Chris McDonnell shares some thoughts on how we could use the ‘washing of the feet’.
“It is also a liturgy that can be shared without raising contentious issues in an ecumenical setting. There need be no divisions in this mutual giving, no barriers of race, age or social status. It fundamentally cuts through these restrictions and offers an example of Christian love in a simple yet powerful manner.”
“An intimate act of love” was first published in the Catholic Times on 10 March 2017
Marie Collins resigned the Pontifical Commission for the Protection of Minors.
Cardinal Gerhard Müller, the head of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, gave an interview shortly following Collins’ resignation. Marie Collins has written an open letter to Müller in response to that interview, which she asked NCR to publish.
“I would ask that instead of falling back into the Church’s default position of denial and obfuscation, when a criticism like mine is raised the people of the church deserve to be given a proper explanation. We are entitled to transparency, honesty and clarity.
No longer can dysfunction be kept hidden behind institutional closed doors.”
Following the resignation of Marie Collins ‘We Are Church International’ has issued a call for Cardinal Muller to be replaced at the CDF:
Seamus Ahearne, in thinking of the late Des Connell, asks that when he was appointed “Who thought about the man? Who worried about the suitability of this person? Could this man face the burden of leadership of a Church in Dublin at that time? Was he flexible in his thinking; was he adaptable; was he good humoured; was he strong enough to cope; had he the personality to bend and laugh and mix and take the arrows and stones that could be thrown at him? Was he a team worker? “
Questions as relevant for the appointment of a bishop today.
Werner G. Jeanrond writes in Doctrine and Life about models of church for the future.
“Christian communities are called to become communities of love – and not models of some perfect society with a well-ordered male hierarchy.”
“We live and work at the intersection of two competing models of Church: the Church as well-ordered society and the Church as dynamic community. “
“All kinds of conflicts may appear on the road toward a better Church. All kinds of vested interests will show their often ugly heads when challenged. But in the present period of transition, we are invited to remain faithful to God’s love command,…………. this love command applies also in any struggle within our Church.”
Bishop Vincent Long of Parramatta diocese has been giving evidence at the Royal Commission into Institutional response to child abuse in Australia.
He had some very interesting things to say in the course of his evidence.
“It is my concern that there is a trend not only in certain seminaries in Australia but I think it’s a by-product of the two pontificates before that of Pope Francis which encouraged a certain restoration, you might say, of the traditional model of Church, and therefore the seminarians who were trained in that period, I would say, were by-products of that kind of culture in the Church.”
“I think there’s a link between compulsory or mandatory celibacy and clericalism in that compulsory celibacy is an act of setting apart the ordained. It’s creating that power distance between the ordained and the non-ordained. Insofar as it is an instrument of subjugation or subservience, if you like, of the laity, it is wrong and it has to be reviewed. “
“I do believe that the marginalisation of women and the laity is part of this culture of clericalism that contributes not insignificantly to the sexual abuse crisis, and I think if we are serious about reform, this is one of the areas that we need to look at.”
Seamus Ahearne offers his thoughts on some of the issues and people that have been in the spotlight recently.
“I thank God for working in me and I am in awe. It doesn’t make me good or great. But the fun, happiness and wonder of every day is miraculous. The holiness of each day shouts at me. I have been blessed. I never bother my head thinking if only. If only what. Married. Children. Grandchildren. What has been; is done. What is; I live with. What shape tomorrow is; I can help make. Are there things I would like to make different. Of course, but I don’t have the energy to dream backwards.”
Brendan Hoban writing in the Western People wonders what would happen if Francis was more like Trump in his approach to change; “It would be interesting to imagine, for a moment, what might happen to the Catholic Church if Francis was to adopt Trump’s more robust approach.”
He concludes “But clearly that’s not Francis’ way. Because he believes that how you do something is just as important as what you do.”
Chris McDonnell, in this week’s Catholic Times column, writes “We have seen a movement within the Church that, in some ways, reflects the line of Yeats. ‘Things fall apart; the centre cannot hold’, but not completely. For our centre, Christ incarnate, is secure and will always remain. What will change with each generation, and I would suggest, must change, is the manner in which we respond to this eternal experience of the loving God.”
Sarah Mac Donald, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, gives an interesting account of the Irish bishops’ visit to Pope Francis.
“But while Francis was telling the bishops he wanted to hear their problems and criticisms, back in Ireland, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), … issued a statement expressing themselves as “disappointed, frustrated and angry” that, after six years of attempting to engage the bishops in a “respectful and mutual consideration of issues central to the health and well-being of the Irish Catholic church,” the bishops had “pulled the plug on any future engagement with the ACP.”
RTE carried coverage by Joe Little of comments made by Gerry O Hanlon SJ by video-link from Dublin to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.
UPDATED
Updated with a Link to a statement from The Truth Justice and Healing Council, the body set up by the Catholic Church in Australia to coordinate the Catholic Church’s response to the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with a commitment to justice and compassion for survivors.
And a Link to opening statement by Senior Counsel at the Royal Commission’s 50th public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional responses to child sexual abuse.
Tony Flannery reports on the work of a group, which formed following the Network of Reform Groups conference in Chicago last October, that is tasked to produce a Charter of Fundamental Rights for all members of the Church.
Sean O’Conaill reflects on the question of Grace in response to a recent article by Seamus Ahearne.
“In spite of that mistaken 1950s ‘take’ on grace as an antidote to sexuality, at no time in my over seven decades did I ever completely lose hope of encountering a God who was gracious in the sense of freely and constantly loving.”
Seamus Ahearne reflects on the demolition and rebuilding of a church in Finglas parish.
“The new church for building in Finglas to replace the old has to be one where thinking happens; where the breadth of God is celebrated; where God is not protected from questions but where we take off our shoes and bow our heads in praise, gratitude and humility. We are forever learning. We are forever questioning. We are forever thinking. The God of our Church is praised if we are thinking. A passive church; a passive liturgy; a passive people does not respect God. I think therefore I am!”
Michael Maginn shares a thought on St. Blaise’s Day.
“Lord,
May we see beyond rules,
beyond bricks and mortar,
to the flesh and blood
that is truly Church.”
Rita Ferrone reports in commmonwealmagazine.org that Pope Francis has inaugurated a review and re-evaluation of the 2001 document Liturgiam authenticam.
The National Catholic Reporter has a story of how the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests is in the final development stages of issuing an urgent “plea” to the U.S. bishops to “formulate a plan now to meet this emerging crisis” of parish closings and consolidations.
In a working draft it calls a “Proposal for Pastoral Care In & Thru Priestless Parishes,” the Association of U.S. Catholic Priests exhorts the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops and “dioceses nationwide” to quickly address the issue.
Gerry O Hanlon SJ in an opinion piece in the Irish Times maintains that Pope Francis is quietly revolutionising the Church.
“It seems to me that what is going on here is that Francis is proposing a paradigm shift in our model of church that, in effect, reverses the status quo of the past millennium and returns, with appropriate adjustments for our age, to a first millennium model. This is huge, a ‘quiet revolution’, which, strategically, has the potential to unlock many concrete issues of contention within the Church.”
Gerry maintains that this model of church needs to be adopted at a local level.
A reflection by Fr Jim Bacik on the US election. Jim gave a joint diocesan retreat for Tuam and Kilalloe priests in Esker last June. His wisdom and spirituality was well received with Karl Rahner as a ‘giant on his shoulder’.
“it is clear that Pope Francis offers a worldview that challenges the thrust of the Trump movement.”
Interesting editorial comment in the Tablet.
“If there is a future for the Catholic Church in Ireland it will belong to the laity, and especially to Catholic women. “
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