ACP leadership to meet diocesan reps
Seamus Ahearne decides to be “totally irreverent”.
“I want less perfect people and more colour and character. We have produced a faith that glorifies perfection and is totally unreal. We spun yarns about the so-called saints and made them very unreal. We did the same with Jesus. We had no taste for the poetry and metaphor and story of Scripture and then deadened everything with literalism.”
“Life is complicated. We get glimpses of insight. Nothing is simple. We need our heroes. We need our colourful characters. We need people who have a go at living. Does it really matter if they fail or fall? “
Dublin Diocese’s website has published the speaking notes of Archbishop Diarmaid Martin’s talk at the Patrick Finn Lecture Series given at Saint Mary’s Haddington Road, 16th November 2017.
Archbishop Martin made some very interesting points:
” ….. will involve new forms of priestly presence within faith communities in the changing future of Ireland.”
“How do we reach out in a new way to people where they are and create a desire among them to deepen their understanding of Christian message?”
“What are the factors that alienate people from the Church structures of today? Probably the most significant negative factor that influences attitudes to the Church in today’s Ireland is the place of women in the Church. Next would be the ongoing effect of the scandals of child sexual abuse.”
“A survey of young people’s attitude to parish was carried out in the Dublin diocese …. The report was one of the most disappointing documents that I read since becoming Archbishop. Young people felt unwelcome in parishes.”
“But the fate of the Christian is more likely to be that of marginalization rather than martyrdom.”
“Why am I still optimistic? Irish society is still permeated with elements of faith. Residual faith, however, is probably more fragile in an indifferent world than in a world of hostility. There are deeper elements of goodness and idealism and generosity among young people but despite years of Catholic education, they do not seem to have been truly touched by the knowledge of the person of Jesus Christ.”
The following update has been sent out to all our members; by email to those who have an address, and by post to others.
The giving of the Law is reported in Exodus chapters 19-24, but the theological commentary on it (chapters 32-34) is key to the entire Book of Exodus
Mary Cunningham outlines the CDF’s controlling role in the silencing of Fr Sean Fagan, undermining Archbishop Charles Brown’s recent assertion that such actions are a matter for a religious priest’s superior
In his weekly Western People column Brendan Hoban thanks God for another Christmas season almost done and for being able to face another new year. ‘There’s nothing like a serious illness when the future hangs in the balance to give you a sense of the precious breadth and delicious texture of the ordinary bits and pieces of life.’
A welcome Spring Initiative, surely. Let’s hope all 26 dioceses will be represented. A meeting of 50 or 60 genuine parish priests from all four provinces should be just right to thresh out those and other issues in a relaxed but businesslike way.
As for “anyone else who would really like to attend”, have the courage for once to tell us members of the Laity (I just love that word!) to stay at home for a change and say our prayers for the rest of you.
Talking of threshing, I’m a divil for real porridge. I go down to the corner shop here in North London and pick up a tin of McCann’s steel-cut oats from Meath & Kildare or a package of Flahavan’s from Waterford – none of your Scotts’ or Quaker rubbish. I’d be leppin mad if I opened it in the morning only to find it full of Kellogg’s Rice Krispies. It’s what it says on the tin: “An Association for Catholic Priests – steel-cut, naturally”.
Which is why I’m full of admiration for my friends in the Irish Confraternity of Catholic Clergy: full membership for diocesan parish priests and deacons; associate membership for those in religious and secular institutes, personal prelatures etc. End of.
Now if the Hodson Bay would just ban Kellogg’s Rice Krispies too, and not leave a chap standing at their Octagon breakfast bar for twenty minutes waiting for a minimalist bowl of mediocre ‘rolled oats’ porridge . . . .!
It has been my experience that “transparency” is not a strong point with the Church anywhere and at any time.