So the buzz word is 'manpower'.
I have just read 1.1 of the Draft Manpower Document of the Irish Dominican province.
"Closures will bring about renewal."
Elsewhere in it I read that the Irish Dominicans can provide the Irish people and those coming to Ireland purpose in their lives.
For me these are difficult words to read. Who do we think we are that we can write this sort of material. At present we don't seem to be too interested in offering hope to each other.
What is it about clericalism that makes people think that they have some sort of 'God-given' insight which allows them talk as they do?
Instead of being close to people it seems to me we are isolating ourselves more and more from the daily lives and sufferings of those to whom we think we have something to say.
Is there any forum/management structure which will help and advise priests in their preaching and ministry.
At a Mass I was at two weeks ago I heard a priest (not a Dominican) 'preach' seven minutes of total nonsense. His celebration of the Eucharist was appalling. Certainly Latin would suit him and those who have to listen to him much better then no-one would understand him.
And I don't think he is too great an exception.
Why is the standard of preaching so poor?
A seminar/meeting/workshop on our preaching, where we would invite people who attend our churches to join with us could prove a fruitful exercise.
Of course there are great preachers of the Word. But they always seem to me to be the men who have cast off all the shackles of clericalism.
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6 comments:
The book published by the bishop I mentioned, the bishop of Sydney, would seem to refer quite a bit to clerical power structures. I'm copying and pasting just a section of the article on it from the 'whispers' blog. The whole thing is well worth a read.
"It's Like Krakatoa"
On his home turf, Bishop Geoff Robinson's confrontation of "sex and power" has hit...
The Age in Melbourne compares the retired Sydney prelate to another Luther:
In English, it's only a tiny preposition, two little letters, but it has helped the Catholic Church get its power relationships wrong for centuries
Dissident Sydney Bishop Geoffrey Robinson shows how in the translation from Greek to Latin the church took a serious wrong turn that gave priests an inflated view of their special status and helped create a climate in which abusers could flourish.
In the Epistle to the Hebrews, the Bible talks of a priest being "chosen". The Greek word means "taken" but in Latin it became "taken up". The "up" implies they are lifted to a higher level than laypeople, which allows an element of "messiah complex", and eventually a mystique.
It's an example of the close reasoning and broad scholarship behind Robinson's call in an explosive new book for perhaps the most radical and all-embracing reform ever suggested by a Catholic bishop, re-examining centuries of carefully guarded doctrines.
Michael,
At the moment I'm in Poland.
That is still an incredible clericalism here.
But maybe after a coming political turn the society will shift to more anticlerical attitude - hopefully!
gruesse aus Danzig
Marcin
Danzig?
Has anyone commented on the incompetence of the governing Polish twins?
Is there any link between their incompetence and right-wing pious catholicism?
Sadly Irish commentators are missing the point when it comes to what is happening in Ireland at present.
The signs are most worrying.
The Polish twins are - of course - impossible. Still, observing from Germany, between Ireland and Germany, I'm heartened by how far Ireland has come in the last 20 years. Of course Ireland still has the loony, neo-clerical, neo-con Catholic right wing, but I don't think the likes of the Kascinski brothers would be possible in Ireland today. Ireland's problems are different today. In rejecting an irrelevant narrow conservative clerical domination, large sections of Irish society seem also to have thrown out deeper more human/spiritual values in favour of a rampant materialistic neo-liberal globalisation. Quite understandable of course, as a reaction to what had gone before. But the journey isn't over yet. Maybe there's a better future in the kind of stance you seem to be propagating, Michael, an attitude of modest honesty on the part of the R.C. Church in Ireland. And I say that as a reluctant atheist! Hang on in there,
Francis
Hello Michael
Are you still on Kerry Today, Radio Kerry on Tuesdays
(or any other show)?
If so between what times, usually?
Thanks!
Panta Rei, I no longer do that slot on Radio Kerry. I now work three days a week in Dublin and two in Kerry.
I do the occasional piece for the station but no longer a 'regular'.
And who is 'panta rei'?
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