Every year on 29 June we honour St Peter and St Paul, two ‘Founding Fathers’ of the Church. Tradition tells us that on this day, the two met and embraced before marching off toward their deaths. As we honour them now, we ask for a little of their faith and their courage
Brian Eyre, a married Catholic priest, in Recife, Brazil suggests it needs to be clearly stated and explained that marriage and priesthood are not irreconcilable and that obligatory celibacy is a discipline that can be removed without changing the nature of priesthood.
Conclusion
158. The extensive material submitted to the Secretariat of the Synod of Bishops is presented in this Instrumentum Laboris to promote the dialogue and development which is expected to take place during the Third Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops. Clearly, the richness of what is contained in the responses and observations goes beyond what has been reported in these pages, which are intended to provide an initial reference point in synod discussion. To come to some idea of how to respond to the new demands in the People of God, the following three main areas are under discussion in the Church: how the Gospel of the Family can be preached in the present-day; how the Church’s pastoral care programme for the family might better respond to the new challenges today; how to assist parents in developing a mentality of openness to life and in upbringing their children.
Over 50 years ago, a cardinal asked the Vatican Council: ‘Where’s the other half of humanity?’ In her own inimitable way, Mary McAleese last week posed the same question, writes TP O’ Mahony in The Irish Examiner.
A report on an international network of reform movements.
Report of recent Clogher meeting:
“We must ask ourselves in all honesty if we are able to work effectively with people, because Priesthood of the future will be relational.”
Sean O Conaill, http://www.seanoconaill.com, states he is totally baffled by the apparent interpretation of some of the ‘Fall’ passages in Genesis as literal history in the recently published ‘Irish Catholic Catechism For Adults’.
Brendan Hoban, writing in the Western People, suggests that the prospect of attracting sufficient male celibate vocations is so remote and that the implications of the crisis so far-reaching that “Doing nothing is not just irresponsible but a counsel of despair. Denial is no longer an option.”
Today’s liturgy invites us to reflect on God’s care for the family of faith, especially through the gift of divine nourishment on our pilgrimage through life.
The Catholic News Service carries a story about the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests making their views known to Pope Francis about CDF’s Cardinal Müller’s “self-confessedly blunt” remarks to the leaders of about 57,000 women religious in the U.S.A.
Fr. Gerard Maloney writes in the Irish Times of his reaction to the information, and disinformation, about the mother and baby homes.
Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, reflecting on current controversies says that what really released the dam of anger and emotion was the revelation of clerical sexual abuse and the failure of Church authorities to understand its enormity and to do something about it. The revelations on clerical sexual abuse gave people the freedom to surface and to name other resentments.
We are invited to reflect on the mystery of God on this Trinity Sunday, as we gather to worship the One who creates, redeems and sanctifies, three persons, one God, without end.
Reporting on the Tuam story has often been wild and sensational, and out of touch with known facts.
Padraig McCarthy
Jesuit priest, Thomas Reese, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, comments on the meeting of U.S. bishops. The meeting could be a turning point but he asks, will they sail with the Francis wind or will they buck the waves of change?
Coming to see God’s presence in creation is a central feature of our Christian Faith.
St. Columban counselled, those who wish to know the great deep (God) must first study the natural world.
Brendan Hoban, in his Western People column, questions what has effectively become an institutionalised gambling culture in Ireland.
Today we celebrate ‘the great beginning of the Church,’ the day the Holy Spirit first came to confused and frightened disciples. We praise God for this great Gift, and ask for a new outpouring in our day.
Donal Dorr offers some suggestions of how to deal with the problem of the ‘new Missal’.
This study has been commissioned by the ACP in order to ascertain the views of Irish clergy regarding the New Missal, introduced in November 2011.
Select a category in the sidebar for more posts
Select a category in the sidebar for more posts
