TWO DOMINICAN brothers, Br Denis Murphy and Br Maurice Colgan, were ordained at the Church of Saint Saviour, Dominic Street, Dublin, yesterday.
In a homily at the ceremony the Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, said “the priest today is called to be a witness to the truth within a world where the fundamental Christian understanding about life’s values is often challenged”.
There were, he said “many reasons to be gloomy and downhearted in the church today. Ministry is challenging. Scandals have weakened the witness of the church. Our tried and tested ways of ministry are showing themselves to be tired.
“We see so many good and idealistic and generous young people go about their search for goodness without any real reference to the church of Jesus Christ. We are not adequately reaching out to the future generations and captivating them with a fascination for Jesus and his teaching.”
It was easy “in times of great cultural change and challenge to become insecure and fearful as individuals and as a church. It is easy to retreat into a closed comfort zone or into a form of protectionism of how things seemed to have been in the past,” he said.
“When the church becomes inwardly concerned about its own self-interest, then it can quickly lose its ability to preach the word of God as a word which frees and transforms.
“When I as a bishop or a priest become closed in on myself and my own concerns then I can become blind to or even reject the goodness and the transforming generosity of God which is the source of our ministry.”
