Author: Mattie Long

Seamus Ahearne reflects on the final article written by Daniel O Leary for The Tablet – ‘Coming Home Too Soon.
We carry a link to the article in The Tablet.

Chris McDonnell in the Catholic Times (an edited version of a longer article published in the Dominican Journal SPIRITUALITY this month) about the cult, and curse, of clericalism.
“Our recognition of clergy as a defined group has become confused with our appreciation of priesthood, that ‘royal priesthood’ we all share, …… “

Brendan Hoban writes in his Western People column of his hopes for a new style of leadership in the church in Ireland.
“What we need are bishops who are secure enough in their own skin to be able to live with ambivalence and complexity……who have the imagination, the creativity and above all the courage not to keep looking over their shoulders to Rome and to confront – respectfully but robustly – those who want to lead us back to the nineteenth century. “

America magazine carries an article on comments by two of the people who have served on the Vatican’s commission to research women deacons in the early church.

Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, and thinking of different walls through history reminds us that “The simple yet profound injunction of Jesus that we should ‘love God and our neighbor as ourselves’, is too easily forgotten.” We should he says “Pause awhile and tear down those walls.”

Ahead of the Abuse Summit in Rome in February with Pope Francis and the Heads of Bishops Conferences Marie Collins, speaking at the WAC Ireland meeting held on 14 January 2019, called on Pope Francis to seek agreement for a policy of zero tolerance and full transparency on clerical sex abuse and universal safeguarding of children throughout the Catholic Church.

Reading an article about Charles Davis sets Seamus Ahearne reminiscing about the days after Vatican II when “..we were let loose. We were ready for anything. We were armed with hope. The spirit of the Council was our Mission Statement.”
….
“The questions that Charles asked, are still demanding answers. We can never escape the challenge.  Faith is always seeking understanding.  Ministry will always be demanding prophetic action.”

Peter Steinfels, a former religion reporter and columnist for the New York Times and a former editor in chief of Commonweal, has analyzed the more than 1,000 pages of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and he believes the public has been misled.

We Are Church Ireland call for Irish Lay Catholics to nominate new Bishops. 

Fr Gerry O’Hanlon S.J. will give a talk on his recent book, 
The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis: A Synodal Catholic Church in Ireland? 
in the Ó Fiaich Library, Moy Road, Armagh,‪ on Saturday, 19 January 2019, from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm.

The National Catholic Reporter carries a story of Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s call for a change of the requirement of celibacy for priests as the German bishops’ conference prepares for a workshop debate to “review” the issue.
“Marx said the church must, “in light of the failure” surrounding the clergy sex abuse crisis, modify tradition in response to changing modern times.”

Letter from Pope Francis to U.S.A. bishops who are on retreat to pray about the issue of clerical abuse in the Church.

Marie Collins speaks on how Pope Francis and the heads of Bishops’ conferences might tackle the clerical abuse scandal.
7.30 pm Monday 14 January 2019
Mercy Centre International, 64A Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2

Tony Flannery looks back on 2018 and forward to 2019 ‘with both hope and trepidation.”

In an op-ed published in the Telegraph, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary of the U.K. Government, explains why he has commissioned a review into the persecution of Christians.
“Whatever the cause, we must never allow a misguided political correctness to inhibit our response to the persecution of any religious community.”
Irish politicians please copy?

Wishing a very happy and peaceful Christmas to you and your family Nollaig Shona Dhuit Feliz Natal 楽しいクリスマスをお過ごしください Froehliche Weihnachten Joyeux Noël Feliz Navidad 愉快的圣诞节 Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia

Seamus Ahearne offers a short Christmas reflection.

Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times tells how each year in his parish “we have included a Proclamation of the feast of Nativity, read by candlelight in a darkened church…….. So each year when the Nativity feast is marked, we do so in the context of what once happened and what happens now in our own days. We should realise the crucial role that each of us, however insignificant we might be, has to play; all of us are pilgrims on a journey.”