Holocaust Memorial Day – lest we forget
Holocaust day
January 27
A date at month’s end,
time again
to lay a smoothed stone
on a plain pillar
in fragile remembrance
of unutterable truth.
Smoke-filled tears
of heaven’s desolation
as mothers cried.
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History is history, and truth must be told
Updated with Bishop Fleming’s address at the launch.
Brendan Hoban is well known as a commentator on current church affairs as well as his commitment to the implementation of the reforms of Vatican II at all levels in church.
Less well known is his remarkable interest in history as demonstrated with the publication of his latest book “Telling the Story, A Dictionary of Killala Clergy” which is the third book of a three volume series of Readings in Killala Diocesan History.This Evening! We Are Church Zoom: “Synod and National Synodal Pathway” with Dr. Nicola Brady:
Here is the ZOOM link for tonights “Synod and National Synodal Pathway” with Dr. Nicola Brady: Topic: Synod and The National Synodal Pathway Time: Mar 28, 2022 07:30 PM Irish Time…
Synodal Pathway Update – Ireland
Dear Friends, With today’s email, I invite you to get a comfy chair and make yourselves a nice cup of tea or coffee, as I have a number of resources…
Addressing Maynooth
Brendan Hoban like many priests spent a good part of today, Friday, visiting the elderly and sick in his parish and found there’s a lot of upset out there among people about the allegations that have been made against Maynooth Seminary.
Many priests will be considering if they should address this issue at weekend Masses. Brendan offers some thoughts that might provide a bit of clarity on the background as so many are confused; it might encourage priests to address it.Comments on this topic should be posted at “Maynooth Seminary Crisis: ACP Statement”
Synod publishes ‘Recollecting’ resource for 2027 local Church assemblies
The General Secretariat of the Synod offers Bishops and diocesan synodal teams practical guidance for evaluation Assemblies to be held in the first half of 2027. Vatican News – link…
Locals to hold solidarity vigil after Ballyfermot church faced backlash for flying Pride flag
(Editor’s note: Fresh comments have been received on this topic, including one from Adrian Egan from Ballyfermot Church, hence moving the issue back to the Homepage.) BALLYFERMOT LOCALS ARE holding…
Tragic memories.
Six million Jewish people specifically targeted, along with a variety of others, who were defined as “life unworthy of life” (in German: “Lebensunwertes Leben”) the designation for the segments of the populace which, according to the Nazi regime of the time, had no right to live.
It begins with setting up a hierarchy of human lives: defining some human lives (ours) as superior; others are therefore inferior, and may be treated as such.
During the Second World War about 15 million human lives were lost each year as a result of the war.
Today, 66 million human lives are lost each year as a result of defining the lives of unborn children as of less account than those of us who are already born. That statistic comes from the Lancet, a medical journal, and from the US State Department.
Those 66 million are counted as of such little account that they are not even counted as “deaths”, not included in the 57.3 million human deaths in the world each year.
We have not only failed to learn the lessons of history; we have greatly surpassed the death toll.
Kyrie eleison.
Thank you Pádraig McCarthy@1 for once again naming and spelling out another inconvenient truth. I hope the remaining 1,000+ Association members and all regular contributors to this forum will find the time and courage to support your stand, or rationally differ with you, both here and more publicly over the coming four months.
Eddie @2
Surely we have moved beyond looking to priests to comment and advise on everything. We lay members of the church are quite capable of informing ourselves about these matters and informing our conscience and acting accordingly.
Instead of always looking for comments from priests why not lay out your own thinking on the topic and the reasons why you have formed your viewpoint. Otherwise you risk being a stuck record asking for “Father’s” opinion and repeating what “Father’ has told us.
Jim Egan, you may not have noticed but over the past seven or more years this site has developed beyond being a forum for the ordained, though that was its original purpose in 2010. We look to such a virtual parish of God’s People to nourish open discussion of such important socio-religious issues, though not necessarily on Chris McDonnell’s Holocaust Memorial thread. Your own presence on this site should have told you that most regular contributors and commenters here are not from the ranks of the 1,000+ ordained members. Your last sentence tells me you know nothing about me.
I too am somewhat of an outsider, living in the UK but with an Irish heritage through my father born in Dublin. Married with children and grandchildren, I have spent my professional life teaching in schools. My occasional offerings and comments to ACP are not intended to intrude but to share wider concerns that all of us have, ordained or not, for the good of our Church. I do hope that no-one is offended by my being a blow-in
Chris #5:
In a Christian community, blow-in is what we are. Each and every one of us. That’s our common bond. That’s our identity.
It’s that wind of the Spirit – the wind of Pentecost, right from our Baptism.
We need all those tongues. Would that we had more voices chiming in.
Let us never fall into the temptation of thinking of some as unworthy.
Okay, at times discord seems to be dominant, even overpowering.
But, oh the heart-lift when the discord resolves into harmony!