A brief summary on the current state of the U.S. Church
The Catholic Church in the United States has been deeply divided for many years now, but the election of Joe Biden as President has brought the divisions into the public domain in a new way. For those who are not familiar with the U.S. church, I will provide here a short summary of the issues and the main characters involved.
TG4 did a very interesting programme on the discovery of the Faddan More Psalter, an ancient manuscript of the Psalms found in an Offaly bog. It dated from the eight century. The programme outlined the work that went into restoring what was left of the manuscript, and what could be learned from it. One of the really interesting things was that it had influences from the Coptic Church in the Middle East.
Press Statement from Tony Flannery
In the last while two senior members of the Catholic Church have made statements about the position of women in the Church, and specifically about women’s ordination.
Bishop Batzing, the President of the German Bishops Conference is reported by America Magazine, among many other outlets, as saying he is in favour of women being ordained deacons. He goes on to say, in relation to the arguments against the ordination of women:
“I must honestly say that I am also aware that these arguments are becoming less and less convincing and that there are well-developed arguments in theology in favour of opening up the sacramental ministry to women as well,”
The Archbishop-elect of Dublin, Dermot Farrell, in an interview with the Irish Times, said “he would like to see women becoming deacons in the church.”
