Bihop O Donoghue speaks again, plus General

Bishop O Donoghue speaks again. This time to the Zenit news agency (I do not know their E mail or site number for full speech). As reported in the PILL his words are quite dynamic. He says that University Educated Catholics are those sowing most confusion and dissent in the Catholic Church. Their great influence in education, media, politics and even the Church they have been able to spread their so called loyal dissent and discord in the whole Church.AS A result their has been a "failure of leadership" leading to mass departure from the Church of people further down the social scale ie not having been to university.
The Bishop is not against Catholics receiving a university education so long as they have a firm grounding in the faith which equips them to challenge the erroneous thinking of their contemporaries. He points out the widespread dissemination of radical scepticism, positivisim, utilitarianism and relativism as factors in university education.
The trouble is as I see it myself is that our Catholic Schools may not be providing the necessary background and firmness of faith required in our secular society and unless the students have direct contact at university either with the Catholic chaplaincies, or a local parish, they will easily fall away. Certainly however we do not want a return to the l9th century when for a long time the hierarchy forbade Catholics to attend Oxford or Cambridge even when this was open to them. Cardinal Newman was very disappointed at not being able to start up a Catholic outlet colledge at Oxford. Cardinal Manning tried to establish a Catholic University in London which was a complete flop and attracted only about 5 students. The head was Mgr Capel, who turned out to be a complete charlatan and had to flee the country after financial and sexual scandals were found !!
Mind you the words of Bishop O Donoghue immediately attracted criticism.
Gerard Mannion, a theologian at Louvain said Without a critically informed education for many in the Church, the faith may have struggled to survive in times past and certainly this is the case today (!!!) Without a sense of of creative fidelity or if you prefer "loyal Dissent" the church would not be able to properly discern the signs of the times and to play a full role in the world. What arrant nonsense. Loyal dissent destroys the church. The Vice principal of Strawberry Hill, Fr Michael Hayes said he was he disappointed with what the Bishop said about education..The Bishops comments were not encouraging for
those of us who strive to provide theological education at the service of the Church at university level enabling students to develop both theological literacy and theological dexterity. Yet more rubbish.
Health. I still have br,onchitus and will have to see the Doc. I dont like taking too many anti biotics but the cough hangs on.
Humour. Craig Brown had some wonderful sarcastic comment yesterday against those hacks in the rag media who like to investigate the most trivial detail of a politicians life (or pop musician etc). Here are a few "facts about Obama you may not know about"
He is descended from the O'Barmas of Galway where Sean O Barmas Gentlemans outfitters remains the number one provider of tweed suits and wooly pullovers. (Mildew believes he is descended further back from an African family called "Banana" one of whose members recently you may remember was head of state in some country...His name was Canaan Banana.)
He keeps a mouse in his pocket at all times to bring him luck, called Hope which however died on election day when he put his fist too firmly into the pocket where Hope was staying. But he will keep him there as long as possible as a mark of respect.
We understand that an article by McCain soon to appear will reveal the amazing secret that he voted for Obama on election day as he had inspired millions of Americans whereas he himself inspired the hopes of only 10 or 11
He is a good cook and his speciality is toast which he makes from fresh bread recently sliced. He gives slices directly to his guests leaving them to decide if they want to put butter on. An aide to Obama says that he does not take the toaster with him wherever he goes as he has no space but regularly uses it at home.
The Words BARACK and OBAMA will shortly be included as legitimate words for Scrabble players, BARACK Scores l4 points while OBAMA scores 9. The head of he organisation responsible for the game says that "exceptional measures are needed for exceptional times" even though as proper names they are not normally eligble for use in this game.