Have Your Say 

Recent Comments

1. Thank you, Michael Kelly, for this fine reflection on the central theological and pastoral role the sensus fidelium should have in the life and direction of the Church.
   As a lay Catholic, I am disturbed that there are some voices from the Pope down that indicate acceptance of an inevitable 'downsizing' in Church membership particularly in the western world.
   This discussion Board is an index of popular concern, from many points of view, on the issue.
   One thing I am convinced of is that the people of God respond to, thrive and prosper on, a Gospel that is preached as Good News and charged with hopefulness.
   Sometimes I cheer myself with the Russian definition of an Optimist: an optimist is a pessimist with more information!
   Here in Australia we have our own local prophetic voices with more information. Fr Brendan Byrne SJ has written compellingly about the Church as being the expansive, welcoming and generous sign of the 'Hospitality of God' and Fr Frank Moloney SDB has argued for a deeper recognition of the Eucharist as the ultimate inclusive outreach of God, in Jesus, to the broken, the marginal, the ritually dispossessed and the voices unheard. This lived conviction, from the beginning, has been the genius of the Church and the key to evangelisation. At its peril this will be forgotten. - Albion, Vic

   Posted By: David Timbs

2. Michael Kelly: Can I ask why you singled out one person's comments and labled them as being at 'one extreme'? I feel for this person who became part of the process and has just been made an example of, whether I agree or disagree with them.
   Can I ask why people in the Church ask for opinions and then fruit pick what they like and don't like?
   This is why I want nothing to do with the liturgy. My opinion is that the clergy are free define the liturgy and are free to make it as good or as bad as their talents allow.
   My role as laity has nothing to do with the liturgy, it has to do with my real self in my real life. This is all I can offer up to God in the Mass in communion with others. It is much more powerful then any seat at the liturgy table.
   I have seen this problem so many times and in different contexts, especially in business. People are invited to be part of something. They are asked their opinions and asked to "take ownership" and feel part of something they ultimately have no control over. Then when it becomes apparent who actually has the authority they rebel and criticise and demand their promised place at the decision making table. Ultimately, some become disenchanted and walk away, others stubbornly persist in pursuing the promise and hold out for change, others stay but lose their passion, others are just happy to have someone to wield the authority. A remanent are happy.
   What the Church needs to do is make it clear what the laity has authority over. It is clear to me but it seems not so clear to a lot of people.

   Posted By: AD, Newcastle, NSW

3. You are so right, Michael Kelly. I wish that more priests, but particularly Bishops right up to the Pope, would get out and listen as you have done.
   Divorce: When the Church started women had short lives often dying in childbirth but we still hold to the view that remarriage is not allowed. This will often mean that the Church expects that a young woman or man, could have 40 years after a divorce. They are expected to live alone etc. etc. Is it any wonder that so many of them go outside the Church to marry and have a fulfilled life. And once they go outside the Church for the remarriage, they seldom come back and the children they have also stay outside the Church.
   This is just one of the problems the Church should address.

   Posted By: gloria healey, Sydney, NSW

4. In Dostoevsky's Notebooks he writes: The West has lost Christ, and this is why it is dying; that is the only reason&.
   The Church comes a long way down in the hierarchy of Christian dogmas expressed in the Creed. The people are not being fed with the life-giving Word. They are starving.
   Father Kelly's experience talking to people after Mass is very different from my own. I have met regular attenders who are into Reiki, into hypnotism etc. looking for relief.
   One woman who was a daily communicant felt the need to go to the Marharishi for a mantra. It seems that many mass goers are unaware that there is a reality called the Christian Life. Sensus fidelium?

   Posted By: Alex Reichel, Oyster Bay

5. If one does not go to Mass regularly on Sunday without a good reason, one is objectively in the state of mortal sin. Thus one may not receive any of the Sacraments without making a good Confession.
   That's plain Catholic teaching _- see the Catechism of the Catholic Church.
   Why then, does Fr Michael Kelly call it 'extreme'. If one wants to remain Catholic, one accepts and practices the teaching of the Catholic Church; otherwise, of course, you can found something new. That's common sense.

   Posted By: Anne Boyce, Sydney

6. Thank you, Alex of Oyster Bay, regarding the mention of Dostoevsky. I am half way through an interesting book by Rowan Williams entitled Dostoevsky: Language, Faith, and Fiction.
   I would encourage all to reread Dostoevsky for his take on deep humanity and compassion for the outsider and marginalized. This may have some humane influence for the sensus fidelium about the current demonising of refugees and asylum seekers.

   Posted By: Brendan Scarce Geebung Queensland

7. Regarding the 'at one extreme' parishioner's opinion about denying the sacraments to those who don't come to Mass, I would hope that s/he was not advocating that they be denied Confession. Nevertheless, such people should not dare to approach the altar for Communion until they have been to Confession. The words of scripture on this matter are too terrifying to ignore.
   And if this is one extreme, what is the other? - Goulburn NSW

   Posted By: Lance Eccles

8. Gloria Healy: When a man and woman experience a marriage break-up, they still have options other than re-marriage for fulfillment. Obviously, a marriage break-up is a time of radical testing and consequence in many ways. With faith and sacramental life, as with any crisis, it can and, more often than we might imagine, does lead to further awareness of reliance on and union with God in the Church; and even to deepened appreciation of the marriage covenant and family upheld by the Church. There are communities centred on the Eucharist that reach out in unobtrusive and unfanfared ways, as appropriate, to welcome and support - spiritually and practically - those wounded and broken in this way. I am blessed to be part of one such community, the lead in encouragement set by the parish priest in his words and actions. - Adelaide, SA

   Posted By: John Kelly

9. I like very much what Michael Kelly has written. And David Timb's remarks, too.

   Posted By: Marie H, Brisbane Q'ld

• » Advertise in CathNews

Email to Friend Please fill out the following details (fields marked with a * are mandatory):
Send To Email Address*:
Send To Name *:
Sent By Email Address*:
Sent By Name *:
Text to include in email:
Captcha validation:	please enter the code above:

^ Page Top

Comment on this article

More from this section

1. CathBlog - The battle of the discussion boards

   Honestly, you would have thought I had asked people to sacrifice their new born infants on the altar of Ba'al judging by some of the responses I have had to the request for additional information to check the bona fides of people who wished their comments to be posted on the CathNews discussion board.

2. CathBlog - How to make it into CathNews

   I was trying to explain to someone why a particular media release sent by an organisation would not actually make a story for CathNews. I danced around the point for a while, which made the person on the other end of the line more and more confused. Eventually, I managed to choke out: 'Well, it’s not very well written.’

3. CathBlog - John Paul II's 'progressive' critics

   Self-described progressives often say Pope John Paul II was conservative in his intellectual thought and was somehow hostile to the modern world, wishing to return to pre-Vatican II attitudes. Hans Kung has written that John Paul II's "papacy has repeatedly declared its fidelity to Vatican II, in order to then betray it for reasons of political expediency."

4. CathBlog - The end of the beginning

   Pope Benedict XVI now envisages that condoms can be “a first step to responsibility” in sexual behaviour. This is only the start of turning back a one dimensional approach to ethics. It does not mean he’s caved into the crass secular ethics of utilitarianism. Tracing his intellectual heritage back to St Augustine, he’s recovered a richer tradition, writes Michael Kelly.
   

5. CathBlog - Contemplating the angel's shock revelation to the Virgin Mary

   Surely one part of Mary must have been devastated when Gabriel delivered the news. Yes, she accepted. But notwithstanding the fact that God gave her the necessary grace, a little part of her would have died at that moment. Perhaps she surrendered in the same way that millions of mothers have surrendered a still-born child or, worse, a child that has long been part of the family.