Month: March 2015

Holiday Weekend or Holy Week?

Brendan Hoban offers a reflection on Holy Week.
“Calvary sets in consoling relief the experience of all who suffer – whether the nightmare of physical pain or the emotional trauma of significant loss or the prospect of imminent death. The human Jesus, struggling to come to terms with the reality of his predicament, echoes every human experience of suffering and of loss and reflects the complexity and confusion of emotions that attend all those caught in the slipstream of pain and loss and death.”

The failure of the Missal

Sean McDonagh reporting on the recent ACP leadership meeting tells us that the issue of the “New Missal” is still very much alive. “
Hopefully, the Irish Bishops will address this issue and, as a temporary solution, they will allow priests to use the 1998 translation of the Missal as suggested by the Bishop Donald Trautman.”

While all the others were away at Mass (Seamus Heaney)……….

Seamus Ahearne finds hope in the language used by Pope Francis. “He talks in a new and real language. Is it possible that our bishops have the gumption to learn from him? Have they got the backbone to listen to Francis and to Gerald O Collins? The people aren’t coming to us. When they come; let’s talk in words that they understand.”
The language we use in church has to connect to the reality of people’s lives. “We have to knock down the walls of a Church that uses ‘bad language’ or shouts out meaningless rules about what family is. We all have to listen and learn.”

When we vote in referendums we legislate for all citizens not just members of a church

Iggy O Donovan offered his thoughts on the upcoming referendum in The Irish Times.
“The arguments crowd in on us from both sides. Much of life today is like that and we cannot off-load our troubled consciences on others, whether in church or State. We have to make our own decisions for ourselves.”

Render unto Caesar

In his weekly Western People column Brendan Hoban welcomes the introduction of new regulations that will come into force governing the accounting for all church monies. These are a result of the Charities Regulatory Authority (CRA), being established by the government last October.
“While the Church for years has encouraged openness and transparency at diocesan and parish level with mixed results now the new regulations will universally enforce a new, transparent regime in every parish in Ireland.”

Open letter to English speaking bishops – Gerald O’Collins SJ

Gerald O’Collins SJ writes to all English speaking bishops asking that they ‘act quickly to help English-speaking Catholics participate more effectively in the liturgy.’ Gerald suggests that the “Missal that wasn’t,” the 1998 translation be used.
Fr O’Collins SJ, who was a professor at the Gregorian University in Rome for 33 years, made his comments in a letter sent to The Tablet entitled “An open letter to English-speaking bishops”.

The ‘New’ Missal – the problem hasn’t gone away, yet.

Mattie Long reflects on the open letter Gerald O’Collins S.J. wrote to English speaking bishops concerning the continued use of the “new” missal. Added to this letter are the comments of Pope Francis on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the celebration of the first vernacular Mass celebrated by Pope Paul VI in 1965.
Mattie draws on James Dallen’s ‘What Kind of Ecclesiology?’ to question the purpose of the ‘new’ missal.

Confronting racism and homophobia

Brendan Hoban in his weekly Western People column raises the issue of how we deal with racist and homophobic comment. He reminds us that
“The Catholic Church has had to learn some big lessons in this regard. It wasn’t so long ago that papal letters used the phrase ‘intrinsically disordered’ to describe homosexual people. I don’t think it will happen again. Or at least I hope not because its use didn’t just diminish homosexuals.”

Presider’s Page for 1 March (Lent 2)

As we continue to celebrate Lent, it’s important that we keep the goal of our journey before us. The gospel of the transfiguration is read on this lenten Sunday each year, to remind us to hold firm to a vision of glory, on dark days. Easter and its joy will follow this season of penance, just as the resurrection followed the passion and death of Jesus.

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