did you grow up catholic by chance? >> yes. >> do you go to mass now? >> noteal that much. t that much at all. >> weddings and funerals. things like that. that's basically it. >> those who do go for special occasions like this prayer service in county galway can't help but notice that the people in the pews have changed. reverend tony flannery, associate of catholic priests. >> they're old. that is the main thing. when you look down at a congregation from the altar now you'll see mostly gray heads. the young people, the under 40's, have largely deserted the church in ireland now. >> irish priests are aging too. on average, they're well over 60. many are still working into their 80s. and replacements have slowed to a trickle. at maynooth, the country's only catholic seminary, the number of students being ordained to the priesthood has never been lower. >> 20 years ago you could have been certainly over 20, but maybe not that unusual to have a year where there would have been 30. now we're more likely to have somewhere under 10. six, seven, that kind of thing. >> in the diose

so did 75 scholars, most of them at the catholic university of america.sister simone campbell, executive director of the catholic social justice lobby network, says she and others oppose the house budget because it does not seem to reflect catholic social teaching. >> the essence of catholic social teaching is that it is based on the dignity of the human person, that we all have dignity because we are created by god. that together in society we hold shared responsibility for each other. government's role then becomes to ensure that the least are cared for. i can't believe that it is moral to cut milk products for women, infants and children who are living in poverty, to cut food for families who are poor, to push people off of healthcare coverage. that's not moral. that's immoral in my book. that's why it's so chilling to us to watch what is going on in congress about the budget. it's the very safety net programs that the current budget fight is targeting. and to me this is wrong. it, quite frankly, it's immoral. >> congressman ryan, too, is catholic. he

[bonoli speaking italian] [translator] yes, i think that catholic couples and even young italian catholics have for some time now made a distinction between their religious conscience and what might be considered as a dictate from the church. therefore, they don't feel bound within their conscience to take notice of the rules which they probably don't agree with, but this doesn't mean that they feel any less catholic. [speaking italian] [translator] i believe, and i'm a catholic, et cetera, but life has to be practical. you have to try and act according to your various needs, according to your personal problems, the type of family, and the type of work you do. don mario picchi lives in rome and has been a catholic priest for the last 36 years. [picchi speaking italian] [translator] undoubtedly, religious faith has weakened. i think it is probably partly due to the fact that it has been a very superficial faith. we probably have less worshippers today, but i would say that the ones who remain are a little more convinced. years ago, faith was often something you wore like a sunday outfit, yo

the church you refer it is the roman catholic church.ou are looking at for issues the course, i suppose of centuries. we talked some about marriage but i think it's important that perhaps he said we'd go back and understand that backgrounding isn't scripture. >> that's right. all of these developments have some basis and discretion. it's not out of the blue. it's just that the little fragile roots in the development to emerge the way they have. in the case of the large development now going on as marriage, it's a matter of the first letter of saint paul to the corinthians. the convent has been married and the spouses convert. instead because i don't want to do anything with the christian faith and that person leaves. what is the addition of the abandoned convent? call ken -- paul says in that case, the brother of the sister, referring to a christian, is not bound to keep the marriage. in other words, divorce was perfectly possible for the abandoned convent. that's the root of the larger development. it used to be called the privilege. it

take conservative catholics and evangelicals. and when you add evangelicals and catholics, you got more than 50% of the country, so these are not insignificant. for more than 150 years of our history, these groups were at each other's throats. now they have made common cause on the question of abortion. in fact, activism around that issue has really helped to break down a lot of boundaries between white evangelicals and conservative roman catholics in ways that i have certainly found stunning. you get that orthodox jews to that mix. the fault line there is reconfiguring the way that people lined up on that. even a highly divisive issue like that, still highly divisive for our society, on the religious side has also generated some forms of unity among more conservative oriented groups, regardless of religious traditions, and more liberally oriented groups within those traditions. >> you see this where i live. i spend a lot of my time in washington with the stalemated issue. i got a focus groups and speak and try to get a sense of

interestingly you said it is catholic values. he doesn't claim any catholic values. by the way, even if he were doing it for religious reasons human rights trumps religion. georgetown university was ordered not to discriminate on the basis of sexual preference. i don't know of any basic catholic tenets which requires students to live into single sex dorms. >> if you are talking about preventing binge drinking and sex outside of marriage which is clearly a catholic tenet. >> we have to put this into a bigger context. what catholic university is doing and several catholic institutions are going back and looking at saying what has happened since the 1960s and '70s and many catholic universities the whole religious element to it. the strong catholic identity of the universities was thrown out and said you know what, we will be secular and like everybody else. not only the current president, president garvey but also the past president david, father david o'connell, they have done an excellent job in saying who are we and what do we have to do in order to become what we s

meet mark and dean. >> i'm protestant. >> and i'm a catholic. >> reporter: new to the sport of basketballthey had to put aside their differences to learn how to play. >> when we're on the court practicing together, the religion is just out the window. >> i just know that they are my teammates. and i'll always stick with them. >> reporter: now they're not only practicing together, they hang out off the court too. >> well, the friendships i've made through full court peace have just been amazing. >> like anytime they come knock on my door, i bring them in, give them a bed to sleep because just they're really, really nice guys. >> reporter: after weekly practices alternating between the catholic and protestant schools, the season culminates with a trip to the united states. >> i think it's important for them to come to america because america is a melting pot and protestants and catholics specifically get along very well in the states. there's no conflict. >> reporter: once they make it stateside, the boys stay with host families. >> i had a family called the coons, like robert, judy, and th

in a private meeting at the white house conference of catholic bishops, the national council of churches and other faith-based groups said lawmakers must protect the most vulnerable, according to the reports the president acknowledged the needs of the least of these. meanwhile, a group of religious conservatives has come out in support of substantial cuts and a cap on federal spending. memb members of the southern baptist convention, the family research council and others said the debt hurts the post most of all. >>> eight top roman catholic and aningly can leaders from around the world this week launched a new effort to support christians in the holy land who are caught in the ongoing conflict between israelis and palestinians. they also called on politicians to jump start the stalled middle east peace process. the new campaign got under way at a high-level meeting in london. kyung lahton was there. >> reporter: christian leaders have europe, north america and the middle east gathered at the historic lambeth palace. residence of the anglican ar, bishop of canterbury, rowan williams. the

a lot of catholics were upset. may look to this as a reverend wright scenario and dumping out of there quick. all the stuff you do before you are a candidate that bubbles up and you start to cut ties. bob has millions of those ties that is why he can't run for anything. it can't run for anything. this happens for every candidate there is always one thing. >> dana: but she is better on the timing. doing it early on in primary situation. president obama waited until three weeks before the election. >> andrea: she see what is they are doing to their husband. george stephanopoulos, they are even going after her 23 foster kids she's being pre-emptive. not waiting. >> bob: the crux of this -- it's nice of you to talk around it, wus s. what her church said was the post is the antichrist. c'mon! i am not saying -- >> greg: you are the anti-christ. >> bob: i accept that. the reason she said it and got out, you know where there is a lot of catholics? new hampshire. >> andrea: and what happens in new hampshire? >> bob: if you

but today he stands accused in in the involvement in the irish catholic church's latest scandal.t was in his diocese in county court that clerical child sex abuse took place, but was not reported by the church to the police. and it happened as recently as three years ago. at a time when the irish catholic church was telling the world there would not there be another cover-up. -- never be another cover-up. new guidelines were introduced to ensure all allegations were reported to the police. but here, the rules were largely ignored. and for those who accuse the church, a lack of action left them feeling helpless. >> i feel i had really been touched by the double -- to the devil and that is something that no one will fix for me. >> after so many scandals in recent years, the catholic church in ireland is not only losing its followers, but its special place in irish society. john t.d. retired as bishop of cloying -- john mehdi retired as bishop of cloying last year. in his retirement saving the city could have done more for the victims of abuse and he was sorry. -- in his retirement,

today, the bishop stands accused of involvement in the irish catholic church's scandal. it was in his diocese that the sex abuse to a place that was not reported by the church to the police. it happened as recently as three years ago. at a time when the irish catholic church was telling the world that there would never be another cover-up. >> it is scandalous that there was the public face of concern and it continues to maintain a private agenda of concealment and evasion. >> after the revelations of pedophile priests, new guidelines were introduced to ensure all allegations within reported to the police. below largely ignored. for those who complained about being abused as children, a lack of action left them feeling helpless. >> contaminated by horrible disease. i really feel like this is being touched by the devil and no one will ever fix this for me. >> after so many scandals, the catholic church in ireland is not only losing followers but a special place in irish society. there is a sense of shame. >> i apologize on my own behalf as an administrator of the diocese a

ireland is 87% catholic. in an attack on the church unprecedented for an irish prime minister, he told his parliament the rape and torture of children were downplayed or managed to uphold instead the primacy of the institution in power, standing and reputation. his comments come on the heels of a judicial report released two weeks ago which revealed the vatican secretly discouraged irish bishops from reporting pedophile priests to police as was demanded by the dublin government. the report also suggested the diocese of county cork failed to act on the allegations against 19 priests between 1996 and 2009. the vatican says archbishop, also known as the papal nunzio, was recalled to help prepare an official response to irish complaints. but in a statement the holy see said its action denotes the seriousness of the situation as well as surprise and regret at certain excessive reactions. for more we're joined by richard downes the washington correspondent for r.t.e., ireland's national television station. richard,

i'm not catholic but i was curious who goes and nobody essentially went.older women, maybe a few older men, very, very sparse. i was in hanoi in march. there are ten messages every saturday. i was at one of them. you can barely get in the door and that is the catholicism and its only 10% of the vietnamese who are catholic. most are buddhist and there's a proliferation of the buddhist science and structures and pilgrimage sites and then lineage, family lineage and sort of worshiping the family lineage was an important part of the confucian tradition and vietnam. and the war intersects with it because the family altars. if you lived in the south after the war and you had a relative, maybe a son who had fought for the national liberation firm, south vietnam me even north viet nam, eastern relative calm to could honor the relatives who had fought from the south. the south was a defeated force, you had to in a sense pretended that child hadn't been there and the last ten years people have felt comfortable again about displaying photographs of psalms were lost a

. >> it is a long-running scandal which has tarnished the catholic church.oday the irish government published a new report into the concealment of child abuse by priests. uncovering this series failings into how cases of abuse were dealt with, the report says the church cared more about its reputation than the welfare of children and that only three years ago, reports of abuse were still being kept from police. our ireland correspondent reports. >> he was the pope's right hand man. the father was not just personal secretary to john paul ii. but today, the retired bishop stands accused of involvement in the irish catholic church is latest scandal. it was in his diocese that clerical child sex abuse took place but was not reported by the church to the police. and what happened as recently as three years ago, at a time when the irish catholic church was telling the world there would never be another cover-up. >> it is truly scandal is the people who presented the public face of concern continued to maintain a private agenda of concealment and evasion. >> after

it was catholic, and i was raised catholic. >> piers: then what happened? >> i was never jewish.set foot in a testimony many. >> piers: you are still a catholic? >> of course not. what is on this. i'm bill maher. nice to meet you. hopefully, one of america's most famous atheists. >> piers: you're not an atheist, you're an apatheist. i'm okay with us not splitting the difference on those. if you're just not a super religious person, for me, you are on my team. it's hard to say. even richard dawkins says if we put it on a scale of 1 to 7, 1 being absolutely certain there is a god and 7 being absolutely certain there is no god, even i'm a 6.9 because we don't know. >> piers: where are you? >> 6.9. >> piers: a tiny fragment thinks there could be a god. >> it could be a good or it could be a spaghetti monitor. >> piers: how did your parents react to your apagt yichl. >> i was scared to death of the whole process. all i could do to keep it together in church. when i was a young teenager, thankfully my father stopped going to church and that was the end of it. i was no longer any sort o

. >> the irish prime minister has launched an unprecedented attack on the roman catholic hierarchy. he accused the vatican of protecting the power and reputation of the church ahead of the child rape victims. the clerical abuse exposed an institution that was defeatist. >> the church and state in ireland have been linked for generations. that close relationship appears to have changed with the publication of the report into child sex abuse. the report found that the vatican had systematically blocked and frustrated an inquiry into the issue as recently as three years ago. >> at the report estivates, the dysfunction, the disconnection, the elitism, that dominated the culture of the vatican. the rape and torture of children was downplayed and they managed to uphold instead the primacy of the institution, its power, its standing, its reputation. >> other jeopardies voiced similar criticisms. later, the hierarchy of the catholic church expressed deep remorse. >> i find myself incredibly proud of the church. i have to be ashamed of these things. >> after some anticlerical sex abuse scand

i mean, these guys are bent on destroying the roman catholic church. exterminating roman catholics. so, the german protestant immigrant came over. he was one of the great political cartoonists of the day in the 1850's, 1860's. he gave the santa clause, the democratic donkey and the republican elephant. here he has a cartoon. of course, many people could not read in the days. they could, in fact, understand car tense. he has a cartoon which shows these are crocodiles coming ashore in the background it is not the white house but st. peter's cathedral. although you can't see it emily hall. tammy all, the democratic party organization of new york. a republican. the first major evangelicals party in america, founded in 1854. it brought together the entire catholic wing of the party with the antislavery. the american patriots. it was a party newspaper. a man they are opposed to people aggression. they are opposed to foreigners holding office. they wanted to restrict immigration, but particularly respect the rights of roman catholics to vote and hold office. the offspring of these two stri

some of the people in the catholic and lutheran churches played up to hitler. there was a movement in which they tried to make hiterer's germany into -- hitler's germany into a christian anti-semitic force. the vast majority was just sort of silent. what can you do in the middle of all that? but he got committed very early and hung out with the whole underground of people. i think the other thing that i would say is turning point is a new today we call it the ecumenical movement n. the 1930s it was being born, and they wanted to form what became the world council of churches. it was postponed until after the war because of the war. but he was an early agent of it, and that's one of the things that served his cause. he got to conferences in the switzerland, sweden, england. the archbishop who was over anthony eden was his contact person. and what you had there, some of you have seen the movie valkyrie, but that's the circle he was with. and they are, again, aristocratic military people who wanted the allies to drop the idea of unconditional surrender. because th

. >> the irish prime minister has made an unprecedented attack on the catholic church.e accuses the vatican of tampering investigation into child abuse by priests. >> the church and state in ireland have been linked for generations. the close relationship appears to have changed with the publication of the report into child sex abuse in the diocese of county cork. the report from the vatican had blocked and frustrated and inquiry into the issue as recently as three years ago. he was scathing in his criticism. >> the report shows the disfunction, disconnection, and elitism that dominates the culture of the vatican today. the rape and torture of children were downplayed. they managed to pull the primacy of the institution from its power, standing, and reputation. >> other deputies in parliament voiced similar criticisms. the hierarchy of the catholic church expressed deep remorse. >> i find myself today asking if i can be proud. when i am seeing, i have to be ashamed of. >> after so many clerical sex abuse scandals in ireland, many have thought the worst revelations were

i mean the thing that illustrates so the story goes on to talk about the all the culture and the catholic church in south florida this is like permeates right and i am not against god i love gay people is a great letter mary whatever what's fascinating is that the catholic church like this is still one of their big core things when they're telling people not to do it don't use condoms and be gay and there you have it everything where it happens in florida we're going to have to leave it at that this has now turned to let it got rid of all the gay people that's what they say that's a test that can say anything after that because that's it for tonight show thanks for tuning in make sure to come back tomorrow alex i swallowed from think progress will be joining us for happy hour and coming up next is adam versus the man. the. last time the close of team was in the cool gum region where men flock from all over the world to out a few centimeters to their self-confidence. this time are two goes to the on the region. for the gold rush still gets people hiked oak brook. for an ancient tribal figh

the region's roman catholic leader is fouad twal, who has the ancient title of latin patriarch. he wants pilgrims to visit not only the holy sites, but also the local christians, whom he calls the holy land's "living stones." >> only with the living stones, with people, with community, it has a meaning of holy. it is not a question of building and archeology. it is a question of life. >> reporter: top western anglican and roman catholic leaders have just launched a new campaign to help christians in the holy land. but that can be a complicated and sometimes controversial endeavor. many christians, especially in american and european evangelical communities, are strongly pro-israel. when the u.s. and other countries moved their embassies from jerusalem to tel aviv for political reasons, one group of christians founded their own institution to support israel. they called it the christian embassy. >> we were founded in 1980 as an expression of comfort and solidarity with the jewish people and their 3,000-year-old attachment to jerusalem, and we've been standing on the principle of

take conservative catholics and evangelical. by the way, when you add e january jell call and catholics, that's more than 50% of the country. these are not insignificant groups in terms of their size. these are precisely the groups that for 150 years of our history, they were at each other's throats. well, when you look at conservative catholics and e -- eevangelicals, they have came together, and break down boundaries between white evangelicals and conservative roman catholics in ways that, you know, i personally have found stunning, so, you know, you can add orthodox views to ma mix, and in other words the fault line there has not cemented denominational differences, but simply recon figured the way people line up on that. even a highly devicive issue like that, which is still highly diversity veesive for a society on the religious side has, in fact, also generated some forms of unity among more conservatively oriented groups regardless of religious tradition and more liberally oriented groups within those traditions. >> you a

to a bathroom because i mean it's very dirty stale long lines conservative community there is a catholic who kind of sounds like the michael jackson of a cap across he likes to he's he's described as crazy as homosexuals super culture he likes attractive young men to sit on his lap and then he treats them to trips in the florida keys only problem is that he is archbishop emeritus of miami. i was going to run solve what it was actually he doesn't anymore i guess you know when you're younger and you're got last year yeah but the last year i know i knew you were super pumped you know what i mean the thing that illustrates the story goes on to talk about that all the culture and the catholic church in south florida this is like for me it's a right and i am not against god i love gay people is a great letter mary whatever what's fascinating is that the catholic church like this is still one of their core things when they're telling people not to do it so i don't use condoms and the game and here you have it everything where it happens in florida we're going to have to leave it in that house o

so he converted many became hugely anti-catholic or is it that time and my siblings came along, goingto church was exploded thing. my father would be an affront to my mother would be just a mess and putting our hats on. but we came home from dinner, he would launch into a sermon about the evils of the catholic church and the posts and all that status. so you know, i'm the one hand i was right, you know, praying to jesus and looking at him kind of victorian and then on the other hand i got all this stuff about the pope. so i've realized in the areas this argument. and also, you see it in our culture now, the sense of secular humanism, agnosticism, how close minded it can be. the religion is also posed in terms of fanatics are fundamentalists but that's how we read the brainwashing of children and things like that. it's never -- you know, it's really seen as a kind of positive thing for us a power for good. it's often framed as this kind of evil fanatical name, whether they are right wing -- as a result of course, my own siblings -- i have a brother who i adore who is an evangelical chr

against you i love gay people gays are great letter merry whatever what's fascinating is that the catholic church like this is still one of their big corps things when they're telling people not to do it use condoms and be gay and there you have it everything where it happens in florida we're going to have to leave it at that this. got rid of all the gay people that's what they said that there can't be anything after that because that's it for tonight show thanks for tuning in make sure to come back tomorrow alex i swallowed from think progress will be joining us for happy hour and coming up next is amber says the man. to gold. bringing you the latest in science technology from around the russian. we've got the future of coverage. wealthy british style. market dynamics come to. find out what's really happening to the global economy with much cause or for a no holds barred look at the global financial headlines tune in to the report on our. more used to date.

often felt the same respect and awe that he experienced when entering the fragrant solitude of the catholic church, fleeing went the irish seeking refuge from the advancing harlems, the dark skin of the people making unrecognizable the prejudices they had endured when they arrived in america. the defect of memory driving them forward to separate themselves from the shadows that follow all immigrants. fleeing went the puerto ricans, escaping the same blackness, but impeled by the fear of blood, both physical and hereditary, fearing with greater horror the prospect of losing themselves in the anonymity that america forces on all of its people, both groups fought the country's wish for that homogenaity. they both retained both their irishness and puerto ricaness. both sides spoke of the ancestral home as if it was the land of milk and

immigrants coming into this nation are 2-1 catholic. so they are overwhelmingly christian unlike in europe, but they're overwhelmingly catholic as opposed to protestant. but the rest of the immigrants coming in, a large percentage of them look at the percentage of muslim americans who are foreign born. it's 2/3. you know, the percentage of hindus, 82%. the percentage of buddhists. the platest wave of immigration is pushing us not only to, you know, the christian and jewish, that's another story we could talk about. even to the abram hamic inclusion of muslims, it's in the abrahamic, it's buddhists and so forth. i think there is a continuing challenge. again, it just seems to me it's how the government and we as a society respond to that diversity and choose to accommodate that will determine those religious identities. >> religious through diversity, just a bump remember sticker? >> the first panel and second panel, could it be that immigrants and really new comers are going to make for a more cohesive country while the white people liv

but that was just catholics who've been through as asian flowers as ation the fact that a grand champion was a cow but no it wasn't planned thirty five years ago i know i thought that was the time you brought women into early. years ago but you know he didn't get this brought up an air reinterviewed program you were going on no i said that i thought this was going to happen and david i'm sorry as our take our backyard forget a lot around the world the k.k.k. are you worried about mitt romney and jon huntsman being warman's are you ok with the whole mormon thing i'm worried about mitt romney are. being controlled by these zionist interests i'm worried about the fact that they don't pay sucked in this country is being basically invaded noble wilm and massive immigration i worry about the fact that none of them have the guts to stand up to defend the so. all rights not just of minorities which their civil rights should be dependent but the civil rights of the american european were jarvey that based discrimination the fact is we're losing our country and or any many disparate discriminated

communists, catholic protestants, black, colored, everything. we studied the different religious views of human rights, and they were highly educated people and highly intensely religious. i think it depends on what you devote yourself to, and if you're a busy scientist, that's what you devote yourself to. >> having read these three books and partial list coming in the series, there's certainly an opinion in parts of the academy that there are still -- there's much to be learned from understanding how the great religious texts of many faiths bear on the world today, and partly what we see around the world too is people acquire literal sigh and the urgency to ask questions in new ways, and we see that too in many institutions that are rejected for the first time because somebody gets the ability to ask questions. it's an interesting phenomena that makes books like this no less important. sir, you have a question. >> yes, i would pretend i'm with audiences who work at a think tank and not unemployed. i hope i'm not the only one here that's not une

catholic population, there are some catholics with the irish population that came in the 18th century, but many more scotch-irish, as they were called, who were presbyterians. catholic immigration begins in the 1840s, with the potato famine and--and other dislocations in ireland, and then also in germany. so you don't have very much--let me just--this also is a period with the lowest foreign-born population in american -- percentage in american history; about only 3 percent are foreign, and most of those are slaves who've come in with the opening up of the slave trade, the brief opening up. c-span: and i--i just saw a figure, i think it's like 9 1/2 percent now foreign-born in the country. >> guest: right. c-span: and there were times when it was a lot larger than that. >> guest: much larger. at the end of the 19th, early 20th century, it was--two-thirds of the people in american cities at the end of the 19th century were either foreigners or foreign-born. c-span: what did they do for a living? >> guest: who, all the people? c-span: back in--back--back in those--those three decades. >