Cultural Catholics

Irish Archbishops Seek to Bolster Catholic Enrollment by Changing Traditions, Doctrine

Mary Burke on September 27, 2021

The Roman Catholic Diocese of Cashel and Emly in Ireland recently released a pastoral plan focused on ways that the diocese could re-engage Irish Catholics. Archbishop Kieran O’Reilly released the plan, titled “Seeds of Hope-Pastoral Plan for the Archdiocese of Cashel and Emly 2021-2026” earlier this month. 

The plan’s focus upon reengaging a younger population in the diocese as well as Catholic LGBTQ persons, divorcees, migrants, and “cultural Catholics” whom the diocese, Archbishop O’Reilly, and Archbishop of Dublin Dermot Farrell, assert have been excluded by the Church.

To do this, O’Reilly said,

“We must step out of the past, embrace the present and move to the future. The model whereby the public attends Mass once a week is not what the Church is about. It is and must be about the Church being out in the community rather than the community being in the Church.”

Farrell concurred with O’Reilly noting that if the Church fails to meet people where they are at, the Church will continue to lose influence and membership in Ireland. Farrell went on to say that,

[the] Church should be going out and meeting people rather than just expecting them to go to mass, like talking to students of faith in universities…Maybe you need to go out where the flock is and meet them in different ways.”

Neither the Catechism nor the other sources of Church teaching state that people who engage in certain lifestyle behaviors or are part of a certain demographic group should or can be excluded from the faith. The Catechism rather calls for those struggling with homosexual attractions to be treated with “respect, compassion, and sensitivity” (CCC 2358). 

Not sanctioning certain behaviors that one believes the Church should allow and even celebrate is not the same thing as excluding people from the faith because they are divorced, have same-sex inclinations, etc. The former occurs in the Roman Catholic Church, while the latter is officially condemned by the Church.

While the plan seems uncontroversial on its face, its contents and comments from the archbishops reveal the true intentions of those behind the plan.

The Mass is the central and distinctive celebration in the Catholic faith. For two clergymen to suggest that the way to make Catholic churches more vibrant is to dilute the traditions is concerning – but also not shocking – in a religious and cultural climate that foregoes authentic teaching for popularity.

The plan’s section titled “Youth and Family” mandates parishes “ensure that images of families used in parish and diocesan literature represent all family types…” “as a way to “be open to the diversity of the different kinds of families living in parishes today” (p.14).

A section titled “Leadership and Co-Responsibility” calls for “the inclusion of women in leadership roles as equal members of the Church” and notes that that inclusion is “a priority into the future.”

The teaching on women in leadership roles in the Catholic Church is clear. Women are welcomed and encouraged to serve as lectors and cantors during Mass and aid their churches in other ways, but they are not to be ordained as clergy members (CCC 1597). Furthermore, the only marriage recognized by the Church is a lifelong heterosexual marriage and this is made clear in the Catechism (CCC 1601, 1604-1605, 1614, 2357-2358).

These changes proposed in the plan coupled with the archbishops’ comments make it seem like the Diocese’s focus is not on meeting people where they are at but about changing the Church’s long-held teachings on marriage, divorce, and women’s ordination as well as decreasing the reverence owed to the celebration of the Eucharist that occurs in a Mass.

If this diocese was truly interested in meeting people where they are, its people should reach out to these groups but not affirm sinful behavior or change how the faith is expressed. The Church shouldn’t sacrifice dogma, tradition, or principles for the sake of popularity. Furthermore, the Church should reach out to groups who have been traditionally hesitant to join the Catholic Church but that shouldn’t entail changing matters of faith and morals. 

Meeting people where they’re at should include sharing scriptural truth, the beauty of the Church traditions, and how every person, no matter where they are in life, can enter into the Kingdom of God when they respond to the grace that God gives every human being by acting on the call to live a virtuous and holy life.

  1. Comment by Tom on September 27, 2021 at 5:26 pm

    “Well, that didn’t work!”

    –The ongoing motto of the Catholic church ever since Vatican II.

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