Leaven
Jubilee is an association for excluded Catholic Priests
in Ireland. Excluded Priests refers to those Catholic Priests who are excluded
from the mainstream of the Catholic Church not by choice and not by the
teaching of Jesus but by the Church hierarchy, the Established Church.
The majority of excluded Priests are married Priests; however, all are
excluded because of their relationships, associations, and activities...
(which) are well within the legal and cultural norms of our free and democratic
society.
So begins the new website of Leaven www.jubilee.ie.nu which was
begun this year as a project for communication among its members. Leaven
is attempting to redefine itself to better achieve its objectives as a
christian community. The creation of the website is a concrete effort to
represent a wide variety of people. There are many individuals serving
marginalised catholic communities and fulfilling a great need, but until
the creation of Jubilee, there was no network to keep them in touch with
one another. Hopefully from this, they will be stronger and better able
to carry on whether or not they become members of Leaven.
For example, Fr. Miceal Noone with his wife, Kathy, and their two sons
are not members of Leaven because they do not like the name "former priests",
but they celebrate a eucharist every Sunday in Galway. It is called the
"La Graal" mass because their community meets in a wine bar named La Graal.
In the past, Leaven has assisted many priests who were disillusioned with
the "Institution" and by bringing them together let them see that they
were not alone in their feelings, hurt and pain. "It was Leaven that helped
most of us move on because of the support and friendship" says Martina
Carroll and her husband Roman Furgalski. Many times it was the friendship
and faith of very traditional members that inspired others. For this reason,
Leaven seems to move slowly forward. Leaven wants to leave no one behind,
but seeks to do justice to everyone's experience. At the moment, the difficulty
is in reaching a consensus as to the meaning of christian community.
Leaven carries on in hope, however, and in the sure knowledge that, as
Martina says "You cannot live a life of giving without being nourished;
without love, you burn out." Corpus Canada recognizes the difficulties
and the wisdom of Leaven's position and recommends them all to the support
of our prayers.
Summary by Chris Diamond of information supplied by Martina Carroll
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