A DUBLIN PRIEST has compared the return of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin to his home city with that of Jesus to his home town of Nazareth, as recalled in Sunday’s gospel.Fr Eamonn Clarke of Kilcoole parish, Co Wicklow, recalled in a homily Sunday how in rejecting Jesus the people of Nazareth asked: “Who does he think he is?”
Fr Clarke noted that “on his return to Ireland as Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin had to confront the selfsame question, not least from his priests”.
He also said that “from the outset our Archbishop clearly recognised that he had returned to a changed Ireland”.
“Jesus expressed amazement at the lack of faith in Nazareth. Is Diarmuid Martin expressing equal amazement at his perceived lack of faith in our archdiocese and beyond? His launching of the Year of Evangelisation seems to support this view.”
Fr Clarke felt, however, that “renewal can only come from the grassroots”. He said “empty pews and disillusionment with church do not mean that faith is lacking”.
Parents still presented their children for Baptism, First Communion and Confirmation. Church marriage was the choice of most couples while Christian burial and a funeral Mass was the norm, “no matter how alienated the deceased may have been from Church”.
He said that clericalism still ruled and that “the voice of women in the church is unlistened to . . . Church absolutism has to be challenged. People are walking away.”
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