This makes sobering reading - note also the 15 readers' responses. We are nowhere near as strong yet. But we must surely start reaching out to try and engage our own bishops whereover possible. I hope that all the bishops (and our nuncio) will be invited to our national meetings in future - and local bishops to any regional ones. They need to listen before it's too late. And if any are willing to engage with us, we need to listen to them.

 

In this link Fr Brendan Hoban from the west of Ireland explains what the two-year-old ACP is - and is not - about. He has a new book out: Where do we go from here? The crisis in Irish Catholicism. Don't know the publisher - and it's not yet available on Amazon.co.uk.  But I'd imagine the situation here is not that different. The Irish have now started an Association of Catholics in Ireland (ACI) for the laity. But if the bishops refuse to talk to their priests... We need prayer and strong, wise leadership ! And, of course, many more members.

 

I'm attaching a handout sent me from Melbourne, Nottinghamshire. I'd like to use it as a basis for a handout to publicise a similar meeting here in Lancashire where the dioceses of Liverpool, Lancaster and Salford meet. - were one to happen. Where indeed do we go from here? - Paul Browne