Tuesday, August 25, 2009

PATRICK CLAFFEY

RITE AND REASON: THIS YEAR the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Dublin is celebrating a year of evangelisation. The project’s website notes that “evangelisation is . . . an essential mission of the church”.

Necessary, courageous, no doubt, but, one might well ask the question, “why now?”

A friend told me, several years ago, of a conversation he had with a prominent Irish bishop whose diocese had the first exposure of an abuse scandal. “With this, what time do you think I have left for evangelisation?” asked the forlorn pastor. But worse was to come.

In recent times, it can be argued, the Catholic Church in Ireland has reached the nadir of its long history on this island. This institution is paying the price for its past success and for the kind of clerical dominance that almost inevitably leads to arrogance and the abuse of power.

Is it entering a land of exile?

The Ryan report was horrendous. The damage done to the victims was incalculable, the effect on the morale and reputation of the church, and, I would suggest, much of the country, devastating.

“How did we come to this?” we ask. It reflected not only on the church but also on the whole of Irish society. This will be followed up by the report on clerical sexual abuse in the archdiocese of Dublin.

In the days following publication of the Ryan report, I was travelling on a train from Dublin to Tralee. Sitting opposite me were two elderly ladies, one going to visit her family, while the other was eventually joined by her sister, a retired religious in civil attire.

The conversation turned almost inevitably to Ryan. The two lay persons, both of whom had sisters who were religious, reacted largely as one might have expected from people of this generation and class.

There was a kind of uncomprehending anger towards the victims of abuse expressed in the most negative terms; a defence of the church, and those representing it; as well as an anger that was diffuse and directed at everybody and nobody, including the church. Above all there was a sense of confusion and loss.

These women, like many people today, struggled with the fact that the ecclesiastical institution, in grave difficulty, often reviled, had let them down.

While we have come to assume that young people have lost faith, this is not, of course, always the case. They continue their search for truth and for God.

A bond of trust has been so severely damaged that it is not clear whether it can ever be restored. While priests often receive generous support, they often sense distrust, even among their own family and friends.

And yet, this is the situation within which the church must carry out its mission. If we speak of contextual theology, a locus theologicus, it is within this context of vulnerability and weakness that we must start today. If we are to speak of evangelisation or re-evangelisation this is the locus where it must happen, for all those who present themselves as witnesses to truth.

Rev Dr Patrick Claffey is a lecturer at the department of mission theology and culture at the Milltown Institute in Dublin

The Irish Times.

 

3 Responses to “Is the Catholic Church entering into exile?”

  1. Martha says:

    Mike Hull (above) wrote:- “The catholic church has brought this upon themselves, they required no help from anyone else.”

    Every sadist needs a masochist. So, in order for the cruel (sadistic) heart of Rome to flourish as they did for so long in Ireland (and they haven’t gone away yet, y’know) the Irish people themselves have to take their share of the blame for allowing themselves to be repeatedly fucked by the Roman Emperor, with lots of glittery-gold robes on.

    OK, so it took 800 years to get the Irish to to LOVE their Roman Emperor “makers”, but love ’em we (still) do! And so its going to take a helluva long time before we get back to our REAL celtic roots. Meantime, there’s that lil matter of Global Warming…

    Fuck the Vatican and its mafiosa parasites!!!

  2. mary chaplin says:

    The heading at the top of the page reads

    “Is the Catholic Church entering into exile”?
    Article by Patrick Claffey.

    Hello Patrick

    Is the Catholic Church entering into exile?
    I DO HOPE SO, better still why don’t they just disappear of the face of the earth. They wouldn’t be missed. There just a bunch of control freaks and that is being polite about them.

    I am one of Ireland’s damaged goods from one of Ireland’s Industrial schools. The untold damage that the Catholic Church has done to people like myself is unbelievable and although I am now in my 60s I can still recall every detail of my orphange days, held in detention for 13/14 years under the power of the Catholic Church.

    The sooner that Ireland rids itself of these
    despots the sooner Ireland can learn to live.

    I do hope that you will print this.

    Mary Chaplin, England

  3. Mike Hull says:

    The catholic church has brought this upon themselves, they required no help from anyone else.
    I have no pity or sympathy to waste on them, especially being on the receiving end of their boundless cruelty for 5 years, in a boarding school here in the States.
    nuns and priest were about 99% Irish.