Archbishop Dermot Farrell was conferred with the pallium at Mass in Dublin’s pro-cathedral at the weekend by the Pope’s representative in Ireland Archbishop Jude Thaddeus Okolo.
Blessed by Pope Francis at the Vatican on the feastday of Ss Peter and Paul, the woollen vestment marks the archbishop’s authority as metropolitan of the Dublin ecclesiastical
province as well as his communion with the Pope. Photo: John McElroy. If Catholics wants to attract more people to the Gospel they must radiate joy rather than come across as downcast, the Archbishop of Dublin has warned.
Dr Dermot Farrell was speaking at Mass on Monday to mark the 800th anniversary of the death of St Dominic in the church named for the founder of the Order of Preachers in Tallaght, Dublin.
“St Dominic can teach us that cheerfulness and kindliness, reflected in our faces, is a better witness to the Gospel than the ‘funeral face’ sometimes mentioned by Pope Francis in his homilies”.
The archbishop warned that “our bitter thoughts and actions seep into our faces and infuse our words with a caustic bite; people notice when they look at us at Mass that we are a bunch of sour and dour faces.
“Don’t forget to ask yourself this question: Am I a joyful person? Or, are am I one whose face is downcast, bitter and, at times, a grimace that would stop a clock?” he asked.
Reflecting on the crises faced by St Dominic and his first followers, Dr Farrell said that “today, in the pastoral life of the Church there is another real crisis — in discovering and proclaiming the Good News, in other words — in evangelisation. And also in genuinely and deeply trusting God, our Father and God’s ways.
Faith
Unlike the past, when the threat to the Faith in Ireland came from outside, today it comes from within, where almost all generations are constructing their own identities.
“We see this absolutely everywhere in our culture. Freedom of choice reigns supreme: I become the person that I choose to be…When we look at this crisis within the Church, then, like Jesus, we need a creative response to the chasm that exists between faith and daily living.
“In Ireland, at a time when the tap root of faith appears to have been damaged, the challenge is to make a convincing case for the Catholic Faith, a life of virtue, and a just society,” he warned.
Dr Farrell also insisted that Catholics must be counter-cultural. “The person of faith stubbornly reads the world through the lens of the Word of God and speaks the divine truth.
“And this mission implies opposition, confrontation, and critique, since the keepers of worldly order are frequently looking through other lenses and listening to other worlds,” he said.