The Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) has announced it intends organising a national assembly of the Irish Church in Dublin next year.
According to ACP spokesman, Fr Brendan Hoban, the focus of the assembly will be reform.
“The ACP has a specific platform of reform and we believe that there are many other groups, clerical and lay, who share that platform and share our belief that we need to be proactive in forwarding that,” he told the English Catholic weekly, The Tablet, during the week.
He added, “The crumbling of our Church in so many different ways demands a clear response.”
At a meeting of the ACP leadership on November 3, it was decided that the Association would initiate the process of organising an assembly, to take place on May 1 2012 at a venue in Dublin.
“We aim to meet with interested parties sometime in January to plan the details of the event,” the ACP leadership has stated.
The ACP, which has a membership of 535 priests in Ireland, believes that in cooperation with other lay and clerical groups, it has the ability and energy to create a platform for change.
Fr Hoban said that while the ACP is not attempting to organise a synod, which had specific ramifications in Canon Law, they did plan to assemble representatives of the Irish Church to debate key issues.
“For too long, we have waited for a real conversation to start in the Irish Catholic Church,” he said. Many had waited also, “for the wisdom of the Second Vatican Council to be translated into the kind of change that would resonate with the lived experiences and needs of our people.”
He added, “We have heard for years about plans for synods. Often, the immensity of the task has placed a focus on the difficulties in delivering such a synod rather than the opportunities it would afford. The ACP believes that rather than continue that discussion ad nauseam we need to just do it."
He acknowledged, "Yes, there will be difficulties around the huge task involved but we believe that in cooperation with other groups we have the ability and the energy.”
The ACP leadership aims to meet interested parties in late January to plan the details of the assembly.
“While the ACP is, in a sense sponsoring this project, the intention is that it will be a joint project with other groups,” Fr Hoban explained.
It is hoped that as a result of the January meeting, a co-ordinating committee, which is representative of the Irish Church, will be established and this will then take responsibility for organising the assembly.
Fr Hoban told ciNews that decisions relating to speakers and agendas await the establishment of the co-ordinating committee.
“We hope that as a result of this assembly that we will unleash an energy and a drive to focus again on the kind of Church envisaged by Vatican II”, he said.