Redemptorist priest Tony Flannery was interviewd on Morning Ireland today.
The topic of the interview was a survey carried out by the National Council of Priests of Ireland.
The argument is that Ireland is becoming a pagan nation. The bishops argue that it is becasue of the decline in religious practice and the advent of secularism that priestly vocations are in decline.
The NCPI argue that what is needed is open discussion on why we have so few priests.
Not sure it is a blame game. Not sure Ireland is becoming pagan.
But if the bishops blame the people for what is happening, well that sounds quite odd.
Imagine if BMW or Apple manufactured a product and it did not sell, it would be unlikely that the BMW or Apple managements would blame the flop on the customer, the people.
Nothing is simple but when things go wrong, it's normal practice that management are responsible.
Maybe that's what Ireland and the Roman Catholic Church have in common. There's always someone else to blame.
There is a perception among the people that the bishops have got it so wrong in the past how suddenly can they be so right on so many issues.
If they say they did not know the damage of child sex abuse then they really are either lying or showing how ignorant they were and are.
There is also a perception out there that the bishops give the impression that they own God in some sort of cosy and exclusive way.
Of course they don't.
Not sure about the pagan bit.
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2 comments:
The subject of the interview was actually a report on the website of the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) of meetings they had with Priests' Councils around the country.
The ACP had originally asked to meet the bishops but these refused and suggested they meet individual priests' councils instead. Individual bishops did attend all of the meetings held so far (with one exception which was due to scheduling difficulties rather than an unwillingness to attend).
The report can be read here.
I have so far only heard two radio interviews: RTÉ (Fr. Flannery) and Newstalk (Fr. Byrne). Both were very encouraging in that they were carried out by experienced interviewers with no apparent axe to grind and both priests came across as very civilised and concerned people and got their points across in a quiet way.
Encountering the standard argument of Irish Catholic Church authorities - all the problems of modern Irish society and and the Irish church are the result of creeping secularism and a continuous negative campaign by an evil liberal media - I'm frequently struck by their myopia and complete ignorance of any sense of history.
The logic implied in such criticisms of modern society is that a culture which was completely formed and informed by "Catholic values" would be much better. What this way of thinking ignores is that Ireland had over forty years of such a culture, from the 1920s until well into the 60s. There are very few people who would look back on that period as a Golden Age. That society, dominated by the Church and its interpretation of values, was one characterised by emigration, poverty, injustice, hypocrisy and cultural and intellectual repression.
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