Active lay people help church to overcome difficulties

The Irish Catholic Church is undergoing a resurgence with the laity playing a key role

A RECENT INVITATION to address a group on the topic of challenges and opportunities facing the Irish Catholic Church led me to a more positive evaluation of the current state of the church than I had expected.

It is true that negative headlines about Catholicism still abound. The Irish Examiner's lead story some weeks ago proclaiming that we are "losing our religion" is a classic example. However, there are quiet changes under the surface that indicate a recovery.

It depends on how you measure recovery. If your measure of success is full churches, the days when virtually every Catholic attended weekly Mass are highly unlikely to return. Vocations to the priesthood are at crisis levels, and it is doubtful that they will rise again to the dramatic heights of pre-1960.

If, however, you measure success by the depth and quality of people's commitment, then a different picture emerges.

Take the number of lay people who are active in their own parishes, not to mention the thousands who have taken courses in theology, spirituality and pastoral ministry.

A cynic might say that this has happened only because the Catholic Church has been forced to let lay people assume a more active role, given the drop in numbers of priests and religious. Yet it is equally probable that it has also come about due to a new confidence among lay people, and a desire to be of service. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, in his Holy Thursday Mass homily, rejected the suggestion that the increase in lay involvement is in any way a "stop-gap solution", saying that any attempt to look at it in this way would mean it would fizzle out.

Some parishes are still moribund, but many have quiet, undramatic initiatives, like family Masses, bereavement support groups, pastoral councils, ecumenical groups, immigrant support and various prayer initiatives. The overall numbers in the pews may be declining, but those who are there, really want to be there.

There is also a new realism among at least some of the hierarchy. In the Dublin archdiocese, at the same Holy Thursday Mass, the archbishop announced an ambitious programme of renewal. He said there would be a new diocesan office for evangelisation which would co-ordinate the efforts of every parish to reach out to people and explain what faith is about. He also said Dublin is mission territory, because people do not know Jesus or his message. In later interviews, he talked about every house in the Dublin archdiocese being visited.

It may seem paradoxical to see a programme designed to reach out to the disaffected or those never affected at all as a sign of hope. However, it is a sign both of a realistic appraisal of urban Ireland, and a sign of confidence that the church has something to offer that will make sense to weary and often somewhat cynical urbanites.

The Irish hierarchy did not cover themselves in glory by the way they handled the sexual abuse of children by clergy. It was clear that Cardinal Desmond Connell's recent attempt to prevent files being opened reopened wounds for some survivors of sexual abuse. However, his dignified withdrawal of his court challenge when it became clear that the vast majority of Irish Catholics could not understand his motivation also signalled something new.

It would be wrong to say the Irish people have moved on from the era of scandals. In a sense, we never should. Too many lives were affected, and too many families shattered and betrayed. There are important lessons that should never be forgotten. Nor should we be complacent that there are not further revelations to come. However, there is now an understanding that the automatic assumption of the guilt of any priest or religious who was accused was wrong, and led to other injustices. High-profile cases of well-loved priests who were falsely accused, and the jailing of a man who made such accusations, helped to change the atmosphere.

The release this week of a survey on the educational preferences of parents is another sign of a modest resurgence of confidence among the bishops.

For a long time, bishops were inclined to keep their heads down when under attack. The fact that the Bishops' Council for Research and Development conducted and published this research shows a willingness to take positive action at a time when Catholic education is receiving much criticism, some at least of which is unwarranted.

Education, particularly primary education, will continue to be controversial, but at least the bishops can present evidence that 95 per cent of parents are very happy with the education that their children are currently receiving. Most institutions of any kind would be delighted with such a rating. Some 40 per cent of parents also favour schools that are not under Catholic management, which indicates interesting times ahead for the Department of Education.

Catholic education is just one religious subject that stirred passions on the letters page of this newspaper in recent times. The freesheet, Alive, has had people frothing at the mouth. Some of the criticism has come from secular sources, but also from people inside the church. At the root of the criticism is the particular vision of Catholicism that Alive espouses. There was also a long and fascinating debate on the nature of conscience. Some people might deplore the spectacle of Catholics arguing in public about very fundamental issues. Rather, it signals a living faith, and an energy that had been somewhat absent. People do not debate issues that do not matter to them.

There were times in the past when the smugness of the church amounted to arrogance. This time, the resurgence in confidence is quieter and humbler, but nonetheless real. Not that everything in the Catholic garden is rosy. There are ongoing serious issues that will continue to pose major challenges. Yet there is a definite feeling that the church is in a better position to come to grips with the difficulties, not least because lay people are beginning to claim their rightful role.