Pastoral Developnment.

A Christian Vision for Ireland
What hope after the Ryan and McCarthy reports?

Kilmore Pastoral Centre organises a series of evening discussions with guest speakers Fr. Fergus O Donoghue SJ, Mr. Fergus Finlay, Ms Terry Prone and Fr. Harry Bohan.

At a recent speech at the Michael Collins commemoration in Béal na mBláth Mary Robinson spoke about the critical difficulties facing Ireland today. She highlighted two in particular. The threat posed by the banking crisis, especially to the most vulnerable in our society. And the revelations of decades of abuse of children in church institutions.  She went on to make a call now for a shared vision. “What can be said for certain is that for the country to emerge from a crisis of this magnitude it must have a vision of where it hopes to go and what it sees as its future…To shape such a vision we need to listen to everyone who has something to contribute…”

If the Christian community is to contribute to this vision there are some deep and difficult questions we may have to reflect on first. How did our ‘Christian’ society become so blinded by the spirit of individualism, anxiety and greed that we walked into a financial crisis proportionately greater than that experienced by most other developed countries? What were the factors in our spirituality as a people that allowed this to come about? And, in the wake of the Ryan Report, it is obvious that we have other questions to answer. How was it possible for such horrific treatment of children to be accommodated for so long in our church institutions? To what extent are those factors still present, which could now or in the future allow other kinds of abuse to fester? These are all distressing questions, but unless we confront them honestly and humbly, and learn and change as a result, then we will not be viewed as credible contributors in the quest for a better Ireland.

Four public evening meetings will be held in the Pastoral Centre in Cavan between October and January. The format will be the same for each night. It will begin with an input from a guest speaker, followed by prayer and reflection, then small group discussion and an open forum. We hope to provide an opportunity for people across the diocese to speak and to listen to one another, in an atmosphere that is calm, honest and mutually respectful. All the guest speakers have reflected and communicated deeply on the issues, some from within church institutions, some from outside. Fr. Fergus O Donoghue SJ is editor of the Jesuit periodical Social Studies. Mr. Fergus Finlay is chief executive of Barnardos, an organisation that supports children at risk. Ms. Terry Prone is head of the Crisis Clinic in the Communications Clinic. Fr. Harry Bohan is director of the Ceifin Centre, an organisation that promotes values-led social change.

The sessions are public and open to anyone who wants to participate. We hope especially that people involved in parish leadership groups such as Pastoral Councils will come. The dates are Tuesday October 13th, Monday November 9th, Tuesday December 1st and January 26th. Sessions start at 7.45pm. There will be a charge of €5 per night to offset some of the costs. For further details contact the Diocesan Pastoral Centre at 049-4375004 or e-mail This e-mail address is being protected from spambots. You need JavaScript enabled to view it

The Parish Pastoral Councils are up and running.