Contributors

Editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper Michael Kelly talks to The Confession Box podcast about his experiences at World Youth Day, the challenges parishes face in trying to provide spaces for young people to express their faith and the exact meaning of ‘todos, todos, todos’ going forward in the Church.

Fr Joe McDonald is a priest based in the Archdiocese of Dublin, prominent advocate for reform in the Church and a familiar face in Irish media. Here he candidly speaks to Garry O’Sullivan and Brandon Scott on the brand-new Confession Box podcast about reform, renewal and rot.

“Pushed to the extreme, then all the males in the Church should be ordained and all the laity should be women! The Bible teaches otherwise. All human beings are created in the image and likeness of God, without distinction of gender,” writes scripture scholar, Dr Kieran O’Mahony.

“Something was and is deeply rotten in the State of the Vatican. But what do we do? Where do we go? The answer, we are told is to pray and to trust. In these synodal times, we are told that the Church authorities are listening. That a new spirit has descended upon the waters. That the ‘Church’ is changing,” writes Brian Devlin.

“When The Synodal Times came out with its first issue in June 2022, Fr Pascal Scallon, Provincial of the Irish Vincentians said that synodality could learn from the religious orders because they have been doing it for hundreds of years,” writes Garry O’Sullivan.

In this episode, Garry O’Sullivan and Brandon Scott have a frank conversation with Fr Joe McDonald, author of ‘Why the Irish Church Deserves to Die”, about how prophetic and courageous the late Sinéad O’Connor’s words were about the rampant abuse in the Catholic Church in Ireland and how shameful the reaction and inaction of society was at the time.

On this episode of The Confession Box, Garry O’Sullivan discusses the fate of Christians in the Holy Land with guest Michael Kelly – editor of The Irish Catholic newspaper.

“Cardinal Mario Grech recently stated that ‘hot-button’ issues such as the ordination of women to priesthood and the blessing of same-sex unions will not be on the agenda. Synod 2021-2024 is intended to embed synodality within the day-to-day life of the Church,” writes Fr Eamonn Conway.

Being responsible includes accepting criticism, writes Indian Jesuit Fr Kuruvilla Pandikattu