Madam, - I read Archbishop Neary's article (Rite and Reason, July 26th) with interest. He reminds us that faith in the Church has grown weak alongside faith in other institutions, in the face of one scandal after the next, and that many voices are telling us that truth is less important than personal gain.
However, I wonder if there is any real evidence that our "new prosperity" has led us away from the word of God. On the contrary, I feel our new prosperity has often been invested in uncovering the truth. The pain and anguish to which the archbishop refers is the pain and anguish arising from the truth we have discovered as we cease to have blind faith in the Church and other institutions.
This stems from a greater confidence in our capacity to see the truth and to make judgments, perhaps as a direct result of better education, better living conditions, and the television documentaries that, in the words of the archbishop, "pry open the secret world of drug dealing and abuse, and take us into a world of sex and its exploitation". Television documentaries reveal the scandals; they do not commit the acts. Surely Archbishop Neary would not have us back in a situation of a blind faith in the Church, in institutions and in public figures?
Man does not live by bread alone, but both men and women advance by knowing the truth. I wonder whether abandoning a Church that hid the truth while declaring itself in a special position to reveal the word of God, is in fact tantamount to forgetting about God. I would suggest that the spiritual needs of the intelligent educated people who were the children in the crowd during Pope John Paul's visit in 1979 cannot be met by a Church that will not journey with its people.
Yes, I find hope in God. That God is compassionate, patient and loving. The God I hope in celebrates our successes and encourages our generosity. The God I hope in walks with us and is constant and eternal not by allegiance to an institution, but as a Spirit that invites us into a world beyond our capacity in empathy and generosity. The Church was founded on risk and great spiritual courage and now seems to be weighed down by the pseudo-wisdom of institutional self preservation.
I haven't met anyone who would describe Christ as self-preserving; perhaps those who worry about the future of the Church might like to try a model closer to our understanding of the way of Christ. - Yours, etc.,
CAITRIONA McCLEAN, Weston Avenue, Lucan, Co Dublin.