Thursday 19 September 2013

GREETING CARD FROM DOWN AND CONNOR PRIEST

GREETING CARD FROM DOWN AND CONNOR PRIEST

LAST NIGHT I RECEIVED A GREETING CARD FROM A PRIEST OF THE DIOCESE OF DOWN AND CONNOR.

I REPRODUCE THE OUTSIDE OF THE CARD HERE TO LET THE PRIEST SEE THAT I RECEIVED IT.

I DO NOT REPRODUCE HIS ACTUAL WRITING ON THE INSIDE - IN CASE SOMEONE TRIES TO SEE WHO'S HANDWRITING IT IS.

IF THE PRIEST IS HAPPY TO LET ME PRODUCE HIS HANDWRITING ON THE CARD - THEN CAN HE PLEASE LET ME KNOW.

PAT

OTHER SIDE OF CARD

WHAT THE PRIEST WRITES:

16.9.2013

"DEAR PAT,

I AM FOLLOWING YOUR BLOG WITH INTEREST.

A FEW POINTS:

1. FR PAUL SYMONDS WAS TOLD BY BISHOP NOEL TREANOR IN JUNE THAT HE WOULD NOT BE ALLOWED TO MINISTER AGAIN IN D & C.
FATHER PAUL SYMONDS


FR PAUL CHALLENGED HIM PUBLICLY IN ST OLIVER PLUNKETT CHURCH ON THE EVENING OF JULY 3RD 2013, AT 25TH SILVER JUBILEE MASS FOR FR MARTIN MAGILL.
FATHER MARTIN MAGILL


BISHOP REACTED WITH FURY AFTER MASS - TOOK FR PAUL OUTSIDE - VERY HEATED DISCUSSION TOOK PLACE - NEITHER CAME TO THE HALL FOR REFRESHMENTS !

2, BISHOP NOEL IS AT PRESENT RESIDING IN "TIEVE TARA" - OPPOSITE LISBREEN ENTRANCE.


WHY IS DIOCESE SPENDING APPROX £ 2 MILLION ON LISBREEN RESIDENCE ? !

SHAMEFUL WASTE OF MONEY !!

Signed,

A PRIEST OF D & C.

(serving in Co. Down)
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

ANYBODY LIKE TO RESPOND ???

Bishop Pat
19.9.2013.




4 comments:

  1. Martin Magill 25 years on!! I remember Martin in the Irish College in Rome. I cant recall if he was ahead of or behind me. I rember Martin as a kind & caring soul. God Bless lad. I wonder where I would be now were I still in Elphin. Life is short & swift. We need to keep sane above all else. as is said in Hamlet "this above all to thine own self be true..." Sean

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  2. There is no shortage of money in Holy Family Parish.
    Holy Family Parish in Belfast over the last three years has squandered many thousands of pounds on several staff investigations, which apparently involved, private investigators, expensive HR Companies and legal fees and even graphology analysis. This seems to have been carried out with the implicit approval of Lisbreen, these investigations seem to have amounted to nothing. The then PP was very cavalier with parishioners money during a time of austerity. Parishioners like me are still waiting to know what has been achieved.

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  3. Re Father Paul Symonds -isn't he English ? Anyhow, it seems to be more of the Father Hugh Kennedy stuff, if I am reading the situation correctly. Nothing criminal, nothing that the PSNI would be interested in, but enough to make the Church authorities nervous about re-admitting him to active ministry. If he were in any other profession Father Symonds could probably have recourse to some sort of employment tribunal; for example, if he were a doctor and was suspended for something which wasn't criminal, but put a question mark over his suitability, he could have recourse to the GMC to question the justice of such. But, in the Catholic Church there really isn't anything like that, even though some will say that priests have some protection afforded to them by Canon Law. The reality is that Bishops are able to act like totalitarian dictators - the whim of the morning becomes the decree of the afternoon. They are supported in this by the idiotic notion that priests are not employees and Bishops not employers, and therefore all the protections of employment are denied to the priest as well. End result is that priests are treated abysmally and unjustly in their dealings with Bishops, with little or no protections and recourse. Whatever the Bishop thinks Father Symonds has done to make him unsuitable for active ministry will never be tested or explained openly, fairly and justly. Perhaps not even to Father Symonds himself.

    Which brings me to the situation that priests find themselves in with regard to their lives. Most priests exist in some kind of feudal relationship with the Bishop and Diocese. It is not a relationship of equals. It is idealised and spiritualised by the business of sacrifice and obedience, bending one's will to the will of God as voiced through the Church and the Bishop, but in reality this is just a smokescreen to disguise what is, in effect, an unhealthy relationship of inequality. My observation is that priests are infantilised by this kind of relationship, which along with many other aspects of their lives (eg mandatory celibacy among others) leads to an unhealthy emotional, mental and affective existence. This kind of relationship that a priest has with his Bishop and Diocese means that the priest is constantly dependant
    - on the will of the Bishop, on the material support of the Diocese, for his status and ministry. Everything, but everything that means anything to the priest, is dependant on his Bishop. That is just unbalanced, leading to grave injustice and debilitating consequences for the priest.

    Talking to an Irish priest friend of mine the other day, and explaining my intentions for myself for the future and my fortunate situation in having some independence and autonomy, not least of which is material and financial independence, he told me that he would love to have a degree of that for himself, but that he simply had no option but to carry on at the whim of the Diocese until he was at least 75, and even then to be expected to carry on even further, not least because his ability to live and exist lay in the hands of the Bishop and the Diocese. I suspect many priests feel like this - dependant, constrained, powerless, without any independence and autonomy. That's an unjust situation, which is structurally ingrained in to the make up the Church and its Dioceses.

    Things need to - must - change. Then Father Paul Symonds might at least have the dignity of being able to challenge decisions made by the Bishop, and the Bishop would have to be transparent in explaining his decisions. That would be just and right. Instead of us all having to suffer the present injustice inflicted on good priests.

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  4. I have asked UNISON union on their stance on clerics joining a union. The lady I spoke to in a call centre advised me that a Priest/Cleric who wants to be part of a union would need to fill in a standard application form & each application would be veetted on its merits. Im sure Union application forms can be found on line. So the ball is back in the in the players court.Sean

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