Joe O Leary offers these thoughts for next Sunday, World Day of the Sick. (Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes)
“Lourdes shows a loving, healing God bending over the mass of human filth and misery, like Christ at the pool of Bethdaida, or like Christ in today’s Gospel compassionately touching the unclean leper.” …….
“So many people are locked in spiritual and psychological paralysis — and the physical paralysis that he cures could be a result of that spiritual paralysis; so many people are impoverished and marginalized and treated as lepers in our society; so many people are possessed or obsessed by demons of various kinds — by prejudice, hatred, fear, greed, enslaving attachments and addictions. The healing activity of Jesus is a blow to liberate us from all these forms of bondage.”
Seamus Ahearne casts his eye over some recent events and wonders at the chaos and if the world has gone mad; he wonders if there is ‘an absence of proportionality’ about grieving over public figures. At the funeral of a friend he is struck by his family’s ‘utter conviction of faith in all that they did’.
Statement from The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) regretting both the removal of pictures of same-sex couples from World Meeting of Families (WMOF) booklets circulated to Irish parishes and the barring of the former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, from a conference to be held in the Vatican on “Why Women Matter.”
Tony Flannery, on his own website, responds to a letter to the Irish Times from Angela Hanley. Tony suggests that “the organizers of the World Meeting of Families have made a major mistake by redacting their booklet, and getting rid of any reference, by picture or text, to same sex couples.”
Another regular correspondent, Brian Eyre, asks if married priests and their families will be welcome at WMF.
Gerard O’Connell reports in americamagazine.org that Pope Francis has sent “Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta and President of the College for the examination of appeals (“in materia delicta graviora,” “in matters of grave crimes”) in the Ordinary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to go to Chile to hear those who have expressed their wish to submit elements in their possession”.
Brendan Hoban writing in his Western People column comments on the ongoing opposition to the task of reforming the Roman Curia. He says there is “huge division between those who want reform in the Church and those who are attempting to block it.”
Chris McDonnell offers a thought on Holocaust Memorial Day – lest we ever forget where hatred and racism lead.
Peter Feuerherd reports in the National Catholic Reporter on a resolution endorsed by the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests, calling upon Catholic bishops in the United States to enlist the aid of lay pastoral workers to administer parishes.
The President, Michael D. Higgins, met with the authors of ‘A Dialogue of Hope’.
Sarah McDonald reports in catholicireland.net on the talk given by Gabriel Daly at a recent ‘We Are Church’ function.
“Some powerful traditionalists in the Church are ‘dedicated to obstruction of all reform’ and could force ‘a severe division’ within the Church, even setting up ‘a schismatic Church’, a leading theologian has warned.”
Report from Papal flight to Rome from Peru by Junno Arocho Esteves
Catholic News Service
The calling of Andrew and his brother Peter is described in today’s Gospel. Like those early disciples, we too are called. As believers, we gather here to listen to God’s word, resolving to put it into practice in the coming week.
• The Week of Prayer for Christian Unity continues till Thursday next.
In a comment on another thread Iggy O Donovan asks
“Can anybody shed light on the reported comments of Francis in Chile regarding Bishop Barros Madrid. It appears to have offended abuse survivors and if true would definitely cast a negative cloud over his papacy. Also from the point of view of his Irish visit it would make itself felt and not in a positive way.”
To provide some information on this subject we carry a report from americamagazine and a statement issued by Cardinal Seán P. O’Malley of Boston.
John N. Collins, an Australian theologian, has devoted a great part for his life to studying the real meaning of ‘diakonia’. His thesis has serious implications for our understanding of ministry in church.
“I was confronted by the need to identify the nature of the ‘service’ of the Son of Man (Mk 10:45). Soon I came to recognise that the English ‘service’ words were totally inadequate to represent the range of meanings ancient Greek authors intended by their use of diakon- terms.”
Sean McDonagh and the 10 contributors to the book Laudato Si’ An Irish Response were invited to visit the President of Ireland, Michael D. Higgins at Áras an Uachtaráin on Thursday, 18 January, 2018
Catherine Pepinster reports in Religion News Service, religionnews.com, on the fact that some Anglican priests are joining trade unions.
She quotes Rev. Peter Hobson, who is head of the priests’ Unite branch, Church of England Clergy Advocates; “vicars are turning to the union because they are under pressure from all sides — from the people in the pews and from their bishops…….. the bishop, while he is a pastoral figure, is also managerial. And the managerial approach is coming more and more to the fore …….. this more managerial approach makes relationships between clergy and bishops more difficult, and clergy consequently need more advice and someone ‘on their side,’ as it were, from outside the church .”
The text of a lecture given by Gabriel Daly OSA to a “We are Church” event on Monday, 15 January 2018.
Our sincere thanks to Gabriel and to Colm Holmes of ‘We are Church Ireland’ for providing the text.
America magazine, among others, carries a report of the call by Bishop Franz-Josef Bode of Osnabruck ,(vice president of the German bishops’ conference) for a debate on whether Catholic clergy should bless same-sex unions..
Joe McVeigh ponders the future role of priests in the church.
“In Ireland, we are now in mission territory. We who have been ordained and who have survived this long are missionary priests in our own country. We are no longer maintenance priests in charge of maintaining churches, schools and parochial halls, …. We now need to adjust to the entirely new situation facing us and adopt new practices and a new ways of being church.”
A “We Are Church” Press Release of 14 January 2018 calls for Pope Francis to meet Marie Collins to show support of the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
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