The coming five years will be among the most critical in the history of recent Irish Catholicism according to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
Martin was commenting on the time it was going to take to release the findings of the Visitation of the Catholic Church in Ireland.
“I can say that I am impatient to learn about the path that the Apostolic Visitation will set out for renewal for the Irish Church so that our renewal will move forward decisively,” Martin said.
“This is not a criticism of the Holy Father. It is an appeal to his collaborators.”
“The pace of the change in Irish religious culture is such that the longer the delay in advancing the fruits of the Apostolic Visitation, the greater the danger of false expectations and the greater the encouragement to those who prefer immobilism to reform, and the greater the threat to the effectiveness of this immense gift of the Holy Father to the Irish Church.”
“Many outside of Ireland still believe that Ireland is a bastion of traditional Catholicism,” he told delegates involved in preparations for the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress to be held in Dublin.
According to Martin the Catholic Church is a shadow of its former self
- some Dublin parishes have only 5% of Catholics coming to Mass
- on any particular Sunday about 18% of the Catholic population in the Archdiocese of Dublin attends Mass
- for the second time since he became Archbishop of Dublin there will be no ordination to the priesthood in the Archdiocese of Dublin
- the coming years indicate only a tiny trickle of new vocations
Martin’s major concern is the growing rift between the Church and young people.
“We have bright, intelligent, generous and idealistic young people. Most will have been educated for most of their time in school in Catholic schools. However from a relatively early age they drift away from any regular contact with the Church and especially from Sunday Mass.
He admitted that Sunday Mass attendance is not the only statistic which indicates an affiliation with the Church and with the mission of Jesus Christ. But observed it is hardly possible to remain truly a Christian if one has no contact over years with the Eucharist.
Martin said, “Too often the renewal agenda of Irish Catholics is driven by an inward-looking agenda of reform of Church structures. Such an agenda will have very little appeal to those who have really lost contact with the Church and regard such reform as interesting but of little relevance to their lives, indeed it might lead them only to further alienation.”
“For me the great difficulty is that the Church in Ireland too often is trying to address the challenges of today with the pastoral structures which served well yesterday. Many of our pastoral structures and strategies are no longer fit-for-purpose. They presume that the country is driven by a culture of mass-Catholicism while this can no longer be presumed.”
“What has happened and is happening in Ireland is painful. I am not just talking about the horrors of abuse. I am talking about our failure in passing on the faith to the coming generation. Part of that failure is a failure of believers to witness their faith in coherent forms of service relevant to the current cultural situation.”
“The Holy Father initiated a process of support for the Irish Church which is set out in his Letter to the Catholics of Ireland. His commitment to the Irish Church is remarkable. I have experienced only support from him in my mission through his teaching and his personal support … I think that you can see from my reflection just how much I look forward to the Eucharistic Congress as a vital element in the reform agenda of the Irish Church.”
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