Dear Editor, Surely there is no better time than the present to review our diocesan development planning process. If our current lockdown is to be seen as part of God’s plan for our Church, we need to be listening and learning from our very real present experiences.
Diocesan development plans need to be working documents addressing real issues and areas for development. As part of that process all groups within a diocese should be consulted separately to include for example priests and deacons, diocesan and parish councils, the Legion of Mary, charity groups, youth groups, pilgrim groups, parish welcoming groups, etc.
These groups should be central to putting ideas forward as developments or concerns for them. Each group should have a responsible person to ensure review and implementation of the policy.
An important part of good development planning is the regular reviewing of job descriptions of personnel employed by the dioceses or parishes. This should reflect the changing needs of the parish or the diocese. Consideration could be given to the employed sacristan post including responsibility for technology. This lockdown has seen many priests struggling to set up YouTube, webcams, and more. Some churches were excluded by virtue of not having the technological facility to reach out to the wider community.
This needs to be addressed before the next inevitable lockdown. God certainly has no boundaries.
Yours etc.,
Kate Whelan,
Beaufort, Co. Kerry.
Jesus is never far from home
Dear Editor, With most of our churches closed at the moment and no interaction with our fellow parishioners, some people are not feeling the presence of God.
Thanks to our clergy the Eucharist is celebrated daily throughout the country. Wherever you live, Jesus, present in the Eucharist, is not far from your home.
During the day turn to him in the Eucharist present in your parish church and receive his love, power, healing and protection into your heart and home.
Jesus is dwelling among us, the same Jesus who is risen from the dead.
Yours etc.,
Anne McGrath,
Rathfarnham, Co. Dublin.
Church strategy needed to restore sacraments
Dear Editor, All the signs are that this coronavirus will be with us for a long time. It would good to hear of parishes who are thinking outside the box in order to see how our sacramental life can be restored. Without the sacraments the Christian community cannot thrive. We need an exit strategy and a roadmap for where the Church might be in the foreseeable future.
Yours etc.,
Fr Paddy Gleeson,
Mount Merrion, Dublin.
We must not allow triage scenarios in hospitals
Dear Editor, I read with interest, and growing concern, Martin M. Lintner’s article on triage in one of your recent editions [23/04/2020].
The thought that we may reach a point in Ireland in which health professionals have to choose who live and who dies due to a patient’s prognosis, if there aren’t enough resources to care for patients who are in dire conditions, is horrifying. That of course could happen if our health system becomes overwhelmed.
I’ve seen some of the reports from Italy in which doctors are having to use their finite resources to care for patients they think have a better chance at survival.
Who would have thought it would ever have come to this in this day and age? I pray that this is a situation no one in our healthcare system will be presented with.
In the coming weeks, it is up to the people of this country to take these health regulations seriously, as they are there to save lives and allow everyone to be treated with the same level of quality healthcare.
We do not need to be in a wartime scenario. Stay at home, wash your hands, be safe.
Yours etc.,
Margaret Delaney,
Galway city, Co. Galway.
Our Government has failed the vulnerable
Dear Editor, Yours and David Quinn’s articles on the Government’s failings regarding people in nursing homes which appeared one after the other in the last two editions of the paper [IC 23/04/2020 and IC 30/04/2020] were very enlightening and something that has not been highlighted enough in other media.
Why did the Government fail to provide adequate equipment and protections for staff and residents of nursing homes when it became blatantly clear – even weeks before this coronavirus hit Ireland like it has now – that elderly people were by far the most vulnerable?
Of course the elderly are always going to be in danger of seasonal flus and other viruses, but as we have seen, the amount of cases of the virus in nursing homes has been catastrophic. Did they just dismiss the elderly and vulnerable in their calculations? Did those leading Ireland’s reaction to the coronavirus forget they were there?
There needs to be an explanation and that’s why journalists exist, to get answers to difficult questions and it doesn’t seem like many are interested in doing that at the moment.
Yours etc.,
Gerry Murphy,
Tallaght, Co. Dublin.
