'm not I'm not you know sort of Defending my own CR and just blaming I lazy or something no I thought I thought the leadership was D and people Ted their Bishops which is unfair actually but there was massive failure among the priest it was it was very telling and M said look the Irish people want this he said they don't he said that there really is no point of these en post Mars so the Irish people have made a decision that's not a narrow Victory that's a huge Victory something has happened it's seismic it's huge and so that's where we're at now we have we what should we all say next it be euthanasia what's coming euthanasia it's it's it's actually St predictable and it's it's coming you'd like to think that Ireland would be um touchy briy edgy unpredictable but no we're going exactly the same way there was an old Bishop I think in Dublin in the past I think he was done was it done he was John Charles of Zill he was there for years he was still there when I was a young man and I think he used to say every ISM comes to Ireland to die they wash up an IR and irand goes oh delicious thing and and and we fall for it and so we're we're doing this and this is I we go through again Handles in the master way e r was chairing the committee traditionalist or at least an about traditionalist um all the rest of it but as far as I know only three of the committee really went against the overall conclusion which was that assistant D he recommended the recommending to the government you know about that the all party parliamentary committee that sat on it very thorough report very reasonable by the way it's there on the government website and they're recommending to the government that assistant ding be brought in under of course any number of C and restrictions very intelligent restrictions except they're not going to last as we know you know once this starts the nature of the common law the nature of the way things go it'll be it'll be white you know it'll be white um and then you have the hate speech though so we titled this talk behind eny lines of Catholic resistance which was slightly poish you know just an attempt to annoy people a bit and be a little bit Edy but in point of fact any you could come up with the same thing the Behind Enemy Lines and some of you know that's C you know where he was saying you know why are some Christians getting so upset about the fact that the world doesn't like them he said do you realize that they're operating behind the lines do you know where we are you know it's if you're you're going around youve escaped from stag 40 you're going around with a an educated British accent uh probably maybe still wearing prison gear and you're asking all these Germans you know the TR time train timetable and you're wondering why they're looking a bit nied they're looking you up and down and in the same way you know he's saying you know why do you expect to be so acceptable you know so I I I suppose really what the point I want to make here is that the situation we're in is actually probably so authentically Christian that it actually is terrif and I think that's at the heart of our fear and our loneliness and our being disp spirited is that we didn't sign up for this you see I know we did with I know I know I know you're Catholics and you know you you what you were doing and all the rest of it you know but you know people get married and they spend a whole lifetime getting to know each other and that doesn't always go well I remember a friend of mine saying about her husband I look at that fell sometimes and I don't love her and and they did good marriage that was years ago they're still married like you know and they seem to like each other no but I mean in the in this it it takes a long time to learn this is is we follow a Man of Sorrows P Catholics forget you know with crucifixes everywhere and I know we made the crucifixes Cly I mean who thought you could do that that's Fearless that's good coin I mean crucifix is an absolutely horrendous image it's only because we were used to it that we don't notice that and we actually managed to make the crucifix hardly from about the 60s on you know the indistinct figures I have a lovely cly crucifix and B really is it really is lovely it wouldn't offend comment it's the lovest you'll be proud to be Dan he looks comfortable whereas I mean if you see one of the old Spanish crucifixes have you seen those and the blood is po off like in every sen Spanish no okay you don't want those old traditional crucifix you find them in some Irish churches because a parish priest back in the 19th century or early 20 went on holidays and bought one and brought it back also from Bavaria it's amazing what you'll find in country churches in the west of Ireland yeah um so it's really interesting stuff but no we made it cudding it's it's unthreatening I mean look at the Sher to in that may not be authentic but I mean the evidence is increasingly intriguing it's just absolutely intriguing um if it's a fraud like that guy was a towering genius one of the one of the great Anonymous Geniuses of M the fraud was so detailed and and uh I mean if if if the sh to is authentic the crucifixes aren't Gooding now why do you think the church which found the cross so obnoxious that it doesn't appear in the first few centuries of Christian art why do you think the church eventually made its peace with the crucifix and has adoped it's because the church discovered the Hardway that the cross is Central to the Christian vocation and that we are Behind Enemy and if you don't feel that that's because you've been narcotized by a temporary cultureal alignment and political alignment between church and culture which is actually far more dangerous than the situation we're in I I just want to leave that with you um I I realize that you may not in the form for this on a Thursday night you um you may want something more restful well um a little BOS no in the background maybe I don't know I'm from me we don't there not to sit here there um this is where we're meant to be we actually have a chance to be the real day now I know you'd say oh you insulting our ancestors who were devout Catholics in such hard times they were devout Catholics in fantastically hard let's go back into the early 20th century back into the 19 in fantastically hard material times in materially hard times but they were Catholics in time of great Unity about the faith and they were in a pretty well cized Church from about mid 19th century on but certainly the late you know I mean don't forget the phenomenal missionary Outreach of the first 50 years of Catholic Church in in in irand in the 20th century the first 50 years of the 20th century it was phenomenal it was phenomenal that a neighbor of mine a small Farmer's Daughter joined the kesandra nuns you know the NS who were kesandra I can't remember the name they sier Le and like that yeah they did amazing more and she goes out there they were bright the family were bright she go goes out there she ends up a surgeon as this girl from the west coast to Mayo ends up a respected surgeon she built hospitals it was incredible I'm just saying the only thing is that that never lasts long and it's really dangerous because you you you it Nares you you don't you don't feel the pain of the Cross as much because everyone is together you old General used to talk about the feel of cloth have you ever heard that phrase I first heard him the military the Fantastic military historian British military historian John ke he's dead now not long dead and he tells them in one of his books um very readable by the way if you come across him Keegan John Keegan it's some Irish PL I think and uh the field of cloth was back to the 18th century where you remember they used to march in squares and they they wared them like CFT board you know the general and they' move in squares towards the enemy and the enemy would fire away at them once they came into rage but they kept going towards them and the trick was to take as much punishment as you could but move as fast as you could in a discipline manner to the point of which you could make a b at charge yeah now it took phenomenal nerve to hold your your place and if a guy fell in front of you you would to step into his place yeah when that took a Norm's nerve to do that you keep marching straight like this and the enemy pouring fire into him and they used to talk about the F of was the rough cuffs of the uniforms rubbing Off the Cuffs of your NE the uniforms were heavy rough material and it gave you a natural sense of the P they heard and the general say there was nothing like the feel of clo steady in steady C if you cut them around you we had the feel of clo yeah the huge missionary Outreach the regiments we a spiritual Empire I know people laugh Nows what it's talked about we followed the British Empire Irish priests went anywhere the Brits were because they they English Ted to be one of the languages that were used there and it was convenient Nigeria and all the rest of Nigerians really like us Nigerians who have never met an marish person in their lives and probably wouldn't like us if they didn't meet us really like us because these Irish priests the Holy Ghost fathers that two mon ago we had the I remember in talking about the last man of Colo he was EO the EO T the work the you know I I it was an incredible achievement an incredible achievement but we're back to reality I remember I was years in St Jar's College in ch and you know there was never much money in the Church of the West and jars looks pretty much like a fairly well-run boarding school out of Charles Dickens like you know which is what it was you know it's Grim it's Grim looking they put ivy on the front which helped a lot okay when I was there cheap was be was a grim was a grim looking looking place you know and and I I I I I remember our our being there and and uh you could sense that there was still the faith there it was a strong Catholic School it had been founded in the penal times one of the oldest Catholic schools in the country Secondary School 1800 to found with a license from the Protestant Arch Bishop they still the license um uh it was an incredible achievement they operated in patch Cottages in the town for about 20 years before they could buy a bankrupt Bank when Boston got they got cheap um and yet looking back you could see that the thing was ending it was a very how would you put it it it the roots weren't deep of what we were doing I think Frank don't a sense of this much ear what whatever was I think Frank sheet the American evangelist came to the same conclusion on a visit here it's incredible is that that incredible achievement and yet the roots were getting Shadow even as we did it the more more we achieved the less rooted we were and then eventually the whole thing came down like like a i it's a it's it's a remarkable thing and so here we are now the Irish Church never had a huge amount of money you know and um we ended up with a huge property portfolio we all these houses we all this property and hardly anyone in them and we're a bit like the old G you know they ented up in these big houses and then they couldn't afford the servants cuz you know they Ser the locals got up and they wanted higher wages and and so it got dearer and and then you know they they live in one room on the ceiling fell in and they move into the next room and every so often you know they go out on a hunt and get drunk on a bit St C and you know I I don't know you know what I'm talking about and gradually deade and decade and we're in the same boat a friend of mine said to me lately when we were talking about churches cuz we're going to have to decide our churches were Clos um and that's closer than we think and he said should we get not worked up about how we sell them and this kind thing he said they probably fall in by the S of the road like the Protestants and I thought he's right you know I the Protestant churches have been fallen in by the the road for years on the sudden you know uh and um that's the way we're going and I suppose in the context of all of that I'm telling you we've never had it so good which is a ridiculous thing to say we have never had it so good we have a chance to live a more authentically Christian life than even The Devout pred our devout predecessors didn't have a chance this clean they had a whole loot of social stuff to deal with a whole loot of politics a whole careful St my poor stepa the Lord Mercy he was never the most diplomatic he got up with my ordination and he said I want to congratulate father brenon he said and I think he'd be a good priest he said my mother he said always said if you have a piger priest your elected she you know it was my ordination day and we were trying to be with POS there was the end to that and there was a roar of appreciation on the ground would all clearly hurt the same prop and of course it was because you know priests were comparatively well off they an income at a time when many people didn't or sometimes they were far better off than their pressors and now we give out about the African priest sending one home d is the Irish priest of America send money home to their parents I mean do do you do you see we're no we're we're in a good place I'm not just saying that hysterically to make myself feel better okay we're in a good place we're in a good the whole thing Falls in I'm not we are in good place it doesn't feel like it it doesn't look like it that's because we don't meditate on the cross we don't do this anymore let me give you an example okay let me give you an example I went out to a parish priest working at the weekends when I was a student in home 30 years ago and of course it was far ahead of us on all this stuff found incredbly sophisticated Society but still with a lot of tradition you know and the parish priest is a real disappointed thatan to men didn't go far enough you know and and he was there and he he he he was given out about old PES you know and he he he told me this prayer the the Seminary and you were down through now I can't remember in English I remind the T but it was a pretty tough prayer and it was you know it was uh when these eyes no longer see oh dear lord remember me when these hands no longer Fe oh dear lord remember me and you you would down your body you know when these feep no longer walk oh dear lord remember in other words when I totally vulnerable and facing death Lord and he said what what an awful prayer he said I never said it since I left the semary and I remember thinking at the time it actually must a bad prayer if you're the belly fruit all right you would you wouldn't want to have a few on you but I mean no but I [Music] mean here's the thing keep in mind we're Behind Enemy Lines right right you're watching Sleep Walkers does that occur to you you're watching lemons and they're all rushing towards the cliff and if you need know lemon they go oh je the crack crack we're out for the day you cor to the cliff I hear I hear BR I've been looking forward to this for so long and if he say cheapers I don't know about this I don't like to look at the other weirdo you know that prayer actually it wasn't far off I'm not suggest you need that prayer you can do it otherwise this Society has no answer and knows it has no answer and doesn't claim to have an answer and hides the fact that it is no answer to any of the truly great questions it is no answer the only thing that's guaranteed is that you're probably if you're looking this is clobal this is clobal end up in a decent nursing home and they're getting better okay I'm assured I take an interest in these things now being called loving by a nice person you don't know okay and being handed to goodie do you remember goodie you don't had that in na goodie was was sa bread mixed into hot milk with sugar it was a big treat sorry look forward to it that'll be a modern version of it what I'm trying to say to you is there is no answer to this I know you going to step back they discover to make us live longer okay how long what are you going to look like by then okay you be sitting there you have two artificial legs one artificial hand half your brain has been replaced one eye has been replaced okay you're mostly cyborg okay you can't go near magnets and you can't go through airports yeah they probably learn to make a little bit longer and after that you die you know and and it's right here we go one of the funniest and most terrifying things I saw was on a program about American jails and there was this guy and they were getting them ready for the electric chair and you know what the warden said to he said to he's been really nice to him he said now we send you you know your last name and that he said we're going to get through this together like no he's going to get through the other guy going to get fried that's what Society is saying to you that's what Society is saying to you we get through this together now my my my mother died last year was which was hard we nor for about a year before her time she had a bran she wasn't young but she wasn't off Lord and I thank God for p of care they were angels from Heaven they were so good to us they were so good to our there were some knowledgeable and kind I'm not knocking that or anything like that or all the good things that have come with Society I'm just saying theala of care does is kind of just C you down and keep you comfortable and I'm just asking you know cuz we're Behind Enemy Lines remember I'm just asking in whisper should you be C I mean is is that okay is death okay you should be care it's okay it'll be fine and how do they know no the Angels the lovely people around you I'm not not I just say Catholics have no choice but to be this disagreeable and unpleasant there is no choice because I'm presuming if you Catholic who believe in absolute OB the truth okay you keep at this have we any hope is there anything to be had if there is nothing to be had should you be C I will put it to you the dam all reason for being C if You' no hope at all okay even if you do have hope even if you complete knowledge didn't Jesus Christ himself tremble in the garden of gets enemy don't we talk about that traditionally as the holy Agony and an Agony the word agony comes from the Greek word agon meaning a contest a struggle a wrestling man this is the Son of God and this is the society we're in it is a brilliant Society it is gifted it it is shimmering brilliant it does great honor to God and so many different ways and is utterly rebellious mutinous dangerous and against God I don't know who else to put this to you and you you are behind eny lines because if Society doesn't know anything about the cross and if Society regards death as something before which you should be calmed down okay I can think of any number of reasons for facing death can you can say well dignity or like Dr Johnson said when he was told a famous London high or a famous Highway man had made a great display of Courage tyor going to The Gallows Ashley says you'll have that he said you know people are afraid to be afraid they're afraid of being house you know so you put up a great show don't but fine if it's an aesthetic I admire it so you know I admire you know I I'm not I I I I won't let the world see me cry the world doesn't care I still won't let it see me cry okay I I won't no I respect all of that just so long as you know just so long as you know that either you have an answer to this or you don't and if you don't have an answer to it you will be as dignified as you like you'll rot like everybody else and you'll be forgotten sorry okay it's your own fault for coming to this anyone would have told you to people where what you can now I believe we have an answer to okay so this is not a hopeless talk it's just I want you to get I want you to just get a few things clear at least as to how I see it and then if you don't see it that way that's that's very you you you are are operating an enemy territory and and what's worse is they're lovely people I just came from a br M you could you could sense the goodness you could B the loveliest young people the loveliest par everything was so lovely everything was so nice everything was so careful not to talk about anything important needless to say B yeah and you're facing the greatest you're facing this tremendous Adventure you've all your life ahead of it and I said to them I'm not going to wish you a happy life I'm not going to insult you such a stupid way only Egypt's wish for Happ completely KN I wish you happiness I wish you watch happiness I wish you magnificent eyes and I want you when the lows come not to waste and I want you to walk down the valley of darkness looking like what you are the most brilliant and the most dangerous s o walking down that Valley okay I want you to walk down that Valley like Ken East okay with the match between your teeth and the blanket over your shoulder happy want you to be happy have a happy life for the love of God why don't you just hit them over their head with the car then they Happ or feed them drink you know now I'm saying to you that this is your calling and I'm saying to you that you have an incredible opportunity to become s and like the trouble is we're told oh you're called to be a saint and the minute it's like God the minute you mentioned the word Saint people switch off without knowing that don't it's one of those words it seems impossible perhaps even undesirable because Saints in case you didn't know are made of plaster and are painted and lured and dodgy B okay but I come from B there was a few quit in the past we' love his statu bit of mar G on there very nice very nice okay Saints are Fascinating People Saints are deeply fled usually Saints are amazing people Saints are walking backrounds to the die to ra of this you a slip of a girl who' never gone anywhere or done anything in turnning the eyes of the world who went through an Agony lasting was it night or 18 months before she died in which this girl from the most sheltered of background in an enclosed Convent had spiritual crisis that would have been recognizable to s or to or to I don't know heer or to any of the great philosophers s is you called to be acent you are called by him directly personally from all eternity to be yourself to be yourself as he meant you to be is to be a saint that is a sa people who are not safe are less themselves because of not being safe so what I'm saying to you today is that you might decide to practice uh some basic skills in Disguise um false stres are useful I'm told uh you've got a whole range of sunglasses uh I suppose trench coats are traditional um your spies your agents you're operating in a land without hope and it's a land which brilliantly contrives to look like it has hope without ever stating the reason for its hope it contrives to imply a future have you noticed that there's always a future in life there is always something amazing around the cor that is that is the implication brilliantly done who could do justice to the gifts of these people the advertising industry who could do justice to their talents the way in which glory is implied an imminent uh how you put satisfaction is implied I think it was John the all the American novelist who describe the churches as being like Coca-Cola advertisements uh they they um they manipulate thirst without ever quenching it but I believe the church does contain something that will quench your thirst I believe it does now the price is high for this because you must accept you must accept the the truth of the human found condition but the people around you won't be accepting it and won't Del with it are allowed to influence them for the most part and when it does influence them they would take a pro or something else to deal with it you must accept that you are unique you must accept the loneliness that comes with greatness see these great people great men great women they manage briefly to burn brightly in the way that everyone is called before the Lord and you were called to burn out before the Lord there was a rosary group in an R my last Parish they were very fine people Keith you remember them were some of them were remarkable people as long as you didn't cross them were remarkable strength peros they were remarkable people and a great fa but they they had this prayer that traditional prayer for priests they used to say after Mass I always felt that if they were annoyed with me they said it really loud you know I always got nervous by hear these lines but they're they're amazing lines have you heard um keep them we pray thee dearest Lord keep them for they are thine thy priests whose lives burn out before thy consecrated Shrine that is seriously badass the Americans sorry I love americanism that is serious that is serious somebody understands the priesthood but I go for somebody understands Christianity you are called to burn brightly and burn out in the house of God and it's only by doing that you can burn forever you was burn out yeah now you say that to anyone around you they will have you certified and that's actually quite difficult to do nowadays there's a huge lack of beds in the psychc but I can promise you I can promise you that you will not be on a trolley for long you will get a bed okay the door be B yeah yeah now you're allowed to say that if you're talking about founding a company or becoming an Olympic Athlete you are not allowed to say it if you're talking about becoming a sin okay so this is how uncomfortable we are I'm not demon anything in the world by the way I'm just say that that we're different I'm just saying that the words is different from God okay and because we follow God that makes us different however badly you follow I want you really emphasize a few things and then I'll okay so if you came here this evening you probably came here for yeah I don't know more reassuring talk than this but anyway yeah double Jon when you go home you'll be all right um I want to say to you that if you're going through a bad patch with faith and you feel distant from God which is the same through okay right I I I want you to consider the church's teaching and the teaching of the mystics and the saints that in fact that has no effect whatever on reality unless you change your mind you are burning out in the temple you are beside the fact that you don't feel the fact that you feel dry is irrelevant this is where you have to become really tough and you have to ask them for that strange gift that is not listed of the Holy Spirit uh make me tick do you use that word the way we use it in the west a thick man not stupid doesn't mean stup yeah th make me th make me tall St bul unwilling make make fit me out for this fit me out for it give me focused make me determined make me unreasonable I mean unreasonable in the sense that great athletes great bus people you know I mean Steve Jobs unreasonable you know not unreasonable just for the sake of it but unreasonable because you have a vision do you know ask for that ask him for that you know and and pray for that cuz you're you're going to need it but if you ask him for it he'll give it to you and if he gives it to you you'll accomplish your mission whatever that mission is now consider this consider this is that even if you're having difficulty in prayer if you're down about that that's prayer you see we tend to forget that God isn't like us we tend to think of prayer as being like a human relationship I don't talk to okay even in a couple who are of a certain age you won't have as much conversation maybe because they know each other okay it can mean that you're comfortable to together but it can also simply mean that it's suits him to keep you there for the moment he's that's the way kind of sense of humor the guy has it suits him to keep you there okay how's that to you if it does if you can pray now if you know the novel Diary of a country priest go that point is na there go back in it's a very good point if you can't pray but you're trying to pray and you can't pray and you're down about it you're praying okay now you said that to to a human being to a spouse right you know you never talk to me I want to talk to you I want to talk to you but I don't talk to you and I must admit I'm down about okay that's something but I don't know how far that go okay okay it doesn't sound very promising as a line conciliation right God isn't human God is pure Spirit pure intellect pure will he knows you he knows what you're doing if you can pray your down you're praying you're you're you're you're suffering l i look I just giving you ATT tance to this St I just want you to consider you're probably doing a way better than you think okay now don't don't get too opy okay you leave a bit of room for improvement but but you're probably doing a way better than you you're probably in a better place than you think right you're probably a better place than you think God is Not Human in that sense I know Jesus Christ the Incarnation of the rest of it you know it's not the same thing as now what I'm talking about he knows he knows so if you feel dry just hand it back to him okay you'll be lines you don't have time for this though and you can be drawn attention to yourself if there's no good reason for doing it because you want to be clear as to what in you want to I okay I know another Americans cist okay I mean you want to pick these strategically and carefully so as as one leading C lad said to me he believer comes from believing family he asked how he got through school he said I don't and I do and he was quite ass sure 16 years old and excellent yeah had been C and quietly doing good good in his own way how do you know what you're meant to be doing this is another thing you know agents are given a mission and they fulfill the mission either the mission fulfilled or it isn't you haven't been given a different Mission how do you know what it is you you you the whole point of your Apostolic purpose on Earth not you know could the conversion of one friend you don't know that that's not the case you think my C I give so much time to the church and this is all I have just just one person came back to the church I you don't get to make that call I'm sorry now I know where you're coming from we you know we go on the same you you go on the same Ministry don't you it's thep something you know you want the big Crums the RS okay right do you remember first 50 years the 20th Cent the Irish Church the big crowds the r but you can't trust us I leave there I just want to say to you that this T will self-destruct okay in five minutes yeah you have a mission you have something to do find out what it is to do don't assume because you're not a teenager anymore that you know the mission you may be you may not you may be mistaken ask him to show you what he wants you to do the most thing he wants is that you convert your heart in yourself but in Apostolic terms he would almost certainly have a mission at extra as they said outside you as well so you have the conversion that's EV CA that self conversion but he will also have something in mind that you have to do you may have done it you may be doing it but don't assume me stay ready check the post as they say okay good luck and if you get caught we don't know you bless your father

Channel: Diocese of Raphoe

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Id: 0STB-TDeUZE

Length: 43min 11sec (2591 seconds)

Published: Sat Apr 27 2024