December 31 2023

Statement from the Association of Catholic Priests

31 Dec 2023

The reality of the war in Gaza continuing right through Christmas must have been somewhere in the minds of most people, even at the height of the season’s celebrations.

In the minds of priests, it would have been almost impossible to shut out the clamour of war, as we celebrated the Eucharist, that great act of peace and joy.

Yesterday’s evening prayer from the Breviary contained Psalm 123 which I have recited thousands of times, but in the present situation it takes on a new and more somber resonance:

‘If the Lord had not been on our side

When men rose against us, 

Then they would have swallowed us alive

When their anger was kindled.

But the Lord did not give us a prey to their teeth.

Our life has escaped from the snare of the fowler.

Recently, going through old stuff on my iPad, in order to make some space for a download, I came across the following, from the Irish Catholic, 2013. That paper, and its editor, were consistent critics of the Association of Catholic Priests, and of myself, during those years. But getting an interview with Cardinal Levada, the first head of the CDF that I dealt with, was moving to a new level of attack.