The Tablet: the Irish Church

At about the same times that the news story about the Irish Catholic grave site containing the bodies of 800 children (and now it gets worse) appeared, I also saw a video talk by the papal nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown, in which he spoke of how great things were now for the Catholic Church in Ireland. I guess I'm not the only one who thought what he was saying was bizarre - this from The Tablet ... The rosy picture painted by the nuncio to Ireland is an illusion by Fr Sean MacDonagh. Here's just a bit of the article ...

On the day that the papal nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Charles Brown, told the US-based Catholic News Service that he saw “that Irish Catholicism had entered a new springtime,” representatives of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) were trying to convince a group of Irish bishops that the Irish Catholic Church was facing, among other things, a vocational crisis of enormous magnitude .....

The nuncio called for women to play a more visible role in the Church, but he doesn’t say what these roles might be. If he were to spent a half an hour in a class of 17-year-old girls, he would get an earful about what young Irish women think of the way they are treated by the Church. These girls and their older sisters are walking away from the Church and it will take action, not words, to convince them that the Church cherishes their gifts .....

The ACP, which has more than 1,000 members, asked for a meeting with Archbishop Brown two years ago. He refused, and said that “it would be more appropriate if we meet with the Irish bishops”. Maybe if he had met with the ACP he would have a much more realistic understanding of the state of the Catholic Church in Ireland and the challenges it faces.