Blog

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.”

We welcome Brendan Hoban’s return and wish him a speedy return to full health and continuing good health in the future.
Brendan casts his historian’s eye over the current system of appointing bishops and concludes that there was far less secrecy in 1829 than today and that “Now no one at local level really knows by what process an individual bishop is appointed. While there is a process and the scaffolding is clear – consultation at local level, a list of three candidates, discussion among bishops of the province, proposal of Congregation of Bishops (Rome), decision by the Pope, with everything organised by the current Papal Nuncio – the detail is cloaked in secrecy.” This gives rise to the perception “that an inordinate stress on secrecy has allowed individuals exert undue influence in the whole process.”

Chris McDonnell marks the 70th anniversary of Hiroshima with his lines “The Sturgeon Moon” and we carry an interesting article by Tony Magliano in the National Catholic Reporter about the experience of Fr. George Zabelka, the Catholic chaplain to the 509th Composite Group — the atomic bomb group.

Michael Magian offers a reflection and prayer on inclusiveness.

A Poem by Michael Maginn I have rarely felt the need of one in more than thirty years of pastoral ministry, but if our Shepherds want to wear a soutane…

Brendan Hoban writing in his Western People weekly column suggests that church authorities need to re-evaulate how they sometimes dispose of church assets and resources to civic authorities.
” I get the feeling that sometimes civic authorities are laughing behind their hands at the gullibility and innocence of church authorities, especially when there is so little credit given for the donation of sites that run into millions of euros. “

Chris McDonnell, using the example of the Marriage referendum result, questions how the voice of the people and the ‘Sensus Fidelium’ can be accommodated at the Synod on the Family.
“We can only hope that the voice of the people is recognised in their debate and reflection, for if the outcome of the Synod is to be accepted within the body of the Church, it has to be accepted by the pilgrim people to whom it seeks to offer support and guidance. “

Brendan Hoban writing in the Western People argues that as long as Bishops don’t listen to people and priests “we (as church) relegate ourselves to the sidelines because we present ourselves as controlling and demanding, refusing to listen or engage with the issue.”
Brendan also suggests that there is a crying need for competent church people to be used to communicate effectively with media and public. “Not every bishop is blessed with the ability to think on his feet or to manage the combination of words that does justice to what he wants to say.”

Gerry O’ Hanlon S.J. writes in an article about the recent referendum on marriage and its aftermath
It was first published on
http://www.eurekastreet.com.au/.

“The atmosphere among the crowd in Dublin and elsewhere in Ireland was carnival like – rainbow flags flying, people smiling and embracing, a sense of delight. This, on the Vigil of the Feast of the Holy Spirit, was a kind of secular Pentecost, a communal experience of movement from fear to peace and joy.”
He quotes Archbishop Diarmud Martin in saying that the church ‘has to find a new language to get its message across, particularly to young people, and that if teaching isn’t expressed in terms of love then the Church has got it wrong.’
Gerry concludes that ‘Archbishop Martin and his colleagues here in Ireland – and further afield – need to take up with energy and enthusiasm the challenge of Pope Francis for a more collegial and dialogical church, in which the voice of all is heard. Then perhaps we can hope for an ecclesial Pentecost to correspond to the secular celebration last Saturday in Dublin, a joyful re-birth of our badly damaged church.’

Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column offers his thoughts on the outcome of the marriage referendum.
“A clear message for the Church is that the bishops’ view was roundly rejected not just by the gay community, or those sympathetic to its views, but by tens of thousands of ‘ordinary’ Catholics.”
“There’s a massive change taking place in Ireland and, once again, the Catholic Church finds itself out-thought and out-manoeuvred, too influenced by the conservative right, ….
Trying to keep out the tide is always a failed enterprise. When will we learn that simple truth?”

Lester Feder reports for buzzfeed on the referendum ‘that is testing the limits of progressives’ hope for change under Pope Francis’.

In his weekly Western People column Brendan Hoban ponders the question that many are asking themselves this week, ‘how will I vote’, because “come Friday, there’s no middle ground between Yes and No.”

Fr. Pádraig Standún, writing in this week’s column, Standún’s Station, in The Connaught Telegraph explains why he will vote for the marriage referendum.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, in an address to Diocesan Communications Officers explains why he is voting against the marriage referendum.

Brendan Hoban, in his Western People column, tells us we have to face reality when considering the future for our Church, even if in our circumstances that denial is understandable. However he is adamant that “Fantasy is no help to the Irish Catholic Church.”

P. John Mannion responds to an assertion that the ACP consistently proposes altering Catholic moral teaching.

A shortened version of an article in the April issue of The Furrow.
Pádraig McCarthy