Ainead Ní Mhuirthile gives a personal reaction to her experience as a Synod Delegate in the Limerick Diocesan Synod.
Ainead quotes one priest saying “I thought I’d never see the day where lay people would have a vote in a Church Synod,” adding “should have happened a year or two after Vatican 2 of course…”
and Bishop Leahy “This Synod is a real marker, but the journey goes on..”
Brian Fahy is currently writing commentaries on the Sunday lectionary for Mayhew Publications for a book that will be published later this year. While working on this project and with Sunday B ordinary time in mind he wrote this reflection on the publication of ‘The Joy of Love’.
“The issues of what is right and what is possible can be brought together and in this latest document Pope Francis does exactly that. Justice and mercy can meet. The great thing with Francis is that he speaks our language and before him, the popes too often spoke in a ‘language that the strangers (to church matters) do not know.’ “
Seamus Ahearne reflects on recent events and points to the need for real leadership in society and also a need for courageous leaders in church.
Faced by events like Brussels and Lahore, with the seas becoming ‘insatiable cemeteries’ for those fleeing war he asks ‘Where will the needed leadership come from? Who will create the map that we need?
In church Seamus tells us ‘Theology is full of poetic mystery but we were satisfied with crude prose for years and it passed as orthodoxy. It became official and those who stepped outside such thinking were condemned. The New Missal is a monument to fundamentalists who knew nothing of a living God or Grace. Their Liturgy was solemn, static and ignored the incarnation.’
Seamus concludes, ‘Politicians. Church people. Educationalists. Trade-unionists. Society. All need to begin to learn humbly how to live out the Proclamation; the Gospel; the challenge of being a grown up nation and an adult Catholic. There is much to do.’
We publish the text of the talk given by Máire Ní Dhuibhir at the ACI meeting in Galway last Thursday, 31 March. It created an enormous impression among the people who came — long and sustained applause.
It loses something in print, in that Máire sang various parts beautifully, but it is a very worthwhile read.
“I think we would be immeasurably enriched by getting together as women, re-reading the New Testament and try and find the women’s story there and learn about the great women mystics and the independent women of the church who founded orders of nuns and the stories of contemporary women. I think we can articulate like these women before us how the Divine is always with us, just as Jesus promised. I believe we can then change the Church and the communities from within.”
Sarah Mac Donald reports in the NCR on comments by Bishop Donal McKeown of Derry who said that unless the bishops are seen to be “willing to go way beyond our comfort zone then people will say you are just a group looking after yourselves.”
Tony Flannery responding said that he has received “great support from many people and priests,” but he has also experienced “how quickly and completely church authorities shut you out as soon as the Vatican moves against you…… All I have ever looked for in relation to myself and others who are accused of ‘dissent’ is a process that is fair, just and transparent.”
He added, “The present CDF process is a scandal, and brings shame on our church.””
On the eve of Holy Thursday Pádraig McCarthy reminds us of the cost of true discipleship in many parts of the world with reports of the death of Fr. Vincent Machozi in the Democratic Republic of the Congo.
Coming so soon after the murder in Yemen of four religious sisters, Sisters Anselm, Marguerite, Regina, and Judith, of the Missionaries of Charity, the religious order founded by Mother Teresa, it highlights the immense dangers now faced by so many Christians who seek to practice their faith in a very disturbed world. Twelve others who worked with the sisters as volunteer aides were killed on 04 March by members of ISIS.
Sean O’Conaill argues that with the continuity of Catholic faith in Ireland now seriously in question – and with controversy growing over equal access to primary schooling for all – it is time to abandon school-centred Catholic faith formation as a catastrophic failure.
Pádraig McCarthy writes about an unusual “co-incidence” in the date of Good Friday this year. It won’t occur again until 2157.
Happy Spring Equinox and Holy Week.
Thomas O Laughlin writes about the tardiness of Cardinal Sarah in changing a simple rubric despite being requested to do so by Pope Francis. Thomas has written about the Holy Thursday washing of feet in The Pastoral Review.
Seamus Ahearne contrasts the, sadly failed, herculean efforts of one national ex-serviceman to exercise his right to cast his vote in the recent general election with the ‘The squabbling and childishness of many of the TDs (that) dishonours the flag and our country.’
But Seamus concludes that “Yes, I should be more gentle with our politicians and the electors – we probably all suffer from the same ‘sin’ of today. The immediate and the superficial and obvious is all we can cope with.”
Next week, Hans Küng, the Catholic priest and Swiss theologian, will mark his 88th birthday. The fifth volume of his complete works, titled Infallibility, has just become available from the German publishing house Herder. In connection with the release of Infallibility, Küng has written the following “urgent appeal to Pope Francis to permit an open and impartial discussion on infallibility of pope and bishops.” The text of his urgent appeal was released simultaneously by National Catholic Reporter and The Tablet.
“Receive this comprehensive documentation and allow a free, unprejudiced and open-ended discussion in our church of the all the unresolved and suppressed questions connected with the infallibility dogma.”
Sean McDonagh kindly provides the text of an interview he did with Brian Rowe of the National Catholic Reporter during his recent 10-day speaking tour of the East Coast of the U.S. which focused on his new book on Pope Francis’ encyclical, “Laudato Si’, on Care for Our Common Home.”
Sean tells us “This is potentially an extraordinary moment for the church,” … “… Now do we take it or do we go back into our burrows? I hope we take it.”
Tony Flannery writes of his experience of a funeral celebrated with love and dignity.
“God was just as surely present there today, not just in the host and the wine, but in the gathering of the people, and the way in which they surrounded the mourners with love. “
“It was sad, it was emotional, but it was also at some deep, mysterious level, beautiful.
Sometimes it is good to be part of this too often broken Church. Today was one of those days.”
We extend our sympathy to all of Tadhg Mc Donnell’s family and friends, especially his wife Kathleen, and sons John and Patrick.
May he rest in peace.
Sean McDonagh, at the U.S. launch of his book ‘On Care for our Common Home, Laudato Si’ published by Orbis Books, gives a report on the grotesque, unbelievable, bizarre and unprecedented farce that is passing for political debate in the republican presidential primary contests.
Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, gives his thoughts on a very topical subject at present; should the church ever refuse a funeral Mass?
Brendan says “One of the most difficult truths of the Christian faith is that no one is beyond the reach of God’s mercy. No one. This is easy to understand in theory but a difficult concept to accept in practice.”
“So whether it’s the funeral of an IRA bomber during the troubles in the North or a priest pedophile buried in the dead of night or gangsters who have brought incredible suffering to countless individuals and families, that one truth applies to everyone. None of them is beyond the extended reach of God’s love and moderating that reach is not an option for a Christian church.
Jesus Christ expressed that truth clearly in just two words in Luke 6:37, ‘Judge not’ “.
Pádraig McCarthy raises the issue of the reducing number of men showing an interest in Christianity. He refers us to an interesting article by Charles Horejsi, a retired University of Montana professor of Social Work.
Seamus Ahearne shares two personal letters he wrote to the Papal Nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown, about the nuncio’s refusal to accept an invitation from the ACP to meet with us.
“You will meet the formal church in your work. People will dress up. All the Liturgies will be done beautifully. You will be invited to a celebrating Church. I would suggest that the church you need to meet is the one on the ground; the informal one; the broken one; the hurting one; the one where most people have walked away; the one where lives are messed up totally.”
“Your job is much too important for you to opt out of hearing the views of a very serious and passionate group – the ACP. How can you shape the Church in Ireland if you are dismissive of the experience of those who know the scene best?”
Tony Flannery gives his thoughts on the election campaign.
“please, whoever is elected, put your personal ambitions to one side, and don’t think only of your local area, but rather of the good of the country as a whole, and give us a government that will, in so far as it is possible, govern with wisdom and discernment, and for the good of all the people. And most of all, stop shouting at each other, and try to listen instead!.”
Seamus Ahearne shares his reflections on a week of murder and funerals, politicians’ promises and one pope’s anger and another pope’s letters, and sadly more deaths.
But in it all we were taken ‘yet again to a mountain top and experienced that awesome presence of God and the dullness and dreariness of daily news was overwhelmed by grace and goodness.’
Seán McDonagh, drawing on the wisdom of ‘Laudato Si’ brings to our attention the impact the consumption of meat is having on Humans and the Global Environment.
“We might think that this generation is merely following the tradition of our ancestors when it comes to eating meat. In reality the global meat industry has grown dramatically in recent decades. Between 1963 and 2014 meat production globally has grown from 78 million tons to 300 million tons.”
“to reach a healthy level of meat consumption, citizens of the United States would have to cut their meat consumption by two-thirds, while in Britain and Ireland we should be eating half as much meat as we do.”
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