Congratulations to Birdie Kinsella who celebrated her 90th Birthday on October 17th. 2022
Congratulations to Nicole Fitzgerald, Hillside Drive, Athea, on her Graduation at Limerick University on Friday last.
“Frances Kennedy Live and Kicking”
One woman show at St. John’s Theatre, Listowel on Friday, Nov. 18th at 8pm A night of music, song, stories and a belly full of laughs
Found
A grey Puma Sports Bag found at Rathronan car park. Contact Athea Community Council Office.
50th Anniversary Celebration
Athea branch of Comhaltas Ceoltóirí Éireann will celebrate 50 years in existence at the Top of the Town on Sat. Nov. 26th starting at 8pm. Everyone is invited to join us for a night of music and song with a bit of food for good measure.
St. Bartholomew’s Church Athea
Mass Intentions next weekend Sun Nov 13th at 11 am
Michael & Peg Reidy and Johanna Sheehy and Chris Goodale.
Patrick & Mary O’Sullivan,
Ministers of the Word Amy O’Connor & Marie White
Ministers of the Eucharist Mary Sheahan & Catherine Woulfe
Weekday Masses this week Tuesday morning at 9.30 and Thursday evening at 7pm.
Eucharistic Adoration and Devine Mercy Chaplet on Tuesday morning after mass.
All masses are streamed live on https://www,churchservices.tv/athea
Baptisms on the 4th Sunday of the month at 12noon.
Parish Office: Mon-Fri 11am-1pm. Call 087-3331459 or email [email protected]
Prayers at Templeathea Graveyard on Sunday next Nov 13th after 11am mass.
Annual Remembrance Mass on Friday November 18th at 7pm
The Way I See It
By Domhnall de Barra
All last week, the papers, radio and TV were full with discussions and comments on the homily given by Fr. Sheehy, a retired priest who was deputising for Fr. Declan O’Connor, in Listowel Parish Church the previous Saturday evening. He made the claim that the state was encouraging sin by legislating for gay and transgender rights and that anybody in a same sex relationship was living in sin. Some people got up and left the church and the Bishop of Kerry was quick to come out and apologise the following morning. Much as I don’t agree with him I have to admit that what he said was correct because it was based on the teachings of the Catholic Church . The mistake he made was to single out gay people because the Church’s teachings don’t just apply to them, they apply to heterosexual couples as well. Sex is the problem, not homosexuality. It is only permitted between married couples (male and female) and then only for procreation. I remember talking to a very devout old couple, many years ago, who told me that they believed that when the wife got pregnant it would be a sin for them to have sex afterwards. When they did have sex , as was bound to happen to a couple of healthy people sleeping in the one bed, they couldn’t wait to go to Confession on the next Saturday night to get absolution. Until that happened they lived in fear of dying and being cast into the fires of Hell forever. This is not in the dark ages but in my lifetime and things were brought to the fore with the arrival of contraception. The Church was very much against it in the beginning and I know several women who were refused absolution when they revealed in Confession that they were on the pill. The Pope made very strong statements in the beginning but soon the attitude softened and the priests turned a blind eye to that particular sin even though the teachings did not change. They began to realise that the world was changing and what was suitable over 2000 years ago was not now fit for purpose, As one man said to me in London at the time, “it’s all right for the Pope to be giving out but he does not have to live in a two room flat in Kilburn”. In Ireland too, things had changed. People could no longer afford to have 10 or 12 children like their parents before them. Long ago, the eldest left school at 14 and went away to earn a living, usually to England or America. They sent home money every week to help raise the others who joined them abroad as soon as they reached school-leaving age. In modern times children don’t leave at 14, they go on to second and third level education so big families are out of the question for ordinary couples. Imagine having three in university and four in secondary school at the same time, it would be impossible so therefore contraception is necessary to limit the number of children in a relationship. People no longer think of it as a sin but that does not mean that it has been sanctioned by the Church. People who are divorced are also discriminated against. They are not allowed to remarry in a Catholic ceremony and if they do get married in a civil ceremony they are thought to be living in sin and are banned from the sacraments. We also now accept that people may live together without getting married but that too is technically a sin. The problem is not with the teachings of Christ, it is the interpretation of those teachings by elderly celibate men who have their heads stuck in the sand. Some of these teachings are questionable anyway since they were written hundreds of years after the death of Jesus but “them is the rules”, as they say, and if you want to be part of a club you either obey the rules or resign. In recent years many Catholics have taken an a-la-carte approach to the rules, obeying what they like and ignoring the ones they don’t like. Priests are slow to find fault because people are voting with their feet and leaving the Church in droves. I am one of them but I believe in God and I find great comfort in the words of Jesus Christ because He nearly always talks about the importance of love and kindness and we could surely do with more of that in the world today. The old scriptures should not be taken literally. In one passage according to Matthew it says “And if thy right eye offend thee, pluck it out, and cast it from thee: for it is profitable for thee that one of thy members should perish, and. not that thy whole body should be cast into hell ”.
If we all followed that there would be an awful lot of blind people about. The Church has to have a serious look at its statutes and bring them up to date. There is no comparison between the first century and the world we live in today yet we have not made enough changes. To be fair some practises have been dropped like the necessity for a woman to go to the altar to be “cleansed” soon after childbirth. I remember watching my mother and I know she was embarrassed to be seen at the altar. Yes, changes can and should be made and the Pope could do it in the morning because he is Christ’s vicar on earth and when he speaks on articles of faith, we are told, he is infallible. If changes, like admitting women and married priests and taking the stigma away from sex , are not made then I am afraid I will live to see the demise of the Catholic faith in Ireland and that would be a great pity because we have some really caring, wonderful priests who are fighting against the odds and the good the Church does far outweighs it’s faults. I suppose Fr. Sheehy would say that I am encouraging the committing of sin with these few lines but I believe that what consenting adults, of any gender do, in their own privacy is not a matter for church or state.
Letter to the Editor
Hello Domhnall,
Well done on highlighting the proposed lighting on this footpath. I see remedy renovations are happening. Hopefully someone will take note of the dangers you have so often mentioned about walking on the Glin road.
I always look forward to your newsletter and really enjoy your column every week.
Thank you. P.S. (Name and address supplied)
Do you have any comments you would like us to print? If so please send them to [email protected] We will only print letters that have a name and address but we won’t publish names unless you want us to.