ON a personal level, a softhearted approach is called for to Joe Foyle's cri de coeur for a traditional response to counteract the "absent Male Catholic" syndrome he so deplores ("Rite and Reason", January 7th). Genuine empathy is due since it is apparent that he is talking about his own flesh and blood".
Since the late 1960s Mr Foyle has been to the forefront in articulating the confusion and pain of traditional Catholics in the face of the winds of change inspired by Vatican II. Forlorn images of Canute and Lear come to mind. These are sharpened rather than dimmed by his latest contribution.
Empathy notwithstanding, Mr Foyle's analysis of the cause of the "absent Male Catholic" syndrome, his proposed solution and generally negative perspective need to be challenged for the mindset they imply. This mindset can be described as attempting to address the challenges of today with the answers of yesterday. Its root lies in a fundamental fear of change, a sense of despair and helpless confusion when confronted with its inevitability.
It manifests itself in an attitude of entrenched resistance to change and a consistent hankering after the comforts of "old" and "simple" certainties deemed adequate in less complex and more stable times. Because such a mindset is essentially backward looking, it is an unlikely source of inspiration for an energising vision calculated to encourage confidence in the challenges of the forthcoming millennium.
Most contemporary social commentators agree that we are living in a world of multiple transition in which traditional attitudes, values, concepts, lifestyles, structures, institutions and certainties are increasingly questioned in every area of human endeavour. Like it or not, we live in and are moving towards an increasingly "post modern" world. We need courageously to confront the challenge of change with a forward looking, hope filled mindset which can inspire us to commit ourselves to shaping that future.
Viewed from this perspective, it is apparent that the Catholic Church has, in general, responded in recent decades to contemporary challenges by reasserting a mindset (initially threatened by Vatican II) which is resistant to change. This regressive attitude has shown itself in the benchmark of orthodoxy against which all major episcopal appointments have been measured during the present pontificate; has underpinned the strong reassertion of earlier certainties, and has reaffirmed traditional religious practices and pieties.
It has also mobilised ecclesiastical power to quash dissent and discourage debate. It has succeeded in stifling the aggiornamento of Vatican II almost at birth, thus hindering the emergence of any realistic and dynamic vision for the future and spiritual renewal in people's hearts. Outward conformity to formal religious observance is perceived as the principal guarantor of orthodoxy, whatever about spirituality.
If this view has any validity then it is hardly surprising that many Irish people today appear to experience a growing sense of alienation from the institutional "church of our fathers" (probably accelerated by the plethora - of recent high-profile scandals), an increasing disillusionment with church leadership, an independence in matters of sexual morality and so forth.
Nor is it surprising that people today are beginning to look elsewhere for the answers they seek to the meaning of life - through the cult of the individual, personal development, new age mysticism, consumerism, hedonism, or escape through apathy or addictive behaviour.
Such developments can be perceived either as harbingers of disaster and chaos or symptoms of a society in deep transition, as indicating failure of church leadership or mass deviation from orthodoxy.
While there are undoubtedly elements of truth in each perception, it is surely too simplistic to postulate that the totality of truth is enshrined in any single interpretation, as Mr Foyle might wish. His concern for "Irish sons abandoning the Catholic Church of their fathers", as Ireland begins to move into the post patriarchal era, has an anachronistic ring to it.
However, the root reason he identifies for this phenomenon and his proposed solution are notable for their self contradictory "logic". He identifies what he terms "one handed preaching" as the core reason for driving "Irish sons" from the Catholic Church, and proposes to remedy this state of affairs by a return to "two handed preaching".
How, one cannot help wondering, can this "solution" work if the precise target group for whom it is designed (i.e., Irish males) is itself already conspicuous by its absence?
His "solution" is also based on several large and unwarranted assumptions. Foremost among these is that mere extrinsic motivation (promise of reward/fear of punishment) is an adequate means of nurturing spiritual renewal in people's hearts. It assumes that religious conformity is necessarily an expression of inner spiritual conviction in our day, as it may have been in the past, whereas it may just as arguably serve as its substitute.
HE also assumes gratuitously that adults today (generally better educated and more economically secure) are likely to respond positively and "mend their ways" by hearing people preaching at them about the rewards and punishments for "good" and "bad" behaviour.
Mr Foyle's negative outlook and tone are evident in his use of phrases like "we who choose to be tied to Catholic teaching", conjuring up an image of self inflicted bondage quite at odds with the biblical assertion that "the truth will set you free". His frequent references to "deviants" assume not only clear, absolute moral behavioural norms but also betray a stern judgmental attitude to human frailty removed even from traditional moral teaching.
Mr Foyle's response to con temporary challenges is destined to remain a local expression of a particular mindset dominant in Catholic thinking and practice during the present pontificate. As such, it is unlikely, I'm afraid, to win many converts among "absent male Catholics", or many others, since it represents an ultimately barren vision of the future resulting from a myopic focus on the past.
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