WAC Zoom Thurs 18 April @ 7.30pm with Bishop Brendan Leahy
The Zoom will be in three parts:
Free admission – to register click on the link:
https://www.eventbrite.ie/e/synod-2024-tickets-861425405577?aff=oddtdtcreator
WHO AM I ? I am a catholic priest who has also received the sacrament of matrimony. I am not an ex-priest. Since getting married I have continued to do…
Western People 4.7.23. There’s another epidemic doing the rounds and it’s in danger of becoming a pandemic, though its effects are thankfully less related to health than to worldly success…
A discussion evening on the themes of the book, Elephant in the Church, will be held on Women’s International Day, March 8th, in the Avila Centre in Donnybrook, Dublin.
“It will look at the multitude of aspects that make up women’s status in the Church, creating a space for women, a language for women and a ministry for women, all of which are currently ignored.”
Seamus Ahearne jots down some thoughts on recent WMOF and associated Papal visit events and wonders how St. Augustine might have responded!
“If the energy put into staging this event could be tapped for the ordinary life of God among us we would really do damage with the graciousness of our Godliness. It is still a wonderful world. Our God reigns! “
Thomas O Loughlin offers his thoughts on a “new” lectionary following the recent announcement by the bishops of Scotland. Can we hope that our bishops might engage with Thomas and others before making a decision?
“There is an alternative – one already adopted in the 1973 English-language edition of the Liturgy of the Hours – which is to use a range of translations depending on what portion of scripture is being translated and how it is being used. Indeed, the very fact that in the current lectionary there is a distinct translation of the Psalter (and there is going to be a distinct version of the psalms in the proposed lectionary), shows that the ‘one size fits all’ approach to translations is faulty.”
BIDDING PRAYERS for Sunday Mass on 26 February Introduction (by the Presider) As we begin the lenten journey, let us remember all those in need: The Presider prays for the dead: For those…
It is great to have an opportunity to listen to another Irish bishop speak on Synod 2024 and maybe on the process of synodality as envisaged by pope Francis. Sadly, at the beginning of this month the death was announced of Gerhard Lohfink (2 April). Writing in 2013 he had this to say about the role of synods (in general) and the pastor, bishop, and pope.
“[In the same way,] a bishop today must represent the will of God. ‘whether the time is favorable or unfavorable’ (2Tim4.2), even against resistance in the local church itself. An official structure that is set up in such a way that the majority can decide the truth by vote is absolutely unbiblical. That is why in the Roman Catholic Church the synodal principle, which plays an important role (consider, for example, the election of a pope), is always augmented by the personal principle. The final assent to or dissent from decisions reached by a synod belongs to the pastor or the bishop or the pope. They are obliged to uphold the truth of the Gospel, the truth of the tradition, but they must listen with the greatest intensity to the ‘counsel’ they receive.” cf. No Irrelevant Jesus – On Jesus and the Church Today p.135.
I just add: having the ‘counsellors’ – the People of God actually at one’s elbows in the room is a start, but only so. As in the upper-room, knowing, cherishing, and accepting whose breath is on us needs an awareness and acknowledgement first of their presence. But for this exercise on the 18 April – ZOOM is ok!