Last Chance Fair of Diocesan Synods for the Catholic Church, according to a meeting of priests

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Current consultations with lay Catholics, nationally and internationally, must work or “the church is in serious trouble,” said a meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP).

The Augustinian priest, Father Kieran O’Mahon, declared that the establishment of diocesan synods was “radically new”, and that it took place in a context where “the effective transmission of the faith has ceased … since decades now ”.

It was, he said, “quite difficult to reach the angry lunatics, as opposed to the disappointed lunatics.”

Addressing the CAP’s annual general meeting, which was held via Zoom due to rising rates of pandemic infection, he said the church has been in crisis at least since 1990, including in About the role of women and the laity.

“A way must be found to include women at all levels” of the church, he said, while the canon law covering pastoral councils also had to be amended to allow the laity to hold the presidency. instead of a simple priest. This, he said, was now also “inevitable due to the collapse of the ministerial priesthood”.

Describing Pope Francis as “a radical, not a liberal”, the current world synod was “his biggest idea so far”, this “consultation with all Catholics in the world over a number of years”.

Each diocese has been invited to hold a synod with bishops who will eventually provide a summary of the results for a synodal assembly of bishops at the Vatican in 2023.

Survey results

Father O’Mahony said the initiative was “a recovery of the vision of Vatican Council II,” said that “if this synod fails, the church is in serious trouble. It has to work ”.

But, he advised, the meeting “allow yourself to be excited.”

Peter McLoughlin, a lay leader in the predominantly Co Mayo Killala diocese, where a very successful synodal process took place, drew attention to a survey revealing that by 2035 there would only be 10 to 15 priests left.

He expressed concern about a decision that, with regard to synods in Ireland and around the world, bishops were to prepare “a synthesis” of the views of Catholics in each diocese, before submitting it to Rome. “Will the bishops report what people say? He asked

Colm Holmes, of We Are Church Ireland, said lay involvement in the synod process was “only in the early months. Then we are in the bishops, the bishops, the bishops.

Patricia Melvin, another lay leader from Killala, noted how “life goes on, even with the doors of the church being closed during the pandemic”. This prompted her elderly mother to comment that the obligation to attend Sunday Mass was only a “man-made law.”

The role of the Church in schools

Meanwhile, Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell has championed the role of the church on the management boards of state-funded schools, saying that true plurality of patronage in education “must ensure choice parents while allowing all patrons, including Catholic patrons, to be faithful to their own ethics and their characteristic spirit ”.

“Catholic ethics and the characteristic spirit are rooted in the Christian vision of the human person, in what we consider essential for the development of human life,” said the Archbishop.

“Catholic education in particular contributes to the growth and well-being of individuals, of their community and of society, by caring for the common good, and now more explicitly also, by caring for our common home”, did he declare.

In these islands, it was provided by the Church “in partnership with the State which has the obligation to ensure the education of the children of all its inhabitants”.

Speaking on Wednesday evening at a mass to mark the opening of Dublin City University’s academic year at St Patrick’s Campus in Drumcondra, he underlined how much Catholic schools are valued across the world “because of and not in spite of their Catholic philosophy.” Catholic schools welcome a variety of young people of diverse cultural identities and nationalities, and the plurality of their religious systems and other beliefs.

A great strength of denominational schools “has been their rooting in local communities. Those who do not share our faith come to our schools because they know that there is in their hearts an acceptance of values ​​motivated by our faith – values ​​that present a specific vision or vision of human life. In addition, interreligious and interfaith dialogue is at the heart of the Catholic school enterprise, ”he said.

The Catholic school offered “an excellent academic education; it provides a faith-based training that allows each student to develop a moral foundation on which to stand for the rest of their life and, it gives a vision and hope beyond the limits of a worthless education ”, did he declare.

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