Colm Fitzpatrick
Professor Eamonn Conway. Catholics across Ireland are facing an identity crisis and have not been properly educated in their Faith, a prominent Irish priest has said.
Tuam priest Fr Eamonn Conway said many Catholics today are “confused” and that we have to accept the fact that formation and catechesis has been “very poor” in many respects.
The comments come after the recent referendum to remove the Eighth Amendment, and the high number of Catholics who voted to accept the proposal despite such a decision being in conflict with the Faith.
“I don’t know of any other country that has been offered a vote on abortion, it’s usually politicians who get to vote so we were the legislators,” Prof. Conway told The Irish Catholic.
“Now we have 70-odd-percent of our population self-identifying as Catholic of which a large number of people voting for something that is so counter to the core of our Faith. We definitely have an identity crisis.”
Remarks
The lecturer at Limerick’s Mary Immaculate College also expressed support for remarks made by Bishop Kevin Doran who last week said that Catholics who voted ‘Yes’ with the knowledge and intention that abortion would be the outcome should consider going to Confession.
“Bishop Doran was asked a very specific question and I think he answered it honestly and he answered it well. He was speaking to fellow Catholics – not everybody can understand that,” he said, adding that the comments also came out of a very “rich understanding” of the Sacrament of Reconciliation which is about “reorienting” ourselves towards God.
Fr Conway also stressed that many committed Catholics have been wounded by media coverage leading up to the referendum and are unsure of what it means to be a Catholic in Ireland today.
Outpouring
“We do know, certainly in the outpouring of articles in the media over particularly maybe the last month, towards the final stages of the referendum and in the last week, a lot of hostility to people who self-identify as Christians and as Catholics and I think people are a bit bruised by that so that’s what I’ve been picking up,” he said.