‘We are Church’ in call to bishops; “The continued exclusion of women from all ministries including the priesthood and from executive functions in the Catholic Church is an injustice that must be ended. How can our Church continue to proclaim global justice for the marginalised when it accepts an injustice within the Church that marginalises half of its own members”
Statement from the ACP asking for clarification about the removal of Bishop O’Connell’s (Archdiocese of Los Angeles) words from the promotional video clip for WMOF, following the earlier removal of photographs from a leaflet,.
Thomas O’Loughlin takes issue with Cardinal Sarah following his most recent statement on the Eucharist.
“I suspect many Christians have been taken aback by Cardinal Sarah’s judgment that communion in the hand is the most recent engagement between the good angels, and Lucifer and his demons”.
Our thanks to Brendan Walsh editor of The Tablet for permission to publish this article which first appeared in The Tablet, 23 February.
Sarah McDonald writes in the Irish Independent of the further censoring of material issuing from the World Meeting of Families.
On this occasion “A bishop’s comments expressing conciliatory views on same-sex couples raising children were edited out of a video promoted by the World Meeting of Families (WMF).”
Updated to include We Are Church Statement.
Seamus Ahearne uses the storm enforced break to reflect on the happenings in parish life.
“the Snow has stopped us in our tracks. Anything and everything that wakes up our minds and helps us look again at life, is a gift. “
Bishop Dr John McAreavey, at the centre of a controversy, has resigned as the Co Down Bishop of Dromore.
Brian Fahy reflects on how a life well lived affects us not just during the person’s life but long after they have departed this world.
Brendan Hoban in the Western People outlines the campaign being waged against Fr. James Martin. “What’s clear is that Fr. Martin is no heretic. He’s in good standing with his Church, supported by his Jesuit colleagues and respected in his ministry. He’s not rejecting church teaching. He’s doing what Pope Francis himself has done, creating a space in the Catholic Church for LGBT people and creating greater awareness of the need to respect them”.
“The truth is that, in America, the presence of homophobic groups who place themselves under the umbrella of ‘Catholic’, are spewing unimagined levels of vitriol on anyone whom they believe is compromising what they see as ‘Catholic teaching’. It is a sinister and corrosive development that runs counter to the gospel, to the mercy Pope Francis consistently underlines and even to minimal standards of civility and respect.”
Following deliberations it has been decided to introduce some changes with how comments are posted on the ACP website.
Joshua J. McElwee reports in the National Catholic Reporter on the long running dispute in the Nigerian diocese of Ahiara.
“The priests had complained that Bishop Peter Okpaleke was not from Mbaise, the region surrounding their diocese..”
Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times offers some thoughts on how to make the best of Lent.
He suggests “So how about a ‘Listening Lent’ this year? ” Chris offers what could be very useful advice for us all when it comes to social media! “In our western culture, listening is an acquired skill. We have lost the experience of quiet time, silence, that space between words, the opportunity to consider what we hear before we rush into making a response, is scarce.”
Writing in his blog tonyflannery.com, Tony Flannery questions why changes were made in some of the literature circulated by the organisers of the world meeting of families. He suggests that “the message that is being taken from withdrawal of the (original) leaflet is that only marriage relationships that are in complete accord with Church teaching are welcome at the event.”
Faced with the ‘lucky bag’ of glossy advertising material about the world meeting of families regularly reaching most parochial houses, Seamus Ahearne pens a few thoughts, and hopes, about this upcoming event.
“We need the messed up, chaotic struggle of most ordinary and real families to be centre stage. We have to reflect the life of the family in Ireland and not some idealised version.”
“I don’t dismiss or undermine anything of the mighty work being done in preparation. I am concerned that it can reflect something of what we see daily.”
Joe O Leary offers these thoughts for next Sunday, World Day of the Sick. (Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes)
“Lourdes shows a loving, healing God bending over the mass of human filth and misery, like Christ at the pool of Bethdaida, or like Christ in today’s Gospel compassionately touching the unclean leper.” …….
“So many people are locked in spiritual and psychological paralysis — and the physical paralysis that he cures could be a result of that spiritual paralysis; so many people are impoverished and marginalized and treated as lepers in our society; so many people are possessed or obsessed by demons of various kinds — by prejudice, hatred, fear, greed, enslaving attachments and addictions. The healing activity of Jesus is a blow to liberate us from all these forms of bondage.”
Seamus Ahearne casts his eye over some recent events and wonders at the chaos and if the world has gone mad; he wonders if there is ‘an absence of proportionality’ about grieving over public figures. At the funeral of a friend he is struck by his family’s ‘utter conviction of faith in all that they did’.
Statement from The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) regretting both the removal of pictures of same-sex couples from World Meeting of Families (WMOF) booklets circulated to Irish parishes and the barring of the former President of Ireland, Mary McAleese, from a conference to be held in the Vatican on “Why Women Matter.”
Tony Flannery, on his own website, responds to a letter to the Irish Times from Angela Hanley. Tony suggests that “the organizers of the World Meeting of Families have made a major mistake by redacting their booklet, and getting rid of any reference, by picture or text, to same sex couples.”
Another regular correspondent, Brian Eyre, asks if married priests and their families will be welcome at WMF.
Gerard O’Connell reports in americamagazine.org that Pope Francis has sent “Msgr. Charles Scicluna, the archbishop of Malta and President of the College for the examination of appeals (“in materia delicta graviora,” “in matters of grave crimes”) in the Ordinary Session of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to go to Chile to hear those who have expressed their wish to submit elements in their possession”.
Brendan Hoban writing in his Western People column comments on the ongoing opposition to the task of reforming the Roman Curia. He says there is “huge division between those who want reform in the Church and those who are attempting to block it.”
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