An interesting report is carried in the National Catholic Reporter on who has voting rights at the Synod on youth.
It's hard to believe no woman has the right to vote at the Synod on the 100th anniversary of the beginning of women achieving their right to vote in this part of the world.

Dr Gladys Ganiel, Research Fellow, Senator George J Mitchell Institute for Global Peace, Security and Justice, Queen's University Belfast commissioned a survey about the recent papal visit. The results have been released and are informative.
"For practicing Catholics, 39% said the main reason as to why they did not attend any of the events was because the travel/walk was too difficult, 22% said they were not interested and 18% said they disagreed with how the Church has handled abuse."

Only 1% of those who did not attend any event put the reason down to the weather!

At the recent annual general meeting of the ACP Tim Hazelwood outlined the continuing supportive role the ACP plays for many priests.

Homily of Pope Francis, St Peter's Square, Sunday, 14 October 2018.
"Let us ask for the grace always to leave things behind for love of the Lord: to leave behind wealth, leave behind the yearning for status and power, leave behind structures that are no longer adequate for proclaiming the Gospel, those weights that slow down our mission, the strings that tie us to the world."

A presentation on the topic of the retirement of priests was given by Mattie Long at the recent AGM of the Association of Catholic Priests.

An interesting article in America Magazine.
We may not have too many students for the priesthood but what would be an equivalent experience in Ireland?

John Feehan spoke at our AGM about "The New View of Creation in Laudato si"
"I am not sure how many of us appreciate how radical it is: how radical for our thinking, for our behaviour; how radical for our understanding of the meaning of creation and of our role in the making of the world.
Twice in Laudato si’ Pope Francis refers to the created world as the ‘other’ book of revelation. Creation itself, the ‘other book’, the ‘magnificent book in which God speaks to us and grants us a glimpse of his infinite beauty and goodness; ... God has written a precious book, ‘whose letters are the multitude of created things present in the universe."

An audio recording of the presentations made at the AGM on 10 October 2018 is now available from Eist.
It is available on a 2 CD set or by email.
The total cost for either is €15 .

To Order, …

Seamus Ahearne recalls some memories of the late Larry Forristal, retired bishop of Ossory.

Sean McDonagh draws our attention to a statement from the European Christian Environmental Network calling for 'A future with hope'.