Editor’s Choice

Disaffection with Disconnection

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.”

Sledge hammered or airbrushed – getting rid of ‘beautiful things’­

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.’

Fr. Tony Flannery hosts International Network of Church Reform Movements participative conference in Co. Limerick

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.

While all the others were away at Mass (Seamus Heaney)……….

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.”

Open letter to English speaking bishops – Gerald O’Collins SJ

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”.

Outsiders and Insiders

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.”

A need for healing … and revolution

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.

‘Who will say Kaddish for me?’ – remember, lest we ever forget.

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.

Let Battle Commence

Gabriel Daly OSA writes that ” In a body as large and as culturally diverse as the Catholic Church, discrepant and irreconcilable attitudes are inevitable. We should try to live with them, not pretend that it is necessary – or even desirable – to smooth them over. “
Gabriel reminds us that “The truth and the will of God may actually be found in the clash of ideas and convictions expressed freely and without the threat of institutional interference.”

Pope Francis actually means what he says.

Brendan Hoban, in the Western People, advises that we need to listen to what Pope Francis is saying. Francis means what he says. His plain speaking in the scathing demolition of the assembled curia in his pre-Christmas address left no room for dilution through interpretation, translation or contextualisation.
Nor should we be distracted from his message by the speculative kite of a Papal visit being hoisted aloft. Such a visit is ‘exactly what the Irish Church doesn’t need at present.’

Vatican asks for wide input on 2015 synod, not based on doctrine

Joshua J. McElwee, NCR’s Vatican correspondent, reports on the latest request from the Vatican in preparation for Synod 2015.
Will our bishops’ conference be better organised, and willing, this time in getting the views of ‘all levels’ of church in Ireland?

A life in the day of a Parish……

Seamus Ahearne shares his thoughts on a day in the life of a parish
“The life in the day could fill a book and not a page”
“The routine of daily living is ‘killing the spirit’ of so many.”
“We are invited to open the eyes of our hearts, minds, imaginations to the enjoyment, hilarity, fun, laughter and peace. It isn’t only Autumn is colourful. Life is full and good. The day goes on. “

An Open Letter to Cardinal Pell

Canberra-Goulburn Catholic priest Peter Day quizzes Cardinal Pell about his outspokenness in reasserting the church’s longstanding exclusion of divorced and remarried people from communion ahead of October’s Extraordinary Synod of Bishops on the Family. ‘Has a simple, inclusive and profound ‘family’ meal been overwhelmed by an impersonal and, often times, sterile institutional sacrifice; one that tends towards mass exclusion?’
http://johnmenadue.com/blog/?p=2459

CDF, Edinburgh, Kasper, and the local Church.

Seamus Ahearne, as usual, asks the pertinent questions about what is essential in belonging to church.
‘I feel so embarrassed that such nonsense (banning and silencing) is still going on. Robust discussion is essential in our faith. Anselm said: ‘Theology is faith seeking understanding’

“If any of us are listening to the Christ of the Gospels in recent times – we would get something of these message: The Table is open. All comers are welcome. The outsiders are the insiders. The unlikely ones are the most acceptable ones. Never shut doors. Open hearts and open minds and open imaginations.”

“The signs of the times which can offer us hope and courage.” Pope Francis

The pope said the enormous amount of work and demands being made on pastoral workers “make us run the risk of becoming frightened and withdrawing in on ourselves out of fear and self-defense.”

“And out of that springs the temptation of self-sufficiency and clericalism, that codifying the faith into rules and instructions, which the scribes, Pharisees and doctors of the law did during the time of Jesus. We will have everything exact and everything just-so, but the faithful and those who are seeking will continue to be hungry and thirsty for God,” Pope Francis explained.
If pastoral ministry uses the same approach the scribes and Pharisees took, “never, never will we be witnesses of being close” to people like Jesus was, he said.

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