Ministry -- the elephant in the Church

Ministry — the elephant in the Church

Tuesday, June 12th, 2012

“Viewed overall, the state of the Church is not too encouraging. In the space of a single generation, the deepening dearth of priests will lead to the collapse of the entire structure of parish administration, and I cannot see sufficient courage or creativity among those who have assumed responsibility for running the Church as an institution to ﬁnd some real alternatives or at least to systematically prepare the community of believers for a situation in which they will soon have to live their faith without support of many things that the Church has regarded for centuries as essential and matter of course.

“We must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the murky waters of cynicism, passivity, and bitterness. However, nor must we don the rosy spectacles of illusory optimism.” Tomas Halik, Czech priest and author of “Night of the Confessor: Christian Faith in an Age of Uncertainty.”

Firstly let me say how grateful I am to Rosemary Flannery and the Camino committee for inviting me here tonight. This parish is my spiritual home. I ﬁrst learnt about the faith through this community; I have returned here over many decades and have felt here in conscious and real ways that that here is where I learnt what a community of faith is; and it was here more than 28 years ago that I celebrated my ﬁrst Mass. Thankyou Rosemary and team. I’m so glad to be here to address something that is important to us all and central to my life – ministry. Continue reading

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