Thursday, December 30, 2010

Priests press for assembly

A GROUP of radical priests is pressing for a historic first national assembly of the Irish Catholic Church in response to the clerical child abuse crisis.

"The time may well be right for some form of assembly or synod of the Irish church," the Association of Catholic Priests said.

The association also announced it hoped to have an early meeting with the hierarchy to begin the process of organising an assembly or synod, inclusive of all sections of opinion in the church, including lay people.

They agreed the examination of the structures of the church must include dialogue in relation to sexuality, clerical celibacy and the exclusion of women.

SIC: II/IE