Gabriel Daly, The Church: Always in Need of Reform

What to do with church buildings when there are no priests is an issue that will face most parishes in the immediate future, despite the fact that church authorities soldier on as though no drastic changes are on the horizon.
Alan McGill puts forward a suggestion on how these buildings can be utilised ‘by predominantly or entirely lay communities so as to continue to be oases of prayer and pastoral care’.
Alan McGill works fulltime as Director of Faith Formation and Liturgy at the Basilica of the Sacred Heart of Jesus in the city-center of Atlanta. He is a native of Dublin.

The introduction of pastoral workers in Dublin diocese has clearly not been without its problems and difficulties, as was obvious at the meeting in Marianella last month.

Here a priest of the diocese, Paddy Moran, is reflecting on some of these difficulties.  He is calling for transparency in how this situation is dealt with, because that is the only way that proper understanding will be achieved.

This article provdes an interesting angle on the recent silencing and disciplining of priests by the Vatican.  Sean is suggesting that, rather than strengthening Vatican authority, these actions are actually weakening it.

Brendan Hoban writes of lay funeral presiders being commissioned in Liverpool and lay-led Communion services taking the place — two responses to a shortage of priests that is becoming drastic in these islands (published with acknowledgement to the Western People).