As I sit at Dulles Airport, waiting to fly back to Ireland, I am reflecting on my week here in the United States.
My first assignment was in Pittsburgh last Wednesday evening, where I was invited to speak to the Association of Pittsburgh Priests. This is an organisation founded back in the late nineteen sixties, after Humanae Vitae. That far back it was an independent association of priests, with an independent voice.
On Tuesday next, November 6th, I am traveling to the United States. It is a significant day, in that it is the day of the mid-term elections over there. Will there be a ‘blue wave’ to give the Democrats control of the House, and maybe also the Senate, and in that way put them in a position where they can clip the wings of the president? Or will Trump pull off another victory?
NATIONAL COUNCIL OF PRIESTS CONVENTION 11th SEPTEMBER 2018
I am a reluctant presenter at this Conference for many reasons but primarily because I am aware that, as a result of the horrendous abuse perpetrated by Catholic clergy which was detailed at the Royal Commission, the morale of Catholic clergy – and especially the morale of the “good guys” – the many dedicated and selfless men who are the face of God to the people to whom they minister, has taken a battering throughout the five years of the Royal Commission into Institutional Child Sexual Abuse and following the release of the report in December 2017.
