Representing the priests of Ireland?

When the internet was invented, I wonder whether people really thought through the implications of the hyperlink? One link leads to another link which leads to another link .... and before you know where you are you are reading something posted on the other side of the globe about an event that happened on your own side of the world.

That's how I ended up reading IRELAND: The Inaugural meeting of the Association of Catholic Priests took place on 15th September 2010, in Portlaoise Parish Centre. The Association of Catholic Priests caught the headlines when it spoke out against the introduction of the new English translation of the Roman Missal early in February 2011. The text of their press release - and most interesting comments, do read them - can be found here.

What is interesting about the article published by the National Council of Priests of  Australia is the observation that the Irish Association of Catholic Priests does not set out to represent the views of all priests in Ireland:

[The Association] will be a voice for Catholic priests in Ireland and membership is, of course, open to all priests but it will not be a voice for all priests because the effort to represent all views eventually leads to bland, inoffensive statements that end up representing no one and making no compelling point. We want to place that on clearly on the record at this point. We are not attempting to represent all priests and our hope is that this initiative will not be undermined by those who would prefer us to represent nobody unless we represent everybody.

The agenda that the Association had at its conception is expressed in the statement of its objectives; so one shouldn't really be surprised that those priests who join will have the same agenda ... and on its own admission, the Association isn't going to represent any other views. Scanning quickly some of the reports of inaugural meetings on the website of the Association at diocesan level, the impression is gained of the founding organisers spending quite a bit of time and energy promoting the Association and its agenda. One of the reports suggests that younger priests are generally not taking part ...