The reform Archbishop Martin seeks will only come when a spiritual reform happens, writes BREDA O'BRIEN
MUSING DURING the week about what it means to be Irish, I thought that being able to understand the slogans on Hairy Baby T-shirts would be a reasonable demonstration of Irishness.
The Cork-based company produces a range of T-shirts using Irish catchphrases.They even have one featuring Vincent instructing people not to harangue Joan. But the ones that struck me most were, “No, yer grand, I’m off it for Lent”, and “Who said Mass?”
“Who said Mass?” was a question favoured by Irish mammies to ferret out whether the teenage offspring had actually attended mass. It won’t be long before that one is incomprehensible to younger Irish people, if trends continue. It rests on a number of assumptions that will soon no longer apply – more than one priest in a parish, knowing the names of priests, and teenagers attending Mass because mammies want them to.
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin might not pass the Hairy Baby test given his long service abroad, but he is a sharp observer of Irish society, nonetheless. Naturally he is primarily concerned with the Roman Catholic Church, and to state the obvious, the sometimes sectarian assumption that to be Irish is to be Catholic is long gone.
At a recent Mater Dei/DCU Institute of Ethics event, speaking about church and State, his talk centred less on the differences between the previous and current governments, than on the role of a church in a modern State.
He cautioned against the church becoming so much part of the culture that it is no longer able to challenge it. He said the church had to avoid both the conformism of a narrow conservatism, and a stance that sees itself as truly progressive, but is in fact giving yesterday’s answers to yesterday’s questions.
The church has to offer something different – a Christian perspective, which acknowledges the unique dignity of every human being, and reaches out to them in service and love.
Echoing Pope Benedict, he also called for a younger generation of Catholics to become active in politics, and to attempt to achieve a long-term vision for society.
He named some of the many ways in which the church is robust and thriving, including many vibrant parishes where lay people and ordained ministers work collaboratively.
Reiterating that he favoured pluralism in Irish education, he made some astringent comments about the state of Irish prison services, solely the preserve of the Irish State, and the health services, to make the point that “exclusive and direct State provision of services is no guarantee of their quality”.
He cautioned about abandoning a Constitution that is “remarkably modern” and against eroding the protection of marriage between a man and a woman as a fundamental good. Even more pointedly, he quoted Bill Clinton, who said it was not the job of the state to bring up children but the job of parents.
Perhaps because he is seen as having been absent from Ireland at the height of the scandals, and because he has acknowledged profound flaws in the Irish church, Archbishop Martin can say things which would cause showers of verbal abuse for others. Yet his attempts at instigating a dialogue on issues such as the future of education, the shape of Irish society, and the nature of a church that is true to its founder have not received an adequate response.
It may well be connected to the streak of anti-intellectualism, or the dearth within the church of what John Henry Newman called “keen intellects and prolific pens addressing the pressing subjects of the day”. However, the Catholic Church in Ireland has never invested properly in communication. Nor is it very supportive of any organisation that attempts to fill the gap.
The National Forum on School Patronage will be an important moment, when people will get a chance to debate the nature of education, the needs of children, the wishes of parents, and the nature of pluralism.
The reform that Archbishop Martin so clearly wishes for will only come about when a spiritual reform happens. There are so many people today, young and not so young, who have never heard a coherent Christian vision, one that embraces the body, mind and spirit, and which presents a challenge for family, community and national life.
Maybe we need to heed GK Chesterton’s recommendation, “Let your religion be less of a theory and more of a love affair”.
Hairy Baby has another T-shirt, called Hosanna In The Hiace, which shows Jesus driving a van. The explanation reads, “It was fun to change the words a little when we were kids, wasn’t it? Just don’t wear this one to Mass!”
If we are not careful, we will be at a cultural level of “Hosanna in the Hiace”, without even the comfort of anyone knowing what the words originally were, and why anyone should care.