Clerical church out of sync with what Irish people think

The column below appears in this week's INM Irish regional newspapers.

Michael Commane
‘The Furrow’ is a monthly pastoral periodical that covers current theological and social topics in Ireland and the UK. It is published in Maynooth and edited by Fr Ronan Drury.

The November issue carries an article written by Brendan Hoban, who is a priest of the Killala diocese. He has a wide range of writings, including scholarly works, to his name.

The article in ‘The Furrow’ is titled ‘Disenchanted Evenings – the mood of Irish Diocesan Clergy’.

Have you ever picked up a book and known straight away from the first two or three pages that it was a brilliant read?

That’s exactly what happened me when I picked up Brendan Hoban’s article. I have to be brutally honest and come out with my hands up. The man is saying things that I have been shouting about for years. But he does it in a brilliant way. It’s clear, it’s true and so elegant. There is not one word of pious nonsensical codswallop about it. Not a word of humbug or cliché.

The article is about the state of priesthood in Ireland today with special reference to the world of the diocesan priest.

I am not a diocesan priest. I am a member of a religious order but live on my own away from a Dominican priory. I work as a press officer and journalist. I also celebrate Mass on Sundays in a Dominican-run parish in Dublin.

Hoban’s central theme is that “disenchantment among diocesan priests in Ireland is predictable, understandable even inevitable, given the accumulated wreckage of the last few decades”.

He refers to Michael Harding’s ‘Priest’, written in 1986, which explored some of ‘the hidden space’ in his ‘bleak and disturbing work’. Harding is a former priest.

Fr Brendan admits that at the time of the publication of ‘Priest’ many people including himself, thought it was over the top. Brendan declares that many wise people are asking could there be a connection between the pathological side of priesthood as seen in Harding’s disturbing portrayal and the experience of lived priesthood?

He cites a talk given by a psychotherapist to priests, who spoke about ‘something’ around sexuality and priesthood that needs to be explored.

Fr Hoban sees an uneasiness around the experience of disconnectedness and dislocation in the diocesan priesthood in Ireland today.

Brendan clearly admits he is talking about diocesan priesthood but most of what he says in his article I can also identify as a reality in religious life today too.

He is critical of the method used to appoint bishops in Ireland and he quotes Dominican writer Donagh O’Shea, who refers to the new Missal as “an invented language, spoken or written by nobody in the world”.

He also writes about how Irish theologians can be privately critical of an official document but publicly endorse it. He argues that sycophancy has served us badly.

Fr Hoban calls for recognition of how out of sync the clerical Church is with what Irish people think, feel and believe.

But the Killala priest believes, even at this stage Pope Francis might well offer a renaissance, which will blow across the Irish landscape.

“It is as if suddenly out of the shadows a great light has pointed out a familiar path, a road spurned by those who preferred the certainties of the 19th century to the challenges of the 21st.”

He concludes: “If he gets a fair wind, he could well enchant our last evenings. ‘Who can explain?/ Who can tell you why?/ Fools give you reasons,/ Wise men never try.’”

Thank you Brendan.