Editor’s Choice

Gabriel Daly OSA writes about the current controversy concerning the proposed new National Maternity Hospital.
Gabriel says that for the Church it has been “a testing and uncomfortable time and an opportunity to behave as adult Christians aware that the Second Vatican Council has altered the parameters under which previous disputes of this kind had been fought. Here was an opportunity to step away from triumphalist pronouncements and instead to learn humbly how to listen to others before pronouncing the church’s position on reproductive matters. Modern medicine is highly specialised and difficult to understand by those still moralising under the old essentialist moral categories which were thought to be unchanging and were treated as such. Today we may find that there is a legitimate diversity of views, and thus no univocal doctrinal pronouncement is possible.”

Bernard Cotter writing recently in The Tablet noted how “It is a strange feature of those who control the consumer calendar, that every feast is celebrated to the full beforehand rather than on the day itself or indeed on any day in its immediate aftermath. Christmas and Easter share a common fate in this regard.”
“How does one respond to the challenge of sustaining Easter joy over its full season? Communication is the Church’s primary tool. Perhaps instead of making so much of the 40 days of Lent on their own, the 90 days of Lent/Easter should in their entirety comprise the annual springtime renewal for Christians, with 40 days of fasting, prayer and almsgiving followed by 50 days of feasting, prayer and celebration (a time to honour those in parish ministries with social time together, perhaps).”

Seamus Ahearne writes of how current events – among them “Kim Jong-un and Trump. Two bully boys let loose in our fragile world with bombs and nuclear possibilities” – lead him into recalling images from a distant past. Sadly, “We were full of negativity. The Church was full of misery.”
Seamus says we need to “Have fun with faith. Make a splash.”

Rita Fernandez is a member of the Parish Pastoral Council and is also one of the Parish Team in Rivermount Parish, Finglas.
Rita shares some thoughts on her experience of the reality of parish life.

Brendan Hoban, writing in the Western People, suggests it’s time church authorities caught up with the outlook of the vast majority of the membership of the church with regard to the issue of married priests. Brendan says that ‘inevitably, the penny eventually drops’.
Brendan points to the outgoing Papal nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown stating “after his last public Mass in Ireland, that he was alarmed at the age-profile of Irish priests, the few entering seminaries and his fear that the Irish Church was on a cliff edge, ready to go into ‘free fall’. Strangely, while in office as papal nuncio, Archbishop Brown didn’t strike such a pessimistic note; indeed to the frustration of many he kept talking about ‘green shoots of recovery’ in the Irish Church.”

Seamus Ahearne decides to be “totally irreverent”.
“I want less perfect people and more colour and character. We have produced a faith that glorifies perfection and is totally unreal. We spun yarns about the so-called saints and made them very unreal. We did the same with Jesus. We had no taste for the poetry and metaphor and story of Scripture and then deadened everything with literalism.”
“Life is complicated. We get glimpses of insight. Nothing is simple. We need our heroes. We need our colourful characters. We need people who have a go at living. Does it really matter if they fail or fall? “

Seamus Ahearne, in thinking of the late Des Connell, asks that when he was appointed “Who thought about the man? Who worried about the suitability of this person? Could this man face the burden of leadership of a Church in Dublin at that time? Was he flexible in his thinking; was he adaptable; was he good humoured; was he strong enough to cope; had he the personality to bend and laugh and mix and take the arrows and stones that could be thrown at him? Was he a team worker? “
Questions as relevant for the appointment of a bishop today.

Seamus Ahearne offers his thoughts on some of the issues and people that have been in the spotlight recently.
“I thank God for working in me and I am in awe. It doesn’t make me good or great. But the fun, happiness and wonder of every day is miraculous. The holiness of each day shouts at me. I have been blessed. I never bother my head thinking if only. If only what. Married. Children. Grandchildren. What has been; is done. What is; I live with. What shape tomorrow is; I can help make. Are there things I would like to make different. Of course, but I don’t have the energy to dream backwards.”

Sarah Mac Donald, writing in the National Catholic Reporter, gives an interesting account of the Irish bishops’ visit to Pope Francis.
“But while Francis was telling the bishops he wanted to hear their problems and criticisms, back in Ireland, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), … issued a statement expressing themselves as “disappointed, frustrated and angry” that, after six years of attempting to engage the bishops in a “respectful and mutual consideration of issues central to the health and well-being of the Irish Catholic church,” the bishops had “pulled the plug on any future engagement with the ACP.”

RTE carried coverage by Joe Little of comments made by Gerry O Hanlon SJ by video-link from Dublin to Australia’s Royal Commission into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse.

UPDATED
Updated with a Link to a statement from The Truth Justice and Healing Council, the body set up by the Catholic Church in Australia to coordinate the Catholic Church’s response to the Royal Commission Into Institutional Responses to Child Sexual Abuse with a commitment to justice and compassion for survivors.

And a Link to opening statement by Senior Counsel at the Royal Commission’s 50th public hearing of the Royal Commission into Institutional responses to child sexual abuse.

Seamus Ahearne reflects on the demolition and rebuilding of a church in Finglas parish.
“The new church for building in Finglas to replace the old has to be one where thinking happens; where the breadth of God is celebrated; where God is not protected from questions but where we take off our shoes and bow our heads in praise, gratitude and humility. We are forever learning. We are forever questioning. We are forever thinking. The God of our Church is praised if we are thinking. A passive church; a passive liturgy; a passive people does not respect God. I think therefore I am!”

Seamus Ahearne shares some thoughts on world and local events. Looking at such events Seamus challenges us; “how can we enlarge the discussion and reflection on life? How can we bring the poetry of God to our talk? How can the church move away from the nonsensical distractions and wake people up from the simplistic notions of Facebook and Twitter? I do fear that the world of politics is getting very small. We have also made God’s world small.”
Seamus reminds us of the accusation that has been levelled against us;’ “Your God is too small.” Small minds. Small people. Small faith has led us to this. I have a little theory.
A celibate bachelor clergy can become very linear in its outlook. The awkwardness of family life smashes all simple conclusions to problems. Acceptance of helplessness is the norm. I know that a celibate clergy gives us the chance to be very much family on a 24/7 schedule but something is still missing. The humour and humility of humanity can get diluted. We need chaos. The tidy and clear solutions to life are totally unreal.’

Tim Hazelwood, reflecting on his own experiences, questions the role and function of the ‘Council of Priests’ in dioceses.
Tim feels this is of particular relevance in light of the letter from the bishops to the ACP following a meeting last May.
Tim says that ‘My experience is that the Council of Priests does not want to deal with the concerns of priests…… For diocesan priests the council is irrelevant in our lives. We get on with it as best we can as the work and weight of expectation grows, dreading the next edict to come from the council or the diocesan office to add to our busy work schedule.’

Michael O’Loughlin writing in Americamagazine.org quotes Archbishop Mark Coleridge of Brisbane as saying “At times at the synod I heard voices that sounded very clear and certain but only because they never grappled with the real question or never dealt with the real facts”.
“So there’s a false clarity that comes because you don’t address reality, and there’s a false certainty that can come for the same reason.”
The pope, he said, is “bringing out into the very public setting of the papacy what any pastor does in his parish or diocese.”
Ultimately, individual believers have to discern where God is at work in their own lives—a process that doesn’t always lend itself to simple yes or no answers.

Seamus Ahearne reflects on Christmas.
“All of us can go there -To heaven and heaven is very close. It is when we let the fresh air of God into our minds, hearts and imaginations and don’t stop learning, listening and loitering. Dark minds, dull hearts, dreary imaginations make no room for open doors. An Open door – happens when we let a baby, (the helplessness and mystery of a baby), tell us, how God relies on us and needs us. (Christmas).”