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Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times about the crisis in which the church is mired states “First of all, we cannot expect, nor should we presume, that the bishops can achieve change by carefully chosen phrases and pious pleasantries. There must be deep and meaningful exchange with the laity, using the latter’s experience and expertise to inform and develop a satisfactory strategy. Ownership by all achieves more than the instruction from a selected group.
Secondly, we must ensure that women are allowed and encouraged to participate fully in such developments……….The singular male voice has dominated for too long and the story that has been told has been incomplete. Maybe now, at long last, change will be forced upon us and we will recognise that appreciation of the broader picture will only come when the response is from both men and women.”

Brendan Hoban writes in the Western People in the wake of the recent Rome meeting on ‘The Protection of Minors in the Church’

“No one, reading what Francis has said, could find any kind of doublethink, evasion or prevarication. Or indeed any room for equivocation. He clearly means what he says and there’s a real sense that he is now giving the abuse of children (and how the Church has dealt with it in the past) his full and undivided attention. And, by announcing his ‘defrocking’ of former cardinal, a few days before the Rome conference he’s sent a clear signal of his intent.”

At the next meeting of We Are Church Ireland  the terrific film Monseñor – The Last Journey of Óscar Romero  (DVD 88 minutes)  will be shown in the large International Room…

A discussion evening on the themes of the book, Elephant in the Church, will be held on Women’s International Day, March 8th, in the Avila Centre in Donnybrook, Dublin.
“It will look at the multitude of aspects that make up women’s status in the Church, creating a space for women, a language for women and a ministry for women, all of which are currently ignored.”

An edited version of this article by Peter Stanford about the bishops’ meeting in Rome to discuss clerical sexual abuse appeared recently in The Observer.
“It is an appalling moral failure and needs to end now, but that will involve rethinking an entire approach to sexuality in Catholicism that is peculiar, punitive and often plain perverse. The Jesus of the gospels had almost no interest is such matters. Why does the Church leadership? “

Gerry Heffernan of St Joseph’s and St Anthony’s Parish, Brisbane shares a prayer with us on the occasion of the Vatican Summit dealing with the issue of abuse in the church.

Brendan Hoban in his Western People column takes a look at a new proposed programme on Sex Education in schools, at what could be the next debate / battle “between civil and religious contexts’ where “distrust and accusation are the order of the day.”….
“The hope would be that … we’ve learned a bit from our mistakes: that we don’t know it all; that we can learn from those we may disagree with; … and especially that, given all that has happened in recent decades, we’re not in the best place to pontificate on matters sexual. In other words, that we can learn as well as teach.”

A talk by Fr Gerry O’Hanlon in The Parish Centre, Leighlinbridge, Co Carlow on Tuesday 19 February at 7.45 p.m.

Paddy Ferry brings our attention to an article by Mary Cullen, editor of Open House where she sets the scene for the Open House conference in June which will explore some of the new directions opening up in the Catholic Church in Scotland.   
This article first appeared in February/March edition of Open House and we are grateful to Mary Cullen for permission to publish it here.

A reminder for our Scottish friends that Gerry O’Hanlon travels to Edinburgh on Tuesday to speak at the Newman Association.

Seamus Ahearne reflects on the final article written by Daniel O Leary for The Tablet – ‘Coming Home Too Soon.
We carry a link to the article in The Tablet.

Chris McDonnell in the Catholic Times (an edited version of a longer article published in the Dominican Journal SPIRITUALITY this month) about the cult, and curse, of clericalism.
“Our recognition of clergy as a defined group has become confused with our appreciation of priesthood, that ‘royal priesthood’ we all share, …… “

Brendan Hoban writes in his Western People column of his hopes for a new style of leadership in the church in Ireland.
“What we need are bishops who are secure enough in their own skin to be able to live with ambivalence and complexity……who have the imagination, the creativity and above all the courage not to keep looking over their shoulders to Rome and to confront – respectfully but robustly – those who want to lead us back to the nineteenth century. “

America magazine carries an article on comments by two of the people who have served on the Vatican’s commission to research women deacons in the early church.

Chris McDonnell, writing in the Catholic Times, and thinking of different walls through history reminds us that “The simple yet profound injunction of Jesus that we should ‘love God and our neighbor as ourselves’, is too easily forgotten.” We should he says “Pause awhile and tear down those walls.”

Ahead of the Abuse Summit in Rome in February with Pope Francis and the Heads of Bishops Conferences Marie Collins, speaking at the WAC Ireland meeting held on 14 January 2019, called on Pope Francis to seek agreement for a policy of zero tolerance and full transparency on clerical sex abuse and universal safeguarding of children throughout the Catholic Church.

Reading an article about Charles Davis sets Seamus Ahearne reminiscing about the days after Vatican II when “..we were let loose. We were ready for anything. We were armed with hope. The spirit of the Council was our Mission Statement.”
….
“The questions that Charles asked, are still demanding answers. We can never escape the challenge.  Faith is always seeking understanding.  Ministry will always be demanding prophetic action.”

Peter Steinfels, a former religion reporter and columnist for the New York Times and a former editor in chief of Commonweal, has analyzed the more than 1,000 pages of the Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and he believes the public has been misled.

We Are Church Ireland call for Irish Lay Catholics to nominate new Bishops. 

Fr Gerry O’Hanlon S.J. will give a talk on his recent book, 
The Quiet Revolution of Pope Francis: A Synodal Catholic Church in Ireland? 
in the Ó Fiaich Library, Moy Road, Armagh,‪ on Saturday, 19 January 2019, from 10.00 am to 1.00 pm.

The National Catholic Reporter carries a story of Cardinal Reinhard Marx’s call for a change of the requirement of celibacy for priests as the German bishops’ conference prepares for a workshop debate to “review” the issue.
“Marx said the church must, “in light of the failure” surrounding the clergy sex abuse crisis, modify tradition in response to changing modern times.”