A Sign of Hope for the Irish Church
Cormac O’Duffy describes how his parish in Tennessee has overcome scandal and flourished. Shared from The Irish Catholic:
I read online here in the US an article in an Irish paper that caused me some sadness. The author of the article wrote that, in the wake of the Cloyne Report, he felt he had been cheated and misled by the Catholic Church institution all his life, that he felt it now was ‘dead’ and needed to be buried.
Others writing felt that the Taoiseach’s upbraiding words to the Vatican marked a welcome break in 1,600 years of submission by Ireland and Irish people to an external Vatican authority.
The United States too has had a series of news stories of abuse by the clergy and, partially as a consequence of the legalities of these cases, there has been much restructuring of the Church, and often traumatic amalgamation of parishes.
There are, however, some examples of hope in the US Church which I feel could be an example to the Irish Church at this time of purgation.
I would like to recount to readers the story of St Thomas, a parish of about 1,500 parishioners which is situated in largely rural Tennessee.
It too had to go through a period of purgation as one of its former clergy was found to be guilty of child abuse about 10 years ago and was removed from ministry by the local bishop. (read more here)
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