ACP leadership to meet diocesan reps
Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, considers the case of the politician who was dismissed from the ministry of reader in Cobh.
“If every priest in Ireland was to examine the consciences of everyone who has a ministry in the Church and decide whether or not they tick the one-size-fits-all Catholic box (and act according to the Cobh dictat) it would clear out our parishes in jig-time. We need to jettison that sniffy, arrogant mentality before it does real damage.”
Stan Mellett calls for a little thinking ‘outside the box’ when it comes to celebrating God’s mercy and forgiveness.
“How are we to celebrate the mystery and miracle of our forgiveness?” Stan argues that in the past we got it wrong. “God was a hard taskmaster; grudgingly would forgive but all the conditions had to be met. What a travesty of the Gospel! What an abuse of Church authority!”
“Any hope that the faithful and the unfaithful will once again wait in queue to whisper their ‘sins’ in a box, behind a curtain or in a private encounter, is, I think, remote.”
“Why hesitate to celebrate forgiveness for congregations in one liturgical celebration? “
Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column states that history, while recognising the failures and limitations of a minority of Irish nuns, will eventually laud the extraordinary contribution nuns have made to Irish life. ‘
The self-less service given by thousands of nuns should not be air-brushed from the national memory. They deserve more than that.
Seamus Ahearne once again challenges us with his musings on the interaction, or lack of interaction, between our faith and modern culture.
“How can a tiring priesthood be pioneers of a new way of sensitising hearts, minds and imaginations? In a world devoted to celebrity culture and to tabloids and to Bake offs and to cheap politics – what hope is there for faith? Brexit and Trump are extremes of the crudity of our culture but they do infect us. Give me poetry. Give me art. Give me music. Give me the privileged half-door into the hearts of people. Give me God. May the colours of autumn stir our souls.”
Brendan Hoban, in his Western People column, writes about tensions that exist in church.
“While the big battle – and battle it is – is going on in Rome, there are more minor skirmishes taking place at national, diocesan and parish level, between those convinced of the need to introduce sweeping changes in the Church’s laws and practices and those holding on grimly to the past.”
“It is difficult to see how there can be any agreement between sides that are mutually and diametrically opposed to one another – sometimes to the point of bitterness – and every reforming effort by Francis is being fought tooth and nail, even reforms that are necessary for the very survival of the faith in parishes all over the world.”
Last May an ACP delegation raised some serious and urgent issues about the Irish Church with representatives of the Irish Bishops. We also looked for a process of continual dialogue in order to meet the challenges facing us.
A response was received from Ray Browne, bishop of Kerry.
A welcome Spring Initiative, surely. Let’s hope all 26 dioceses will be represented. A meeting of 50 or 60 genuine parish priests from all four provinces should be just right to thresh out those and other issues in a relaxed but businesslike way.
As for “anyone else who would really like to attend”, have the courage for once to tell us members of the Laity (I just love that word!) to stay at home for a change and say our prayers for the rest of you.
Talking of threshing, I’m a divil for real porridge. I go down to the corner shop here in North London and pick up a tin of McCann’s steel-cut oats from Meath & Kildare or a package of Flahavan’s from Waterford – none of your Scotts’ or Quaker rubbish. I’d be leppin mad if I opened it in the morning only to find it full of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. It’s what it says on the tin: “An Association for Catholic Priests – steel-cut, naturally”.
Which is why I’m full of admiration for my friends in the Irish Confraternity of Catholic Clergy: full membership for diocesan parish priests and deacons; associate membership for those in religious and secular institutes, personal prelatures etc. End of.
Now if the Hodson Bay would just ban Kellogg’s Rice Krispies too, and not leave a chap standing at their Octagon breakfast bar for twenty minutes waiting for a minimalist bowl of mediocre ‘rolled oats’ porridge . . . .!
It has been my experience that “transparency” is not a strong point with the Church anywhere and at any time.