The current housing crisis in Ireland is partly attributable to Catholic Church activism, in favour of home ownership and against social housing, to ward off the evils of communism.
You had Bishop Cornelius Lucey back in the 50s talking about how the man who owns his own home could be relied upon not to favour revolutionary change and hence home ownership had to be spread as widely as possible
Nowadays you get plenty of people who rightly abhor the Church's stance on women's rights and homosexuality and denounce the scandals, abuses, cover-ups and crimes but remain nonetheless at one with Lucey on this question.
Also, always worth remembering that the Vatican installed a commemorative plaque honouring Denis O'Brien, Sean Fitzpatrick and Johnny Ronan among others for their donations to its upkeep.
Re the housing crisis, the other day RTE at the start of its morning radio news programme announced that later on they would have "Sister Stan" on to give her view.
No need to say who "Sister Stan" was, since the producers likely expected their listeners to recognise her as a household name.
As if it were the most normal thing in the world to have a household name nun who talks about homelessness. The same sort of way it appears normal that obstetricians and gynaecologists should be household names.
