Ireland is experiencing a gradual breakdown of social cohesion, said the primate of all Ireland, calling these “‘the best of times and the worst of times’” in the Irish Catholic Church.In a wide-ranging Aug. 17 address at the Milwaukee “Irish Fest” delivered at the Marcus Amphitheater here on contemporary challenges facing the church, Archbishop Sean Brady of Armagh stressed that “the secular project in Ireland” has failed to bring the happiness it promised.
“Ireland is in the throws of a rapid transition between old and new at so many levels: economic, cultural, political, social and, of course, religious,” the archbishop said, noting to “the erosion of external authority” as Irish society’s “first major axis of transition.”
"The best way to summarize the overall situation of the church in Ireland at this moment is in the words of Charles Dickens: 'It was the best of times and the worst of times,’” he said.
“The fundamental challenge in my view is for modern Ireland to retain the balance between the best of the old and the best of the new.”
This includes taking steps to build community and support for marriage and the family, the archbishop said, noting that there must develop “a new maturity in public and media debate, where the importance of faith in the lives of so many Irish people, including many of the new Irish, is given due recognition and respect by the new forces of Irish culture."
He pointed to “evidence of a gradual breakdown in social cohesion.”
“This comes from a cultural shift from emphasis on community and family to an emphasis on the happiness of the individual, particularly of the individual as a consumer,” he said.
“It is also tied up with 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.”
Such an attitude has had dramatic repercussions on how Irish citizenry has viewed politicians, financial institutions, civil authorities and the Catholic Church, he said, adding that “multitude of investigations” has also added to the mistrust of “traditional sources of social and moral authority.”
As well, the archbishop said the dramatic increases in violent crime, illegal drug usage, alcohol addiction and, especially among young people, binge drinking.
“Nothing has yet emerged to replace the cohesion and stability that these institutions once brought,” he stressed, though adding its influence has been “partially replaced by the authority and influence of the 'mass media' - the commentariat.”
Concerning the church, Archbishop Brady said, “the impact of the last 30 years has been particularly dramatic.”
“The seeds of it were already evident in the challenges to the position of the church in key public votes on social and moral issues in the 70s and 80s. The slow decline in the very high rates of weekly Mass attendance, the trauma and scandal around revelations of clerical child sexual-abuse accelerated this process dramatically in the 1990s,” he said.
He noted that Mass attendance as high as 90 percent three decades ago has shrunk to about 50 per cent, with vocations to the priestly life “fallen dramatically in the same period” and parish restructuring in many Irish dioceses imminent.
And yet, he said, that this “time of great challenge for the church” is “also a time of great opportunity for the church.”
“There are also many signs of hope!"
The archbishop pointed to the Northern Ireland power-sharing and “how well former adversaries … are working together in the common interest.”
His meeting with Democratic Union Party and controversial Protestant leader Ian Paisley showed “how much is to be gained from simply meeting with others.”
“Patient dialogue, developing mutual understanding was one of the keys to finding peace in Northern Ireland,” he added.”
Today, Ireland needs to “build on the peace,” Archbishop Brady said, addressing its “legacy of the past,” particularly poverty in the North.
“Northern Ireland remains one of the most deprived parts of Europe because of the legacy of conflict. Yet it has one of the most highly qualified workforces and one of the best infrastructures to support development of any part of Ireland or the UK” (United Kingdom).
He called upon U.S. companies to consider investment in Northern Ireland and the British Government to provide further incentives to such investment.
The “growth of prosperity” in the Irish Republic “has certainly lifted the burden of hopeless impoverishment from many families,” he said.
The archbishop also noted the impact of more than 300,000 Polish migrating workers have had on Ireland over the last 10 years, stating that this wave of immigration has brought “a very strong faith commitment” to the Irish church.
“In many of our inner city parishes,” he said, “it is the new migrant communities who have brought new life to the faith of these parishes."
Archbishop Brady highlighted other “signs of hope for the new millennium,” including: the peace process moving beyond political agreement into the deeper and more Christian concepts of reconciliation and the healing of memory; increasing the level of joint work between Christian churches; and, greater level of lay involvement in the church.
Yet in the face of prosperity, Ireland is challenged by the undermining of the values of family and community by “time poverty,” Archbishop Brady said.
“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.
He said that unprecedented levels of suicide, murder rates and drug abuse are all warning signs that “any cozy assumption that our wealth will bring us a better quality of life is unfounded.”
The Catholic Church may be smaller in the future, but one that “may also be a more authentic one,” Archbishop Brady said, noting that “ironically, a smaller but more authentic church may have more influence, more impact because of the integrity of its witness."
On the last day of the four-day event, Aug. 19, Archbishop Brady was the principal celebrant and delivered the homily at an open-air morning Mass for Justice and Peace on the festival grounds.
Archbishop Timothy M. Dolan of Milwaukee and priests of the archdiocese concelebrated.
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