“Francis, Francis, go and repair My house which, as you can see, is falling into ruins”. These words of Christ, spoken from a cross in the little church of San Damiano to St Francis of Assisi, crept into my mind when I took an old wooden pew in the little church of the Immaculate Heart…
Several inquiries needed on all schools, state facilities The most recent report revealing allegations of child sexual abuse in Catholic secondary schools makes for grim reading. The pain endured by victims of abuse in religious-run schools and the sense of scandal that it has given rise to cannot be minimised. Whatever the sense of injustice…
The catholic Archbishop of Freiburg , Stephan Burger, has said he is opposed to church funeral services for pets. “I am clearly in favour of an ethically responsible treatment of animals and am concerned about animal welfare. But we should not humanise animals. A catholic mourning rite specifically for pets is unthinkable for me,” he told…
At the weekend the Pope surprised a gathering of journalists in the Vatican by making an appeal to them for help, “not for money” he assured them, but to fight against disinformation and the denial of facts and reality. This appeal for help came as a prominent Cardinal in America heavily criticised the proposed Synod…
The Pope’s idea of co-responsibility for the Church is the mustard seed that may one day grow into a large tree and give shelter to all, writes Garry O’Sullivan Numbers don’t lie, yet we all know the phrase “Lies, damned lies, and statistics” a phrase that is described as “the persuasive power of statistics to…
The leadership of the Irish Church needs now to demonstrate clearly that it has heard the voice of the laity and clergy, so clearly expressed in the national synodal listening process. Furthermore it needs to be demonstrably accountable to the laity and clergy as the Archbishop of Dublin has said, ownership is passing from clergy…
The renewal and revival of the Church in Ireland needs to acknowledge the dying of the former model, writes Garry O’Sullivan Synodality and its listening process has been like following a prescribed cocktail of drugs. There’s all the ‘uppers’ of openness, listening, hopes and joys but then there’s the ‘downers’ of “we’ve been here before”,…
Framing the synodal process is taking away opportunities to sit and listen first, and let people talk, writes Garry O’Sullivan Speaking at the beginning of the diocesan phase of the worldwide synod, Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick said that the synod is taking place at a critical time for the Church and must not be…
To get the process right we must listen with respect to those who have something to say born from experience, writes Garry O’Sullivan When Pope Francis in 2013 decided he would eat in the canteen like the rest of the staff, people realised that a different kind of Church was being promoted. I remember being…
Inviting people to participate in a process that is really only about erecting scaffolding around old structures will further alienate even the enthusiastic, writes Garry O’Sullivan “Trying to turn the pyramid upside down,” is how Fr Brendan Hoban described what they were doing by organising a diocesan assembly in Killala, one of the smallest dioceses…