Archbishop Martin warns on fundamentalism

The Catholic Archbishop of Dublin has warned against fundamentalism and “fruitless judgmentalism”.

At a Mass in Dublin's Pro Cathedral to celebrate the election of Pope Francis, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin thanked God "for the gift and for the gifts of Pope Francis. No one would deny that in the tasks he faces he needs our prayers and that he needs our support in his call for renewal of the church".

Such renewal meant “all of us need to learn more deeply how to think like Christ . . . we need to realise that the cold harshness of fundamentalism has nothing to do with the demanding starkness of the call to personal and institutional integrity and renewal”, he said.

“The church in Ireland has for a long time had a very strong judgmental trait . . . sins were listed and catalogued. Church leaders, and indeed individuals and communities of all sorts, often thought that their own judgmentalism was justified by their representing the anger and the wrath of God.

“Today we encounter at times a reverse judgmentalism of a liberal society which is equally willing to excommunicate others who think differently,” he said.

Condemnation
Referring to the gospel reading where Pharisees are about to stone an adulterous woman, he said they wanted "a return to the fullest and most literal application of the entire Law of Moses, in what we would call today a fundamentalist way".

When challenged they moved away, leaving Jesus alone with the sinner. Those “who thought that they were the interpreters of God’s ways have fled with their fruitless judgmentalism”.

In the face of sin Jesus “does not respond with fundamentalist condemnation; neither does he respond with modern-day liberal toleration. Everything is not right with the woman’s life and behaviour. What Jesus does is to confront the woman face-to-face and offer her the chance to begin again,” he said.