Co Mayo priest Fr Brendan Hoban, one of the leaders of the organisation, has spoken of how the church needs to face its current crises such as the series of child sex abuse scandals and the fall in vocations.
And speaking ahead of two conferences aimed at increasing the participation of lay Catholics, he said bishops and priests can't solve the church's problems on their own, that it needs the help of ordinary Catholics.
Cardinal Carlo Maria Martini died at the end of August but in an interview given two weeks before his death, he said the Catholic Church is "200 years behind the times".
"In a sense, the Association of Catholic Priests in the last two years of our existence has effectively been echoing what Cardinal Martini has said, that we need to face the issues that are there in the church," said Fr Hoban.