Request from some priests out of ministry

A small number of us priests who are out of ministry because of boundary issues realise that we can get through the sense of isolation and exclusion by being companions to each other.
If you are in a similar situation and experience a need for support or companionship, we invite you to contact the ACP to express your interest, so that we develop further a model of support that meets our needs.
Anybody who wishes to pursue this matter can either contact one of the leadership team, or email the website.

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Guilty until proven Innocent 

ACP News, Articles, Editor's Choice
7 Comments

Sarah Mac Donald writing in this week’s Tablet describes the awful ordeal of Fr Tim Hazelwood who had an anonymous false allegation made against him and who then was left to prove his own innocence while feeling totally abandoned by official church and fobbed off by the National Safeguarding Board.
“I was left feeling very alone”, he says. “I had to fight my accuser but I also had to fight the Church, because it didn’t help in any way.”
This article raises very disturbing questions for church authorities in how they deal with anonymous allegations, questions that should prevent them from sleeping easily until they have been fully resolved.
Robert Dore, solicitor, describes the Church’s protocols on anonymous allegations as “wrong” and “wholly inappropriate”.

Sean McDonagh, Tony Flannery interviewed by Miriam O’Callaghan on RTE Radio 1

ACP News, Editor's Choice
10 Comments

Sean McDonagh and Tony Flannery spoke today with Miriam O’Callaghan on RTE Radio 1.
Tony said that the Church in Ireland is “in a state of utter collapse”, with people “leaving the Church in droves”, and action is needed to change this. They said the Catholic Church also needs to apologise for how it has treated women and give them more power in the Church.

Report on meeting of Steering Group for Lay Association (ACI)

ACP News
14 Comments

This is the report from the latest meeting of the Steering Group working at setting up an umbrella Lay Association. This contains the proposed name of the association, a draft Statement of Objectives, and outlines a period of discussion before final decisions are made. The hope is that as many as possible will get involved in the discussion, both here on the website and at the ACP regional meetings in October.

One Comment

  1. Priests out of ministry meeting together for support and solidarity looks like a good idea;its a dark and loenly place to be especially when there’s little or no hope of returning to ministry with the present draconian procedures and protocol. I was asked to withdraw from ministry on May 19th 2011 and I found myself in a daze, not able to think straight and not knowing where to turn. On RTE PRIME TIME INVESTIGATES May 23rd 2011 I was falsely accused of ‘having sexual relations with a teenage house maid in rural Kenya around 1982, making her pregnant, fathering her child, concealing the fact and leaving my position because of it’. I am suing RTE in the High Court thanks to the ACP.

    Reply

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