Dublin's Archbishop on IEC's impact
on the problems of the Irish Church
May 10, 2012
How can the International Eucharistic Congress help bring Irish Catholics back to the sacramental life of the Church?
According to the Archbishop of the host diocese, Msgr. Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, by showing them the joy of celebration: “I see a willingness in some people to want to celebrate something different in the Irish Church and actually to use the word ‘celebrate is important”. Emer McCarthy has this report:
Speaking to Vatican journalists Thursday as he launched the one- month countdown to the beginning of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress (IEC2012), Archbishop Diarmuid Martin directly answered questions over the divisions that currently beleaguer the Irish Church.
But he said none of these should overshadow what really is the most pressing challenge in the Church in Ireland: the challenge of bringing Christ to the people. This, he said, requires new pastoral tools. for which preparation for the IEC has been a learning experience.
The divisions the Archbishop referred to in his address to journalists have a range of causes: the ever present reality of the child sex abuse scandal; the results of the Apostolic Visitation; dialogue with the Association of Catholic Priests; the Church's ongoing journey of internal renewal and the resulting tensions these create within the community.
“The overall crisis of the Church in Ireland isn’t about the child sexual abuse, it isn’t about any one individual. It is a much deeper challenge. They are just symptoms of an underlying cause... Secularisation is there, the Archbishop stated, “and has been there for some time, though it may have surprised some people”.
The leader of Ireland’s largest diocese also spoke of the weekly protests that have been taking place outside Dublin’s pro-Cathedral, but added that there is a gradual change taking place: “Even in secularised Ireland there is a recognition that this [the IEC} is an important event for the Catholic Church, that others should respect. And something that they are watching to see as to what image of the Catholic Church will emerge from that”.
The Archbishop said: “The Church in Ireland shouldn’t be associated with problems. It is renewing itself, it is a dynamic Church there are many things happening in the Irish Church. And this Eucharistic Congress I hope will be a moment when we hope to showcase all of those”.
“Like the Congress itself,” he continued “the Irish Church of the future will be a much different type of Church it will be more modest in its dimensions and in its role. It will be and is perhaps today in many ways a minority Church, but that doesn’t mean that its an irrelevant Church. The Church has to learn to present its message toady in Ireland in a secularised society in a different way. The IEC2012 is an example if you look at the program you’ll see this”.
“We have to - and this is a big one in Ireland - we have to really look at how we involve people in the preparation for the sacraments and how to understand them not just as social events but ecclesial realities”
“I remember the first words of Pope John in his wonderful homily during the Second Vatican Council and they were
Gaudet Mater Ecclesia!, Mother Church Rejoice!. We have to regain a little bit of that. Pope John in that same homily[…] he spoke about the prophets of doom who see only gloom and frustration in what’s happening. The Church has always gone through this process of having to renew itself and this [the Congress] is not going to be the definitive event, but it is a contribution”.
“In the early Christian community, there was the Word, the Eucharist and charity and communion among Christians they were generous with each other and with others”.
Learning from the example of the early Christian community he concluded “can help create a particular lifestyle […] if the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin can make even a modest contribution to that, we’ll have done something”
IEC2012 is taking place in Dublin Ireland June 10-17, and all information on registration and events can be found by visiting the website
www.iec2012.ie
Strangely, the RV report does not state that Mons. Martin spoke as one of the participants of a presentation news conference on the 50th IEC held at the Vatican today.
A related story...
High-level revamp at Irish College in Rome
as a result of apostolic visitation
Rome, May 10, 2012 (CNA/EWTN News) - Three of the four senior staff members at the Pontifical Irish College in Rome are stepping down from their posts after a Vatican investigation concluded that Ireland’s seminaries are not doing enough to promote Catholic orthodoxy.
“In colleges there is a constant changeover, maybe after the Apostolic Visitation it is not a bad idea to bring in new people, new ideas and move forward,” Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin told CNA on May 10 in Rome.
Today’s announcement comes in the wake of the March 2012 publication of a two-year investigation – officially called an apostolic visitation -- into the health of the Irish Church. The visitation of Irish seminaries was led by Cardinal Timothy Dolan of New York.
While the report praised Irish seminary staff for being “dedicated formators” who were “committed to the work of priestly training,” it also called for a “greater concern for the intellectual formation of seminarians”
to ensure that their education was “in full conformity with the Church’s Magisterium.”
The report also recommended that the pastoral training of seminarians be re-evaluated to ensure “it is sacramental, priestly and apostolic” and concerned with “preparing candidates to celebrate the sacraments and to preach.”
Overall, the visitation found that
the renewal of the Catholic Church in Ireland was being hampered by “a certain tendency, not dominant but nevertheless fairly widespread among priests, religious and laity, to hold theological opinions at variance with the teachings of the Magisterium.”
The change of guard at the Irish College in Rome will involve the vice rector, Father Albert McDonnell; the director of formation,Father Billy Swan; and the college’s spiritual director, Father Chris Hayden. They will all return to their respective dioceses at the conclusion of this academic year and receive new assignments.
The Trustees of the Irish College (the four archbishops of Ireland) will announce new appointments after they meet later this month.
Archbishop Martin pointed out to CNA that the spiritual director had already “asked to be relieved due to health reasons,” while the vice rector was serving beyond his term of office.
Last year, Father Ciaran O’Carroll took over as the seminary’s rector from Monsignor Liam Bergin, who had held the post for 10 years. He is now teaching theology at Boston College in the United States.
{Which happens to be one of the centers of anti-'Catholic orthodoxy' in the United States.]
In a May 10 statement, Fr. O’Carroll thanked his three departing colleagues for their contribution to the college’s life and wished them “every blessing and success in their new appointments and for the future.”
[Modificato da TERESA BENEDETTA 10/05/2012 21:28]