As the second week of Lent begins in other countries, we pause from our lenten penances to honour Patrick, the apostle of the Irish. In our celebration of this solemn feast, we worship God, creator, redeemer and sanctifier, who brought our ancestors into the Christian fold through the preaching of St Patrick.
Paddy Ferry reminds all readers in Scotland that Tony Flannery will be there on Thursday evening, 21 March, at Edinburgh University talking about “Celibacy, Sexuality and the Crisis in the Priesthood”.
“A Conversation with Fr. Tony Flannery”, 6th Floor Common Room, Chrystal Macmillan Building, 15a George Square, Edinburgh EH8 9LD. 7.00pm to 9.00pm.
Paddy also draws our attention to the fact that the German bishops have started “a binding synodal process”, as Cardinal Marx has called it, to discuss much the same topic. It has been reported in many outlets including the Catholic Herald.
For those who find the “new missal” prayers unwieldy and cumbersome to say aloud there is an alternative ‘approved by English speaking Bishops’ Conferences if unapproved by curia’ option in the ICEl 1998 Missal.
Roy Donovan reflects on the discussion evening on the themes of the book, Elephant in the Church, on Women’s International Day, March 8th, in the Avila Centre in Donnybrook
The 40-day pilgrimage to Easter that began on Ash Wednesday is just a few days old. We pray that God, who sustained Jesus in his 40 days of temptations and suffering, will support us on our journey also.
Seamus Ahearne writes against the backdrop of current experience where “We can feel got at … we feel accused of sexual chaos …. we are deflated … the Church is battered. …. the priesthood is in a mess.” and states that we still need to be “people who have a view of a bigger picture and can give a real context to every day and always have a broader outlook. We can’t be a slave to the News or to the Moment.” We can’t let life get us down.
Christa Pongratz-Lippitt reports in La Croix International on a press conference given by Father Helmut Schüller of Austria where he said that the sex abuse crisis shows an urgent need to ‘desacralize’ the Catholic priesthood and empower the laity. Time, he warned “is running out for the Church to make major structural changes if its leaders want to save it from collapse.”
Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times about the crisis in which the church is mired states “First of all, we cannot expect, nor should we presume, that the bishops can achieve change by carefully chosen phrases and pious pleasantries. There must be deep and meaningful exchange with the laity, using the latter’s experience and expertise to inform and develop a satisfactory strategy. Ownership by all achieves more than the instruction from a selected group.
Secondly, we must ensure that women are allowed and encouraged to participate fully in such developments……….The singular male voice has dominated for too long and the story that has been told has been incomplete. Maybe now, at long last, change will be forced upon us and we will recognise that appreciation of the broader picture will only come when the response is from both men and women.”
Brendan Hoban writes in the Western People in the wake of the recent Rome meeting on ‘The Protection of Minors in the Church’
“No one, reading what Francis has said, could find any kind of doublethink, evasion or prevarication. Or indeed any room for equivocation. He clearly means what he says and there’s a real sense that he is now giving the abuse of children (and how the Church has dealt with it in the past) his full and undivided attention. And, by announcing his ‘defrocking’ of former cardinal, a few days before the Rome conference he’s sent a clear signal of his intent.”
Words matter. What we say has an effect on others, for good or ill. God’s word to us is spoken in Jesus, the Word made flesh, in whose name we gather this and every Sunday.
At the next meeting of We Are Church Ireland the terrific film Monseñor – The Last Journey of Óscar Romero (DVD 88 minutes) will be shown in the large International Room…
Loving the enemy and praying for those who make life difficult are two marks of a Christian, or so Jesus teaches us today. We gather, aware of how difficult love can be, yet united by the saving mercy of God, on which we rely.
A discussion evening on the themes of the book, Elephant in the Church, will be held on Women’s International Day, March 8th, in the Avila Centre in Donnybrook, Dublin.
“It will look at the multitude of aspects that make up women’s status in the Church, creating a space for women, a language for women and a ministry for women, all of which are currently ignored.”
An edited version of this article by Peter Stanford about the bishops’ meeting in Rome to discuss clerical sexual abuse appeared recently in The Observer.
“It is an appalling moral failure and needs to end now, but that will involve rethinking an entire approach to sexuality in Catholicism that is peculiar, punitive and often plain perverse. The Jesus of the gospels had almost no interest is such matters. Why does the Church leadership? “
Happy are they who their trust in the Lord: worry will not come their way, their lives will bear fruit. The prophet Jeremiah’s words are reflected in the Psalm, as we are invited to trust in the One who never disappoints.
Gerry Heffernan of St Joseph’s and St Anthony’s Parish, Brisbane shares a prayer with us on the occasion of the Vatican Summit dealing with the issue of abuse in the church.
Brendan Hoban in his Western People column takes a look at a new proposed programme on Sex Education in schools, at what could be the next debate / battle “between civil and religious contexts’ where “distrust and accusation are the order of the day.”….
“The hope would be that … we’ve learned a bit from our mistakes: that we don’t know it all; that we can learn from those we may disagree with; … and especially that, given all that has happened in recent decades, we’re not in the best place to pontificate on matters sexual. In other words, that we can learn as well as teach.”
A talk by Fr Gerry O’Hanlon in The Parish Centre, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow on Tuesday 19 February at 7.45 p.m.
Everyone who believes God’s word is called to pass on the Good News. Like many who have gone before us, including the prophet Isaiah and the apostles Peter and Paul, we may not feel up to the task. But God helps us every day.
Paddy Ferry brings our attention to an article by Mary Cullen, editor of Open House where she sets the scene for the Open House conference in June which will explore some of the new directions opening up in the Catholic Church in Scotland.
This article first appeared in February/March edition of Open House and we are grateful to Mary Cullen for permission to publish it here.
A reminder for our Scottish friends that Gerry O’Hanlon travels to Edinburgh on Tuesday to speak at the Newman Association.
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