Women Priests on Agenda of Humbert International Summer School on Sunday, September 7th in Ballina, County Mayo, Ireland

By Gregory Dillon

The ordination of women may not be on the agenda for either Pope Francis or the October Extraordinary Synod of Bishops in Rome, but the need for women clergy in a reformed Catholic Church will be strongly supported at an international forum being held this week in the West of Ireland market town of Ballina, in County Mayo.
Allowing women to be ordained in a Church where the traditional male, celibate authoritarian priesthood is literally dying out as elderly male clerics depart to their eternal reward, will be a major topic for debate at the Humbert International Summer School, one of Ireland’s premier not-for-profit voluntary organisations.
Established in 1987 the Humbert School is named after the French Revolutionary General Jean Humbert, who invaded Ireland in 1798 to liberate the Irish from British rule, but was defeated in County Longford on September 8 by Lord Cornwallis and his superior English and Scottish forces. Humbert later migrated to America and was commended by General Andrew Jackson at the Battle of New Orleans.
The School’s Patron, is Mr John Hume, the Nobel Peace Laureate.  Its Founder-Director is Mr John Cooney, an author and journalist specialising in politics and religion. 
The 28th annual School, which opens in Ballina’s  Merry Monk will be addressed by Ireland’s Deputy Prime Minister and Leader of the Labour Party, Joan Burton. Ms Burton, who is  Minister for Social Protection in the Government led by Enda Kenny, will speak on the subject of “Accountability in Public Life.”
Other major debates will cover the World War One’s enduring legacy, the EU as a force for peace in a troubled globe, the implications of Scottish Independence, climate change and Catholic Church Reform under Pope Francis.
On Sunday September 7  Frenchwoman Soline Humbert, a well-known Spiritual Guide and Advocate of the Ordination of Women in the Roman Catholic Church, will address the School on the Church’s urgent need to ordain women to the ministry.    
Her call will be supported by Brendan Butler, Chairman of the Irish branch of the international We Are Church  Movement. Mr Butler will also make the case for married male clergy and the adaptation of church teaching on sexual morality to modern insights of human psychology.
An appraisal of Pope Francis’s pontificate to-date will be deliberated by the influential  Michael Kelly, Editor of The Irish Catholic. .
  An innovative feature of this year’s four day School will be sessions devoted to “Conversations with Authors.”
One of these authors will Canon Virginia Kennerley, who was the first woman to be ordained a priest in the Anglican Church of Ireland.  The Church of Ireland, ahead of its sister Church in England, elected its first woman bishop last year.
Canon Ginnie, who is a former journalist, is Editor of Search, the Church of Ireland Theological Journal.  She is also author of Embracing Women which tells of her path to the priesthood, and is co-editor of Homosexuality and the Church of Ireland. 
Meanwhile, the Vatican Two veteran reporter of Time fame, Robert Kaiser, has sent his colleague and fellow Vaticanologist, John Cooney,  a complimentary digital copy of his just published book, What makes Francis tick. Mr Kaiser addressed the Humbert School in 2010 as did Bishop Bridget Mary Meehan of the Roman Catholic Women Priests Association.
Ahead of the School, Mr Cooney said he will circulate Mr Kaiser’s book among the Humbert Club readers.
A special extra session will be held on Sunday afternoon to pay tribute to Albert Reynolds, the former Irish Prime Minister who along with John Hume negotiated the historic Provisional IRA ceasefire rwenty years ago.
On Sunday the “Remembering Albert Reynolds” will be chaired by John Cooney, who covered the peace process as a journalist.
Also to be remembering will be John Moran, Humbert School Photographer by Sean Garland, the retired President of the Workers Party of Ireland, which before taking the democratic route was the Official IRA.
For details of the programme  see the website  humbertsummer school.com
Contact is John Cooney 00 353 87 2418461.
Here below also the Programme: 
  The 28th Annual Humbert School
  Venue: The Merry Monk, Killala Road, Ballina.
Thursday September 4 – Sunday September 7, 2014

   Honorary President, John Hume, Nobel Peace Laureate.
   Co-Directors John Cooney and Noel Coghlan
                                                                          Themes
          Accountability in Public Life  
          World War One’s enduring legacy.
          Humbert Foreign Policy Forum: Is the EU a
          force for peace in a troubled globe?
          Humbert Book Club Conversations with Authors.
          Climate change
          Catholic Church Reform under Pope Francis
          Bishop Stock Peace Debate.

Thursday September 4
7 p.m. The Merry Monk. Opening of 28th Humbert School
Welcome – John Cooney, Founder-Director of the Humbert International Summer School.
The Second Tony Gilroy Memorial Address: Accountability in Public Life.
Guest speaker
Tanaiste Joan Burton T.D, Minister for Social Protection and Leader of the Labour Party.  
Chair John Cooney.
Followed by Humbert Annual Dinner

Friday, September 5.
Session 2.     10a.m. The First World War: The Home Front: Mayo’s Own: The Connaught Rangers. 
– Speaker, Noel Coghlan, Co-Director of the Humbert International Summer School and former British Army Officer.
11 a.m. Coffee break

Session 3. 11 a.m. John Healy Memorial Address:
Conflict and Division in Ireland at the Outbreak off the Great War. 
Speaker: Ken Kinsella, author of Out of the Dark, 1914-1918. South Dubliners who fell in the Great War, (Merrion Publishers)
Chair:  John Cooney.

Session 4 Remembering the Dead - The Act of Remembrance – read by Noel Coghlan. 

Lunch break

Session 5  Merry Monk 3 pm.  ‘Its been a rough winter’. Lords of creation – An ethical response to climate change
Guest Speakers
– Fr Sean McDonagh, theologian and anthropologist. 
- Pat Boyle, Journalist. 
– Chair, Raymond O’Baoil, Humbert School Committee.
Session 6. 8 p.m.  Humbert Book Club
Canon Virginia Kennerley,Editor of Search, the Church of Ireland Journal. Author of Embracing Women and co-editor of Homosexuality and the Church of Ireland. 
Luke Waldron, author of A Dawn Unforeseen, Journey from the West of Ireland to the Barrios of Peru, Liffey Press.   
Donal Flynn, author of The Future of the Irish Language, speaking on “The Political Future of the Irish Language”.    
Chair Stephen Stokes, Antiquarian Bookseller, Stokes Books, Dublin.  

Saturday September 6
Session 7 The Merry Monk, Ballina. 10am.
Humbert Foreign Policy Forum: Is the EU a force for peace in a troubled globe?

Speakers
Dara Calleary T.D., Fianna Fail Frontbencherand former Government Minister of State at the Dept. of the Taoiseach. 
Dr Paul Gillespie, Irish Times columnist.
Ed Kelly, Former director, Irish Studies Programme, University of Szeged, Hungary, speaking on Continental Drift: Syria, Egypt and the Ukraine in the Age of Obama, Putin, Hollande and Cameron.
Giovanni Molinari, Italian journalist living in Sligo.  
Coffee Break    11 30 a.m.
Session 8 Implications of Scottish Independence Referendum.
Dr Dennis Kennedy, former Head of the EU Commission Office in Belfast and Deputy Editor of The Irish Times, – Ulster Says No.
John Cooney, Dr Livingstone’s Blantyre Says Yes.
Lunch break 

Session 9.  3. p.m. Visit to Kilcummin, site of Humbert’s landing in 1798.
Speaker Dr Dennis Kennedy, author of Dublin’s Fallen Hero. The Long Life and Sudden Death of Nelson’s Pillar, 1809-1966.
Session 10 Maughan’s, Lacken, 4 p.m.
Humbert as Hollywood Movie - John Cooney, author, historian and founder of the Humbert International Summer School.
Daniel Rooney, Graduate student on Film, - Humbert Outside Hollywood.
5.30 p.m.         Return to Ballina.

Session 11 8 p.m.
Humbert Book Club 

Sean Boyne, Journalist, author and biographer of Emmet Dalton, Somme Hero, Civil War General, Film Producer.
Pat Quigley, Author The Polish Irishman. The Life and Times of Count Casimir Markievicz, Liffey Press, speaking on “Casimir Markievicz and the Great War in the East.” 
Sean Boyd, Author Behind the Horseshoe Bar, At Dublin’s Shelbourne Hotel.
– Dr John Kearns, General Editor of Translation Ireland, presenting a special issue on Polish/Irish Issues in Translation.
Chair Raymond O’Baoill, Communications Consultant and former Forfas na Gaelige.  
Sunday, September 7.
Session 12. Merry Monk, Killala Road, Ballina. 10am.  
Catholic Church Reform under Pope Francis.  
Mark Vincent Healy, abuse survivor and campaigner who met Pope Francis in July.
Session 14 Humbert Luncheon   
Remembering Albert Reynolds by Dara Calleary T.D.
Remembering John Moran, Humbert School Photographer by Sean Garland, Retired President of the Workers Party of Ireland.
Chair John Cooney.  
ENDS