GAA club appeals to Church for land

A Kerry GAA club which failed in its bid to secure church lands to develop community and sporting facilities has made a further appeal to diocesan authorities and to the parish to reconsider a decision to sell to the highest bidder.

Such is the close history between the GAA and the church in the locality that Kilgarvan GAA crest bears a large image of the local church building.

A local presbytery and its surrounding lands were sold to a local man for €258,000 — almost €30,000 above the asking price.

The GAA club had offered €205,000, having previously bid €50,000, solely for the nine acres, to expand its facilities. 

However, the club is hoping the deal may not be fully signed off due to the normal lengthy legal process of land transfer.

In a last-ditch effort, the club yesterday made a direct appeal to the Bishop of Kerry, Dr Bill Murphy, as well as the parish priest of Kilgarvan, Fr Donal O’Neill, and the St Brendan’s Trust, which handled the sale.

The statement from club chairman Tom Randles, urged the church bodies "not to leave down the youth of the parish".

Cloyne issues child protection newsletter

Cloyne diocese is to publish a newsletter dedicated to safeguarding children.

The diocese was strongly criticised in Judge Yvonne Murphy’s report last year and the Church’s National Board for Safeguarding Children in 2008 for its failure to protect children under Bishop John Magee.

The newsletter is an attempt by the diocese to improve its damaged reputation by providing Massgoers with detailed information on how anybody with concerns about the safety of children or vulnerable young adults can obtain assistance and advice.

The first edition contains an outline of how the committee works by former school principal, Denis Ring, There is also a frequently asked questions section while details of the structures for safeguarding children in the diocese are also contained in the newsletter.

The first edition of the newsletter was warmly welcomed by the diocese’s administrator, Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Dermot Clifford.

"If history is to record the first decade of the 21st century as a deeply humiliating time in the Church in Cloyne diocese, then let history also record that this was a time when the Church in Cloyne used every available opportunity to learn from past mistakes, rectify past wrongs, and move forward in faith with a renewed purpose and vigour especially with regard to the safety and wellbeing of the young and most vulnerable," he said.

Archbishop Clifford said the task of safeguarding children was an ongoing one requiring vigilance, energy, and commitment.

Relations between Vatican and state ‘not very good’

An Irish bishop has said the relationship between the Vatican and the Government has been strained and that may have contributed to Pope Benedict XVI’s decision not to attend the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin this June. 

Bishop of Kerry Dr Bill Murphy said relations between Church and state "are not very good" since last year’s speech by Taoiseach Enda Kenny denouncing the Holy See and Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore’s decision to close the embassy to the Vatican.

"That has caused a certain strain and I think it would be kind of difficult for the Pope to come in that atmosphere," said Bishop Murphy.

A further consideration was that if Pope Benedict XVI does visit Ireland in the future, he would almost certainly want a stop-off in the North to be part of his itinerary, he said.

"I don’t know if the North is ready for that or not," said Bishop Murphy, who added that the Pope has since given a commitment to visit many other countries and those visits have already been planned.

The bishop acknowledged that there is currently very little excitement about the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, which is now just 10 weeks away, but he described the gathering — the first for 80 years — as a very historic event for the country and the Catholic Church.

"If you go back to when Pope John Paul came to Ireland, people were saying nobody would go and then when it came closer to the event it created its own momentum and most of the country turned out," said Bishop Murphy.

"The same happened last year in England when Pope Benedict came. I met Irish priests who were working in England and they said it was going to be a damp squib and yet think of the millions of people who turned out. I expect it will be something similar in Ireland."

The bishop, speaking on the Kerry Diocese’s weekly local radio programme, claimed that the climate in today’s world is not conducive to strong faith being practiced and he identified that as his biggest concern when he was appointed bishop 16 years ago.

"We now have a very scientific approach in that everything has to be demonstrated, everything has to be touched and proved scientifically. You can’t offer that proof with faith," he said.

"In a secular society, there is a big challenge to faith. There are a lot of good people who don’t believe and yet their values are Christian values. They were given a Catholic education and they have inherited those values."

Eucharistic Congress 2012 - Prayer

 

 

Lord Jesus,
You were sent by the Father
to gather together those who are scattered.

You came among us, doing good and bringing healing,
announcing the Word of salvation
and giving the Bread which lasts forever.

Be our companion on life’s pilgrim way.

May your Holy Spirit inflame our hearts,
enliven our hope and open our minds,
so that together with our sisters and brothers in faith
we may recognise you in the Scriptures
and in the breaking of bread.

May your Holy Spirit transform us into one body
and lead us to walk humbly on the earth,
in justice and love,
as witnesses of your resurrection.

In communion with Mary,
whom you gave to us as our Mother
at the foot of the cross,
through you
may all praise, honour and blessing be to the Father
in the Holy Spirit and in the Church,
Now and forever.

Amen

Benedict XVI: " The Second Vatican Council is a true sign of God"

The Second Vatican Council has been and remains a true sign of God for our time "and if we interpret" within the tradition of the Church and under the guidance of the Magisterium true and secure "will become" more and morepowerful for the future of the Church. "

And 'this, in a nutshell, the message sent by the Pope in France, while in Mexico for his 23rd pastoral visit. 

Pope asks Catholics, in the text released by Vatican Radio, for "a true spiritual and pastoral renewal" and the duty "to learn more about the texts that the Council Fathers have left us a legacy and have not lost at all their value. "

This is a "renewal, which takes place in continuity" - continues the pope - despite taking many forms. 

It should be "greater and greater openness to the person of Christ, finding in particular the taste of the Word of God, to reach adeeper conversion of our hearts and go along the streets of the world to proclaim the Gospel of hope to men and women of our time, in a respectful dialogue with everybody. "

Accused priest of Fitchburg church indicted on related charges

A Roman Catholic priest accused of possessing child pornography and stealing from his Fitchburg parish has been indicted on related charges.

A Worcester County grand jury handed up indictments Friday charging the Rev. Lowe B. Dongor with possession of child pornography and larceny of more than $250. 

A warrant has been issued for the arrest of Rev. Dongor, who authorities believe has fled the country and possibly returned to his homeland, the Philippines.

State police allege that one of Rev. Dongor’s laptop computers contained images of girls 10 or 11 years old in various states of undress. 

The 36-year-old priest also allegedly admitted to investigators that he stole “$40 or $50” from St. Joseph parish in Fitchburg on a number of occasions to send home to his family in the Philippines.

Initially charged in September in Fitchburg District Court, Rev. Dongor, the Diocese of Worcester’s first Filipino priest, is on an administrative leave of absence and was relieved of his duties as associate pastor of St. Joseph’s by Bishop Robert J. McManus in July.

The diocese recently asked the Vatican to defrock Rev. Dongor in light of the child pornography allegations against him.

After his arrest, Bishop McManus asked Rev. Dongor to move off church property until his case was resolved.

Vatican report attempts mere excuse not explanation

RITE & REASON: THE REPORT on the apostolic visitation reflects an exercise in irrelevancy. 

The visitors listened but did they hear? 

The report includes the standard apologies, blame for the bishops and religious superiors, and praise for all the church has done in digging into the clerical culture to determine why the horrendous epidemic occurred.

But in reality, they looked for excuses rather than explanations. 

This “crisis” is not primarily about sexual molestation. 

It’s about the obsession with power and the corruption and stagnation of the clerical culture.

The visitors were not about to pierce the protective veil that covers the institutional church, a veil that hides the reason the clericalised church is unravelling and the communion between bishops and people is ruptured. 

The total lack of accountability by the authoritarian model of the church is the root of the crisis.

The Irish people didn’t deserve the insulting claim that the “shortcomings of the past” caused an inadequate understanding of the “terrible phenomenon of the abuse of minors”. 

The people named the causes head on: the secretive clerical culture, the lopsided theology of sexuality, seminary training disconnected from reality and the “church’s” obsession with control.

These are not the shortcomings of the past. 

They are the deadly symptoms of the present. 

A typical Vatican response to a complex problem it can’t understand is imposing structures that change the surface appearance while the core continues to deteriorate. 

It’s like trying to solve a hardware problem with a software solution.

The outrageous assertion that the bishops and religious superiors gave “much” spiritual and psychological help to victims is followed by a recommendation that they meet with and listen to victims. 

That this has to be recommended is a pathetic indictment of their lack of pastoral care. If the leadership’s first concern had been the victims and not the church’s image and power, the course of recent Catholic history in Ireland would have been dramatically different.

The visitation of the seminaries avoided the real issue: can priests be prepared to serve in the real world after years of formation in an unreal world? 

The superficial recommendations try to recapture a seminary culture that inculcated the toxic belief that priests are apart from others because of their exalted “calling”. 

Survivors know too well this attitude is a major part of the problem.

The second half of the report tells the real story. 

The agenda is not that of the victims. 

The true goal is rescuing the Irish clerical institution from its descent into irrelevance by imposing a return to the model of church as monarchy. 

The “renewed call to communion” is a thinly covered call to docile, unthinking submission.

Catholics in Ireland are walking away not because they need a “deeper formation in the content of the faith” but because they no longer equate faith in God with childish obedience to a clerical establishment that feeds on control.

The younger generation needs the new ecclesial movements as much as a duck hunter needs an accordion. 

These are nothing more than agents for the return to a model of church dominated by clerical control where intellectual creativity and theological self-determination are anathema.

The abominable legacy of abuse in the Irish church has nothing to do with orthodoxy and fidelity to the pope. 

It has everything to do with a destructive clerical culture that sacrificed the innocence of children for the distorted image and power of the hierarchy.

The visitors could not delve into the core issue because to do so would have meant recognition of the dark side of the institutional church. 

The solutions offered – obedience to the hierarchy and lock-step assent to doctrine – are irrelevant and an insult to the victims whose lives were shattered because of this very model of church.

The words and actions of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin – and Taoiseach Enda Kenny’s laser-sharp assessment of the Vatican culture in his speech to the Dáil last July – are proof the real church in Ireland has accurately assessed the situation. 

The Vatican could have made unprecedented progress in restoring the church’s image by listening and learning.

---

Fr Thomas Doyle is an American Dominican priest and canon lawyer. 

He has served as an expert witness in a number of civil cases involving clergy sexual abuse before the Irish courts. 

He was also an expert witness/consultant to the Ferns and Ryan commissions.

Westminster Abbey honours Heath and Callaghan

Westminster Abbey is to honour two former British prime ministers with memorial stones.

Conservative Sir Edward Heath served as prime minister from 1970 to 1974, while Labour’s Lord James Callaghan was Prime Minister from 1976 to 1979.

It was under Sir Edward’s premiership that Britain entered the European Economic Community in 1973.

Both men died in 2005, Sir Edward at the age of 89 and Lord Callaghan at the age of 92.

The announcement coincides with the 100th anniversary of Lord Callaghan’s birth.

The Dean of Westminster, the Very Rev Dr John Hall, said: “The men and women who have contributed most to our island story and our nation's international influence are memorialised in the Abbey, including most Prime Ministers of the 19th century and of the first half of the 20th century.

“And yet no Prime Minister since 1956 has a memorial in the Abbey. I am happy to announce that I have decided with the support of those closest to them to include amongst those remembered in the Abbey two Prime Ministers from the 1970s, each of whom gave dutiful service in their own time. Although [Lord Callaghan] and Edward Heath were on the opposite side of many political arguments, they were both of that remarkable generation that served in the Second World War and continued to devote their lives to the service of their nation and of the world. It is fitting that we should honour them.”

Pope earmarks Holy Thursday collection to aid Syrian refugees

Pope Benedict XVI has decided the collection taken up at his Holy Thursday evening Mass will be used to offer humanitarian aid to Syrian refugees.

The Pontifical Mission for Palestine - the Vatican's emergency relief agency for the Middle East - estimates it would cost $20 million to care for all the Syrian refugees now in Jordan.

According to the mission, the only incoming funds so far have been a half a million dollars donated by the Irish government to provide aid for all Syrian refugees in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan.

Each year, the pope chooses where to send the collection taken up during the Mass of the Lord's Supper at the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the cathedral of the Diocese of Rome.

Pope Benedict's decision to use the collection from the Mass April 5 to support Syrian refugees was announced by the Vatican March 27.

The announcement came with the pope's Holy Week schedule, which the Vatican published the same day.

The pope was to celebrate the usual slate of Holy Week and Easter liturgies: Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter's Square April 1; the chrism Mass in the morning April 5 in St. Peter's Basilica; the Mass of the Lord's Supper that evening; on Good Friday, April 6, the afternoon liturgy of the Lord's Passion in St. Peter's Basilica, followed by the nighttime Way of the Cross at the Colosseum; the Easter Vigil April 7 in St. Peter's Basilica; and Easter morning Mass April 8 in St. Peter's Square.

Catholic media group creates award to honor Cardinal Foley

A global Catholic media group has created an award named after the great evangelist and communicator Cardinal John P. Foley to honor all those who have promoted healthy relations between the Church and the world “for the betterment of humanity.”

“Cardinal Foley together with our members always found that our organization is a bridge between the Church and the world through ongoing reflection … get-togethers and seminars,” the International Organization of Catholics in the Media said. 

“Such bridging and encounters are necessary today in our modern world where both young and older generations value freedom, dignity and respect rather than blind submission.”

Cardinal Foley served as editor of the Archdiocese of Philadelphia’s newspaper The Catholic Standard & Times. 

He edited Rome’s archdiocesan newspaper from 1970 to 1984. 

After his ordination as bishop, he served as president of the Pontifical Council for Social Communication from 1984 to 2007.

In December 2011 Cardinal Foley passed away in Philadelpia, after suffering from leukemia and other health issues.

Several members and friends of the International Organization of Catholics in the Media asked the group to create an international award in his honor. 

The cardinal first attended the organization’s world congress in Vienna, Austria in 1977 and regularly attended its congresses and other activities until his death.

“He encouraged the independence of journalists,” the group said, also noting that he had defended the group’s autonomy against proposed mergers.

The Cardinal Foley Award entries can be journalistic works made for publishing or for broadcast since 2009.

Entries can include articles, interviews, profiles, opinion, analysis, news stories, photographs or any other journalistic work.

Written entries should not exceed 1,200 words.

The award will be bestowed at the World Congress of the International Organization of Catholics in the Media in Panama next year.

The organization’s website is http://www.icomworld.info.

Sex abuse victims claim conflict in care process

AT LEAST seven victims of abuse by Catholic priests have lodged complaints with the Psychology Board of Australia against the Melbourne church's psychologist employed to co-ordinate their care.

The first was in 2001 and the most recent last month, in which a victim says the psychologist, Susan Sharkey, sat in on a meeting with the psychologist she appointed for him and later edited the transcript to fit her own diagnosis.

Each victim has had complaints of abuse upheld by the Melbourne Response. 

Allegations against Ms Sharkey include conflict of interest, breach of trust, breaking confidentiality and disrespectful and coercive conduct. 

According to the Melbourne Archdiocese, Ms Sharkey denies all the allegations.

The seven victims lodged nine complaints.  

The Age believes that five complaints have been rejected, one referred to a professional standards panel and one resulted in recommendations to Ms Sharkey. Two have yet to be resolved.

Several of the victims say Ms Sharkey, co-ordinator of the Melbourne Catholic Archdiocese Carelink service, refused to deal with them because of their complaints, denying them services and causing further trauma.

A lawyer who helped five victims said the treatment amounted to secondary abuse. ''The main thing that bothered me was the secondary trauma and victimisation, the absolute lack of respect or understanding of where they are coming from.''

The lawyer, who did not want to be named, said: ''There's a sense in which they are daunted and overwhelmed. It's as though the Melbourne Response tries to create self-doubt.''

In the most recent complaint, the victim told The Age that Ms Sharkey sat in on his meeting in January with a psychiatrist, though he was unhappy about that because she is a Catholic. 

At the meeting she argued with him about his negative views of the church, and also told him "we think you are a drug-induced schizophrenic", which he denied.

In February, Ms Sharkey met the victim to show him the psychiatric report, in which the information he provided had been changed to fit the diagnosis of drug-induced schizophrenia, he said. Other parts, particularly his criticism of the church, were omitted. Ms Sharkey refused to give him a copy of the report.

Another complainant, Noreen Wood, said about 100 counselling sessions paid for by the Jesuits were held in restaurants and Ms Sharkey had acted as her advocate in discussing compensation from the Jesuits while, unknown to her, also acting for the Jesuits and the Catholic Church.

Jim Boyle, who was recognised as a secondary victim after his brother Gavan was abused, said Ms Sharkey abruptly terminated her professional relationship with him after he criticised Carelink's care of Gavan. He said private personal matters that Ms Sharkey undertook to keep confidential were communicated to archdiocesan lawyer Richard Leder.

The psychology board rejected his complaint on the grounds that Ms Sharkey's relationship with him was not therapeutic but administrative. 

Mr Boyle wrote back, saying the psychologists' code of ethics made no such distinction.

"She argues confidentiality just relates to viewing confidential files, but I was told explicitly by Sharkey and [psychologist Ball] that everything that happens here is totally confidential, even from the archdiocese paying the bills," Mr Boyle said.

Another victim, Shelley Thomson, said Ms Sharkey had refused to acknowledge her as a client of Carelink for five years from June 2006. 

The board told Ms Thomson it had recommended to Ms Sharkey she take care to be clear to victims about her role at Carelink and about the purpose of meetings.

Ms Thomson complained again last year about different matters, but she was told on March 6 that the complaint was not upheld. The next day her lawyer was told that Carelink had made an appointment for her with a Brisbane psychiatrist. She lives on the Sunshine Coast.

"There was no by-your-leave, or is it all right with you, or will you be there, or can you get to Brisbane,'' she said. ''But at least it [care] is back on again."

The victims say Ms Sharkey should have stood down while the complaints were heard, but instead she and the archdiocese are punishing them by withholding payments and services. 

The church says it is appropriate for Ms Sharkey not to talk to them while the complaints are heard but denies withholding support.

Ms Sharkey did not speak to The Age, but Melbourne Archdiocese business manager Francis Moore said Ms Sharkey "absolutely rejects the allegations of wrongdoing".

Mr Moore said: "It [archdiocese] has confidence in Ms Sharkey and her professionalism. It considers the complaints to be unfounded."

Syrian violence drives 50,000 Christians from homes

Almost all Christians in the conflict-torn Syrian city of Homs have fled violence and persecution, amid reports that their homes have been attacked and seized by “fanatics” with links to al-Qaida. 

With ninety percent of Christians having reportedly left their homes, the violence is driving fears that Syria could become a “second Iraq” with church attacks, kidnappings and forced expulsions of believers.

The exodus of 50,000 or more Christians has taken place largely in the past six weeks. It is part of al-Qaida-linked militant Islamic groups’ “ongoing ethnic cleansing” of Christians, according to Catholic charity Aid to the Church in Need.

Homs has been home to one of Syria’s largest Christian populations and Church sources say that the faithful have borne the brunt of the violence. They have escaped to villages, many of which are in mountains 30 miles outside the city.

Islamists have allegedly gone from house to house in the Homs neighborhoods of Hamidiya and Bustan al-Diwan and have forced Christians to leave without giving them a chance to take their belongings.

The crisis in Homs has increased fears that Islamists are gaining influence in the region in the power vacuum left by the overthrow of other Arab governments in the “Arab Spring.”

The comparisons with Iraq are also ominous. Anti-Christian violence in Iraq has helped drive the Christian population from 1.4 million in the late 1980s to less than 300,000 today.

In both Syria and Iraq the Church is being targeted for its perceived close links with regimes under attack from opposition parties and rebel groups.

The uprising in Syria started in March 2011 with protests advocating political reform. The uprising has become increasingly militarized. More than 8,000 people have been killed in the conflict in the past year, U.N. figures say.

Many in the opposition are from the country’s Sunni majority, while religious minorities continue to back President Bashar al-Assad. The exiled Syrian Muslim Brotherhood has said it will not monopolize power in a new regime but will back a democratic state with equality for all citizens and respect for human rights.

On March 26, Syrian government forces shelled Homs and carried out arrest raids. A human rights group says that government forces appear to be preparing to retake rebel-held parts of the city, the Associated Press reported.

The government has accused insurgents of terrorism and international conspiracy, while the government itself faces accusations of torture and massacres of civilians.

The Christian community has suffered from terrorist attacks in other cities.

On March 18, a car bomb explosion targeted the Christian quarter of Aleppo, close to the Franciscan-run Church of St. Bonaventure. Aid to the Church in Need is helping families of the victims.

“The people we are helping are very afraid,” said Bishop Antoine Audo of Aleppo, who is overseeing the aid program. “The Christians don’t know what their future will hold. They are afraid they will not get their homes back.”

The displaced people of Homs are desperate for food and shelter. Aid to the Church in Need has announced an urgent $100,000 aid package to relieve their needs.

Each family will receive $60 each month for basic food and lodging. Organizers of the assistance hope that they can return home by the summer.

Bishop Audo told Aid to the Church in Need that it is very important to help those in distress.

“Pray for us and let us work together to build peace in Syria,” he said.

For Russian Orthodox Church, cross ban in workplace is a form of totalitarianism

The Moscow Patriarchate deplores the ban in Great Britain on wearing religious symbols in the workplace, describing it as a manifestation of totalitarianism.

"Those Western liberals who are actually forcing totalitarian regime standards on free people are making a big mistake," said Metropolitan Hilarion, head of the Moscow Patriarchate Department for External Church Relations, on Rossiya 24 television.

These people have not gone through reprisals against the Church "and therefore they do not know what it feels like when your cross is being ripped off your neck," he added.

The Metropolitan said he had had an experience of living in Britain and he could see "liberal and Anarchist patterns spreading fast in the public space."

Recently, British courts have given employers the right to fire workers who wear crosses on their clothes.

The British government wants to defend the ban on wearing crosses at work in the European Court of Human Rights, which is set to examine four cases brought by British citizens.

They include that of Nadia Eweida (pictured), a British Airways employee who was suspended for wearing a cross on a plane, in violation of company policy.

Ms Eweida has taken her case to Strasbourg. For David Cameron's government, which backs the airliner, wearing a cross is not a compulsory element of the Christian faith.

"The introduction and even a discussion of such standards looks like a symptom of some madness or extreme moral decay," Hilarion said, adding that believers will never put up with this and will fight.

Archpriest Mikhail Dudko, the sacristan of the Russian Assumption Cathedral in London, said recently that one of his parishioners, a woman, lost her job for wearing a cross at work, even though it was not visible.

Inquiry into RTÉ programme to be made public soon

THE BROADCASTING watchdog’s major investigation into an RTÉ’s A Mission to Prey is expected to be made public next Monday.

The Broadcasting Authority of Ireland (BAI) held a special meeting to begin consideration of the findings of investigating officer Anna Carragher into the Prime Time Investigates programme, which seriously defamed a Co Galway parish priest, Fr Kevin Reynolds.

Ms Carragher’s findings have already been accepted and approved by the authority’s compliance committee, which investigates alleged breaches of the Broadcasting Acts’ requirements for fairness, balance and objectivity.

The full board of the BAI will meet again next Monday, at which point it is expected to approve the release of what has been described as a very comprehensive report.

It is expected that its publication will have significant repercussions for the national broadcaster and its approach to investigations and current affairs coverage.

Key personnel associated with the broadcast – director of the news and current affairs division Ed Mulhall; head of current affairs Ken O’Shea; reporter Aoife Kavanagh; producer Brian Paircéir – have stepped aside pending the publication of the findings.

Director general Noel Curran has already put in train a number of investigations and reviews within the organisation arising from the programme and the controversies surrounding Frontline’s broadcast of the last live presidential debate.

A Mission to Prey, broadcast in May 2011, wrongly accused Fr Reynolds of statutory rape and also falsely alleged he had fathered a child and abandoned it. He has already been awarded substantial damages by RTÉ in the High Court. The broadcaster did not contest the claims made by Fr Reynolds in the proceedings.

Ms Carragher, a retired senior executive with the BBC in Northern Ireland, commenced the investigation in December 2011. 

Her terms of reference included inquiring into whether or not RTÉ had breached provisions of the Broadcasting Act upholding fairness, objectivity and impartiality; and protecting the individual from unreasonable encroachment of privacy.

Given the very extensive nature of the investigation, it is expected the report will be quite lengthy.

It will come after RTÉ has already been the subject of an adverse BAI finding in relation to the manner in which a “bogus tweet” was broadcast during Frontline’s final televised debate.

Last week, the BAI also upheld a complaint that the Pat Kenny radio show had lacked balance in its coverage of a biography of Bertie Ahern written by Irish Times journalist Colm Keena.

GAA club asks church to be 'guided by God' and reverse deal to sell land

A RURAL GAA club has appealed to its Catholic diocese to engage in "peace talks" regarding the sale of land adjoining its sports grounds.

In a letter to the Bishop of Kerry, Kilgarvan GAA club said it hoped he would be "guided by the man above" and reverse the decision to sell the land to a private individual and not the club.

The diocese shocked the local community when it announced at weekend Masses in the parish that it had decided to sell the old presbytery and 13.5 acres for €258,000.

The GAA had hoped to acquire the land to develop its facilities. "We've not brought out the machine guns yet but there is no deal until it's signed, sealed and delivered," club chairman Tom Randles told the Irish Independent yesterday.

The club has been at loggerheads with the church over the sale which has been dubbed 'The Field' locally.

The row has already sparked a public meeting which called on other interested parties to withdraw their offers.

In February, an offer in excess of €255,000 was made for the property that was originally put on the market at €230,000.

The GAA had offered €205,000 -- a significant increase on the €50,000 it had offered St Brendan's Trust -- the legal entity that owns diocesan property -- to purchase nine acres last June.

Mr Randles said the club had written to the Bishop of Kerry Bill Murphy, St Brendan's Trust and parish priest Donal O'Neill appealing for a change of heart.

The letter asks them "not to let down the youth of the parish and the community".

"It is not too late as the decision is yours. We trust in the man above that you will reconsider your present position," the letter states.

Mr Randles said he had tried to contact the bishop yesterday but was unable to do so.

"We will be making a stronger statement but there's not a war at present and we're still hoping for peace talks," he said.

Last night, Bishop Murphy declined to comment further on the controversy.

A statement on the diocese's website said it was "obliged to attain the market value of the property" and sell to the highest bidder.

The statement said the entire amount achieved would be available to the parish for its development.

Auctioneer and former Kerry footballer Tom Spillane handled the sale.

Accusations made by Maciel's victims are unfair, says Vatican spokesman

In a press conference, Vatican spokesman, Federico Lombardi responded to criticisms against Benedict XVI for his failure to meet with some individuals who were abused by the founder of the Legion of Christ.

“It is unfair to speak of Benedict XVI as a Pope who acted against the truth and against transparency.” 

In a press briefing in the Mexican city of León , Vatican spokesman, Fr. Federico Lombardi, responded to criticisms over Benedict XVI's failure - during the current trip - to meet with abuse victims that suffered at the hands of Marcial Maciel Degollado, the founder of the Legion of Christ. 

Maciel Degollado was suspended “a divinis” by Pope Benedict XVI himself, in light of the paedophilia accusations and the double life he led, fathering children from a number of different women.

Speaking about the Pope's meetings with paedophilia victims on other occasions, Fr. Lombardi recalled that such meetings had taken place in other Countries “at the request of bishops, there had been preparation ahead of them and they had taken place as part of a dialogue process and assistance programme in which the Church was involved. In any case, such meetings did take place on some of Benedict XVI's visits but not on others, in France and Portugal for instance.”

According to Lombardi, Maciel's victims had shown a certain “aggressiveness” in the manner in which they had requested the meeting. 

“And also a kind of ambiguity - he stressed - : they said they wanted to meet the Pope but they did not want to listen to the full extent of what he had to say.”

The director of the Vatican Press Office firmly rejected accusations that Ratzinger had been aware of Maciel's misdeeds since 1998. This is also true for John Paul II - he added -. 

He did not know about Maciel's dark side, his double life. A solemn declaration was made regarding this, during his beatification process.” 

“The two Popes – he concluded – have always promoted truth and transparency with regards to this issue.”

Homs: The city that is a symbol of today’s Syrian turmoil once produced a Pope

The horrific images of the tortured bodies of women and children have made this city into a symbol of Syria’s current turmoil. 

But what few know is that Homs - the third largest city in Syria after Damascus and Aleppo - also has a significant Christian history and even produced a Pope for the Church of Rome.

He was called Anicetus, and he was the tenth successor of Peter. He came from Emesa - as Homs was called in the ancient world - and was Pope in the second century, between 155 and 168. Revered as a saint, his liturgical feast is celebrated on 17 April. 

It is unclear how he arrived at the Eternal City from Syria; some sources claim he was exiled for his opposition to Gnosticism. His name in Greek means “unconquered” and Anicetus’ ministry as Bishop of Rome was marked by strong opposition to the heretical teachings of Marcion, which had become widespread. 

His leadership worked to restore order in the doctrine, also by giving special attention to the ministry of priests and deacons. He even weighed in on their appearance: the Liber Pontificalis says that the Pope from Homs decreed that priests could not wear their hair long.

Another episode related to the life of Anicetus is told by Eusebius of Caesarea, one of the leading historians of early Christianity: during Anicetus’ papacy, Polycarp of Smyrna, the great bishop of the East, went to Rome. 

The purpose of the trip was to discuss with Anicetus the matter of selecting the date for the celebration of Easter, which divided Christians even then. Polycarp, along with the rest of the East, held that it should be the 14th of the Hebrew month of Nisan - the date of Passover. But Anicetus’ predecessor, Pius I, had established that the Resurrection of Jesus was to be celebrated the first Sunday after the full moon of spring. 

Even with a Syrian Pope, they could not reach an agreement: “Polycarp was unable to persuade the Pope,” Eusebius notes, “nor could the Pope persuade Polycarp. The dispute was not resolved, but,” says the historian, “relations continued uninterrupted nonetheless.” 

It is not clear if Pope Anicetus really died a martyr under Emperor Marcus Aurelius, as the details of his death are unknown. But he was the first Bishop of Rome to be buried in the San Callisto catacombs, where his remains rested until 1604, when they were moved to the Palazzo Altemps chapel in Piazza Sant’Apollinare, their current resting place.

Along with the Pope, another important figure of early Christianity linked to Homs is Bishop Nemesius of Emesa, a 4th-century philosopher. He is remembered for his Peri physeos anthropou (“On the Nature of Man”), the first treatise that approached anthropology from a Christian point of view - a work which had a great influence on subsequent Eastern and Western theological thought. 

Rejecting the Platonic myth of a soul separate from the body, Nemesius argued that to understand this relationship, one must start with Christology: soul and body, he said, possess the same unity as the incarnation of the Divine Word and human nature as seen in Christ.

But beyond these two figures, the true Christian glory of Homs was linked to another miraculous event that occurred in the 5th century: according to ancient tradition, in 452, in Emesa, St. John the Baptist appeared to the Archimandrite of the local monastery and showed him the place nearby where his head had been buried. 

The church of St. John the Baptist was built on top of the spot where the relic was discovered, and for several centuries was a destination for Christian pilgrimages. Then, when the city was conquered by the Arabs in 637, half the church was turned into a mosque. 

But Christian pilgrimages to Emesa ended only in the 9th century, when the relic of St. John the Baptist’s head was moved to Constantinople.

But this did not mark the disappearance of Christianity from Homs; it has remained a significant presence up to the present day. 

In the 20th century, for example, it was the city where the faithful of the Assyrian Rite reorganized themselves after the difficult years of Ottoman persecution. Cardinal Ignace Moussa Daoud himself, Prefect Emeritus of the Congregation for Eastern Churches, was Archieparca of Homs from 1994 to 1998, before being elected Patriarch of Antioch of the Syrians. 

Hence the disturbing question: what will survive of this great history after the tragedy that Homs has been undergoing in recent months? Several weeks ago Oeuvre d’Orient - a French NGO with close ties to the Eastern Church - reported on a community that has been fleeing violence perpetrated not only by the army but also by some fundamentalist Sunni militias. 

Thus, there is also wholly Christian aspect to the tragedy of Homs - and another piece of Church history that may wind up being obliterated forever.

Lefebvrians: “There is good reason to hope for a solution”

The agreement was mentioned in a communiqué that was read out in churches in the German District of the Society of St. Pius X.

The “communiqué” which was read out in churches and chapels within the German District of the Society of St. Pius X, bears the signature of Fr. Franz Schmidberger. 

He was appointed first successor of Archbishop Marcel Lefebvre and he is known for always adopting a path of dialogue with the Vatican leadership.

 

Schmidberger recalled how last 16 March, in Rome, the Prefect of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada, delivered “a letter” to the Superior General of the Fraternity, Bishop Bernard Fellay, “containing explanations, asking us in a conclusive manner to provide a more positive answer than the ones given so far to the doctrinal preamble of 14 September 2011.” 

The final deadline for a response is 15 April 2012.

Schmidberger commented on Rome’s response saying that “Despite the unpleasant tone used in the letter, there is good reason to hope for a satisfactory solution.” 

As stated, during the interview with Levada, Mgr. Fellay himself had said that there were no real difficulties in terms of the acceptance of “the profession of the faith” and of the whole preamble, which states that the Second Vatican Council is to be interpreted according to the hermeneutics proposed by Benedict XVI. 

Fellay had added, however, that it was not the principles that were the problem, but their application; that is, the fact that today’s Church lack faith in the Magisterium.

 

Now Schmidberger is talking about “having good reason to hope” that reconciliation is just around the corner. 

“If reconciliation is achieved, all the strengths of the Church’s tradition would be given a significant boost; if not, they would become weaker and discouraged. In the latter case, not only would the Fraternity be at risk but the wellbeing of the entire Church.”

This is how you elect a pope, a Coptic pope

For centuries, the Coptic Orthodox Church in Egypt has chosen its leader through a complex, month-long process.

A blindfolded child will deliver the final word on the election of the successor of Shenouda III, the recently deceased Coptic Pope. 

According to customary voting practice, the child will pull one of three cards, with various names written on them, out of a silver urn. 

For centuries, the Coptic Orthodox Church has chosen its leaders through this unique system, at the end of a complex, multi-step process which lasts several months.

The current procedure dates back to 1957, and thus has been used to choose the last two Coptic popes: Cyril VI, who reigned from 1959 to 1971, and Shenouda III, who led the largest Egyptian Church for the last forty years. 

On 31 October 1971, he, too, was chosen through the “sacred election by lot”: before the entire  community, the smallest of the altar boys was given the task of extracting one of the three cards which contained the names of monks Samuel and Timothy al-Maqarinext alongside Shenouda's name. 

This is an ancient way to visibly demonstrate that the election has been entrusted to the will of God.

It should be noted right away, though, that the child’s role only comes into play at the end of a lengthy selection process. 

The first step - which must take place within seven days after the death of the Coptic pope - is the appointment of a regent, chosen by the Holy Synod (the assembly of Coptic bishops) to lead the Church until it chooses a successor. 

Usually it is one of the eldest of the bishops. 

Under his leadership, within the space of a month, a committee consisting of fourteen members of the Synod, has the task of preparing, based on reports received, an initial list of five or six candidates for the election. 

There are specific criteria that need to be met: the future Coptic pope must be over 40 years old, he must have lived as a monk for at least fifteen years, and must never have been married.

Once chosen, this list is then published in Egypt's three major Arab-language newspapers, communicating the names of the candidates to all the faithful of the Coptic Church. For this reason, the next step takes place only after three months. 

At that point a grand assembly is called, including the 74 bishops of the Coptic Church and twelve representatives from each diocese, chosen from elders and leaders of associations. 

This is a large body, consisting of one thousand people who will be voting for the candidates. 

The three that receive the most support will have their names on the ballot during the ceremony of the “sacred election by lot.” 

The ceremony is held during a public ritual which the entire community of the faithful is invited to attend.

Thus, the 119th Coptic pope will be named just four months from now. 

And, interestingly, the procedure for his appointment in Egypt coincides with the campaign for the election of the President of the Republic: that vote is set for 23 and 24 May, with possible run-offs on 16 and 17 June. 

Another interesting problem will be to find out to what extent the Coptic diaspora communities will take part in the election of a new pope. 

Today, members of the diaspora are more numerous than in 1971 and have their own bishops.

Both the funeral of Pope Shenouda III and the election of his successor will take place in Saint Mark's Cathedral. 

The new cathedral, opened in 1968 in the Abbasyia district, holds the relics of the Evangelist who - according to tradition - was the founder of the Church of Alexandria. 

In 1968, in a gesture of profound ecumenical significance, Paul VI donated part of the remains of Saint Mark's, venerated for centuries in Venice, to the Coptic Church. 

In 1973, following this gesture, Paul VI and Shenouda III signed a joint declaration in which they gave “thanks in the Holy Spirit to God for the fact that, after the great event of the return of the relics of St. Mark to Egypt, relations between the Churches of Rome and Alexandria have continued to grow.”

Since the age limit for the election is relatively low - just 40 years of age - it is not unusual for a Coptic Pope to reign for very long periods of time, as with Shenouda III. 

The record, however, belongs to his predecessor, Cyril V, who led the Coptic Church from 1874 to 1927 - 53 years. 

This period of time was not only long, but vital to Egyptian history: it witnessed the end of Ottoman era, British domination, the independence movement of Mustafa Kamil Pasha, the First World War, the revolution of 1919, and the independence of 1922.

Vatican Approves New Blessing for Unborn Children

The Vatican has approved the publication of the “Rite for the Blessing of a Child in the Womb,” which will be printed in English and Spanish in a combined booklet and should be available for churches by Mother’s Day.

The U.S. bishops who collaborated on the development of the blessing welcomed the announcement of the recognitio, or approval, by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in Rome.

“I’m impressed with the beauty of this blessing for human life in the womb,” said Cardinal Daniel DiNardo of Galveston-Houston, chairman of the Committee on Pro-Life Activities of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops (USCCB). 

“I can think of no better day to announce this news than on the feast of the Annunciation, when we remember Mary’s ‘yes’ to God and the incarnation of that child in her the womb that saved the world.”

“We wanted to make this announcement as soon as possible so that parishes might begin to look at how this blessing might be woven into the fabric of parish life,” said Archbishop Gregory Aymond of New Orleans, chairman of the USCCB Committee on Divine Worship. 

“Eventually the new blessing will be included in the Book of Blessings when that text is revised.”

The blessing was prepared to support parents awaiting the birth of their child, to encourage parish prayers for and recognition of the precious gift of the child in the womb, and to foster respect for human life within society. 

It can be offered within the context of the Mass as well as outside of Mass.

The blessing originated when then-Bishop Joseph Kurtz of Knoxville, Tennessee (now archbishop of Louisville, Kentucky) asked the USCCB Committee on Pro-Life Activities to see if a blessing existed for a child in the womb. When none was found, the committee prepared a text and submitted it to the USCCB’s Divine Worship committee in March of 2008.

It was approved by the full body of bishops in November 2008, and then sent to Rome for editing and final approval.