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Brendan Hoban tells us in his Western People column that bishop of Rome “Francis is 78, and might be dismissed as ‘an ageing, disillusioned priest’ – but he knows the score. I would argue that Francis and the ACP are singing out of the same hymn-sheet, even if others seem determined to drown out our voices.”

It is usually only a deep personal crisis of some kind that can – through heartfelt prayer – shake us free of the delusion that our value depends upon what others think of us

Brian Eyre, catholic married priest, Recife, Brazil, asks is it more important to demand that the Eucharist can only be celebrated by celibate priests or that it be made available to people frequently by allowing celibate or married priests celebrate it.

How can we respond to violence?

Launch of Mary T. Malone’s new book (published by Columba Press) by Gina Menzies

We appeal to the Irish Bishops to add their voice to the growing
chorus now accepting the need for a married as well as a celibate priesthood
in our Church.

Nathan Chase has posted an article in praytellblog.com commenting on a recent circular letter, dealing with the “sign of peace” at Mass, from The Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments.
In light of the many crises facing the church would it be fair to apply the old cliche about deck chairs being moved on the Titanic to this circular letter?

Pope Francis has lifted the suspension of Maryknoll Fr. Miguel D’Escoto Brockmann, who was ordered 29 years ago to stop exercising his priestly ministry because he refused to give up his political position in Nicaragua’s Sandinista government.

NCR editorial on the forthcoming Synod on the Family. Will it be something new or more of the same ?

Brendan Hoban in the Western People reflects on the decision of the Anglican communion to ordain women as bishops. He concludes that change will have to come in the Catholic Church as well , whether we like it or not. It will be measured and careful, but it will come because it has to come because the Catholic Church has to face the inevitable truth that the Eucharist is more important than celibacy.

High Time for ‘Elder Wisdom’ At a time when specialists in elder care in the UK are advocating the installation of CCTV in every room in every care home (to…

Brendan Hoban in the Western People maintains that if novelist John Updike believed that God could be found in a perfectly struck five-iron approach shot to the green, then surely there’s a spark of something other-worldly in the impossible swerve of a Messi or the immaculate balance of a Van Persie.

Seamus Ahearne muses about life in the context of the speculation about a new cabinet, the on again off again Garth Brooks concerts, Pat Rabbitte’s 20 second dismissal our own “new” missal and of course the letter from the bishops to the acp.
It reminds him that ‘the Word of God can be heard only when it is soaked up in human life and spoken with human accents.’

Eugene Cullen Kennedy is emeritus professor of psychology at Loyola University Chicago. In the National Catholic Reporter he comments on what motivates the catholic bishops of the U.S.A. under the leadership of Pope Francis.
“We must feel for these men trained to be one kind of bishop now searching for some way to become another. For this and other blessings already beyond counting, we may be grateful to the loving God who gave us Francis.”

Presiders’ pages for the Sundays of August have now been published on the ACP website

Brian Eyre, a married Catholic priest, in Recife, Brazil suggests it needs to be clearly stated and explained that marriage and priesthood are not irreconcilable and that obligatory celibacy is a discipline that can be removed without changing the nature of priesthood.

Over 50 years ago, a cardinal asked the Vatican Council: ‘Where’s the other half of humanity?’ In her own inimitable way, Mary McAleese last week posed the same question, writes TP O’ Mahony in The Irish Examiner.

Report of recent Clogher meeting:
“We must ask ourselves in all honesty if we are able to work effectively with people, because Priesthood of the future will be relational.”

Sean O Conaill, http://www.seanoconaill.com, states he is totally baffled by the apparent interpretation of some of the ‘Fall’ passages in Genesis as literal history in the recently published ‘Irish Catholic Catechism For Adults’.

Brendan Hoban, writing in the Western People, suggests that the prospect of attracting sufficient male celibate vocations is so remote and that the implications of the crisis so far-reaching that “Doing nothing is not just irresponsible but a counsel of despair. Denial is no longer an option.”