Derek Smyth, a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin, died on Tuesday, August 13. Below is a comment published on the condolence page of RIP.ie
Not long after he arrived in Foxrock and complaints had been made about his approach I had occasion to write to the archbishop in his support, I wrote: “Derek was a man of vision who challenged the congregation to think about our religion and what it means to us. His homilies are thought-provoking, constructed in a contemporaneous context, with a commentary meaningful in the current modern idiom, that challenged the status quo mediocrity that for so long has been a feature of the catholic church we were reared with – a mediocrity that has been leading many younger generations to question why we should still bother with an arch conservative monolithic structure that appears unwilling to embrace a more modern approach, relevant to the vicissitudes facing people today. We need priests of his calibre, to make the Gospel relevant in a current context, if the church is not to lose further members, or attract younger members who will be the future church”.
Derek will be sorely missed by those who really care. I only wish I had known him much earlier in my life.
No comments:
Post a Comment