Friday, April 01, 2011

Irish church numbers decline but faith called still vibrant

While the Irish Catholic Church might not be as numerically strong as it was in the past, there is still a great vibrancy in Irish Catholicism, says Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

“The church is not on the way to extinction. It is carrying out a vital role in society,” he said.

“It is easy to point to areas where the church failed its people, failed society, failed its mission and, sadly, failed its most vulnerable ... but the balance of the activity of the church in Irish society is one where the message of Jesus produced goodness and care and deep reflection on the meaning of life and of society,” he said.

“Alongside its failures, the church over the years has never been absent from the most alienated sectors of society,” he added.

In the political sphere, he said, the church does not have all the answers, but Catholics “cannot simply adopt politically correct positions.

While not referring directly to the new Irish government’s plan to hold a constitutional convention to bring forward legislation on same-sex marriage, Archbishop Martin said that marriage between a man and a woman is “a fundamental good in society” and deserves protection. ”

Underlining the need for renewal in his Dublin Archdiocese — Ireland’s largest with about 1.1 million Catholics and almost 1,500 priests — he said “a renewal of structures alone would be sterile.

The great reformers of the church were saints, the archbishop said.