IRELAND
The Irish Times
PATSY McGARRY, Religious Affairs Correspondent
A new ‘Irish Times’ series begins today. Next week, Ireland hosts the 50th Eucharistic Congress of the Catholic Church. More than 80 per cent of Irish people still call themselves Catholic, but the church is out of touch and divided. Can it be repaired?
THE IRISH CATHOLIC Church is a house divided, and the events of just the past few months have demonstrated the depth of those divisions. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has acknowledged it, speaking of “unhealthy divisions within the church”. On May 6th at St Francis Xavier Church on Gardiner Street in Dublin, the archbishop said he was “saddened by some of the polemics taking place in the church today”.
He was saddened too “by some comments made in the public arena about Pope Benedict, as if all he did as pope was somehow suppressing the truth”. What was needed in the church was “not discontent but hope”, he said.
He was at the Mass to launch “a simple prayer book to help prepare for the forthcoming 50th International Eucharistic Congress”, which begins in Dublin next weekend.
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