The Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of All Ireland has said that a cultural shift from an emphasis on community and family, to an emphasis on the the happiness of the individual has lead to a gradual breakdown in social cohesion.Archbishop Brady was speaking yesterday at the 2007 Milwaukee Irish Fest about contemporary challenges facing the Catholic Church arising from changes in Irish society.
Culture emphasises a notion of freedom of the individual “without reference to our responsibility to the common good that is so prevalent in Western culture at the moment.”
The dramatic increase in the levels of violent crime, use of illegal drugs and alcohol addiction hightlighted this breakdown too.
“There is a dangerous and alarming culture of binge drinking. It is assumed by so many young people that you cannot go out and enjoy yourself for the evening without getting drunk,” said Dr Brady, who added “I do not believe that companies producing alcohol and making huge profits from it, whether in Ireland or the US, are doing enough to promote responsible drinking or to provide support for those trying to recover from addiction.”
Another factor undermining the values of family and community was ‘Time Poverty’.
“To keep up with the consumer demands associated with our new levels of prosperity, people now have to have two incomes in the home, have to travel further and for longer to get to work and have less time to spend with family or doing ‘community’ based activities. All of this is adding to the stress and pressure of life,” he said.
However in spite of the erosion of external authority, which has seen a huge change in attitude towards the Gardaí, politicians, the Church and the banks, and a transferance of authority to the mass media – the ‘commentariat’, the Archbishop saw signs of hope for the new millennium in the peace process, the joint work between the Churches, the level of lay involvement in the Church and the dynamism and increased faith that has come to the Church in Ireland through the new migrant communities.
He said the Church's greatest strength lay in giving meaning to people's lives.
“Perhaps sometimes we forget that our greatest strength is that we have the answer to the deepest questions of peoples lives: Who am I? Why am I here? What ought I to do? What will happen to me when I die? These questions have not gone away and lurk behind the façade of what often appear to be contented but actually quite stress filled Irish lives. I am always mindful myself - amidst the challenges of change in Ireland - of those powerful words of St. Peter: ‘Lord to whom shall we go, you have the message of eternal life’.
In the future, Dr Brady concluded, the Church might be a smaller one, “but it may also be a more authentic one – ironically, a smaller but more authentic Church may have more influence, more impact because of the integrity of its witness.”
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