Should Catholics Boycott Ireland?

Unwilling to accept that it has been the Irish government and Irish people who have failed to adequately safeguard children in this country, and unsatisfied with his slanderous innacurate and intentionally misleading rant in the Dail, Taoiseach Enda Kenny and his cohorts seems intent upon introducing legislation which will undermine the seal of confession. This represents a threat to all religions.

Cardinal Brady said last week, "the inviolability of the seal of confession is so fundamental to the very nature of the Sacrament that any proposal that undermines that inviolability is a challenge to the right of every Catholic to freedom of religion and conscience".

What action should Catholics in Ireland (and elsewhere?) take if the Irish Government press ahead with legislation to undermine the seal of Confession?

For any who haven't yet seen it, the Vatican's response to the Cloyne Report and the Taoiseach's rant is very readable, and worth reading.

Are Vocations Initiatives Mis-focused?

I'm encouraged by vocation initiatives I have seen over the past couple of years - which include websites, videos, blogs but at the same time I'm wondering are they mis-focused.

I would be interested to see cost/benefit  analysis done on the marketing efforts put into vocations over the past decade. It should be a fairly straightforward survey to ask current seminarians and recently ordained priests how much their decision to enter the seminary was influenced by these campaigns, if at all.

I decided to enter the seminary when I was young. The main influencing factors that I was aware of were probably:

1. family life, including family prayer and regular participation in Sunday Eucharist.
2. participation in a wider Catholic/Christian community including school, summer camps, and (again) Sunday Eucharist.
3. inspiration and encouragement from priests, and in particular the Bishop (Fergus O'Grady).

On reflection I think that vocation campaigns, as a marketing effort, are unlikely to reap great results. Yes, they could act as a catalyst in the "call to action", but as part of the bigger picture, I think they are probably the object of too much attention in terms of time/effort/ and money. Let's be real: if we canceled all the current vocations "marketing" campaigns, would there be any decline in priestly vocations over the next 5-10 years? I don't think so.

So, let's think beyond 5-10 years. Let's think 15-25 years from now. What can we do to bring about a surge in seminarians and religious postulants beginning say, 2025?

Now we're no longer looking at marketing campaigns, but at something far more fundamental: how can we encourage and foster vocations by working with and through families, with and through our schools, with and through our parishes?

Maybe I'm giving too many hints here, but I will mention that my own children, inspired by their school teachers desire to be school teachers; and inspired by their sports coaches, desire to be sports coaches.

Can priests inspire children to desire to be priests? Then can of course, as many will know from their own experience when they were young. But I think that many priests today are fearful in the presence of children, paralyzed by the thought that somebody might take the wrong impression. Priests need to overcome this fear... by spending more time with children - in the churches, in the schools, in the homes.

If detachment from children arises from prudence rather than fear, then maybe a measured dose of imprudence is required.

Children and teenagers need to see and experience priests as "real people", who eat, laugh, talk, teach, pray, encourage, inspire.

This is where we need to focus- on the essence of vocation: Our beautiful, wonderful, merciful God is calling each of us to Himself: I need to discover the best way for me to live that call.

Families: be open to priestly and religious vocations for your children. God sees a bigger picture.

Priests and religious: be an inspiration and an encouragement to families, and especially to the young. Be yourself, and be also a sign of contradiction in this time of fear. Spend time in the homes of the families in your parish. Teach them about Jesus.

Bishops: get to know your priests and your people. Share meals with them. Encourage. Inspire. Undertake projects which will allow families and young people to discover, take ownership of, and live their faith in Jesus. Get to know your young people, and call them by their names. Take a page from Bishop Fergus O'Grady's book: eat and play football with them.

How to Read the Bible

An American tourist became lost while driving around the wild West of Ireland. Sheep wandering about the twisty roads, signs in a foreign language, beautiful scenery on every side, she eventually ended up in Rosmuc, a tiny and ancient village where everyone speaks the native language. After searching for long time, she found the one person able to speak English: the parish priest, who had been sent to the village as a punishment. "Please help me father," said the tourist, "tell me which way to Dublin". "Dublin?", replied the priest, "Well, if you were going to Dublin you wouldn't want to start from here".

I have the impression that non-Catholic Christians have a far better attitude towards reading the Bible than Catholics do. This is a tragedy. On the one hand, the further removed people are from the heart of the Christian tradition, the more difficult it is to understand Scripture. It's like having a map you can't read properly. On the other hand, to have the rich Tradition but to ignore the Word is like having a map that you can read, but leaving it in the glove box. Either way, it's easy to get lost.

Catholics shouldn't be afraid to read the Bible. Buy one. Open it. Read a chapter or a paragraph or a few sentences each day (share your time between the Gospels, the New Testament readings, and the old Testament). Let the Spirit speak in your heart, but try also to understand the context of the Scriptures by reading the footnotes or an approved commentary or participating in a Bible Study. Don't be afraid of it.

Non-Catholic Christians would be well served to try to understand the Tradition in which Scripture has been handed down. While it's nice to think that the Bible is a direct link from Jesus to you, bypassing two thousand years of history, this isn't the reality. Who printed your bible? Who arranged the chapters? Who chose the books to be included? Who translated them from their original languages? Who wrote them? These are hard questions that do bear thinking about. Your search for answers may point you towards Catholicism. Again, don't be afraid of it.

But Jesus immediately said to them: “Take courage! It is I. Don’t be afraid.”
 “Lord, if it’s you,” Peter replied, “tell me to come to you on the water.” 
“Come,” he said.

From here is a good place to start.

Re-discovering my Christian Vocation

It was a treat for me and our family to spend a some time over the past few days with two priests friends, Fr. Ted and Fr. Dougal (not their real names).

Fr. Ted is a diocesan priest from Canada. He's a kind and generous and holy man, and a good priest. I really shouldn't have short-sheeted his bed this evening. Maybe he will blame Fr. Dougal, who is (much) younger, but also a kind and generous and holy man, and also a good priest - from Ireland.

I was giving Fr. Ted a hard time about something I had seen mentioned in his homily blog more than once [1][2][3].

I said, "I know that when you say 'stewardship', what you really mean is, 'please put more money in the basket'"

Fr. Ted said, "No, you've got it wrong. Financial giving is an important part of Christian Stewardship, and, as a Catholic you have an obligation to support the Church financially. But financial giving is not the full meaning of stewardship."

"I know it is," said I.

"Read the American Bishops' document on Stewardship, and see what you think then".

Fr. Dougal, meanwhile, fidgeting with a small electronic device, managed to email me a link to the American Bishop's 1992 Pastoral Letter, "Stewardship: A Disciple’s Response".

I wanted to go to the battle prepared, so before opening the pastoral letter, I searched the Vatican II documents for the word "stewardship". To my delight the word had not been mentioned!

I searched again, this time for "steward", and found only four references: one in Apostolicam Actuositatem, the Decree on the Apostolate of the Laity; and three in Lumen Gentium, the Dogmatic Constitution on the Church.

Unfortunately, I was disarmed very quickly. The first chapter of the decree is titled, "The Vocation of the Laity to the Apostolate". The second paragraph reads,

"Indeed, the organic union in this body [the Church] and the structure of the members are so compact that the member who fails to make his proper contribution to the development of the Church must be said to be useful neither to the Church nor to himself."

Ouch.

I've read once through the US Bishops' pastoral letter and concede that "Stewardship" isn't merely about supporting the Church financially, though that's an important part of it. More generally it's about the responsibility of nurturing and caring for what has been entrusted to us - our health, our families, our environment, our faith, much more, and yes, our Church.

Over the next while I am going to re-read these two documents from the Second Vatican Council with a view to re-discovering what it is I am called to as a Catholic Christian.

Meanwhile, I hope when Fr. Ted remembers his 25th anniversary celebrations, he will accept that I short-sheeted his bed only to make him feel young again.

Thanks for the link, Dougal!

Norris, O'Connor, Cloyne and the Appointment of Bishops

The Irish have an amazing ability to work themselves into a collective judicial frenzy. It works like this:

1. Some piece of uncontroversial evidence is released. It could be a letter written in the past, or a report, a inane statement by the Taoiseach, or a slow motion playback of a hand touching a football.
2. The Irish media sense an opportunity to capitalise, and create an issue, usually by focusing on some particular aspect of the evidence, but ignoring most of the rest. They encourage the public to voice their outrage.
3. A proverbial mob ensues. Taking their lead mostly from the loudest voices, they decline to analyse the evidence before making a judgement. Outrage is expressed. Apologies and resignations and justice are demanded.
4. The person or institution at the centre of the controversy runs for cover, trying to avoid the mob through cleverness or speed.
5. The proverbial mob proverbially lynches the proverbial perpetrator.
   OR
   They sense there will be no blood this time around, and everybody goes home.

Senator David Norris, as presidential election candidate, was the latest defendant up against the frenzied judicial mob. At the center of the controversy were two letters he wrote in support of his friend, who was to be sentenced abroad after pleading guilty on a charge of statutory rape. The first letter was a short letter of reference, was written on Seanad paper. The second, a letter to the judge, not written on Seanad paper, plead for leniency and sought a non custodial sentence.

The senator has withdrawn his bid for the presidency.

But this blog isn't about Irish politics. It's about the perspective and experience of a lay person trying to be a Christian in the Catholic tradition. I mention the Senator Norris experience because I find it interesting and relevant: in the lead up to an important appointment, the Senator's suitability was scrutinized by the public, and under this light he withdrew his candidacy. I also believe he's carrying some of the backlash following the release of the Cloyne report.

My bishop was convicted of statutory rape.

He abused some children at a residential school in Canada in the sixties, was appointed a bishop in the seventies, and was convicted in the nineties.

Before I was married, our intention to do so was publicly announced, a period commonly known as engagement, but also an official announcement known as "banns of marriage". According to Canon Law, anyone who knows of an impediment to marriage is obliged to reveal them (see Can. 1069) prior to marriage.

In the West, a seminarian's candidature is public, and, prior to ordination to the priesthood, a Bishop is required to investigate the suitability of the candidate including, for example, taking measures such as public announcement (see Can. 1051). Hopefully this process helps reduce the risk of people, known to be unsuitable, from becoming priests.

On the other hand, the selection of bishops is done undertaken in relative secrecy (see Can. 377). The process contains no opportunity for the laity to openly contribute to rejecting a candidate for ordination to the episcopacy. I think this is deficient. I would welcome, in the free world, a period following the announcement of a candidate for episcopal appointment during which there is an open invitation for objections. I would hope that this would avoid priests like Hubert O'Connor being ordained as bishops.

Irish Catholic Bishops: Take the hit

Loud silence from the Irish Catholic Bishops this week since Taoiseach Enda Kenny made his speech pointing an accusing finger at the Vatican. He apparently inferred from the Cloyne Report that the Vatican is responsible for the fact that leaders within the Irish Catholic Church chose to disregard the 1996 guidelines.

If procedures weren't followed here, it wasn't someone in Rome who didn't follow the procedures. It was a Citizen of the Republic of Ireland. Who is going to put up their hands to say, "The buck stops here".

The Irish Bishops need to step up to the mark. The Church here is going to be decimated if this drags on for another fifteen years with resignations whenever Judge Murphy shows up at the doorstep.

We need strong leadership now from the Irish Catholic Bishops like we have not seen.

We need to see statements from the bishops to say that they followed the guidelines, and the release of independent reports confirming these statements.

Or we need a handing over of the guard.

Irish Bishops - Confirm Procedures, or Resign

In the fallout from the Cloyne Report I call on all Irish Bishops to each release a press statement:

1. Asserting their full, unqualified support to Safeguarding
2. Confirming they implemented the guidelines and procedures of the 1996 Framework Document, for the period in which it applied.

Bishops, if you reflect on how you handled concerns and allegations of sexual abuse in your diocese and, in the light of the Cloyne Report, you determine that you have let the Church down, then now is the time to resign.

Priests, religious, fellow lay people, I encourage you to write the following short letter to your bishop:

Dear Bishop,

In light of the fallout from the Murphy reports into Dublin and Cloyne dioceses, I urge you release a public statement confirming (1) that you adopted and implemented the guidelines of the 1996 Framework Agreement for the period in which they applied, and (2) that you fully support and are implementing the current Safeguarding procedures.

If you are unable or unwilling to make such a statement, I respectfully urge you to tender your resignation.

Sincerely,

The diocesan addresses can be found at the Catholic Bishops website