Yesterday, March 9, was the feast day of St Frances of Rome. Hailing as I do from a Protestant background, my knowledge of saints’ days is pretty thin on the ground. But yesterday I was visiting the Holy Cross Monastery in Rostrevor, and much of the day’s liturgical activities were given over to remembering and [...]
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Irish Catholic Parishioners to Pay for Abuse?
The Irish Catholic Church has counted the cost of its abuse scandals. And it is now it is prepared to ask its parishioners to pay for it. Yesterday the Bishop of Ferns Denis Brennan asked that parishioners – the everyday Catholics who have endured the scandal inflicted on their church by their leaders – to [...]
Linda Hogan Book Review: Applied Ethics in a World Church
There is more to the Catholic Church than sex abuse scandals. Although that is a rather obvious point, in contemporary Ireland, it’s a fact that could quite easily get overlooked. Of course Catholics and other concerned citizens are right to criticise the Catholic Church and its failings in the Irish context. But a recent book [...]
Phyllis Tickle Book Review: The Great Emergence & the Re-Emergence Conference, Belfast
Phyllis Tickle is one of the featured speakers at the Belfast Re-Emergence Conference on March 16-18, 2010. Her book, The Great Emergence: How Christianity is Changing and Why (Baker Books, 2008) sets contemporary controversies, upheavals, and developments within Christianity in a sweeping historical context, proclaiming that we are at one of the ‘hinges’ of a [...]
Irish Bishops in Rome – Victims still feel like Second-Class Christians
Two days of talks between the Pope and the Irish bishops seem to have confirmed what victims of clerical sex abuse have suspected: In the eyes of Rome, they are second-class Christians. Victims and survivors have expressed disappointment and anger at the outcome of the talks. Andrew Madden, the first person in Ireland to publicly [...]
Will the Irish Catholic Church Repent?
This morning’s mass in St Peter’s Basilica in Rome had a special message for the Irish bishops: ‘clergy who had sinned must admit blame for "abominable acts".’ The Irish Times reports that Vatican secretary of State Cardinal Bertone spoke at the morning mass, which preceded crisis talks between the Pope and the Irish bishops about [...]
Irish Catholic Bishops in Rome: So What?
Bishops of the Irish Catholic Church are in Rome, and will meet the Pope on Monday and Tuesday to discuss the state of the Irish Catholic Church and its response to clerical sexual abuse. So What? Will what happens in Rome really matter to Catholics on this island? The Irish Times reports that Bishop Joseph [...]
Marianne Elliott Book Review: When God Took Sides
Marianne Elliott’s latest book, provocatively titled When God Took Sides: Religion and Identity in Ireland – Unfinished History, (Oxford University Press, 2009) describes how Catholics and Protestants in Ireland perceive each other – and explains why this matters so much today. Elliott’s title conveys the idea that both Catholics and Protestants assumed that God was [...]
Sex Abuse & the Irish Catholic Church: A Resounding Critique of Clerical Culture
Writing in today’s Irish Times, Dr Derek Smyth, a psychotherapist and a priest in Foxrock parish, Co. Dublin, offers a stinging critique of Irish Catholic clerical culture and asks, ‘Why were we so silent on child abuse? Why didn’t we speak up?’ Smyth draws on research that attests that [clerical culture] does contribute to the [...]
Evangelicals & Gay Rights in Ireland: Evangelical Alliance’s Surprise Support for Civil Partnerships Bill
One issue that is sure to bring Christian voices out in the public sphere is gay rights. The overwhelming impression that one gets is that Christians are opposed to extending gay rights, particularly when it comes to marriage or civil partnerships. A surprising exception to this has been the Evangelical Alliance in the Republic of [...]
About me
Welcome to Building a Church Without Walls, a website for people who are excited about how Christianity is developing in the 21st Century. I am a Lecturer and Coordinator of the Conflict Resolution and Reconciliation Studies Programme at Trinity College Dublin at Belfast (the Irish School of Ecumenics).
Please note this is my personal site. All views are my own and are not representative of TCD.
