Two Irish Catholic bishops, Paul Dempsey of Achonry and Fintan Gavin of Cork and Ross (pictured) announced the plans at an online webinar address ‘The Synod on Synods' by Jesuit theologian Fr Gerry O'Hanlon.

Dempsey, one of the newest and youngest members of the Irish hierarchy, says he is part of a subcommittee of six bishops within the Irish Bishops Conference which is "actually working towards a synod in the near future."

The group has already met with and received advice from Cardinal Mario Grech.

Grech, a top Vatican prelate, is Secretary General of the Synod of Bishops.

Dempsey told members of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) and other Catholic reform groups taking part in the webinar that the synod will not be an end in itself. Instead it will develop plans to set out "a way of being Church" in Ireland.

Many Irish Catholics hope a synod will reinvigorate the Irish Church. They are looking to it to give the Church's declining number of lay faithful a voice in any programme for renewal and change to make it fit for purpose in the 21st century.

The Irish synod is expected to be announced by the bishops after their next meeting, Gavin says.

"Hopefully after the next bishops' conference, we [will] begin that process of conversation, engagement and dialogue."

Gavin appealed to people to respond to the bishops' openness because he felt that a synod was "the way forward" to address Ireland's faith crisis.

However, Dempsey said: "We just don't want it to end in a synod; it has to be something that continues in the life of the Irish Church."

Dempsy hinted the synod will be inclusive rather than exclusive.

"We are really conscious that this can't just be an in-house synod - that it has to reach out to the various groups within our Church, and indeed, our country at this time.

"So please, God, we will walk together, and we will struggle maybe together to see where we might go as an Irish Church at this time."

Source

• Independent.ie
• Image: corkcathedral

Writing on his blog after the synod on the family in Rome, Fr Flannery noted that Pope Francis sees the synodal process as the pattern for the whole church.

Fr Flannery quipped that this is another example of Francis "stealing the [Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland's] best ideas.

"We [the ACP] have been calling for a synod of the Irish Church for the past five years," Fr Flannery said.

"And I find it ironic that the two Bishops Martin, who are now so enthusiastic about the process they have been through in Rome, showed no interest whatever in our proposal, and wouldn't even meet and talk to us about it."

Fr Flannery was referring to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, who both went to the synod in Rome.

Fr Flannery said he was pleased at the synod's final document, even though it didn't contain everything he had hoped for.

"It left issues sufficiently alive for Francis to say further on them when he produces a document.

"And judging by his final statement to the synod on Saturday evening, which I loved, his document could be really interesting, maybe even on the same scale as Evangelii Gaudium."

In 2012, Fr Flannery was suspended from public ministry by the Congregation of the Faith (CDF) for his views on women priests, homosexuality and contraception.

Fr Flannery said the big problem with the synod on the family was the absence of women as voters.

He said voting was clearly not restricted to the ordained as one religious brother who isn't a priest was a voting member at the synod.

This was another example of the Church keeping "women in their place", "subservient with no input into decision-making", he said.

"Unfortunately, this is the one area in which Francis is particularly weak, and I have no doubt that the unequal position of women in the Church is going to be the big stumbling block for the foreseeable future."

Sources

• Fr Tony Flannery blog
• Irish Times
• Image: Catholic Ireland