Author: Mattie Long

Let’s Eat Together – has the time come to change our (anti-) ecumenical practice which hurts people?

Eating Together, Becoming One by Thomas O’Loughlin has won First Place in the “Ecumenism or Interfaith Relations” category in the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada’s 2020 Book Awards. We extend our congratulations to Tom.

Pope Francis called on theologians to explore whether Catholic practice should be changed to allow Christians, belonging to other churches, to share fully at the table when they take part in a eucharist celebrated by Catholics. Thomas O’Loughlin argues that the various ways of thinking about what we are doing in the liturgy should lead us to see intercommunion as enhancing our participation in the mystery of the church and the mystery we celebrate.

The God of Small Things

Seamus Ahearne reminds us of God being found where we are, and asks; “And what then is prayer?  It is noticing the little things. The little people. The little gifts. The little beauty. The hidden gems. The wonder.  It is being able to see. To take off the shoes. To bow the head. To be grateful.  To being aware.  To looking back and remembering the graciousness of life in people. It is looking around and seeing the Godly image in everyone.”

New World In The Morning

Seamus Ahearne thinks about all the changes we are now faced with as a result of the pandemic.
“We will adjust our thinking to a new way of being,  as we consider a new way forward.  There is no option.”
“Many decisions that should have been taken years ago in terms of planning, are now being forced on us.  Our mentality has to change drastically.”

Shalom

Seamus Ahearne emerges from lockdown “taken back myself at how old I had got and how I had deserved the cocooning!” 
“It is a humbling reflection to glance backwards towards 14/15th March and since.
The world lived without us. Lived without Church. Lived without Mass. No Holy Week. No Easter. No Baptisms. No First Communion. No Confirmations. No house visits. No Schools. No full Funerals. No shopping. No hospital visiting or visits to the sick.
Somehow the sky didn’t fall in.  We can’t go back to how we were.”

Hands

Chris McDonnell thinks about one thing that has been missed in recent weeks – “the exchange of touch between each other in recent weeks for without words our hands speak of our emotions, our cares and our suffering.”
“It is with our hands that we take and give, share and consume. What could be more practical than we receive the gift of the Christ in the same manner?”

Table for Transparency Scores of Dioceses in 2020

Revised: Armagh were incorrectly reported and their revised score is now 30.

We Are Church Ireland publish their ‘Transparency Table’ for irish dioceses.
The Transperancy Scores are calculated based on 10 criteria developed by Voice of the Faithful in the USA. The criteria include the availability on websites of Annual Accounts; details of the Finance Committee; Search functions to quickly find information; financial guidelines.

A bitter struggle for the soul of Catholicism

Brendan Hoban wonders why Pope Francis’ agenda is not gaining traction in the Irish church; the agenda “to rediscover and implement the insights of the Second Vatican Council…. to focus on protecting planet earth, to place the poor at the centre of our concerns, to breathe new life into the concept of mercy, to emphasise a synodal (or group)  approach to decision-making and to find new ways of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

The Drama of Faith

Seamus Ahearne writes of the God who is with us. “God gives us the kiss of life daily for us to revive, walk, sing, dance, love, enjoy, be aware, be grateful, appreciate, notice, wake up and see.     
‘Earth is crammed with heaven.’   (Elizabeth Barrett Browning).”

“The Light From the Southern Cross”

Joshua J. McElwee writes in NCR on the report commissioned by Australia’s bishops and religious orders into how governance in the church can be more “co-responsible,” or be better shared among bishops, clergy and laypeople.
‘The most visible indicator of the barriers to full participation is that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Australia, as in the Church across the world, remains exclusively male.’

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