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Addressing Maynooth

Brendan Hoban like many priests spent a good part of today, Friday, visiting the elderly and sick in his parish and found there’s a lot of upset out there among people about the allegations that have been made against Maynooth Seminary.
Many priests will be considering if they should address this issue at weekend Masses. Brendan offers some thoughts that might provide a bit of clarity on the background as so many are confused; it might encourage priests to address it.

Comments on this topic should be posted at “Maynooth Seminary Crisis: ACP Statement”

Into Extra Time

Brendan Hoban reviews Michael Paul Gallagher’s “Into Extra Time.”

‘Michael Paul worried that publishing such a personal narrative would seem to inflate his own experience or appear too self-centred and pious and he found writing a book that would be read only when he was dead a strange moment in his life. But he need not have worried. It is, I believe, the most important book he has written.’

All are Welcome

A monthly celebration of Sunday Mass in Avila Carmelite Centre, Bloomfield Avenue (off Morehampton Road), Donnybrook, Dublin 4, at which all are welcome, with a particular welcome for lgbt (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgendered) people, their parents, family members, and friends.
Celebrants have included Archbishop Diarmuid Martin and diocesan and religious priests.

Rejuvenating Church ?

The CDF has issued its first document, “Iuvenescit Ecclesia” or “the Church rejuvenates.” under Pope Francis.
Can a leopard change its spots? Not according to some commentators;
“Much of the text reads like the “desk-bound” or laboratory theology that the 79-year-old pope finds unhelpful.” commented Cindy Wooden, Rome bureau chief of Catholic News Service.

Others such as Massimo Faggioli see it a little differently;
“There is a very interesting admonition about ordained members of new movements that seek ordination to serve only their movement (par. 22) – a very well-known problem that so far has been officially denied by the Church leadership – and an interesting phrasing about the danger of having the movements creating a “parallel” path in the Church (par. 23). This is something that came up at the 1987 Synod, but no pope before Francis had the courage to talk about. There is also the clear intention of Francis not to create new precedents in the recognition process of new movements.”

History is history, and truth must be told

Updated with Bishop Fleming’s address at the launch.

Brendan Hoban is well known as a commentator on current church affairs as well as his commitment to the implementation of the reforms of Vatican II at all levels in church.
Less well known is his remarkable interest in history as demonstrated with the publication of his latest book “Telling the Story, A Dictionary of Killala Clergy” which is the third book of a three volume series of Readings in Killala Diocesan History.

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