Aidan surveys the spate of Catholic scandals that began in 1985, and calls for the global Catholic Church to be returned to the ownership of its lay people.
Articles
Marie Collins asks Pope Francis to explain bishop accountability process: NCR
Irish abuse survivor asks to meet with Pope to ‘understand better’ the process whereby Catholic bishops are to be made accountable for handling clerical abuse.
Pope Francis brings papacy to ground level in Ireland, August 2018
In August 2018 the humanity and fallibility of the papacy was starkly revealed to an Ireland in need of healing and hope – and home-grown leadership.
Has Richard Sipe explained the cover-up of clerical child sex abuse in the Catholic Church?
In linking the cover-up of clerical paedophilia to the Catholic hierarchy’s determination to preserve the appearance of clerical celibacy, Richard Sipe (who died on August 8th, 2018) is increasingly persuasive.
Christendom is over – in Ireland too, thank God?
Does Bishop Leo O’Reilly’s homily in Knock on June 17th, 2018, mark an important shift in the Irish Catholic Church’s thinking on the state?
Future Families Report – June 2018
The ACI Future Families conference report calls for recognition of the families who feel marginalised and unwanted by the Church.
Emerging Christianity
Philip McParland sees a new kind of Christianity emerging, ushered in by Richard Rohr, Brian McLaren and others – a ‘spiritual path’ rather than a ‘belief and belonging system’.
Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love): Reviewed by Aidan Hart
With Pope Francis soon to come to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families, his encyclical dedicated to the family – Amoris Laetitia – is especially relevant. Aidan Hart’s article of 2016 gets to the heart of a papal document like no other.
ACI WMOF EVENT – April 14th, 2018
ACI to consult families that are currently marginalised in the Irish Church – on Saturday April 14th, 2018.
Laity are revolutionising faith practice in the community
Angela Hanley argues that alienation from an over-centralised church system is provoking a quiet backlash at the base of the Irish Church.
Internet: Global Prison?
Is the Internet now the world’s biggest prison? If so, might Christian faith be the best key to release? Sean O’Conaill thinks that Charles Dickens helps out here.
Catholic Church Reform International (CCRI): UPDATE
FIVE WAYS IN WHICH POPE FRANCIS HAS FUNDAMENTALLY CHANGED HOW WE SEE THE CHURCH AND HOW YOU CAN OFFER YOUR SUPPORT
Time for Public Theology – Johnston McMaster of the ISE
"To develop public theology in the 21st century is to take seriously faith and ethics as applied to public questions." Dr Johnston McMaster of the Irish School of Ecumenics.
Is Archbishop Diarmuid Martin failing Dublin?
Justly celebrated for his handling of the abuse catastrophe in Dublin, must Archbishop Martin nevertheless accept some responsibility for the fact that ‘Irish Catholicism hasn’t changed’?
The Scandal of the 2011 Missal
Why in 2011 did we begin to use a translation of the Missal that became a ‘stumbling block’ for so many celebrants of the Catholic liturgy? A just-published small book explains this admirably.