On Wednesday evening last, March 12th I gave one of my talks on Church reform at Gullane’s Hotel, Ballinasloe. It was organised by John Molloy, and he did an excellent job. The crowd was far larger than I expected. There must have been well over one hundred people there. Two things that struck me about them in particular. Firstly, they seemed to me to be very well up in the affairs of Church. I was impressed by their knowledge of Church history, and they were really clued in to the main issues around the necessary reforms. Secondly, a great many of them obviously had a history of involvement in their church at local level, or through the schools. It was also good to see all the local priests there.
I really enjoyed the night. It is a great pleasure to speak to a group of people who are very attentive, and show the signs of being really interested. The open discussion we had after the talk, for about forty minutes, was lively and informed. The evening gave me a real lift, and nurtured my hope for a better future for the Church.
Two more requests for talks have come in to me, and are now on my events list. They are in Clifden (April 23rd) and in the East Clare Golf Club (April 10th). The one is the golf club is part of a series being organised by the parishes that make up the deanery of east Clare.
