IRELAND
Belfast Telegraph
Hundreds of priests gathered in Dublin this week in defiance of the Vatican. Might they be the Church’s salvation, asks Malachi O’Doherty
Thursday, 10 May 2012
Priests can’t have a trade union – and they know it. This week’s meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) in Dublin represented a surprise re-emergence of protest among priests – just four years after their total humiliation.
Until 2008, Irish Catholic priests convened an annual Conference of Priests of Ireland (CPI). That fell apart, because the priests themselves were so demoralised and felt that no-one was listening to them.
They were over-worked and under-manned. They were also getting used to a new feeling that they were not only being ignored by most people, but were actively reviled.
In an effort to persuade priests that they were being heard by their bishops, the CPI invited the Irish bishops to come and meet them and hear their grievances. Only four turned up.
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