Thread by @RockofLifeNI

🧵🪡By Fr. Patrick McCafferty @Fr_Paddy

'Very early,in my priestly ministry, the scandal of “Fr” Brendan Smyth became public and the havoc he wrought in children’s lives.
I began to speak out and challenge the Catholic Church on its treatment, outreach

and response, to victims of clerical sexual abuse.

Initially, I did not identify myself as a victim of this evil; but I was a victim and I was suffering terribly since childhood.

I was abused by a babysitter when I was four, five years old. Later, I was

abused by “Fr” James Donaghy when I was a young adult seminarian.

I,along with other of his victims, took Donaghy to court, in November 2011. He was found guilty on December 14th and sentenced to 10 years in prison on February 10th, 2012.
My point is that I

had to stand with the innocent whose power was taken from them when they subjected to horrific violations and they were subjugated to the vilest horror. I knew their pain. I experienced it.
I have always felt very close to my Saviour when He was stripped

naked before they nailed Him to the Cross on Calvary. There was no "loincloth"to protect His dignity, which we properly place upon crucifixes to honour His Sacred Humanity.

I believe, that when they stripped Him of all His clothes and cast lots for His

undergarment. He was sharing our sufferings and humiliations, as victims of rapists, perverts and abusers, whether as children, or later in life.
Victims of abuse were rendered powerless. There are none so helpless and powerless as the boys and girls in their

mothers' wombs who are rent asunder, torn limb from limb, their skulls crushed by abortionists and their lobbyists, their industry and supporters.
I am most exercised over abortion because it is the worst form of child abuse. It is the brutal destruction of

the most vulnerable and helpless of all.
Even at four, five years old, I wasn’t totally defenceless because I could at least run away, even though I didn’t know that I should have run away.
The child in the womb has no defence against the surgical instruments

that rip him and her apart, that will inject potassium chloride into his and her tiny beating heart.

I have been the object of vicious opprobrium because I am calling on people to vote pro-life on 5th May.I am not interested in politics and political parties

I am calling people to reject the child abuse and evil that is abortion.

To the extremely irate and nasty @SDLPlive supporter, who rang me on Saturday morning to berate and denounce me, who tried to tell me what to say from the pulpit as a priest, who

shouted at me that you are "pro-life" you can come and talk to me. You know where I live. But leave your bullying and hubris at the door.

SDLP pro-life where are you? How did you allow John Hume’s party, so concerned for human rights, to sink to such depths?

That it makes a mockery of real human rights allowing the evil of abortion, the butchering and murder of the child in the womb to masquerade as a "human right" and as "compassionate healthcare" for women.

Absolutely none of you have been able to answer me

on that. Therefore I call on those in electorate who are truly faithful Catholics, to reject you and not vote for you on May 5th.

I am calling on everyone, who loves Christ, to vote Pro Life on May 5, I make no apology. This is how I am voting Gerard Herdman

Aontu No 1. After that those who are pro life Tony Mallon Independent, DUP and TUV.

I am not afraid,because I refuse to give in to fear. I hear Jesus saying to me "Do not be afraid, I know you are afraid, but do it anyway because I am here beside you"
#AE22

@UnrollHelper