This week’s column in The Kerryman newspaper.
Michael Commane
As a result of last week’s column on the feasts of Easter a reader contacted me. She felt that at the end of the piece she was none the wiser and thought I had walked away explaining nothing.
We had a 30-minute conversation about faith, what it means to say we believe in God; do the feasts of Easter, Ascension, Pentecost and Holy Trinity have any meaning for us. It was a most interesting conversation.
Since then I’ve been asking myself whenever do we speak honestly and openly with one another about matters of faith. Where at all are we with our faith, where have we ever been with it?
Pope Franics’ plan in setting up the Synod was to get people talking about their faith, talking in a language that is real and makes sense to the people who are speaking and listening.
A Synod is an age-old way the church uses in helping us listen to each other and to what the Holy Spirit is saying to us. I can imagine few are aware of the recent Synod and how important it is for the church, the people of God.
Why is it that so many people feel alienated, want nothing to do with the church, are bored with, and by it all? Indeed, at this stage it is an irrelevancy for many.
Whatever Pope Francis tried to do, unfortunately the Catholic Church has been nastily contaminated by all that is wrong with clericalism. Clericalism plays a major role in clerical child sex abuse.
Parish councils are far too often dominated by the parish priest, and the council members are usually his chosen few.
It’s precisely here that bishops should be actively involved in opening the doors and windows of parishes and insisting that there should be a far wider cross-section of people involved.
Bishops have difficult jobs but are they still tied to old ways that have no relevancy today? How well informed are they about life in their parishes? Every parish in the country has wonderful talent, why is the church not using that talent?
Timothy Radcliffe, the Dominican cardinal, who attended the Synod, has said that he found it a profound moment, where people opened themselves to others. He said he found it an adventurous experience. He noted that at the beginning there were opposing sides, people had enemies but over the course of the Synod each group came to appreciate and respect one another.
He saw how participants were appreciating that our lives are a journey, we are learning every day. Our faith is a journey, a lifelong process. He stressed the authority of truth, beauty and goodness and how we underestimate these qualities in other people, especially those with whom we disagree.
Radcliffe came away from the Synod with a sense of how important it is to pay attention and listen to one another. And that’s what being Christian is about.
Do we in our parishes get that sense of listening to each other, always aware that we are on a journey and that the other person might well have something worthwhile to say? Even those with whom we disagree?
Are our parish councils adventurous experiences? And please, tell the truth.
No comments:
Post a Comment