Tony Flannery

Professor Brendan MacSuibhne, of NUIG, speaking at the West Cork History Festival in Skibbereen. He spoke about the low rate of Mass attendance among Irish Catholics pre-famine, and now it gradually changed after the famine, until, in the twentieth century Ireland had probably the highest rate of Mass attendance of any country in the world.

As you can see in the quote below, he considered that my ancestors in the Redemptorists had contributed greatly to make the Irish people devoted and devotional.

Those of you who are acquainted with my views, as expressed in this blog, and also with the ACP website, will know that we came away from the Synodal Gathering in Athlone some weeks ago with a real sense of hope and expectation that significant change is afoot in our Church. From first becoming aware of Pope Francis’ idea of a Synodal process, I regarded it as something that could bring about a very new and different style of being Church.The

Memories, memories ………

Reeling in the Years two evening ago featured 2011. It brought back to me the fact that it proved to be a more significant year in my life than I thought at the time.

The programme mentioned the Cloyne Report on clerical abuse of minors in the Diocese of Cloyne in the south of Ireland. It was big news at the time, and led, later on in the year to the speech in the Dail by then Taoiseach, Enda Kenny, attacking the Vatican in a very forthright way.