Articles

Brian Eyre encourages the Irish bishops on their visit to Rome to face the realities about the shortage of priests, about the benefits of having married priests. “Today after 34 years of married life I still feel and know that I have been faithful to the calling of Our Lord and that my marriage has helped me be a better priest.”

Kevin Hayes offer some wisdom to Archbishop Brown, Papal Nuncio; as he says “At seventy-seven I feel entitled to lecture even Papal Nuncios!”
“I still have warm regard and concern for our Christian people, in Irish, Pobal Dé. I use that term rather than Church. I am not a great admirer of the institutional Catholic church. I believe the institution has become more important than the Christian message, the Word of God. The institution has become more important than the individual person and so many times its interests have been placed before the good of the person.”

The National Catholic Reporter has a story about an open letter on the state of the church and priestly ministry in Germany that a group of 11 German priests from the Cologne archdiocese have written urging the church to open the priesthood to both men and women and to make priestly celibacy voluntary.
Meanwhile Archbishop of Armagh, Eamon Martin, writes about his visit to Rome, “No doubt Pope Francis and the other curial officials will be interested to learn how we are facing the current challenges of a decline in Mass attendance in Ireland and in the number of vocations to the priesthood and the religious life.
I, and my fellow bishops, will be able to share with them the resilience of our priests and religious under increased pressure and workload, as well as the tremendous generosity and kindness of the faithful towards us.
We will be able to discuss the seeds of renewal and new growth in catechesis, lay involvement, intentional discipleship and pastoral outreach that are emerging all over the country.

Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, questions why Irish bishops when faced with the dramatically reducing number of priests in the Irish church ‘are not good at maths. It takes them a long time to get their heads around something and then when they do the sums they seem to lose their nerve and back away from the obvious answer.’
Reports suggest the Brazilian bishops are asking Francis to allow married priests to resume their priestly ministry. ‘So shouldn’t we be doing something about it, now? Couldn’t our bishops do what the Brazilian bishops are doing?’.

Brian Fahy has been doing some very early spring cleaning and unearthed some notes made in the past that are still very relevant today.

Brendan Hoban, in his weekly Western People column, ruminates on the passing of 2016 and what 2017 might hold for us.

Brian Fahy, reflecting on his own life experiences, warns against the presumption that we’re always doing good merely because we think we are ‘working for God’.
‘People in the church presume that what they do is always good since they are working for God. They do not think to question many of the practices they perform precisely for this reason. They do not ever think that they might be mistaken.’

Brian Eyre, writing in the context of a recent hospital visit, says that it’s time the needs of the people to have access to the Eucharist were put before other considerations. He quotes Bishop Emeritus William McManus from 1989 when he said to the US conference of bishops “Are we prepared to make a value judgement that it is better to have priestless Sundays than to ordain married men or women?”

Angela Hanley shares her experience of the 18th Annual LGBT Christmas Carol Service, that she says ” turned out to be the spiritual event of the year for me.”

“As I sat there I thought: ‘Surely, this is all part of the meaning and mystery of the Incarnation? That God became human unconditionally. To be LGBT is also to be wholly graced by God who became incarnate for all humanity, not just a select few, to show us by words and example how to be properly human.’ “

“I felt warmth, welcome, acceptance, joy, a deep sense of the presence of God and the powerful sense of community – not a gathering of individuals who happen to be in the same place because of a common belief – but a real, joyful sense of community. In other words, it truly was ekklesia in its fullest sense.”

Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times UK reminds us that “If the Church has problems then people, all of us who are the Church, have a contribution to make at both parish and diocesan level. Those who participate in finding solutions after carefully exploring the issues are far more likely to accept and implement the resultant conclusion’ . However time is short and
“inspiration for dialogue and renewal has come from informal groups of laity who in their own time and through their own initiative have asked the questions, sought answers and attempted discussion with our priests and bishops in good faith. Mostly, to no avail.”