The recent World Atheist Convention in Dublin “may have been seen as giving more material for a relentless media campaign to denigrate religion and spirituality in all of its forms”, Catholic Auxiliary Bishop of Down and Connor Donal McKeown has said.
“People of faith,” he said, “see church condemned and mocked no matter what it does.”
Speaking in Knock, he said: “We can be afraid to speak of Christ, or afraid that signs of Christian faith will bring only mockery and disdain. And many have lost energy because they feel angry or bereaved at how the Irish church has fallen from its position of integrity and leadership in Irish society,” he said.