Wednesday, October 09, 2024

Boy, 16, charged with attempted murder of Army chaplain

A 16-year-old boy has been charged with attempted murder in relation to the stabbing of a Defence Forces chaplain in Galway in August.

The boy, who cannot be identified because he is a minor, had previously been charged with assault causing harm to Fr Paul F Murphy at Renmore Barracks on 15 August.

He appeared at Galway District Court this morning in relation to the upgraded charge.

Sergeant Joanne McGhee told Judge Mary Fahy the State was making an application to withdraw the charge of Section 3 Assault and replacing it with other charges.

Detective Garda Conor Breen of Galway Garda Station gave the court details of the arrest, charge and caution.

He told the court that he charged the boy at 12.25pm with the attempted murder of Fr Murphy at Renmore Barracks on 15 August.

He also charged him with assault causing harm under Section 4 of the Non Fatal Offences 1997.

The court was told that the accused's father and solicitor were present when the charges were put to him.

He made no reply to the charges.

The boy did not speak during the brief court hearing.

The court was told that the Director of Public Prosecutions has directed that the boy be sent forward for indictment at the Central Criminal Court.

Judge Fahy said an application for bail could not be made in the District Court.

She remanded the accused to Oberstown Detention Centre to appear again by video link at Galway District Court next week.

Monday, October 07, 2024

Prayer for Peace - Pope St John XXIII

Lord Jesus Christ,

who are called the Prince of Peace,

who are yourself our peace and reconciliation,

who so often said, ‘Peace to you,’

grant us peace.

Make all men and women witnesses of

truth, justice, and brotherly love.

Banish from their hearts whatever might endanger peace.

Enlighten our rulers that they may guarantee

and defend the great gift of peace.

May all peoples of the earth becomes as brothers and sisters.

May longed-for peace blossom forth

and reign always over us all.

Amen.

Parents and Church leaders should stand up against inappropriate curriculum, says priest

A priest with decades of experience in education has described the Government’s SPHE curriculum, which was brought to public attention by whistleblower-teacher Mary Creedon, who revealed that secondary school students were being exposed to explicit sexual content within classrooms, as being devoid of morals and respect and urged concerned parents and Church leaders to speak out against the startling content.

Speaking to The Irish Catholic, Fr Patrick Moore, Parish Priest of Castlepollard and Vicar Forane, who has amassed decades of experience on schools’ boards of management, said that it is his wish that school student’s innocence be respected and not be subject to impositions “from the outside”.

“None of this stuff should be imposed on them from outside,” he said. “If their parents saw a need when questions arose, they could very delicately deal with it. That’s the healthiest and most sane way of going about.”

Fr Moore has experience in dealing with particular impositions in his capacity on schools’ boards of management and has rejected certain proposals, in vain. He discerns a new style of education that is not rooted in morals or gospel principles and in time, this will have a detrimental effect on children.

“In my school I did not pass at the board meeting the document authorising certain impositions of primary school children but it was to no effect because they said they’re already doing it,” he said. “There are no safeguards and not a word about morals or gospel principles – it’s just pure mechanics. We’re training children for promiscuity rather than self-control and respect.”

Fr Moore ultimately believes that priests speaking out about the matter has “limited value” in mobilising support against the inappropriate curriculum, but instead thinks that the key to drawing attention to the issue is encouraging parents and members of the hierarchy to express their concerns with “courage”.

“I’m concerned that there’s not a strong voice coming from the Church about it,” he said. “A priest speaking out about this has limited value I think, parents have a stronger value in speaking out. But these concerned parents need guidance and they need courage for leadership in this matter, which has to come from higher-ups.

“I’ve great respect for the hierarchy but I think the hierarchy should be more in-tune with this situation and give leadership and guidance which are governed by the Holy Spirit.”

Dioceses could look at outdoor weddings in response to decline in church marriages

Following the publication of the Iona Institute’s new study ‘The rapid rise of ‘New Age’ weddings in Ireland: how should the churches respond?’, which reveals that fewer couples are opting for church weddings, journalist and commentator Breda O’Brien said that it can be challenging for churches to compete with the range of options on offer by alternative providers but one way they may respond is by permitting outdoor weddings in certain circumstances.

While Catholic Church weddings still remained the most popular type of ceremony with couples last year at 34.3%, this compares to 91.4% in 1994. The second most popular option for couples getting married last year was a civil ceremony, which was chosen by 32%.

Highlighting the benefits of church weddings amid the decline to The Irish Catholic, Ms O’Brien said that the key distinction between a church wedding and any other form is that the couple are not just preparing for a lavish day-out, but for a life together and this aspect needs to be promoted in parishes.

“I think a wonderful advantage in terms of marriage is that it’s not just preparation for a wedding, it’s preparation for a life together and I think if that aspect were pushed more and ordinary parishioners were encouraged to say this to people who are getting married, not to put pressure but just to facilitate the conversation I think that would definitely help,” she said.

Considering ways in which churches might respond to the prevailing trends, Ms O’Brien said that it may be valuable for dioceses to permit other types of celebrations outside of the traditional church environment, such as outdoor weddings, which have become increasingly popular in the US.

“Some dioceses in the US have experimented with allowing outdoor weddings but in very limited circumstances and with major commitment to marriage preparation and to being involved in your parish afterwards,” she said. “Maybe that’s something the Church could look at but it certainly wouldn’t be the panacea.”

Ms O’Brien believes that the underlying reason for the growth of non-church weddings is down to the luxury of choice couples are offered when they inquire with alternative providers and coupled with the rise of individualism in society, the desire to explore other settings and customs becomes quite tempting for people.

“We’re moving increasingly to an individualistic view of life,” she said. “The alternative providers will say ‘oh, we’ll do whatever you want’. I’ve been at weddings where there are readings from extraordinary places and so on.

“People went to a church on autopilot 30 years ago, they’re now almost on autopilot going to a venue like a hotel or a castle without really thinking about it.”

Australian bishop slams ‘small minority’ with ‘powerful voice’ pushing female deacons at Synod

An Australian bishop has strongly condemned the “small minority, with a large powerful Western voice” pushing the “niche issue” of female deacons in the context of the Synod on Synodality.

Participating in one of the daily press briefings held for the Vatican press corps during the Synod on Synodality, Bishop Anthony Randazzo strongly criticized the promotion of what he termed “niche issues” at the synod, including the female diaconate.

Synodality can often be “focussed on niche issues of the West,” he attested, adding that such issues are “promoted so much that they’re an imposition to other areas of the Church.”

Expanding further in response to a question about what such “niche issues” are, Randazzo – bishop of Broken Bay, Australia – mentioned secular style of governance creeping into the Church and the push for a female diaconate.

The question has been around for years, he said, not just at this synod. But Randazzo added that “at the moment when we talk about women in the Church that’s the hot button issue, and as the consequence women – who in many parts of the Church and the world are treated as second class citizens – are totally ignored.”

He did not elaborate on how women were treated as second-class citizens in the Church, but condemned any such stance towards women as “scandalous in the Church and in the world.”

Randazzo attributed the push for the topic of female deacons as being “because a small minority, with a large powerful Western voice, are obsessed with pushing this issue.”

He confessed to having “no problems with this issue being studied … but at the cost of women in the Church? Absolutely not.”

Pope Francis – as Randazzo noted – has assigned the question to a special study group led by Cardinal Victor Manuel Fernández. The cardinal briefed synod members on Wednesday about the issue, saying that no approval would be given to female deacons at the moment, but that “in-depth study” would continue until 2025.

Referencing this group, Randazzo said that Francis has transferred the issue from the synod floor “not to remove it from the conversation, but to go more deeply into it; to actually see what’s there.”

“When women are pushed to the margins into places of poverty, violence – domestic or social – when their work opportunities are narrowed and they are excluded from participation in the community and in the Church, this is a scandal against the Gospel,” he continued.

“We must speak unto this, rather than being obsessed always by this other issue,” added the Australian bishop in reference to the female diaconate.

Let the other issue be studied but for Heaven’s sake, in the name of Jesus, can we look after and include our women! Can we stop talking about women and listen to, and speak with women. This is how the Church is called to act. This is how Jesus acts in the Gospel. He walks with them, he walks with them, He listens to them and includes them in the life of the Gospel. Are we not called to do the same?

Randazzo had earlier pointed to overlooked ecological concerns in his home episcopal region of Oceania when condemning the “niche issues” pushed by some in the synod. These “niche issues” were important, he said, “but not so much as to overpower issues of life and death and often when they speak of them we do not hear the name of Jesus or hear the good news, which is the only good news for this planet.”

The Catholic Church infallibly teaches that it is impossible to ordain women to sacred orders, including the diaconate. In his 1994 apostolic letter Ordinatio Sacerdotalis, Pope John Paul II taught, “I declare that the Church has no authority whatsoever to confer priestly ordination on women and that this judgment is to be definitively held by all the Church’s faithful.”

In 2018, then-prefect of the CDF Cardinal Luis Ladaria Ferrer, S.J., defended the teaching of Ordinatio Sacerdotalis as bearing the mark of “infallibility,” with John Paul II having “formally confirmed and made explicit, so as to remove all doubt, that which the Ordinary and Universal Magisterium has long considered throughout history as belonging to the deposit of faith.”

“It is certainly without doubt, however, that this definitive decision from Pope John Paul II is indeed a dogma of the Faith of the Catholic Church and that this was of course the case already before this Pope defined this truth as contained in Revelation in the year 1994,” declared former CDF prefect Cardinal Gerhard Müller in 2019.

Canadian church goes up in flames for the third time in a week

A massive fire reduced a Canadian church to ashes for the third time in less than a week.

Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Allégresses, a century-old Franciscan Catholic church in Trois-Rivières, Quebec, was a near total loss after a fire broke out on Thursday. 

The church, built in 1914, was not in use. 

It had been sold to developers, who planned to build 40 small apartments inside with additional units in the back of the building.

Nevertheless, the historic church blaze spread rapidly, and fire crews were not able to fully contain the flames, which resulted in extensive damage to the building, including one of its bell towers that collapsed.

Despite not being an active church, 11 Franciscan brothers were staying in a building connected to the back of the church but were able to get out in time before the blaze went out of control.

According to Father Guylain Prince, who oversees the local Franciscan congregation, the fire forced his 10 brothers from the scene.

“It was the only parish that was active (in the area) for more than 100 years by Franciscans, so it was we who built it. It contained frescoes by St. Francis, stained glass windows. It is a superb church, an extraordinary church,” Prince said, according to local media, which reported that the owner of the church is still “in shock” about what happened.

“We’re gonna sit down with the city authorities to see what we can do. This is not a standard building, it is a very special building,” said Georges Mouradian, the church’s new owner.

The official cause of the blaze is not fully known. Local police are mum on a possible cause.

In the span of a week, Notre-Dame-des-Sept-Allégresses is the third church to go up in flames in Canada. LifeSiteNews reported that one Catholic and Anglican church were destroyed.

The church burnings started in 2021 after the mainstream media and the federal government ran with inflammatory and dubious claims that hundreds of children were buried and disregarded by Catholic priests and nuns who ran some of the now-closed residential schools.

Conservative Party of Canada (CPC) MP Jamil Jivani has urged support from his political opponents for a bill that would give stiffer penalties to arsonists caught burning churches down, saying the recent rash of destruction is a “very serious issue” that is a direct “attack” on families as well as “religious freedom in Canada.”

LifeSiteNews reported in August that Prime Minister Justin Trudeau’s cabinet said it will expand a multimillion-dollar fund geared toward documenting claims that hundreds of young children died and were clandestinely buried at now-closed residential schools, some of them run by the Catholic Church.

LifeSiteNews reported last week that Leah Gazan, backbencher MP from the New Democratic Party, brought forth a new bill that seeks to criminalize the denial of the unproven claim that the residential school system once operating in Canada was a “genocide.”

Canadian indigenous residential schools, run by the Catholic Church and other Christian churches, were set up by the federal government and were open from the late 19th century until 1996.

While there were indeed some Catholics who committed serious abuses against native children, the unproved “mass graves” narrative has led to widespread anti-Catholic sentiment since 2021.

Pope steps up a gear in the fight against abuse

Pope Francis has opened a new chapter in his confrontation with the abuse scandals in the Church. 

He used several partly improvised speeches in Belgium at the end of September and a carefully staged solemn act of penance in St Peter's Basilica on the eve of the Synod on Synodality.

He expressly distanced himself from earlier relativisations of abuse in the Church and made the painful topic a top priority several times at short intervals. 

In doing so, he not only formulated the issue much more sharply than in previous statements; he also broadened the concept of abuse and spoke of a connection between abuse of power, manipulation of conscience (spiritual abuse) and sexual abuse.

Criticism of earlier statements

In his closing speech at the so-called anti-abuse summit in Rome in February 2019, he reminded the audience in detail that most cases of abuse take place in families and outside of the church. 

He described the perpetrators in the priesthood as victims of the devil. At the time, these remarks triggered a great deal of criticism, including from those affected by abuse. 

Now, at a meeting with the King and the head of government of Belgium, he said: "Someone said to me: Holy Father, consider that according to statistics, the vast majority of abuse takes place in the family or in the neighbourhood or in the field of sport, in school. - Just one is enough to be ashamed of! In the Church we must ask forgiveness for this; others should ask forgiveness for their part. This is our shame and our humiliation." 

He formulated these words with particular vigour and in deviation from the speech manuscript.

Previously, he even compared the abuse to the murder of innocent children by King Herod, as reported in the New Testament. He said: "Brothers and sisters, this is the shame! The shame that we must all tackle today, for which we must ask forgiveness, the problem that we must solve: the shame of abuse, of child abuse. We think of the time of the holy innocent children and say: 'Oh, what a tragedy, what King Herod did!', but today there is this crime in the Church; the Church must be ashamed and ask for forgiveness and try to resolve this situation in Christian humility. And it must create all the conditions so that this does not happen again."

Francis made the connection between clerical abuse of power and sexual abuse clearer than on previous occasions. He explained that the Church must learn from the victims "to be a Church that makes itself the servant of all, without enslaving anyone. Yes, because one root of violence lies in the abuse of power, when we use the functions we hold to oppress or manipulate others."

Tough action against lay people too

With more vigour than before, he condemned any attempt at cover-up and called for the punishment of perpetrators and cover-ups - bishops included. In the large open-air closing mass, he said to the applause of tens of thousands of listeners - again partly in free speech: "We will all be judged, and there is no place for abuse, there is no place for covering up abuse. I call on everyone: Do not cover up abuse! I call on the bishops: Do not cover up abuse! The perpetrators of abuse must be condemned and they must be helped so that they can be cured of this disease of abuse. Evil must not be hidden: Evil must be brought to light so that it becomes known, as some victims of abuse have courageously done. It should be known. And the perpetrator should be judged. The abuser should be judged, whether layman, laywoman, priest or bishop: he should be judged."

The Pope's reference to lay people as perpetrators corresponds with his unusually harsh action against members of the lay association "Sodalicio" in Peru, whose founder Luis Fernando Figari is accused of multiple offences of sexual abuse. 

In Peru, Francis has made several examples of the Sodalicio and its environment in recent months. He even went so far as to threaten excommunication to a man and a woman who, in his view, had attempted to obstruct the Vatican's investigations into perpetrators of abuse in the group by improper means.

The high point and crowning conclusion of this confrontation with the abuse scandal on a new level of quality was the public act of penance in St Peter's Basilica on the eve of the synod. Here the Pope declared: "We can no longer invoke the name of God without first asking our brothers and sisters for forgiveness." 

He went on to say: "We must ask ourselves what responsibility we have if we do not succeed in stopping evil with good." The confession of guilt is "an opportunity to restore trust in the Church and trust in the Church, which has been broken by our mistakes and sins, to heal the wounds that are still bleeding and to loosen the shackles of injustice."

Old Catholic bishop: Abuse not the problem of others

Old Catholic Bishop Matthias Ring warns against viewing abuse as a purely Roman Catholic problem. 

At the start of the synod of the Old Catholic diocese on Thursday, Ring said, according to the speech manuscript, that he had always assumed that it could not have been any different in the Old Catholic Church than in other churches. 

He sometimes hears the "naive thesis" in his church that there is no abuse there because Old Catholic priests are allowed to marry. 

"Our Protestant brothers and sisters reassured themselves with this thesis - until their ForuM study was on the table," says Ring. 

He knows of two cases in his diocese since the Second World War. There have also been two allegations of abuse against clergy during his time in office.

Ring is sceptical about a separate abuse study for the Old Catholic diocese, "because I don't believe that we will gain any knowledge that goes beyond the current findings, namely that it was no different here". 

He does not expect any significant new findings that could be relevant for prevention.

The first case involved a priest who was sentenced to probation in the 1950s. There are also reports of assaults on altar boys. 

The second case concerns a former vicar who was sentenced to prison in 1950 for "unnatural fornication". 

The youngest victim is said to have been ten or eleven years old. The criminal judgement lists a total of six victims. 

Following his arrest, the priest's licence to exercise spiritual functions was withdrawn. He had also left the ministry of the Old Catholic Church.

Secularisation also affects Old Catholics

In his report, the bishop went on to discuss the handling of secularisation. 

In the Old Catholic Church, too, church ties are weakening. Ring also sees no great potential for the Old Catholic Church among those who have left the Roman Catholic and Protestant churches: "Most of those who leave have long since lost God, if they were ever able to do anything with it at all." 

Instead, it is important for his church to accompany people on their journey of life and faith. "In doing so, we have to accept that we are often enough 'only' partners in stages of life," said the bishop.

The Synod of the Diocese of Old Catholics is the highest decision-making body of the Old Catholic Church in Germany. 

It was meeting from Thursday to Sunday in Mainz. 

One of the items on the agenda was the discussion of Old Catholic identity and how to deal with church members who are members of a secured right-wing extremist party or organisation. One motion proposed withdrawing the passive synodal rights of such members.

The Old Catholic Church in Germany was founded in the 1870s in opposition to the resolutions of the First Vatican Council (1869-1870) on infallibility and the primacy of the Pope's jurisdiction. 

The German diocese has just under 16,000 members in 60 parishes. 

Matthias Ring has headed the diocese as its tenth bishop since 2009. 

The church order of the Old Catholic Church is episcopal-synodal: the bishop elected by the synod leads the church together with a synodal council made up of clergy and laity.

Archbishop Koch: Respect others for being different

On the Day of German Unity, the churches called for social cohesion. 

"In the face of so many challenges, it is now about standing together and working together," said Protestant Bishop Kristina Kühnbaum-Schmidt in an ecumenical service at the start of the central celebrations in Schwerin Cathedral.

The Archbishop of Berlin, Heiner Koch, said that the coexistence of people from different backgrounds was a great opportunity, but also an enormous challenge. It is important to "respect others in their differences". 

Unity does not only mean the unity of the state and the federal states, but also the unity of differently characterised people: Young and old, healthy and sick, poor and rich, migrants and those who have grown up in Germany.

Mecklenburg-Vorpommern holds the presidency of the Bundesrat this year and is therefore hosting the traditional ceremony to mark the Day of German Unity on 3 October. 

Entitled "Setting sail united", the service reflected the motto of this year's German Unity Day and Schwerin's location between seven lakes. 

The ceremony was also attended by Federal President Frank-Walter Steinmeier, Bundestag President Bärbel Bas, Bundesrat President Manuela Schwesig and Federal Chancellor Olaf Scholz (all SPD) as well as numerous minister presidents, federal ministers and other public figures.

Remembrance of the Peaceful Revolution

Kühnbaum-Schmidt recalled the perseverance of the Peaceful Revolution 35 years ago: "One demonstration was not enough to bring about great change." Time and again, people stood up for democracy and human rights. Many of them had not just been active in 1989, but for years and decades. 

"Despite defamation, threats, reprisals and persecution, they did not give up," said the bishop. Cooperation and collaboration are still important today - in contrast to "hate speech and populist antagonism".

Koch also pleaded in favour of social cooperation and compared the country to a boat. "Which direction should our boat take, where should the right sails lead us?" A common goal and common values could only be found if Germany formed a "learning community". 

The archbishop called for a willingness to engage in dialogue and compromise. This was the only way to move forward effectively. The following must apply: "We leave no one behind, not even the weakest."

Schwerin Cathedral is part of the Schwerin Residence Ensemble, which was added to the UNESCO World Heritage List on 27 July 2024. 

The service was organised by the Evangelical Lutheran Church in Northern Germany (Nordkirche), the archdioceses of Berlin and Hamburg and the Association of Christian Churches (ACK).

Survivor of ‘particularly brutal’ industrial school wants gardaí to reopen case into boy’s death

A man has given gardaí a statement detailing the physical and sexual abuse he suffered at an industrial school in Kerry, and asked officers to reopen an investigation into the death of another boy.

Michael Clemenger (72) was sent from Dublin to St Joseph’s Industrial School in Tralee when he was eight and remained there until he was 16, in 1967. 

During his time in the care of the State, he was sexually abused by four Christ­ian Brothers and physically abused by two others.

He has sought a re-investigation of the death in 1958 of 16-year-old Arthur Joseph Pyke, who suffered fatal injuries at the same school.

Mr Clemenger did not witness an attack on Pyke, but the boys who did all reported a similar version of events — that he collapsed following a kick to his chest by a Christian Brother in the dining hall while he carried a plate of potatoes. He died in hospital.

While Mr Clemenger did not personally know Pyke, he was deeply affected by his death, and for over two decades has made an annual visit from his Co Meath home to Rath Cemetery in Tralee to mark the anniversary of his death.

Mr Clemenger has long campaigned for a more thorough investigation into how Pyke died, and said that remembering him has helped him deal with the sexual and physical abuse he suffered at the school.

​The Ryan Commission Report in 2009 said the last 20 years of St Joseph’s Industrial School were particularly brutal. 

Specifically in relation to Pyke, the report found “time had elapsed” and differing evidence from doctors, brothers and boys who witnessed the attack made it “impossible to make a ruling” on whether the kicking he received was instrumental in his death.

Mr Clemenger said he does not accept the official finding that the cause of Pyke’s death was septicaemia. He met detectives this weekend to discuss re-opening the case, as well as detailing the sexual and physical abuse he himself suffered.

He contacted gardaí in recent weeks after they released a special phone number and email address through which victims of sexual abuse in schools could contact them.

The move, by specialist officers from the Garda National Protective Services Bureau (GNPSB), followed the publication on September 4 of a scoping report into allegations of abuse at schools run by religious orders.

The report, commissioned by the State, found there were 2,395 allegations of sexual abuse in respect of 308 schools. Allegations were made against 884 people.

Mr Clemenger is among more than 500 people who have contacted gardaí. He is willing to outline again the abuse he suffered, including repeated rapes and frequent serious physical assaults.

He went before a redress board in 2004 and was awarded a significant sum for the abuse he suffered. The fact that he lost a testicle as a consequence of one attack was a factor in his award, as it meant he could not father children.

“I told my wife when we first met that I couldn’t have children and she later said, ‘I’m not marrying you for kids, I’m marrying you for love’,” he said. “Going through redress was like being raped all over again. I will now go through it all again with gardaí, mostly for the sake of Arthur Pyke.

Mr Clemenger said he feels an affinity with the dead teenager, as he was raped and fell unconscious after an attack by the same Christian Brother responsible for putting Pyke in hospital.

“I’ve always had a terrible guilt that I survived attacks by that same Christian Brother, but Arthur Pyke died. I’m going to be asking gardaí to do something to recognise the memory of Arthur Pyke,” he said.

“The Christian Brother responsible is now dead, but others are still alive. I would hope that it is in the powers of gardaí to re-investigate and give some formal acknowledgement about the circumstances of his death.”

One of the four brothers who sexually abused Mr Clemenger is currently before the courts on child sex abuse charges. This man has already served time in prison for raping children.

Another of the abusers is also still alive, and Mr Clemenger will again outline to gardaí the abuse he inflicted on him as a child. It includes being forc­ibly stripped naked and raped alongside other boys, and being raped in a bath with several others.

“The attacks were sadistic, those men were cruel. I live with the memories every day,” he said. “I was there because I was an ‘illegitimate child’. We were constantly told we were nothing, that no one cared about us because we were born on the wrong side of the tracks.”

He said a number of boys took their own lives at St Joseph’s as a consequence of sexual abuse. Mr Clemenger himself made an attempt to end his life shortly after his release from the school.

He said that at the time he “imagined being reunited with Arthur Pyke”.

In recent years, he wrote an account of his childhood abuse at St Joseph’s entitled Everybody Knew. The book has sold nearly 95,000 copies worldwide.

Last May, a plaque was unveiled by Kerry Co Council, acknowledging the suffering of hundreds of boys who passed through St Joseph’s from 1871 to 1970.

Bishop McGuckian welcomes online availability of daily Mass readings in Irish

The Irish language has joined seventeen other world languages in now having daily Mass readings available to Irish speakers at home and to over half a million speakers throughout the world. 
 
This faith initiative has been undertaken by Evangelizo, a Catholic lay association founded in France in 2001 by Bertrand Couderc and Grégor Puppinck. Full permission to publish the Irish translation has been granted by An Bíobla Naofa © An Sagart, Maigh Nuad 2000, Éire.  

Evangelizo seeks to make free and available online and on social media daily Mass readings to as many people as possible, today the service has seventeen language versions and over 500,000 subscribers.
 
Originally from Dundalk, Paris-based Ciarán MacGuill led this project to host the Irish language version of Evangelizo. 

Ciarán said, “I love our Irish language and culture and have co-founded the very successful Gaeltacht here in Paris, An Ghaeltacht-sur-Seine, which has over 200 members. We offer a whole variety of opportunities for people, mostly Irish, but also French and others, to gather socially and speak Irish. I suggested to Evangelizo’s co-founder, Bertrand Couderc, that Irish could be included with their suite of international languages, and straight away he liked the idea.”
 
Ciarán continued, “The French, and particularly French Catholics, have a great fondness for Ireland and the Irish. I got to work, preparing the texts with Evangelizo and its friends in the Monastic Community of Jerusalem. Thanks to the wonders of internet technology, the Irish language team is based across mainland Europe and the Mediterranean, from Paris and the Mont Saint Michel, to Strasbourg, Rome and Beirut. The result is that today we now have ‘Soiscéal an Lae’, the Irish language version of Mass readings of the day. This is a great aid for studying the Bible, for following the liturgical year and building one’s faith. Our aim is to catch up with the French, Italians and Germans! They keep improving their versions, with commentaries, prayers, biographies of the saints of the day and now they also have the Mass readings in audio.”
 
In welcoming the success of making daily Mass readings available in the Irish language, Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ, Bishop of Down and Connor, said, “Go gcoimeáda an Tiarna na hÉireannaigh ina lámha agus a muintir atá ina gcónaí thar sáile, sa Fhrainc agus ar fud an domhain. Go gcosnaí an Tiarna iad, agus go bhfana siad gar don Tiarna [May Our Lord hold the Irish living in France and around the world in His hands and protect them, and may their families flourish and stay close to God].”
 
Bishop McGuckian continued, “Reading the Scriptures in Irish, or indeed in any language, is an extraordinary way to discover and rediscover the richness of the words and images of the Holy Bible. The daily Mass readings are a particularly powerful way to follow the liturgical year and explore the connections and associations between the books of the Bible. It is especially gratifying for Irish language enthusiasts to see our language take its place among seventeen major world languages. I wish to commend Ciarán and the Irish language community in France for this work of evangelisation. May I encourage everyone of faith, and with a love of our language, to access Soiscéal an Lae, the daily Mass readings on www.evangelizo.com.”

Bishop Nulty: put Christ at the heart of Accord’s mission for marriage

Homily 

The word graduation and graduate comes from the Latin word for step – ‘gradus’ – indicating different moments, different steps in the undergraduates path or journey.  

Latin was the language of scholars in the twelfth century when the earliest ceremonies of graduation took place.  

Indeed shortly in our Conferral Ceremony we will observe the ancient tradition of announcing the Conferral of Awards once again in that rich classical tongue.

Liam Lawton, some years ago, honoured the Presentation Sisters with a beautiful composition entitled ‘Who will light the Lantern?’  

The chorus goes:

Who will light the lantern and keep it burning bright?
Who will search the darkness where shadows seek the light?
Who will find the courage to sing a different song?
Who will light the lantern and go one step beyond?

 
Today we celebrate eighteen graduates in Marriage Facilitation, and four in Counselling, who have freely chosen to go one step beyond. One step to ensure young couples have a more fulfilling experience of sacramental marriage preparation. One step to ensure a couple’s relationship gets the support needed when things become cold and calculating.

Job repents in our first reading and, on this the feast of the Polish nun Saint Faustina, that message of mercy is richly rewarded.  Job had been through his wars and lost everything, but is rewarded for remaining steadfast in his faithfulness to God.  

Sometimes his tongue let him down and he said more than he needed to; often his friends cajoled him into a state of resignation.  

But in today’s text he is honoured and blessed. His new fortune is even more than all he ever lost.

I love the listing of that bounty: “fourteen thousand sheep, six thousand camels, a thousand yoke of oxen and a thousand she-donkeys.[1]  

We might find the concentration on material possessions that bit crude or vulgar but, in fact, it was simply a replenishing of God’s blessing on a man who suffered the loss of everything, including family and friends.  

It reminds us all of the need in life to remain open to God’s blessing.

The greatest blessings any of us receive in life are never going to be sheep, camels, oxen or even she-donkeys, but the gift of one another in friendship.  

A word Pope Francis uses often in his seminal exhortation Amoris Laetitia, On Love in the Family is that word “accompaniment.”  

We are there, as counsellors, to accompany the broken, the fragile, the wounded and to do so non-judgementally, because none of us have it all together, but we have enough to offer hope and a recognition of the pain brokenness brings. A pain that Job very much experienced in his life.

Accord Marriage Facilitators 

We are there as Marriage Facilitators to accompany couples on their programme of preparation.  

The new programme, launched at the beginning of this year, is grounded in the practical lived experience of married couples as they navigate life’s opportunities as well as its challenges.  

Testimonials shared by couples who recently completed their programme indicate how much they felt that they have gained from the course, such as a chance to discuss conflict, communication, and other topics they normally wouldn’t talk about.  They understood sacrament for the first time.

The contribution of dedicated facilitators to the Marriage Preparation service of Accord is colossal.  

The programme of preparation offered by Accord is not about the facilitators who deliver it, but about facilitating a confidential space where couples have the opportunity to have a closer look at their own unique relationship and spend facilitated time together identifying, and discussing, the strengths that they have as well as the areas in their relationship that need developing.

Accord Marriage Counsellors

The contribution of counsellors to the mission of Accord is immense. The four who graduate today are existing counsellors who completed the Certificate in Counselling.  

The four have demonstrated a commitment to their ongoing development as counsellors keeping abreast of the complexity of working with couples needing support and expertise to sustain their relationships and family life.

The seventy-two come back rejoicing in the gospel, Jesus gently contains their excitement, reminding them of the importance “that your names are written in heaven.[2]  

We begin the first step of your Accord Graduation Day with Mass invoking God’s blessing and reminding you of everything that is important.  

Later we will have the Conferral of Awards and then enjoy opportunities for photographs and refreshments.  

But we begin with the Mass, putting Christ at the centre of our work both as facilitator, and as counsellor.

Having launched our new Marriage Preparation Programme last January; having undergone our training and development in counselling and in marriage facilitation, let us always remember to put Christ at the heart of our work. He is the space where the two rings of our new shared logo intersect.

May He always be at the heart of your work as you become members of centres like Armagh, Ballymena, Cavan, Cloyne, Derry, Ennis, Newbridge, Omagh, Thurles, Waterford, Killarney, Navan, Sligo and Central Office in Maynooth.  

I have no doubt you will be made very welcome in those centres, some of which have struggled to provide courses or counselling since the pandemic.

I encourage each of you – as you step into your centre – to fully immerse yourself there as it is only then you will fully appreciate the mission and ministry that is the work of Accord in bringing God’s healing, unconditional love, and mercy, to every couple and into every circumstance of your work, of your mission, of your ministry.

Is Pope Francis a ‘liberal’? Depends on whether we’re speaking Catholic (Opinion)

A few days ago, Pope Francis said something which, ironically, his most ferocious critics on the far Catholic right likely would be the first to endorse. 

Reacting to criticism of his rhetoric on women during a trip to Belgium, he bristled at the idea that it reflected a “conservative” mentality.

“If this, to those women, seems conservative, [then] I am Carlo Gardel,” he said, referring to a famed French-Argentine Tango musician, which was a colloquially Argentinian way of saying he found the idea absurd.

Catholicism’s most ardent conservatives almost certainly would concur: Pope Francis, they will assure you – at great length, and with deep fervor and conviction – is not one of them.

(Ironically, the pope harumphed over the idea he’s a “conservative” in the same airborne news conference in which, once again, he defined abortion as “murder” and doctors who perform abortions as “hitmen,” rhetoric that most ordinary people might take as fairly conservative – but more on that below.)

It’s almost gratuitous to cite for-instances, but among the more celebrated points on the conservative bill of indictment against this pope would be Amoris laetitia, his 2016 exhortation opening a cautious door to communion for divorced and civilly remarried Catholics, and more recently Fiducia Supplicans, a document of the Dicastery for the Doctrine of the Faith green-lighting blessings for persons in same-sex unions. 

That’s in addition to his appointments of bishops to high-profile positions, almost all of whom are perceived as leaning to the left, and his embrace of leftist populist movements while scorning the traditional Latin Mass crowd.

Given all that, why did Pope Francis find himself in the seemingly odd position of having to reject the idea that he’s a conservative? 

In a nutshell, it’s the distinction between secular and Catholic versions of what counts as a “liberal,” which forever seeds confusion in media commentary and watercooler chatter alike.

For a typical secularist, a “liberal” implies, among other things, someone with permissive stands on what in the West we’ve come to call the “culture wars.” 

For secular opinion, a “liberal” is someone who’s pro-choice; pro-LGBTQ+, including support for gay marriage; and pro-women’s rights, including seeing any religious group that bars women from ministry as retrograde and patriarchal.

By that standard, it has to be said, there are virtually no “liberals” at all in the leadership structure of the Catholic Church.

While some Catholic bishops lean more heavily on pro-life causes than others, and some might even make a case for a distinction between personal convictions and civil law, virtually no Catholic prelate would describe abortion as a positive good or campaign for abortion on demand. 

(I say “virtually” because, with more than 5,000 Catholic bishops in the world, there’s at least one exception to pretty much every rule.)

Similarly, while many Catholic bishops have made outreach to the LGBTQ+ community an aspect of their ministry, few are pushing for the Catholic Church to celebrate gay marriages. The vast majority uphold the Church’s teaching that marriage is a sacrament between a man and a woman, and simply want to find other ways to make LGBTQ+ individuals feel welcome.

While there have been a handful of Catholic bishops over the years who have endorsed the idea of women priests, they’re a tiny fraction of the episcopacy. Most progressive-leaning prelates accept the priesthood as a sacrament for men, focusing their energies on combatting clericalism and finding other ways to empower women.

In other words, the secular contrast between “liberal” and “conservative” doesn’t work inside the Catholic Church, at least in its most senior ranks, because a distinction that ends up not actually distinguishing is fatuous.

Yet there certainly is a meaningful distinction between “liberals” and “conservatives” in the Church, as long as we apply Catholic, rather than secular, ways of reckoning the difference.

A liberal prelate, for instance, might argue that the Church places too much emphasis on the abortion issue, and that rather than fighting for legal bans on abortion, a more constructive and compassionate use of resources would be to find new ways to support pregnant women and families.

Rather than advocating gay marriage, a liberal bishop might support blessing gay unions – and thus defend Fiducia Supplicans from its critics on the Catholic right. Rather than pushing for women priests, a liberal might look for other ways of putting women in positions of power.

In broader strokes, a liberal Catholic bishop is someone open to the idea of the development of doctrine, and who believes the Church must, to some extent, adapt to its circumstances in order to remain relevant. 

A conservative, meanwhile, is someone who would put the accent on preservation rather than adaptation, worrying that when relevance supplants fidelity as the goal, it’s a prescription for watering down the faith.

To put the point differently, understandings of “left” and “right” ultimately depend on where you place the center. In secular culture, the center is defined mostly by public opinion at a given moment. 

In Catholicism, the center is defined by the catechism, with the debate being over how to interpret and apply its teachings.

Here’s how I try to explain it to my colleagues in the secular media, who are forever calling to ask some version of the following question: “I thought Francis was supposed to be a liberal … so what’s up with x?”

“Yeah, he’s a liberal alright,” I generally respond, “as long as we’re speaking Catholic, not American or European.”

That capacity to “speak Catholic” is key to getting many things about the Church right … including, in this instance, the pope. 

And if that’s not true, then I’m Carlo Gardel.

Female clergy in Australian diocese feel unsupported and betrayed, says report

THE number of female clergy in the diocese of Canberra and Goulburn has declined sharply since women were first ordained there 30 years ago, a report presented to a recent meeting of the diocesan synod says.

The diocese, an early and committed advocate for the ordination of women, and one of the first dioceses in the Anglican Church of Australia to ordain women priests, currently has only four female rectors, compared with about 15 a decade ago. 

There are no female archdeacons, although there is a regional bishop who is a woman.

The report, Addressing Disparity: Listening to the leadership experience of ordained women in Canberra and Goulburn Diocese, by the synod’s Women in Leadership Working Group, is based on interviews with 24 women who are or have been in full-time leadership positions in the diocese.

The working group “uncovered a painful but powerful picture of the experience of women in ordained leadership in this Diocese”, the report says. “At every level from training and formation, selection for ordination, and appointment to positions, we found a growing tendency to prefer and even to import men from beyond this Diocese, rather than to support and encourage the leadership of our own women.”

The report says that women in the diocese feel unsupported and have “reported feelings of betrayal and exclusion” that were “more pronounced here than in other places”.

The chair of the working group, the Revd Lynda McMinn, said that “patriarchal norms” were influencing how women were treated. Diocesan systems and procedures “were modelled on a young man with a family and domestic support”.

Ms McMinn said that the level of hurt and anger among those whom the working group interviewed was deeper than expected. Many women had become disengaged from the diocese, she said.

The diocesan Bishop, Dr Mark Short, has responded by promising to establish a Women in Leadership Commission, as called for by the report.

Belgian premier rips Pope’s ‘unacceptable’ stand on abortion

Belgium’s Prime Minister Alexander De Croo has said that it was “absolutely unacceptable” for Pope Francis to condemn abortion while visiting his country. 

Pope Francis had said that abortion is murder.

De Croo summoned the papal nuncio to express his displeasure with the Pope’s statement. 

Addressing parliament, he said: “A foreign head of state making such a statement about the democratic decision-making process in our country is absolutely unacceptable.”

De Croo said that “the time when the church dictated the law in our country is long behind us.” 

He went on to repeat his criticism of the Church for its handling of the sex-abuse scandal, saying: “If there should be outrage about anything, it is towards those who, for example, allowed sexual harassment to take place, or towards those who failed to act when action should have been taken.”

Controversial Franciscan leaving priesthood, religious life

Father Dan Horan, a Franciscan who had become a prominent advocate of gender theory and homosexual rights, has announced that he is leaving the Franciscan order and seeking laicization.

Father Horan, the director of the Center for the Study of Spirituality in Notre Dame, Indiana, revealed his decision in a column for the National Catholic Reporter, to which he has frequently contributed. He said that “after a substantial period of prayerful discernment, I have concluded that I am no longer called to remain a friar minor.”

Horan chose the feast of St. Francis to announce his decision. 

In his Reporter essay he said that “Francis often changed his mind,” and that the saint frequently made “a transition from one way of thinking or being to another, while maintaining some continuity with what came before.” 

He claimed that his transition was similar, and that he remained a faithful Catholic, “willing to serve the church and world in new ways.”

 * * * * *

After a substantial period of prayerful discernment, I have concluded that I am no longer called to remain a friar minor. I share this news publicly, with the support of my religious superiors, on an important and symbolically significant day for the Franciscan family.

Today marks one of the most solemn feasts in the Franciscan calendar: the Transitus of St. Francis of Assisi. It is a commemoration of his death on the evening of Oct. 3, 1226, and it is a time when the Franciscan family gathers to mark not just his death, but also his passage to new life in Christ. The Latin word transitus is significant because it reflects Francis' belief that death was not an enemy nor was it an end. Instead, Francis believed that bodily death was part of God's plan for creation and not something to be feared; he even called death his "Sister." Using transitus to refer to death denotes a transitional or liminal moment between two forms of life, a continuation of what has begun in this earthly life is now carried on into the mystery of the next life.

In many ways, this understanding of his own physical death aligns with Francis' lifelong belief in the experience of ongoing conversion. It's difficult to clearly delineate chapters in his life or identify sharp or immediate shifts in his life, as the early hagiographers were fond of doing. Francis' own life bears witness to the subtle changes and growth along a lifetime of spiritual journeying that can be quite instructive as they are, at times, mysterious.

Francis often changed his mind, such as when he approved of formal education for the brothers after years of objecting to it. His understanding about community life changed as witnessed in the development of his earlier rule (the Regula non bullata), which took shape over more than a decade. And he shifted his expectations about what God was calling him to do in this life, such as when brothers started following him and even a woman named Clare joined the community — neither of which he sought on his own. 

My state of life, as the church often refers to it, may have changed, but my faith in God has not. 

All these and other instances in Francis' life represent another kind of transitus, a transition from one way of thinking or being to another, while maintaining some continuity with what came before. In each chapter or episode in his life, it was his attentiveness to the guidance of the Holy Spirit — often in unexpected and creative ways — that ushered in this new experience or adjustment to what had been before. Francis' obedience to the Spirit stemmed from his belief that, as he is remembered to have said, the Holy Spirit was the "true Minister General of the Order."

We can all relate in some way to Francis' process of discernment and experience of transitus. How many of us know the feeling of uncertainty about where God is calling each of us, the fear of the unknown, the desire to do what's right, the reevaluation of big and small decisions, the presence of tensions in life or even the reconsideration of one's life paths? Likewise, many of us can relate to the challenge and blessing of our own experience of transitus, that transition from a former to a new way of life.

The significance of transitus in the Franciscan tradition has always meant a lot to me, but at this moment in my own life it has an especially powerful resonance as I experience a significant transitus in my own vocational journey.

This personal transitus is reflected in my decision, in complete freedom, to leave the Franciscan order and petition the Holy See to be dispensed of the obligations of Holy Orders. This was not an easy decision, nor did I approach this discernment lightly. I have arrived at a place of peace and joy, certain that God has been with me each step of the way and continues to guide me now.

For a number of years already, I have been reflecting on where the Holy Spirit is calling me and what that might mean for my vocation to religious life and priestly ministry. Like so many people in all walks of life, the global pandemic was a particular catalyst for this discernment, providing an occasion for deeper reflection on key and even existential issues. I was wrestling with what was most important in life, where my passions rested, and where and how God was calling me to serve the church and world. In addition to spiritual direction, community life and conversations with trusted dialogue partners, I was also blessed to see an excellent psychologist who helped me process these important life questions and understood the nuances of religious life and ministry. Over time, it became clear to me that I needed to dedicate time and space for deliberate discernment.

During this past year, with the full support of my religious superiors, I embarked on a formal time of vocational discernment, during which I have remained a friar in good standing and maintained ministerial faculties. Over this time, I weighed these matters before the Lord, while remaining as open as possible to whatever direction God was leading me. This dedication to prayer and dialogue, reflection and discernment has resulted in the assurance that I have pursued this process with integrity and transparency before God and my religious community.

I know that some people will want to know more about my discernment and the reasons why I have come to this decision, and I do plan to share more about my experience and vocational journey later. For now, it is important for me to convey that this is a good thing for me personally and spiritually.

Throughout this journey I have been renewed in my Catholic faith and love of the church. My departure from religious life and retirement from sacramental ministry is in no way a sign of a lack of faith or belief. Instead, it is an affirmation of the dynamic and often surprising direction of the Holy Spirit, whom the psalmist describes as the one sent to "renew the face of the earth" (Psalms 104:30). I feel renewed in my baptismal calling as part of the Body of Christ, willing to serve the church and world in new ways. My state of life, as the church often refers to it, may have changed, but my faith in God has not.

My discernment and subsequent decision should not be seen as a sign of rejecting religious life broadly or professed life in the Franciscan tradition particularly. On the contrary, I have nothing but the greatest love and respect for my friar brothers who heed the Spirit's call in their life to remain within the community. My personal journey is simply that: one individual's experience of ongoing conversion and discernment, and not a model or prescription for anyone else.

I have communicated to my brother friars that I do not desire to be a stranger, that I appreciate and cherish the many close friendships I have among my Franciscan family. And I am eternally grateful for the many years that I was a part of that special family. I leave this state of life on good terms with the Franciscan order, and I am grateful for the love, respect, understanding and support from my religious superiors. I feel blessed to have been a friar minor during the two decades God called me to that state of life. While I will no longer be a Franciscan friar, I will always be a Franciscan at heart and in spirit. 

Obviously, this vocational transition will affect my life in both personal and public ways. I will no longer be identified as a Franciscan friar or minister as a Catholic priest. Therefore, after many years of celebrating the sacraments publicly, I will no longer be able to serve the church in this way. Part of me mourns the loss of this ministry, but I have come to a place of peace and understanding about this.

However, many things will stay the same. For example, I will remain a faithful Catholic, who loves the church and the people of God. I will continue to be a professor of theology and philosophy, who teaches, researches, writes and lectures. I am also delighted to share that I will continue to serve as a regular columnist here at NCR.

This is indeed a time of transition for me, a real transitus from one form of life to another. I am sure that there will be plenty of opportunities for me to share more of my story at NCR and elsewhere. In the meantime, I am reminded of something that St. Francis of Assisi is remembered to have said to his brother friars not long before he experienced his ultimate earthly transitus.

Looking back over his life and reflecting on the unique way that God called him to live in the world in different ways at different times throughout his own spiritual journey, Francis said: "I have done what is mine to do; may Christ show you what is yours." At the heart of his own vocation was the recognition that Christ calls each of us to follow him in distinct ways. Christ continues to show me what is mine to do, and I pray that Christ show you what is yours as well.