Fr. Z's Blog

Get this from the Irish Examiner:

Umbrella group aims to speak for Catholics
By Claire O’Sullivan
Friday, November 09, 2012
A new lay organisation which wants to articulate the views and opinions of mainstream Irish Catholics is being established. [The premises you are supposed to accept here are, first, that they are “mainstream”, and next that they can speak for anyone.]
The Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI) will function as an umbrella group for a number of existing lay Catholic organisations, including local parish groups, and is hoping to attract thousands of members.

Whether it will be a standalone association with strong links to the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) [You just knew these clowns had to be lurking.  It “hatched” from this group.] or whether the ACP will join together with the new organisation will be up for discussion at the ACP’s annual general meeting in Dublin this weekend.

Noel McCann of ACI said there had been a realisation that there were a number of lay groups which shared the same objectives but were not linked in any way.

“We see our organisation as being the common thread, that the different groups around the country who will join the organisation will share that common interest in seeing the teachings of Vatican II implemented,” he said.

[…]

The Irish Catholic has this photo:

A new lay organisation seeking liberal reform in the Catholic Church agreed a statement of objectives at its first general meeting at the weekend committing it “to the pursuit of a reform and renewal agenda in the Irish Catholic Church based on the letter and the spirit of Vatican II”. [“Letter and spirit” is the new cover under which they will completely ignore what they don’t like.]

About 300 people attended the meeting of the Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI), which also agreed to set up a website and governance structures, with elections to be held at an AGM next year, when there will be a formal launch of the organisation.  [Oooo!]

The objectives, which include a re-evaluation of the Church’s teaching on human sexuality, [That is mostly what these liberal groups are about.] are broadly similar to the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP), whose annual meeting preceded the ACI meeting at the weekend.

Its statement of objectives also said the ACI believed “the spirit is present in the voices of all the baptised” and in “the consequent right of all the baptised to have their voices heard in the formation of Church teaching and to participate fully in the life of the Church, including decision-making” at all levels. [The Church of Ireland needs these people right now.]

The group wants to bring about what it describes as a “renewed understanding of the primacy of the individual conscience” and the “full participation of women in every aspect of the Church”.

[…]

I wonder what the average age was in that room.