Month: June 2020

Shalom

Seamus Ahearne emerges from lockdown “taken back myself at how old I had got and how I had deserved the cocooning!” 
“It is a humbling reflection to glance backwards towards 14/15th March and since.
The world lived without us. Lived without Church. Lived without Mass. No Holy Week. No Easter. No Baptisms. No First Communion. No Confirmations. No house visits. No Schools. No full Funerals. No shopping. No hospital visiting or visits to the sick.
Somehow the sky didn’t fall in.  We can’t go back to how we were.”

Hands

Chris McDonnell thinks about one thing that has been missed in recent weeks – “the exchange of touch between each other in recent weeks for without words our hands speak of our emotions, our cares and our suffering.”
“It is with our hands that we take and give, share and consume. What could be more practical than we receive the gift of the Christ in the same manner?”

Presider’s Page for 21 June (12th Sunday in Ordinary Time)

We have nothing to be afraid of, we’re told in today’s Gospel. God knows every one of our needs. We gather in prayer, united by our faith, to thank God for this word of encouragement. And on this Father’s Day, we honour the presence and memory of our fathers — and those who have played a father’s role……

Table for Transparency Scores of Dioceses in 2020

Revised: Armagh were incorrectly reported and their revised score is now 30.

We Are Church Ireland publish their ‘Transparency Table’ for irish dioceses.
The Transperancy Scores are calculated based on 10 criteria developed by Voice of the Faithful in the USA. The criteria include the availability on websites of Annual Accounts; details of the Finance Committee; Search functions to quickly find information; financial guidelines.

A bitter struggle for the soul of Catholicism

Brendan Hoban wonders why Pope Francis’ agenda is not gaining traction in the Irish church; the agenda “to rediscover and implement the insights of the Second Vatican Council…. to focus on protecting planet earth, to place the poor at the centre of our concerns, to breathe new life into the concept of mercy, to emphasise a synodal (or group)  approach to decision-making and to find new ways of spreading the Good News of Jesus Christ.”

Presider’s Page for 14 June (‘Corpus Christi’ – the Body of Christ)

Today’s liturgy invites us to reflect on what we have missed these last three months — the weekly gathering of the Body of Christ for Sunday Mass, and the sharing in the Body of Christ in Holy Communion. As we celebrate Corpus Christi today, we pray for a greater appreciation of these gifts.

The Drama of Faith

Seamus Ahearne writes of the God who is with us. “God gives us the kiss of life daily for us to revive, walk, sing, dance, love, enjoy, be aware, be grateful, appreciate, notice, wake up and see.     
‘Earth is crammed with heaven.’   (Elizabeth Barrett Browning).”

“The Light From the Southern Cross”

Joshua J. McElwee writes in NCR on the report commissioned by Australia’s bishops and religious orders into how governance in the church can be more “co-responsible,” or be better shared among bishops, clergy and laypeople.
‘The most visible indicator of the barriers to full participation is that the hierarchy of the Catholic Church in Australia, as in the Church across the world, remains exclusively male.’

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