Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin has strongly affirmed the
Church’s commitment to priestly celibacy during the ordination of seven
new deacons for the Irish Church in St Patrick’s College Maynooth on
Sunday.
In his homily, the Primate of Ireland told the seven ordinands that
celibacy was “not just renunciation of something; it is a positive
attitude of commitment.”
Speaking to the seven, six of whom are destined for the diocesan
priesthood and one of whom is a Redemptorist, Archbishop Martin said
their ministry as deacons was “never just a job”; rather it was a
calling of their entire person.
“The priest is freed from the personal care for a family in order to
be able to give himself with all his heart to pastoral ministry. The
priest renounces a legitimate intimacy so that he can be more intimate
in his love of Jesus”, he said.
The seven deacons include Derek Ryan from Enfield, Co Meath, who last
weekend made his Perpetual Profession as a Redemptorist. He is due to
be ordained to the priesthood on 4 December 2011.
Warning the new deacons that their ministry in Ireland in the years
to come would not be easy, Archbishop Martin underlined that they were
embarking on their ministry “at a truly crucial moment in the life of
the Irish Church”.
“The next few years will be among the most crucial in the long
history of the Irish Church. There is little time to procrastinate or
simply allow things to drift without direction”, Dr Martin warned and
added that the Church of the future would have to change and would
inevitably be different.
Noting that the overall culture and demographics of Irish society are
changing, the leader of the Church in Dublin said the results of the
National Census would be interesting as they would indicate how many
people in Ireland are Catholic and wish to be called Catholic.
Looking at the current context of the practice of the faith,
Archbishop Martin said that on any given Sunday only about 18 percent of
the Catholic population attends Mass in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
This
figure he said was somewhat lower than in other parts of the country
and did not take into consideration the age profile and the lack of
young people in many parishes.
“Many young people, despite years of religious education, have only
marginal interest in the message of Jesus. Many who come to us today
possess only a sort of cultural Catholicism which can easily deceive us
about the depth of people’s faith”, he warned.
He added that faith in Jesus and his Church was “not a free-for-all
of opinions in which anything goes”, rather it had “content and context”
and was about “knowing Jesus intimately”.
Acknowledging that we are living “in a world which lives so often as
if God did not exist”, the Archbishop underlined that this did not mean
that “those who no longer have faith in Jesus are not good, idealistic
people of integrity”.
Rather, he admitted, they often looked with
sadness and were at times “scandalised at the failings of believers and
of the institution of the Church”.
He added, “They do not find in us
authentic witnesses to the presence of Jesus in our own lives.”
The challenge of witnessing to faith and hope in today’s world “is
the challenge of addressing those who find belief not just not easy, but
irrelevant. This challenge requires dialogue rather than imposition;
we must seek to identify the seeds of the transcendent in today’s
society, building on every expression of openness to something which
goes beyond the measurable”, Archbishop Martin suggested.
However, Christianity is not a faith of abstract rules, but one about
love, he said, warning that “love is not a love of self-concern, or
superficial infatuation or narcissism, but the love of God who gives
himself for us and who takes up his place in our lives”.
Concluding, Archbishop Martin told the deacons that the coming years
must be years of renewal.
“As future priests you will play a crucial
role in that renewal”, he said and urged them “to reach out to the
coming generations, presenting them in unambiguous terms the teaching of
Jesus and challenging them not to be afraid to let the message of Jesus
change their hearts”.