Howth Parish Reform and Renewal Group will meet on Monday, 05 November, in St. Columbanus Hall, Howth, at 8.00pm.
Fr. Gerry O’Hanlon SJ will speak on his latest book ‘The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis’
Fr Michael Ryan of St James Cathedral Seattle U.S.A. posted a statement on the cathedral website about the latest mass shooting in that fractured land.
“… the brutal attack on worshippers in Pittsburgh was an attack not only on our Jewish brothers and sisters who for far too long have been the victims of the most vicious forms of bigotry and hatred imaginable, it is also an attack on all people whose right to worship God according to their conscience and their tradition came under attack ….”
The leaders of 34 women’s orders in Austria, Germany, Switzerland, and Luxembourg are calling for the admission of women to all church ministries and offices while calling for a new “culture of dialogue, of participation, and of gender equality.”
An Autumn Day in Dalgan
Life in the Fifth Kingdom
Exploring the World of Fungi
With Dr John Feehan
Saturday 10th November 2018
A group of German, Austrian, and Swiss church people have come together to make an appeal for “pastoral conversion”.
This group have issued a ”mission manifesto” because they say the Church in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is about to cease to play any significant role in society in the years to come.
“ We are aware of the fact that our home countries have become mission territories … We are ready for mission. We wish that our countries may find Jesus. We extend our invitation to everybody who wants to join us in a committed wave of prayer. We wish to bring together all those who have the courage to take extraordinary steps.”
A visit to the Botanic Gardens gets Seamus Ahearne musing “The beauty of the day; the sun; the shadow; the fading colours of the trees; the flowers, was magnificent. It was indeed another book of Scripture. God was walking in that garden.”
Report on the Annual General Meeting 2018
Chris McDonnell comments on the current Synod of Bishops in Rome in his article in the Catholic Times. “although young people are there to observe and contribute, they will have no voting power when push comes to shove. Much will depend on how good the assembled clerics are at listening, how much their hearing will be conditioned by pre-determined views, how open they are to the realities that face young people.”
The National Catholic Reporter carries a robust editorial on Cardinal Ouellet’s response to Archbishop Viganò. It challenges the role of those U.S. catholics “whose primary ambition, it seems, is to convince the rest of us that the Christian Gospel was actually promulgated to justify the most extreme expressions of American-style capitalism.”
It concludes “The work ahead will require more than bluster and misappropriated slogans. It will require accessing the deepest levels of our sacramental tradition. It will require the imposition of unprecedented accountability from bishops. It will also require bishops with the will to confront the toughest questions about how the clerical culture arrived at this point.”
An interesting report is carried in the National Catholic Reporter on who has voting rights at the Synod on youth.
It’s hard to believe no woman has the right to vote at the Synod on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of women achieving their right to vote in this part of the world.
Dr Gladys Ganiel, Research Fellow, Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast commissioned a survey about the recent papal visit. The results have been released and are informative.
“For practicing Catholics, 39% said the main reason as to why they did not attend any of the events was because the travel/walk was too difficult, 22% said they were not interested and 18% said they disagreed with how the Church has handled abuse.”
Only 1% of those who did not attend any event put the reason down to the weather!
At the recent annual general meeting of the ACP Tim Hazelwood outlined the continuing supportive role the ACP plays for many priests.
Homily of Pope Francis, St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 October 2018.
“Let us ask for the grace always to leave things behind for love of the Lord: to leave behind wealth, leave behind the yearning for status and power, leave behind structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world.”
A presentation on the topic of the retirement of priests was given by Mattie Long at the recent AGM of the Association of Catholic Priests.
An interesting article in America Magazine.
We may not have too many students for the priesthood but what would be an equivalent experience in Ireland?
John Feehan spoke at our AGM about “The New View of Creation in Laudato si“
“I am not sure how many of us appreciate how radical it is: how radical for our thinking, for our behaviour; how radical for our understanding of the meaning of creation and of our role in the making of the world.
Twice in Laudato si’ Pope Francis refers to the created world as the ‘other’ book of revelation. Creation itself, the ‘other book’, the ‘magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness; … God has written a precious book, ‘whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe.”
An audio recording of the presentations made at the AGM on 10 October 2018 is now available from Eist. It is available on a 2 CD set or by email….
Seamus Ahearne recalls some memories of the late Larry Forristal, retired bishop of Ossory.
Sean McDonagh draws our attention to a statement from the European Christian Environmental Network calling for ‘A future with hope’.
An old work song sets Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, reflecting on the beauty and awesome power of water. His musings lead him to think “It is a time of aridity in the Church, so much has happened that has left us parched and thirsty, casting about, looking for a drink to satisfy our thirst.”
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