Fine Gael TD Colm Burke said he had been left shocked after being refused communion with the priest, Fr Gabriel Burke. The junior Health Minister said the priest involved told him he had been "excommunicated" from the Catholic Church.

The incident occurred at the funeral of a long-standing Fine Gael member and parishioner where three priests were distributing Communion.

Fr Burke said that "as a senator, Colm Burke voted for abortion after the 2018 referendum and he knows the teaching of the [Catholic] Church that any politician who voted [for] abortion cannot receive communion".

The priest argued that Mr Burke excommunicated himself by voting for abortion legislation. This is known as Latae Sententiae excommunication, where the act incurs automatic excommunication.

Fr Burke stated that neither he nor the Pope excommunicated Colm Burke, but the politician's actions caused it.

Minister Burke, who regularly attends Mass, questioned the priest's authority to refuse Communion, citing Canon Law. The Irish politician contacted the Cloyne diocese for clarification and is writing to Bishop William Crean for further explanation.

Act with their conscience

The action by the priest has drawn condemnation from the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP).

In their statement, the ACP noted how, prior to the Eighth Amendment being repealed, "Irish women were travelling abroad to avail of abortion services, while legislators and citizens looked the other way".

It said that "like every member of the Catholic Church, public representatives must act in accordance with their conscience. It is not the role of the priest to judge the conscience of another person. The priest does not own the Eucharist and would do well to ponder the statement of Pope Francis that he has never refused the Eucharist to anyone".

In 2021, Pope Francis stated that Communion denial for pro-abortion politicians should be handled pastorally. He opposed public condemnations that aimed to "excommunicate" Catholics who disagreed with church teachings.

Sources

The Irish Times

Belfast Live

CathNews New Zealand

The ACP, which represents over 1,000 Catholic priests in Ireland, says reform is urgently needed to prevent parishes from closing across the country.

"We're facing a catastrophic situation in the next 10 to 20 years because there are not enough male celibate vocations to keep our parishes alive," ACP spokesman Father Tim Hazelwood says.

"We're facing a situation where the sacraments could disappear in some parishes because our priests are all getting older and no one is coming through to replace them.

"In maybe 10, but definitely 20 years, priests in Ireland are going to be an endangered species unless things change. We're facing a really bleak future unless new measures are brought in."

The ACP has long called for radical church reform.

It has advocated relaxing strict celibacy rules, ordaining married men, inviting back clerics who left their parishes to get married, and ordaining women to the diaconate.

Hazelwood also says the current crisis is increasingly taking a toll on the health of older working priests.

Many are continuing to work beyond their retirement age because there is no one coming through the seminaries to replace them.

Speaking of his own parish, he says "The age profile of the priests gives food for thought ... one over 80, two over 70, nine over 60, 10 over 50, and two over 40."

"Fast forward 15 years and the very best you could hope for is 10 priests for all that area and, even if healthy, they will all be elderly men. That is the stark reality."

The crisis is evident in every diocese in Ireland.

Earlier this year Bishop Dermot Farrell urged his diocese to see the "signs of the times," warning that the number of priests under the age of 75 would halve over the next decade.

The warnings for the Catholic Church in Ireland come at a time when hopes have been raised for the future of the Church following the just-finished Amazon synod.

Last week, in a landmark vote by the Vatican, bishops recommended the Pope gives permission for married men in Brazil to become priests.

Source

• Irish Central
• Image: BBC

The National Board for Safeguarding Children's guidelines to church authorities include ways to discreetly conduct the funerals of clerics who had allegations made against them.

Some dioceses have added to these guidelines.

They say funerals must take place in a private chapel, no death notice may be published, the deceased may be referred to only by his Christian name throughout the funeral service and that the deceased may not be buried in his clerical garb.

One set of diocesan guidelines obtained by the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) suggests "consideration be given to having the funeral liturgies in a private chapel and/or at a time other than the usual times."

The ACP has expressed concern over these arrangements.

ACP spokesman Fr Tim Hazelwood says the practice - which applies even if the priest was not convicted of any offence - is terrible.

"We're concerned at funeral arrangements for stepped-down priests or those facing accusations, particularly for priests who have been accused of something but nothing has been proved.

"I personally know an elderly priest who's been facing an accusation, which he totally denies, dating back 40 years.

"In his case, he will be denied a proper Catholic funeral and it's causing him and his family terrible distress.

"The situation differs from diocese to diocese, but in general priests in this situation are treated terribly.

"Even members of the Kinahan gang or convicted murderers can expect proper Catholic funerals, but that's not the case with some priests, who really are treated like the lepers of Irish society."

Source

• The Times
• The Irish News
• Image: Our Sunday Visitor

Bishop Phonsie Cullinan told a news outlet he has "serious concerns" about the vaccine.

He claims it offers "no absolute guarantee" of "full protection" against cervical cancer. He also says it could lead to promiscuity.

The ACP condemned Cullinan's comment, claiming he has given critics of the Church "a stick to beat us with" and suggested a "nonchalance about women's health."

In a statement distancing themselves from Cullinan, the ACP says parents may be convinced Cullinan has some competence in this area and could unwittingly put their children at risk by following his advice.

The association say his comments brought the Catholic Church "into further disrepute."

"I think he was completely irresponsible in saying what he said," one of the ACP, Fr Brendan Hoban, says.

"If hundreds of girls don't get this vaccine the repercussions in later years could be horrific, so it's a very dangerous road to take.

The ACP says while the bishop's comments could be considered idiosyncratic, they are both ill-informed and dangerous.

It is asking Irish bishops to disassociate themselves from Cullinan's comments and to support the medical and scientific evidence that makes the vaccine a vital protection against cervical cancer.

Source

• BreakingNews.ie
• RTE
• Independent
• Image: The Irish Times

This is one of the topics likely to be on the agenda of a proposed meeting between the prelates and representatives of the Association of Catholic Priests.

Other matters to be discussed include the "grave disquiet" felt by some priests at how bishops are currently being appointed in Ireland.

The association wrote to the Irish episcopal conference expressing concern about such matters last year.

In a reply to the ACP this week, Msgr Gearóid Dullea, executive secretary to the Irish episcopal conference, said the ACP correspondence "was circulated to all bishops at the March 2016 plenary meeting of the Irish episcopal conference".

"In order to discuss matters of mutual interest, the bishops have recommended that a group comprising the bishops from the Council for Clergy (Bishops Browne, Boyce and Nulty) along with Archbishop Kieran O'Reilly, meet with representatives of the Association of Catholic Priests.

"It is envisaged that the meeting would take place some time in the near future. I will be in contact again to arrange a date."

Four years ago it emerged that Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery had been suspended from ministry by the Vatican.

This was over his views on priesthood, women's ordination and Church teaching on sexuality.

Several other Irish priests have also faced Vatican censure over their views.

Last month, Bishop of Derry Donal McKeown, when asked about Fr Flannery and the other Irish priests, reportedly said: "We have to be constantly reaching out - that is the job of followers of Christ."

He also referred to Pope Francis's comments that the Church must be seen to be building bridges rather than building walls.

Speaking to the National Catholic Reporter, he said this applied to dealings with people who have been abused by the Church in the past, priests who have left ministry and priests who have been censured in one way or another.

Sources

• Irish Times
• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: Catholic Ireland

Association of Catholic Priests spokesman Fr Seamus Ahearne said the Pontiff's views have been welcomed by the majority of Ireland's priests.

The ACP represents about 10 per cent of clergy in Ireland.

Earlier this month, Italian journalist Eugenio Scalfari reported an interview he did with the Pope in La Repubblica newspaper.

Scalfari, who did not take notes during the interview and relied on memory, reported that the Pope promised to "find solutions" to the "problem" of priestly celibacy.

The Vatican was quick to state that the celibacy comment could not be attributed to the Pope.

But it conceded the report did capture the sense and spirit of the conversation between the Pope and Scalfari.

Fr Ahearne said Francis has a new way of looking at things and it makes total sense.

"We raised the question of celibacy with [Ireland's] bishops in the early days of June as an issue to be looked at and the fact that Pope Francis has opened that discussion matters," Fr Ahearne said.

"Our view would be that Christ takes flesh in the messiness of everyday life. The wider the ministry the better, it's the mixture that is necessary.

"It can't just be male - old males, celibate males - it has to be a mixture of male, female, young people, old people, married people and unmarried people, anyone."

Fr Ahearne also told the Sunday Independent newspaper in Ireland that it is now just a matter of time before the Catholic Church begins to reconsider its stance on women being priests.

"I think it's going to happen eventually," he said.

"Who would ever have thought that Francis could have been elected?

"Who would ever have thought that the kind of things he is saying could be said? When will it happen? I have no idea, but it should."

Fr Ahearne said given the age profile of Ireland's priests, there will be no replacements when they die.

"Priests are going on until they are 75 or 80, when they could be retired at 65. They can't carry the load."

Only 12 priests were ordained in Ireland in 2012.

Sources

• Sunday Independent
• Irish Central
• New York Daily News
• Catholic Herald
• Image: CNBC

On April 30, Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith prefect Cardinal Gerhard Muller made blunt criticisms of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Among his charges were that the LCWR was promoting ideas that were against Christian revelation.

The priests' association, which has 1000 members, said the cardinal's remarks were released by the congregation without reference to subsequent discussions.

The episode publicly shamed the women religious in a way that many could see as hierarchical and clerical bullying, the letter stated.

The priests called for an approach characterised by dialogue, following Pope Francis's example.

Continue reading

This is the finding of a survey of clergy views carried out by the Association of Catholic Clergy (ACP) in Ireland.

The survey also showed a significant percentage of priests still use texts from a 1973 missal.

Views were taken from 191 priests, who were randomly selected from the alphabetical listing of clergy in Ireland.

The survey was taken between March 31 and April 11.

It shows 35 per cent of priests surveyed favour replacing the current translation immediately and 45 per cent "as soon as a revised missal becomes available".

Close to two thirds of those surveyed said they were either dissatisfied (33.5 per cent) or very dissatisfied (27.2 per cent) with the missal.

This compared with just a quarter who were either very satisfied (4.7 per cent) or satisfied (19.9 per cent).

Even among those who were satisfied, more than half wanted to see a revised missal within a few years.

Some 147 respondents said they used texts from the new missal exclusively, 32 used a combination of texts from the new missal and a 1973 missal, while ten priests used text solely from the latter.

The findings of the survey were presented to three Irish bishops.

The ACP asked the bishops to encourage parish councils to express their views on the missal and, if possible, to survey those views.

Fr Sean McDonagh, SSC, a linguist who attended a meeting between the ACP and the bishops, said one bishop expressed surprise at the survey findings.

Fr McDonagh called on bishops in England and Wales to conduct a similar survey among their priests and people

The full text in English of the new translation of the Mass was introduced in Advent, 2011.

Before and during its implementation there were complaints from clergy and laity that the translation was too literal, with antiquated words and over-long sentences.

The new missal was translated according to Liturgiam Authenticam, issued by the Congregation for Divine Worship and the Discipline of the Sacraments in 2001.

This called for a more direct translation from the Latin to vernacular languages.

Sources

• The Tablet
• The Journal
• Association of Catholic Priests (survey)
• Catholic Herald
• Image: Mullingar Parish

The size of the crowd in part was a response to the recent silencing of Irish priests.

One of those silenced, Fr Tony Flannery, was part of the leadership team of the ACP.

A second, Fr Brian D'Arcy, was a weekly columnist in tabloid newspaper,The Sunday World. It turned out that someone in the Congregation for the Doctrine of Faith had been trawling through decades of the paper to check D'Arcy's articles.

Two other stories provided a backdrop to the meeting.

One was a TV program which revealed that in 1975 when he was a bishop's secretary, Cardinal Sean Brady, now Primate of Ireland, was given the names of some boys abused by Fr Brendan Smyth during a canonical investigation, and failed to report this either to the parents or to the police.

Smyth, the abuser being investigated, continued to prey on children for a further 18 years.

In fact the Cardinal had passed all the information up to his bishop and was devastated when he learnt that Smyth had not been stopped.

He rejected calls for his resignation. Several commentators pointed out that had he called for a discussion on women priests the Vatican would have promptly given him his marching orders, as Bishop Morris in Australia found to his cost.

A second story concerned Fr Kevin Reynolds.

RTE, the national broadcaster, had accused him in a program of fathering a child by an underage woman in Africa.

Reynolds denied the charge and offered to take a paternity test in advance of the program.

This was refused.

Eventually, RTE was forced to publish an abject apology, pay an undisclosed sum for libel, and was subjected to a withering public report. Several staff resigned. Continue reading

Sources

• Brian Lennon S.J. in Eureka Street
• Image: Enlighthened Catholicism

As reported in CathNews, Redemptorist Fr Tony Flannery last week was asked by the Vatican to stop writing articles in the Redemptorists' monthly magazine.

In a statement released on Tuesday, Fr Brendan Hoban, Fr Sean McDonagh, and Fr P J Madden, fellow leaders of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), said "We believe that such an approach, in its individual focus on Fr Flannery and inevitably by implication on the members of the Association, is an extremely ill-advised intervention in the present pastoral context in Ireland".

The statement goes on to warn that the silencing of Fr Flannery is unfair, unwarranted and unwise.

The ACP believes that at this critical juncture in the Irish Church's history "that this form of intervention - what Archbishop Diarmuid Martin (Archbishop of Dublin) recently called 'heresy-hunting' - is of no service to the Irish Catholic Church and may have the unintended effect of exacerbating a growing perception of a significant 'disconnect' between the Irish church and Rome".

Flannery, who has written for the magazine for 14 years, is under investigation by the Vatican for his views, including those on artificial contraception, women priests and clerical celibacy.

He has been been advised by the Vatican to go to a monastery for a period to 'pray and reflect' on his situation with the hope he will return to 'think with the church'.

In his homily on Holy Thursday, Pope Benedict warned the Church would not tolerate priests speaking out against Catholic teaching.

Sources

• CathNews
• The Tablet
• Irish Times
• Irish Times
• The Irish Catholic
• Image: CathNews USA

The investigation comes just two weeks after the report of the Apostolic Visitation that described "widespread dissent" from traditional Catholic teaching by priests, religious and lay people.

It is believed Flannery, an author and retreat director, is under investigation from the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith for some of what he has published, and in particular his opposition to the Church's ban on contraception and his support for the ordination of women.

Flannery writes a monthly column in Reality Magazine, and or the first time in 14 years, Flannery's column has not appeared Redemptorist publication.

The Irish Catholic reports that Flannery provoked dismay when he publicly backed Ireland's Prime Minister, Enda Kenny's attack on the Vatican.

In the course of his attack, Kenny misquoted Pope Benedict and accused the Vatican of trying to thwart abuse inquiries in the Cloyne diocese.

Kenny has still not substantiated the allegation despite a request to do so from Dublin Archbishop, Diarmuid Martin.

The Association of Catholic Priests is a forum for priests who wish to reflect, discuss and comment on issues affecting the Irish Church and society today.

Among its objectives is the full implementation of the vision and teaching of Vatican II, giving special emphasis to

• the primacy of the individual conscience
• the status and active participation of all the baptised
• the task of establishing a Church where all believers will be treated equal.

The Association seeks to restructure the governing system of the Church, basing it on service rather than power.

A Redemptorist, The Irish Catholic believes Flannery continues to enjoy the support of his religious superiors.

Sources

• The Irish Catholic
• Image: Reality Magazine