Church denies reports that lay people will be allowed to conduct Sunday services

Good post, Jacersagain!

As an Irish Catholic, I’m not a bit concerned about the fall-off in Mass attendances in Ireland; those who’ve stopped going were probably never truly practicing Catholics, just lip-service Catholics showing off their Sunday best in front of the neighbours instead of attending Mass for what it is – a celebration of the Eucharist. Neither am I concerned with the failure of Irish men and women to join religious orders these days in the numbers once known; the island of Gozo (off Malta) is still producing English-speaking priests by the scores each year, some of them will be assigned to Ireland at some future date, just as they have been assigned to Scotland. The Catholic Church is just that – very catholic and universal, with plenty of members in many countries ready to step into the breeches in countries where the locals failed to answer the call. My old parish priest (now retired) often spoke of African and Indian priests coming to Ireland in the future and indeed, today, they are already here in some parishes. Thanks be to God for providing us with them.

I really just don’t get it with Irish bishops issuing these denials. There was a programme on Irish TV recently (sorry, I forget the name of the programme) featuring this very practice of Catholic laity conducting weekday prayer services in a church in a rural parish with the blessing of the local bishop. There is of course a local priest but he has to cover a huge area on his own so can’t “do” Masses every day. Mass is celebrated weekly however. I do think this involvement of the laity in conducting or leading prayer services in churches will happen and become a matter of course in the future. That is to be welcomed.

Is it not time to play the burning at the stake game again? Only this time put the right 'people' in the fire!

In the Archdiocese of St. Louis, these same plans are a contingency as the same instance in the Archdiocese of Boston. The key issue is pastoral associates which are entirely female. Your friend and mine, Archbishop Raymond Burke, was "run out" of St. Louis. His replacement, AB Robert Carlson, is organizing the same liturgy services behind the scenes. These bishops are waiting for something to occur. The best guess would be the death of Ratzinger and the ascendancy of a predetermined ally or an out and out rebellion in league with the socialist policies of the current president and his radical Catholic feminist minions. The bishops of Ireland are not the only ones who are organizing a rebellion with the "black pope" director of the Jesuits. This is all in line with the writings of Malachie Martin.

On Wednesday last George Hooke asked a catholic clergyman if women might be allowed more influence within the church. As usual, the answer was completely unrelated to the question, AND, as usual, Hooke, the producer, failed to ask the question again. What are these producers afraid of ? In such an instance the interview is nothing more that a joke and an insult to the listeners Of course, as it wasn't directly relating to Hooke, the self obsessed producer, consequently, he didn't have the interest in following up on the subject.

St Patrick's good works were all for naught. Who knew?

katiemurphy go drink some bleach to wash your mouth out

the real issue = who in their right mind would want to be assoicated with the sex starved preists who raped kids, and the hierarchy who covered it up this story is a false flag to make people believe that some people still go to the church of the endless hidden molestation of kiddies . In NYC last year they only got one new priest ordained. 2 in the LA area. the churches real solution fits with their ideology = they are bringing in more priest from AFrica which is full of Islamic influence. They look up to the islamics treatment of gays and women.

hermitTalker, where do you hermits live? Beehive dwellings or caves? In any event, you must be out of touch. The Vatican has been disapproving Bishop sanctioned closings of Church-Parishes. When parishioners object they are winning 90% of the time. So, your idea of closing churches is a non-starter unless the parishioners agree to the closing. It does seem to suggest that we are about to see priest-less services. Led by deacons and nuns. Sounds fine to me. At least we won't have to worry about the safety of our young lads. Gee, if we are talking about priest-less services why not just let women become priests. We already have 9 ordained women (in the world) who the Vatican are quite upset with. They do a fine job. We could also have married priests. Talk about opening the labor market. Look at all the jobs the Catholic Church could create with Women and married priests!!!

Another example of a report that seemed to have no factual basis or was a premature decision that was not made. I replied to a report on FB yesterday that they need to use some imagination and courage. Combine parishes, allow for the elderly to travel by bus or van, but ask the laity to drive as they do for shopping and engtertainment and such. That way the People can have decent music, perhaps a variety of preachers in smaller towns and in rural areas. Even on weekdays, use of the Liturgy of the Hours, or a longer time for reflection on the WORD rather than have some "nice/man/woman/nun give a "talk" on the readings. DROP communion services absolutely, otherwise they will pave the way for what happened in the USA in the 19th century, fill the place up with bigoted Baptists and others who had only one sermon, blast the Catholics.