People Leaving Catholic Church Because They Are Tired Of ‘Little Old Men’

Irish Times ➨ Mary McAleese says church hierarchy is a ‘small, self-serving hermetically-sealed group of men’

The Catholic church ‘is 1.2 billion people which is why I stay’, former president Mary McAleese told BBC 4 Woman’s Hour programme.

Former President of Ireland Mary McAleese has said people are leaving the Catholic church “in droves” because they are tired of “little old men, trying to beat the drum of obedience”.

In an interview with BBC Radio 4’s Women’s Hour on Thursday, Ms McAleese, who is a licensed canon lawyer as well as a civil lawyer, said she is a person of faith but is also “a person with a thinking brain”.

McAleese said she studied canon law to have “credibility” when criticising the church. She has openly spoken about misogyny in the Catholic church, but admitted that nothing she had ever said had changed anything.

She attributed this lack of progress to the church’s hierarchy, which she described as a “ small, self-serving hermetically-sealed group of men”.

Continue reading @ Irish Times.