Homosexuality and the Bible to be explored in Dublin conference
A conference on ‘Homosexuality & The Bible’ is to be given by Augustinian Kieran O’Mahony in Dublin in June. Full details in the EVENTS section (see menu at top of this page).
Brian Fahy, reflecting on his own life experiences, decides that “Emotional self-sufficiency is a destructive notion. We need the interplay of one another and the learning processes that enable us to move into emotional inter-dependence if a healthy life is to ensue.”
It is a timely reminder along with the call in The Tablet for seminary reform. “The seminary system dates from the sixteenth century, and aimed to produce experts in the Catholic faith. That’s all well and good; but there are other needs too. Modern priests should also be mature human beings who can understand the modern world without being absorbed by it.”
Sarah Mac Donald writing in this week’s Tablet describes the awful ordeal of Fr Tim Hazelwood who had an anonymous false allegation made against him and who then was left to prove his own innocence while feeling totally abandoned by official church and fobbed off by the National Safeguarding Board.
“I was left feeling very alone”, he says. “I had to fight my accuser but I also had to fight the Church, because it didn’t help in any way.”
This article raises very disturbing questions for church authorities in how they deal with anonymous allegations, questions that should prevent them from sleeping easily until they have been fully resolved.
Robert Dore, solicitor, describes the Church’s protocols on anonymous allegations as “wrong” and “wholly inappropriate”.
On the dark wet windy shortest day of 2014 Tony Flannery shares some thoughts saying that “Of the three great Christian virtues, faith, hope and love, I have always considered that hope is the most important of all.”
Padraig McCarthy has supplied us with the links for those who are looking for the Rite of Marriage as it will be celebrated when the New Missal come in this Autumn.
We thank him for this information
Padraig McCarthy reports Pope Francis’ words to engaged couples on St Valentine’s Day. (The talk was in Italian and was published on the Vatican website: this is an unofficial translation.)
I was at two talks given by Fr Kieran O’Mahoney recently and I can highly recommend him. He is a very engaging speaker with a great sense of humour and a passion for his subject. He also has the gift of really connecting with his audience and this topic is vitally important. There are so many people suffering deeply because of a failure to understand. This story below is not an isolated one unfortunately.
http://www.nytimes.com/2013/05/21/opinion/bruni-one-schools-catholic-teaching.html?comments%23permid=14&smid=fb-share
The amount of youth suicide in Ireland attributable to our homophobia or our cute-hoor silences will never be measured.
I cannot attend the conference due to another previous engagement, but I am delighted it is taking place, and I pray and hope it is very fruitful.It is a most important issue and I pray God’s blessing on this timely initiative and all the participants,speaker and organiser.Let it be indeed the Good News” which brings liberty to captives.” There has been too much suffering too long for too many of our brothers and sisters.
I would also be wanting to know what is said at this conference.
I’ve been reflecting today on the notion that it is the gay/lesbian on-going protest for change that probably has the best traction world-wide, even though, there is also, ‘pushback’. We know that the Vatican held the line for years and years on issues, especially, the ordination of women, and could be years and years before same sex marriage is a Catholic reality. However, I am wondering if the time has passed for the Vatican to be able to continue to “push away” what it does not want to hear or deal with. I’m thinking that it may be the pressure from the gay and lesbian community that is the “straw that broke the camel’s back.’ If the Vatican continues to refuse to hear this protest group, I think, it will be this issue, this fight, that will ultimately create schism.
I have a friend in his 60s come out today. He feels like an immense weight lift off him. He can breathe better and his friends and family did not expect it but have been fantastic.
Maybe I should thank ACP for existing or we’d never have met.