Sean McDonagh reminds us that climate change is a moral problem for all Christians. Promoting the Christian message and its implications for climate change connects in real ways with people of all ages and backgrounds.
“Deirdre Duff, a student who spoke about climate change at the end of Mass, believes that Laudato Si is an incredible document which could not only help save our planet but which could also bring young people back to the Church. ‘I’ll admit that I used to be pretty bad for going to Mass, I’d only go once or twice a month. Then I went to Mass the Sunday after ‘Laudato Si’ was released and I haven’t missed Sunday Mass since. I realised that the Church did actually had an awful lot to teach me…I realised how awful I’d been to God’s creation and to His poorest people who were suffering from my actions in other parts of the world…it just woke me up! Then I simultaneously got to know and love both God and God’s creation in a way I had never had done before.”
Notice and
Agenda of Annual General Meeting
Seamus Ahearne wrote this in response to the post ‘De-centralisation and the selection of bishops’.
It deserves its own space and as usual Seamus challenges us in a gentle way to expand our horizons.
“We don’t have to protect God. God is used to our mess. Let’s take hold of the vision from Rome and apply it locally.”
Seamus Ahearne writes about the necessity of the ACP.
“I think the ACP exists not just to make noise or to be prophetic but to add ballast and communion to the collective in ministry. We are at breaking point as priests. We will fall apart if we stay apart.”
” the ACP is to reach out and call attention to the tiredness and to the ageing of the diocesan priests. What is the support structure for them? Creating clusters and adding on more work to do cannot be the answer. Creative and imaginative ideas are necessary (as Francis said). We cannot go on as we are.”
“The ACP isn’t just a vehicle for the journalists to use or an association of renegades. The ACP cannot be about the big noisy issues – nor can we forever be fighting big causes. It is the essentials of faith that are our interests and the ordinary issues of day to day life.”
Jesuit Thomas Reese writes a fairly gloomy report in NCR on the possible outcome of the synod.
“The bishops are currently trapped in the old theology they learned in the seminary. They are afraid of new ideas and are not consulting with theological experts who could show them other options. As a result, it is unlikely that new pastoral approaches will be coming forth from this synod.”
“Never in my lifetime have I heard of bishops and cardinals being so disrespectful of a pope, challenging his organization of this synod, even a few referring to him as a Protestant and threatening a fractured church if he goes against their wishes.”
The U.S. Secret Service kept Pope Francis safe during his recent travels in the U.S.A., even if some think their methods a little over enthusiastic for a man who prefers to travel in a small Fiat rather than an armoured SUV.
Seamus Ahearne suggests that maybe we now need to protect him from our need for a jamboree by expecting him to attend the Congress on the Family for 2018.
Seamus thinks Francis’ time is precious and “I would much prefer that we respect the age of Pope Francis and conserve his energy and reduce his trips abroad. We should be caring for him and protecting him …We need to keep him at home and let him do as much as he can, in enlivening the Church.”
Brendan Hoban, writing in his column in the Western People, gives his reaction to Bishop Crean recently forcing a Pastoral Council to withdraw an invitation to Tony Flannery to speak in a local community hall.
“It has brought the Irish Catholic Church once more into disrepute in that it showed that other voices have no place in it, even if Pope Francis encourages them in the wider Church. It insulted Tony Flannery …… it shows once again that the people are ahead of the priests, the priests are ahead of the bishops and the bishops, caught in the nineteenth century, are either out of touch or in abject denial.”
Phyllis Zagano in an article in the National Catholic Reporter gives a very interesting analysis of recent developments concerning the questions of re-admitting women to the order of deacon and that of ordaining married men to the order of priest.
Could it be that two Irish Bishops may give a lead to the universal church on these issues?
Seamus Ahearne, in his usual style, anchors us in the reality that is church in Ireland in 2015; a church where the hot button issue/culture/liturgical wars so beloved by some are just irrelevant to many people.
“Evangelisation happens on the streets, in the shops, in the schools, at the door, in the community and especially in the homes. We are interpreting experiences. We are the learners. We are the outsiders. Evangelisation is about humility. When we realise how little we know and how fragile we are now in a culture that doesn’t know our God or our Church; we can relax and learn. The God we used to preach/celebrate really wasn’t always a loving, real and immediate God either. We were in control. Now we are at a loss. But that too is alright. We are old but aren’t dead yet; we can learn if we are prepared to.”
Sarah Mac Donald, a freelance writer based in Dublin, reports for NCR on the recent meeting of Catholic reform groups in Limerick.
Brendan Hoban in his most recent Western People column wonders when the limits to loyalty will reach breaking point for Irish Catholics. “The Catholic Church, as bishops and sometimes parish priests remind us, is not a democracy but if people are used to their opinions being taken seriously in every other walk of life, they tend to raise a collective eyebrow when the Catholic Church decides that decision-making is confined to a tiny elite.”
Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column wonders what we are losing by the ‘ gradual, insistent airbrushing of religion out of Irish life.’
He says that as a result ‘to refer to the challenge and comfort of a lived faith in a God of love and compassion is almost to speak a language that so many now either refuse to speak or don’t really understand.’
Brian Eyre wonders if the celebration of the Eucharist could become so rare it could be seen as a museum piece?
He hopes not but suggests the only way “This can be avoided is if the priesthood is opened up to others and not limit it to male celibate candidates only.”
An International Network of Church Reform Movements conference will take place next week, from Monday 13th April to Thursday 16th April, in the Radisson Blu Hotel in Limerick.
This four day event is not open to the public but there will be an open session at 8.00pm on Thursday, 16th April in the Radisson Blu in Limerick. Some of the international participants will speak of their experience of Church Reform in their parts of the world, and how we can move forward. Members of the public are welcome to this event.
Seamus Ahearne finds hope in the language used by Pope Francis. “He talks in a new and real language. Is it possible that our bishops have the gumption to learn from him? Have they got the backbone to listen to Francis and to Gerald O Collins? The people aren’t coming to us. When they come; let’s talk in words that they understand.”
The language we use in church has to connect to the reality of people’s lives. “We have to knock down the walls of a Church that uses ‘bad language’ or shouts out meaningless rules about what family is. We all have to listen and learn.”
Gerald O’Collins SJ writes to all English speaking bishops asking that they ‘act quickly to help English-speaking Catholics participate more effectively in the liturgy.’ Gerald suggests that the “Missal that wasn’t,” the 1998 translation be used.
Fr O’Collins SJ, who was a professor at the Gregorian University in Rome for 33 years, made his comments in a letter sent to The Tablet entitled “An open letter to English-speaking bishops”.
As he continues his recovery from recent illness Seamus Ahearne finds himself musing on a comparison between church and the gentry of old. The gentry who once ‘lorded’ it over others are now the outsiders. Seamus concludes that “as (Gospel ministers) we are now very much outsiders; so we can be more aware of how so many felt ‘outsiders’ in the world of Church in our past. We now feel in present day Ireland as we made so many feel in the past . The empathy of understanding can help us along.”
The World Day of Prayer for the Sick occurs next Wednesday, 11 February. Seamus Ahearne, reflecting on his own illness and hospitalisation, shares some very pertinent thoughts about the reality of illness.
“I couldn’t think. I couldn’t sleep. I couldn’t read. I couldn’t write. I couldn’t pray. I couldn’t talk (socially) I shut down. This different world took control of me. The ‘nakedness’ of the ward took over. I was institutionalised. The rhythm of hospital life absorbed me. I had no control over anything. “
Seamus also suggests that we in church could gain inspiration from the ‘teamwork’ he has observed in hospital.
We wish Seamus a speedy return to full health.
Last week, the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz, the world marked Holocaust Memorial Day. Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column tells us that forgetting or allowing time to diminish the significance of Auschwitz is not an option. Remembering is a human and historical imperative.
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