Sir, – At Mass last Sunday the celebrant announced that the diocese is listening. All the retired priests have received questionnaires to help draw on their experience in ministry. As a retired lay parish pastoral worker, I am still holding my breath for a similar attempt to learn from my experience. – Yours, etc,
LIZ REYNOLDS,
Bray,
Co Wicklow.
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Sir, – Margaret Lee ("Laity must lead revitalisation of the Catholic Church", Rite & Reason, May 25th) identifies the fault-line in the institutional Catholic Church which is its dysfunctional relationship with the people it purports to lead.
Even as people have deserted the Catholic Church in droves over the last 30 years, it has never even occurred to church leaders to create a forum in which the laity could have their views taken into account.
What is surprising is how many have remained faithful in spite of this and the many accompanying scandals. One has to assume that many remain faithful to the core message of Catholicism but have serious reservations about the institutional church and see a need for radical reform. Speaking as one who has sought to engage the church in debate about reform, Margaret Lee’s experience that lay opinions fall on deaf ears resonates loudly.
Catholicism, properly practised, has huge value to add to society. The loss of the Catholic moral dashboard has come with benefits for Irish society but it has also come at a significant cost which is not widely acknowledged.
If it is ever again to be a significant force for good, the church must not just listen to the people, it must empower them and move towards a model which is democratic and accountable to its members, while based on core Christian principles such as tolerance and mutual respect. – Yours, etc,
JOE LENIHAN,
Dublin 9.
Sir, – Margaret Lee observes that the opinions of parishioners have not given rise to “any real change” within the Catholic Church in Ireland.
The primary objective of the synodal process, announced by the Irish bishops on March 10th, is the revitalisation of the church. The renewal process entails a dialogue between bishops, priests, and the laity. However, this is extremely unlikely to yield the desired outcome. The bishops state that synods “are not instruments to change Church teaching but rather help to apply Church teaching more pastorally” (“Synodal Pathway” FAQ, Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference website).
Even if the Irish bishops wished to change church teaching on a range of contentious issues, they could not do so without the approval of the Holy See. The intransigence of the church’s teaching authority, on a range of contentious issues, is a major factor in the decline of church influence in the everyday lives of Catholics. The refusal of permission for priests to marry has decimated the ranks of the clergy. Women are barred from the priesthood and effectively treated as second-class members of the church. And most Catholics disagree with their church’s teaching on marriage, sexual morality, and birth control. The rift that has emerged between the institutional church and mainstream Catholicism in Ireland will not be closed in the absence of doctrinal reforms. Therefore it is extremely unlikely that the synodal process will generate significant renewal. – Yours, etc,
Dr DON O’LEARY,
Mallow, Co Cork.