Fr Peter Byrne CSsR issues statement
A contributer to this website signed himself as Peter Byrne. Fr. Peter Byrne C.Ss.R. has stated clearly that he is not the author of such comments and wishes to be dissassociated from them.
The Irish Examiner has a two day feature on Irish Priests, which are well worth reading. They are on Friday 24th and Saturday 25th of June.
On Friday there is a good interview with Brendan Hoban on the Association.
And Saturday profiles Fr. Paul O’Boyle of Kildare and Leighlin, giving a very good outline of the varied work of a priest today.
This article is an excellent reflection on the policies of Child Safeguarding currently practiced by the Irish Catholic Church, raising many of the questions that we in the ACP have been concerned with. It is reproduced with permission from The Furrow.
Tony Flannery has written an article, published in The Irish Times and on his own website, about the attempted stifling of the debate about the ordination of women.
“The efforts made by the Vatican to silence discussion on the ordination of women over the past 50 years have been both unsuccessful and unwise.”
“Though Pope Francis has said that this door is closed, his consistent call for open discussion and dialogue, and indeed for open doors, has created a climate where the whole issue of women’s place in the church is now centre stage.”
“The effort by the Vatican to stifle debate, often by using methods that should never be part of the Christian community, is doing enormous damage to the church.”
This is the text of the talk given by Aoife McGrath at the Vision session of the ACP sponsored gathering: Towards an Assembly of the Irish Catholic Church
Brendan Hoban reflects on the isolation of rural Irish priests and adds a historical perspective, suggesting it was ever thus (first published in the Western People on 16 April).
Jonathon Luxmoore reports the case of Fr Wojciech Lemanski whose conflict with his bishop awaits a ruling from the Vatican. First published in the National Catholic Reporter on 12 August: read original article and comments here.
It was I who assumed that it was the respected Redemptorist Fr Peter Byrne, who wrote what I considered, was a despicable attack on his brother Priest Fr Tony. For that I offer Fr Peter my sincere apology and seek his forgiveness. The opening lines of the offending post “Our Redemptorist Constitution” made me believe it was written by Fr Peter. Again I request your forgiveness, and with a contrite heart, will have a mass celebrated for your intensions.
This clarification once again urges me to ask the team leaders at the ACP to reconsider again the way comments are allowed to be put on your website-comments which are often posted under false names or anonymous names.
I think it serves no purpose or rather it serves a negative purpose.
Firstly it discourages most of your ACP members and others from engaging actively with the site -that is people who would be happy to be identified and secondly it encourages a level of abuse that is not constructive or helpful to many of the debates.
Indeed who wants to engage in a dialogue with someone when they have no way of knowing who they are corresponding with or what their agenda is ?
Surely allowing a dialogue to take place in this way resembles how the CDF engaged with Tony Flannery.
Need I say more.
I second Anne Walsh’s plea. The level of discussion would soar if people gave their real names.
And I would add to that, how about contributors offering their email address. Identity and openness are of great value in honest exchanges.
So…I have the same name as a redemptorist and was quoting from their constitutions.
I had no intention of attempting to imitate Fr. Peter.