Caoimhe de Barra presents a Practical Response  to the Cry of Earth and the Cry of the Poor

Phyllis Zagano is an internationally acclaimed Catholic scholar and lecturer on contemporary spirituality and women's issues in the church. She has written and spoken on the role of women in the Roman Catholic Church and is an advocate for the ordination of women as deacons. She was a member of the initial Papal Commission for the Study of the Diaconate of Women. She holds a research appointment at Hofstra University, Hempstead, New York.

Sr Jeannine Gramick visited Dublin on 24 March 2022 and gave a long interview to Ursula Halligan of We Are Church Ireland.

Sr Jeannine has supported LGBTQ+ people for over 50 years and recently received a letter from Pope Francis congratulating her on her work.

Presentation by Dr Nicola Brady, Chair of Ireland's Synodal Pathway Steering Committee

This video is a ZOOM talk given by Tom Doyle to We Are Church Ireland on 28. February 2022.

Tom Doyle is a priest, canon lawyer, addictions therapist and long-time supporter of justice and compassion for clergy sex abuse victims.

He sacrificed a rising career at the Vatican Embassy to become an outspoken advocate for church abuse victims. Since 1984, when he became involved with the issue of sexual abuse of children by Catholic clergy while serving at the Embassy, he has become an expert in the canonical and pastoral dimensions of this problem - working directly with victims, their families, accused priests, bishops, and other high-ranking Church officials.

He has interviewed 2,000 victims of clerical sexual abuse in the U.S. alone, and has been the only priest to testify in court in over 200 cases as to the legal liability of the Church. He has developed policies and procedures for dealing with cases of sexual abuse by the clergy for dioceses and religious orders in the United States, Canada, Australia, and New Zealand. 

Signposts into the future of the faith community 

Recording of ZOOM Meeting

Kieran O’Mahony OSA is an Augustinian friar and biblical scholar. He worked for twenty-two years in the Milltown Institute of Theology and Philosophy and for nine years a co-ordinator of biblical studies for the archdiocese of Dublin. He maintains a website: www.tarsus.ie, offering commentaries on the current liturgical readings and much else besides. At the moment, Kieran is preparing the final volume in a nine-volume series entitled Hearers of the Word. The purpose of the series is to make current biblical scholarship available in an accessible and prayerful way to the ordinary believer, as well as to those who preach the Word. The series focuses on the main liturgical seasons: Advent to Christmas (and a little beyond); Lent to Holy Week; Easter to Pentecost (and a little beyond). For fun and relax, there’s always the road bike, the music of JS Bach, the piano, hiking in Wicklow and Italian cooking.

Bishop Paul Dempsey is the Bishop of Achonry Diocese. He was ordained on Sunday August 30th, 2020 in the Cathedral of The Annunciation and St Nathy, Ballaghaderreen.

Ordained a priest in 1997, Bishop Paul is a native of Co. Carlow and, until his appointment as Bishop of Achonry, served in various parishes in the Diocese of Kildare & Leighlin.

He is a member of the bishops subcommittee working on the National Synodal Assembly and came to speak to the members of We Are Church Ireland

Jane Mellett lives in Dublin, Ireland and is the Laudato Si’ Officer with Tròcaire (the overseas development agency of the Catholic Church in Ireland). Prior to this, Jane was a parish pastoral worker with the Archdiocese of Dublin serving in parish ministry for many years. In 2018, Jane embarked on a Climate Pilgrimage, carrying the message of Laudato Si’ from Italy to Poland to the UN Climate Talks (COP24). This, she describes, as a real experience of ‘ecological conversion’ and since then she has dedicated her time to share the wisdom of Laudato Si’ with others, especially in the areas of ecological education and spirituality.

Two years ago Sharon Tighe-Mooney published What About Me? Women and the Catholic Church. This was an exploration of the arguments given by the Catholic Church to exclude women from holding official roles in the Church, and to examine what those arguments might reveal in terms of the story of women, alongside the development of the ministerial priesthood. Researching the book exposed the dependence for authoritative Catholic Church teachings on church council documents, papal edicts, the Magisterium, the writings of Church Fathers, and the concept of Sacred Tradition rather than on Scripture. This prompted Sharon to read and study the entire Bible – an ongoing process – which led her down an entirely unexpected path towards an understanding of the primacy of scripture and the need to seek out a bible-based church.

Peter Wilkinson and David Timbs are members of a small, Melbourne based, Australian Catholic reform advocacy group Catholics for Renewal. Since its announcement of an Australian Plenary Council in 2016 Catholics for Renewal has devoted their collective energies into setting out what they are convinced are the essential systemic reform and renewal measures that will assist in getting the Catholic Church in Australia back on mission. This has now been published in book form.

Rivermount Parish, Dublin

Rivermount Parish was constituted in 1974 and consist of St.Olivers Plunkett's and St Finians Oratory.

Mass attendance even before Covid was 3.5% but the parish is integral to the community. The Parish Team of 8 (5 women and 3 men) runs everything. Eucharist is shared: it is conversational; everyone can comment on the readings.

A talk given by John O'Brien on Womens Irdination in The Catholic Church on Tuesday the 2nd of February

Fr Tony Flannery was 'silenced' by the Vatican in 2012 and his appeal in 2020 was not successful. MIT DEUTSCHER ÜBERSETZUNG.

About this Event

• Tony Flannery (born 1947) joined the Redemptorist Order in 1964

• He was ordained a priest in 1974

• In 2010 he was one of the founder members of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) who support Vatican 2 reforms

• In 2012 he was ‘silenced’ by the CDF and removed from public ministry for writing about the role of women, contraception and homosexuality

• In 2020 his Order appealed to the CDF that he be allowed return to public ministry

• The CDF replied that Fr Flannery must first sign 4 oaths: {1) No ordination for women (2) Homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered (3) No same sex marriage (4) No Gender theory

• Fr Flannery refused to sign these oaths and remains removed from public ministry

• His new book ‘From the Outside; Rethinking Church Doctrine’ is to launch on 21 October

Jayne Ozanne is a prominent British gay evangelical who works to ensure full inclusion of all LGBTI Christians at every level of the Church.

Recorded on the 20th of April, Fr Diarmuid O’Murchu is a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order, and is a social psychologist. 

For the first time ever, Catholic women are linking up globally to take action. A new umbrella group has been formed: the Catholic Women’s Council.