IRELAND
Association of Catholic Priests
Sean O’Conaill laments the collapse in leadership and faith of the Irish magisterium. He asks Archbishop Martin of Dublin to stop making faith and structural reform seem as opposites — and to foster open dialogue in his own diocese.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin observes:
“Clericalism will only be eliminated by fostering a deeper sense of the meaning of the Church and that understanding of the nature of the Church will come not from media strategies or simply by structural reforms, but by genuine renewal in what faith in Jesus Christ is about. If we focus only on structures and power there is a risk that clericalism might be replaced by neo-clericalism….
“I am not saying that reform of structures is not necessary within the Church. Anything but! What I am saying is that such reform without ongoing radical renewal in the faith will end up with the wrong structures and indeed might end up just answering yesterday’s unanswered questions tomorrow. Clericalism will to some extent vanish when a new culture of co-responsibility and collaboration develops.”
(From ‘Catholic Ireland: Past Present and Future’ – the speaking notes of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at the Fordham Centre of Religion and Culture, New York, April 24th 2013)
[Dublin archdiocese – Fordham speech]
These almost oppositional observations on faith and structures have become standard for the archbishop. It seems that for him a ‘radical renewal in the faith’ must precede contemplation of structural change. Has he properly considered the power of the church’s current structural slum to perpetuate clericalism and undermine faith – and even to persuade us that God has called ‘time’ on the structures we have and must be sought elsewhere?
What does it say about the faith of the magisterium that fear of open assembly dominates our relationships – that the magisterium is still structurally ‘wired for transmission only’? Elsewhere in his Fordham address the Archbishop laments the absence of a respectful and intelligent dialogue in Ireland between secular and Catholic intellectuals. What has he done to permit regular, frequent intelligent dialogue within the church itself, between bishop and clergy, and clergy and laity, in Ireland’s premier diocese? What has he done to forward an adult conversation in the church on the implications of Catholic social teaching? What has he done to ensure that the church makes use of structural options already available – for example the diocesan synod? What has he done to question the radical faith-repelling injustice of current structures for securing the deposit of faith – including the encouragement by the CDF of covert delation by poisonous cowards and the denial of opportunity for the self-defence of those accused?
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