Search results for ""Author Gerry O'Hanlon""

Pope Francis wants to bring about a quiet revolution within the Catholic Church. He wants a reformed church in which the `sense of the faithful’, the instinct of baptised men and women, is given a role in the formation and reception of church teaching and governance. The model is one of Jesus conversing with his male and female disciples in Palestine – a walking together of the People of God, a `synodal’ church. Irish Jesuit theologian Gerry O’Hanlon examines this ecclesiological project of Francis and the new roles within it of pope and bishops, theologians, and all the baptised. He considers the Pope's strategy of a changed ecclesial structure that would out-live his own pontificate. Francis advocates a critical openness to contemporary culture, a culture of consultation and open debate, and communal discernment practised at every level of `an entirely synodal church'. O’Hanlon argues that this project offers new hope of a better reading of the `signs of the times’ by the Catholic Church, not least in areas of sexuality of gender. The author applies this analysis to our situation in Ireland and suggests that whatever about the desirable spiritual renewal which a papal visit may inspire, it is to be hoped that the more lasting long-term effects might be the realisation of a synodal Irish Catholic Church.

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We live in an Ireland, and a world, where conventional economic models have failed, politics is fractured, what it means to be human is contested, and opposition between secularists and believers is conducted like some kind of Punch-and-Judy show. The dominant narrative of our time is spent. What might replace it? A group of individuals, with expertise in different fields of Irish life, have come together to make a case for constructive engagement and dialogue between secularists and religious believers, in order to imagine an alternative narrative for our day. This narrative, involving a more participatory democracy, would be in service of social and ecological justice and human flourishing. It is a narrative that would welcome input from secular sources and religious voices, from poor and rich people, from atheists and believers, from scientists and philosophers, from poets and theologians. The present book is the fruit of their sharing and deliberations. It is their hope that they can contribute to a more widespread `dialogue of hope’ that will champion an inclusive vision of society where all can flourish and feel at home.

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