Some in religious life in Ireland are close to despair when they see the enormity of the challenges facing them. These challenges include overcoming ridicule in the aftermath of the Ryan Report, the long and lasting lack of vocations, the lack of energy, the clear need to do something positive, to cast out into the deep, to change or die.
With an average age of 70, according to one congregational leader I spoke with recently, if the challenge can be described as a mountain to climb, it is of Everest proportions. And yet, this is to see it all through the eyes of worldly thinking and not through the eyes of faith like St ThérÉse of Lisieux, and realise the littleness of our ability, and place the mountain of cares in God's hands.
Our natural instinct is to fix, repair and grow -- we've been born and raised in an institutional Church that was far reaching and extremely well-resourced. We've never known institutional weakness in the Irish Church since independence, until now.
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We are a wounded Church. Perhaps that is God's greatest gift to our Church at the moment, its wound. Otherwise how can an institutional religion understand the wounds of its members or have compassion for them?
Institutional religion quickly becomes the religion of the Pharisee, the path of perfection and lacks in compassion for the not so upstanding members whose wounds are easy to point out, which cannot be covered up by wealth, or office or uniforms or sacramental garbs. That is why Jesus speaks so often of those who see without seeing and how they are truly blind. The truly blind didn't see that an innocent child should be protected.
I was doing an interview last week with a local Christian (Catholic) radio programme and when I said that the institutional Church was dying, the interviewer said ''that's a bit harsh''.
I countered, saying it may be harsh to her ears but the question she needed to ask was ''is it true?''
And if it is true then it is fact, and facts are neither harsh nor sweet but speak for themselves.
There is a soft-focus in much of Catholic Ireland that would prefer a few painkillers along with their weekly diet of Catholic news, but dulling the senses is not the way to new thinking.
Others want to reach out and find scapegoats and find solace in blaming others -- the media, secularism, atheists, the new missal, the old Mass, liberals, right-wingers and so on. Red herrings all.
The wound is still there and there's a message in it, for us, and until we respond to the message we will continue to die as an institutional religion in Ireland. The faith, once strong in North Africa died out completely; there are no divine guarantees for Ireland or Western Europe.
But as one religious leader has written: ''We are not here to change the world; we are here to illuminate it.'' We talk about evangelisation but is the salt still salty? Bland Christians don't convince or convert anyone.
Cardinal Brady spoke at the weekend of the numbers looking to study theology and scripture and how encouraging those numbers are.
It is impressive and is a clear sign of the hunger among laity to know more about their faith, to have an adult faith that makes sense. People long for instruction on their spiritual journey, to learn how to pray, to learn how to let go of the nonsense and find what is real.
Institutional religion -- the Church and religious orders -- are failing because there is a failure in leadership.
Quite simply, those in leadership positions were not trained to be leaders in times of chaos, yet some cling to leadership in spite of their inability to lead, others lead because no one else will.
A few recognise that leadership requires vision and is not management or administration but something different.
What we all can agree on is that we are called to be a new type of Church, ''one truly centred around the radical and disturbing vision of Jesus. At our best we know what it is. It is the only way to ensure a future full of hope''.
That quote comes from the head of the Christian Brothers, a disgraced religious order in Ireland with their reputation in 'tatters' and yet, from the margins, from the bottom, comes such insight and wisdom and hope.
I'll leave the last word to the mystics:
''Beware of the tiny gods frightened men create
To bring an anaesthetic relief
To their sad days.''
Be not afraid.
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READ MORE:
More news on the Irish Catholic Church from IrishCentral
Ex-British spy says Dublin was HQ for News International’s IRA phone hacking
Ireland's former richest man Sean Quinn ordered to pay $2.26 billion Anglo Irish Bank
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Switch to the desktop site to post a comment.IrelandNorth | Dec 02, 2011, 08:37 AM EST
Every empire has its day. The Sumerians - Babylonians - Persians - Greeks - Romans - British - American, etc. Why should the Holy Roman Empire be any different. Now we can get back to an authentic generic Christianity, before orthodoxy highjacked a good money spinner 2000 years ago.
warlocks | Dec 01, 2011, 02:21 AM EST
The Catholic Church is just about Dead in Ireland. Its Time Ireland take over and bring back Jesus Christ in a New Church . let it Be a United Cheistian Church of Ireland. Forget those Fat Pagan Sinners of the Vatican.
PolinDeB | Nov 30, 2011, 06:00 PM EST
If the Catholic church stopped worrying so much about gay people and started concentrating on the real message of Christ which was Love, Compassion and Charity.. they'd have a lot less problems. Protecting pedophiles and their assets make them the rich man through needle, ie the camel.. The death of the institutional church is not a bad thing, a happy more understanding church with less emphasis on sexual morals and more on human morals being kind and decent to each other will attract more people.
canadianirish | Nov 30, 2011, 04:33 PM EST
Well said, 'adrienrain'!! Point #2 and #5 nail it on the head!
barneyjo | Nov 30, 2011, 03:56 PM EST
@GeorgeDillon - "Why should Catholics turn Protestant?" I didnt say that they should. Were that to happen then the uniqueness of one branch of the Christian Family would be lost, and despite all that has happened, there is no need for that. No, what I am referring to is Reformation of the Church Body; Clergy, laity and the mechanisms by which both are governed and by which both interact. Whether you want to acknowledge it or not, the drive to this Reformation has already started across large parts of the Catholic world. I say that because the single most crucial element of the church; that is the laity, the faithful recognise the need for change, and are articulating that demand for change. How? in different ways. Many "voting with their feet" and not darkening the door of their church. Many who continue to articulate the need for change from within the Church. And many whose personal journey of faith has been radically altered by the recent revelations about how many have conducted their ministry, at total variance with the true teachings left to us by Christ as Man during his earthly ministry. "Love one another as I have loved you" this was the greatest commandment of all given by God. And this in my view is the greatest deficit in the Clerical Church today."Cardinal Brady settles the latest claim by abuse victim he swore to secrecy" is a story widely reported today."I accept that the vast majority of Catholic clerics are good men. Can the Catholic Church not see that if it wishes to regain the almost universal respect which it once enjoyed and the moral authority which it would wish to wield, it must come to terms with all such just claims against it?" (Brendan Boland)
adrienrain | Nov 30, 2011, 01:49 PM EST
Because celibacy is as virtuous as constipation. Because evil flourishes in secret. Because women are at least as good as men, and men have no legitimate claim of domination over them. Because no one should have to tell their most intimate secret thoughts to someone in authority. Because for all the RC's preference for the poor, its HQ are richly furnished and the pope sits on a golden throne while children starve. Because the obscenity of hierarchy is indefensible. Because the foundation for all the abrahamic religions is patriarchy and genocide. Let the rotten old structure fall forever.
cillowen | Nov 30, 2011, 11:41 AM EST
The need for a church of one's own as in the St Patrick model, a model that served so well until Anglo Adrian trigged the invasion which forced them to pay up and to obey Roman dictates. Collection monies be kept at home and not send a cent to the Vatican. This approach will serve to place blame wherever it correctly belongs.
cillowen | Nov 30, 2011, 11:40 AM EST
The need for a church of one's own as in the St Patrick model, a model that served so well until Anglo Adrian trigged the invasion which forced them to pay up and to obey Roman dictates. Collection monies be kept at home and not send a cent to the Vatican. This approach will serve to place blame wherever it truly belongs.
cillowen | Nov 30, 2011, 11:39 AM EST
The need for a church of one's own as in the St Patrick model, a model that served so well until Anglo Adrian trigged the invasion which forced them to pay up and to obey Roman dictates. Collection monies be kept at home and not send a cent to the Vatican. This approach will serve to place blame wherever it belongs.
jamieLM | Nov 30, 2011, 10:59 AM EST
@merefalow, you make a good point. Religion, like other things, can become a source of evil when it's abused and corrupted. It's not the message of God/Jesus that's the problem, it's some of the messengers and the receivers who are the betrayers and corrupters of the message who are the problem.
KevinKehoe | Nov 30, 2011, 10:47 AM EST
By packing there bags and feak off to Rome
jamieLM | Nov 30, 2011, 10:40 AM EST
Reform is needed in the RCC in the way the hierarchy deals with priests engaged in child sex abuse. This could be referred to as a "reformation" that has nothing to do with the historical Reformation that established the Protestant churches 500 yrs. ago. Even Protestant churches have made reforms in their practices over the years. I doubt anyone is seriously suggesting that Catholics become Protestants, although they need each other where Christianity is constantly under attack.
Murph46 | Nov 30, 2011, 10:27 AM EST
By keep hiring peeping priests!
GeorgeDillon | Nov 30, 2011, 10:07 AM EST
barnyjo: Why should Catholics turn protestant? We had that debate 500 years ago, attended by slaughter and cruelty on both sides. And it's not as if the Protestant Churches in Ireland are actually thriving. Take the Nigerian migrants ouit of their congregations and you're left with two senior citizens and a dog. And don't forget that the Protestant Churches in Ireland have also had their sex abuse scandals, thouigh not surprisingly on a proportionate scale to their numbers.
CitizenWhy | Nov 30, 2011, 09:29 AM EST
The Catholic church in Ireland will survive, despite so many bishops having no understanding of or use for Christianity, and concerned only with scoring points with some dodgy cardinals at the Vatican.
IrelandNorth | Nov 30, 2011, 07:40 AM EST
Someoone once opined that "Religion was the devil's greatest achievement." A fundamental point that faithful people fail to appreicate is that there can be a whale of a difference between religion and spirituality. The former is the vehicle, the latter the destination. Sometimes the vehicle takes you in the very opposite direction.
merefalow | Nov 29, 2011, 10:15 PM EST
if it had been true,had rooted out the very real EVIL in its midst,it wouldnt be in the state it is in now.people saw the corruption and the way it was covered up and couldnt accept it.i am not religious,thank god.....but jesus said in the bible, beware the whited sepulchers,meaning beware of people who professed to be to holy,how true that has shown to be..its a shame that this has tainted the many devout and decent people within the church but they realy need to clean their act up and restore credibility and respect.
McNamara31 | Nov 29, 2011, 08:32 PM EST
As Christmas draws near, many of us are still bewildered by the revelations surrounding the Catholic Church over the past decade. We are living in a time when all the foundations we depended on whether religious, political, financial or civil, are coming down around us. We certainly need something for solace.
like2tweet | Nov 29, 2011, 07:27 PM EST
Brilliant article, at last someone sees you need heart and soul not just an institution
jamieLM | Nov 29, 2011, 06:43 PM EST
Sorry, katiemac, being Catholic doesn't automatically make people emotionally, mentally, physically, or financially capable of being competent parents of a lot of kids. Most people know their limit.
barneyjo | Nov 29, 2011, 04:32 PM EST
@GeorgeDillon - "what an idiotic post"?? Not really. In order to survive, the Catholic Church will have to Reform in the sense of change in order to survive. In essence it is the last Christian Church to embrace Reformation. So in a sense Rugbyplayer is right on the money!!
eiriamach | Nov 29, 2011, 03:11 PM EST
I can't stop laughing: katiemac thinks that the Roman Catholic Church was born in the 1950s and that if Catholics simply return to that time-- before Second Vatican Council-- they will find their "roots"! Tell that to Jesus, who was born many centuries before katiemac's golden age of Catholicism. To find the roots, the early Christian Church, one can read the Acts of the Apostles and the gospels' records of the life of Christ-- and realize that Catholicism had wandered far when Vatican II attempted to call it back to its its core values, like feeding the hungry rather than adding another jeweled gold papal tiara to the Vatican stash. katiemac wants Catholics to forget contraception and have really big families. Those "apostle" guys and gals didn't have time to raise big families; they were busy traveling, spreading the gospel and ministering to new Christian communities. Is there any living, breathing Catholic who is not, like katiemac, a "cafeteria Catholic"? "Serve up my religion without the Vatican II ecumenism sauce, please, and leave the unitas and sensus fidelium garnishes on the side of the plate! But sprinkle the liturgy heavily with Latin, and let's have a choir of priests to chant about chastity." Oh, and the only "relativists" I've encountered on this site are Catholics who'd like to excuse the sexual predation of priests by blaming their crimes on the spirit of the over-sexed times we live in! (Trying not to laugh here because paedophila is serious!) katiemac needs "to pray, often and ardently, for the grace to overcome" serious self-delusions. The wounded Church will survive only if it figures out how to reform.
GeorgeDillon | Nov 29, 2011, 02:58 PM EST
Rugbyplayer gets the prize for dopiest suggestion of the day. The Catholic Church, he tells us, can survive if it "adopt the Anglican model." So, the Catholic Church can survive if it becomes Protestant. What an idiotic post.
Collette2 | Nov 29, 2011, 02:55 PM EST
The Catholic church should never be given the power handed to them as their "divine right/rite" ever again. I's the faith that will survive these dark pages in history. Power and politics have no place were our spirituality is concerned: the ball is now in OUR court, it's up to us as to what we accept from now on, we have to utilize it for the good of all, universally as the eyes of the world are watching.
CaliforniaShamrock | Nov 29, 2011, 02:23 PM EST
while visiting Ireland recently I attended Mass in three churches - the first was mostly older but with some young families, the second mostly tourists and resident elderly, but the third was full and had a lot of young families and young adults. It had a sense of life and community. So that priest must be doing something right.
lokionline | Nov 29, 2011, 02:11 PM EST
I have no doubt the Catholic Church will survive. But, it will never regain the political power it once enjoyed. If Catholics can live with the "Render unto Caesar" advice given by the man himself then there is no reason we cannot all get along. But if Catholics continue to insist that Catholic beliefs about sex and life should be enshrined in law as the Bishops in the US seem to think, then the whole enterprise is going to grow more marginalized. Traditional and conservative Catholics may be comforted by the idea that the Bishops are more conservative than ever and are 'fighting back', but it is quite clear that Benedict expects the church to shrink to a purer core in much of the world. The growth in Africa and other third world cultures is the result of a transfer of loyalty in overwhelmingly superstitious cultures more than anything else. With the understanding that the Catholic Church is shrinking in the developed world comes the inescapable consequence that it will have less rather than more influence in secular matters. That is simply the reality of a declining membership. Nobody wants to muzzle Catholics, free speech is the right of all. What we don't want to see are Bishops putting direct pressure on politicians as has been the habit in the past and continues to be the default position in the US today.
peterson | Nov 29, 2011, 01:44 PM EST
More important --Christianity MUST survive. There are other denominations to consider.
hybernia | Nov 29, 2011, 01:35 PM EST
Bronze-Age goat-herders' myths "What profit has not that fable of Christ brought us!" Pope Leo X (As attributed by John Bale, Bishop of Ossory, in The Pageant of Popes, p. 179, 1574) Is it not time to grow up, and face the world as it is, and stop using Bronze-Age goat-herders' myths as a security blanket.
brent46 | Nov 29, 2011, 10:48 AM EST
Can we not just let it die and move back from our preoccupation with myth and superstition. Lets just embrace and celebrate our common wonderful humanity; nurture kindness to all, and not allow religion to pull us apart from each other, as it so often does.
colkelley | Nov 29, 2011, 09:52 AM EST
Why not stay Catholic but switch to Apostolic Catholic where the priests MUST be married? Back in 1868 when the Pope issued the Writ of Papal Infallibility (which stated that the Pope, because he spoke with God, could not be questioned) the Apostolics said, "Well, that was the first and last mistake," and struck out on their own. I have been friends for years with a former Bishop of the Apostolic Catholic Church in Texas (and I am a longtime atheist) and found the changes they made to be logical and noteworthy.
rugbyplayer | Nov 29, 2011, 09:33 AM EST
It will survive if it manages to rid itself of Vatican interference and adopt the Anglican model.
firella | Nov 29, 2011, 08:00 AM EST
Yes it will survive, if we have to go back to the old Mass Rock it will grow even stronger and be truer to Christ.
BishopSean | Nov 29, 2011, 07:38 AM EST
Another correction--Mao took over China in 1949, (which I meant to type). Thanks for your patience again.
BishopSean | Nov 29, 2011, 07:35 AM EST
WEll done, Garry O'Sullivan! It seems to me that we have to return to New Testament models of Church and ministry. This is what allowed the underground Evangelical Churches in Red China to grow from 500,000 in 1939 when Mao came into power and killed or expelled foreign missionaries, to an extimated 58 million by 2001. No money, no big Church structures; only the Word of God, determination and singleness of purpose. These Chinese Christians have purposed to send 100,000 Chinese missionaries to neighbouring countries which are Muslim, Hindu and Buddhist as part of their project "Back to Jerusalem." They are grateful to God that our Church of the East had missionaries from Jerusalem and Syria that reached the Pacific coast of China by about the year 52 A.D. The Irish Church is about to engage in a challenge that she can win, and win decisively "not by might, not by power, butby the Spirit of God."