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Women: Potential for ministry in the Church

Women in the Church.
Pope Francis has just passed the three year mark since he was elected Pope. In that time he has achieved a great deal. He has changed the spirit in the Church, and given a lot of us hope.
But it is generally agreed that there is one area where he has done little, despite on occasions talking in a promising way. That is the problem of the exclusion of women from positions of significance in the Church. The Church is still almost totally a male dominated institution.
It is in order to address this situation that the western branch of the ACI have organised the following event:
The Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI) will host a meeting entitled:
WOMEN: POTENTIAL FOR MINISTRY IN THE CHURCH.
The speakers are:
Ms. Maire Ni Dhuibhir and Fr. Tony Flannery.
Date: Thursday 31st March 2016. Time 7.30 p.m.
Venue: Clayton Hotel, Galway.
All are welcome. Contact: 086 8197894

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The Pact of the Catacombs

Articles, Reform of the Irish Church
9 Comments

With the example of the lifestyle of Pope Francis there is renewed interest in many circles in a document known as the ‘Pact of the Catacombs’. Can all bishops and all who are in authority positions in church learn from it?

As Vatican Council II drew to a close in 1965, 40 bishops met at night in the Domitilla Catacombs outside Rome. In that holy place of Christian dead they celebrated the Eucharist and signed a document that expressed their personal commitments as bishops to the ideals of the Council under the suggestive title of the Pact of the Catacombs.

It is known that the bishops were led by Archbishop Helder Camara of Recife, Brazil, one of the widely respected 20th century champions of justice and peace.
The pact had some clear objectives;
“We renounce forever the appearance and the substance of wealth, especially in clothing (rich vestments, loud colours)…”
“As far as possible we will entrust the financial and material running of our diocese to a commission of competent lay persons…”
“We do not want to be addressed verbally or in writing with names and titles that express prominence and power (such as Eminence, Excellency, Lordship)…”
“we will try be make ourselves as humanly present and welcoming as possible; and we will show ourselves to be open to all, no matter what their beliefs…”

2 Comments

  1. john dwyer kirwinn says:

    I once heard that when women were strong in Ireland, the country was strong, I’d hope the same would apply to their position in the Church. Thank you for taking the time to do this good work for the Church.

    Reply

  2. It is really suicidal for the Irish Catholic Church to exclude women and married men from ministry (while fretting forever over the priest shortage). The kind of open discussion that the ACI and ACP and Fr Tony are enacting is the only hope for a renewal that would allow the church to recover a meaning and function in modern Ireland. So many blockers are quenching the Spirit, it seems.
    The routinization of the Eucharist — and now the new depletion of conviction caused by the new translation — must be rethought and overcome. The Eucharist needs to be reinserted and reintegrated into a wider community building and socially-engaged context. Chesterton said “it is the Mass that matters” but a glimpse at the landscape of Irish Catholicism might prompt the thought that now “it is the Mass that is the matter”.
    Here is a lambasting from New York from 5 years back, which is no doubt unfair in many ways, but should still prompt us to release the forces of renewal (that is, if an aging clergy lacks zeal, let them hand the reins to those who don’t — better to “make a mess” than sink passively to extinction): http://www.nytimes.com/2011/02/13/magazine/13Irish-t.html?_r=0
    We might get a boost from Pope Francis if the document on the family officially released today but held over till after Easter, is of the same inspiring tenor as Evangelii gaudium and Laudato si’ — I think he won’t be constrained by the limits of the Synod since he made his negative view of its proceedings very obvious. Walter Kasper and Bruno Forte may come into their own in the heel of the hunt. Speriamo.

    Reply

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