Gabriel Daly OSA writes about the current controversy concerning the proposed new National Maternity Hospital.
Gabriel says that for the Church it has been “a testing and uncomfortable time and an opportunity to behave as adult Christians aware that the Second Vatican Council has altered the parameters under which previous disputes of this kind had been fought. Here was an opportunity to step away from triumphalist pronouncements and instead to learn humbly how to listen to others before pronouncing the church’s position on reproductive matters. Modern medicine is highly specialised and difficult to understand by those still moralising under the old essentialist moral categories which were thought to be unchanging and were treated as such. Today we may find that there is a legitimate diversity of views, and thus no univocal doctrinal pronouncement is possible.”
Seamus Ahearne looks at the often bleak and angry news of the day and decides that “God; is splashed about everywhere and in everyone. Moaning and groaning isn’t graceful. The world we used to know, is changing. The familiar is gone. The God we knew, and the Rituals that supported us, has gone wandering. But God is in this place and we may not know it. (Gen 28.10). We dare not sulk like Jonah or eventually give in to despair like Job (Job 38). I go to Church each day and I come away smiling.
Bernard Cotter writing recently in The Tablet noted how “It is a strange feature of those who control the consumer calendar, that every feast is celebrated to the full beforehand rather than on the day itself or indeed on any day in its immediate aftermath. Christmas and Easter share a common fate in this regard.”
“How does one respond to the challenge of sustaining Easter joy over its full season? Communication is the Church’s primary tool. Perhaps instead of making so much of the 40 days of Lent on their own, the 90 days of Lent/Easter should in their entirety comprise the annual springtime renewal for Christians, with 40 days of fasting, prayer and almsgiving followed by 50 days of feasting, prayer and celebration (a time to honour those in parish ministries with social time together, perhaps).”
Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, 21 April, asks “why is it that so often the fabric of buildings where people gather for worship is attacked and in consequence many lives are lost? Mosques, Churches, Synagogues, all have been the subjects of outrageous actions……..
We should remember in our prayers those of faith who have died in their places of worship with no weapon in sight, their hands open in prayer to the one God who made us.”
Seamus Ahearne writes of how current events – among them “Kim Jong-un and Trump. Two bully boys let loose in our fragile world with bombs and nuclear possibilities” – lead him into recalling images from a distant past. Sadly, “We were full of negativity. The Church was full of misery.”
Seamus says we need to “Have fun with faith. Make a splash.”
Brendan Hoban, in The Western People, takes a look at the recently released Census 2016 figures.
Rita Fernandez is a member of the Parish Pastoral Council and is also one of the Parish Team in Rivermount Parish, Finglas.
Rita shares some thoughts on her experience of the reality of parish life.
Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, comments on the recent statement by the Oblates made in response to Minister for Education, Richard Bruton, who stated that it was government policy that the congregations would share equal liability with the State for the State’s commission of investigation and its redress board.
Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times. makes a few suggestions about how we pray the ‘prayers of the faithful’. “Too often the content of our Bidding Prayers seems to be disconnected from the Liturgy we are celebrating. Unless our liturgical actions have a real connection with the life we are living, they are hollow.”
Pádraig McCarthy shares some interesting statistics with us. e.g. In Ireland those with no religion now account for 9.8% of the population. Those declaring to be Catholic declined by 3.4% since 2011.
Worldwide catholics increased in number in Africa and Asia and the Americas and declined in Europe .
Brendan Hoban in a recent article in the Western People wonders about the abandonment by media and some homilists of the tradition of not speaking ill of the dead.”If they can’t frame the words needed, to respect the dead and the living, then silence is probably the best policy.”
As an occasional reader of the lively but provocative Spanish site https://infovaticana.com, usually I’m either amused or indignant at their critical take on Catholic beliefs, life and leadership. Overall, the…
Pádraig McCarthy draws our attention to the statement from the Oblates about the involvement of religious congregations in the government redress scheme for residents of children’s institutions.
Seamus Ahearne OSA reflects on the story of Lazarus and challenges us to “Wake up. Taste the beauty of life. Notice the wonder and mystery. See God dancing in people, moments and nature. Come out of the tomb. Be bold”
Tony Flannery writing on his blog wonders if “Some of the very basic doctrines of the Church no longer make sense to the modern mind, and are being quietly rejected even by people who still attend church. Some of these doctrines are not Scripture based, but came out of the early centuries of the Church, a time when there was a very different understanding of the world and of humanity, and, probably most significant of all, a very different language which is still used to proclaim these doctrines. “
We carry two interesting articles about the proposed review of ‘Liturgiam Authenticam’, the Vatican’s official guide for liturgical translations.
“The New Zealand bishops are delighted with the news that Pope Francis is arranging for a review of the 2001 document Liturgiam Authenticam.”
“Why haven’t the American bishops or the other English-speaking conferences joined the New Zealanders in welcoming the review? Have they so bought into Liturgiam authenticam that they now oppose Pope Francis’s plan to review and revise it?”
We could well ask what do our Irish bishops think about this issue?
Brendan Hoban, writing in the Western People, suggests it’s time church authorities caught up with the outlook of the vast majority of the membership of the church with regard to the issue of married priests. Brendan says that ‘inevitably, the penny eventually drops’.
Brendan points to the outgoing Papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown stating “after his last public Mass in Ireland, that he was alarmed at the age-profile of Irish priests, the few entering seminaries and his fear that the Irish Church was on a cliff edge, ready to go into ‘free fall’. Strangely, while in office as papal nuncio, Archbishop Brown didn’t strike such a pessimistic note; indeed to the frustration of many he kept talking about ‘green shoots of recovery’ in the Irish Church.”
The death of Eamonn Casey, former bishop of Galway, has evoked different reactions and emotions.
Kevin Clancy has his own special memories; “Having been a diocesan priest myself for several years, working with and coming across a considerable number of bishops, charisma-wise none of them could compare with him or match his passion in promoting the social message of the gospel.”
Brendan Hoban in his weekly column in the Western People says that “If the values of the gospel of Jesus are to find its space in a different world, we need ordinary words to communicate truths that resonate with the deepest reaches and we need rituals, religious or otherwise, that speak gospel truths.
Eamonn Casey urging on thousands of young people in Galway to tell the Pope that they loved him is now part of the baggage of a by-gone era. We need to stop visiting it.”
Seamus Ahearne decides to be “totally irreverent”.
“I want less perfect people and more colour and character. We have produced a faith that glorifies perfection and is totally unreal. We spun yarns about the so-called saints and made them very unreal. We did the same with Jesus. We had no taste for the poetry and metaphor and story of Scripture and then deadened everything with literalism.”
“Life is complicated. We get glimpses of insight. Nothing is simple. We need our heroes. We need our colourful characters. We need people who have a go at living. Does it really matter if they fail or fall? “
Peter Feuerherd writes in the NCR about the plight of married deacons who wish to remarry following the death of their spouse.
In such a case if the deacon marries he must be laicised and ‘As part of his laicization, … is prohibited from performing sacramental ministry pertinent to the ordained, as well as bringing Communion to the sick and reading at Mass, duties that can also be performed by laypeople. “
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