The level of interest in the study of theology is a real sign of hope in the Church, according to the bishop of Kilmore, Dr Leo O’Reilly. Speaking in Cavan at the presentation of certificates to fifty students from around the diocese who completed a three-year theology course run by the Mater Dei Institute in Dublin, Bishop O’Reilly said that up to now, there has been a lack of the lay involvement in the Church envisaged in Vatican 2.
But the graduation of so many people who had studied theology in the Kilmore Diocesan Centre was, he declared, part of “creating a different kind of Church, a Church as Christ wanted it to be.”
“Many of you are involved in parishes, on pastoral councils and liturgy groups and I am very confident that the learning and experience you received will enrich your contribution to what you are doing in your parishes as well as enriching your own personal understanding of your faith,” Dr O’Reilly told the students.
Admitting that there is “no escaping the fact that there is a crisis,” the bishop said that in these difficult times there are many “voices of doom” who profess that the Church is “in terminal decline.”
But, he continued, a crisis is “also an opportunity” and if people believe that the spirit is in the Church, they should renew their faith in the presence of the spirit.
Mater Dei Institute director Andy McGrady said the study of theology and the “wisdom and understanding which flows from it” was personally enriching and he hoped the students from Kilmore had been “deepened in a challenging way” by the course.
The fifty students who completed the programme come from 36 parishes in the Kilmore diocese.
SIC: CIN