IRELAND
Irish Independent
Martina Devlin
PUBLISHED
27/08/2016
Another day, another flavourless statement from Maynooth. It is remarkable how an institution as vibrant and effective as the Catholic Church during its 2,000-year history should become now so lost within a gilded labyrinth.
There is a way out of this maze of its own construction, as leaders from Pope Francis to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin realise. But their dilemma is how to secure buy-in for essential reforms from the Church’s management class.
The scale of the necessary overhaul is significant, and many within the hierarchy are resistant to change. This means the reformers have a circle to square: on the one hand, gradual reform will meet with less resistance from traditionalists; on the other hand, it might be dismissed as tinkering at the edges.
For the Irish hierarchy to stick its collective fingers in its ears and go “la la la, we can’t hear you” is no solution to the crisis lapping at its doors. It has pursued such a policy for decades, with dwindling vocations and empty churches to show for it.
Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin is among those trying to effect change – but will it be watered down so that the public barely notices any difference? This week’s statement from Maynooth’s trustees will do little to reassure the faithful, who have anxieties both about alleged seminary ‘sexcapades’ and the theologically inflexible priests being formed there.
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