Tentatively Turning a Corner

By Garry O'Sullivan
Irish Catholic
March 15, 2012

http://www.irishcatholic.ie/site/content/tentatively-turning-corner

At last week's bishops' press conference in Maynooth, we were told by an unusually upbeat Archbishop Martin that the Church in Ireland is beginning, albeit tentatively, to turn a corner. However, when he was asked by this paper about the Visitation Report, which has been in the hands of the bishops for some time now, the archbishop became his more familiar prickly self.

It is hardly a well kept secret that many of the bishops are very unhappy with the Visitation Report, which is still under debate between them and Rome.

So let's indeed be tentative about any corners being turned – indeed let's be very careful about the language that is being employed.

For instance the archbishop went on to say that Croke Park probably would not be big enough for the crowds coming to the Eucharistic Congress, but I reminded him, numbers were never a difficulty for the Irish Church.

In fact, it was by playing the numbers game the Irish Church fooled itself into thinking itself healthy and prosperous until the seminaries emptied and mass attendance plummeted.

Of course press conferences are about putting forward a positive face and we can't fault the bishops for that.

What the Catholic press has a duty to do however, is to try and get behind the generally well meaning PR and ask for accountability, transparency and openness, a trinity that are far from established in the Irish Church.

Linguistically some profound changes are needed if the Church is ever going to make good on the new evangelisation it keeps talking about.

Take the language around Lent in the bishops' statement.

Every year they call on people to go back to confession and this year they added in a list of Friday penances. But there is no attempt at catechesis as to why these traditions, which are dying out, have resonance for today's Christian.

Those who practice penance likely know why they do it, but for those who don't they probably aren't swayed by the 'you should go back to confession' annual appeal. In other words, if the bishops are serious about the new evangelisation then they should try to evangelise and in a new way when the old ways patently don't work anymore. I might run a company and aspire every spring that all the employees work harder and do their jobs more fully according to the employee manual.

That's an aspiration and that is what it will remain unless I employ an action play to try and ensure it happens.

So my point is that the bishops in their statements and press releases score highly on aspiration but poorly on action. This is a fundamental issue of management.

The Catholic/Christian faith is in massive decline in Europe. Bishops increasingly only know how to speak in theological hieroglyphics. Take the line in last week's press release that the faithful should 'make reparation for the sins of abuse'. That is a hieroglyphic for a pious concept that makes no sense to most young people or many older people today.

Why should I or anyone else unconnected with the institutional Church make reparation for abuse carried out by priests and covered up by some bishops? When I asked Archbishop Martin this he took the usual tack and appealed to tradition, the 'we've always done it that way' argument. New evangelisation indeed!

Another hieroglyphic is 'offer up your fasting for the renewal of the Church'. It is a reference to the only action open in the past to pious Catholics to effect change in their Church. It was only a small few like Catherine of Siena that got to actually use their brains and wit to effect real change among the ranks of the clerics and bishops and arguably save the Church.

This kind of language means nothing to younger generations who the Church is happy to radicalise on social justice issues, but asks them to pray more when it comes to justice and reform within its own structures.

Younger generations increasingly can't read the hieroglyphics and are like tourists staring at the tomb of ancient Pharaohs, interested but failing to grasp any meaning.

Of course we should fast and pray this Lent, but too often theological concepts and the renewal of pious practices are used to cover up the need for the laity and clergy to renew the Church with their God given gifts that come from the Holy Spirit through baptism. We should hunger and thirst for God in our lives, but we should also hunger and thirst for a reformed Church fit for our times, that can speak the Gospel to a weary world longing for hope.

Hopefully the Visitation Report, lounging in some episcopal limbo right now, will see the light of day soon and we then might be able to talk about corners being turned.