UPDATED –
Regional Meetings on the Wellbeing of Priests.
ACP Members are encouraged to extend an invitation to all priests.
Ardagh & Clonmacnoise, Clogher, Kilmore and Meath; Wednesday 7th June 2.00pm, The Kilmore Hotel, Cavan Town
Clonfert, Galway, Kilmacduagh & Kilfenora: Thursday 15th June 2.00-4.30pm
Writing in the Irish Times Mark Patrick Hederman suggests that there is little time left for the Catholic Church in Ireland to adapt to the realities of life as it is now lived before being reduced to a tiny irrelevant minority.
Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, pays tribute to Henri Nouwen and finds that one of his metaphors ‘with open hands’ to be ‘very pertinent to our present times. A few days back we saw pictures of Francis at Al Azhar mosque in Cairo where he embraced the mosque’s Grand Imam, Ahmad al-Tayeb, who urged the West not to hold an entire religion “accountable for the crimes of any small group of followers.” That image of greeting between a Christian and a Muslim runs counter to our populist press view of castigation of a whole people through the actions of a few.’
Statement by the Association of Catholic Priests on the Appointment of the new Papal Nuncio to Ireland.
Roy Donovan, a member of the ACP leadership team, will participate in ‘Leap of Faith’, RTE Radio 1, Friday, 12 May at 10.00 p.m.
The ACP Leadership discussed the issues surrounding the National Maternity Hospital at their (quarterly) meeting on 2nd May 2017 and issued the following statement…
As this issue is already being debated on our website comments can be addressed to the article “Catholic Ethos and Other Mysteries”,
Gabriel Daly OSA writes about the current controversy concerning the proposed new National Maternity Hospital.
Gabriel says that for the Church it has been “a testing and uncomfortable time and an opportunity to behave as adult Christians aware that the Second Vatican Council has altered the parameters under which previous disputes of this kind had been fought. Here was an opportunity to step away from triumphalist pronouncements and instead to learn humbly how to listen to others before pronouncing the church’s position on reproductive matters. Modern medicine is highly specialised and difficult to understand by those still moralising under the old essentialist moral categories which were thought to be unchanging and were treated as such. Today we may find that there is a legitimate diversity of views, and thus no univocal doctrinal pronouncement is possible.”
The Irish Examiner gives coverage to the wellbeing of priests and in particular to issues of mental health and suicide.
It quotes Roy Donovan as saying that for priests “the issue of depression amongst members of the clergy was certainly one of the main areas of concern” that arose at regional meetings. Roy said that some “are suffering in silence, not knowing where they can turn to for help.”
For your information:
GROW 1890 474 474
PIETA HOUSE 1800 247 247
SAMARITANS 116 123
AWARE 1800 80 48 48
Fr. Pat Moore died on 01 May 2017.
Tim Hazelwood remembers a friend, and Tony Flannery pays tribute to his memory.
Seamus Ahearne looks at the often bleak and angry news of the day and decides that “God; is splashed about everywhere and in everyone. Moaning and groaning isn’t graceful. The world we used to know, is changing. The familiar is gone. The God we knew, and the Rituals that supported us, has gone wandering. But God is in this place and we may not know it. (Gen 28.10). We dare not sulk like Jonah or eventually give in to despair like Job (Job 38). I go to Church each day and I come away smiling.
Report on the Dublin Region Meeting concerning the wellbeing of priests
Bernard Cotter writing recently in The Tablet noted how “It is a strange feature of those who control the consumer calendar, that every feast is celebrated to the full beforehand rather than on the day itself or indeed on any day in its immediate aftermath. Christmas and Easter share a common fate in this regard.”
“How does one respond to the challenge of sustaining Easter joy over its full season? Communication is the Church’s primary tool. Perhaps instead of making so much of the 40 days of Lent on their own, the 90 days of Lent/Easter should in their entirety comprise the annual springtime renewal for Christians, with 40 days of fasting, prayer and almsgiving followed by 50 days of feasting, prayer and celebration (a time to honour those in parish ministries with social time together, perhaps).”
Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, 21 April, asks “why is it that so often the fabric of buildings where people gather for worship is attacked and in consequence many lives are lost? Mosques, Churches, Synagogues, all have been the subjects of outrageous actions……..
We should remember in our prayers those of faith who have died in their places of worship with no weapon in sight, their hands open in prayer to the one God who made us.”
Seamus Ahearne writes of how current events – among them “Kim Jong-un and Trump. Two bully boys let loose in our fragile world with bombs and nuclear possibilities” – lead him into recalling images from a distant past. Sadly, “We were full of negativity. The Church was full of misery.”
Seamus says we need to “Have fun with faith. Make a splash.”
Invitation to all priests in the Dublin region to a meeting in the Regency Hotel, Swords Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 on Tuesday 25th April, 2.00 to 500pm.
This is one of the planned regional meetings of priests to explore in practical detail the worries and the fears that surfaced about the wellbeing of Irish priests at our recent AGM.
Brendan Hoban, in The Western People, takes a look at the recently released Census 2016 figures.
Rita Fernandez is a member of the Parish Pastoral Council and is also one of the Parish Team in Rivermount Parish, Finglas.
Rita shares some thoughts on her experience of the reality of parish life.
Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, comments on the recent statement by the Oblates made in response to Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, who stated that it was government policy that the congregations would share equal liability with the State for the State’s commission of investigation and its redress board.
Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times. makes a few suggestions about how we pray the ‘prayers of the faithful’. “Too often the content of our Bidding Prayers seems to be disconnected from the Liturgy we are celebrating. Unless our liturgical actions have a real connection with the life we are living, they are hollow.”
Pádraig McCarthy shares some interesting statistics with us. e.g. In Ireland those with no religion now account for 9.8% of the population. Those declaring to be Catholic declined by 3.4% since 2011.
Worldwide catholics increased in number in Africa and Asia and the Americas and declined in Europe .
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