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The Annual General Meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests
The Association of Catholic Priests will hold its AGM at Hodson Bay Hotel, Athlone
on October 1 from 2.00pm to 5.00pm.
This year the theme is: The vocations crisis: will ‘clustering’ work?
Sunday Eucharist is centrally important
Pádraig McCarthy reminds us, and the bishops, that St. John Paul II said “among the many activities of a parish, none is as vital or as community-forming as the Sunday celebration of the Lord’s Day and his Eucharist”.
John Paul also underlined the importance of “ensuring that parish assemblies are not without the necessary ministry of priests”, but according to Padraig ‘the Church is not ensuring this.’
Time has run out for action to be taken but we wait, and wait, and wait……Vatican youth meeting
Joshua J. McElwee reports in the National Catholic Reporter on the Vatican-hosted conference of some 300 young people meant to advise Catholic bishops on the needs of youth today and that they “acknowledged that some in their generation want the church to change its teachings on so-called “polemical issues” such as same-sex marriage and use of contraception.”
Confronting racism and homophobia
Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column raises the issue of how we deal with racist and homophobic comment. He reminds us that
“The Catholic Church has had to learn some big lessons in this regard. It wasn’t so long ago that papal letters used the phrase ‘intrinsically disordered’ to describe homosexual people. I don’t think it will happen again. Or at least I hope not because its use didn’t just diminish homosexuals.”Assembly of the Irish Church
At a meeting of the leadership team of the ACP on November 3rd we decided that we would initiate the process of organising an Assembly of the Irish Church. It…
Clogher bishop attends ACP meeting
The Diocese of Clogher’s ACP organisers report on their September meeting, at which Clogher clergy reflected on Priesthood today.
In this case the charges could be proven false by the paternity test. In the vast majority of cases there is no way of proving the charges false. Even when charges are proven false, something sticks. Moreover, even when there is some truth in a charge, the tendency is to exaggerate it and paint things in the blackest possible colours.
Having just listened to the podcast of Friday morning’s edition of Today with Pat Kenny, I wish to congratulate Fr Sean and Fr Liam on an excellent interview. They spoke clearly of the huge injustice done to Fr Reynolds and of the tremendous anguish it caused to him and to all who know him. They spoke too for the need of a more fair approach on the part of RTE’s News and Current Affairs office in the way it reports on matters to do with priests and church. And all of this was said with dignity and in an even-handed way that did not sound either triumphant or vengeful. Well done lads!
Regarding Fr Reynolds defamation case against RTE I am glad that he has had the paternity test and his reputation and integrity are restored to him with that test.The minor who was raped and made pregnant who made accusation and is some one else guilty of this crime .There are many victims of clerical abuse who never had a day in court and were so damaged that their innocent lives were cut short and destroyed.Christ took all the sins of mankind to the cross for our salvation HE did not did not shrink that dreadful suffering but said forgive them Father no day in court !!
Fr Reynalds has had a very large payment in compensation etc and as a follower of Christ will he give this to the many victims of clerical abuse those whose names only the God knows.
I hope RTE continues with investigative journalism but learn from the mistakes in this particular case.
i
The Inquiry called for by Patsy McGarry yesterday (Tuesday), and now set in train by Pat Rabbitte, should be the responsibility of the Minister of Justice, not of Communications. This should not be a merely ‘technical’ inquiry to judge whether RTÉ carried out its remit, but one to decide which heads should roll so that others may learn some lessons. Aoife Kavanagh was no young ingénue, trying to break into investigative journalism by landing a big story, and nor were her producer, editor and director. McGarry is right in that the future credibility of Prime Time and RTÉ will be the main casualty if the investigation is less than thorough and transparent. But the rest of the media, and those who drove their own virulent agendas over the past decade, should be investigated too.