4 Ways to Spin a Synod

I don't really have the energy to write anything on the recent disastrous synod.  But, there seem to be 4 basic reactions:

Realist Untrusting and Frank Conservative:  The synod is a disaster from start to finish; it makes us look like Anglicans;  the final text clearly purposely leaves out orthodox teaching and has all the seeds necessary to provide for different so called pastoral approaches and indeed teaching in different countries which will provide for routine reception of Holy Communion by the divorced and remarried in plain contravention of the teaching of Christ and His Church; Thomas More and John Fisher and indeed John the Baptist died in vain.  [Cardinal Burke]

Hardball mainstream force of will Conservative:  The liberals have been routed;  there is nothing in the final text about reception of communion or homosexuality;  any attempt to claim that the Kasper side has prevailed is unjustified by the plain words of the texts;  exterminate.  [Cardinal Pell]

Light fluffy we love the Pope everything is great listening mainstream:  we had a wonderful experience of Church;  we need to listen;  there is no change in teaching;  everything must change;  it's all about love and mercy;  we must move forward.  [Archbishop Eamon Martin]

You're all a bunch of hating haters and Canon Law sucks liberals:  we must quickly seize the spirit of the synod;  the Church has been out of touch;  people can make up their own minds;  people aren't called to heroic sanctity;  the Pope must deliver, that's why we put him in office.  [Cardinal Kasper]



I think this piece in the Catholic Herald is rather good so I've quoted it in full below:

At the synod’s mid-point, Pope Francis delivered an address in which he called for a “synodal Church”, indicating that he desired more synods, with more authority, in the life of the Church.
By the end of the synod, the Holy Father might have changed his mind. He closed the synod with the most scathing speech of his pontificate to date, denouncing some of his brother bishops for “a facile repetition of what is obvious or has already been said”; of “burying their heads in the sand”; of “indoctrinating” the Gospel “in dead stones to be hurled at others”; of hiding “behind the Church’s teachings or good intentions, in order to sit in the chair of Moses and judge, sometimes with superiority and superficiality, difficult cases and wounded families”; of giving into “conspiracy theories and blinkered viewpoints”; of using “language which is archaic or simply incomprehensible”; of being like the older brother in the parable of the prodigal son, or the jealous labourers in the parable of the workers in the vineyard; perhaps suffering from a “fear of love and showing that love concretely”.

Papa Bergoglio is a better man than me, because the idea of spending several weeks in the company of men so characterised would put me off the synodal path entirely.
Yet if the Church is going to have more frequent synods, there are some things that will have to be corrected.

Synods are purely advisory to the pope. Yet they are widely viewed as deciding matters, meaning that bishops advise, but do not have real responsibility for their decisions. The synod final report scrounged together enough votes to pass the sections on Holy Communion for the civilly divorced and remarried by a rhetorical fudge. It reaffirmed the need to proceed in accord with the “comprehensive criteria” of St John Paul II. But it did not quote that criteria specifically. So is the teaching of John Paul upheld, as Cardinal Pell insisted? Or are pastors and their penitents free to reject his definitive articulation of the Catholic tradition in certain cases, as Cardinal Schönborn said?

Did the Wall Street Journal get it right, with its headline, “Bishops Hand the Pope a Defeat on His Outreach to Divorced Catholics”? Or was Il Messaggero right, which led with “Yes to Communion for the divorced: The host for those who are remarried, but it must be evaluated on a case by case basis”?

If the bishops could actually decide – as they do in the case of ecumenical councils – they would have to be clear, not seek to achieve consensus in confusing ambiguities. But then synods could not proceed as they do now, with Archbishop Blase Cupich floating ideas about conscience well outside the Catholic tradition on Friday, bishops discussing the matter on Monday and Tuesday, with everyone waiting with baited breath for a first draft of a final report to emerge on Thursday afternoon to see if the synod is going to declare John Henry Newman wrong about conscience.

Not to worry, in this case the Thursday conscience language was not fully Cupichine, but still not fully Catholic, so the synod fathers, having stayed up late on Thursday night like students cramming for an exam, offered various amendments on Friday morning, wondering if the central drafting committee would, according to entirely unknown criteria, accept the amendments or not. That news was delivered on Saturday morning with the presentation of the revised text which, after a solid five hours of deliberation, the synod fathers voted upon.

Meanwhile, the media is waiting to tell Catholics the world over who won the synod, the conservatives or the liberals. The process certainly is successful in terms of generating interest, but it is ill-suited to arriving at contested truths, let alone truths pertaining to, in this case, the Eucharist, the source and summit of the Christian life.

One of the most prominent cardinals at the synod announced to his brothers in the language group discussions that the synod had been a catechetical catastrophe. Not for what it taught about anything in particular, but because it suggested to the Church and the world that Catholic teaching was determined by parliamentary methods, the basic procedures of which were made up on the fly.
The Holy Father anticipated this danger in his opening address, specifically saying that a synod is “neither a convention … nor a parliament or senate, where people make deals and reach compromises.”

That is, though, how it often appears in the mainstream media, from which most Catholics get their news about the Church. There are Christian communities which have wrapped themselves up for years in synods, in which the outcome of Church teaching and discipline is the result of parliamentary manoeuvring.

The Holy Father denounced many of the synod fathers as being Pharisees rather than good pastors. If the dynamics of this synod return in more frequent future synods, it may be less that the fathers are Pharisees than that the process is to akin to party politics.

As I was saying before I was interupted...

There's lots and lots and lots of stuff to read about the Synod starting shortly in Rome.  I am trying to maintain a balanced opinion.  For those looking to read something relatively straightforward and mainstream you could do worse than start with Fr Vincent Twomey. 

New Irish Catholic Catechism for Adults

Some good news at last from the Irish Bishops' Conference.  The new Irish Catholic Catechism for Adults (ICCA) has been published by Veritas.

I only had a chance for a quick flick through it and may come back later declaring it to be a heterodox outrage.  But at first glance it seems like a worthwhile effort.

On the plus side, the format is much more readable as a book than the Catechism of the Catholic Church (CCC), which has multiple paragraphs, each numbered and cross referenced.  The CCC is undoubtedly an essential resource, but for most people not a book that you sit down and read in sizeable chunks. 

Following the format of the United States Catechism for Adults, there are frequent insertions about people of faith from Ireland and these are welcome.  They point to the saints in a way that the Irish church sometimes fails to do.

The negatives? 

There is only one format which is the oversized paper-back.  I like a more compact version.

It is pricey - €24.99 or £19.99.  And the study guide, at €12.99 for 92 pages, is very pricey.  That said, it is A4 and lends itself to easy photocopying.

It was launched amidst the Tuam baby crisis/scandal.

It was launched by Sean Cardinal Brady - not really the image we want going forward as they say.

It undoubtedly fills a gap - but I'm not entirely convinced as to who the readership will be.  It is described as for adults but it strikes me as possibly most suited to older children in schools who continue to be fed a very poor diet of religious education.

A bishop who knows how to wear a pectoral cross

Archbishop Georg Gänswein

Because it's pectoral cross, not a ventral cross!

The Archanalyst of Dublin

Once more the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, delivers the diagnosis, the analysis of the problems in the Church.

And once more he fails to deliver any suggestions for fixing things.  Nor does he seem to be remotely aware of his part in the failure.  Patsy Mc Garry writes:

Catholic teaching on contraception, cohabitation, same sex relationships, the divorced and remarried is “disconnected from real life experience of families – and not by just younger people”, said Archbishop Diarmuid Martin last night.

In general, church teaching in those areas was found to be “poorly understood . . . poorly accepted” by Catholics in Dublin, he said at a meeting in Holy Cross College, Clonliffe. He was commenting on findings of a consultation in the diocese.

Every time the good Archbishop opens his mouth some sort of subtle nuance drops out.  Where Cardinal Brady (God help us, has he still not retired?) back in 2008 managed to condemn same sex civil unions in something like clear terms, Martin, in a letter to the Irish Catholic wrote:

The debate about civil unions is precisely about a situation in which the mutuality of the sexes is no longer seen as something anthropologically unique and irreplaceable, but simply a cultural construct which can be adapted and changed. That is the central issue which the Church should be addressing in her catechesis and in her witness towards society.

No doubt the faithful in Rialto and Fatima Mansions were grateful for the clarity of that contribution.

So now Catholic teaching is disconnected from real life. As it was in the beginning, is now and ever shall be.  Christ has always made "impossible" demands on us.  He wants hands cut off and eyes plucked out to avoid sin.  He expects sinners to go and sin no more.  He expects marriage to be for life.  He wants us to love God and neighbour more than we love ourselves.  Of course there's a disconnect from "real life".

Mother of Mercy - Mater Hospital joins the league of abrortionists

"By caring for the sick in the Mater Misericordiae University Hospital we participate in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ;  we honour the spirit of Catherine Mc Auley and the Sisters of Mercy;  we pledge ourselves to respect the dignity of human life;  to care for the sick with compassion and professionalism; to promote excellence and equity, quality and accountability."

This is Mission Statement of the Mater Hospital in Dublin which has just announced it will be carrying out abortions under Kenny's Law.

Even the Irish Times managed to see the inconsistency trumpeting:

"The Mater Misericordiae University Hospital is a Catholic voluntary hospital and was founded by the Sisters of Mercy in 1861. In its mission statement, the hospital says that by caring for the sick, “we participate in the healing ministry of Jesus Christ”.

The Irish Times also notes that: 

"The Mater hospital is a single-member company.

Its website says the majority of the members of the parent company are Sisters of Mercy and the remaining members represent the Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin, the Catholic Nurses’ Guild of Ireland, the Society of St Vincent de Paul and the medical consultants of Mater Misericordiae University Hospital and the Children’s University Hospital."

Fr Kevin Doran has said "no comment".  I presume this will be another case of the Grand Old Duke of York, up the hill and down again.  Just as Archbishop Eamon Martin huffed and puffed and threatened excommunication before the legislation was passed before retreating afterwards and refusing to implement Canons 915 and 916 which require that pro-abortion politicians be refused Holy Communion. 

Fr Doran took a similar postion on RTE's Would You Believe the other night in a dreadful performance, confused, stammering, unclear.  While the "silenced" Tony Flannery pontificated away, attacking the Vatican.

So, if you have the energy for it you can contact the Mater Hospital to complain.  Use the contact form here.  I left a sarky message saying I presumed they'd be changing the Mission Statement and name of the hospital.

You can also write, email or phone the Board of Governors.  The Secretariat and Registered Office for MMCUH is at 74 Upper Dorset Street, Dublin 1.

Telephone: 018607083

E-mail: sryan@mmcuh.ie

It would also be worth emailing the Sisters of Mercy - mercy@csm.ie since their fingerprints are all over this.

First female bishop in the Church of Ireland

Congratulations to Pat Storey who is to be the Church of Ireland (Anglican) Bishop of Meath and Kildare, the first female Anglican bishop in "these islands".

She's a native of Belfast.

I listened to her being interviewed on RTE and I thought she was refreshingly open and honest (Pope Francis effect). 

More details here.

Remember that old separation of Church and State we keep hearing about?

Richie Culhane, Mayor of Drogheda, representing Fine Gael, the Pro-Choice Party

I've been away for a while.  It was for the good of my soul.  As usual Patsy Mc Garry makes me mad enough to come back.  Well Patsy and Iggy and Flannery.

Iggy has been moved from Drogheda.  Every summer thousands of priests in dioceses and religious orders across the globe are moved by their superiors.  The same thing happens with bank officials and civil servants.  In the vast majority of situations they react with docility and move.  It goes with the job.

Iggy of course has to be different and he has to trash the Catholic Church in the process.  Read about it here and here.

Bad enough as Iggy is, worse is the fine Gael Mayor of Drogheda, Richie Culhane.  According to the Irish Independent "At the conclusion of the mass the Mayor of Drogheda, Richie Culhane, addressed the congregation and said he believed Fr Iggy was leaving because, “ultra-conservative elements within the Church have forced the hierarchy to push Iggy further afield and out of Drogheda here.”

Cllr Culhane said: “I hope and pray to God that you are never silenced.”

He received a standing ovation when concluded: “I will call on the hierarchy ‘Give him back to us.”

In another sign of support for Fr Flannery, Fr Iggy presented the Mayor with a copy of Fr Flannery’s book at what may have been his final mass at a Church for some time."

If you feel that the Mayor of Drogheda has abused his position and sought to inferere in an issue which is not the concern of civil authorities then feel free to contact him:

Richie Culhane,
34 Melrose Avenue,
Stameen,
Drogheda,
Co Louth.


Richie.Culhane@droghedaboro.ie

Archbishop Eamon Martin on RTE

Listening to Archbishop Eamon Martin on RTE.  Did fairly well before hostile questioning. 

When he tried to mention the thousands at the Pro-Life Rally in Dublin on Saturday the interviewer cut across him - "yes, that was well reported".  Really?

He started asking the bishop about previous referendums which rejected the removal of suicide as basis for abortion.  But as soon as the bishop began to answer he was interupted with "I supposed you're going to start explaining about the other reasons".  Eamon Martin didn't get a half a sentence out.

The bishop refused to let himself be pinned down on two issues - what Catholic hospitals will actually do, and whether Catholic politicians can be Catholics in good standing if they vote for this.  His answers were decent enough but personally I'd prefer a bit more clarity at this stage. 

So, a fairly decent spokesman to put out.

Irish Bishops' abortion statement

A time to uphold the right to life: Statement by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland

On the second day of the June General Meeting of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference in Maynooth, the following statement has been issued:
A time to reflect

On Saturday last, tens of thousands of women, men and children gathered in Dublin to express their support for the equal right to life of mothers and their unborn children.
We are at a defining moment for our country.
The Gospel of life is at the heart of the message of Jesus. He came that we may have life and have it to the full (Jn 10:10). The Gospel challenges us to work for a world in which the dignity and beauty of every human life are respected.
A time to uphold the right to life

The right to life is the most fundamental of all rights; it is the foundation of all other rights. No individual has the right to destroy life and no State has the right to undermine the right to life.
Yet the Irish Government is proposing abortion legislation that will fundamentally change the culture of medical practice in Ireland. For the first time legislation will be enacted permitting the deliberate and intentional killing of an unborn child. This represents a radical change. Every citizen, not just people of faith, should be deeply concerned.
We value the skill and efforts of our doctors, nurses and other care professionals who have helped to earn Ireland’s place as one of the safest countries in the world for mothers and their babies during pregnancy.
Catholic Church teaching is clear: where a seriously ill pregnant woman needs medical treatment which may put the life of her baby at risk, such treatments are ethically permissible provided every effort is made to save both the mother and her baby.
This is different from abortion, which is the direct and intentional taking of the innocent life of the unborn. No matter what legislation is passed in any country, abortion is, and always will be, gravely wrong.
A time for clarity and truth

The Government is under no obligation to legislate for the X case. People are being misled. We challenge repeated statements that this legislation is about saving lives and involves no change to the law or practice on abortion. Legalising the direct and intentional destruction of the life of an unborn baby can never be described as ‘life-saving’ or ‘pro-life’.
Contrary to clear psychiatric evidence, this legislation proposes abortion as an appropriate response to women with suicidal feelings during pregnancy. It is even possible to envisage as a result of this legislation the deliberate destruction of a child, who could otherwise be saved, right up to and including the moment of birth.
Furthermore, we challenge assurances that the proposed legislation will provide limited access to abortion. As published to date, the legislation will allow for a very wide margin of subjective professional assessment by which the deliberate destruction of an unborn baby can be legally justified. As we have learned from other countries, such legislation opens the door to ever wider availability of abortion.
We remain convinced that enhanced medical guidelines, which do not envisage the direct and intentional killing of the unborn, could provide the necessary clarity as well as a morally, legally and medically acceptable way forward. While good health can normally be restored, life, once taken, can never, never be restored.
A time for freedom of conscience

Freedom of conscience is a fundamental human right. A State that truly cherishes freedom will respect the conscience of its citizens, including its public representatives, on such an important human value as the right to life.
It is ethically unacceptable to expect doctors, nurses and others who have conscientious objections to nominate others to take their place. Neither should any institution with a pro-life ethos be forced to provide abortion services.

A time to decide: a time to act; a time to pray

We call on citizens to exercise their right to make their views known respectfully to our public representatives and to leave them in no doubt about where they stand on this issue.
We ask our public representatives to uphold the equal and inviolable right to life of all human beings, even if this means standing above other pressures and party loyalties.
We also invite our priests and people to continue to pray the Choose Life prayer at Mass and in the home that the dignity and value of all human life will continue to be upheld in this country.
Some mothers today are facing difficult or crisis pregnancies. Other people who have had, or who have assisted with abortions, may be re-living what happened in the past. They deserve to receive all the love, support and professional care that they need.
As Bishops we will join this weekend in prayerful solidarity with millions of Catholics all over the world in the Year of Faith celebration of Blessed John Paul II’s Encyclical Evangelium Vitae (The Gospel of Life).
Every human life is precious, every human life is beautiful, every human life is sacred. Choose life!

Abortion, FF, Colm Keaveney and the Archbishop of Dublin

How lucky we are to live in a democracy.  The Fianna Fáil leader, Micháel Martin's attempts to overturn FF pro-life policy and to reject recent Ard Fheis votes has collapsed and he has been forced into "allowing" a free vote.  Imagine, our public representatives will be allowed to vote according to their own views rather than have them imposed on them by party leadership.

Except in this case their should be no free vote for either FG or FF as both parties committed themselves to opposing abortion legislation before the last election.  They are now renaging on their promises.

The legislation will undoubtedly pass and without amendment of any significance.  We can only hope that we can scrape together 10 TDs to at least force a vote.  An unholy alliance of some pro-lifers and pro-abortionists may force the issue.  The Government would love to get this one through without a vote.

I hesitated to comment two weeks ago on the intervention by the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin;  I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt and see how things panned out.  It was a very odd letter from a bishop as it began

"I write as a citizen of Ireland who happens also to be the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin. Independent of the role of politicians and of judges, the Constitution of Ireland belongs in the primary place to all the citizens of Ireland, whose right to express their views should not just be respected but encouraged."

I get the point he is trying to make, that he is not arguing from authority, but as a fellow citizen.  But the fact is, he is the Archbishop of Dublin and he signed the letter "Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin".  He has a particular responsibility to provide leadership for the Catholics within his diocese, and, as Primate of Ireland, within the whole country, including to the members of the government and Oireachtas who are Catholics.  It was a bad start.

The rest of the letter has a good point, I think, and a bad one.  The good point, and he has been successful in this, is forcing clarity that any termination of pregnancy provided for in this legislation would not be allowed to deliberately force the killing of an unborn child.  So that in late term terminations, there could be no question of scissors in the neck a la our American friends, but rather some form of induced labour or caesarian section followed by full medical attempts to save the life of the unborn.  I think it has been good to show that the constitutional protection would not allow otherwise.  This has given rise to considerable discussion as to what will happen to such children, the disabilities that could follow, the failure of the State to consider these matters etc.  It has prompted the Chairman of the Labour Party, Colm Keaveney, TD, to announce that he will be opposing the abortion legislation.  These are positives.

The negative, however, flows from the same issue, as it brings up issues of time limits and viability.  The message goes out that if you are going to terminate your pregnancy, you should do it early enough to ensure the baby dies.  This can hardly have been the message that the Archbishop of Dublin would intend.

Once viability comes into the mix as a criterion, then we have the fatal foetal conditions being brought up.  If it's okay to kill a child early because it's non-viable, then surely it should be okay to kill a child who is non-viable after birth?  And so the door opens another little bit.

Most Rev Denis Nulty's first address as bishop-elect of Kildare and Leighlin

Carlow Cathedral before its re-ordering

I would like to thank all of you for your welcome this Tuesday morning – Bishop Moriarty, Bishop Smith, Monsignor Byrne, brother priests, religious sisters and brothers, parishioners of Carlow and people of the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin. I thank His Excellency, Archbishop Charles Brown for his accompanying me in recent days. I thank Monsignor Brendan Byrne for the graciousness of his hospitality, his kindly support to me personally and his unstinting care for the Diocese over the past three years. I equally thank my predecessor Bishop Emeritus Jim Moriarty who is delightfully with us this morning for his very fine stewardship of the diocese during his tenure and I wish him continued happiness and blessings in the years ahead.
A line from the first psalm of Morning Prayer this morning reads: “O send forth your light and your truth; let these be my guide. Let them bring me to your holy mountain to the place where you dwell”. I am honoured, privileged and humbled to be chosen by Pope Francis to be bishop for and with the people and priests of this superb Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.

I come from Slane, where the story of faith on Irish soil began [em, Saul, Co. Down?] when Saint Patrick lit the fire and used the shamrock to teach us about God – Father, Son and Holy Spirit. This diocese too has its own strong symbol of our faith in the Saint Brigid’s Cross.

I was ordained for the Diocese of Meath, and Bishop Michael Smith who stands beside me today, opened many doors of ministry to me in the Diocese. For that and much more, I am eternally grateful to him. I have enjoyed my time immensely in Meath and there is a sense of sadness in leaving colleagues and friends, even if it’s only down the road. While there is an excitement around new beginnings there is also a nervousness around the challenges that lie ahead. I have been understandably anxious in recent days since my meeting with Archbishop Charles Brown – an anxiety that has been eased by grace – the gentle grace of acceptance; the grace of responding to that call; the grace of the prayers of our friends in Heaven; the grace of trusting in the judgement of others – a judgement that suggests I have a capability greater than I feel myself to have.
This morning I have travelled from the mouth of the Boyne at Drogheda where she eases herself into the Irish Sea, to the Diocese where that winding ribbon finds its source in the spring at Carbury in County Kildare! Rivers were an essential part of the story of the early Church for life and communications in travel – the Barrow is to Kildare and Leighlin what the Boyne is to Meath. In this Year of Faith the Boyne and the Barrow remind us of the life-giving water of baptism. They also remind us that today so many people are thirsting for the water of new life and hope – those living in negative equity in the commuter belt; those coping with the stress of the daily treadmill; those out of work searching for a deeper appreciation of their self-worth and dignity; farmers coping with the fodder crisis and late spring, how much that life is needed – may each find solace and support in this hour. I am equally conscious this morning of those who have been wounded by the Church and the terrible sins of individuals who should have brought life, but instead inflicted pain and destruction on too many.

Water speaks of life and life is precious and dear to us at all levels and particularly in our times, human life – its giftedness and sacredness. And what a message last Saturday’s National Prayer Vigil offered at Knock: Cherish them Both – Mother and Child. Monsignor Byrne’s statement in the lead up to the Vigil very eloquently reminded us: “a life is a life. Whatever happens, the need to respect that life should never be reduced to a ‘choice’ or an arbitrary timeline”. Mothers deserve nothing less than the best medical and psychiatric care available, especially during pregnancy when the lives of two persons – the life of the unborn and the life of the mother – are at stake. As the Bishops’ preliminary response to the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 last Friday reminded us: “The Gospel of life is at the heart of the message of Jesus: the deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of life is always morally wrong”.
I come today to the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin as a Priest who has been immersed in parish life since Ordination. My first ten years were in the Cathedral Parish in Mullingar. For the past fifteen years I have been Parish Priest of Saint Mary’s Parish, Drogheda. They have been a very rewarding and enriching twenty-five years, during which I have been taught so much about being a Priest among People in the struggles and the joys of ordinary life. From the Church of the Assumption at Saint Mary’s in Drogheda I find myself today at the Cathedral of the Assumption in Carlow.

I am a priest who works earnestly, who loves the priesthood and loves working with priests and people. But I am a priest who needs to learn a great deal about the story of this diocese, its geography, its people, its priests, its traditions and its history – be patient with me as I embark on a journey that will take me to every parish in this Diocese, to listen to the Spirit speaking through the faith and example of committed priests and parishioners. I know there is dedicated involvement of laity at many layers of Church life. I come to support this engagement. I come to listen to the conversation of faith in the Diocese. I come to care for priests, to encourage seminarians and to support the faith growth of the young, who may feel at times isolated or on the fringe. For many priests these are difficult days as they see their number grow perhaps older and fewer and the demands heavier – let us work together to encourage vocations and to develop collaborative ministry.
It only remains for me to thank all of you for being here today, and to invite you to do what Pope Francis did as he made his first appearance on the balcony at Saint Peter’s; to ask you to implore a blessing on me … and together let us pray the Prayer of Saint Francis:
“Lord, make me an instrument of your peace,
Where there is hatred, let me sow love.
Where there is injury, pardon.
Where there is doubt, faith.
Where there is despair, hope.
Where there is darkness, light.
Where there is sadness, joy.
O Divine Master,
Grant that I may not so much seek to be consoled, as to console;
To be understood as to understand;
To be loved, as to love.
For it is in giving that we receive.
It is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
And it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life”
Saint Brigid, pray for us …
Saint Conleth, pray for us …
Saint Laserian, pray for us …
Our Lady of the Assumption, pray for us …

In which Catholicus Nua tries to restrain his annoyance at Cardinal Sean Brady and how the ghost of Paddy Hannon haunts the episcopal conference

Shortly after the bishops issue a strongly worded statement attacking the draft abortion legislation (expect to hear RTE, Irish Times and government parties insisting on "Protection of Maternal Life" legislation) Cardinal Brady is asked by a journalist:

"Have the bishops discussed whether politicians who advocate support for the legislation should be barred from communion, as has happened in some US dioceses?"

What answer should he have given?

Well there's short and truthful - "No, we didn't discuss that"

There's longer and useful - "No, we didn't discuss that.  The legislation is in a draft form and we want to ensure that people are aware of the full moral implications of what is involved before they consider voting.  We want people to realise that this represents a distinct movement from necessary medical practice to the deliberate killing of an innocent unborn child....."  And so on.

Instead what did Cardinal Brady say:

"There would be a great reluctance to politicise the Eucharist....I say that they (politicians) have an obligation to oppose the laws that are attacking something so fundamental as the right to life and they would have to follow their own conscience."

Here endeth the Church's contribution to the debate.  Follow your own conscience (understood as do what you like), there will be no repurcussions for you as a Catholic politician and we will ignore Canon Law as we did on child abuse for many years.

Canon 915 makes crystal clear that a Catholic politician who votes for abortion must be refused communion and the onus is on the person distributing communion to refuse.  It's got noting to do with politics - it's everything to do with integrity of the sacraments.

Contrast the statement by Cardinal Burke courtesy of EWTN:
Cardinal Raymond Burke says that local Catholic politicians who support the procedure should be refused Holy Communion in hopes of inspiring their conversion.
“There can be no question that the practice of abortion is among the gravest of manifest sins,”Cardinal Burke told the Irish newspaper Catholic Voice in an interview published Feb. 1.

Once “a Catholic politician has been admonished that he should not come forward to receive Holy Communion,” the cardinal added, “as long as he continues to support legislation which fosters abortion or other intrinsic evils, then he should be refused Holy Communion.”

The American cardinal heads the Apostolic Signatura, the Vatican’s highest legal tribunal that rules on canon law.

Cardinal Burke said that the local bishop and parish priests must ensure that Holy Communion is properly received to avoid “the grave sin of sacrilege” from those like Catholic politicians who receive Communion in spite of “grave moral evil.” The bishops and clergy must also prevent the “scandal” caused by this kind of reception because it “gives the impression that the Church’s teaching on the intrinsic evil of abortion is not firm."
  He also addressed the issue in academic detail back in 2007 - worth a careful read here.

Preliminary response by the Catholic Bishops of Ireland to Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013

The Catholic bishops of Ireland stress once again the importance of continuing to provide a health care service in Ireland which ensures complete respect for the sacredness of the life both of the mother and her unborn baby. The bishops express their appreciation of the work carried out day by day in this ethos by doctors, nurses, midwives and other health personnel. Through Cura, the Church’s crisis pregnancy agency, help is available to any woman facing a crisis pregnancy.

The Heads of the Protection of Life during Pregnancy Bill 2013 published by the Government on Wednesday would, if approved, make the direct and intentional killing of unborn children lawful in Ireland. The Bill as outlined represents a dramatic and morally unacceptable change to Irish law and is unnecessary to ensure that women receive the life-saving treatment they need during pregnancy.

The Gospel of Life is at the heart of the message of Jesus; the deliberate decision to deprive an innocent human being of life is always morally wrong. We uphold the right to life as the foundation of every other human right. We encourage a deeper understanding of the inviolability of the right to life of both a mother and her unborn child, in all circumstances. Accordingly, at this crucial time, it is essential that all who share these beliefs make them clear to their legislators.

The Bill also appears to impose a duty on Catholic hospitals to provide abortions. This would be totally unacceptable and has serious implications for the existing legal and Constitutional arrangements that respect the legitimate autonomy and religious ethos of faith-based institutions. It would also pose serious difficulties for the conscientious beliefs of many citizens.

Abortion, in the sense of directly killing the unborn child, is never a remedy for suicidal ideation and therefore should never be cited as a justification for the direct killing of an innocent human being. It is a tragic moment for Irish society when we regard the deliberate destruction of a completely innocent person as an acceptable response to the threat of the preventable death of another person.

We invite all who cherish human life to support the Vigil for Life which is taking place in Knock tomorrow - see below. We encourage everyone who can attend the Vigil to do so or to join in prayer with us. Cherish both mother and baby! Choose life!

Special national Vigil of Prayer for Mothers and their Unborn Babies to take place in Knock

Mass in the Basilica will be live streamed on www.knock-shrine.ie

Tomorrow Saturday 4 May will see a national Vigil of Prayer for Mothers and their Unborn Babies taking place at Our Lady’s Shrine in Knock, Co Mayo. The theme of this Vigil will be ’Choose Life: We Cherish Them Both’ and it is supported by the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

This special liturgical event will begin at 1:00pm with a Rosary Procession and will conclude with Mass in the Basilica at 3.00pm. The main celebrant for the Mass will be Cardinal Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland, and the homilist will be Bishop Brendan Leahy, Bishop of Limerick. A blessing for expectant mothers who are present will be given during the Mass.

Parishioners from around the country have been invited to attend the Rosary and Mass. For further details on the ‘Choose Life: We Cherish Them Both’ national Vigil of prayer, pilgrims can view the pro-life website www.chooselife2013.ie which contains personal video testimonies and special prayers dedicated to protecting the unborn.

Struggling with my conscience

The Pope is not the only one who has to wrestle with his conscience, trying to decide what's the right thing to do.  It's that time again.  After midnight on Ash Wednesday and I'm trying to decide whether to have a bowl of cereal or not.

It's also that time of year when your kids come home from school with Trócaire boxes and you think to yourself, "if I wanted to give my money to Israeli hating lefties I'd still be a member of Amnesty International" before trying to decide whether to use them to keep your dried peas in or put them straight into the bin.

If  you can cope with reading anything more about the Holy Father's retirement/ resignation/ renunciation/ abdication Crisis Magazine has some excellent pieces, particularly this one - go visit.

Why the Pope resigned.

Reports are circulating that everything was honkey dorey until last week when the Holy Father was shown the list of candidates for Derry.

 "Vat ist zist? Zis Donal Mc Keown keeps appearing on my list. No more, nein!"

 "But Holy Father, there's really no one else."

"But vat about zat fine young priest I saw vit Brady's baggage?"

"Well, Holy Father, you'll remember that problem with the bookie..."

"Ans ze singing priest?"

"Sony won't release him, Holy Father"

"Vat about ze man in charge?"

"Ian Elliot's a protestant, Holy Father"

"Zat is it. Find me somezer to live. I'm rezigning"

"I believe the "Wing" in St Malachy's College is available, Holy Father"

Cardinal Dolan?

This video clip of Cardinal Dolan this morning shows why he's a great bishop, and, dare I say it, a candidate for the papacy. What a comfortable communicator.

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