Sir, – It is difficult to persevere with one’s faith in a cold climate lacking in understanding, consultation or compassion. Curia turf wars involving career technocrats and the censuring of questioning clerics take precedence over true faith. The new Missal translation,introduced despite a lack of consultation with ordinary church members, highlights an organisation losing its ability to listen. Top-down approaches, dictated by Rome or by an out-of-touch Irish hierarchy, have failed, producing pain, heartache and frustration.
In my local Dublin parish (St Michael’s, Inchicore), I have observed a potential pastoral blueprint, involving a vibrant community partnership with our Oblate Fathers. This resonates more with my own beliefs than “a recovery of theological richness” championed by some as a panacea for church ills.
Setting the inclusive tone at Sunday Mass, a children’s liturgy group member (ages 9-11) welcomes parishioners from the pulpit. Smaller children (ages 3-7) receive instruction on the children’s Gospel in the sacristy (from lay members), producing artwork which they proudly carry above their heads and present to the priest (who openly praises their work). In preparatory Masses for aspiring first communicants, the priest reads from the children’s Gospel, maximising their understanding of the reading. He gives his sermon from the body of the church, on the same level as the congregation, interacting directly with the children, asking questions and helping them appreciate the Gospel message. He also invites them to join him on the altar for the Communion Rite.
For Christmas Day, the children’s liturgy group reads the Gospel and re-enacts (in excellent handmade costumes) the story of Jesus’s birth. Younger children sit up front, transfixed as the story unfolds. Inclusivity is the defining principle.
The upcoming Eucharistic Congress offers an opportunity to really engage with people – not simply to paper over cracks with a show of pomp and ceremony. Overall, a degree of humility from the church hierarchy is required, together with recognition that lay people can contribute significantly (and equally) to a new beginning. We need to embrace a creed of greater simplicity, with a community-based religion that can help us in the challenges we all face every day. – Yours, etc,
Sir, – It is interesting to note that the number of Protestants in Ireland has just risen by millions, since the rejection of transubstantiation is probably the key theological difference between Roman Catholics and Protestants! I wonder sometimes how many people today are actually aware of what their Christian denominations actually stood for historically, because there are, of course, some interesting beliefs among Protestant denominations that many people would probably reject today if they were aware of them. Another survey? – Yours, etc,
Sir – I have been an atheist for all my adult life but I do not join in Prof Richard Dawkins’s comments about your survey on Catholic beliefs (Home News, June 7th).
I am becoming more and more uncomfortable with this evangelical atheism as espoused by such public atheists.
I do not believe in a God, therefore I am an atheist. This gives me no right to urge my beliefs, or lack thereof, on others. If public atheists, such as Richard Dawkins, are engaging in competition against religion that makes them no different from the inquisitors, crusaders or jihadists of history.
In a truly free world, people can be of any religion or none. We do not need another set of aggressive evangelists. – Yours, etc,