Isolation; the experiences of clergy

In her address to the AGM Marie Keenan made reference to the work and research carried out by Alan Hilliard; “It is devastating to the morale of priests for them to feel isolated from one another, to feel isolated from the self, not understood by superiors and left alone before criticism and complaint. We only have to reference Alan Hilliard’s work on the experiences of clergy and my own with senior clergy following the publication of the Murphy Report to know what isolation is like when standing alone before criticism and complaint. I remember Dermot O’Mahony at this time. Alan’s study articulate this point when following the publication of the Murphy report the first item on the agenda of some deanery meetings was the clustering of parishes!”
Alan has kindly made his work available to the ACP website for the benefit of those who may wish to follow up on Marie Keenan’s presentation in Athlone.
Hilliard, A.: Dublin clergy and the Murphy report. Studies: an Irish Quarterly Review, Vol.102, no. 408, 2014, p. 447-455.
Download Article here
http://arrow.dit.ie/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1019&context=libart
 
[pdf-embedder url=”http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/wp-content/uploads/2016/11/Dublin-Clergy-and-the-Murphy-Report.pdf” title=”dublin-clergy-and-the-murphy-report”]
 
 
 
 

Similar Posts

Return from Exile

Articles
20 Comments

On Friday 1 May, the government launched its “Roadmap for Reopening Society and Business.” It proposes, in phase 4, the opening of “religious and places of worship where social distancing can be maintained.” The date planned for this is 20 July.
This means we have nearly three more months before opening our places of worship. What will we do with that time?
Pádraig McCarthy hopes to stimulate reflection and discernment.

Pope Francis and the Challenge of being Church today

Articles, Editor's Choice, Pope Francis
1 Comment

Bishop Vincent Long of Parramatta, NSW, spoke recently about how we are now ‘living in a watershed and a privileged moment in the history of the Church.’ It is a time with demands and challenges for us.
He said that in church ‘It is not “business as usual”. There needs to be an attitudinal change at every level, a conversion of mind and heart that conforms us to the spirit of the Gospel, a new wine into new wineskins, not a superficial change or, worse, a retreat into restorationism.

Gaudium et Spes, the guiding document of the Council, presented a new paradigm: the church is not an enclosure which protects its members against the sinful world. It is a fellow pilgrim with the men and women of our age. It is a church incarnate in the world. Therefore, it is time not of fearful retreat, disengagement and self-referential pomp, but of accompaniment and engagement.

The church will be less than what Christ intends it to be when issues of inclusion and equality are not fully addressed. That is why you heard me say that I am guided by the radical vision of Christ. I am committed to make the church in Parramatta the house for all peoples, a church where there is less an experience of exclusion but more an encounter of radical love, inclusiveness and solidarity.

We cannot be a strong moral force and an effective prophetic voice in society if we are simply defensive, inconsistent and divisive with regards to certain social issues. We cannot talk about the integrity of creation, the universal and inclusive love of God, while at the same time colluding with the forces of oppression in the ill-treatment of racial minorities, women and homosexual persons.”

It is a long but worthwhile read and can be downloaded in Pdf format

Join the Discussion

Keep the following in mind when writing a comment

  • Your comment must include your full name, and email. (email will not be published). You may be contacted by email, and it is possible you might be requested to supply your postal address to verify your identity.
  • Be respectful. Do not attack the writer. Take on the idea, not the messenger. Comments containing vulgarities, personalised insults, slanders or accusations shall be deleted.
  • Keep to the point. Deliberate digressions don't aid the discussion.
  • Including multiple links or coding in your comment will increase the chances of it being automati cally marked as spam.
  • Posts that are merely links to other sites or lengthy quotes may not be published.
  • Brevity. Like homilies keep you comments as short as possible; continued repetitions of a point over various threads will not be published.
  • The decision to publish or not publish a comment is made by the site editor. It will not be possible to reply individually to those whose comments are not published.