Books

The crisis of vocations in the Church demands an imaginative response.  Might part-time priests be the answer?  There are theological foundations in the bible supporting this idea.  There are insights to be gained too from listening to the modern world.  But, who will...

By Tony Flannery In February 2012 Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist and founder member of the Associ­ation of Catholic Priests in Ireland, bestselling author and regular columnist with Reality magazine, was informed that the Vatican watchdog, the Congregation for the...

In 1982, 46 priests of Killala diocese gathered for their annual retreat. That was 30 years ago. In less than 20 years time, in 2032, when we will be celebrating 1600 years since the coming of St Patrick, the statistics indicate that the number of priests in Killala...

What is the future of the churches in Ireland? The recent census in Northern Ireland confirms that fewer people are identifying with any church, whether Catholic or Protestant. Is this a sign of end times for church, or just church as we know it? Like any institution,...

In her first book since leaving Aras An Uachtarain, Mary McAleese has produced a masterful and highly accessible study of how Vatican II's teachings on collegiality, or how power and responsibility were to be shared between the Pope and the college of bishops within...

In this short but provocative book Brother Louis calls the institution church to account and transformation.  He does so not with any malice or mean-spiritedness, but rather with a sense of urgency and love.  He knows that several members of the institutional church...

Vatican II is not past history but a treasure for us today. It has put people back at the centre of the Church's teaching and pastoral ministry. Learning what this means in everyday life has been a challenge to Liverpool priest Kevin Kelly, for the whole of his more...

Changing perspectives are part of life.  Priests, at a meeting on emigration in Erris, Co Mayo, fifty years ago, recognised change in the advertisements for air travel on the wall behind them. But no one could have imagined the pace of change in the last half century...

‘Can I stay?' is a question which many Catholics face in the light of the response of Church leaders to child abuse.  For Brian Lennon, a Jesuit priest, the question also arose because of doubts about faith which he, like others, experienced over many years.  The...

This book is addressed to ordinary decent Catholics, those on the edge of the church, and all those who are of the opinion that churches might have something positive to contribute to society. It explores the key questions that arise out of the clergy sex abuse...

The author writes: ‘This is a book about authority, especially authority as exercised in the Roman Catholic Church.  I write today because I struggle with authority as I believe many fellow church members, both cleric and lay do. What I have learned from my own life...

"Through the story of sexual abuse and the church's response, I came to the unshakeable belief that within the Catholic Church there absolutely must be profound and enduring change. In particular, there must be change on the two subjects of power and sex." (From the...

'Either the church once again puts the liberation of humanity at the centre of its message or it will become increasingly marginalised and irrelevant.’ For over thirty years Tony Flannery has devoted his life to preaching the message of Christ as a priest of the...