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."
"Do they serve cheese with that whine?"
LOL!
Bump.
i_d_, it's been reported that our new Pope realizes that perhaps a smaller but purer (orthodox pure, that is) Church might have to come to pass.
I don't think that means he's going to be kicking anyone out, just that he's expects the Faithful to evince a mature Faith. In other words, you can't be cheerleading for Planned Parenthood and convincingly hold on to the title Catholic.
How 'enforcement' of all this comes about is not something I fully understand or can envision though.
" Of course, our place is packed every weekend . . ."
Of course, I would say, from my viewpoint your place is very rare. Please glorify God for your blessings, most Catholics in America remain in a desert as pertains to their quality of sermons I fear.
It will require bishops as brave as St. Athanasius....as effective as St. Charles Borromeo....as aware of their missonary role as St. Martin of Tours and St. Patrick.
We need to pray much for our bishops.
With the help of God, my husband returned to the church...and my youngest is going through confirmation Monday night...he was not raised catholic and had to go through special sacraments class to get to this point.
All we can do is pray and plant what seeds we can. And when the time is right, they might bear fruit.
Well, my ever-perceptive friend, I'm with you on the problems of enforcement. But isn't it wonderful to finally have recognition of the condition of the Church from her highest office? Hopefully the new German Shepherd in Rome will not shrink from the sad, but now unavoidable task of sorting out the sheep and goats in his flock. Benedict XVI has a tough job ahead of him...a regular dog's task, if you paws to think about it. But I think it will really test the warp and woof of the man, and...Oh dear, someone's put a large crook around my neck and I'm being yanked off the sta-
I would add only that the fifteen-year old needs a good spanking by one of her parents.
The Irish have always been their own worst enemy...and now it seems to have slowly crept into the Church. They are now worshipping at the altar of the Almighty Euro.
That was pretty good! I got a good visual from it.
I'm glad you enjoyed it, A.G. Personally, I haven't had any good visuals since I wrote my optometrist a bad check. Oy! Even I can't believe I wrote that one...
Sadly, what it points to is that they, themselves, are now their own gods.
Which means, when they find out what lousy gods they are, and life is discovered to be flavored with ashes and bile, they will be looking for real answers...and as Christians, this is when we need to be there to offer them the truth.
Missionary work.
Hey, who says the West has no faith? Worship of the great god ME has never been more fervent!
My husband is visiting hi mohter in Ireland as we speak.
Interesting that for the first time in many, many years, he says that there were young people at Mass. He said that there were the usual elderly and many 18 - 25 year olds. NONE from abut 30 - 60years of age.
Yes! Do that. Pray for her. Always prayer for her and tell her that you are. And love her too. That's what my mother and father did for me. And I came around and saw the light. Unfortunately, it took both my parents' deaths before I really understood how precious faith is. In the end the only tragedy is to not die a saint.
I know what you mean. This is precisely why so many young Catholics leave the faith, and then years later when they discover the importance of faith, they end up joining some evangelical church that has a welcoming community with lots of bible studies and social interaction and, well, a personal touch. We can learn something from them (no don't gasp, I'm not talking about learning anything doctrinal from them), we need to build our parishes from the ground up. Consider the story of the young priest Karl Wojtyla who was told to start a youth ministry of some sort to help the young people in Poland who were in danger of losing their faith under the onslaught of Soviet atheism. How did he do it? One kid at a time. He asked some young college students to help him form a choir for his parish. To be asked for a favor from a priest is a great way to get young people involved. I'm serious. It's almost impossible to say no. So he got these college kids together. And they sang the Mass, and afterward they would have discussions, bible studies, intense talks about life. Deep friendships formed and lasted throughout the lives of those young men and women and the life of that young priest who eventually became John Paul II.
On some other threads, the opinion that the West's wealth is a major factor in the decline of the Faith has been advanced...
IIRC, Ireland's economy started picking up substantially during the late 1980's (maybe before.)
There is also the vague smell of 'selective reporting' here. Are there NO Europeans other than the Cardinals who voted for B-16 who think highly of him?
There are a couple of life-events which should cause one to understand the "boring repetition"--leaving aside the utter vacuity of that phrase.
1) Birth of one's first child; and
2) Death of one's parent(s).
If these realities occur and one STILL does not understand, or at least inquire intellectually, about the linkage of generations within the Church--heritage and inheritance--then one's soul is akin to rock.
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