Reverse Reformation?

Line up for midnight mass, dust off the Renaissance era torture devices, Ireland's getting all Inquisition on our ass. You remember that big-deal European Union vote on whatever the fuck it was that took place in Lisbon a couple of months back? No? I didn't really pay attention either, but I remember thinking that it wasn't quite the continental love-in that most of the EU events which garner attention seem to be. Sarkozy was pissed off, other European heads-of-state were mad that they were gonna have to vote all over again, but the stout little Sons and Daughters of Erin stood firm (as they always have in the face of pressure from the continent).

Well now we know why Ireland voted 'No' to the Lisbon Treaty:

"The Catholic Church, he said, was "generally positive towards the European project and its founding ideals", but this was "a qualified support".

"He" is the Catholic primate, Cardinal Seán Brady, and he busted out this swipe at secularism whilst addressing the Humbert Summer School in Killala, Co Mayo (shout out to Belmullet!)

My favourite part of his obscure rant was this:

"The experience of many Christians within the EU is that this lowest common denominator invariably coincides with the secular and relativist tradition within Europe - that which denies moral absolutes with an objective basis - rather than the religious view."

I was in Ireland late last year and I have to say, I couldn't hear the cries from the pulpit for the robust purring of The Celtic Tiger.