[Knitting A Conundrum]

Do they serve cheese with that whine?

[NYer]

They criticize the Vatican as aloof, immersed in ritual and mired in orthodoxy.

So much for the argument that modernism was unleashed by Vatican Council II and is the cause for this rift!

[AnAmericanMother]

Just dumb-@$$ teenagers falling away from their faith.

If that silly girl were serious about what she says, she would have already become an Episcopalian (Church of Ireland). But she's not, she's just running her mouth.

She'll come back to the Church when she gets some maturity (I did), and she'll be embarassed as heck if her kids ever read this newspaper story.

[Unam Sanctam]

Catholics should learn their faith and what it teaches. If they freely choose to reject those teachings, then they should go find a religion that suits their beliefs. Don't say the Church has to change her teachings to reflect contemporary left-wing pagan sexual morays.

[madprof98]

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.

The teachings are "falling out of touch"??? Sounds like the movement has been elsewhere.

[infidel dog]

Pretty sad article. It seems the Irish are trying to achieve standard Western European liberal secularism at a breakneck pace. Judging from the young Irish I've spoken to, values and traditions of all kinds are being abandoned for a sort of low commercial culture. Unfortunately the Irish Catholic Church, badly weakened already by the revolution of VAT II, is in no condition to hang onto a generation raised in a whirlwind. It really looks like Ireland is undergoing some sort of massive socio-cultural breakdown, and I hope the Irish regain their senses before everything decent is sacrificed to the idol of modernism.

[M Kehoe]

Anecdotal observation...last time I was in Ireland, and went to Mass, the pews were not full...not like here (at every Mass).

5.56mm

[ValenB4]

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.

[cardinal4]

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.

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..

[M Kehoe]

Mail call.

5.56mm

[FatherofFive]

"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.

[SolomoninSouthDakota]

Glancing through the posts here, I haven't seen one say that perhaps the Church from the other side so to speak is doing something wrong.
I will agree with the "children" on the boredom issue at least. Just consider if you didn't really understand the sacrifice of the mass and attended 99 out of 100 of the masses said in today's world. And what if you attended a similar mass for 10 weeks in a row? BORING! You say they SHUOLD understand the mass! Well who's been teaching them. Is it done in a sermon?
Personally, it's been a very long time since I have heard an interesting and engaging HOMILY. I hear mostly platitudes and a rare good joke. The music is mediocre. And I attend mass at the most traditional parish in our diocese largest city.
I can fully understand where these youths are coming from. And on the moral positions, what do they here but the dominant culture? (Maybe they aren't connected to the internet yet and haven't found FR.) Easy to see where they fall here too.
Youth are always going to be youth. They need leadership and models. We all need that in fact. But have you heard a good sermon regarding a great saint lately. Likely not. More likely you've heard some apologetic for the rash of scandals from homosexual priests.
No, we can't be satisfied to just lay this falling away at the feet of "the children".

[It's me]

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.

[ninenot]

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?

[OpusatFR]

""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.""

The problem with the current culture, not Western Civilization, is that everyone is looking for something for nothing.

I think a lot of people view God as superstition and they are not even aware that they do so. This God who creates us is not some user-friendly, interchangeable part. He is eternal, unchanging and constant.

He is also Redeemer and for those who like a comfortable God, Judge.

[RKBA Democrat]

I've read the article and the comments, and I think y'all are not looking at this from the point of view of, well, from the point of view of the (presumably) leftist writers and editors who wrote it and published it.

I think we should be asking "cui bono"? Why did the newspaper in question print this article, why now, to what end, and to who benefits?

Some things that struck me about this story; (1) where were the quotes from orthodox Irish Catholics who think the church is doing just great? (2) Where were the quotes about the very traditional parishes that are filling up on the weekends? (3) And why the quotes from vacuous apostate teenagers, but not regular worshippers?

Even if the theme of this story is correct, there would be exceptions. People aren't that easily categorized and classified. For ever trend, you find exceptions. If this were a balanced article, that is to say if it were reporting as opposed to editorializing masquerading as reporting, exceptions to the trends would also be documented in the article.

Looks like "push-reporting" to me.

[Irish_Thatcherite]

Ping.