I have been impressed by the way Archbishop Eamonn Martin has handled the Synodal Process in Ireland. He has shown an openness, a willingness to listen and to take on board the views of the people that has been impressive. The document that went from the Irish Church to the Vatican is testament to that. It contains most of the issues that we in the reform movement have been campaigning for.
As I sit down now to write my reflections on Benedict/Joseph Ratzinger, it is about twenty four hours since his death was announced, and I have heard and read many people commenting and giving their assessment of this man, and of his contribution to the Catholic Church. I think it is fair to say that I am one of the Irish people whose life has been most significantly effected by his attitudes and his exercise of power.
The First Christmas
18th. December – Cork Unitarian Church – 18th. December
introductory comments
The late Rabbi Lionel Blue, who gently awakened me from my dogmatic slumbering, once told me a great story.
When Franco Zeffirelli was directing the acclaimed Jesus of Nazareth (starring Robert Powell), he had a problem. The child playing the boy Jesus kept stumbling through the words of his bar mitzvah (“Confirmation” for Christians).
Zefirelli had obviously read St.
