Chai Brady
Syro-Malabar Catholics are pictured during
their pilgrimage to Knock Shrine, Co. Mayo,
earlier this year. The head of Ireland’s biggest Indian Catholic community has said they have “a responsibility to revive the Faith” in Ireland, particularly as the Irish were missionary pioneers in India.
National coordinator of the Syro-Malabars in Ireland, Fr Joseph Mathew Oliakkattil highlighted the impact of secularism on Faith practice in Ireland and how “Government policies and new ideologies” are one of the reasons for the decline.
Fr Joseph said that the 17,000-strong Syro-Malabar Catholics on the island of Ireland are a migrant community, and as an Eastern Catholic Church, “we acknowledge our missionary responsibility to revive the Faith in this country”.
He said that this can be done through their witness: “The strong family relationships, real Faith life, commitment to the Catholic life, new vocations to priesthood etc., would foster the revitalisation of Catholic faith. For instance, one of our children has started his journey to priesthood and is in the seminary now”.
He warned that “secularism has affected Irish Faith life to a large extent” which is “reflected in all the spiritual life of people here”.
“The Government policies and new ideologies are a reason for that. The family bond and community aspects have decreased. Irish missionaries were the pioneers of the missionary work even in India. While the universal Church is flourishing there is a decrease in faith life today in Ireland,” he said.
While catechism, family values, prayer life and more “are strong and well promoted” among the Syro-Malabars, Fr Joseph said that their “the youth and children face the situation of secularism at present, and this will continue into the future…”
“The Catholic Church grew up through struggles and suffering. The secularism and the anti-religious attitude of the people [in Ireland] has decreased the Faith life. Even though we have institutions, good leadership: there are a lot of obstacles. Church-centred spirituality is to be developed and the definition of family as in the Constitution is to be regained through regular catechism, family visits, counselling, resolving the issues related to faith, making use of facilities and occasions for the revival of the Faith life,” he said.
The Eastern Catholic Churches are different from the Western Catholic Church by their liturgy, spirituality, discipline and theology. The Syro-Malabar Catholic Church is one among 23 Eastern Churches and follow the East Syrian tradition. It is in full communion with the worldwide Catholic Church.
Read the full feature piece by Chai Brady here.