FORMER IRISH PRESIDENT MCALEESE WARNS THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IS,"ISOLATED" ON HOMOSEXUALITY,,,,,,,,,,,,

Mary McAleese, President of the Republic of Ireland from 1997-2011, a very devout and faithful Catholic, is now speaking out about the Catholic Church's increasing isolation on the World stage, in regards to the issue of Homosexuality.  The former Irish President is chiefly concerned with the affect the Church's teaching on Homosexuality is having on young people, caught between what they are taught about homosexuality as a, "disorder", or "evil",  and what she refers to as the, "internal conflict", faced by by young people in their mid teens. grappling with their personal sexual orientation.  Mrs. McAleese, who since finishing fourteen years as the Irish President is now studying Canon Law in Rome, and stated concern over the increasing number of young male suicides, which she proclaims are one of the most at risk groups, describing the suicides as, "galling"; and cites the bullying many of these young people face.  "They are the victims of, one, of homophobic bullying; and are also frankly, highly conflicted".  President McAleese said what these teenagers make is a, "discovery", not a, "decision", about their sexual orientation and because of what they have been taught in Catholic Schools, and hear from members of their own Families, find themselves, driven into a dark and bleak place".  The nucleus of her concern is a warning that with the unfolding debate and research that is taking place the Catholic Church, "is going to be increasingly isolated in its attitude to homosexuality".  Fallout from the child sexual abuse scandals have also eroded the Bishops leadership she asserts, saying it has resulted in, "a massive hollowing out of trust", in them and their Episcopal leadership.  But Mrs. McAleese also believes that the erosion in the Bishops credibility came years before the recent scandals, as the World changes and people have become more educated and accessibility to a plethora of opinions on this, as well as all matter cntinues to increase, the Bishops insist on Obedience.  Mary McAleese s comments come as Pope Benedict XVI recently told French Bishops in their struggle to combat the legalizing of same sex marriage in France, that homosexual persons are not fully developed, because they do not obey Catholic Law.  In a speech to French Bishops at the papal summer residence in Castelgandolfo the Holy Father is reported to have told them, "The family is threatened in many places by the defection in human nature...Marriage and the Family are institutions that must be promoted and defended from every possible misinterpretation of their true nature, since whatever is injurious to them, is injurious to society itself".  The Pope went on to assert that the Church's teaching on Marriage and the Family must be, "obeyed", for doing so, "permits the full development of the human person".  That papal speech was condemned as, "irrelevant", earlier this week by the transgender pop singer Lady Gaga, who stringently criticized and dismissed the Holy Father's "views and opinions"............Fr.  Troy