Seamus Ahearne posts a mid-summer reflection. Among other issues he wonders if "When people look backwards and dump the blame for everything on the past – they simply are avoiding the responsibility of what is facing them at the moment....... It is so much easier to be apologetic about the past than it is to look at today."
He worries for Pope Francis "Why wouldn’t people leave him alone to get on with his business in Rome? We need him so badly and yet we waste his energy and time."
But this mid-summer Seamus tells us. "We can stand back and let all this seriousness and pomposity of life be smiled at."

Brian Fahy's reflection on the 'Our Father' tells us "Babbling in God’s direction is not connection, and babbling in the direction of others is not kind conversation. Our media world is full of our babbling, noise and fury signifying nothing very much."
Perhaps all bloggers, tweeters, etc. should pay heed!

The ACP  will host 4 public regional meetings ahead of the Papal visit.
The theme  of the meetings is  “What do we need to say to Pope Francis about the Irish Church?”
These meetings are open to everybody.

Tony Flannery gives his impressions of the International Church Reform Conference that took place over five days last week in Pezinok, Slovakia.
"The variety of people was one of the striking factors, - from Estonia, Korea, Russia, Bulgaria, India, Argentina, Australia, and many other places, - fifteen countries in all. So it was a rich experience, being with such people over five days."

Press Release of the “International Catholic Reform Network” (ICRN) June 16, 2018

Many thanks to Michael A. McGinn.
Best wishes to all members who are celebrating significant anniversaries.

The Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI) has issued a comprehensive report on the proceedings of their conference Future Families: Challenges for Faith and Society, held in anticipation of the World Meeting of Families 2018 planned for Dublin in August.
ACI challenges the WMOF to reflect the realities of family life today.

Brendan Hoban, writing in the Western People, looks at the continuing fall out from the recent referendum on the eighth amendment and expresses concern at a 'moral triumphalism and political totalitarianism (that) has no place in public discourse.'
....
"if this is the new Ireland then God help those who disagree with the emerging consensus. It won’t hold a candle to the control and oppressiveness of the Catholic past, and that’s saying something."

Pádraig McCarthy draws our attention to the preparatory document: “Amazonia: New Paths for the Church and for an Integral Ecology” of the Synod of Bishops for the Special Assembly for the Pan-Amazon Region.

Brian Fahy offers a reflection for the Feast of the Sacred Heart.
"That statue [of the Sacred Heart] represents the human form of the Lord and it is in his body that he came to bring God’s love home to me. That body enjoyed the warmth of this world and endured its bitter cold."