We continue to make steady if slow progress.
We will not call a meeting of priests out of ministry until we have an Advisory Board in place.
We have sent out 8 invitations to that Board. It will take time to get replies and meet with each individual invitee.
The main thing is that we are on course and we are getting very encouraging responses.
With acknowledgement to the Western People, this is Brendan Hoban’s reflection on the great gathering last Monday in Dublin’s Regency Hotel: ‘Towards an Assembly of the Irish Church’. Brendan is a member of the ACP’s Leadership team.
Mary Cunningham suggests that Mary mcAleese’s interview with Pat Kenny provides ‘food for thought’
“The ACP believes that, at this most critical juncture for the Catholic Church in Ireland, the policies being pursued by Archbishop Browne in the choice of bishops are, in the main, inadequate to the needs of our time, at odds with the expectations of people and priests and out of sync with the new church dispensation, ushered in by the election of Pope Francis over three years ago and the changed perspective of his renewed commitment to the spirit of the Second Vatican Council.”
Padraig McCarthy reports that the meeting scheduled between ACP members and the church leaders of the Holy Land has been cancelled by the organisers.
Seamus Ahearne OSA reflects on the Church in Ireland in the wake of action against Tony Flannery. He believes Church leaders in Ireland will show courage, since the Gospel asks no less.
The ACP offers sincere sympathy to our colleague Liamy McNally, Administrative Secretary ACP, and to his extended family on the death of his mother, Peigí.
A relevant interview is at http://www.catholicworldreport.com/Item/1029/the_truth_about_falsely_accused_priests.aspx.
Just to add my support to the endeavours of the ACP. As a ‘priest out of ministry’, I yearn for the day when the ‘sensus fidelium’ is the true voice of the Church, instead of the patronising, power centred institution that is the Vatican!
Oh rapture! Oh bliss! Stay strong for those of us out of ministry but longing to be in full participation. Good ol’ St Patrick – his grandfather was a married priest. What a history for us…