The Society of Catholic Priests is associated with the Dearmer Society, for ordinands who aspire to full membership of SCP, and the Company of Servers, for lay people who serve at the altar. A final thought, isn't amazing that the blessing of the love shared between two human beings can get some people so het up yet the scandal of disunity in the Body of Christ is meekly accepted. Divorced men have never been allowed to become priests, even in the Oriental Orthodox and Eastern Orthodox. Their advocacy of an end to celibacy does not stand alone - it is part of a wider desire to do away with any distinction between the priestly and lay states - hence the suggestion to ordain simplex priests who would train on the job rather than attending seminaries and who would not be differentiated from the "community". Communities that have no priest are being targeted by other churches who see an opportunity to provide a sense of belonging to people.

Its objective is to promote the formation and support of priestly spirituality and Catholic evangelism. There is also the question of the working and living conditions of the majority of priests who are ageing and becoming fragile and vulnerable, while being expected to carry increasing workloads,” a report on the meeting said. Their objective was not, as the then Cardinal Ratzinger said in 1985, ‘to change the faith, but to represent it in a more effective way’. While affirming that celibacy is a gift for the Church, it is asked that for the most remote areas of the region, the possibility of priestly ordination of elders .What a truly apostolic mind - so like the apostle who said "This could have been sold for three hundred denarii and the money given to the poor" (Mark 14:5).

Its intervention in the case of Fr Kevin Reynolds, who was libelled in RTÉ's "Prime Time Investigates" programme – Mission to Prey – in May 2011 was instrumental in securing an apology from the broadcaster. The Ballymun Boot Boy: "Remuneration for work should guarantee man the opportunity to provide a dignified livelihood for himself and his family on the material, social, cultural and spiritual level, taking into account the role and the productivity of each. Their position is they do not seek to overturn the teaching of the Church but believe there is confusion between the teaching of the Church and Church governance.In October 2019, former President of Ireland Mary McAleese spoke at a conference organised by the Association of Catholic Priests, which was titled 'Women and the Church: Equality of Opportunity? It was also mentioned that there was just one priest member from one populous diocese, if I heard correctly. Reply in the thread where the post was made as to what your problem is and we can talk about it, but not here. A major problem now is a reluctance in these two portions of the Body of Christ to grasp the opportunities presented to them by progress so far.

An ACP meeting of "priests from the southern dioceses" (doesn't say which ones - do they mean the Province of Cashel?The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith (CDF) placed restrictions on the association's founder, Fr Tony Flannery who is a member of the Redemptorist Congregation. TheEucharistic Congress was seen as something that the Association had no strong opinion on, and that maybe nothing should be said. When our schools have proven that if parents are tuned out of observance, Catholic faith formation doesn’t happen – and then the seminaries are empty – why the endless dithering over the problem of providing an adult initiating rite of affirmation of an infant baptism? He was advised by Rome to go to a monastery where he might "pray and reflect" on his heterodox views and his role with the association. In those dioceses it is about filling gaps and getting older men to look after more masses and placing bigger expectations on them.

The conference was described as a first effort to bring people together to discuss the current state of the Catholic Church in Ireland which has been rocked in recent years by a series of high-profile child abuse scandals. This is not only false, it would actually aggravate it (witness the number within Protestantism) unless the root causes are taken care of.I might add that Fortescue, partly because he identified so strongly with the Eastern-rite Catholics, tends to be contemptuous in his references to the Orthodox. The Association of Catholic Priests is trying to organise an "Assembly of the Irish Church" in a Dublin venue on 1 May of next year, and to recruit sympathetic laity and clerics to take part.