You can’t pretend to be something you are not

On Mar 12 in the Examiner I read with great interest Fr Sean McDonagh’s comments in Dan Buckley’s article and also Very Rev Joseph McGuane’s comments in Letters.

I believe they spoke from the heart with their feet on the ground.

Fr T Flannery spends his life travelling around the country spreading God’s love through the Gospel. He is in constant touch with people and their ups and downs of life and faith. He knows more than most what is happening at a human level. In my opinion Rome should be consulting with Fr Flannery, not silencing him. He is the man on the ground.

Sixty years ago if a priest told my grandparents he would like to see: Saturday Mass for Sunday, girls as altar servers, (inside the altar rails,) Ministers of the Eucharist, Communion in the hand, meat on Friday, etc., they would have said he was losing his reason or a heretic. Things can change with discussions and openness.

In the latest census the number of Roman Catholics increased, so did divorce.

I am now wondering if we have drifted so far from the Church teachings that we do not know what is acceptable as Catholics and what is not. People are rejecting the teachings but still calling themselves Catholics. Isn’t it time we got an update on what the Church demands of its members? We can then decide what to do next.

Can we call ourselves Catholics if we: divorce, divorce and live as man and wife with someone else; are homosexual and in a relationship; avail of artificial fertilisation and sterilisation; do not attend Mass and sacraments; perform sexual acts (whether married or not) not for procreation; have sexual relations outside marriage (in this case as far as I know one is excluded from receiving Communion); use artificial contraception. (This would exclude a huge number.)

How many Catholics would be left then? Maybe someone with a higher knowledge can set me straight. We can no longer pretend to be something we clearly are not.

Rose O’Sullivan

Cork City