Irish people today find the Christian Bible "almost alien territory", Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin told the World Synod of Bishops in Rome yesterday. In his first address to the month-long assembly, the Primate of Ireland appealed for the Catholic Church to adopt new visual and life-related approaches in order to make the Christian message more meaningful to people living in secularised societies.
Speaking on the Synod's theme of "The Word of God in the Life and Mission of the Church", he referred to other bishops who had spoken about the complex cultural situation facing the Catholic Church.
"I speak as bishop of a diocese where in recent years a climate of secularisation has made dramatic and rapid inroads into a culture which, until not very long ago, was marked by a strong presence of belief," said Dr Martin.
"There are still elements of an underlying traditional religious culture, but unfortunately for many, the scriptures are in reality unexplored, almost alien territory."
Archbishop Martin said many Irish people retained from their earlier catechesis (religious education and training) some knowledge of Jesus, but may never have had the experience of a real personal encounter with Christ.
Troubled
"In the face of a secularised climate, this superficial remnant of their religious knowledge, like that of Jesus' townsfolk who lacked faith in his miracles, may even become an obstacle to their developing a deeper faith," he added.
But Archbishop Martin pointed out that in the Gospel of St Mark the faith in Jesus showed by the sick, the troubled and the distressed was in sharp contrast to the indifference of his own townspeople in Nazareth.
"The proclamation of the Word and the exercise of concrete charity belong together," said Archbishop Martin.
"There is a certain sense in which the scriptures can only be understood through a sort of hermeneutic (an appreciation or deep instinctual understanding) of charity.
"Our pastoral responses to expanding access to the Word of God have to be differentiated," the archbishop added.
"New ways -- visual rather than verbal, experiential rather than purely intellectual -- have therefore to be found to introduce people once again to a culture of the Word of God."
+++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Disclaimer
No responsibility or liability shall attach itself to either myself or to the blogspot ‘Clerical Whispers’ for any or all of the articles placed here.
The placing of an article hereupon does not necessarily imply that I agree or accept the contents of the article as being necessarily factual in theology, dogma or otherwise.
Sotto Voce
(Source: II)