Denver, Colo., Mar 17, 2017 / 02:50 am (CNA/EWTN News).- They’re Irish, they’re Catholic, and they’re proud. But you maybe haven’t heard of them.
They’re the Ancient Order of Hibernians and the Lady’s Ancient Order of Hibernians, the oldest and largest Irish Catholic organizations in the United States.
Non-Irish need not apply to the orders – membership is reserved for those who can prove that at least some Irish blood flows through their veins. The word ‘Hibernian’ is another word for Irishmen, taken from ‘Hibernia’, the classical Latin term for Ireland.
Members also must be practicing Catholics willing to stand up for and support the Catholic Church.
Today, the order functions similarly to other Catholic charitable organizations, such as the Knights of Columbus, but with an Irish twist. They support many Catholic causes such as vocations and pro-life work, but they also promote Irish culture and education on Irish history, and help modern-day Irish immigrants to the U.S. and support a free and united Ireland.
“If you had a group of us in a room you’d have twice as many opinions as you’d have people,” Danny O’Connell, National Vice President for the Ancient Order of Hibernians in America, told CNA.
“But the thing that pulls us all together is our culture, our music, our traditions, many of which came from the immigrants.”
Why the Ancient Order?
The orders come from a time when secret societies were in vogue, and the stakes were much higher.
After the Protestant Reformation, the English, who had conquered Ireland, tried fiercely to convert the stubborn Irish Catholics, to little avail. Irish Catholics soon became accustomed to “Mass rocks”, where a priest would say Mass outside on a rock and quickly be able to hide the altar cloth and feign a picnic if they were found out.
At this time, secret groups with names like the Whiteboys, Ribbonmen, and Defenders supported rights for Catholics, but their first job was to protect their clergy. Despite persecution, the Catholics clung fiercely to their faith.
As Catholic oppression continued and crop failures struck Ireland in the 18th and 19th centuries, the Irish began to move, and their secret societies, now a learned defense mechanism, came with them. It was around this time that the Ancient Order of Hibernians in Ireland and the UK was born.
Many Irish also immigrated to the United States, with more than 1 million doing so around the time of the Irish potato famine between 1845-1852. So many sick Irish died on the trip that the boats that brought them over began to be referred to as “coffin ships.”
“When people refer to the famine, most of the Irish see it as a genocide,” O’Connell explained. “It was the Great Hunger. They were exporting more food from Ireland than they are today, yet the Irish Catholics were dying and their teeth would be stained green because the only thing they could even try and eat was the grass. It was the British government starving the people who weren’t allowed to eat the food on their land except for the potatoes, and it was land that the British stole from us.”
But despite promises of religious freedom, the Irish found that United States was also hostile to Catholicism, under the guise of patriotism.
Since colonial times, Americans had been suspect of Catholics from all immigrant groups, suspicious that their allegiances to the Pope would trump their loyalty to the U.S.
“Like any immigrant group, when you were new in the U.S., you were low on the totem pole, you were the ones abused and beaten and robbed and not given good jobs,” O’Connell said.
“And people didn’t understand Catholicism, so they would prevent you from practicing your religion. So if you were having a Mass, they would beat up or often kill the priest … so the Hibernians would stay outside or wherever they were, and stand guard. Back in those days that’s what you did, you stood outside and protected the life of your priest, and that was the only way you could continue practicing your religion,” he said.
The Hibernians also helped their own to overcome discrimination when they were looking for housing and employment. In 1894, the Daughters of Erin, which eventually became the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, was founded in order to protect young Irish immigrant women in the United States.
The Hibernians today
A strong Irish Catholic identity, forged in the overcoming of numerous adversities, can still be felt strongly in many parts of the United States, and is what bonds the Hibernians together today.
Marilyn Madigan, the National Treasurer for the Ladies Ancient Order of Hibernians, said the camaraderie among the early Hibernians can still be felt strongly in the organization today.
“It’s the best organization I’ve ever belonged to, we’re like a second family,” she said.
Madigan said one of the most important things the orders do today, besides their Catholic charitable work, is to help undocumented Irish immigrants in the United States, of whom there are an estimated 50,000. Most of them entered the country legally, but are now here on overstayed visas.
Fears and anxiety are even higher among this group after the election of President Donald Trump, who promised to crack down on illegal immigration.
“There are a lot of undocumented Irish in this country, and most of the Irish organizations do work to try to document those Irish, so we haven’t forgotten where we came from, we hold that country dear to our hearts, as well as our religion,” Madigan said. In fact, the two are really inextricably linked.
“Most of the famine Irish were Catholic, their religion was taken away from them, they had to go to Masses behind rocks, so our Irish and Catholic heritage is very important,” she said.
Because the orders are non-profit groups, they do not engage in any kind of lobbying for Irish immigration, and they also declined to comment politically on the immigration situation of other undocumented immigrants in the United States.
A completely free and independent Ireland is another cause near and dear to the Hibernian heart, and the group hopes to see a peaceful and legal reunification of the country soon, though Brexit has raised some doubts.
“We’re very involved with Brexit, the fear is that we could see a return to a hard border between the North and the Republic,” O’Connell explained. Ireland and Northern Ireland (the six northern counties that still belong to the U.K.) have enjoyed relatively open borders since the 1990s, to the benefit of both countries’ economies, he added. Several members of the order will be travelling to Europe to voice their support for an open border.
The diversity of causes that the order supports and the faith that undergirds it continues to tie them together, O’Connell said.
“The culture, the music, the song, that brings us all together, and it’s kind of like with a family … and it’s driven by being Catholic. There’s not another Irish group in the country that has that diversity, and that’s why we’re so strong.”
But membership is waning. The women’s and men’s orders combined have a membership of about 80,000 in the U.S., at a generous estimate. It’s something that has both O’Connell and Madigan concerned.
“It seems like the younger generations do not join organizations like we have in the past,” Madigan said. “It seems like the younger generation, while they’re proud of their heritage, they don’t join, or they may join or not be as active.”
“We’re trying to do a better job of welcoming people who are younger than 60,” O’Connell said.
“We’re in the process of really kicking off what’s going to be a several-year membership campaign. We’ve never really done that before, and we realize how many people say, ‘I don’t know anything about this, why don’t I?’”
What a Hibernian wants you to know about St. Patrick’s Day
While you might think you’d find a Hibernian dressed in green and drinking steadily like the stereotypical St. Patrick’s Day celebrant, there are a few things the Hibernians wish the general population understood about the holiday.
“First and foremost, to a true Irishman, St. Patrick’s Day is a feast day,” Madigan said.
“We start out with Mass, with the majority of us participating in parades prior to or on the day itself, where we highlight our Irish heritage.”
Getting drunk, she said, is not part of the plan.
“The things that upset me the most is that people think it’s just a day to go out and celebrate and imbibe in alcoholic beverages, and maybe be overserved,” she said.
“They wear shirts that are very denigrating to the Irish, making us look like we’re a race of drunks. We’re not, we’re a proud irish race that has spread Christianity throughout the world through our missionaries. And I don’t think that the general public really sees what we do.”
O’Connell said that he is also “very disturbed” by the T-shirts and decorations that denigrate the Irish.
“What I try to tell people when I talk to them about it, is I say change it to a different nationality, change it to a different race … can you imagine?”
St. Patrick’s Day is also an Irish-American holiday, he added. We eat corned beef and cabbage because that’s what the Irish immigrants in America ate because they couldn’t afford other cuts of meat. They wanted to celebrate St. Patrick’s Day in a big way because they wanted to feel close to their Irish heritage. It wasn’t until recently that the holiday became anything more than any other feast day in Ireland, and they only started holding big celebrations for tourism purposes.
Still, he said, it’s hard to completely blame those who want to be Irish for a day.
“Being Irish is just so much fun.”
[…]
About geometry, and parsing St. Thomas More:
“Some men think the Earth is round, others think it flat; it is a matter capable of question. But if it is flat, will James Martin’s duplicity make it round? And if it is round, will James Martin’s duplicity flatten it? No, I will not sign” (Robert Bolt’s “A Man for all Seasons,” 1960).
To say—”people with deep-seated homosexual tendencies…must be treated with respect, compassion, and sensitivity. Every sign of unjust discrimination in their regard should be avoided”–does not square the circle, either, for blessing incongruous couplings as “couples,” or justify cross(!)-dressing Calvary with a rainbow banner.
And, to think that James Martin’s duplicity started so simply, when another Martin (Luther) likewise embraced the still-binary (!) bigamy of Henry VIII and the German elector Philipp of Hesse…strange bedfellows.
[A disclaimer: my comment concerns so-called “LGBTQ+ activists” and not common people with different sexual orientation]
I remember, when the situation in the Church began turning decisively bad, I was thinking about purchasing a t-shit “Orthodoxy of Death”, to separate myself from the environment (man-focused homilies, Christ being pushed away by self-glorification etc.) via publicly stating my identity (“true = correct = uncorrupted faith”). But then I realized that it would be a bit silly and proud, in a context of Christ/Christianity, to wave a smaller identity. “Christ or Death” would be more appropriate, for a Christian, but there is no need to shout out the obvious. And so, I continued going to Mass as I am used to i.e. without t-shirts with slogans, simply with a Crucifix around my neck.
If “Orthodoxy of Death” looks a bit silly and proud in the context of the Catholic Church/Christ, then to march on pilgrimage wearing a “LGBTQ+” Catholics” t-shirt, waving rainbow flags is even more stupid, as long as being Catholic means being Christian. If “there is neither Jew nor Greek, slave nor free, male nor female, for you are all one in Christ Jesus” then there is also “nor gay nor lesbian for you are all one in Christ Jesus”. Hence, waving “LGBTQ+” Catholics” identity is nothing else but a refusal to be a mere Christian, like millions of others.
I suspect the point of a pilgrimage is not so much about “Christian” or Christ but about “LGBTQ+” or better to say there is an attempt to subordinate Christ to “LGBTQ+”, to use Him as a mere tool to achieve something. This is not the news. The Church itself in recent years has attempted to use (and abuse) Christ for various, purely human or even diabolical agendas. What we see now is just another (albeit very bold and decisive) step in that direction.
Unfortunately, there is no option here to post a photo of the so-called ‘Rainbow Cross’ which I saw today in the online article about “LGBTQ+ pilgrimage”. It was a very good example of how the sacred images are used and abused for the sake of “an agenda”, the bigger/infinite for the smaller. “Rainbow Cross” is the wooden Cross with cloth overthrown, like it is done on the Passion Friday in the Catholic churches. But instead of the white cloth, the rainbow cloth is being used. But this is not all: the inscription on the Cross, “INRI” = “Jesus King of the Jews” which is the title of Christ, is swapped with the new inscription, “LGBTQ+”. So, now we have “LGBTQ+” people instead of Christ on the Cross. No Christian = one who loves Christ = one who has an identity in Christ would do such a thing so it is very self-revealing. Christians worship the Cross because Christ was crucified on it bringing the Salvation; those who changed the letters into “LGBTQ+” effectively worship “LGBTQ+” = themselves – and invite the rest of the world to worship them as well. It is an extreme act of malignant self-love that knows no sacred, thus it has nothing to do with the “Christians” part of the slogan.
To put it bluntly, if you feel entitled to use the sacred symbols which belong only to Christ, changing and degrading them to suit your agenda, you are not Christians. Truly, either you give up this entitlement, take off your t-shirts with slogans, throw away the flags and go on pilgrimage as all do, not attracting attention to oneself because the purpose of any pilgrimage is to come to Christ, not make your point, whatever it is. The two cannot be reconciled.
PS As for “the rejection and prosecution of “LGBTQ+” in the Church, about 50% of Roman Catholic clergy are homosexual/bisexual (according to surveys). How friendlier it can be?
Life is short and sweet. Evangelization and conversion are ongoing and never-ending opportunities. We need to pray for the wellbeing of fellow pilgrims on journey.
Gradualism: Here we come!
Are we as a welcoming Church endorsing disordered behavior or seeking to convert to Christ? LGBT attendees received the Holy Eucharist.
“Bishop Savino said St Paul’s writings in the New Testament teach us that ‘a small step’ in the midst of great human limitations may be ‘more pleasing to God than the outwardly correct life’ of those who do not experience trials in life. We all have to convert, that is, we turn, we look in the opposite direction than before. The Acts of the Apostles documents this experience as defining and definitive”.
Savino’s remarks [specifically a small step] are right out of Amoris Laetitia, where Francis says in allusion to reception of the Eucharist for those in ‘irregular unions’ – this can be a first step. Although does reception of the Eucharist when one is given the impression of accommodation of their behavior going to inspire conversion?
The Eucharist is not magic. There must be at least an interior desire to reform one’s life to Christ and his commandments. Unless of course there is a different Christ being taught at the Vatican other than the Christ revealed to Paul and the Apostles.
We read: “LGBT attendees received the Holy Eucharist.”
Apparently the abyss of receiving the Eucharist sacrilegiously applies only to conscientious individuals, but not to a privileged category such as the tribal LGBTQ aggregate…
“To respond to this invitation [the Eucharist as the Real Presence, CCC 1374] we must ‘prepare ourselves’ for so great and so holy a moment. St. Paul urges us to examine our conscience: ‘Whoever therefore, eats the bread or drinks the cup of the Lord in an unworthy manner will be guilty of profaning the body and blood of the Lord. Let a man examine himself, and so eat of the bread and drink of the cup. For any one who eats and drinks without discerning the body eats and drink judgment upon himself.’ Anyone conscious of a grave sin must receive the sacrament of Reconciliation before coming to communion” (CCC 1385).
Far be it from any of us to judge another (“who am I to judge?”)! But, as for “judgment upon himself,” what of the beckoning clerics at the head of the line? And, what of the roadmap discerned by St. John Chrysostom: “The road to hell is paved with the bones of priests and monks, and the skulls of bishops are the lampposts that light the path.”
Whatever?
Reception of the Blessed Sacrament when one is in an adulterous or fornication relationship, which is the case for those who are sexually active outside of the bond of a sacramental marriage between a biological man and a biological woman, is objectively always a serious sacrilege – and the engagement in such a sexual relationship is an intrinsic evil. To ignore or violate this perennial teaching of the Catholic Faith is not a small step – it is a large step that will send one to hell, if not repented of – and ceased altogether. Our failure to re-iterate this truth in today’s world, where relativism reigns supreme, makes prelates, clergy, and teachers in the Church complicit in the deadly sins of so many. Enough with the emotionally-laden, inclusive language. Tell it like it is. Think of the number of souls confirmed in deadly and sacrilegious sin by this so-called LGBT+ Jubilee weekend – not just those who attended – but all who viewed the support of the Vatican for its events via the media. How much longer do we think Our Lord will stand idly by and allow this loss of souls to continue?
The issue isn’t treating gays rudely or dismissively. No one says that’s okay.
The issue is accepting sin as normal.
These pilgrims actually identify as “the gay community.”
They march under banners proclaiming, celebrating — even advocating for — their sins.
This is the doing of James Martin, yes, but also of so many more in the Dark and demonic Vatican. Including and especially Bergoglio himself.
*This* is the legacy of the most evil and destructive pope in history.
Pope Leo must now set about to restore sanity — and sanctity. May God bless and sustain him.
I think if Leo was genuinely interested in addressing the issue of homosexuality in the church, this vile display would never have taken place.
No one has been “denied dignity,” and God’s love is not unconditional in the sense that I can flagrant sin sexually and expect God to look favorably on that. Catering to the LGBT lobby is profoundly sinful.
“. . . the outwardly correct life of those who do not experience trials in life”.
Who would those “those” be?
This guy needs to get out more.
Yikes! I don’t feel peaceful about this. Am I misreading it? To me, this sounds like the organizers are trying to deny that homosexual acts are sinful. Am I committing a sin of judgmentalism to draw this conclusion? I am a musician so I have plenty of gay friends, including sexually active and celibate gay friends. I don’t try to “preach”
to them, but I pray for them. I’m not sure how to interpret this occurrence.
We read: “Yikes…. this sounds like the organizers are trying to deny that homosexual acts are sinful.” Dear Sharon, please consider that rather than simple-minded denial, this “occurrence” almost completes the insurgency of past decades and especially the past twelve years.
Three points:
FIRST, the game is to claim “validation” (!), first in the secular world through the oxymoron of gay “marriage,” and then by the tribal gang-raping of the Church in Rome itself with the position (so to speak) that this staged occurrence is unopposed, and therefore consensual, and therefore the new normal in moral theology and human relations.
Now all that’s needed is the paperwork…
SECOND, for this mere formality we might look to the post-“synodal” Study Group #9 which is charged to conjure “theological criteria and synodal methodologies for shared discernment of controversial doctrinal, pastoral, and ethical issues.” But how can one argue any longer with the “spontaneous, informal, non-liturgical” blessing of irregular couples, as “couples” (!), under the kissing car[di]nals Fiducial Supplicans, now that it’s non-spontaneous, formal, and liturgical—and even sacrilegious? A done deal with needed fingerprints! One is almost reminded how in revolutionary France, the altar of Notre Dame Cathedral in Paris was likewise hijacked—as a dance platform for a nude prostitute. The issue here is much broader than even LGBTQ…
THIRD, over half a century ago, Georges Bernanos said it this way:
“The modern world will shortly no longer possess sufficient spiritual reserves to commit genuine evil. Already . . . we can witness a lethal slackening of men’s conscience that is attacking not only their moral life, but also their very heart and mind, altering and decomposing even their imagination . . . The menacing crisis is one of INFANTILISM.” (Interview with Samedi-Soir, Nov. 8, 1947, cited in Hans Urs von Balthasar, “Bernanos: An Ecclesial Existence” [Ignatius, 1996], p. 457, caps added).
Wha we need is an Inquisition by the Laity of homoheretics, starting with James Martin SJ.
Theologians and Cannon Lawyers can probably argue the nuances of this action and come up with some level of apologetics to create a definition of acceptance for this action. As an average pew buffer, let me provide a “theologically uneducated view” of what this action shouts…Sodomy, and multiple other perversions are, not just O.K., but have the support and encouragement of the Roman Catholic Church.