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Home / 2023 / October / 31

Day: October 31 2023

  • Séamus Ahearne: May the nourishment of the earth be yours; may the fluency of the ocean be yours; may the protection of the ancestors be yours; and so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind you. (John O Donohue)

    October 31 2023October 31 2023 Blog
    1 Comment

    MICHAEL & TIMOTHY: Two big characters from my past, loomed rather large, in recent time: Tim Radcliffe OP led the Synodal participants into Reflection. Michael Campbell Johnston SJ died. Tim…

    Read More Séamus Ahearne: May the nourishment of the earth be yours; may the fluency of the ocean be yours; may the protection of the ancestors be yours; and so may a slow wind work these words of love around you, an invisible cloak to mind you. (John O Donohue)Continue

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Most Recent Comments

  • 9 comments

    NCR Online: Soline Humbert felt called to ordination. This Irish priest paid a price for supporting her.

    April 27 2026
    Joseph O'Leary
    "In April 1976, the Pontifical Biblical Commission found that women could not be excluded from the priesthood on scriptural grounds. That report was never published. Instead, in October 1976, the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith declared that the church did not consider itself authorized to admit women to the priesthood." I'm reading a stupendous 1000-page book by Sylvio Hermann de Franceschi, La crise théologico-politique du premier âge baroque (Ecole française de Rome, 2009). It begins by telling how the Council of Trent in its last days surrendered supreme teaching authority to the Pope and how relentlessly pope and curia implemented this Roman centralization, using theology (with star theologian Robert Bellarmine, SJ), history (star figure Cesare Baronius), canon law, art, and piety for this purpose. While no one dared to add "Roman" to the four notes of the church named by the Creed of Constantinople (one, holy, catholic, apostolic), in practice "the church was henceforth catholic because Roman". The papacy persecuted those who did not recognize the direct authority of the Pope in secular matters, a position that today would be absurd. Eight very active new congregations (dicasteries) were set up to implement Trent in the key of Roman centralization (the discussions of the Council were under embargo, seeing the light only in the 20th century). In 1588 a papal bull affirmed the primary place in the curia of the Holy Roman and Universal Inquisition (the Holy Office, later CDF, recently renamed again), which had been set up in 1542, The book covers the period 1607-1627 and French resistance to this development. At that time the powerful presence of Paul V and his Cardinal Nephew Scipione Borghese weighed heavily. Not for nothing is Paul V's name emblazoned on the facade of St Peter's. Today the church has greatly changed its theology and John Paul II issued more than ninety apologies for past mistakes. But the centralization implemented in that key period has not been corrected. Just as the Biblical Commission's report could be suppressed by the CDF, so could an author of the enlightened document, Dialogue and Proclamation, Jacques Dupuis, SJ, be hounded and harried by the CDF to give teeth to its not so enlightened Dominus Iesus. The CDF has a stranglehold on doctrinal development which equals that of Iran on the Strait of Hormuz. If it remains true to form, I imagine that the CDF must be keeping its eye on synodality, seeing it as an avatar of the dreaded, imperfectly exorcized Conciliarism of the 15th century. Von Balthasar chided theologians for their "anti-Roman affect" but if such a book as de Franceschi's can be published in Rome, albeit under French auspices, perhaps that is a promise that the spirit of Gallican resistance was more than an impotent affect and can inspire creative renewal today.
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  • 9 comments

    NCR Online: Soline Humbert felt called to ordination. This Irish priest paid a price for supporting her.

    April 27 2026
    Colm Holmes
    Excellent article by Sarah MacDonald who interviewed Eamonn McCarthy, who was left with no appointment for 5 years because he supported the ordination of women. I hope your article might encourage our bishops to voice their opinions about the ordination of women? As we are all encouraged to share with Pope Francis' and Leo's Synodality? There being no theological argument to exclude women, only cultural baggage? Or will they duck and say "That's for Rome to decide?"
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  • 15 comments

    Western People: New Bishop of Killala installed on Sunday

    April 27 2026
    Sean O'Conaill
    "In the church of Jesus, there are different gifts – but no second class citizens." Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry - homily on Good Shepherd Sunday - at his silver anniversary Mass as a retiring bishop. https://www.derrydiocese.org/news/called-to-greatness-good-shepherd-sunday-homily
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  • 8 comments

    Brendan Hoban: Two Americans living on different planets           

    April 27 2026
    M G-B
    Pope Leo X1V quoting Isaiah 1:15 on Palm Sunday was most impactful considering the waring world we are now living. "Even though you make many prayers, I will not listen. Your hands are full of blood."
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