Pope’s advisor: Irish Church needs to be forward thinking

One of the Pope’s closest advisors has urged the Church in Ireland not to fear letting go of its former glories and to be forward thinking.

German Cardinal Reinhard Marx, a member of the council of nine cardinals hand-picked by Pope Francis to advise him, insisted that the Church here “cannot find enthusiasm” from clinging onto the past.

Responding to questions from The Irish Catholic following a conference hosted by the Loyola Institute at Trinity College Dublin, Cardinal Marx criticised members of the clergy and the faithful who consider the greatest achievements of the Church to be in the past.

“I think the way is not to look back. You cannot find enthusiasm from such a position,” the cardinal insisted. 

“We have to think of the future of the world, about the future of others in our communities, the signs of hope, not of distrust, not of complaining.

“I think the Irish Church and the German Church, the Catholic Church of Europe, has to look forward in the future, not at what can be held from the past. 

Confident

Cardinal Marx, who is Archbishop of Munich and Freising, also said he was confident that Christianity was “the religion of the future”, despite the challenges facing the Church in the modern world.

“I think the Christian faith is the religion of the future. I’m very clear about this. When you see the great moments of the Christian faith, the Bible, the universal approach, I think no other religion has this great universal vision of every person, religious or not, Catholic or not. That is very, very good,” he stated, adding that the Church has a responsibility to show people a “better life”.

“Until the Lord comes back, that will be the fight,” he said.