Association Of Catholic Priests https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/ Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:36:19 +0000 en-GB hourly 1 https://wordpress.org/?v=6.4.3 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/wp-content/uploads/2022/01/fevi.png Association Of Catholic Priests https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/ 32 32 Seán Walsh: Lance Ascending https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/sean-walsh-lance-ascending/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/sean-walsh-lance-ascending/#respond Thu, 14 Mar 2024 17:36:17 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42780 LANCE ASCENDING… Larry, eh… Lance was a pet name. Ah, if ever there was a hard man! Many’s the session we had in the old days – Oh, what! ‘Gave it a...

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LANCE ASCENDING…

Larry, eh… Lance was a pet name.

Ah, if ever there was a hard man! 
Many’s the session we had in the old days – 
Oh, what! ‘Gave it a lash! 
No one ever thought he’d go on the dry, 
make it to the other side of the street. 

‘Few years ago now… Happy Christmas!
Lance holding on to the bar, langers.
‘Calls for a double, lets it back, passes out… 
‘Woke the next day – or was it the day after? – 
in the Quare Place… 

This mad ould fella 
at the side of his bed – starkers.

Wild eyes in a flushed face. Beard ‘n’ bristle. 

Purring at him in a baby voice:

Hell-oooo! What did Santa bring you for Christmas?

‘Hasn’t had a drink since. Lance.
‘Dry as the Sahara, ’that day to this. 
‘New man now. ‘Goes to A.A., ’regular. 
‘The makings of him…

‘Wife doesn’t know herself.

‘Not that she sees that much of him! But still… 
‘Knows where he is, when to expect him, 
that he’ll be together when he shows. 
That itself…. ‘Has to be a bonus…

And the odd time we bump into each other, 
his form is better than ever. No more bullshit.
And he says – giving me the eye –

If I can do it, anyone can…

Oh, he was a gonner. Well on the way – out. 
And then.. then… Santa Claus gave him sobriety. 
Down the chimney, huh?.. Salvation in a stocking… 

‘At me to go along with him. An Open Meeting.

Don’t have to say a word. Just sit tight, take it in

Well… Maybe… Some dark night. 
‘Get there… walk in… ‘circle of strangers.

‘Tense among the walking wounded…

Listen to one, then another – men, women –

the old and the old-before-their-time – 
tell how they came to on Skid Row, 
struggled to their feet when the world 
was ready to count them out… 

Lemmings who turned – against all the odds – 
to claw their way back up 
the sheer face of a merciless cliff… 

How did he manage it, Lance?

What was gifted to him?

What miracle was his, ongoing?..

I’m going to lick this, I really am!

I won’t let it best me!..

Quietly, at his side, a fellow climber:

On your own? Lance, you haven’t a hope!

Tell you what, though: we’ll do it together…

Shortly after putting this piece “out there” 

a comment reached me, signed Kieran. 

I know well the madness

of the Walking Wounded –

‘ducking in and out of sobriety, 

detoxing for a fortnight,

then bingeing for another eternity,

until by circumstance forced –

and physically crippled –

to quit again! 

It’s a hellish ‘disease.’

I immediately checked out your other writings 

and liked the open, honest and

uncomplicated nature of your style. 

I will be keeping a keen eye out for

future postings. 

Your imagery is clear and inspiring. 

Good luck with everything.”

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Tony Flannery: Talk in the Clayton Hotel, Galway, on Wednesday March 27th at 7.30pm https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/tony-flannery-talk-in-the-clayton-hotel-galway-on-wednesday-march-27th-at-7-30pm/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/tony-flannery-talk-in-the-clayton-hotel-galway-on-wednesday-march-27th-at-7-30pm/#respond Thu, 14 Mar 2024 12:06:54 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42778 Can religious belief as we have known it survive in modern Ireland?  As many will know, I have been silenced by the Catholic Church but that isn’t to say, I...

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Can religious belief as we have known it survive in modern Ireland? 

As many will know, I have been silenced by the Catholic Church but that isn’t to say, I haven’t been contemplating how best to address the falling attendances at Mass, the falling away in general from the Catholic faith.

I’ve decided to break my silence on these matters and will give a public talk in Galway city during Holy Week.

In the past few years, I’ve studied and read would love nothing more than to share my observations in the hope that I can address how religious belief as we have known it survive in modern Ireland.

If we take the traditional indications of the health of the faith as measured by the Catholic Church, meaning church membership and regular observance of attendance at church, then all the signs are that it is in serious trouble, that the faith is in the terminal stage of ill health. Churches are emptying or are being frequented only by the older generation. Seminaries are closing down, and priest numbers are declining rapidly. There appear to be few, if any signs of new growth. 

But that is by no means the full story. We are living in a really interesting time in the Church since the arrival on the papacy of Francis. However long more he is going to last, even in the eleven years since his appointment he has brought about a great deal of change. The Synodal Process, with which we are familiar to some extent in Ireland, is a major project, the success of which is hard to measure at present. 

I have no doubt that the biggest legacy Pope Francis will leave from his time in charge is that he has freed up discussion, areas of study and the search for truth in the Church, all or which had been seriously restricted for many centuries by rigid imposition of official teachings. The pre Francis Church had adopted the position that it had the full truth, and that it had nothing to learn from the world. Francis, on the other hand, realised that in order for the Church to be relevant, it must engage with modern life, and be part of the debate about the future of the world and of people. Otherwise it would become, as has happened to some extent, a voice from the past that few took seriously anymore. 

A good example of that change of attitude is the extent to which Francis has engaged in the debate about the destruction of the environment and the necessity of facing up to climate change. The other really interesting change brought about by the new freedom in the Church is that Bible study is now no longer confined to the realm of the scholars, but is increasingly part of the faith journey of people generally. The fact that there is now a wider awareness that the Bible cannot be read as a historical document, but presents truth at a very different level of understanding, opens up all sorts of interesting questions about the nature of God, about the life and purpose of Jesus, and our expectations for the next life, among many other questions.

Francis himself recently suggested that God is more likely to be experienced in honest dialogue between spiritual searchers with many questions, than among those who are convinced that they have the full truth and don’t need to dialogue with anybody. 

These are the areas that I address in the Clayton Hotel, Briarhill on Wednesday, March 27 at 7.30pm.

It will be about trying to reconcile our Religious Upbringing with our current understandings of  Creation, Interpreting Scripture, and the Divine Presence. Don’t expect to come away with definite answers. As I get older I am more convinced that life itself is a mystery, and the same can be said about the idea of God and everlasting life. But, as I have found in my own life, new avenues of understanding can always open up for all of us. The talk won’t be too long, and we will leave plenty of time for question and discussion. You will be welcome to attend as we face into the season of the profound mystery of Easter.

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Chris McDonnell: A Change of Season https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/chris-mcdonnell-a-change-of-season/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/chris-mcdonnell-a-change-of-season/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:40:21 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42776 A change of season The chill, dark soil of winter eases the season change over the folded hills of March. Damp, stained shoes from a walk through frost-flaked grass till,...

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A change of season

The chill, dark soil of winter

eases the season change

over the folded hills of March.

Damp, stained shoes from a walk

through frost-flaked grass

till, on reaching the farm gate,

the sprung metal catch anchors

bare fingers, swings open, then

clatters closed behind, rattling.

Flowers are breaking through

ahead of time offering purple

yellow and white amid green.

Gather time in cupped hands

guard it as a nest for later rest

when evening comes close.

Then settle down with memories,

Of people, places and events

Close your hands round dreams.

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Studies – Spring 2024 issue https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/studies-spring-2024-issue/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/studies-spring-2024-issue/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:35:57 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42773 PRESS RELEASE13 MARCH 2024  On the scale of things, in today’s violent and volatile world, one could justifiably wonder whether access to the arts and the freedom to participate in...

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PRESS RELEASE
13 MARCH 2024 

On the scale of things, in today’s violent and volatile world, one could justifiably wonder whether access to the arts and the freedom to participate in the cultural life of the community could be considered a human rights priority. However, if we consider that artistic expression is an integral part of the way we imagine and experience our life, interact with our environment and conduct our relationships, then we can understand the transformative power of the arts. And that if artistic expression and experience become too detached from everyday life, society loses the ability to evaluate, to critique in an imaginative way and to envisage an alternative, better future.

The Spring 2024 issue of Studies features several contributions from people who teach on an elective module at Trinity College, ‘Music-making, the Arts and Society’, jointly provided by the Royal Irish Academy of Music and the Department of Education in Trinity. John O’Hagan, a specialist in the economics of the arts, writes about the personal and societal benefits generated by direct public funding of the arts; Deborah Kelleher describes the RIAM’s commitment to promoting access and inclusion in music education and participation, particularly in relation to young people and adults with disabilities; Kerry Houston and Marita Kerin summarise findings from a study that investigates how current students view the musical, spiritual and social aspects of their experience as choristers; and Sarah Doxat-Pratt evaluates the impact of participatory arts projects in prisons and community justice settings.

The remaining essays in the issue carry diverse themes. Paul Shrimpton provides a detailed analysis of John Henry Newman’s voluminous personal papers from his time as Rector of the Catholic University in Ireland, particularly his relationship with Archbishop Paul Cullen; Suzanne Mulligan, writing on sexual violence against women, argues that we cannot understand the underpinnings of gender-based violence without first considering the values that shape the world we inhabit; Austen Ivereigh provides illuminating background to a series of talks he delivered for an eight-day spiritual exercise retreat of the British Jesuit Province; Gerry O’Hanlon SJ writes about Pope Francis’ synodal vision and strategy, concluding that for the pontiff, synodality is more a way of being Church rather than a mere system of governance; and Peader Kirby argues against the tendency to condemn and dismiss the far-right without attempting to understand them.

Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review spring 2024,  The Arts and Society: A Question of Values is published by Messenger Publications. Priced at €10.

Further Information here

For more information or review copies please contact:

Carolanne Henry
Communications and Marketing Executive
Studies: An Irish Quarterly Review
37 Leeson Place
Dublin D02 E5V0
IRELAND 

c.henry@messenger.ie
T: +353 1 7758 542
M: +353 87 637 6067

www.studiesirishreview.ie

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Ireland Joins the World – and Leaves the Church https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/ireland-joins-the-world-and-leaves-the-church/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/ireland-joins-the-world-and-leaves-the-church/#respond Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:33:04 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42771 From Commonweal magazine: Fintan O’Toole on the cost of prosperity Paul Baumann, March 12, 2024, Commonweal Fintan O’Toole is a terrific writer, and his We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History...

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From Commonweal magazine:

Fintan O’Toole on the cost of prosperity

Paul Baumann, March 12, 2024, Commonweal

Fintan O’Toole is a terrific writer, and his We Don’t Know Ourselves: A Personal History of Modern Ireland is a remarkable chronicle of the economic, political, cultural, and religious transformation of his native country over the six decades since his birth in 1958. O’Toole has been a prominent journalist, drama critic, and prolific author for years, and now splits his time between Dublin and Princeton University. Readers are lucky that he also writes—with an acute eye for the absurdist political theater of Donald J. Trump and his devoted followers—about American politics for the New York Review of Books.

In We Don’t Know Ourselves, O’Toole examines the fitful way in which Ireland eventually embraced a secular liberal modernity. Over his lifetime, Ireland evolved from a rural agricultural economy to a modern industrialized and technological one. Educational institutions that were once controlled by the Church were eventually secularized. Meritocracy increasingly replaced hierarchy and tradition. Turning its eyes outward, Ireland first joined the European Economic Community and then the European Union. A nation whose principal export for centuries had been its own people became a land welcoming to immigrants.   

The sixty years O’Toole writes about were in many ways a period of disorienting, sometimes anarchic change, as well as a shocking amount of political and economic corruption. This period of rapid change culminated in the internationalization of Ireland’s economy and—after countless revelations of the sexual and physical abuse of children—the complete collapse of the Catholic Church’s moral authority. On that score, O’Toole is perhaps a bit too sanguine about the new nonjudgmental moral dispensation, which he claims rests on “the recognition by most of the faithful that they were in fact much holier than their preachers, and that they had a clearer sense of right and wrong, a more honest and intimate sense of love and compassion and decency.” To be sure, Ireland is a more tolerant and open society than it was in O’Toole’s youth, a development much to be praised. But his assessment of the laity’s virtues, now that they have thrown off the Church’s yoke, is hard to reconcile with his principal contention that the Irish have always knowingly participated in the hypocrisies of both Church and state. He describes that attitude as “a genius for knowing and not knowing at the same time.”

Nevertheless, what O’Toole has to say about traditional Irish Catholicism, especially its puritanical attitude toward sex, rings all too true. “When all sex is wrong, no kind of sex can be more wrong than any other,” he writes. “Everything is beyond the pale of discourse. Everything is out of bounds—so therefore there are no boundaries. Everything is unspeakable, so nothing is speakable. This is what created a perpetual open season for sexual predation of children.”

He is even shrewder in his analysis of the relationship between the Church and a modernizing Ireland when he describes John Paul II’s much-heralded 1979 pilgrimage to the island. The Ireland of O’Toole’s youth was a confessional state that boasted of the close bond between Celticism and Catholicism. As O’Toole notes, two-thirds of the Irish populace attended one or another of the pope’s outdoor Masses, a seeming tribute to the enduring strength and vitality of the Church. But things are not always as they appear. He praises John Paul II’s denunciation of the IRA’s terrorist violence then convulsing Northern Ireland, but he’s more skeptical of the pope’s warnings about Ireland’s possible loss of Catholic identity. “What he was afraid of was money and modernity,” O’Toole perceived. “The pope did not say directly that Ireland’s faithfulness was linked to its relative poverty, that the country was much more religious than the rest of western Europe because it was less developed economically. But he strongly implied it in his warnings about the coming times.” 

O’Toole, a former altar boy, was in his early twenties during the pope’s visit, and like many of his contemporaries he was captivated by contemporary youth culture and its embrace of sexual freedom, much of it imported from America. During John Paul II’s visit, he celebrated a Mass for youth in Galway, where he was treated like a rock star. At one point, the youthful crowd cheered the pope for fourteen uninterrupted minutes, a demonstration O’Toole was initially confounded by. “He was trapped in a feedback loop of adoration where every movement he made to signal that he was about to continue his sermon was received as if he were conducting the crowd.” The cheering only subsided after the crowd was sternly told that “[t]he Holy Father has not finished his sermon.” It was only years later that O’Toole recognized what had brought about such fervent emotion. “The crowd was not reveling in piety. It was reveling in itself, in its own youth and energy and unbounded vigor. It was taking over, inserting itself into the event, insisting on its own anarchic presence. It did not know or care about what it was actually doing; shutting the pope up.”

Nevertheless, what O’Toole has to say about traditional Irish Catholicism, especially its puritanical attitude toward sex, rings all too true.

That might seem like a tough judgment, but given the subsequent de-churching of O’Toole’s generation, it’s probably a fair one. Across his pontificate, John Paul’s famous World Youth Days brought together millions of young people. Those “Catholic Woodstocks” were often heralded as harbingers of a rebirth of faith among alienated youth, a rebirth that now appears to have been a stillbirth. I remember the extraordinary hype given to World Youth Day in 1993 in Denver, where more than half a million pilgrims gathered to see and hear John Paul II. Even twenty-five years later, papal biographer George Weigel insisted on calling the event “a turning point in the history of the Catholic Church in the United States,” evident in what he judged to be “the living parts of the Church.”

But as O’Toole notes, it is not always clear what motivates those in attendance at such events, or how they understand the experience. If he is right, the young people in Galway that day felt themselves to be at the edge of a wave of change that would carry them into a future very different from the past. By a similar measure, the turning point Weigel perceived seems to have set the U.S. Church in an unanticipated direction. One in every three Americans baptized as Catholics has left the Church. Vocations have plummeted. In many dioceses, parishes continue to close. Catholic liberals and Catholic conservatives have dueling explanations for this exodus; one pushes for more reform while the other preaches retrenchment. As a fellow baby boomer, I find O’Toole’s suggestion that the Galway crowd was “insisting on its own anarchic presence” to be persuasive. Much of the experience of coming of age in the 1960s and ’70s was anarchic, and often found expression in mass celebratory gatherings. Those events, however, rarely helped to revitalize institutions, like the family and religion, that have traditionally been the glue that held a society together.

“The real effect of the loss of Church authority was that there was no deeply rooted civic morality to take its place,” O’Toole writes about the endemic political and economic corruption that has rocked Ireland in recent decades. “The Irish had been taught for generations to identify morality with religion, and a very narrow kind of religion at that. Morality was about what happened in bedrooms, not boardrooms. Now, instead of moving from one sphere to the other, it seemed to be lost somewhere in between.” This raises an awkward question: Now that we’ve given up on legislating morality in the bedroom, do we still have the ability to legislate it anywhere else? Our anarchic politics and the grotesque inequalities of our economic and legal systems seem to be telling us we don’t. The moral autonomy we now concede to the adulterer and the “ethically polyamorous” is becoming harder to deny to the avaricious billionaire. In addition to its rigorous sexual rules, the medieval Church also had sumptuary laws restricting extravagant spending and consumption. Needless to say, neither set of prohibitions was strictly observed. But perhaps these prohibitions expressed a keener understanding of human nature and social reality than the one that prevails in our emancipated age.  

Link to article:

https://www.commonwealmagazine.org/ireland-church-catholic-fintan-o-toole-baumann

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America Magazine: LGBT Catholics and ‘disordered’ language: A biblical model for change https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/america-magazine-lgbt-catholics-and-disordered-language-a-biblical-model-for-change/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/america-magazine-lgbt-catholics-and-disordered-language-a-biblical-model-for-change/#comments Wed, 13 Mar 2024 20:17:49 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42767 James F. Keenan March 12, 2024 America Last month in Outreach, a L.G.B.T.Q. Catholic resource sponsored by America Media, I was invited to consider what we as a church might do...

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James F. Keenan March 12, 2024

America

Last month in Outreach, a L.G.B.T.Q. Catholic resource sponsored by America Media, I was invited to consider what we as a church might do between the two synod sessions. Turning to the L.G.B.T.Q. community, I raised up the roots and the value of “radically inclusive friendship” as a distinctive trademark of their community—especially when they welcome people exactly as they present themselves. I suggested that this form of openness might do the church good—both at the parish level and on the more global scale of a synod. I noted, in fact, that more and more parishes are posting on their websites and in their bulletins that in their parishes, “all are welcome.”

In that spirit, I proposed that we abandon two particular practices that are aimed at the L.G.B.T.Q. community: using the term “disordered” to reference same-sex attraction and firing Catholic educators for simply being married members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community.

I did not argue against either practice as such; rather, I suggested that as the church prepares for the next session of the synod in October 2024, we would all do well to recognize how counter-productive such practices are and how, as many of our hierarchy have noted, prudence suggests more constructive pathways for discussing our differences.

Here, I want to further my argument by recognizing how the synod itself sets a standard for Catholic discourse that we must continue to promote. Yet I want to take a look not at a contemporary synod, but rather at the distant past, to the so-called Council of Jerusalem described in Acts 15. That council offers, I believe, normative instruction for today’s church.

The Council of Jerusalem

Acts 15 begins with the contentious issue that prompts the Council of Jerusalem. Many were teaching: “Unless you are circumcised, according to the custom taught by Moses, you cannot be saved” (Acts 15:1). This claim prompts Paul and Barnabas to journey to Jerusalem to testify to the apostles and elders that many Gentiles had already converted to Christianity without becoming circumcised. This was not simply a matter of surgery; this was a question of whether the laws of Judaism were the laws of Christianity. Did Gentiles have to appropriate the religious practices of the Jews to become Christians? Could Gentiles become Christians at all?

These debates on ritual purity have some parallels with the debates about whether members of the L.G.B.T.Q. community can be welcomed as Christians. Those in the early Christian community who resisted the idea that Gentiles could be baptized thought of the Gentiles as “unclean.” And words like “unclean”—like “disordered”—cover a multitude of matters.

As soon as the council convenes by welcoming Paul and Barnabas, objections are raised: “The Gentiles must be circumcised and required to keep the law of Moses” (Acts 15:5). This declaration was followed by “much discussion.” Other translations talk about “much disputing” or “many debates.” One can only imagine what that discussion was like, but I suspect that one might have heard the descriptive “unclean” thrown around quite often—until Peter stands up.

When Peter stands, they all listen. He refers to an earlier experience of his (Acts 10:1-48) in which the Holy Spirit led him through a series of prayerful interventions that he, at first, actively resisted. He first went to the home of a Gentile, a centurion named Cornelius, who had been instructed by an angel to invite Peter.

The baptism of Cornelius

As Peter enters the house, he shares with Cornelius and his household his new understanding: “You yourselves know that it is unlawful for a Jew to associate with or to visit a Gentile; but God has shown me that I should not call anyone profane or unclean. So when I was sent for, I came without objection” (Acts 10:28-29). Cornelius informs him about the angel instructing him to invite Peter. Peter initiates his response: “I truly understand that God shows no partiality, but in every nation anyone who fears him and does what is right is acceptable to him” (Acts 10:34-35).

After more comments, he concludes: “All the prophets testify about him that everyone who believes in him receives forgiveness of sins through his name.” The Holy Spirit then descends on the household, and “the circumcised believers who had come with Peter were astounded that the gift of the Holy Spirit had been poured out even on the Gentiles.” (Acts 10:45). The chapter concludes, noting that since they all received the Holy Spirit, Peter then baptizes them.

Through the Council of Jerusalem, Peter’s testimony of his earlier experience with Cornelius effectively becomes the grounds that give warrant for Paul and Barnabas’s own accounts that the Gentiles may as such be baptized. After they each testify, James, the bishop of Jerusalem, stands, invokes the testimony of Peter regarding Cornelius and rules effectively to welcome the Gentiles.

I do not think that the present anxiety about recognizing the “gay” Catholic is unlike the first-century anxiety regarding the Gentiles becoming Christians. I think that when we prayerfully engage the Scriptures, we are brought to recognize that our fears and biases often place us at enmity with those who have the same faith and hope in the same Savior.

Certainly, many could go through these texts to find something as grounds against becoming more hospitable, but I think, in faith, we have to make the connection that Peter, James, Paul and Barnabas did.

We have to recognize, yet again, that human concerns regarding purity can invariably cloud our way of recognizing, through the Holy Spirit, the other, whether Gentile or gay, as a follower of Christ. By stopping the firings and the name-calling we might give the Holy Spirit the space to help us practice forms of hospitality and discourse that are truly Christian.

James F. Keenan

James F. Keenan, S.J., a moral theologian, is the Canisius Professor and Vice Provost for Global Engagement at Boston College.

Link to article:

https://www.americamagazine.org/faith/2024/03/12/keenan-synod-lgbtq-247472#:~:text=In%20that%20spirit%2C%20I%20proposed,community.

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Séamus Ahearne: LITTLE THOUGHTS PEEPING OUT OF LONG SENTENCES. https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/seamus-ahearne-little-thoughts-peeping-out-of-long-sentences/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/seamus-ahearne-little-thoughts-peeping-out-of-long-sentences/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 16:57:07 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42765 THE REFERENDUM:  Politicians are astute. They test the wind. They read the signs. They tune in to the lurking messages of the electorate. They have their surgeries. They have the...

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THE REFERENDUM: 

Politicians are astute. They test the wind. They read the signs. They tune in to the lurking messages of the electorate. They have their surgeries. They have the focus groups. They even have Citizens’ Assemblies. What went wrong this time? The Referendum model does try to simplify complex issues. The clear and obvious principle always is never to tinker with the Constitution. Moreover, any proposed change must be clear, precise and definite. Words such as ‘strive to do something’ are close to ridiculous and almost meaningless. ‘Durable relationships’ scream out for definition. Any vagueness provides an opportunity for  the employment of legal minds for ever. The overwhelming response of the voters, in this case, should be a good lesson. Not just to the Government but to all politicians. There was no ‘opposition’ really at work in the Dáil on this. Humility is the only way forward. 

THE HORSES TAKE OVER FOR PATRICK’S DAY: 

Cheltenham has begun. It is usually classified as an Irish invasion. (A historical reversal!) Racheal Blackmore has done well for a start. It used to be the time too for the exodus of clergy to that particular Prayer Meeting. Such an appetite seems to have waned. Ireland does rather well in other ways. However, we have to blush somewhat  after Marcus Smith’s drop goal. Anyway. Cillian Murphy took honours as a proud Irishman. That is what he said. 

MOTOR NEURONE: 

Charlie Bird has died. He was rather impressed with the gift he got from Daniel O’Donnell of his personal Rosary Beads. Charlie wanted to have it with him when he died. That surprised a few in his respect for it. Charlie’s going again reminds me of Stephen Hawking’s line on faith and religion and God. ‘Your God is too small.’ All the clutter we have accumulated for the Rituals of our faith can obscure God from so many. Our language. Our set Liturgies. We need to be imaginative; expansive; creative. 

RUPNIK; VANIER; KELLY: 

Artist Marko Rupnik has caused a stir. His work has appeared in many major locations. And now there arises the question – what can be done about his works of art? Can they or should they be removed? Jean Vanier raised the same questions. He was the saint of our times. The work he did was magnificent. His writings and his talks were very special. And then other stories appeared. Most of us felt let down and distrustful of anyone and everyone. His clay feet were revealed. Console  (Care for those who were caught up in suicide) brought discredit to a much needed organisation when  Paul Kelly and family were found to be financially indiscreet. That did damage to all such charities.

STAKEKNIFE: 

Operation Kenova Report (interim) has come out. Freddie Scappaticci (Stakeknife)was an extraordinary character who was the enforcer against all informers (real or supposed) while he himself was playing that role. It is a very sad reflection on all involved. At least Michelle O’Neill did come out and apologised ‘for every single loss of life, and that is without exception’ during the troubles. 

INDIE: 

She will be four in a week’s time. She has all the confidence of much older young lassie. She knows it all. She is certain that her further schooling is needed not for her, but rather for what the teacher and others will learn from her. She tells me that her father annoys her. That her mother is too bossy. That her grandmother teases her. (Waterford granny). She is intrigued by the buds appearing and the flowers and the greenery and the greater light. She wants to dress up in the colours of Spring. She is quite certain that this world is very lucky to have her and all the children around. Old people can be drab and prosaic. She wants poetry in life. She tells everyone who is willing to listen and even those who aren’t, that the world is a much better place because of her.

“The way you are; is the way we were. The way we are; is the way you will be.” (I am told that is the message at the Bone Church in Rome, Via Veneto.) I can’t remember it but I do recall those beautiful and horrible chandeliers made of bones! I wonder what Brother Richard thinks of that? He appeared on Tommy Tiernan last week and was so articulate and eloquent on our whole way of life. 

Seamus Ahearne OSA 

12th March 2024. 

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Global Sisters Report: Q&A with journalist and filmmaker Dearbhail McDonald https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/global-sisters-report-qa-with-journalist-and-filmmaker-dearbhail-mcdonald/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/global-sisters-report-qa-with-journalist-and-filmmaker-dearbhail-mcdonald/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 16:37:52 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42762 BY KIMBERLEY HEATHERINGTON 12 March 2024 Ireland’s nuns are vanishing.  Once boasting a peak number of 13,400 members — in the 1960s — Irish female religious orders today count fewer...

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BY KIMBERLEY HEATHERINGTON 12 March 2024

Ireland’s nuns are vanishing. 

Once boasting a peak number of 13,400 members — in the 1960s — Irish female religious orders today count fewer than 4,000 women, 

with an average age exceeding 80

Documenting their history and cultural impact is both a matter of dwindling opportunity and still-raw sensitivities, as Ireland grapples with the spiritual damage from decades of abuse scandals. They include the hideous tragedies of the sister-run 

Magdalene Laundries 

and 

mother and baby homes

now the subject of confidential negotiations between the government and religious orders brokering an

 $875 million survivor compensation package

It was in this charged communal context that award-winning Irish author, journalist and broadcaster Dearbhail McDonald — who honed her craft reporting on seemingly scandal after scandal in the church — undertook the television project that became

The Last Nuns in Ireland

The documentary — and a companion piece, “The Last Priests in Ireland” — aired on Irish state broadcaster RTÉ in January.

Trained as both a lawyer (Trinity College Dublin) and journalist (Dublin City University), McDonald — still a self-described “St. Clare’s girl,” referencing her convent school education — admits she struggled “to reconcile the undoubted achievements of our women in religious orders with the undeniable legacy of abuse.”

“The Last Nuns in Ireland” is, then, both a personal and public attempt to make some kind of peace with a complicated spiritual and cultural legacy.

Global Sisters Report: Could you tell us about the inspiration for this project? As Ireland rapidly secularizes and religious orders dwindle in numbers, did you feel an urgency to document the lives of these women now?

McDonald: The starting point of this project was a pitch by Scratch Films to RTÉ to undertake an archiving project to record elderly priests’ and nuns’ life stories before they are lost.

Link to full interview:

https://www.globalsistersreport.org/news/qa-journalist-and-filmmaker-dearbhail-mcdonald?utm_source=NCR+List&utm_campaign=42125cd7fa-EMAIL_CAMPAIGN_2024_03_12_12_42&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_6981ecb02e-42125cd7fa-%5BLIST_EMAIL_ID%5D

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Presider’s Page for Sunday 17 March (Lá Fhéile Pádraig, on the Fifth Sunday of Lent) https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/presiders-page-for-17-march-la-fheile-padraig/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/presiders-page-for-17-march-la-fheile-padraig/#respond Tue, 12 Mar 2024 13:12:09 +0000 http://www.associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=20460 In the heart of Lent, we keep the feast of Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland. We mark the day by praising God the creator, who sustained Patrick, and who sustains the Church, in good times and bad.

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Opening Comment
As the fifth week of Lent begins in other countries, we pause from our lenten penances to honour Patrick, the apostle of the Irish. In our celebration of this solemn feast, we worship God, creator, redeemer and sanctifier, who brought our ancestors into the Christian fold through the preaching of St Patrick. And we pray that Christians today may be true to his legacy.

Penitential Rite
To prepare ourselves for this solemn celebration, let us call to mind our sins: (pause)
Lord Jesus, you came to reconcile us to one another and to the Father: Lord, have mercy / A Thiarna déan trócaire
Lord Jesus, you heal the wounds of sin and division: Christ, have mercy  / A Chríost déan trócaire)
Lord Jesus, you interceded for us with your Father: Lord, have mercy / A Thiarna déan trócaire)

Alternative Opening Prayer (1998 ICEL Missal)
Lord God,
in your loving providence
you sent the holy bishop Patrick
to preach your glory to the people of Ireland;
grant through his merits and prayers
that all who rejoice in the name of Christian
may proclaim your wonderful deeds to all the world.
We ask this through our Lord Jesus Christ, your Son,
who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit,
God for ever and ever.

OR:

An Chomhurnaí
A Thiarna,
de bharr shaothar Naomh Pádraig in Éirinn
tá sé tar éis teacht linn rúndiamhair an aon fhíor-Dhia amháin a admháil
agus buíochas a ghabháil as ár slánú i gCríost;
de bharr a idirghuí deonaigh go gcoinneoimidne,
a cheiliúrann an fhéile seo,
tine an chreidimh, a d’adhain sé, beo i gcónaí inár measc.
Trínár dTiarna Íosa Críost do Mhac,
a mhaireann agus a rialaíonn leatsa,
mar aon leis an Spiorad Naomh, ina Dhia,
trí shaol na saol.

Introduction to the Scripture Readings (Fifth Sunday of Lent)
Jeremiah 31:31-34 — A promise of a new covenant, a ‘new deal’ between God and all people, built on love and forgiveness: St Patrick brought news of this ‘new deal’ to our ancestors.
Hebrews 5:7-9 — Jesus is the perfect model for us to imitate, because he shows us what obedience is all about. St Patrick also learned through suffering.
John 12:20-30 — Jesus explains that he does God’s will always, even by dying. But in his death, his glory is seen. Patrick was a witness to the glory of God.

BIDDING PRAYERS

Introduction (by the Presider) Let us bring our needs to the one true God, preached by St Patrick.

  1. That the leaders of the Church in Ireland may have the courage and wisdom of the great bishop Patrick (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)
  2. That everyone who lives on the island of Ireland may work for peace and harmony (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)
  3. That the civic leaders of Ireland may practise Christian values — honesty, generosity and compassion (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)
  4. That our emigrants may have the help they need — particularly those who feel lonely or lost (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)
  5. That the people who come to Ireland as victims — as St Patrick did — may experience friendship and support (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)
  6. That the people of this parish may have the blessings of heaven today, particularly those who are sick (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)

The Presider prays for the dead: That our ancestors and all our friends who have died may have the light of heaven (we pray quietly for this). Lord, hear us (or “A Thiarna éist linn“)

Conclusion (by the Presider) God of truth and beauty, you look after us through the prayer of our friends, the saints: keep us and all your Irish flock in your care, through Christ our Lord. Amen.

PRAYER OVER THE GIFTS
Os Cionn na nOfrálacha
A Thiarna,
glac leis an íobairt fhíorghlan seo
a ofrálann do phobal buíoch duit
de bharr shaothar Naomh Pádraig
chun glóir d’ainm.
Trí Chríost ár dTiarna.

PREFACE OF SAINT PATRICK
An Phreafáid

S     Go raibh an Tiarna libh.
P    Agus le do spiorad féin.

S     Tógaigí bhur gcroíthe in airde.
P     Tá siad tógtha in airde chun an Tiarna againn.

S     Gabhaimis buíochas lenár dTiarna Dia.
P     Is ceart agus is cóir sin.

Is ceart agus is cóir dúinn, go deimhin, is cuí agus is
tairbheach,
buíochas a ghabháil leat de shíor agus i ngach áit,
a Thiarna, a Athair naofa, a Dhia uilechumhachtaigh
shíoraí,
agus thú a mholadh go cuí
agus sinn ag tabhairt ómóis do Naomh Pádraig.

Óir trína phaidreoireacht laethúil
le linn dó bheith i ngéibheann agus ag fulaingt cruatain
thug tú air thú a aithint mar Athair grámhar.
Thogh tú é as a raibh ar domhan
chun filleadh ar thír na ndaoine a rinne príosúnach de
i dtreo is go n-admhóidís Íosa Críost, a Slánaitheoir.
Trí chumhacht do Spioraid threoraigh tú a bhealaí
ionas gur éirigh leis clann mhac agus iníonacha na
nÉireannach
a iompú chun seirbhís Dé Thrí-aonta.
Uime sin, mar aon leis na hAingil agus leis na hArdaingil,
agus le sluaite iomadúla na Naomh,
gabhaimid iomann molta duit á rá gan stad:

Is Naofa, Naofa, Naofa thú, a Thiarna Dia na Slua.
Tá neamh agus talamh lán de do ghlóir.
Hósanna sna harda.
Is beannaithe an té atá ag teacht in ainm an Tiarna.
Hósanna sna harda

A Thiarna, is Naofa thú go fírinneach; is tú tobar na
naofachta go léir.
Naomhaigh, mar sin, impímid ort,
na bronntanais seo le drúcht do Spioraid,
chun go ndéanfar díobh inár gcomhair Corp agus + Fuil ár
dTiarna, Íosa Críost.

Nuair a bhi sé á thabhairt suas chun na Páise dá dheoin
féin,
ghlac sé an t-arán, agus ag gabháil buíochais leat, bhris,
agus thug dá dheisceabail é, á rá:
GlACAIGÍ AGUS ITHIGÍ UILE É SEO:
ÓIR IS É SEO MO CHORP
A THABHARFAR AR BHUR SON.

Ar an gcaoi chéanna, tar éis an tsuipéir,
ag glacadh na cailíse, agus ag gabháil buíochais leat arís,
thug sé dá dheisceabail í, á rá:

GLACAIGÍ AGUS ÓLAIGÍ UILE AISTI SEO:
ÓIR IS Í SEO CAILÍS MO CHUID FOLA,
FUILAN NUATHIOMNA SHÍORAÍ.
DOIRTFEAR Í AR BHUR SON
AGUS AR SON MÓRáIN
CHUN MAITHIÚNAS NA BPEACAÍ.
DÉANAIGÍ É SEO I GCUIMHNE ORMSA.

Rúndiamhair an chreidimh (The mystery of faith) Mo Thiarna agus mo Dhia.

Dá réir sin, a Thiarna Dia,
ag cuimhneamh dúinn ar bhás agus ar aiséirí Chríost,
ofrálaimid duit arán na beatha agus cailís an tslánaithe,
agus gabhaimid buíochas leat
toisc gurbh fhiú leat
sinn a bheith i do láthair agus ag fónamh duit.
Iarraimid go humhal ort go n-aontófar le chéile,
le cumhacht an Spioraid Naoimh,
sinne atá páirteach i gCorp agus i bhFuil Chríost.

Tabhair chun cuimhne, a Thiarna, d’Eaglais ar fud an
domhain mhóir
chun go ndéanfá í a neartú sa charthanacht
i gcuideachta lenár bPápa Proinsias, agus lenár nEaspag A.,
agus leis an gcléir uile.

Cuimhnigh freisin ar ár muintir féin
a fuair bás agus iad ag súil le haiséirí agus orthu siúd uile
atá imithe ar shlí na fírinne faoi do ghnaoi
agus fáiltigh rompu isteach i solas do ghlóire.

Déan trócaire orainn uile, impímid ort, ionas gurbh fhiú
sinn a bheith páirteach sa bheatha shíoraí
chun tú a mholadh agus a ghlóiriú
i gcuideachta na Maighdine Beannaithe Muire, Máthair
Dé, na Naomhaspal, Naomh Pádraig agus na Naomh uile
a rinne do thoilse riamh anall
trí do Mhac Íosa Críost.

Is trid agus leis agus ann a thugtar gach onóir agus glóir
duitse, a Dhia, an tAthair uilechumhachtach, in aontacht
an Spioraid Naoimh, trí shaol na saol.
Amen.

PRAYER AFTER COMMUNION
An Iarchomaoineach
Neartaigh sinn tríd an tsacraimint seo, a Thiarna,
i dtreo is go ndéanfaimid an creideamh a theagasc
Naomh Pádraig
a admháil agus a fhógairt
trínár modh maireachtála.
Trí Chríost ár dTiarna

SOLEMN BLESSING
Beannacht Shollúnta
Dia an tAthair,
a thionól le chéile sinn
le féile Naomh Pádraig a cheiliúradh,
go mbeannaí sé sibh, go gcosnaí sé sibh
agus go gcoinní sé sibh
dílis don chreideamh i dtólamh. Amen.

Go raibh Críost, an Tiarna,
Ardrí na bhflaitheas,
i ngar daoibh i gcónaí
agus go gcumhdaí sé sibh ar an olc. Amen.

Go ndeonaí an Spiorad Naomh,
foinse gach naofachta,
go mbeidh sibh lán de ghrá do phobal Dé. Amen.

Agus go dtaga beannacht Dé uilechumhachtaigh,
Athair, Mac agus Spiorad Naomh,
anuas oraibh agus go bhfana libh de shíor. Amen

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Brendan Hoban interview with Rev Alex Morahan, C of I, United dioceses of Tuam, Limerick & Killaloe. https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/brendan-hoban-interview-with-rev-alex-morahan-c-of-i-united-dioceses-of-tuam-limerick-killaloe/ https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/brendan-hoban-interview-with-rev-alex-morahan-c-of-i-united-dioceses-of-tuam-limerick-killaloe/#respond Mon, 11 Mar 2024 22:32:47 +0000 https://associationofcatholicpriests.ie/?p=42745 Brendan Hoban recently interviewed Rev Alex Morahan, an Anglican priest in Ballina, Co Mayo for Faith Alive on Midwest Radio. His ministry “began in the RC context, in which he...

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Brendan Hoban recently interviewed Rev Alex Morahan, an Anglican priest in Ballina, Co Mayo for Faith Alive on Midwest Radio.

His ministry “began in the RC context, in which he had rich international experience, but then he moved away from that context and embraced Anglicanism as a parishioner in Bunclody, Co Wexford. He served as a full-time lay healthcare chaplain for some years in Dublin as part of an ecumenical team before taking up a role in Kilkenny college.”

Rev Morahan, a native of Louisburgh, Co Mayo, is married to Maggie Power and they have a daughter, Megan, who has just completed her Leaving cert in Kilkenny college.

Link to interview:

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