Little interest was shown for the NHS wasting money on hiring Buddisht monks to give staff “Happiness Courses”. They may even now be scheduling additional courses to cope with not winning this months award.

A mere second place was given to Austrian bishop Andreas Laun for suggesting that the “Love Parade” disaster was a punishment from God for the sins of it’s participants.

The winner this month however is another case of some of the religious amongst us targeting something else that children keep in their trousers. This time… their phones.

Reminiscent perhaps of how Santa Claus leaves notes for Children at Christmas, while eating and drinking the offerings lovingly left out by his believers… leaving half chewed scraps as evidence the next morning…. God has been phoning children  at St. Nicholas of Myra vacation bible school in North Dighton, Massachusetts.

One wonders if this would not be more awe inspiring if God did not have to communicate with the Matrix through phones like “The One” in the film. A voice manifesting itself from an area of thin air in the centre of the room might have been beyond the budget of the volunteers who saw fit to spend their money on a “Science Station” based on showing children how to draw circles.

God’s time however is limited and not everyone in the world will be receiving his phone calls and burning bushes are too passé. For this reason God saw fit to use his phone call to recruit children to preach in his name. “He told me to fish for people,” 8-year-old Noelle Nunes said, “and tell everyone about him.”

Recent attempts to soften its impact, by illustrating it with nonreligious images and rebranding it as a pause for reflection, simply make it worse. This suggests that people of all religions and none can unite under a Roman Catholic call to prayer.

If RTE was to broadcast a minute of atheist propaganda at prime time every day, most people would intuitively realise that this would be inappropriate. And the problem would be made worse by illustrating atheist propaganda with religious images.

In a religious State, the State broadcasting system would be promoting religion; in an atheist State, the State broadcasting system would be promoting atheism. In a secular State, it would do neither, and that is what Atheist Ireland wants to see happen.

Arguably,  the labels are relatively unimportant in themselves. Most atheists and most humanists share most of the same fundamental beliefs and values. We reject the idea that gods exist and all that follows from that idea, and we usually support rational enquiry into the nature of reality, mutual empathy as the basis of ethical relations, and secular equality as the basis of civic government.

However, the labels are useful in practice. They enable independently-minded people to socialise and bond together using whatever self-description that we each feel most comfortable with, and whatever nuances of emphasis that we each prefer. They can also enable us to promote our aims using whatever label we feel is most useful in different circumstances.

There will always be some differences in emphasis. Some groups that label themselves as Atheist can be more assertive in how they campaign, and less deterred by how others might perceive the word atheist. Some groups that label themselves as Humanist can be more focused on creating a common Humanist identity as an alternative to religion, and may conduct secular services for weddings, baby-naming and funerals.

But ultimately, if we are to achieve a rational, ethical, secular society, all people and groups who reject the idea that gods exist should work together on issue-based campaigns and projects. Atheist Ireland works alongside the Humanist Association of Ireland, and we encourage you to examine both groups and get involved with either or both, depending on what you personally feel most comfortable with.

However, this is not true. A Vatican official has explicitly described the crimes contained in this document as being “on the same level” of seriousness. They are the “Delicta Graviora”, the crimes which the Catholic Church considers the most serious of all, and which are reserved to the Holy See for judgment.

In 2007, the Vatican published a pamphlet on Paedophilia and the Priesthood, written by Monsignor Raffaello Martinelli, an official of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith and member of the editorial commission of the Compendium of the Catechism of the Catholic Church. This pamphlet explicitly states:

“The seriousness with which the Church evaluates and judges acts of pedophilia is shown by the fact that with a new law passed in 2001, the Holy See (and not the local bishops) decided to reserve the right to judge those crimes…

The fact that the Pope wanted to reserve to the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith — a dicastery of the Holy See — judgment of the acts of pedophilia committed by priests, shows that the Church considers those acts to be very serious, serious crimes on the same level of the other two serious crimes — reserved to the Holy See — that can be committed against two sacraments: the Eucharist and the holiness of confession.”

In 2010, with the updated document Normae de Gravioribus Delictis, the Vatican has now added the attempted ordination of women to this strange list of the most serious crimes of all.

And the direction of the comparison is not that they consider these theological crimes to be as serious as sexually abusing a child, but that they consider sexually abusing a child to be as serious as these theological crimes, to be judged by the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, which used to be the Congregation of the Inquisition.

For example, sexually abusing a child is listed not as a crime against the child, but as a crime against the Biblical commandment forbidding adultery. And attempting to ordain a woman attracts a more serious punishment than sexually abusing a child. This is the type of morality that results when people put theology ahead of reality.

Ethical issues should be evaluated on the basis of human rights, compassion, well-being and suffering, not on the basis of theological dictates from people who believe they are getting messages from the creator of the universe.

Joint third place we award this month to many of the members of Atheist Ireland. Yes it is the Irish Tax payer! This month the tax payers of Ireland forked out to have a small piece of a corpse assigned a Police Escort as it toured Ireland on holiday. Well done everyone. I hope you all get on to your local TD to let him know how grateful you are that your money was allocated in such a way without your consent.

“The relic was taken under Garda escort to Killucan yesterday where it will remain until Thursday next. Then it will be brought to Dublin’s Mater hospital.“ Presumably where it will be pronounced Dead On Arrival???

Second place this month however goes to the court who convicted a man of rape in an incident that the Court itself described as “consensual sex”. In an event that can only be described as “rape by deception” the man was convicted of rape for enticing a woman into bed by the worlds best chat up line of “My name is Daniel”. Slick.

Delivery man Sabbar Kashur has now put men all over the world in a state of abject terror as they realise that this is a precedent for having all deception considered rape. Whether you have pretended to be single when you were not, neglected to mention to the nice catholic girl you are actually an atheist, or you have been known to stuff some socks into your pants to fill out your manhood… you are now a criminal on the run.

All of which brings us to this months winner with over 30% of the votes this month…

The Vatican and it’s horrific media faux pa this month of equating Child Abuse with the Ordination of women in it’s top list of crimes.

Worse than that it appears to us that they in fact think the ordination of women even worse than the systematic torture, rape and intimidation of children, resulting in womens groups and catholic groups speaking out against the documents.

Well done to all at the Vatican for this months award. We look forward to seeing your entry for August. for which nominations are now open

Addressing parishioners and fellow clergy in Kilaloe today Bishop Willie assured his listeners that no abuse has occurred in his diocese for the last 20 years.

They still think it is just about the abuse don’t they? They still really do not get it.

No Willie, it is not just about the abuse, it is about the systematic cover ups that followed them to. The transfer of the perpetrators, the burying of documents, the use of intimidation and fear to silence the victims and more.

Does Willie want to stand before the nation and tell us none of THAT has been going on in his or any diocese in the last 20 years? In the last 5 even?

This week Donal McKeown came out at Knock to tell people that drunk adults are probably abusing drunk kids. He alas does not cite a single statistic for this but bases it entirely on the fact that…. adults get drunk…. kids get drunk…. and kids can not control themselves while drunk…. so adults MUST be abusing them.

“The actions of intoxicated adults and some young people’s own inability to have control of themselves would imply that many children are being physically, emotionally and sexually abused across this country on a daily basis — and especially at weekends,”

Trust a catholic Bishop to think that if a child is vulnerable, then SOMEONE has got to be abusing it. That is, after all, what vulnerable children are for right “Father”?

The icing on this particular cake comes when he adds:

“That is a national disgrace and we seem unable to acknowledge it”

Yes “Father” because acknowledging child abuse is something your career background and experience to date is known to illicit in your ilk huh? Maybe you should explain this one to Willie.

In the earliest written Biblical reference, Paul says the risen Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at one time [1 Cor 15:3-8]. Yet in the earliest written Gospel, called Mark, the allegedly risen Jesus does not appear to anybody. A different writer later added that part [16:9-20] to the Mark story, with the risen Jesus saying that people who believed in him could safely drink poison.

The Gospels called Matthew and Luke, written a decade or more later, were the first to include the risen Jesus physically appearing to people. But in Matthew, this seems relatively commonplace, with the bodies of many dead people being physically resurrected, coming out of their tombs, and appearing to many people [27:52-53]. None of the other Gospels mention this incident.

Nor do the Gospels agree on where and how many times the risen Jesus physically appeared. In Mark he does not appear at all. In Matthew he appears twice, to the two Marys on a road [27:8-9] and to his disciples on a mountain in Galilee [27:16-17]. In Luke he appears three times: to a man and his companion on a road [24:13-32], to Peter in an unspecified place [24:33-34], and to his disciples and others in a house [24:36-53].

In John he appears four times: to Mary Magdelene who thinks he is a gardener outside his tomb [20:11-18], to his disciples twice in a house [24:19-23, 26-29], and to some of his disciples for breakfast after a fishing trip [21:1-12]. None of the Gospels include Paul’s remarkable claim that the risen Jesus appeared to more than five hundred people at one time.

These fantastic and wildly inconsistent stories may have seemed convincing in more primitive times, written as they were as standalone stories in different places for different audiences, many of who believed the world was coming to an end within their lifetimes. They are no basis today on which to build a worldview about the nature of reality or how we should live together as sentient beings.

In fact, the penalties in the document suggest that the Vatican actually considers attempting to ordain a woman to be a more grave offence than sexually abusing a child.

A cleric who attempts either offence may be punished by dismissal or deposition, but a person who attempts to ordain a woman is also automatically excommunicated, as is the woman who attempts to be ordained.

These are the moral priorities that one might expect from a church that last year excommunicated a Brazilian mother for helping her raped nine-year-old daughter to have an abortion, without seeking to impose any penalties on the man who raped the child.

Ethical issues should be evaluated on the basis of human rights, compassion, well-being and suffering, not on the basis of theological dictates from people who believe they are getting messages from the creator of the universe.

Atheist Ireland believes that State education should be secular. Children should be taught about the diversity of religious beliefs in an objective manner. Children should be educated in critical thinking and the distinction between faith and reason as a guide to knowledge. Faith formation should be a matter for parents and religions.

We believe this not merely because it is good for society, but also because Ireland today is violating international human rights law by denying secular education to the children of parents who want it.

The United Nations Human Rights Committee has already told Ireland to increase its efforts to ensure that nondenominational primary education is widely available in all parts of the State. And the European Court of Human Rights has ruled that children should be taught about religious culture and ethics in an objective, critical and pluralist manner. It has also ruled that primary schools should not display religious symbols on school walls. Italy is appealing this latter decision.

Atheist Ireland wants a secular state for a pluralist people. This nuance is important: a pluralist society, with freedom of conscience, religion and belief, is best protected by a secular government, with public policy formed by applying reason to evidence.

This is an attempt to make innocent people feel guilty for serious crimes committed by members of the Roman Catholic clergy, and for the cover-up of those crimes by the Roman Catholic hierarchy. Indeed, there may well have been some victims of these crimes in the very audience whom he was asking to do penance.

Bishop McKeown also said that “Our secular society – that so often likes to locate sin and repentance only in individuals rather than accepting the possibility of corporate responsibility – cannot easily comprehend the idea of doing penance and making reparation for others. But Pioneers and all Christians can.”

Secular society does not locate “sin” anywhere. Sin is a theological notion. Secular society involves people agreeing together how best to live together, based on our experience of reality. Democratic secular society is typically based on protecting human rights by the rule of law, not on blaming innocent people for the crimes of guilty people.

Atheist Ireland is campaigning for a secular state for a pluralist people, with freedom of belief for everybody protected by a government that is neutral on religion.