November 2011 – Marianella Meeting
In November 2011 the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland [ACP], as part of the planning and
preparation for their first national meeting (an event which subsequently became known as
‘Towards an Assembly of the Irish Church’) called an open meeting in the Redemptorist Centre in
Marianella, Dublin. At that meeting, which was attended by a very significant number of lay people
as well as priests and religious, serious concern was expressed about the state of the church in
Ireland – a church described as being in crisis and in need of major reform. The ACP Leadership
Team, in announcing the plan for the ‘Assembly’, indicated that they were proposing to establish a
joint ACP-Lay Planning Group to prepare for the ‘Assembly’ which was scheduled for the summer of
2012. Those in attendance on the night were invited to volunteer to work with the Planning Group.
There was considerable interest from ‘the floor’ in supporting the ACP initiative and it was agreed
that it would be left to the ACP Leadership Team to approach suitable volunteers to assist in
planning the ‘Assembly’. While the concept of a new lay organisation was not overtly mentioned on
the night, in hindsight it could be argued that this ‘Marianella Meeting’ was a seminal moment in
terms of the response of the laity committed to the reform of our church.