In case you missed it…RTÉ television documentary The Last Priests in Ireland…
This is the link to RTÉ Player to watch the programme…
Don’t forget Programme 2 – The Last Nuns in Ireland is on Tues 16 Jan at 10.15pm on RTÉ 1 television.
This is the link to RTÉ Player to watch the programme…
Don’t forget Programme 2 – The Last Nuns in Ireland is on Tues 16 Jan at 10.15pm on RTÉ 1 television.
An Unfinished Symphony Dawdling by the Tolka: The heron and myself have synchronised our arrival times at the Tolka. It isn’t quite similar to synchronised swimming in its preciseness, but…
‘Yet stop I did: In fact I often do and always end much at a loss like this. Wondering what to look for, wondering too, when churches fall completely out…
Bowman Sunday this weekend “will be devoted to Enda: his childhood, his vocation, his many disagreements with the bishops, how relieved he was with the awareness that he would not…
Every day is a blessing. The Eucharist of nature: The day was quiet. The river was mostly a whisper with some variations. And then there was the heavy flapping of…
This feast originated in Jerusalem before the fifth century as the “Falling-Asleep of the Mother of God.” It was adopted in Rome in the mid-seventh century and was renamed the…
Today’s liturgy gives us a preview of the events of Holy Week. The passion, death and resurrection of Jesus are the focus of this and every Sunday celebration. Blessing of…
You know, I don’t think I found that very good. Roy Donovan and Soline were very good and the former priest in the audience who left to get married was very moving in expressing his sadness that he can no longer be a priest. The man –Pascal, I think, — who spoke very well about the Synod was good as was the woman in the same sex marriage.
The low point for me was when the woman to the bishop’s right — who seemed very pleased to be studying theology –asked why Jesus did not call his mother to the priesthood. This was part of her argument against the ordination of women. Despite her knowledge of theology she obviously thinks that Jesus called the apostles as the first priests. I wonder why was she on the panel.
If I remember correctly the first ordinations were dated on 220ad in what had begun as a priestless movement.
Why were men like Brendan and Tony not part of the program? I thought they would have at least been on that panel.
Perhaps tomorrow night will be better.
Beannachtaí agus oiche mhaith.
(Ed’s Note: RTÉ’s weekly Upfront programme, hosted by Katie Hannon, which followed the documentary, was also given over to the question about the future of the church in Ireland. It featured a broad array of issues discussed by a panel and invited studio guests.)
Irish Times review:
https://www.irishtimes.com/culture/tv-radio/2024/01/15/the-last-priests-in-ireland-an-absorbing-documentary-about-the-decline-of-the-irish-clergy/
Irish Independent review:
https://www.independent.ie/entertainment/television/tv-reviews/the-last-priests-in-ireland-review-father-teds-ardal-ohanlon-contemplates-why-priests-are-a-dying-breed/a750489106.html
Wonderful and inspiring to watch in the past two nights young and not so young priests, religious and lay People of God bearing witness before TV audiences to the radical nature of celibacy in the Roman Catholic Church and its relevance for today.
Choosing the way of the Cross is difficult to ‘advertise’ when seeking vocations: “,,, the Cross … is the expression of the radical nature of the love that gives itself completely, of the process in which one is what one does and does what one is; it is the expression of a life that is completely being for others.” (cf. Joseph Cardinal Ratzinger, Introduction to Christianity, p.282)
Let’s have more radical lovers on the island.