William Crean, Bishop of Cloyne, speaking to the priests of that diocese told them that in his recent teaching Pope Francis emphasises ‘that an effective Christian communion requires that we embrace the concept of Synodality in the everyday life of the Church. It is both the concept and reality of journeying with people. It is to trust in the “sensus fidei” ‘.
Bishop Crean also reminded his audience of the good done in the past by religious and priests but also stated ‘The long lens of hindsight enables us to identify the poor pastoral practice of many of our predecessors. Though well-intentioned a narrow moralistic focus made for a distorted and dysfunctional spiritual vision/understanding of Christian living. We live with both the riches and the baggage of our past.’
An interesting address by Dermot Farrell, Bishop of Ossory, at the Conference with Laity and Priests in the Diocese of Ossory;
“Pope Francis is constantly putting his synodal vision of the church before us. The question he is asking, and that we should ask ourselves, is what kind of church is God calling the priests and all Catholics to be in the longer term – perhaps less self-referential and more a community of missionary disciples, less clerical and more synodical, “……
“We have fallen off a cliff edge in regard to vocations to the priesthood. Many speak of a crisis in this regard…….This time of reduced numbers may well afford us an opportunity to be creative and to reimagine the institutional church.”
Seamus Ahearne and his congregation find inspiration in the sporting figures of the past week and get a little distracted by royalty.
He wonders because the newly appointed Irish soccer team manager Mick McCarthy is back. “He once was the past. Now he is the future.” With regard to church Seamus tells us “We cannot get lost in the past. The past has to be distilled. The best has to be retained. The packaging can be discarded.”
You are welcome to the launch of a new book written by Joe Mulvaney “Speak Out For Reform in the Catholic Church” on 28 November 2018 at 7.30 p.m. in the John Hand Room, All Hallows College (now known as DCU – All Hallows Campus), Gracepark Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9
Chris McDonnell, writing recently in the Catholic Times, said of the U.S. mid term elections, “What of the future? How will the Democracy of Immigrants that forms the United States rebuild trust and civility, what is required of each and every citizen?”
We wonder when we hear a President speak of ‘beautiful barbed wire’ being strung out along a border.
Chris also adds “Just as there is this fracture in our public life, for not only the US but other Western Democracies are also under threat, so too within our Christian community are fault lines and tensions apparent.”
The ACP has written to the Irish bishops and calls for a National Assembly to discuss ‘The Reform and Renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland’.
It also calls for a ‘constructive’ engagement with the bishops that would also be realistic, ongoing, coherent in terms of time-scale and commitment, and above all that it would engage with key critical issues.
Tony Flannery gives a brief report of his recent trip to the U.S.A. “While the U.S. Church is deeply divided, there are some real signs of light.”
Seamus Ahearne writes in this November of death; war, accident, murder; “the news is rotten with criminality; with stabbings; with shootings; with gangland outrages……….I think the culture of faith has to be rediscovered……However, every day is a privileged day. Every day is full of life, despite the dying. Every day is full of surprises. Every day throws around those ‘rumours of angels.’”
At the world remembers the horrors and savagery of war this weekend Pádraig McCarthy draws our attention to an appeal made by Enda McDonagh of St. Patrick’s College Maynooth and Stanley Hauerwas of Duke Divinity School, North Carolina for an abolition of war.
The appeal is as valid now as it was when written in 2002
Sean McDonagh notes the end of an era with the decision by Bórd na Móna to “move away from harvesting peat because carbon emissions is having an adverse impact on climate change.”
While noting that turf is “one of the least climate-friendly way of producing heat and electricity” Sean acknowledges that the decision “will cost jobs, particularly in the Irish Midlands region where jobs are scarce now, and no other industry is being targeted for the area. Bórd Na Móna believes that 500 jobs will be lost, beginning early in 2019.”
Saints in November 01 November All Saints Day This feast began in the East to commemorate all martyrs and was progressively adopted in the West. Celebrated on this day in…
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