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.
by Michael Sean Winters Link to article: https://www.ncronline.org/opinion/ncr-voices/new-vatican-document-calls-catholics-move-forward-together-synodality?utm_source=NCR+List&utm_campaign=d37afaf516-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2025_07_10_01_40&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6981ecb02e-d37afaf516-230658942 The Vatican released a new document July 7, “Pathways for the Implementation Phase of the Synod,” which aims to guide the church…
The papal plane touches down in Nur-Sultan as Pope Francis arrives for his 38th Apostolic Journey abroad. By Devin Watkins, Vatican News Pope Francis kicked off his Apostolic Visit to…
Western People 13.2.2024 Archbishop Charles Scicluna is a busy man with three heavy responsibilities. His day-job is archbishop of Malta but he doubles as a secretary of the Vatican Dicastery…
The address of Vincent Long Van Nguyen, Bishop of Parramatta, to the Concerned Catholics of Canberra and Goulburn Forum on the topic of “The Role of the Faithful in a post-Royal Commission Church in Australia” has relevance not just to the church in Australia but to the universal church.
“If the priesthood has a better future, it has to be humanized; it has to find expression in better mutual support, collaboration and partnership. It has to free itself from the variant strains of clericalism such as sexism, paternalism, narcissism and superiority complex.”
“So long as we continue to make women invisible and inferior in the Church’s language, liturgy, theology and law, we impoverish ourselves as if we heard with only one ear, we saw with only one eye and we thought with only one half of the brain…”
Words spoken by Pádraig McCarthy in St Patrick’s Cathedral on St Patrick’s Day 2019, at an Ecumenical Celebration of St Patrick’s Legacy, organised by the Dublin Council of Churches
We do not lose heart:
The life and Faith of St Patrick bridging 1500 years
Triggers – Some more material in relation to our reactions as this topic has such broad appeal. Tue 3rd Oct – Emotional Triggers It’s a familiar feeling when someone makes…
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.