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Pádraig McCarthy has re-formatted ‘The Joy of Love’ on A4 pages as a downloadable and printable PDF file.

Details of a conference being organised by the Loyola Institute entitled ‘The Role of Church in a Pluralist Society: Good Riddance or Good Influence? ‘
It will be held in Trinity College, Dublin, from 22 to 24 June.

The homily at the Funeral Mass of Judge Adrian Hardiman (1951-2016) 10th March, 2016 Readings: Proverbs 2:1-9; 2 Corinthians 5:1,6-10; Mark 12:28-34 We have to pinch ourselves, are we really…

Clarification concerning statement issued by the Catholic Communications Office Media Service of November 2nd 2015.

Tony Flannery thinks we should accept Pope Francis’ invitation to discuss openly and honestly issues in the church.
Francis said recently’ The path ahead, then, is dialogue among yourselves, dialogue in your presbyterates, dialogue with lay persons, dialogue with families, dialogue with society.I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly.’
Tony feels it is time there was an open dialogue about the issue of ordination for women.

Christopher Lamb writing in The Tablet blog reports that Cardinal Mark gave a basic theology lesson to some at the synod.
Cardinal Reinhard Marx said “doctrine and theology are not the same” adding that “many people talk about doctrine but they have no idea what it is.”
“Doctrine, he explained, is the tradition of the Church which is “not a closed shop, it is a living tradition” while doctrine needs to be lived rather than read in a book.”

Anthony Ruff OSB writing in his blog www.praytellblog.com asks ‘what to do when your church changes on you’. He bases his comments on a presentation by Barry Hudock at St. John’s University and uses the case of Fr. Joseph Fenton as an example.

Perhaps a pertinent question in the light of the Synod’s discussions?

Brendan Hoban writing in his weekly Western People column worries about the type of church some church leaders are pushing on the faithful.
“What’s emerging is almost a church within a church where visions, novenas and relics skirt the edges of superstition, where questionable piosities are lauded and intellectual rigour is suspect, where asking a question is tantamount to betrayal, where pleasure is distrusted and sexual pleasure anathema, where Catholicism takes on an Amish-like appearance and where a series of ‘Catholic’ newspapers encourage a return to the severity, rigidity and judgementalism of the past.’

Chris McDonnell wonders which voice will be heard in the Synod. Those that haven’t been included in the past need to be; “we are now in the early days of the Synod, considering the statements that arose from discussions a year ago, the question of women’s place in the Church cannot be set aside.”

John J. O Shea writes an open letter to 300+ delegates and alternates who are going to the synod from the different countries.
John J. challenges all to speak freely, boldly, and without fear about the true status of women in our church.

The Catholic bishops of England and Wales have published an extraordinarily candid piece of criticism of the Church taken from a summary of responses to a consultation conducted in preparation for the forthcoming international synod of bishops in Rome next month, on the subject of marriage and family life.
An editorial in The Tablet states that “they want a Church that engages with married life and its messy difficulties realistically and humanely, not one offering idealistic textbook answers.”
One respondent is quoted as saying: “It would seem that right now the Church may well have more to learn from marriage and family life than to teach.”

One of the rich veins of wisdom in Francis’ words to the bishops of the U.S.A.
“Dialogue is our method, not as a shrewd strategy but out of fidelity to the One who never wearies of visiting the marketplace, even at the eleventh hour, to propose his offer of love (Mt 20:1-16).

The path ahead, then, is dialogue among yourselves, dialogue in your presbyterates, dialogue with lay persons, dialogue with families, dialogue with society.

I cannot ever tire of encouraging you to dialogue fearlessly.”

Francis A. Quinn, the retired bishop of Sacramento, has an interesting article in The New York Times in preparation for Pope Francis’ visit to the U.S.A.
One of the topics he broaches is that of the ordination of women.
“Recent popes have said publicly that priesthood for women cannot be considered because the gospel and other documents state that Christ ordained men only.
Yet women have shown great qualities of leadership: strength, intelligence, prayerfulness, wisdom, practicality, sensitivity and knowledge of theology and sacred Scripture.
Might the teaching church one day, taking account of changing circumstances, be inspired by the Holy Spirit to study and reinterpret this biblical tradition?”

With so many retired bishops speaking out recently on topical issues it raises the question why they haven’t done so when in office. What prevents bishops from expressing such views when they hold office? Whatever it is, it most certainly is not healthy and is damaging the office of bishop and the universal church.

Helen B. Costigane, Ph.D.; D.C.L. writes on the canonical obligations of a bishop for financial care of suspended or laicized priests.
This article was first published in the July issue of THE FURROW, and later was made available through www.justiceforpriests.org

Jim McCormack CM asks whether in a rapidly changing world the sacraments as we celebrate them require a complete overhaul . Evolution and change over decades and centuries has always been part of the church, its ministry and its celebration of sacraments; “Gradually a system will develop which will satisfactorily cover all the appropriate bases.”
The challenge facing the “POWERS THAT BE” is in deciding to let go and let what is past ‘rest in peace’.

Seamus Ahearne shares his thoughts with us following a recent wedding.
In his usual style he recommends a huge dose of E for us: ‘Our church has to be expansive and explosive and exciting and exhilarating’.
‘I also recalled Stephen Hawkins who said that Church folk damage God – “your God is too small.”
”Why do they ‘belittle God’? Isn’t faith about ‘being great’? I don’t recognise the God of little men/women who has to be protected. A God that has to be protected from Tony Flannery? What kind of unreal God is this? It is not the God I know or the Church I know. ‘:
‘Never be-little; be great! That is the banner over all of us.’

Tony Flannery on his own website comments on the recent interview with the Papal Nuncio, Charles Brown

In debates about how to counter the declining number of priests in the Catholic Church it is often argued that despite having a married clergy, women and men, the Church of England is not attracting vocations either. In a recent interesting article in The Tablet Jonathan Wynne-Jones seems to give the lie to that argument with an account of 1000 ordinations in the Church of England this year.

Hard hitting editorial in The Irish Examiner of 22 August 2015;

“The crozier was used to good effect to stifle debate, close down a necessary discourse, and bully a community group into accepting an unwelcome diktat from a blinkered hierarchy.”

In contrast Pope Francis speaking in July;
“When leaders in various fields ask me for advice, my response is always the same: dialogue, dialogue, dialogue. It is the only way for individuals, families and societies to grow.”

Brendan Hoban, writing in his column in The Western People, raises the issue of the campaign being waged to force the Catholic Church to hand over half of its primary level schools to patrons with a different ethos.
Brendan says that “The truth is that only Catholic parents can make that decision.”
and
“The real demand in Ireland is not for secular schools but for school places and providing adequate places is the responsibility, not of the Catholic Church, but of the State.”