Fr Séamus McEntee, the vocations director for the Archdiocese of Dublin, confirmed the worrying number. "In September, we will have another man coming in… I wish there were more" he said.

McEntee also mentioned ongoing conversations with other men considering the priesthood. However, the discernment process is lengthy and rigorous.

"I have to discern with them for up to two years before I judge them fit to apply even" McEntry explained.

"Then they go forward for panel interview and different assessments and so forth before they go into propaedeutic [preparatory study] year in Valladolid in Spain."

Six dioceses to become three

The news comes amid Ireland's Catholic Church consolidating its six dioceses into three.

It is the largest restructure in nearly 900 years.

As well as a shortage of priests, the consolidation comes amidst a declining number of practising Catholics.

Severe priest shortage

Ireland has only 2,100 priests serving an estimated 3.5 million Catholics and, with many priests nearing retirement combined with the significant lack of new seminarians, the future looks very different from what the country is used to.

In 2022, Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell invited "women and men who feel that they are called to ministry to come forward to train as instituted lectors, acolytes and catechists.

"These are lay ministers, women and men, who are publicly recognised by the Church and appointed by the diocese to minister alongside priests and deacons in leading liturgies, supporting adult faith formation and accompanying families preparing for the sacraments.

"It is my pastoral responsibility as Bishop to do this - for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the People of God" he said.

Lay funeral ministry

Also tacking the challenge is Bishop of Clogher, Larry Duffy.

With only 44 priests serving 85 churches across 37 parishes, many priests are stretched thin, traveling between multiple locations.

To help minister at such a peak moment, the diocese has introduced a lay funeral ministry.

The first group of 40 lay ministers, already trained, will lead funeral services in 12 parishes.

These services will not include Mass which only priests can celebrate, but will feature scripture readings, eulogies and prayers at the graveside.

Sources

Aleteia

Catholic Vote

Universe Weekly

CathNews New Zealand

This "confronts us with something new, but something we do not clearly understand.

"There are hardly any priests or practising Catholics.

"We feel perplexed, even that the Lord has abandoned us. We feel that we have lost our way" Archbishop Dermot Farrell told a group of Catechists.

"These are important parts of our journey."

The "memory of huge numbers, and of a secure, strong Church" can be "a very painful learning for us". He said this during a ceremony where 45 lay people received certificates after completing a year-long course in Catechesis (teaching Christianity).

"Generously, you have given of your time - to engage with your faith" he said.

But the ceremony - and the need for it in the first place - is something new for the Church, he pointed out.

"Even 20 years ago, hardly anyone here could have imagined an evening like this.

We've changed

"Our country has changed, our lives have changed, and the expression of our faith - which is an expression of our lives - has changed" the archbishop said.

The Church "happens in our lives. As we change, our Church changes. We are called to recognise how the Church is changing and discern where the Good Shepherd is leading us" he said.

Farrell compared human life to a journey. Our faith lives are also journeys he commented. And, "the Church is our journey in faith together".

The journey's current stage is in a new environment with a diminishing number of priests available to serve in the Archdiocese's parishes and other ministries.

At the same time, there are fewer and fewer people who celebrate the sacraments regularly, and a need for increased resources required to maintain the existing parish infrastructure, he said.

Parish cooperation

The changes in priestly and congregational numbers, combined with today's infrastructure costs mean "it is no longer possible for me to appoint a resident priest to every parish" the archbishop said.

That means parishes will have to step up their cooperation to provide sacraments and pastoral care, Farrell explained.

Lay Catholics will need to help out.

It will require "a much greater involvement of the lay faithful in the partnerships of parishes to enable them to fulfil their mission and ministry".

It would always be "a little flock that takes the way of Jesus to heart; it will always be a little flock that will have the courage to follow him, and the generosity to give as he gives" he said.

New generations are needed to "lead new generations on the way of Christ, to guide and empower their peers to receive the gift of God".

It was "not about who will say our Masses, or who will teach the faith" he said.

"Let us pray for people - young women and men who would ‘hear his voice,' entrust themselves to it, witness to it and show us all how God is near" he said.

Source

• The Irish Times

But hidden in the synod participants' 40-page synthesis are some surprising gems that could lead to significant reform in the church.

The hidden gems

The first is a new stress on lay involvement.

Compared with other Christian churches, the Catholic Church is very hierarchical. This synod, especially the conversations at roundtables, was structured so that lay voices, including women and young people, were heard and respected.

"Synod path called by the Holy Father is to involve all the baptized," the report notes. "We ardently desire this to happen and want to commit ourselves to making it possible."

Secondly, the synod promotes "Conversation in the Spirit."

The term refers to a practice that "enables authentic listening in order to discern what the Spirit is saying to the Churches," the report explains.

It adds that "‘conversation' expresses more than mere dialogue: it interweaves thought and feeling, creating a shared vital space."

Third, the report acknowledges disagreements and uncertainties.

In the past, the hierarchy tended to cover them up, presenting a united front to the faithful and the world.

But on its first page the synod's report acknowledges "The multiplicity of interventions and the plurality of positions voiced in the Assembly,".

It admits "that it is not easy to listen to different ideas, without immediately giving in to the temptation to counter the views expressed."

In each following chapter, any disagreements and uncertainties are listed under "matters for consideration" that "require deepening our understanding pastorally, theologically, and canonically."

The report also acknowledges its divides.

"The Church too is affected by polarisation and distrust in vital matters such as liturgical life and moral, social and theological reflection," it reads.

"We need to recognise the causes of each through dialogue and undertake courageous processes of revitalising communion and processes of reconciliation to overcome them."

Fourth, the report addresses the concerns of women.

"Women cry out for justice in societies still marked by sexual violence, economic inequality and the tendency to treat them as objects," it says.

"Women are scarred by trafficking, forced migration and war. Pastoral accompaniment and vigorous advocacy for women should go hand in hand."

The church must "avoid repeating the mistake of talking about women as an issue or a problem.

Instead, we desire to promote a Church in which men and women dialogue together, in order to understand more deeply the horizon of God's project, that sees them together as protagonists, without subordination, exclusion and competition."

The synod concluded that in the church "It is urgent to ensure that women can participate in decision-making processes and assume roles of responsibility in pastoral care and ministry."

Fifth, it did not forget the poor, "who do not have the things they need to lead a dignified life."

Instead it insists on their dignity, cautioning the church to avoid "viewing those living in poverty in terms of ‘them' and ‘us,' as ‘objects' of the Church's charity.

Putting those who experience poverty at the center and learning from them is something the Church must do more and more."

Sixth, it charges the church with combating racism and xenophobia, saying it must take action against "a world where the number of migrants and refugees is increasing while the willingness to welcome them is decreasing and where the foreigner is viewed with increasing suspicion."

In addition, "Systems within the Church that create or maintain racial injustice need to be identified and addressed. Processes for healing and reconciliation should be created, with the help of those harmed, to eradicate the sin of racism."

Seventh, abuse in the church must be dealt with.

It suggests that the church explore the possibility of setting up a juridical body separate from the bishop to handle accusations of clerical abuse, saying, "It is necessary to develop further structures dedicated to the prevention of abuse."

Eighth, the synod participants called for reforming priestly formation.

"Formation should not create an artificial environment separate from the ordinary life of the faithful," the report said.

It called for "a thorough review of formation programmes, with particular attention to how we can foster the contribution of women and families to them."

It recommended joint formation programmes for "the entire People of God (laity, consecrated and ordained ministers)."

It also called on episcopal conferences to "create a culture of lifelong formation and learning."

Ninth, the synod called for a regular review of how bishops, priests and deacons carry out their ministry in their diocese.

This would include "regular review of the bishop's performance, with reference to the style of his authority, the economic administration of the diocese's assets, and the functioning of participatory bodies, and safeguarding against all possible kinds of abuse."

Tenth, the report took on liturgical language.

It says the texts used in Catholic rites should be "more accessible to the faithful and more embodied in the diversity of cultures."

It later suggested that liturgy and church documents must be "more attentive to the use of language that takes into equal consideration both men and women, and also includes a range of words, images and narratives that draw more widely on women's experience."

Eleventh, it raised the possibility of offering Communion to non-Catholics, or what it called "Eucharistic hospitality (Communicatio in sacris)."

Saying it was a pastoral issue as much as an ecclesial or theological one, the report noted that such hospitality was "of particular importance to inter-church couples."

Twelfth, the report took aim at what it means to be a deacon in the church.

As it is, the deaconate is largely seen as a steppingstone to priesthood.

The report questions the emphasis on deacons' liturgical ministry rather than "service to those living in poverty and who are needy in the community.

Therefore, we recommend assessing how the diaconal ministry has been implemented since Vatican II."

Thirteenth, the reform of the Roman Curia must continue.

The synod affirmed Pope Francis' statement in the Apostolic Constitution "Praedicate evangelium," released in March of 2022, that "the Roman Curia does not stand between the Pope and the Bishops, rather it places itself at the service of both in ways that are proper to the nature of each."

The synod called for "a more attentive listening to the voices of local churches" by the Curia, especially during periodic visits of bishops to Rome.

These should be occasions for "open and mutual exchange that fosters communion and a true exercise of collegiality and synodality."

The synod also asked for a careful evaluation of "whether it is opportune to ordain the prelates of the Roman Curia as bishops," implicitly suggesting that laypeople might hold top Vatican positions.

Fourteenth, the report said canon law needs updating.

"A wider revision of the Code of Canon Law," it reads, "is called for at this time" to emphasise the synodality of the church at all levels.

For example, it suggests, pastoral councils should be mandatory in parishes and dioceses. It also held up for imitation a recent plenary council of Australia.

Lastly, the synod wants to promote small Christian communities, "who live the closeness of the day-to-day, around the Word of God and the Eucharist" and by their nature foster a synodal style.

"We are called to enhance their potential," the synod's members said.

You will not find these gems written about in the media, but if we let the media tell us what to see in the synod, we might miss important opportunities for church reform.

• First published in Religion News Service
• Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest, is a Senior Analyst at RNS. Previously he was a columnist at the National Catholic Reporter (2015-17) and an associate editor (1978-85) and editor in chief (1998-2005) at America magazine.

They agree the decision will compel Asia's national churches to widen male and female lay Catholics' participation in Church activities.

The ruling means "the universal Church, as well as local churches, must open their doors to welcome the greater and active participation of women in making crucial decisions about the Church's activities," says a Vietnamese theologian.

Theologians across Asia agree.

They allude to how national churches have been excluding lay people, particularly women, from various church bodies: these include those that make decisions on their budgeting, ministry programmes, volunteer labour and internal operations.

Men, mostly clerics, continue to lead the work.

"The Church must return to its nature, that is to make sure there is no discrimination against women - as Jesus allowed some women to take part in the activities of the apostles," he says.

Women's participation varies across Asia

In the Philippines, women lay leaders are common.

At the national and continental levels of the synod, religious and lay people - men and women - fully participated as delegates.

In Sri Lanka, while some women are lectors and Eucharistic Ministers, some parish priests do not allow women to read the parish notices and announcements, a priest says.

"If women can vote in the Synod of Bishops, it is very important they are given positions, especially in Church media and parish councils," he adds.

Some priests claim "lay people need to be paid when they are involved in Church activities and ministries. But nothing needs to be paid to invite women to Maundy Thursday foot-washing rituals. But there are priests who are not interested in that too."

Cut patriarchal cultural barriers

In Pakistan, a leading theologian sees the Pope's decision as an "effort to revisit the teachings of the Second Vatican Council - giving it a pastoral and prophetic reinterpretation.

The Church in Muslim-dominated Pakistan has been "a bit against this vision" of equality, he says - but now the Pope asks us to "work for the teachings of the Gospel that holds women as a complete persons with equal rights as a believer.

The first woman president of the Indian Theological Association says Francis has been consistently taking steps towards the full participation of women in the Church.

Francis wants the Church to function in a "Synodal way - a journeying of all members together.

Therefore, it is most appropriate to include lay people including women to be participants with voting rights in the third phase of the synod which is the universal phase."

Matristics as important as Patristics

"Arguably India has the largest number of women religious in the world," an Indian theologian says.

In the Indian context, "the papal decision must impel us to take initiatives to audit women's role in the shaping of the Church," he says.

Women should be listened to in the synodal discussions.

An Indonesian lay theologian notes women played "great and important roles" in the early Church. But the "superpower of the so-called patriarchy eliminated" women roles.

"We have only the theological discipline of Patristics or Patrology - the theological study of early Church fathers.

But the Church also needs to study the Matristics - the early Church mothers, he says.

Hope for a better Church

In Myanmar, Bangladesh and Korea, theologians are delighted with the change.

They agree "local Churches should seek ways to implement this mechanism of synodality, where all the people of God join together."

Source

• UCA News

It's just a matter of time before they'll be conducting funerals, marriages and baptisms in the Dublin archdiocese and elsewhere, a diocesan spokesman says.

They'll be doing everything but celebrating the Mass and blessing the Sacraments. Priests will continue to be responsible for those rites.

The Catholic Church in Ireland has for some time been exploring ways to involve further lay Catholics in the Church.

Dublin's Catholic Archdiocese currently has nine full-time lay parish pastoral workers working in ministry, 30-plus permanent deacons, mostly married men.

Last June, Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell invited "women and men who feel that they are called to ministry to come forward to train as instituted lectors, acolytes and catechists.

"These are lay ministers, women and men, who are publicly recognised by the Church and appointed by the diocese to minister alongside priests and deacons in leading liturgies, supporting adult faith formation and accompanying families preparing for the sacraments.

"It is my pastoral responsibility as Bishop to do this - for the sake of the gospel and for the sake of the People of God," he said.

Farrell has been expressing this view since his instalment as Archbishop in 2021.

His mission was to "downsize" - in consultation with the Catholics of Dublin, lay and clerical.

It would be about "talking to the people, it's talking to the priests, listening. These are their churches, their faith communities".

Also on his day of installation, Farrell noted the archdiocese included 197 parishes served by 350 active priests with an average age of 70.

"So more and more lay people are going to have to take responsibility in terms of the leadership that's provided at parish level," he said.

"We won't be able to celebrate Sunday Mass in every church in every parish in this diocese.

"I think the Lord is probably saying to us at this time: ‘I don't want you to keep doing the things that you were doing 100 years ago, 200 years ago'."

He then set up the 'Building Hope' taskforce to assess the needs of the people of the archdiocese.

The taskforce found Christian belief in Ireland had "for all intents and purposes vanished".

This "underlying crisis of faith" was "particularly acute among the younger generations," Farrell said.

"The challenges facing me are pretty clear. We have an ageing clergy and very few vocations ... and a major decline in the number of people who actively practice and live their faith."

Dublin especially needs "an effective programme of catechetics ... to eventually replace the current teaching of faith to the young," he said.

In 2018, the Irish archbishops invited Cardinal John Dew to speak about the Wellington Archdiocese's experience with its own Launch Out programme, which was established to form lay pastoral leaders.

Dew's topic was "Lessons from New Zealand, Launch Out: Lay Pastoral Leadership Roles".

Source

• Irish Times
• CathNews

The Southern German Archdiocese of Bamberg says the decision seems incompatible with a concordat governing the appointment of bishops.

In their document "Involvement of the faithful in the appointment of the diocesan bishop," synodal way members called on cathedral chapters — which play a significant role in selecting German bishops — to work with an elected body representing "the entire people of God in the diocese".

Between them, they would determine the list of suitable candidates the chapter sends to the Vatican.

Old laws cast long shadows

Implementing the synodal way's directive has hit a few legal snags.

German dioceses are bound by different rules.

This is because individual German states signed concordats with the Holy See both before and after the unification of Germany in 1871.

As an example, Bamberg archdiocese, which was founded in the year 1007, operates under the Bavarian Concordat of 1924.

Under this, bishops and cathedral chapters submit a list of suitable candidates every three years. When a See falls vacant (as is currently the case), the chapter draws up and sends a shortlist to the pope to select a candidate from. The Bavarian state government usually rubber-stamps nominations.

"Due to the currently existing legal situation in the dioceses subject to the Bavarian Concordat, the cathedral chapter unfortunately sees no possibility of implementing the decision ... when drawing up the lists," the Bamberg archdiocese says.

While Bamberg's cathedral chapter supports giving lay people a role in principle, a change in the law will be needed before they can be included in the selection process. The chapter hopes to explore options with the local diocesan council.

Other German archdioceses, like Paderborn, operate under the Prussian Concordat of 1929. This gives its cathedral chapter a leading role in selecting a new archbishop.

However, a majority of cathedral chapter members must elect the new archbishop.

What can be done?

The synodal way text suggests cathedral chapters could voluntarily involve lay people in the process.

"Under the Church's current law and concordats, the following forms of participation are open to the diocesan people of God," the text says.

"A right of co-decision in the preparation of the list of candidates, and a right to be heard prior to the selection being made from the list of candidates.

"These two rights can be realised through a voluntary undertaking on the part of the respective cathedral chapter."

Recently, the Pope named three women as members of the Dicastery for Bishops, the Vatican department overseeing bishops' appointments. Innovation is therefore possible, supporters say.

But the Vatican says "prior to an agreed understanding at the level of the universal Church, it would not be permissible to initiate new official structures or doctrines in the dioceses, which would represent a wound to ecclesial communion and a threat to the unity of the Church."

Source

• The Pillar

The Catholic Church is at a critical crossroads in its history. If it fails to choose the right path "it risks an enduring permafrost", she says.

"Many of us are in growing despair of our Church's inability to turn a critical spotlight on itself while shining a critical spotlight on the world at large."

Explaining her concerns about lay Catholics' exclusion, McAleese references the Church's "controlling clericalism, its cavalier misogyny, its evil homophobia, its institutional and clerical child sexual and physical abuse, its episcopal cover-ups that protected criminals and ignored victims, its lack of financial transparency and accountability".

Besides these, she pointed to the Church's "relentless external advocacy of the right to life of the unborn while hypocritically ignoring the fact that the Church, whose primary mission is salvation, itself teaches that it cannot guarantee a right to eternal life for the 80 million babies annually who die unbaptised through natural miscarriage, abortion and still-birth".

Added to which was "the social and financial waste caused by the enormous stockpiled portfolio of unsustainable, underused and unused property owned by the Church, the biggest non-governmental owner of private property in the world", she said.

McAleese says lay Catholics "would like to freely discuss these things and contribute to their resolution in an official standing inclusive forum within the Church for the good of the Church. No such forum exists."

In her view, Pope Francis' notion of such a forum or synod which one seemed to favour an "all-inclusive Church debating structure now seems bent on preventing it at worst, micro-managing it into irrelevance at best".

McAleese's comments were made in her keynote address to last Friday's Catholic lay-led Root and Branch Synod in Bristol.

She said it is a "shocking reality" that lay participation in the Church had been "consistently frozen out and episcopal power even more strongly consolidated during the 20th and 21st centuries, the very centuries that have seen the emergence of a massified educated laity and which were supposed to see a wide conciliar embrace of the lay charisms".

Despite the 1948 Universal Declaration of Human Rights, McAleese says the Church continues to teach "that the magisterium [Church teaching authority] has the unchallengeable right to restrict your rights and mine as Church members".

She says the Church can legitimately do so because personal promises we made at Baptism impose compulsory life-long obligations of Church membership.

McAleese is advocating "to make the case that fictitious baptismal promises made by non-sentient babies ... and even actual promises made by adult catechumens can no longer be relied on to justify depriving Church members of their inalienable human rights."

She told the Root and Branch conference that the man-made consequences of baptism found in canon law were "bolted onto" the sacrament.

This is "to compel enrolment as life members of the Catholic Church and to impose a once-and-for-all acceptance of the extensive obligations of membership, which the vast majority of us lack the capacity to evaluate until it is too late," she explained.

Source

• Irish Times
• Image: Irish Times

While some have presented Spiritus Domini as no more than giving formality to what has been common practice in some places since the 1970s.

Others see it as ‘too little, too late' in the movement towards the ordination of women within the Catholic Church.

Perhaps the key thing is to step back and look at what it signifies within a stream of Roman documents guiding the renewal of the liturgy that began in the mid-1950s.

Since the decree beginning the reform of Holy Week (16 November 1955: Liturgicus Hebdomadae Sanctae Ordo instauratur) down to today, one theme has been a constant: to enable the whole People of God to have ownership of the liturgy, to take part in the liturgy as their vocation, and to see themselves as ministers within the Church. Spiritus Domini is but the latest moment in a long-term process.

A nail in the coffin of clericalism

Let's start with a simple question.

Walk into any Roman Catholic building while a ceremony - for example, the Eucharist - is taking place and ask yourself: whose liturgy is this?

Most people would say that it is this parish's or this group's liturgy led by their priest.

If one asked that in the 1950s the answer would have been that it was the priest's liturgy done on behalf of the parish.

The shift from it being a clerical affair to the business of the priestly people; activity of all the baptised, has been a slow one.

While the rituals changed quickly especially over a period of just a few years around 1970, the shift in understanding has been slow, very patchy, and made against a great deal of resistance.

Moreover, the shift in appreciation by most Catholics has been even slower: many people still think that they are just ‘going' to something that the priest does.

The clericalist church is based around the notion that the clergy are ‘the real church' or, at least, its core.

They are happy to be ‘churchmen.'

But this term should surely apply to all the baptised and since they are made up of both males and females it would be better to speak of ‘churchpeople' - but the very notion would shock most ‘churchmen.'

These clergy celebrate the liturgy not with their sisters and brothers in baptism but for them.

The real work of the liturgy is what the clergy do, others attend (or, at most, they just help out in the way that altar servers have done for centuries).

This is the way the reading of the scriptures at the Eucharist has been treated by the clericalist church since 1970.

It is not a case that this is the liturgy of the whole assembly, but rather the priest has asked someone to read and just delegated them.

It is as if the most authentic reader is the priest (as was always the case before 1969), but just ‘to get people involved' he lets someone else do it.

Having ‘a lay reader' - still far from being what one expects in many countries - was seen as no more than an application of the teacher's trick of giving everyone in the class a job to make them feel involved.

Likewise, when it came to helping the assembly to share the broken loaf and shared cup (aka ‘give out communion') this involvement was not seen as needed by nature of the activity, but simply an ‘extraordinary' measure to ‘help speed things up!'

This was not a real ministry, but just clergy being ‘user friendly.'

One sees the old clerical mindset time and again.

The presider steps in and does all the readings unless someone makes a fuss, he does not call on ‘extraordinary ministers' or even thinks about sharing the cup and presents himself as the only real minister in the assembly.

This mindset until now has not been formally challenged because that cleric could point to the law, and filled with legal righteousness perpetuate the notion that the baptised are only present at his liturgy.

Instead of the unified vision of a people with the Christ worshipping the Father, this older idea was of a priestly tribe inside the sanctuary with the laity located outside.

Now it is formally the case that it is our common memory as a whole people which we celebrate in the Liturgy of the Word.

The scriptures are the books of our common memory, and so any one of the baptised who is skilled in their performance (a task far more demanding that just literacy) has the right not only theologically, but canonically, to take on this ministry and have it formally conferred by the community of faith. It may have taken canon law centuries to catch up on theology, but on 15 January 2021 it did!

Better late than never!

Likewise, eating and drinking at eucharistic celebrations is not a matter of acquiring some sacred object consecrated by a presbyter, but the celebration of the supper of the Lord as the community of faith whereby in our eating and drinking together we, with the Christ, offer the sacrifice of praise to the Father.

This community meal is our meal not simply the presbyter's meal, and so there should be within each community those who help in serving the meal and bringing that meal's food to those community members who cannot be there.

This is a ministry arising from the nature of the Eucharist, not simply a job that needs to be done to hasten a ceremony or ‘help out' a tired or busy priest.

It has been a sad reflection of how little we value the Ministry of the Word that since 1970 we have treated readers as just ‘doing a job' rather than giving them, in each community a formal standing.

Likewise, it shows, alas, how we have seen the Ministry of the Eucharist as only the work of a presbyter (‘deep down it's really the priest that counts') because we saw those who ‘helped' as really not being needed if we had ‘enough priests.'

Sadly, members of the clerical establishment do not like any suggestion that the Liturgy of the Eucharist is the common property of all the baptised.

They like to think of it as their special property; hence their reluctance to changes such as moving from pre-cut rondels to a single broken loaf or their resistance to sharing the cup or their objections to any but clerics helping at the meal.

But Spiritus Domini is one more reminder to them that their vision of the church is not that of Sacrosanctum concilium.

If I were one of those who hanker after ‘the good old days' or saw myself among that well-organised phalanx who resist Pope Francis and who want to continue in a clericalist church, then 15 January 2021 (the day the decree became law) would be marked down as a black day for the clerical army.

It is a day when an explicit legal act took place that removed two potent weapons in frustrating the reform of the liturgy.

New reading of the status quo

Most liturgical change takes place in such a way that those who want to subvert it can find little ‘workarounds.'

Indeed, it is the hallmark of those who have tried to slow down change in the Roman Church not so much to oppose developments as to seek to get them to run into the sand.

Already, I have heard one cleric bemoan Spiritus Domini precisely because he sees just what a well-aimed dart it is at the notion of ‘the church = the clergy' and his sigh was all the deeper when he added: "Pope Benedict would not have let this happen!."

I fear I was less than sympathetic and replied: "I fear it's worse than that, Pope Francis has not simply ‘let it happen' but has mandated it in canon Law."

My friend, shocked, said goodbye and put the phone down.

Canon 230, 1 now reads:

Lay persons who possess the age and qualifications established by decree of the conference of bishops can be admitted on a stable basis through the prescribed liturgical rite to the ministries of lector and acolyte. Nevertheless, the conferral of these ministries does not grant them the right to obtain support or remuneration from the Church.

Instead of lay persons it used to read ‘lay men' (Viri laici), and so an important threshold has been passed in having the law reflect the faith of the Church that the liturgy is the work of all of us, sisters and brothers of Jesus in baptism.

Will bishops now take the corresponding step forward?

In the Roman Pontifical - the book with those liturgies only performed by bishops - there is a formal ritual for instituting lectors and another one for instituting acolytes.

How many have ever seen these being used?

In the period of over forty years since they were promulgated, I have never seen them used outside a seminary!

In seminaries, they were seen as just steps toward the diaconate and as progress markers that a seminarian was doing all that was expected and was on track for ‘greater things.'

Meanwhile, readers were often just anyone who was willing to help out and not afraid of meeting ‘awkward words' in a reading, such as Nebuchadnezzar - and often did little preparation because they were ‘just helping because the priest wanted it!'

Likewise, ‘Extraordinary ministers' were given the occasional retreat day but it was seen, again, as just a convenience, an intrusion, or somehow less than ideal.

Will the bishops now see these as ministries that they actually institute? This is the acid test for the importance of Spiritus Domini.

The five challenges of Spiritus Domini

1. Will communities shift their perception of those who perform the readings from being simply those ‘helping out the priest' to those who are taking up part of the baptismal call to witness in word before the assembly to the Good News preached by the Christ? Will these women and men see this as a ministry and part of their conforming their lives with the work of Jesus?
2. Will presbyters take this vision to heart when they seek out readers and encourage them to see this as a real ministry? Will they take to heart that this changes their own relationship with the assembly and that this shift is part of the death of clericalism?
3. Will those who help in the Ministry of the Table see this as part of their baptismal calling and not just a ‘job' to ‘help out Father?' Acolytes are not just ‘jumped up altar boys' but part of the community's celebration of its identity.
4. Will presbyters see that this shift in the law is a reminder of a deeper shift in the Church's understanding that has been going on since the 1950s, but which has often barely affected the Church's practice?
5. Will bishops / episcopal conferences take Pope Francis's letter to heart and actually institute these ministries of lector and acolyte?They can hardly say that it will need a lot of time to think about - the actual structures of these ministries was established thirty-nine years ago in 1972 by Ministeria quaedam (as Pope Francis reminds us now), and they already have the necessary liturgical texts with them in the book they carry around from parish to parish.

So many have already dismissed Spiritus Domini as of no importance in the actual life of the church - would that it were so!

Spiritus Domini can only be dismissed when every bishop has formally instituted lectors and acolytes - and provided the means to train them for their ministries - in every community in their care.

• Thomas O'Loughlin is a priest of the Catholic Diocese of Arundel and Brighton, emeritus professor of historical theology at the University of Nottingham (UK) and director of the Centre of Applied Theology, UK. His latest award-winning book is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking Up Pope Francis's Call to Theologians (Liturgical Press, 2019).

They made the decision following the passage of a controversial bioethics law despite mass church-backed opposition.

Archbishop Eric de Moulins-Beaufort who is the French Catholic Bishops' Conference president, "wants to change how our plenaries function and highlight themes common to both church and society," a spokesperson for the conference says.

"There's a lot of discussion about clericalism in today's France, and when it comes to issues affecting everyone, the bishops have realized they need to reflect with laypeople, not just among themselves."

Lay representatives will be invited to the next conference assembly in Lourdes in November.

They will be asked to offer the assembly their "experience and inspiration" at a debate on ecology.

The bishops will then resume "normal plenary functions" and prepare their final message.

"This is an experiment. We'll see which ideas and conditions emerge for more regular participation by baptized laypeople," the conference says.

The bishops' permanent council says bringing lay people into the plenary assembly is an "exercise in synodality."

The council has become "rapidly convinced" that social changes have challenged "habits of thought and life" and offered "a great opportunity to shine the light of God's revelation."

It is expected that laypeople would be invited to plenaries over the next three years "to promote mutual listening" and "bring the church in France closer to citizens again."

The bishops' conference decision to involve laypeople coincided with the the passage of a revised bioethics law in the National Assembly last week.

The revised bill allows state-funded medically assisted procreation for single mothers and lesbian couples.

The measure was condemned by the French church.

Fify-six prelates urged Catholic to oppose it.

Opponents of the bill, supported by hundreds of organizations, organized a mass protest in Paris at the beginning of October.

Msgr. Thierry Magnin, secretary general of the bishops' conference, says "various philosophical and religious groups" had spoken out during the bioethics debate in a "fine testimony to democracy."

However, the bishops believe "everything was prejudged from above," he says

The key "consequences for children to be born" under the new legislation had barely been considered before the assembly vote, says Magnin.

He claims attention was given "only to the hankering and desires of contemporary society," and what "current science and technology made possible."

Source

• National Catholic Reporter
• Image: CNN

He wants a national, independent panel of expert lay faithful — completely separated from any source of power in the Church that could exert influence on them — to investigate the bishops.

The panel should be commissioned and "duly approved by the Holy See," he says.

Scharfenberger, who is a canon lawyer, was a member of Brooklyn diocese's review board for sexual abuse of minors.

His call follows allegations that Cardinal Theodore McCarrick, a former archbishop of Washington, sexually abused minors and adult seminarians for decades.

Once the allegations were made known to him, Pope Francis removed McCarrick from his ministry. He has ordered McCarrick to live "a life of prayer and penance" in seclusion.

Although McCarrick's successor, Cardinal Donald Wuerl, has suggested the US Conference of Catholic Bishops create a panel of bishops to look into any allegations of sexual misconduct by its members, Scharfenberger says this is not the answer.

Instead, the panel needs to be separated from any source of power whose trustworthiness might potentially be compromised if it's to have any credibility.

Rather than bishops, lay catholics "without an axe to grind or an agenda to push" should lead an investigation with transparency — "the scope of which is not yet defined but must be defined," Scharfenberger says.

"What is needed now is an independent commission led by well-respected, faithful lay leaders who are beyond reproach, people whose role on such a panel will not serve to benefit them financially, politically, or personally.

"As the Holy Spirit impels me, I will use every power my office holds on all levels at which I serve, local and national, to further this charge.

"We bishops want to rise to this challenge, which may well be our last opportunity considering all that has happened."

Scharfenberger's call for the laity's involvement in investigations is strengthened by his concern that several bishops knew but did nothing about McCarrick's sexual predations on seminarians and young priests under his authority.

Scharfenberger says this is "spiritual incest."

Source

• Times Union
• National Catholic Register
• Image: YouTube

"It is directed to all the lay faithful that want to know more about their vocation, about their role within the Church," Ana Cristina Betancourt of the Pontifical Council's Women's Section told CNA in Rome.

"So, it is a way of being in contact with what we do day-to-day and that was our aim in having it, to make more known the things that we do, the reflections that we have, the things that we are thinking about and also the guidelines that the Pope is giving the laity to better live their vocations." Continue reading

This interview is with journalist, author and broadcaster, Clifford Longley, who is one of the UK's leading lay Catholics. He was invited to Australia by the progressive Catholic organisation, Catalyst for Renewal, and he delivered a series of lectures in May this year on the legacy of Vatican II.

In the interview he focuses on the issues and challenges in developing a mature Catholic laity in the light of the teachings of the Council, and the video also features excerpts from the inaugural Rosemary Goldie Lecture he gave on this topic.

It's fitting that his talk was delivered in this context, as Rosemary Goldie was one of Australia's leading lay Catholics. She was a theologian and lay activist, and one of the first women to be named an official observer of Vatican II. She died in Sydney in 2010 at the age of 94.

After the Council for several years she was Under-Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Laity, one of the first women and lay people to serve as a bureaucrat in the Curia. In this capacity, in the 60s and 70s she helped organise a number of major international lay congresses in Rome.

After this she was appointed a Professor of Pastoral Theology at the Lateran University in Rome. While large in intellect and influence, she was tiny in physical stature, and Pope John XXIII referred to her affectionately as ‘la piccinina' which translates from the Italian as something like ‘a little slip of a thing.'

Clifford Longley was born in the UK in 1940, and has had a distinguished career mainly as a print journalist. He worked as a general reporter on a number of newspapers before specialising from 1972 onwards in the coverage of British and international religious affairs.

He wrote a weekly column on religion for The Times from 1972 till 1992, and from 1992 to 2000 for the Daily Telegraph. This made him the longest continuously appearing columnist in British national papers, and in 1986 he was honoured with an award for ‘Specialist Writer of the Year' in the British Press Awards.

During this time, as well as his work as a columnist, he was leader writer and religious affairs editor for these newspapers. Since 1994 he has been a columnist, contributing editor and leader writer for the prestigious weekly Catholic journal, The Tablet.

In more recent times he has also made regular appearances on radio. Since 2002 he's been a contributor to Thought for the Day, and since 2004 he's been a panelist on The Moral Maze, both on BBC Radio 4.

Longley has also been a consultant to the Catholic Bishops' Conference of England and Wales, and has been on the advisory council of the Three Faiths Forum. In 1998 he was made an honorary fellow of St Mary's College at the University of Surrey.

As well as his prolific writing for newspapers and journals, his books include The Times Book of Clifford Longley, The Worlock Archive and Chosen People.

Sources

• Peter Kirkwood in Eureka Street
• Image: UCA News