IRELAND
The Association of Catholic Priests
My name is Brendan Hoban. I¹m 64 years of age. I¹m a priest of Killala diocese. I¹m almost 40 years ordained.
Over two years ago I was part of a small group of priests who founded the Association of Catholic Priests.
We did that to give priests a voice, to provide a platform for responding to a church in crisis; because authority is collapsing, vocations are in free-fall, practice is declining, the average age-level of priests is now 64; and we felt in desperation that someone had to do something.
In less than 2 years we had 1000 members so we knew we were on the right track. What we wanted was to start a conversation about what was happening to our Church; about what needed to be done; and, in these strange and difficult times, to attempt to plot a track into the future.
We realised quickly that we shouldn¹t and couldn¹t do this on our own, that many lay people ¬ forgive the use of that disrespectful term ¬we realised that many lay people felt as strongly as we did about it, that the reforms envisaged by the Second Vatican Council had been modified, resisted, rejected by popes, bishops, priests and sometimes people too.
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