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Gabhaim buíochas lenár nEaspag Tom Deenihan, Easpag na Mí, as ucht an fáilte a chuir sé romhainn.
Agus gabhaim buíochas chomh maith leis an Ardeaspag Eamon Martin a chuir ós ár gcomhair amach an dualgas naofa atá orainn go léir inniu.
It is a source of great joy for me to be with all of you here today. We have come from every corner of Ireland and we carry a sacred duty here today – the sacred duty of being faithful to the mission entrusted to all of us from our Baptism, namely, to fulfil our calling as members of the Body of Christ, and to do what God asks of us.
I wish to welcome very warmly the ecumenical friends who joins us as our guests today:
Rev Dr Karen Campbell, General Secretary, Irish Council of Churches
Ms June Butler, representing the Church of Ireland
Ms Gillian Kingston, representing the Methodist Church
Rev Canon Katharine Poulton, Archdeacon of Meath and Kildare
Thank you for being with us today, and thank you for your Christian fraternity that is supporting us and encouraging us today as we gather for this National Synodal Assembly.
We all know that when our Bishops announced a National Synodal Pathway in 2021, they put before us the question that has been the object of our discernment ever since: what does God want of the Church in Ireland at this time? Our listening to one another, and our listening together to God, led us to hear a call to return to our Baptism, and to rediscover there our identity, our dignity, and our mission – to become a Church fully alive in our common and shared Baptism.
Our discernment of the call to return to our Baptism helped us to see clearly what emerged as priorities from our listening while we were embedded in the universal synod – seven priorities, seven areas of the life of the Church, that resonated as true. It was a decisive moment in our process – a hopeful moment for some as they saw issues that really matter to them come to the fore, a painful moment for others as issues that matter deeply to them seemed to fade into the background. That has been a key learning for all of us: there have been the challenges of staying together on a long journey of discernment … of managing expectations on one hand and fears on the other … and of trying to stay anchored in a process of prayerful spiritual discernment.
But, yet, somehow, the experience of synodality has allowed us to stay together, more than anything else that we have tried. For all of us – with our differences, with our different hopes and fears, even with our different understandings of the Church – somehow synodality has shown that it can be a way for us to stay together because we come to know each other, listen to each other, and even love each other as brothers and sisters by virtue of our Baptism.
The identification of the seven priorities allowed us to establish seven Working Groups, comprised of people throughout the Church in Ireland who have knowledge and experience in those areas. We focus too often on our dwindling resources, but let us acknowledge the wealth of knowledge and experience that is there among us, and the extraordinary generosity of people who give of their time and ability.
This was surely the most significant coming together of people in the recent history of the Catholic Church in Ireland to help shape our future. They were given an onerous task, in an impossible timeframe – that has to be acknowledged. But they responded, they fulfilled their task with commitment and expertise, and they demonstrated hope for the future of the Church in Ireland. We owe them an immense debt of gratitude.
When the proposals of the seven Working Groups came before the National Team, we began to notice that here was something more than just a call to action. Something else was emerging. There was a vision of the Church emerging that resonated with what had been heard during the listening process, and which pointed to the extent to which the ecclesiology of the Second Vatican Council has been received by the People of God in Ireland.
In answer to the question, “What does God want of the Church at this time?”, the proposals suggest at first glance what God might be asking us to do. But there was something else! They were also pointing to what God might be asking us to be. Or what God might be asking us to become. Actions can too easily be put in a corner and be seen as the responsibility of someone else – “it’s their job to do what we recommended”. But becoming is something that belongs to us all. It is about our shared identity – not just about what we do, but who we are. It is about growth. It is about conversion. It is about becoming the People that God wants us to be.
It is out of that awareness that the five pathways emerged. Actions can be decided, implemented, and completed.
But growth, change, conversion, becoming – are a journey over time. As the People of Israel were led out of Egypt into the wilderness to become the People of God, with a new sense of their identity and mission, so we too are on a journey of becoming: of becoming …
a Church that proclaims the Gospel
a Church that is a community of belonging
a Church that is a place of healing
a Church that accompanies
a Church that empowers for ministry and co-responsibility.
The proposals now find their place in a vision of the Church that we are seeking to become. And we can all find ourselves in this vision of the Church. The pathways offer a real alternative to the polarised and polarising discourse that characterises so much of the life of our Church and our world. They offer us a way of being together. And long after recommendations from today have been decided, implemented, evaluated, the pathways.