Joint Meeting of the Council of Priests of Killaloe Diocese and the
leadership team of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) St
Flannan’s College Ennis, 7 March 2013
For Killaloe Council of Priests
Present: Michael Sheedy (Chair), Bishop Kieran O’Reilly SMA, Pat Malone,
Albert McDonnell, Tom Ryan, Tom O’Gorman, Ger Nash, John Kelly, James
Grace, Brendan Quinlivan, Tony Casey, Tom O’Halloran, Pat Sexton, Sean
Sexton, Tom Corbett, David Carroll
Apologies: Willie Teehan
For Leadership Team ACP : Sean McDonagh, Tony Flannery
Apologies: Brendan Hoban, PJ Madden
Michael Sheedy welcomed the members of the ACP to the meeting.
Sean
McDonagh gave the context of the meeting as following on from the
limited dialogue with the Irish Bishops’ Conference. An agenda had been
previously agreed between the Council and the ACP.
1. Vocations
There was an extensive discussion on this topic. The ACP representatives
stated that more often than not it had got bogged down in the question
of the ordination of women but they were more interested in the pastoral
planning for a time of fewer priests with present clerical structures.
The discussion touched on both the positive and negative impacts on
priests of the clustering of parishes.
The issue of married priests was
also raised. The biggest difficulty facing priests in the number of
churches around the diocese of Killaloe as our priests to people ratio
is quite good at present and into the near future. How to move on this
latter issue is a concern. The desire of the ACP is that all ideas would
be put on the table and all in the Church would come together to come
up with practical solutions.
2. Procedures for dealing with allegations against priests.
This is the most central issue facing the ACP at present. A number of
improvements have been noted; namely, how priests are informed of
allegations and in the way in which they are moved out of ministry. The
fact that there is no common practice across the country is a cause for
concern and it was hoped that guidelines would be published to establish
a common practice.
The ACP were complimented for their work in helping
priests who faced false allegations and the need for support for all
clergy, included those who have been convicted was raised.
This would
come out of a basic Christian faith guiding our responses.
It was noted
that priests in Killaloe had contributed to a fund to aid the legal fees
of those facing allegations.
3. Following the New Missal, the impending translation of the Lectionary.
There was general agreement that the introduction of the New Missal has
caused difficulties for many priests and people. Its intention to create
a sense of reverence had, by and large, not worked. As a practical
example, the translation of the ‘Confiteor’ was highlighted as
containing an inappropriate spirituality for children. Fundamental
questions on other aspects of the theology and spirituality of the Roman
Missal remained unanswered.
It was noted the ICEL had invited comments
on the Roman Missal. The quality of publication by Veritas was also
commented upon unfavourably. It was noted that the work on the
translation of the Lectionary had stalled; a call for more information
was made as most were unaware of the current status of the translation
work. Priests were encouraged to make their voices heard on this work.
4. Pastoral implications of the current economic situation.
It was felt that an on-going programme to respond to the present
situation should be developed which would cover both social justice and
liturgy. The enthusiasm of younger people around social justice issues
was noted. The question was asked ‘what do we see as the work of the
church?’ And whether people see current economic and social issues being
issues of faith?
AOB
Tony Flannery was asked about his present situation with the CDF and he
outlined his position and how it had changed since a new head of the CDF
was appointed.
He expressed the opinion that he was unlikely to return
to ministry under the present circumstances.
The petition on the ACP website encouraging dialogue between certain parties was noted.
The meeting concluded with thanks being expressed to all concerned.