Why has the Feast of the Epiphany been downgraded?
Sheila Mulcahy emails our website to express dismay at the downgrding of the Epiphany and wonders if Irish people have indeed ‘lost their backbone’.
ACP News
Shamed Cardinal urged to tell life story by President McAleese
Former Irish president Mary McAleese has urged disgraced Cardinal Keith O’Brien to tell his life story — to help gay people in all walks of life who have felt the need to pretend to be heterosexual.
Daily Mass readings app launched
The ACP Leadership Team presents an app containing Mass readings and homily material for each day of 2014, prepared by the ACP homily material contributor, Fr Pat Rogers cp, Mount Argus.
Hang onto your hats for 2014: it may be a bumpy ride
Brendan Hoban rejoices in the renewal Pope Francis has brought in his first year as bishop of Rome (first published in the Western People).
Fr Joe McGuane was an honest priest
Tim Hazelwood pays tribute to his colleague in the diocese of Cloyne and ACP member, Joe McGuane, RIP
Unity must not be confused with uniformity
Gabriel Daly shares a letter he wrote to the Irish Catholic, in response to the interview with Cardinal Levada published recently in that paper.
The late Fr McGuane’s Furrow article is worth re-reading
Reacting to the news of the unexpected death of Fr Joseph McGuane, Sean O’Conaill commends Fr McGuane’s article in the 2008 Furrow, entitled THE PROFESSIONAL CLERIC (reprinted here).
Irish Bishops’ ten-year plan has come to a standstill
Sean M O’Connail assesses the progress in the ten-year plan of implementing the National Directory for Catechesis and finds that, three years in, it has come to a standstill. He calls on the Irish Bishops to acknowledge the state of emergency in the Irish Church, given the crisis facing clerical manpower and morale.
‘Stupidity’ of Veritas has compounded harm done by Tony Flannery episode
Seamus Ahearne osa reflects with sadness and anger on Veritas’ continuing decision not to stock Tony Flannery’s book
Survey for the Synod on the Family is available here
Take the Survey Now In preparation for the Extraordinary Synod on the Family to be held 5th – 19th October 2014, the Vatican has asked national bishops’ conferences around the…
Irish bishops comment on papal initiatives
The Irish Bishops‘ statement at the end of their Winter meeting in Maynooth included comments on the two major initiatives from the Vatican in recent days – the questionnaire on the Synod on the Family, and Pope Francis’ document, The Joy of the Gospel. (Published on the bishops’ website: read the full statement here)
Clogher ACP group discusses Brendan Hoban’s article on Priesthood
Jimmy McPhillips reports on the recent Clogher ACP meeting, which took Brendan Hoban’s Furrow article as its theme. (Read his article here.)
Will church leaders rise to the challenge of Pope Francis?
Tony Flannery rejoices in the difference Pope Francis is making in the Church, but fears that local church leadership may not have the capacity to implement the change the pope wishes for.
Dialogue within the Irish Church may flow from Pope Francis’ leadership
Sean O’Conaill gives a layman’s response to Evangelii gaudium. He hopes that the decentralisation that Pope Francis encourages might overcome ‘deeply embedded Irish clericalism’
With Pope Francis, something is stirring….
Pat Moore reacts to Pope Francis’ letter, asking if Francis is allowing Christianity to reinvent itself in and through him — at a time when the adventure seems to have gone out of Christianity.
Pope Francis publishes his first letter: ‘The Joy of the Gospel’
The ACP Leadership Team share this brief summary of Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation, Evangelii gaudium, published on 26 November 2013 (taken from the Vatican Information Service).
Tony Flannery’s book is courageous and important
David O’Neill, a retired lecturer in theology in the UK (and former Augustinian priest) reviews Tony Flannery’s book, A Question of Conscience
ACI and ACP member Ger Gleeson has died
Adrian Egan CSsR reports the unexpected death of Ger Gleeson, one of our website’s regular contrubuters.
ACP report on Yvonne Murphy investigation published
About eighteen months ago some priests of Dublin Archdiocese approached the ACP Leadership with the proposal that a study of Judge Yvonne Murphy’s Investigation of Clerical Child Abuse in the Archdiocese be conducted.
Retired High Court Judge from Hong Kong, Mr. Fergal Sweeney, was commissioned to do this work.
We here publish his report:
Commissions of Investigation and Procedural Fairness Report (40 pages, PDF)
In conjunction with this, Fr. Padraig McCarthy of the Archdiocese has just published a book on the same subject. This does not duplicate Fergal Sweeney’s work but includes further areas of analysis of the Murphy Report. Padraig’s book, An Unheard Story (published by Londubh) will be available in most bookshops.
Leadership Team: UPDATE
Presenting: a brief profile of the three new members of the ACP Leadership Team, and an update on the original team members.
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