ACP meeting attracts over 1,000 people

Over 1,000 people attended the Association of Catholic Priests' meeting in Dublin today.

A number of people addressed the congress and people from the floor were given the opportunity to speak.

Fr Brendan Hoban spoke eloquently about the need for the church to be faithful to the Vatican Council and that the impetus would have to come from parish level.

There was strong criticism of the leadership of the church, the leadership in Ireland and at the Vatican.

There was no bishops' representative at the meeting.

And that too surely was an interesting statement. All during the clerical child sex abuse cover up the bishops have gone out of their way to stress that each diocese is independent. They were very much united today in their absence.

Many people today spoke of the institutional church's inability to tell the truth.

Two young people spoke stressing the importance of the job of the priest to obey the Magesterium.

A man who, as a child was abused in an institution, caused a slight stir when he spoke out of turn but he was evnetually allowed tell his story.

It was the first of such days and was a good start.

Allowing an open forum to such a large attendance can be unwieldy, which was the case at the afternoon session.

Among the attendance were parishioners, sisters, brothers, priests and 12 Irish Dominicans.

It is a start.