How many Dublin parishes have responded to Archbishop Martin’s request for parish pastoral councils to consult their parish communities on faith renewal, beginning November 14th, 2018?
Featured
The Diaspora of a Disconnected Church
Sean O’Conaill, in a recent letter to the Irish Times, questions that paper’s continued use of the term ‘Catholic Church’ as if that term is describing a unitary entity instead of a much divided reality. The Irish Times refused to publish the letter. It is published on this website (below) to access the response of our readers to the issue.
Women deacons – when will we know?
The Wijngaards Institute for Catholic Research wonders when Pope Francis’ Study Commission on The Women’s Diaconate (set up in August 2016) is going to report back and be published and if Cardinal Ladaria is right that it is impossible for the Catholic Church to ordain women to the priesthood or permanent diaconate.
Deacons: clericalised laymen?
Aidan Hart laments the ‘clericalisation of the laity’ in the apparent intended role for nine new deacons in the diocese of Down and Connor.
Erring Shepherds – Aidan Hart
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.
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.
THANK YOU
A big Thank You to our members and others who supported our ‘Future Families’ event on Saturday April 14th ……..
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.