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Saints in November 01 November All Saints Day This feast began in the East to commemorate all martyrs and was progressively adopted in the West. Celebrated on this day in…

Fr Michael Ryan  of St James Cathedral Seattle U.S.A. posted a statement on the cathedral website about the latest mass shooting in that fractured land.
“… the brutal attack on worshippers in Pittsburgh was an attack not only on our Jewish brothers and sisters who for far too long have been the victims of the most vicious forms of bigotry and hatred imaginable, it is also an attack on all people whose right to worship God according to their conscience and their tradition came under attack ….”

A group of German, Austrian, and Swiss church people have come together to make an appeal for “pastoral conversion”.
This group have issued a ”mission manifesto” because they say the Church in Germany, Austria and Switzerland is about to cease to play any significant role in society in the years to come.
“ We are aware of the fact that our home countries have become mission territories … We are ready for mission. We wish that our countries may find Jesus. We extend our invitation to everybody who wants to join us in a committed wave of prayer. We wish to bring together all those who have the courage to take extraordinary steps.”

A visit to the Botanic Gardens gets Seamus Ahearne musing “The beauty of the day; the sun; the shadow; the fading colours of the trees; the flowers, was magnificent. It was indeed another book of Scripture. God was walking in that garden.”

Report on the Annual General Meeting 2018

Chris McDonnell comments on the current Synod of Bishops in Rome in his article in the Catholic Times. “although young people are there to observe and contribute, they will have no voting power when push comes to shove. Much will depend on how good the assembled clerics are at listening, how much their hearing will be conditioned by pre-determined views, how open they are to the realities that face young people.”

The National Catholic Reporter carries a robust editorial on Cardinal Ouellet’s response to Archbishop Viganò. It challenges the role of those U.S. catholics “whose primary ambition, it seems, is to convince the rest of us that the Christian Gospel was actually promulgated to justify the most extreme expressions of American-style capitalism.”
It concludes “The work ahead will require more than bluster and misappropriated slogans. It will require accessing the deepest levels of our sacramental tradition. It will require the imposition of unprecedented accountability from bishops. It will also require bishops with the will to confront the toughest questions about how the clerical culture arrived at this point.”

An interesting report is carried in the National Catholic Reporter on who has voting rights at the Synod on youth.
It’s hard to believe no woman has the right to vote at the Synod on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of women achieving their right to vote in this part of the world.

Dr Gladys Ganiel, Research Fellow, Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen’s University Belfast commissioned a survey about the recent papal visit. The results have been released and are informative.
“For practicing Catholics, 39% said the main reason as to why they did not attend any of the events was because the travel/walk was too difficult, 22% said they were not interested and 18% said they disagreed with how the Church has handled abuse.”

Only 1% of those who did not attend any event put the reason down to the weather!

At the recent annual general meeting of the ACP Tim Hazelwood outlined the continuing supportive role the ACP plays for many priests.

Homily of Pope Francis, St Peter’s Square, Sunday, 14 October 2018.
“Let us ask for the grace always to leave things behind for love of the Lord: to leave behind wealth, leave behind the yearning for status and power, leave behind structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world.”

A presentation on the topic of the retirement of priests was given by Mattie Long at the recent AGM of the Association of Catholic Priests.

An interesting article in America Magazine.
We may not have too many students for the priesthood but what would be an equivalent experience in Ireland?

An audio recording of the presentations made at the AGM on 10 October 2018 is now available from Eist. It is available on a 2 CD set or by email….

An old work song sets Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, reflecting on the beauty and awesome power of water. His musings lead him to think “It is a time of aridity in the Church, so much has happened that has left us parched and thirsty, casting about, looking for a drink to satisfy our thirst.”

Paddy Ferry alerts us to the fact that the funeral Mass of Fr. Kevin Kelly, the English theologian, is taking place in Formby tomorrow, Oct. 9th, at noon. He died on Sept. 25th aged 81.

Paddy says ‘During the controversy leading up to the imposition of the then new liturgy, he wrote to the English bishops expressing his disquiet. I now share the piece once again below, “The Vatican’s Tahrir Square?”. I am now not quite sure where I first came across this –perhaps even on this site. But, when I did, I immediately shared it with Cardinal O’Brien whom I had been pestering about the awfulness of the new liturgy. He immediately sent it to all the Scottish bishops but all to no avail.’

Clontarf Ecumenical Conference Ecumenism: Reimagining the Future of the Irish Church. Date:                         Saturday 13th October 10.00 a.m. to 4.00 p.m. Venue:       Church of St. John the Baptist, Seafield…

Seamus Ahearne visited his neighbours in Finglas West for the closing of their church.
“The symbolism of today was very moving. The closing of a Church brought people to Mass!  ……..
A new world of God, is opening up. We do need to be very creative. Buildings help it happen. It will occur in a very different way. We can knock down some of the structures of religion and become architects of a very new and simple faith.  Pope Francis expresses it well how our Church has to grow and develop. We need to focus on faith-building rather than brick-building.”

Report of the Northern Regional Meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests held in Clanree Hotel, Letterkenny, Tuesday, 11 September 2018.

The address of Vincent Long Van Nguyen, Bishop of Parramatta, to the Concerned Catholics of Canberra and Goulburn Forum on the topic of “The Role of the Faithful in a post-Royal Commission Church in Australia” has relevance not just to the church in Australia but to the universal church.
“If the priesthood has a better future, it has to be humanized; it has to find expression in better mutual support, collaboration and partnership. It has to free itself from the variant strains of clericalism such as sexism, paternalism, narcissism and superiority complex.”
“So long as we continue to make women invisible and inferior in the Church’s language, liturgy, theology and law, we impoverish ourselves as if we heard with only one ear, we saw with only one eye and we thought with only one half of the brain…”