‘The West’s awake, the West’s awake’. The words from the old rebel song have some resonance with the Irish Catholic Church right now. A torch has been lit in the west and, not for the first time, it is showing that it is the most insightful and gutsiest part of the island when it comes to the affairs of the Church.
That Church is experiencing a decline in attendance, ageing priests, continuing scandals, a growth of apathy and even antagonism to religion.
Years ago, one of the big beasts of the Second Vatican Council said that the Catholic Church gets there, but always a little late and slightly breathless. There are many outside the Church and probably even more within it who are predicting that the Irish Catholic Church will not even get there, breathless or not, but will continue to decline to the point of being nothing more than another religious sect.
The response to this very public crisis from the Church leadership has been reactive and minimalist. It has mostly concentrated on how parishes are going to be kept going into the future; implementing such changes as parish priests overseeing two or more parishes rather than one and lay committees being allowed to take greater responsibility for the administration of the life of those parishes.
There has been little or no engagement at a national level and most certainly not at a local level with matters of faith or dogma, the things that make the Church substantive and relevant. Ironically the Pope, Francis, has been encouraging national churches to have real and meaningful discussion that would inform the central government of the Church as to the tone and the conclusions of those conversations. He has gone as far as to suggest that the governance should be much more synodal — a terrible word that just means shared or communal, not hierarchical and not centralist where all decisions are the prerogative of the Vatican.
Fifteen or more years ago, there were a good few voices in Ireland arguing for a national synod that would discuss and debate the state of the Irish Church. Not just about local governance but about purpose and relevance, delving into the bigger theological and moral issues that underpin the life of the people who make up the Church. The bishops brushed aside those suggestions at the time but years later, as the crisis deepened, began to organise diocesan consultations that stayed well clear of the more contentious theological issues.
That’s what makes the events in the west interesting and refreshing. The diocese of Killala, covering north Mayo and parts of Sligo, has organised one of these consultations with a difference. After a very thorough period of discussion and reflection, the hundreds of people involved were given an assurance that all suggestions that emerged and that were within the competence (authority) of the local bishop would be implemented as diocesan policy. Suggestions that the bishop couldn’t implement without the authority of the wider Church would be sent on to the Irish Bishops Conference and to the Papal Nuncio to be passed on to authorities in Rome.
Those who have little or no interest in Church affairs might find those guarantees as unworthy of comment but to those who have been around such matters, they are radical. What must be passed on to the Irish Bishops and to Rome is that 85 per cent of the delegates want priests to be allowed to marry. Eighty-one per cent that former priests be allowed return to ministry. Eight per cent that women become deacons and 69 per cent that they be allowed to become priests.
Finally, 86 per cent want Church teaching on homosexuality to be changed and that all those excluded from the Church, regardless of sexuality, marital or family status be accepted as full members.
There are still signs of life – at least in the West.
