Posted on 05/14/2005 6:18:48 AM PDT by NYer
DUBLIN, Ireland - (KRT) - A nation whose very independence is rooted in its Catholic faith, Ireland is questioning its longtime devotion to the Roman Catholic Church and the conservative bent of its newly elected pope, Benedict XVI.
Irish from various age groups say they view the church increasingly as a relic of a bygone era, and that it is losing meaning in their daily lives. The Vatican acknowledges that one of its major challenges is reversing the rapid decline in church attendance throughout Western Europe.
Reflecting the views of Catholics across the continent, many Irish complain that church services tend to be repetitive and uninspiring, and that church teachings are falling out of touch with the modern world. On issues such as gay rights and women in the clergy, Dubliners said in interviews, the church is driving away members by refusing to adapt to today's political reality.
"I just got really angry when I saw they had picked (Cardinal Joseph) Ratzinger as pope," said Clare Delargy, 15, who attends a Catholic girl's school in Dublin. "He's such a polarizing figure" to elevate at a time when the church already faces serious divisions, she said.
Delargy wrote a harshly critical letter to the editor of The Irish Times, saying the new pope's "conservative views on many issues, such as clerical celibacy and homosexuality, alienate many members of the church and also discourage people with more liberal views (such as myself) from practicing their faith."
Halting such disaffection and finding ways to bring Catholics back into the fold are chief among the "daunting" tasks that await Pope Benedict, said the archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin.
"Obviously, a decline in participation in church life and practices is a concern," he said. Whereas the 1.1 billion-member church is experiencing boom times in Latin America and Africa, across the church's traditional base in Europe, a crisis of faith is brewing. The archbishop was quick to note, however, that most Irish still profess strong satisfaction and devotion to their faith.
"There is a strong presence toward religious belief, but there also is a strong rejection of religious belief, or at least an indifference to it," the archbishop said.
"The new pope has to face the challenge of inspiring the church," he said, adding that the task won't be easy. "He can't just turn on a control tap and say that everybody has to start practicing again."
Evidence of the church's decline is everywhere in Europe. Thirty-five years ago, Austria was more than 87 percent Catholic. By 1991, the figure had dropped to 78 percent; and by 2001, to 74 percent.
In Spain, where 81 percent of the population is Catholic, two-thirds of respondents in a 2002 survey said they rarely or never attend services. Cardinal Antonio Maria Rouco Varela has said that half of Spaniards ignore church teachings altogether.
As if to drive home the point, only two days after Benedict's election, the lower house of Spain's legislature approved a bill to grant legal recognition to same-sex unions - in direct contravention of Vatican doctrine.
Europeans have a consistent list of reasons for their drift from the church. They criticize the Vatican as aloof, immersed in ritual and mired in orthodoxy. They reject prohibitions against artificial birth control and the use of condoms to prevent AIDS. They say the church was too slow to respond to widespread allegations of sexual abuse by Catholic priests.
Elia Marty, a nun working in Bern, Switzerland, told the news agency Swissinfo that she was hoping for a pope who "was less dictatorial and was willing to share some of the power that has been concentrated in the Vatican."
On a school tour in Vatican City last month, Austrian student David Imre, 16, said he finds Mass tedious and unfulfilling. "It's too boring," he said. "They always read the same phrases and do the same things, over and over again."
Asked how the church would have to change to win him back, he responded, "Nothing would interest me. I don't think I would ever go back."
Even in Ireland - which fought for centuries to win its independence as a Catholic nation from Protestant-ruled Britain - church attendance has declined over the past decade.
A 1990-91 University of Michigan survey listed Ireland as one of the most devout Catholic nations in the world, with 84 percent of the adult population attending services at least once a week. A 2003 poll for the Irish broadcasting network RTE found that the figure had sagged to 50 percent.
"Part of the problem is the extreme rapidity of affluence. In Ireland, you have full employment, very good wages, the lure of travel, the opportunity to buy property," said Sister Mary MacCurtain, 76, a Catholic nun and retired historian.
"God is competing with all of this," she added. "It's a very subtle and corroding reason for the decline."
In an age where young people expect immediate gratification, she said, a Mass full of rituals and chants is unlikely to hold their attention. "They're looking for something that holds their interest and doesn't just bore the pants off you."
West of Dublin in the village of Lucan, David Clayton, 24, a Web page designer, agreed that the boredom factor is a big consideration. "It's the repetition," he said. "After you've heard it enough, you feel like you already know what they're going to say, so why do you have to go there?"
The solution? "Dancing girls," said the Rev. Eugene Kennedy, 71, a priest in the Dublin suburb of Castle Knock. "Just joking."
He said his parish shows no signs of the disaffection seen in other areas, and he attributes his church's full pews to the high level of autonomy he enjoys in designing services to attract the young.
"We have five musical groups," he said, including two adult folk groups, a youth-oriented band and another small pop group. With each Mass, he prepares a PowerPoint computer display. He insures that the liturgy is lively and engaging. And when someone introduces a new idea to liven things up, he tries to keep an open mind.
Instead of opening themselves to new approaches, "a lot of Irish priests are getting in the way of the spirit," Kennedy said.
For young people like Delargy, however, such innovations are coming too late and are far too rare. And it is unlikely that they would address deeper concerns she has about ordaining female priests, allowing priests to marry or recognizing same-sex unions.
"If another faith came along that offered those things and gives me everything spiritually that I'm looking for," she said, "then I would give it a lot of thought."
This article interviews a 15 and a 16 year old. Yeah, let's allow them to set the agenda. What a joke. There may be a lot of "disenchanted" Catholics, but the vast majority can't bring themselves to actually leave the Church. In many cases, later maturity brings them back.
If you revisit the article, it becomes quite evident that VAT II had nothing to do with this loss of faith. If anything, the primary reason given is that the Church refuses to keep up with modern times - it is too orthodox. That is what is so revealing in this story.
The homosexual molestation of adolescent boys (let's call it what it is) was a U.S., not an Irish, problem.
It (and the cover up) was confined almost exclusively to dioceses run by "modernist", "progressive" administrations. Those were the people who believed the modern, progressive psychiatrists who said these perverts (and perjurers of their vows) could be "cured".
When JPII discovered that certain archbishops had been lying to him, he dropped the hammer. Since B16 has been handling these cases directly since 2002 or 2001, he knows the score and he will continue to attack it.
And that poor priest who believes this and is trying to lure the kids back in . . . bless his heart, you know he's TRYING. But that's the fallacy in this whole line of thought (you can't call it reasoning).
Trying to make the church "relevant" and "modern" is counterproductive. The teenagers ultimately are attracted to the church because it is the "other" - the contrast between their daily lives and the transcendent Reality. Cell phones and parties and pop music can only go so far, and when the kids realize that their lives lack a spiritual center, they turn back to the Church that was waiting for them all along, eternal and unchanging and True.
They don't turn to a pop-church that has been transformed into the World. What would be the point? They can hear better music on their IPods . . .
When I was an Episcopalian, the church went through this same convulsion trying to "attract young people". You see where it's gotten THEM.
5.56mm
Did you catch this week's episode of "Life on the Rock"? Fr. Francis invited on a group of 5 nuns from Mother Angelica's order who are on their way to set up a new monastery in Phoenix AZ. Their stories mirrored your comments. Asked if they missed going to the movies and various other entertanment venues, they all concurred that spending time each day in Perpetual Adoration with their bridegroom, is far more gratifying and fulfilling. It was an awesome interview!
I wish them every success in their new enterprise.
What snivellers. Western Europe is a lost cause. They should be prayed for, but no longer courted. Im agaisnt gay marriage and abortion. I dont want the Church to change doctrine just to apease euro liberals. Its shame to see Ireland turn away from the Church, though..
5.56mm
This seems to be the theme whine of the week. The Catholic Church Needs To Get With It, It needs to throw off the oppression of orthodoxy and hey ho go with the flow". So what cultural practices past and present, besides those of the Western Secular should the Church adapt to? Indian practice of Suttee (sp). New Guinea Headhunting, Aztec human sacrifice, Arab harems, Child slavery, Abandoment of the frail and elderly, Chinese foot binding. Female circumcision ? There are just too many to list thema all.
So the whiners should remember the Church is protecting and preaching and eternal Truth. That does not change. So if you don't like don't let the door hit you where the good Lord split you.
"they have a great deal of freedom and indulgence and are shielded from the responsibilities of adulthood"
This is the fault of the PARENTS, who are too busy to be involved in the lives of their children. Parents who give the children things instead time. Money without working for it. Parents who want to be liked instead of respected.
You reap what you sow.
I don't see where you get that from the article.
Vatican II wasn't the cause of all of our woes, but it did play a role in releasing the pent-up modernism throughout the Church.
Then, some people, after they got a taste of "create-your-own" Catholicism, wanted even more. Now, that the hierarchy is starting to put the brakes on some of the nonsense, it's upsetting these people.
I have one that seems to have skipped that stage, but the other is in full "you don't know ANYthing!" cry right now. As I said, fortunately they grow out of it.
"Part of the problem is the extreme rapidity of affluence"
This is also hurting Boy Scouts in Ireland. I took a troop in Scotland some years ago (Blair Athol) and spent an evening with a guy from Ireland. The sudden availability of well paying jobs is drawing many Scouts away.
Ye-es, it does seem that even a liberalized Church is now to the right, culturally speaking, of many Irish Catholics, and many Catholics throughout the West. However, judging from the ferocious secularization of the past four decades I believe the suicidal "throwing open of the windows" of VAT II during the cultural hurricane of the late 20th century so damaged the authority of the Church, and the Faith of many in the West that the RCC is now irrelevant to many even nominal Catholics. Had the Church held to orthodoxy she may well have declined numerically during social upheavals of the later postwar years, but I don't think she would have been reduced to a state of barely-tolerated irrelevance in so many of her former strongholds, as we now see happening in Ireland. But then again, you know the old saying about the man who weds the spirit of the age...
Of course, our place is packed every weekend . . .
Well said. Those who are 'bored' are bored with themselves. Empty, devoid of anything to give, they have no place for anything but themselves - and that is indeed boring.
"Can't blame the parents entirely"
Agreed. That's why I also get my kids involved in other good activities without me around -- sports, Boy Scouts, theater, etc.
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