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Fr Daniel O'Leary
Blogged by James Preece on 17th September 2008
Looks like Fr Daniel O'Leary came to our very own Middlesbrough Cathedral this evening...
Fr Daniel O'Leary, Fr Daniel O'Leary... Where have I heard that name before... oh yes. Making Everybody Welcome conference. After he gave the keynote speech, a lady asked him when (not if) he foresaw women priests in the Catholic Church. "Women Priests" he said, "are not on the agenda.... Yet." Still, at least he was honest enough to admit there's an agenda.
The Tablet, thanks be to God, has the worst website in the world. All the 'best' articles are not available online (I'm gutted, I really am), we can't see much in the way of actual articles (you have to pay for them) but the blurbs are free... Fr O'Leary provides us with some wonderful quotes. Here's a couple...
"To be excessively scrupulous in trying to eliminate all sin is to miss the point of Christ's example and, as one priest finds, too much virtue can even hurt you"
[link]
too much virtue can even hurt you... ah yes. I distinctly remember Matthew 5:48... "You, therefore, must be perfect, as your heavenly Father is perfect (but careful now, too much virtue can hurt you)."
"Parish priests of great experience understand church teaching. But fragile people need compassion rather than restrictions placed on God's unconditional love"
[link]
Ah yes, of course, "church teaching" equals "restrictions placed on God's unconditional love". I think I saw that in the Catechism once...
Well-known best-selling author O'Leary even features on YouTube where he bastardises the Church's teaching on the importance of family life. Like all the best lies, it has it's grain in truth. Home is a holy place, God is present in all we do. Fr O'Leary, thinks that the reality of Christ living the temple of our bodies and being present in our lives somehow makes our homes more holy than, say, our Churches.
In the first video things are not so bad... It's in the second video that he says this...
We sometimes think that doing the holy things, in the holy places, with the holy people is holier than cleaning up the mess at home, preparing meals, going out to work getting on with the neighbours.
This is not so.
The home is the holiest of all places.
The real presence of Christ in the Tabernacle perhaps comes in a close second?
Because the gap had become too wide between the ordinary things we do and the Church itself. The gap had become so wide, we hardly connected them really.
We did feel the holy things were to do with the parish and the weekend and the churches and the masses. Of course they're holy, but their not the holiest.
Mass. You know, Mass which people have been calling Holy Mass all these years. Well it's not the holiest. My house is holier than Mass...
But its not easy to say. It's nearly easier to dance it or to sing it than to say it.
WTF? How do you sing something you can't say?
Look. Here's something easy to say...
Humanity, our everyday lives and our families can only be considered holy in light of the incarnation. If Christ did not become human and die for us, then it's all bollocks.
God became man. Jesus, Son of God, became one of us. That is why our everyday human activities are holy. That is why we can point to actions like wiping a babies bottom and making the dinner (hopefully not at the same time) and say 'whatever you do for the least of these'. That is why the founder of Opus Dei was able to say "Sanctify your work. Sanctify yourself in your work. Sanctify others through your work."
But our work, our lives, our relationships and our wiping of bottoms can only be sanctified if we leave our homes and go to the holy place. To the Mass, which is not simply a community gathering, a prayer meeting or a shared meal. No. In the Mass we are taken, really, to Calvary itself. To the holiest of places, to the place where Christ himself offers his body as a sacrifice for the world and says 'Take this, all of you, and eat it...'
Our lives, our homes, our families, can only be holy if they are sanctified in the sacraments.
What is it about Middlesbrough Diocese and dissident people from Leeds? If it's not Neo-Pelagian Nuns it's Dissident Daniel.
Fr Daniel O'Leary is parish priest in Ripon. If St Wilfrid were still around, I expect he would be feeling ripped off. Still, he won't be the worst thing in our Cathedral tonight...
Look at him... At least there's no danger of anybody mistaking him for a priest.
Reader Comments
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berenike said...
Argh it makes me soooo FURIOUS! It's that point in the breviary where all the readings are about bad shepherds who don't just let the thin sheep die but make the fat sheep thin as well, etc. Some Jesuit was going on in a paper the other day about how Humanae Vitae doesn't really bind, you know. And I remember reading an interview with a couple one of whom is remarried, (or both, can't remember) and had come back to the church, and simply cannot afford to stop living together in their one-room flat. The agony of living as brother and sister. The large families in my (mostly poor or scraping by) parish. And priests like this would have it that the effort of so many silently heroic lay people in similar situations is meaningless. And those who are not being heroically virtuous are not even being told about the glorious way of sanctity God has predestined for them for all time, never mind helped along it.
Utter b******s.
Thank you for letting me rant. I will understand if you want to remove this from your nice blog!
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Fr Richard Aladics said...
James and Ella, you seem to be getting an influx of liberalism to the Middlesborough Diocese. Both he last speaker you spoke of and this one are from the Leeds Diocese - where they have been pouring water on the Faith for decades. I would advise you not to get drawn in and to have your grace-led powers of discernemnt fully operative.
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mary mcmanus said...
i was searching for fr. Daniel O Leary when i found your website, i have read all his books and am now listening to his lecture series, i find him tremendous, inspirational deeply in touch with himself , his own emotions and truly humble and able to help others, i really believe you have deeply misunderstood him,
god bless
Mary McManus, galway , ireland
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Mark said...
Hi Mary,
I'm sure that Fr. O'Leary has many good qualities and I'm glad that you find him inspiring as you live out your faith.
I find your praise for his character confusing though. I know that self-awareness is a positive quality, but when you say that he's "deeply in touch with himself [and] his own emotions", the first thing that I think is that this is all well and good, but a character trait truly worth mentioning is being in touch with others and their emotions.
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kay said...
I heard Fr D. Oleary speak at the cathedral on Wed and was so impressed and inspired by what he had to say. I am reading his book Travelling light before sending it out to Africa for my son and I hope many others to read, So many people I know have been inspired by him. I cnnot put the book down
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berenike said...
But what is the *point* of being in touch with oneself and havig insight into one's life etc? "Lord, that I may see". Why? Neither of you who are saying how great Fr is, have mentioned the Lord. Obviously there's nothing wrong with getting some non-religious help in sorting out our mental and emotional messes, but this chap is a priest, and the flyer quotes the Gospel - funny no-one has said how he helps people to let God work in their lives, or something of the sort.
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Dolores Omand said...
I thought you might like to meditate on this.
"Be perfect as your heavenly Father is perfect"
Once you know that God has loved you even in your unlovability—which is always the character of a vital spiritual experience—you can't be dualistic anymore, all quid pro quo thinking falls apart.
Now you're inside of mystery that holds imperfection. So now what does perfection become? Perfection becomes not the exclusion of the contaminating element, the enemy, but in fact perfection is precisely the ability to include imperfection. That's perfection!
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Dolores Omand said...
It saddens me to see such negative comments about Fr. Daniel's teaching.
To benefit fully from what he says you need an understanding of Creation spirituality.This tradition affirms humanity's potential to act divinely, and it embraces life - living, dying, growing old and sinning, groaning and celebrating - as the creative energy of God in motion. To be spiritual is to be alive and awake. Creation is the primary sacrament that begins from the "spring of life" or the heart.
Fr. Daniel only teaches what the great mystic saints of the past taught and also our own Celtic saints.
We would do well to meditate on Meister Eckhart when he says,"It is when people are not aware of God's presence everywhere that they seek God by special methods and practices. Such people have not attained God.To all outward appearances persons who continue properly in their pious practices are holy. Inwardly, however they are asses. For they know about God but they do not know God."
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amanda clancy said...
Fr Daniel is ,in my opinion,very close to God.He has a true humility and understanding of people that is pure grace.From listening to him and reading his work my faith has grown wider and deeper.He has reawakened in me the knowledge that God is everywhere and in eveything.I really feel that somewhere along the line you've misunderstood what he was saying and that is such a pity as he is a very rare gift.
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kay glynn said...
I am looking for an article by Daniel O'Leary
Leap in the dark - do you know what paper/mag it was in please - would like to read it again but cannot find it.
Thank you
Kay
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karen said...
I fell over your blog whilst looking for something else. I am disappointed by your words about Father Daniel. I do believe that he helps people to come to want to walk their life fully conscious of God with them. None of us are perfect, nor should we imagine we can be. we all sin because we are human, father Daniel included. Yet Father Daniel seems to have a gift for helping people to recognise how our sin gets in between us and God. In a world where a lot of rubbish is talked about God and where spirituality is reduced to a set of rules and regulations, this is a great and God given gift. Sometimes we find grace (or grace finds us) in unexpected places, if we are open to do so. I hope that you will listen again (or read) his words. After all, one task of a priest is, through grace, to comfort the uncomfortable, and make uncomfortable those who sitting comfortably, as the quote underneath your heading makes clear.
with prayers
karen
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carol said...
Father Daniel has helped me by his writings and speaking enormously. He has lifted a huge burden of guilt from my shoulders,and when I feel depressed his writings always seem to bring me freedom, and that is what Christ does for us, so he has indeed been as Christ to me.
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Sonja Wilson said...
Very saddened to read this negative blog about Daniel O'Leary. Yes, in common with others I think that you have missed the point in Daniel's inspirational teachings and writing which is a great pity. One other point - I have had the priviledge to call Daniel a friend for nearly twenty years now and in all that time and in all his writing and talks I have never heard him put anyone down the way that you have tried in this blog. Isn't there a quote somewhere that says you will know the worth of a tree by the fruit it bears? Please then read some of the above accounts of how Daniel has deeply affected peoples live for the good - far better friut than your negativity?!!
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Jenny Long said...
I've had the pleasure and privilege of hearing Fr Daniel speak; it was a faith changing and life altering experience. Suddenly everything clicked into place. Occasionally in life you are lucky enough to meet someone who shines brightly with Christ's love - Daniel is one of those people, I will be eternally grateful for the insight he has given me into my faith. I'm sure he has more sense than to be perturbed by the comments on this website, which are filled with such vitriol and spite that they seem to be far removed from Divine Love. Sonja, please give Daniel my best and all my love, and let him know we are eagerly awaiting his return to Brentwood Diocese in March. How blessed are you to have a friend such as Daniel!
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Catherine O'Connor said...
I came across your interesting website
while searching for news of Father O'Leary. I am glad he is still active
and bringing his optomistic messages.
I have two books of his in my bookcase,
one well worn and repaired, full of marginal notes. Tomorrow morning when
I go to meditate they will be there and
read for inspiration, as I have been doing for, oh let's see, 6 or 7 years now.
Your website is very good and I will bookmark it on my computer.
Pax,
Catherine
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susan seaton said...
I have enjoyed Daniel O'Leary's writing so much I have referenced them for students undertaking a Diploma of Christian Ministry and Theology. I love his enthusiasum (en theos)!
Thank you so much!
Susan
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Mary said...
I was really saddened to read this blog! There is room in the Catholic Church for many Spiritualities, still one faith. Fr O'Leary is a much respected and loved priest by many people in this country and abroad and has help me to see beyond the rituals and liturgies that we all treasure to the realities that they signify. That is the great love that God has for each one of us and our response to that love is one of gratitude and generosity. To enter fully into the Mass and scripture we each need to have a 'God experience' whether you get that from the relics of St Therese, from Lourdes or from simple contempation it's all valid and should not be riduculed in the way Fr O'Leary has been in this blog. A site like this should be used to buld up the faith, to share our treasures and to deepen respect. Perhaps you could look to the log in your own eye?
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Mark Dobson said...
"Perhaps you could look to the log in your own eye?"
Hello. I don't intend to say anything about Fr. O'Leary, but I'd like to point something out if I may.
I don't doubt the sincerity of your criticism, but advising people to look at the logs in their own eyes doesn't tend to edify - it tends to go round in circles.
It's a saying, however, that everyone desperately needs to apply to themselves.
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berenike said...
I jsut booed my own comment. Having re-read the post, my comment is not relevant to anything Fr O'Leary says is or is said to say. I mean, if you wrote it all out and put the name of a different priest next to it (pick one you respect for Catholicity - Fr John Saward?) it'd make quite a different impression. And I know at least one very pious and orthodox priest who dresses in minging suits with loud ties and a little wooden cross :-D So, not knowing anything about Fr O'L other than what was posted here, mon comment is unjustified in relation him.
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