In October of this year, our Irish Bishops will visit Rome for their periodic ad limina ('to the threshold') visit to the chair of St Peter.

This will be an important opportunity for an assessment of the serious Irish church crisis that was already developing in 1999 when our bishops last made an ad limina visit to Rome.  Then Pope John Paul II made a number of recommendations, including the following:

"There is likewise a need for new forms of prayer and apostolate, new structures and programmes that help to build a greater sense of belonging to the ecclesial community, a new flourishing of associations and movements capable of showing the perennial youth of the Church and of being a genuine leaven in society."

Sadly, this opportunity for the Irish church to rise to the challenge posed by Vatican II, and to meet the need for a new evangelisation at a time of deepening scandal, was not grasped.  In contravention of Canon Law, most dioceses in Ireland still do not even have pastoral councils to plan their own pastoral development.

This is all the more incomprehensible in the light of our bishops own document 'Towards Healing' of February 2005, which called for a massive effort from the 'whole church community' to meet the needs of those who have suffered from sexual and other forms of child abuse in Irish society.  How on earth can our church respond to such a challenge without the diocesan and parish structures that could give them a sense of belonging and collaboration in the mission of their own church?

Pope John Paul II also reminded our bishops in 1999 of the words of Pope Paul VI in 1974:

"Contemporary man listens more willingly to witnesses than to teachers, or if he listens to teachers, he does so because they are witnesses. He feels, in fact, an instinctive revulsion for everything that appears as pretence, facade or compromise."

The clerical child abuse scandals have convinced many Irish Catholics that children have been exposed to danger to protect a mere facade of church.  And that their bishops are mostly still determined to keep them effectively outside the church, without any influence over its administrative and intellectual life.  Lacking 'structures of belonging', they are walking away in unprecedented numbers from a leadership culture that - with a few exceptions - seems to belong to the nineteenth century.

What on earth is the point of our bishops issuing challenges such as 'Towards Healing'  if they have no intention of putting in place the structures required to make sure that victims of clerical child sex abuse, and other forms of abuse, can receive the healing care of the whole church community?  Are they true witnesses, or merely caretakers of a cardboard facade of Christian compassion?

Voice of the Faithful urges all Irish Catholics to consider carefully whether their bishops have responded adequately to the challenge of the moment, and to the challenge thrown down by Pope John Paul II in 1999.  They should make known their views on this in writing to the Holy See, in preparation for October's visit.

They should also ask the Pope to repeat the call made by his predecessor in 1999 - for our bishops to involve the whole people of God in the life of the church - to give us that sense of belonging we need to build a church capable of inspiring younger generations and halting the present slide into indifference and cynicism.

They should also ask their bishops to listen to the pope this time round.

Voice of the Faithful exists to express the faithful, yet independent, voice of the Irish Catholic laity - and to work towards structures of mutual accountability and belonging.

You will find the whole of Pope John Paul II's address to the Irish bishops in 1999 by clicking this link.
 

VOTF™
Mission Statement

To provide a prayerful voice, attentive to the Spirit, through which the Faithful can actively participate in the governance and guidance of the Catholic Church.

Our Goals

2. To support priests of integrity

3.To shape structural change within the Catholic Church.

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