Future of the church

What has become abundantly clear is that a church of the clergy, by the clergy, and for the clergy, is not where our future lies.

Fr Peter Day in an article on the Melbourne archdiocese website,

'Hillbilly Elegy'

If you haven't read it, then do.

'Hillbilly Ellegy' by JD Vance is a spectacular read.

This brilliantly written book is the story of a boy growing up in Ohio.

It's about what it says on the tin, a history of opportunity and upward mobility viewed through the eyes of a group of hillbillies from Appalachia.

The Independent says it's a great insight into Trump and Brexit.

That it is, but an awful lot more too.

A must read for anyone who tries to dare say a word about the Gospels.

And can he write.

It was first published in 2016.

Effluence or affluence?

Overheard in conversation.

Someone talking about a plush area in a city:

"... and it's an effluent part of the city."

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin

Catholic Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin was interviewed by Miriam O'Callaghan on RTE Radio 1 on Easter Sunday.

It was the first item on the programme, which began after the 10.00 news bulletin.

Interesting radio and worth a listen.

A rejoicing heart

A great verse from Psalm 15

And so my heart rejoices, my soul is glad;

even my body shall rest in safety.

For you will not leave my soul among the dead,

nor let your beloved know decay.

Russian Orthodox Church welcomes Putin's re-election

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane
Russia is in the news these days. And now Ireland has joined the countries around the world expelling some Russia diplomatic staff from their embassy on Dublin’s Orwell Road.

I visited the Soviet Union with a group of students in the 1980s. A few of us met a man on the street in Moscow, we got talking and he brought us back to his apartment for a coffee. He was keen to tell us that it was a risk for him to be seen with foreigners. We also had a reception at the Irish embassy, where we received a great welcome.

I remember little about the history we learned in school but I do recall that when it came to the Second World War we seldom heard of the role that Russia played in the fight against Hitler.

The 1962 film ‘The Longest Day’, based on the book by Irish man Cornelius Ryan, told the story of the Normandy landings. Back then there was little or no information on what happened on the eastern front.

Historians agree that a significant moment in the defeat of Hitler happened on the river Volga at Volgograd, which was then called Stalingrad. It was there in 1942/’43 that the Germans met their first significant defeat. Soviet Marshal General Georgii Zhukov defeated the German Sixth Army under the command of Field Marshal Friedrich Paulus. It was the beginning of the end of Hitler. It came with a great price.

When Britain’s foreign secretary Boris Johnson agreed with a fellow conservative MP in comparing the upcoming World Cup in Russia to the Berlin 1936 Olympics as a propaganda coup for Putin he gravely insulted Mother Russia. Had he forgotten that Russia lost between 23 and 25 million people in fighting the Germans?

Unfortunately, Russia too was saddled with a dictator. Stalin was a tyrant and communism was a nasty ideology that did great harm in Russia and across the world.

When the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 and Communism died a death the world breathed a sigh of relief. 

But there was a sense of western triumphalism that frightened Russia. Russia under Yeltsin was humiliated. 

The Russians are accustomed to being ruled by tsars. Along comes a former KGB Dresden operative, who fills the role of a new tsar.

We are told the nastiest things about Vladimir Putin. They may all be true. It is said that he is one of the wealthiest men in the world. Under his leadership Russia annexed Crimea.

The Russian Orthodox Church welcomed Putin’s re-election.

Patriarch Kirill complimented him on what he has done for the country in ‘preserving and multiplying our nation’s spiritual, moral and cultural values’

I don’t like how Putin’s Russia treats people and the Orthodox Church seems to be hand-in-glove with the government. The treatment meted out to the feminist punk rock group Pussy Riot was shocking.

I’m intrigued as to why the Russians would not think of a cleverer way of killing one of their former spies, who became a double agent. Or are they simply being brazen and provocative?

Why not close off the UK to the oligarchs and their vast wealth? What happens if Russia turns off the gas that it sells across Europe?

Would it not be better for the western powers and the Russians to sit down and talk? Talking is not appeasement.

Has the Holy See expelled any Russian diplomats? I haven’t heard they have.

Remember what we were told about Saddam Hussein’s weapons of mass destruction?

 

Colonel Arnaud Beltrame

Marielle Beltrame, widow of the late Colonel Arnaud Beltrame, who died in south eastern France on March 24 having voluntarily taken the place of a hostage in an radical Islamist terror attack, has spoken about her husband.  

She said: "He felt himself to be a gendarme by his very nature. For him, being a gendarme meant to protect. But one cannot understand his sacrifice if one separates it from his personal faith.

"It is the gesture of a gendarme and of a Christian. For him ... one cannot separate one from the other."

Luas design error

The Luas stop at Milltown.

The design at the stop, indeed most Luas stops, means that passengers cannot see the complete real time signage if they are standing at the 'wrong' place at the platform.

What a rudimentary design error.

Sing Alleluia at Easter

The 'Thinking Anew' column in The Irish Times on Saturday.

Michael Commane

Channel Four, which is the UK's only public-owned, commercially-funded public service broadcaster, screens an hour-long news every weekday evening, which offers a comprehensive and detailed analysis and commentary on world and UK affairs.The 7pm programme is always well-worth watching.

Last week it aired its “sting” on the data company Cambridge Analytica. This involved an undercover journalist in conversation with Cambridge Analytica staff. He was purporting to seek help in an upcoming election in Sri Lanka. It was sensational television. It certainly stopped me in my step. One had no choice but to watch it.

As a result of Channel Four's brilliant and intrepid investigation, in partnership with the British Sunday newspaper The Observer,  the world has been agog with the shenanigans that's been going on in data companies

Words such as algorithms and data are part of the basic language of mathematicians. For the rest of us we have some superficial and fleeting understanding that they have something to do with the smart phones and computers we use on a daily basis.

IT or  information technology is now an essential ingredient in every aspect of our lives. Our trains, newspapers, car manufacturing, the harvesting of crops, everything has an IT component to it.

We marvel at the technology. Only last week I renewed my car tax online. The thought of going to a county council office, queueing maybe for 30 minutes, to get a tax disk brings back nightmares. It is laughable to look back at what we did. Instead with a few clicks, some money and a bank card we can do in less than five minutes what in the past could well have taken an entire morning. And the frustration and frayed nerves involved are now a distant memory.

It's easy to be tempted to say we are masters of the human race and everything is forced to bow down in front of our supremacy. At the press of a button we can do all things.

And yet right in front of our eyes modern-style highwaymen have committed daylight robbery. They have snatched data on millions of people. We who know so much, who think the world is at our fingertips have been made fools of. Every time we use our IT devices there is the possibility that someone is watching and then harvesting our data and in turn using it or selling it on so that they can in some magical way use it to influence us in how we think and act.

It is astonishing and mesmerising.

Tomorrow is the feast of Easter, the most important day in the Christian calendar. Christians give expression to their belief in the risen Lord.

In tomorrow's Gospel (Jn 20: 1 - 9) John tells us how the disciples run to the tomb, Peter and the one Jesus loved, and they find the tomb empty. It is Mary of Magdala who spots that the tomb is open and brings it to the attention of the disciples.

Astonishing. Hard to believe. But it is the very kernel of our faith. It has been passed down to us over two thousand years. 

While there is no witness to his actual coming forth from the tomb there are many who gave their lives in testimony to the fact that they had seen him alive. There is historical evidence to back it up. St Paul says: "If Christ has not been raised then our preaching is useless and your believing it is useless". (1 Corinthians 15:14)

In the midst of everything I see and experience in this whimsical world around me, the idea of the raising of Jesus and then the possibility of my resurrection, give me great hope in the purpose of my life. Resurrection offers us a profound steadiness, a powerful goal to achieve.

Maybe today more than ever it is unwise to put all our trust in the inventions, works and schemes of human beings. There is more to us that that. Shakespeare prods us to thinking so when we read in Hamlet: "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy".

A God-centred world seems far more attractive right now than one which places all reality under the control of women and men.

Surely it is astonishingly arrogant to dismiss the resurrection story as fairytale material at a time when we have been made fools of right in front of our eyes? We are being told fairytales every day of our lives.

Tomorrow is a day to sing Alleluia, the Lord is risen, and we believe we too are destined to share in the glory of the risen Lord.

Hell

In today's Guardian.

 

It's proving a dream story for the right-wing Catholic commentariat.

Check out the far-right blog Rorate Caeli. Dominicans feature on it.

https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/mar/30/vatican-scrambles-to-clarify-popes-denial-that-hell-exists?CMP=share_btn_link

Wolfgang Schäuble sees exit from Brexit a possibility

President of the German Parliament and former German finance minister Wofgang Schäuble does not rule out  the possibility that Great Britain might yet remain in the EU.

According to Der Spiegel, Schäuble sees the current dispute with Russia over the poisoning of double agent Sripal as an opportunity for Great Britain to pause and see what it means to have support from other  nations.

He said: "It's good when one is not alone in the world." 

Peace not conflict

From Jean Vanier in The Tablet this week.

Imagine if we lived this.

"Jesus on the feast of the Resurrection looks at each one of us with more love than we can dare believe. 

"He forgives us our shortcomings; he frees us from our guilt. He then sends us off to forgive others, so that they can be free from guilt. Each one of us is called to bring peace where there is conflict. We are not all called to sell everything we have. 

"We are all called to be committed to one person who is in pain, who is lonely and lost and who needs a friend."

German justice minister

Katarina Barley has been appointed minister for justice and consumer affairs in the newly formed German government.

She is a member of the SPD party.

The extract below appears on Wikipedia.

With the UK a year away from leaving the EU this piece makes an interesting read.

Barley grew up in Cologne; her father was a British-born journalist who worked with the English-language service of Germany's international broadcaster, the Deutsche Welle, and her mother was a German physician.^[3] From birth she only held British citizenship, and she only acquired German citizenship some years later.^[4] She is fluent in German, English and French.^[5]

Her father (born 1935) was originally from Lincolnshire.^[6][7] 

She has said her father grew up in a working class family on a very small and simple farm that lacked electricity, and that he was awarded a scholarship to attend university after being discovered as a talented pupil by his teacher; however after being turned down by the University of Cambridge for "not having the right accent, the right clothes," he decided as a matter of principle to turn his back on British universities and move to West Germany to attend university instead; he first moved to Hanover and later to West Berlin, where he found society to be more egalitarian and progressive. 

In Germany he met Barley's mother and was employed as a journalist with Deutsche Welle's English service in Cologne after graduating. Her mother (born 1940) belonged to an upper middle class family from eastern Germany and was the daughter of an engineer in the automotive industry; her family fled the Red Army in 1945 and came as refugees from stalinism to western Germany.^[6] 

Barley has said that she had a happy childhood, but that she grew up with a strong sense of social justice, influenced by her parents' experiences. 

Although neither of her parents was born in this part of Europe, she identifies culturally as a Rhinelander.^[4][8]

Ireland expels diplomat

Ireland expels a diplomat of the Russian Federation.

Why?

Was she/he caught in espionage or is it in solidarity with the UK?

If Russia wanted to kill one of its former spies, surely the FSB  would do a 'better' job.

Remember Saddam Hussein's weapons of mass destruction? They even showed us pictures of them.

Why did Ireland not expel Russian diplomats  on the occasion of Russia annexing Crimea?

Upside down

Why would one lock a bicycle in this position?

Then again, it could be the work of a passerby.

Spotted close to Dubln's Grand Canal Dock.

"Little Man what now"

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Do you ever ask yourself what your relationship is with society and the place you work? As a citizen do you feel you have a significant role to play in the life of the country? In your workplace do you believe that you are making a meaningful contribution? 

Which is more important, the individual or the State, the worker or the company?

What’s the role of the State? To protect the individual or to promote the common good? Or both?

Most of us get on with our lives. But there are occasions when people feel beaten down by the society. 

There are those who feel mere cogs in the wheel in their workplace.

The story of how Joanne Hayes was mistreated is an example of how State power can be destructive.

States, churches, large corporations, clubs, banks, associations, all have the possibility of mistreating the individual. 

When the individual comes up against a large organisation it is never on a level playing pitch. 

In a democracy, the exercise of political power must respect the law, the constitution, and the will of the people, through the decisions of parliament.

Do you ever experience a total sense of alienation, that you are helpless against the State, the big organisation? That terrible feeling of powerlessness.

My experience pales into insignificance, when compared with what people suffer. But in the light of what we are now hearing about data, I think the story is worth telling.

Two weeks ago I was checking my phone bill. I noticed there were two text messages from two numbers I did not recognise. I checked my phone history, there was no record of my sending two text messages to the stated number.

I phoned my provider.

I was told it was a scam. I or someone else gave my phone number to some web address or some pop-up social media account. I stay well clear of all such scams. 

Once someone had my number they then sent me a text message and they in turn received the money from the phone operator. I asked the phone company if they could protect me from such a scam. 

They told me they were unable to do that and that I would have to download an app in order to protect myself from such a scam. My smart phone is old and at this stage is unable to download apps.

It means that any chancer or scammer can send me text messages and I am going to have to pay for them. That’s outrageous.

The phone company agreed, in a gesture of goodwill, to credit me the two text messages but I was told that they were under no obligation to do so.

I am annoyed about it, angry too. Indeed, so angry that I decided to make a formal complaint to the telephone regulator.

Over a period of a week I have spent at least 60 minutes trying to solve the problem. I’m not there yet. I plan to persevere but am I feeling frustrated and helpless. People should not be treated like this.

Far too often the individual feels helpless, is forced to cower in the face of the State or big corporations.

That’s why regulation is so important and all organisations must be policed. And making complaints should not be obstacle races.

German writer Hans Fallada titled his best-selling novel ‘Little Man, What Now?’, which was published in 1932. Back then little did he realise how pertinent the title would be in 2018.

 

Polish priest prays for death of Pope Francis

A story in the current issue of The Tablet tells of a Polish priest praying for the death of Pope Francis.

Fr Edward Staniek prayed  for "wisdom for the pope, and for his heart to be open to work by the Holy Spirit", but also hoped that "if this doesn't happen, he will quickly depart to the House of the Father", and enjoy "the great grace of a happy death'.

It was Fr Staniek's way of marking the fifth anniversary of the pope's election.

Staniek was ordained a priest in 1965. He was rector of the seminary in Cracow between 1993–2001. Staniek is the author of many books and was also a member of the Committee of Theological Sciences of the Polish Academy of Sciences.  

A tiny insight into the mindset of many ministers of religion.

It's funny but powerfully sad too.

There is something peculiarly nasty about right-wing religion.

In the American College in Rome there are daily prayers for Pope Benedict XVI.

Dominicans in Northern Ireland during the Troubles

BBC Radio 4's religious programme Sunday today featured a topic on the role religious sisters played during the Troubles in Northern Ireland.

A number of Dominican Sisters spoke on the programme, recalling the years of trouble. It made for great radio.

It was noted that there is little or no archival information on the role religious sisters played during the 30 years of havoc.

Perth London non-stop

New non-stop service from Australia to the UK begins today.

Australian airline Qantas begins flying this Saturday from Perth to London.

Flight time is 17 hours.

Religion and drink

Isn't it an amazing juxtaposition.

People pass the back of the Guinness brewery in Dublin every day. All the tour buses pass this spot, indeed, park just beyond it.

It's the church of St James adjacent to the Arthur Guinness brewery.

The story of Ireland in many ways - religion and drink.

Ambassador slams Johnson for his nazi slurs

From yesterday's Guardian.

Russia’s ambassador to the UK has described Boris Johnson’s comparison of this summer’s World Cup to the Nazi Olympics as “unacceptable and totally irresponsible”.

Speaking at a press conference, Alexander Yakovenko complained that Britain had refused to cooperate with Moscow over the investigation into the poisoning of Sergei and Yulia Skripal. “We have seen no evidence,” he said.

Yakovenko repeated Vladimir Putin’s claim that Russia had “nothing to do with this incident”. He suggested that the UK had its own stores of the lethal novichok nerve agent used in the attack, which was developed by the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s in secret state laboratories.

The foreign secretary predicted on Thursday that Putin would revel in the World Cup to be hosted by Moscow in the same way that Adolf Hitler did in the Olympic Games in Berlin in 1936. He also suggested that the UK might advise England football fans to avoid travelling to the tournament for their own safety.

Yakovenko offered his own riposte. “Nobody has the right to insult the Russian people who defeated nazism and lost more than 25m people by comparing our country to Nazi Germany,” he said. 

“We are not buying this. First we have to see the evidence and see the conclusions,” he added, complaining that the British authorities had refused consular access to the Skripals and had kept the embassy in the dark. He wished the Skripals a speedy recovery.

The ambassador downplayed the possibility of a boycott of this summer’s football tournament, saying that the “world community” had picked Russia as the host. He conceded the event would be “advertising” for Russia and said it would showcase the country’s improving living standards.

The foreign secretary said on Thursday that about a quarter of the number of fans who travelled to watch England in Brazil in 2014 were currently expected to go to Russia. He said 24,000 people had purchased tickets, as opposed to 94,000 at the same point in the run-up to the tournament in Brazil.

Bungling Boris

Yesterday the  United Kingdom's foreign secretary Boris Johnson said that "Putin will use the World Cup like Hitler's Olympics".

An unfortunate comment, especially when it was said on the eve of the anniversary date of Nazi Germany taking Memel from Lithuania on March 22, 1939.

Does Mr Johnson know that The Soviet Union lost approximately 27 million people at the hands of Hitler?

Britain's number one diplomat scores an own-goal every day he insults the Russian leader.

Words from Pope Francis

Two heartening quotes from Pope Francis:

God's merciful hand is there to pull it out, if humanity would take it

and

Periphery people are different.

Far-right feeds on fear

This week's Independent News & Media Irish regional newspapers' column.

Michael Commane

Micko, not his real name, works at a waste facility for a county council.

He manages to have at least two foreign holidays every year and drives a 161 car. We chat about politics and the general state of ‘chassis’ in the country. He’s adamant in his hatred of the established political parties and refers to them as the ‘political elite’.

That’s the phrase that is being used worldwide to refer to the political establishment. Micko feels that the far-right listen to him, whereas ‘the current crowd’ have no time for him. He objects to foreigners coming here and ‘milking the system’.

Trump in the US, AfD in Germany, Le Pen in France, Orban in Hungary, the Law and Justice Party in Poland, laughing Farage, all offer a dangerous menu.

The so-called anti-establishment parties are on the verge of becoming the ‘establishment’ and the picture they paint is worrying.

A new government has been formed in Germany. It is a coalition made up of three ‘establishment parties’, that all lost heavily in the September elections.

The formation of the new government means that the far right, Alternative for Germany (AfD) becomes the main opposition party. AfD politicians may come across as attractive sensible people. But at the core of their ideology they are nasty xenophobic people, who want to put Germany first.

Occasionally their mask falls and you will hear members say that it’s time the Germans began to forget about their past. AfD personnel have expressed strong objections to the Holocaust memorial in the heart of Berlin. They have also said it’s time for Germany to have pride in the Wehrmacht, which was Hitler’s army.

In Poland a law has been passed, which makes it illegal for citizens to say anything about Polish complicity during the German occupation of Poland in World War II.

In France Marine Le Pen is airbrushing her father and founder of Front National out of the party’s history. He goes easy on what the Nazis did.

In Italy comedians and far-right politicians made great gains in this month’s elections.

In Europe and in the US there is a fear that our identity is being destroyed.

There is something about the human psyche that needs a scapegoat. And the new anti-establishment parties have played this card to perfection.

Russia has re-elected Vladimir Putin. Like Trump, he promises to make Russia ‘great’ again. The Chinese Communist Party has made Xi Jinping leader for life. Russia and China have expressed their fear of outside interference by placing inordinate trust in what they see as strong people.

In Lisdoonvarna there is tension and worry about the arrival of 115 people who are to be housed in the new direct provision centre.

It’s time for the developed world to make a serious effort in working to banish poverty and war in the developing world, instead of making billions on selling them weapons of destruction.

Whose planes, tanks and guns are doing the killing in Syria and Yemen, and everywhere in the developing world?

People would stay at home if they were allowed live in peace and prosperity. Then the far-right would have to find new ways to fool the ‘Mickos’ of this world.

Le Pen, the AfD, Farage, Orban, Trump feed on the fears of people.

Guardian columnist and author George Monbiot recently wrote: ‘Do not let fear rule your life. Fear hems us in, stops us from thinking clearly, and prevents us from either challenging oppression or engaging calmly with the impersonal fates.’

The diary of priesthood

Last Monday former President of Ireland Mary McAleese spoke on radio about how her brother had been violently and sadistically abused by Fr Malachy Finnegan.

On Thursday The Irish Times carried the story of 'Donal', who was savagely beaten by Fr Malachy Finnegan, who also asked the little boy obscene questions.

In the weekend edition of The Irish Times Patsy McGarry gives a detailed account of the life and times of Fr Malachy Finnegan.

These were the men who roared and screamed at young girls and boys about 'holy purity'.

It is all insane.

Has the Catholic Church any shame?

What about the men who were never caught and are now dead?

What about a State audit on it all?

Has there been a diocese or religious congregation that has of its own volition come forward and told the authorities about Fr A, B, C et al, who were never caught?

Is there a bishop or provincial who speaks to the truth in an atractive and humane fashion?

It is all vile and sick.

It's tedious, annoying, shameful too.

Snow on March 18

Okay, not much, but for Irish standards this sort of snow on March 18 is quasi-exceptional.

And it's cold too, zero Celsius with a colder chill factor.

Unusual in Germany

A most unusual occurrence.

In Germany tomorrow the railway stations of Leipzig and Halle will be closed due to poor weather conditions.

Temperature in Dresden is set to drop to minus nine degrees Celsius tonight.

Outrageous comments on Jews made by Polish priest

Mary Fitzgerald in an article in today's Irish Independent writes about new laws in Poland concerning the country's past relationship with its German occupier.

She writes:

IN a recent interview on Polish state TV, a priest who edits a Catholic publication claimed Jewish critics of the law have a 'completley different system of values, a different concept of truth'.

It sounds outrageous. It is a pity that the names of the publication and the priest are not given in the piece.

Below is an extract from The Times of Israel.

Representatives of Polish Jews complained to the state watchdog on media over a public broadcaster’s airing of an interview with a priest who said Jews have their own understanding of the concept of truth.

Henryk Zielinski, editor-in-chief of the Catholic weekly Idziemy, said this on February 24 during an interview with TVP, according to the complaint that the Union of Jewish Communities in Poland filed on Monday with Poland’s National Council of Radio and Television.

The Fr Malachy Finnegans

The Thursday edition of The Irish Times carries Donal's story of how Fr Malachy Finnegan treated him when he was a boy at St Colman's.

It is horrific.

Is there a Catholic-run school in the country that did not have a Fr Malachy Finnegan among its principals/deans/teachers?

Is there any diocese or religious congregation that did not have a Fr Malachy Finnegan?

Reading Donal's story one has no choice but to get angry, angry with the Fr Malachy Finnegans who were feted, respected, treated with deference. But one also is forced to get angry with the bishops/provincials who placed the Fr Malachy Finnegans in positions of 'authority'.

And no doubt the Fr Malachy Finnegans have not gone away.

Do churches attract Fr Malachy Finnegans?

Has there been one word from the Irish Catholic Church in respone to Donal's story in Thursday's newspaper?

'Donal' asked the newspaper that his real name not be used. He made a full statement to th PSNI last week about his abuse by Fr Malachy Finnegan.

The church needs 'holy, healthy and humble priests'

Below is the editorial in The Tablet this week.

Cardinal Kevin Farrell, prefect of the Dicastery for the Laity, Family and Life, provided Mary McAleese with a great publicity boost by banning her participation in a conference on women’s rights to be held at the Vatican. 

The conference was moved to the Jesuit Curia office nearby, and the former President of Ireland did not disappoint. The Catholic Church, she said, was an “empire of misogyny”. Power lay “among a hermetically sealed cosy male clerical elite …”

There may be worse examples of institutional misogyny in the world, but her latter point hit its target. What she is describing is clericalism, a caste system which elevates the ordained Catholic priesthood onto a pedestal and downgrades those not of this caste to a lower status. 

Especially if they are female. Dr McAleese is a forthright advocate of women’s ordination. The explanation for Cardinal Farrell’s “no-platforming” her may lie in the ruling by Pope John Paul II that the issue of women priests may not even be discussed. That was and is an unacceptable limitation of freedom of speech, and it is more and more disregarded. If the grounds for not ordaining women are sound they should stand up to critical examination.

Clericalism is a related issue, but separate. Why should women want to join an institution that is, in Dr McAleese’s words, “a cosy clerical elite”, whether entry is restricted to men or not? Would adding women to it cure it of clericalism? 

Before the issue of ordaining women can be properly tackled, it surely has to be asked, what is the point of ordaining men? And what sort of men, by what preparation process? And that relates to the current concern of every bishop – with a steady decline in clergy numbers, how to attract candidates to the priesthood? Urging congregations to pray for vocations has not been enough.

A thorough rethink of seminary training is overdue. The new guidelines for priestly formation issued in December 2016, reminding us that the Church needs “holy, healthy and humble priests”, made a start. 

But it would be helpful to replace the old emphasis on “formation” with a more person-centred vocabulary. 

Seminarians should enjoy a much broader syllabus, and be taught in much more open institutions. 

Wherever possible, they should be educated alongside lay men and women. The seminary system dates from the sixteenth century, and aimed to produce experts in the Catholic faith. That’s all well and good; but there are other needs too. 

Modern priests should also be mature human beings who can understand the modern world without being absorbed by it. A lot of their work will be akin to social work, for which they should be prepared. 

Above all they must be “people people” – which of course the best already are. They must not assume they will be leaders; they are to be servants. The ability to work in a team is essential. And need they all be unmarried?

A bold reform of seminary education is needed if clericalism in all its forms is to be dealt a fatal blow.

Russian news

Below is a link to an article in The Irish Times yesterday. It is written by Seamus Martin, a former Moscow correspondence for the paper. He is critical of how the UK is handling the Srkipal affair.

https://www.irishtimes.com/opinion/unlikely-that-vladimir-putin-behind-skripal-poisoning-1.3425736#.WqmDwZ-OC3o.mailto

On this date, March 15, 1990 Mikhail Gorbachev was elected President of the Soviet Union. He was the last person to hold the position.