Annual LGBT Christmas Carol Service
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Carol-Service-Flyer-2017.pdf” title=”Carol Service Flyer 2017″]
[pdf-embedder url=”https://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/wp-content/uploads/2017/11/Carol-Service-Flyer-2017.pdf” title=”Carol Service Flyer 2017″]
Prof. Thomas O’Loughlin, in a version of a piece published last week in La Croix International, tells us that “If we believe that the Spirit is moving in the community of the baptised, then a ‘vocations crisis’ is nonsense. It is only a crisis of us failing to look, train, and empower.”
Reflection by Bishop Paul Dempsey to mark Pope Francis’ ‘Amoris Laetitia Family Year’ 26. MAR, 2021 On 19 March 2021, the Feast of Saint Joseph, the Church celebrated five years…
The mercy of God has no end; even humans who disfigure God’s beautiful creation can turn back to God’s ways and find mercy. We continue to mark Creationtide all through…
Brendan Hoban offers a reflection on Holy Week.
“Calvary sets in consoling relief the experience of all who suffer – whether the nightmare of physical pain or the emotional trauma of significant loss or the prospect of imminent death. The human Jesus, struggling to come to terms with the reality of his predicament, echoes every human experience of suffering and of loss and reflects the complexity and confusion of emotions that attend all those caught in the slipstream of pain and loss and death.”
Brendan Hoban writing in his weekly Western People column worries about the type of church some church leaders are pushing on the faithful.
“What’s emerging is almost a church within a church where visions, novenas and relics skirt the edges of superstition, where questionable piosities are lauded and intellectual rigour is suspect, where asking a question is tantamount to betrayal, where pleasure is distrusted and sexual pleasure anathema, where Catholicism takes on an Amish-like appearance and where a series of ‘Catholic’ newspapers encourage a return to the severity, rigidity and judgementalism of the past.’
Pádraig McCarthy reminds us of, and comments on, the 2020 Day of Prayer for Survivors and Victims of Abuse.
I attended this event last year and it was a beautiful and moving service. Ursula Halligan’s address was powerful and made a deep impression.
The flyer in the posting here is not accessible as a link or attachment, but I know that Michael Murphy, former broadcaster with RTE and now a psychotherapist, will be giving the address this year.
Every success for this wonderful event.
I would love to see a LGBT Advent celebration taking place within a Catholic Church. A sign of welcome and inclusion it would be for everyone.
I don’t understand why an Advent service should be billed as for people of a certain sexual orientation, surely this is only a subtle form of discrimination?
Jim,
I wonder could it just possibly be that some people are not comfortable, and don’t feel welcome, in a church that regards them as in some way “disordered” and would prefer go and worship where they are welcomed?
Stacey,
I understand your point and it has validity. It’s just that I think that activities or indeed groups that are aimed at people of a certain sexual orientation to some extent can be seen as justifying the idea that they are in some way ‘different from us’, and that this is a dangerous road to go down. I suppose for me a classic example of this is the ‘Gay Games’ . What on earth has sporting ability to do with sexual orientation? Surely athletics contests should be blind to it? Sorry if this is a tangent!