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Tony Flannery looks back on 2018 and forward to 2019 ‘with both hope and trepidation.”

In an op-ed published in the Telegraph, Jeremy Hunt, Foreign Secretary of the U.K. Government, explains why he has commissioned a review into the persecution of Christians.
“Whatever the cause, we must never allow a misguided political correctness to inhibit our response to the persecution of any religious community.”
Irish politicians please copy?

Wishing a very happy and peaceful Christmas to you and your family Nollaig Shona Dhuit Feliz Natal 楽しいクリスマスをお過ごしください Froehliche Weihnachten Joyeux Noël Feliz Navidad 愉快的圣诞节 Wesolych Swiat Bozego Narodzenia

Seamus Ahearne offers a short Christmas reflection.

Chris McDonnell writing in the Catholic Times tells how each year in his parish “we have included a Proclamation of the feast of Nativity, read by candlelight in a darkened church…….. So each year when the Nativity feast is marked, we do so in the context of what once happened and what happens now in our own days. We should realise the crucial role that each of us, however insignificant we might be, has to play; all of us are pilgrims on a journey.”

Seamus Ahearne wonders at recent happenings; ” are there any political saviours emerging that may bring hope to this mad crazy world?  The chaos of the world presented to us in the stories of Advent may also prompt us to believe that hope and good sense can prevail. ” 

Chris McDonnell in the Catholic Times remembers Henri Nouwen whose ‘perceptive nature and ability to relate to those in distress demonstrated that he was more than an inspiring teacher and fine book writer.’

Tony Flannery will speak on “How can we talk about God to the next Generation?
Will the Faith Survive?” on Sunday, December 16th, at 3.00pm
in the Freigh Inn, Newport, Co. Tipperary.

A good antidote to the mad shopping rush!

Roy Donovan commenting, in an article in The Limerick Leader on the clustering of parishes in Limerick diocese into ‘pastoral units’, says “Every possibility should be put on the table. Limerick diocese is operating within the limits – they are doing the best they can within the limits. We would be saying the overall church, all over the world needs to go beyond those limits and needs to open up every possibility including married people and women priests,”.

Tin Hazelwood writes on the sensitive topic of how the funerals of priests who died while ‘out of ministry’ should be conducted.
“While some regulation may be necessary, it needs to be considerably more nuanced than the present protocols……. Mindful as we are of the difficult situation of those who have suffered sexual abuse at the hands of priests, we believe that in the interest of justice and mercy there are questions that need to be answered.”

Saints in December 03 December St Francis Xavier, Priest, Missionary Born in 1506 in Navarre (Spain); died on this day in 1552 off the coast of China. Francis Xavier met…

William Crean, Bishop of Cloyne, speaking to the priests of that diocese told them that in his recent teaching Pope Francis emphasises ‘that an effective Christian communion requires that we embrace the concept of Synodality in the everyday life of the Church.  It is both the concept and reality of journeying with people.  It is to trust in the “sensus fidei” ‘.
Bishop Crean also reminded his audience of the good done in the past by religious and priests but also stated ‘The long lens of hindsight enables us to identify the poor pastoral practice of many of our predecessors.  Though well-intentioned a narrow moralistic focus made for a distorted and dysfunctional spiritual vision/understanding of Christian living.  We live with both the riches and the baggage of our past.’

An interesting address by Dermot Farrell, Bishop of Ossory, at the Conference with Laity and Priests in the Diocese of Ossory;
“Pope Francis is constantly putting his synodal vision of the church before us. The question he is asking, and that we should ask ourselves, is what kind of church is God calling the priests and all Catholics to be in the longer term – perhaps less self-referential and more a community of missionary disciples, less clerical and more synodical, “……

“We have fallen off a cliff edge in regard to vocations to the priesthood.   Many speak of a crisis in this regard…….This time of reduced numbers may well afford us an opportunity to be creative and to reimagine the institutional church.”

Seamus Ahearne and his congregation find inspiration in the sporting figures of the past week and get a little distracted by royalty.
He wonders because the newly appointed Irish soccer team manager Mick McCarthy is back. “He once was the past. Now he is the future.” With regard to church Seamus tells us “We cannot get lost in the past. The past has to be distilled. The best has to be retained. The packaging can be discarded.”

You are welcome to the launch of a new book written by Joe Mulvaney “Speak Out For Reform in the Catholic Church” on 28 November 2018 at 7.30 p.m. in the John Hand Room, All Hallows College (now known as DCU – All Hallows Campus),  Gracepark Road, Drumcondra, Dublin 9 

Chris McDonnell, writing recently in the Catholic Times, said of the U.S. mid term elections, “What of the future? How will the Democracy of Immigrants that forms the United States rebuild trust and civility, what is required of each and every citizen?”
We wonder when we hear a President speak of ‘beautiful barbed wire’ being strung out along a border.
Chris also adds “Just as there is this fracture in our public life, for not only the US but other Western Democracies are also under threat, so too within our Christian community are fault lines and tensions apparent.”

The ACP has written to the Irish bishops and calls for a National Assembly to discuss ‘The Reform and Renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland’.
It also calls for a ‘constructive’ engagement with the bishops that would also be realistic, ongoing, coherent in terms of time-scale and commitment, and above all that it would engage with key critical issues.

Tony Flannery gives a brief report of his recent trip to the U.S.A. “While the U.S. Church is deeply divided, there are some real signs of light.”

Seamus Ahearne writes in this November of death; war, accident, murder; “the news is rotten with criminality; with stabbings; with shootings; with gangland outrages……….I think the culture of faith has to be rediscovered……However, every day is a privileged day. Every day is full of life, despite the dying. Every day is full of surprises. Every day throws around those ‘rumours of angels.’”

At the world remembers the horrors and savagery of war this weekend Pádraig McCarthy draws our attention to an appeal made by Enda McDonagh of St. Patrick’s College Maynooth and Stanley Hauerwas of Duke Divinity School, North Carolina for an abolition of war.
The appeal is as valid now as it was when written in 2002