RELAUNCHED PRIEST’S ORGANISATION CALLS FOR ONE DAY WORKING WEEK.

THE CLERICAL ORGANISATION, THE SPR – SOCIETY OF PERPECTUAL RECREATION – HAS CALLED FOR A ONE DAY WORKING WEEK FOR OVERWORKED AND UNDER APPRECIATED IRISH CATHOLIC PRIESTS.

Canon Denis Sweeney RIP

The emergence of the SPR, founded by Canon Denis Sweeney of Northampton Diocese, in Ireland poses the prospect of the dissolution of the poorly regarded Irish priest’s union – The Association of Catholic Priests.

Canon Sweeney was a biker and a massive collector of antiques, old clocks, old radios and hurch plate.

The relaunch of the SPR in Ireland occurred on Wednesday November 26th in the seaside recreation resort of Newcastle, County Down.

The Newcastle event was organised by the SPR’s founding secretary, Father Raimondo Turri SPR, formerly of Westminster diocese and now with the Verona Fathers in Italy.

Father Turri is thought to be the illegitimate child of Prince Charles and Dame Greta Turri, the Italian mistress of Saint John Paul 11.

The motto of the SPR is:

Et exivit face bonus et fecit bene

Which means ” He went out to do good and he did well”.

In other words, he, the priest, started off with good intentions, and later abandoned them.

Members of the SPR only do work on a Sunday but recreate alone and with each other on the other six days of the week.

They wine and dine either in each others presbyteries or in various hotels and hostelries.

Their meetings involve serious drinking and serious eating.

Periodically, they elect one of their members to the position they call Father General. At their gatherings Father General wears the purple mozetta of a deceased or retired bishop.

The SPR held an inaugural meeting of SPR NORTHERN IRELAND last Wednesday evening in an Italian restaurant in County Down. The English Father General presided over the meeting and I was the guest speaker.

I gently challenged them about the morality and spirituality of having such an imbalance between work and recreation in their lives and the level of cynicism that could accompany and inform such an imbalance.

While they were very gracious and indeed generous with me, they totally rejected my challenge and said that their outlook was perfectly in line with RC cleticalism to which they are 100% dedicated.

They gave me a speaking fee, arranged hotel accommodation and paid my travelling expenses.

Like AA they only use first names when non members are at their meetings. I gathered that the meeting was attended by the English Father General, Father Turri, two Down and Connor priests, one Dromore priest and five Armagh priests.

Each Northern priest present vowed to bring another priest with them to their next meeting in Enniskillen on December 28th.

WEDDING

I managed to combine my meeting with the SPR with a wedding in the Slieve Donard Hotel in Newcastle. It was a bit of a rough day, weatherwise, in the Mournes.

BROTHER CHARLES DE FOUCAULD

Today is the anniversary of the death of Brother Charles in the Sahara desert at Tamanrasset in 1916.

Brother Charles inspired the Little Brothers of Jesus, the Little Sisters of Jesus and the Jesus Caritas movement.

Google him. He is very interesting and inspiring.

WORLD AIDS DAY

Today we remember all the millions of our brothers and sisters who have perished in the AIDS disaster.

And we thank God for the new drugs the antiretrovirals that for all practical purposes are a cure and prevent hiv+ becoming AIDS.