Paving a path for Armagh’s long-term pastoral future

Chai Brady discusses sacraments in schools, defending the faith and Armagh archdiocese’s new pastoral plan with Bishop Michael Router

Teaching parents how to defend and pass on the Faith, developing Christian communities and streamlining pastoral areas are all important aspects for reflection as the Archdiocese of Armagh prepares for a new pastoral plan, according to the auxiliary bishop.

Although the archdiocese will be taking a year out to discern the best path forward as their pastoral plan for 2015-2020, ‘Share the Joy of the Gospel’ comes to end, Bishop Michael Router spoke to The Irish Catholic about what may be on the agenda.

“I think people of Faith and people who take their religion seriously, they’re finding it hard to speak about it, to talk about it in public, to mention it to workmates or to friends, even family members – that they take their faith seriously – because there can be a negative reaction to that nowadays,” Bishop Router said.

“That’s difficult for people and there’s a lot of people for whom their Faith means an awful lot but they just keep their heads down and don’t say too much or make it publicly known. I think part of my role as a priest, first and foremost, and the role of the Church is to encourage people to be strong and to hold firm to their Faith and not to be afraid and to give them the tools to defend it. That’s a big problem.”

Reflection

Bishop Router said he believes theological reflection has been “poor” and adult religious education “hasn’t been up to scratch”. This, he explained, leads to people who feel strongly about their Faith not having the vocabulary to defend when people are hostile.

“Catechetical formation will need to be a strong part of the pastoral plan, oftentimes when we think of catechetical formation we think about children preparing for first Communion or Confirmation but actually the real work needs to be done with parents,” he said.

The schools under Catholic patronage will diminish and parents will no longer be able to rely on them for sacramental preparation, he said, and that this is a reality the Church must face.

“We’re going to have to, in the next 10 years or so really, really work on that because our presence in schools is coming under pressure all the time and who knows what’s down the line,” Bishop Router said.

The process is based on reflection and seeking the guidance of the Holy Spirit”

“The numbers of Catholic schools will certainly have to diminish – I think the fact we have 85-90% of schools under Catholic patronage, primary schools is untenable really. We recognise that as much as everyone else.”

He said the goal would be “helping communities to make that transition and then providing them with the catechesis that once was done by the schools to be done in community, not just for children but mainly for parents as well so they can pass on the Faith”.

“Unless the parents actually get involved in passing on the Faith, then it won’t be so terribly successful.”

This process of moving the emphasis on sacramental preparation from school to parishes and parents is already beginning in many diocesse across Ireland as they prepare for an uncertain future, as many parents are increasingly calling for multi-denominational or non-denominational schools.

Programmes

Bishop Router mentioned two programmes being done outside schools where he formerly worked as a priest in the Diocese of Kilmore, saying: “I think a lot of dioceses are doing an element of that already, and there is a certain level of preparation for what might be down the line, that it might be untenable to do it through the schools.

“It’s about providing them with the confidence to be able to do that and the resources to move that forward, it will have to be, if there’s any thinking about the future that has to be the central part of it, there’s no two ways about it.

“That has to be something that we really, as a Church nationally, are going to really have to think about together over the coming years but each diocese is very independent in Ireland and throughout the world, each diocese is an independent unit, so what might happen in one diocese at one pace will happen in one diocese at another pace. I think the reality is that we really need to work hard on finding the structures and resources to ensure there will be more building of community outside of school.”

***

The launch of the year of the ‘Year of Reflection and Prayer’ for 2020 took place in St Patrick’s Cathedral in Armagh last week. The initiative is being spearheaded by Bishop Router.

The process is based on reflection and seeking the wisdom and guidance of the Holy Spirit in discerning the way forward for the archdiocese in the years ahead.

Their website, launched specifically for the year of reflection, armaghprays.com states: “Our Diocesan Pastoral Council believes the process of planning for the future is too important to be rushed. It is essential to give time as well as to reflect on all that has been achieved over the past few decades of pastoral planning and in the last five years in particular. The ‘Year of Reflection and Prayer’ is an opportunity for everyone in the diocese to get involved in the process, including the housebound, our religious congregations and prayer groups.”

Leaders of religious and parish representatives were given packs that included nine days of Novena prayers to help the process.

“We have four patron saints and they are nicely spread throughout the year – St Brigid in February, St Patrick in March, St Oliver Plunkett in July and then in November St Malachy – so we have a Novena of prayer available to each of the parishes, or for individuals, and they will cover a whole wide range, like there will be intercessions, intentions within those novenas covering every aspect of life, pastoral life,” Bishop Router said.

We need to reflect on why so many people feel left behind in society”

Some of the prayers are for political leadership, when asked about this Bishop Router said: “I think we need very strong leadership on both parts of the island. It’s not just the Church facing difficulties, there are signs that there are serious cracks appearing in society as well.

“We need the leadership to be able to bring people together to work to improve the quality of lives of people in their local communities and to counteract, I think particularly, the effects of addiction, especially drug addiction, and the associated gangland violence and activity we see so much of,” he said.

“We need to reflect on that and reflect on why that’s happening, why so many people seem to be left behind in our society. I know the quality of life may have improved for everybody but the gap in equality is expanding all the time – the gap between those who have and those who don’t is increasing, and there are so many people who feel hopeless and don’t feel they have any direction in life. That needs to be tackled. That would be one of the major things that our politicians are going to have to reflect on in the coming five years.”

He added that organisations working in communities struggling with addiction or other issues, many of which are comprised of volunteers, need increased support from Government and shouldn’t have to be “begging” for funding.

Benefit

Pastoral areas in Ireland, which aim to increase co-operation among parishes, pool resources and plan for the future together to benefit every parish involved, is another key area Bishop Router would like to focus on in the new pastoral plan.

“That may be one area that mightn’t have taken off as well as would have been expected or hoped, but I think we need to put a lot more resources into actually getting priests and people to reflect together on how they can cooperate. They have to be seen as a way to assist the priest and to support them in the work that they do rather than, as can often be the case, if they’re not properly reflected upon or operated, they can actually add work for the priest rather than take it away,” he said.

“So that needs to be developed and we need to think about that, that’s part of why we’re spending this year reflecting, to see how can we enhance those pastoral areas.”

However, there are also signs of life in the archdiocese, with Bishop Router saying lay people are already taking more responsibility for the life of parishes and are getting involved in prayer groups.

Since his arrival last summer he’s noticed that Charismatic prayer groups are “pretty strong”.

“I think there’s quite a resurgence in that need of gathering together with like-minded people to pray,” he said. “I think all that we’ve been through in the past few years has galvanised a lot of faithful people that they need to work together, they need to stand together because there’s very little support for the faithful person in the society we live in nowadays.

His hopes are that part of the plan in the future will be to develop basic Christian communities which are “small groups of people in each parish who provide a core group of support for the priest and for each other to keep the faith alive in that sort of context”.

He added: “I think the next 10 years are going to be very critical for every diocese in this country in terms of numbers of priests available and religious and all the rest, unfortunately our numbers are dropping. We don’t have a huge number of vocations so there’s going to be radical changes at the end of this decade I would say in how parishes operate.”