ACP News

Seamus Ahearne responds to Eddie Finnegan’s noting that so few priests write on this site. He suggests that in the life of a priest, words are enormously important – written or spoken.

Alan Hilliard shares a New York Times profile of the Austrian reform leader Fr Helmut Schüller, published on 22 March 2013. Read the original here

Brendan Hoban reflects on the recent appointments to the Irish Bishops’ Conference and wonders if Rome’s new policy of appointing outsiders in each case will work.

Tony Flannery is looking for help on how to deal with an impersonator on Twitter.

Linda Hogan reviews Garry Wills’ latest book, ‘Why Priests? A Failed Tradition‘, in which Wills argues that the most honest position on priesthood would be to seek its abolition altogether, given its lack of biblical justification (first published in the Irish Times: read original article here ). Wills’ target is not the 400,000 individual priests, many of whom, he acknowledges, make a significant contribution to the lives of countless millions worldwide. Rather, his focus is on the institution, which, he argues, has a flimsy biblical heritage and a dubious theological justification and is an impediment to the development of a more egalitarian Christianity.

This account was sent in to the website by a woman whose name is with the ACP Leadership Team.  They decided not to publish her name, so that the church and the priest would not be easily identified.

The ACP has called on the Irish Bishops’ Conference to meet Ireland’s silenced priests as soon as possible and to then negotiate with the CDF. A motion proposing this was agreed by over 250 priests at a meeting in Athlone, and the motion subsequently signed by over a thousand people on this website.

Margaret Lee highly recommends the film ‘Pilgrim Hill‘, a low budget movie filmed in Kerry;  and she praises the support given to the production by Pat Moore.  Pat is a priest of Kerry diocese, and an active member of the ACP

The Kerry diocesan branch of the ACP met recently and members offered suggestions why few priests respond to local ACP meetings.

Padraig McCarthy reports that the meeting scheduled between ACP members and the church leaders of the Holy Land has been cancelled by the organisers.

Jimmy McPhillips, an ACP member in Clogher diocese, critiques the ACP and its website, and regrets that so few of priests’ real concerns are raised: frustration, absence of real leadership, low morale, depression and all the burdens of pastoral ministry. He suggests that ACP members meeting at local level in dioceses and Religious communities might help keep the leadership in touch with these core issues.

Tony Flannery shares some of his hopes and dreams for the Church after the election of Pope Francis (article written for the Connacht Tribune).

Eddie Finnegan probes the non-participation of the vast majority of Ireland’s parish priests on their ACP website, and ponders if a fear of clericalism is at its heart

The New York Times profiles Father Helmut Schüller, the ‘mild but rebellious priest’ who was part of the 2011 ‘Appeal to Disobedience’ by 400 priests in Austria. This initiative began with a small group of priests, talking about the problems faced by their parishes, about the lack of successors to take their places, and about the fusing of congregations.

(A version of this article appeared in print on March 23, 2013, on page A8 of the New York edition with the headline: With New Pope, Spotlight Returns to a Mild but Rebellious Priest.)