David QuinnThe current retreat from politics means that the bishops have no vision of the common good writes David Quinn
The Irish Summer School is an interesting phenomenon. In essence, the summer schools consist of the Irish Establishment talking to itself, Dublin 4 on tour as it were. One of the most high profile of these schools is the MacGill Summer School which takes place at Glenties, Co. Donegal each year. It is organised by Joe Mullholland, formerly of RTÉ.
If a bishop is going to be invited to these summer schools, it is very likely to be Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. This is a compliment to Dr Martin. It means they think he has interesting things to say. But it should also make him a bit nervous because the Irish establishment in its present incarnation shouldn’t like a bishop too much. By rights a bishop should make the Irish establishment nervous, nervous that he might say something that might challenge its core thinking.
In any event, Mr Mulholland asked Archbishop Martin to answer the question, “What would you put in your election manifesto?” He didn’t answer the question preferring instead to address himself to the lack of cohesiveness in both religion and politics at present. I’ll return to this shortly, but it’s a pity Dr Martin didn’t say what he would put in his own election manifesto. Perhaps he should have been asked to say what kind of party he would vote for instead.
Bishops these days are extremely reluctant to be seen to be ‘interfering in politics’ even though Pope Francis has urged Catholics to do precisely this. The Christian Democratic parties were established by Christians ‘interfering in politics’ often with the backing of their ecclesiastical leaders.
Common good
The current retreat from politics means that the bishops have no vision of the common good to offer, which is very peculiar. I’ll hazard a guess at what vision of the common good your average priest or bishop would articulate if forced.
Economically speaking, they would probably opt for centre-left policies. They would want strong measures taken to protect the environment. They would support school choice. They would be pro-life and would want to promote the family based on the marriage of a man and a woman as the best place for the raising of children.
No party in Ireland currently supports this set of policies, but if a clear vision of the common good was taught to Catholics on a systematic, ongoing basis, then the political parties would be forced to respond and we’d end up with a party closer to a Catholic/Christian vision of the common good than anything currently on offer.
Until the bishops lose their reluctance to ‘interfere in politics’ and set out their vision of the common good once again, that day is still a very long way off and politicians will continue to treat the Church(es) with contempt.
Archbishop Martin had interesting things to say in his talk about the way politics, as well as religion is splintering and losing its cohesiveness. It’s good to remind people of this. We hear a huge amount about religion being in crisis, and about the Catholic Church specifically being in crisis. Actually, many forms of institutional belonging are in crisis.
Church attendance is obviously down, but voter turnout has declined compared with what it was. Membership of political parties has declined hugely compared with immediately after independence. The core support of the main parties has plunged. Trade union membership is way down on what it was, and so for that matter is newspaper readership.
This last trend isn’t simply because of the internet, but is also explained, I think, by diminished interest in politics and current affairs generally, an interest which is a principle driver of newspaper readership.
One reason newspapers are now full of supplements (like property supplements, health supplements, holiday supplements and so on) is to try and counter falling interest in current affairs.
Individualism
The chief cause of the crisis of institutional belonging is the same in each case; growing individualism. Collective forms of belief are out and DIY beliefs are very much in. This is way relativism is so popular.
This presents both the Churches and politics with a “reality check”. Both set out a vision of life in the hope that many people will agree with their vision and ‘sign on’ as it were. But in an individualistic age people are more likely to join you for one specific issue and then move on.
The challenge before the Churches is even greater than that facing politics because the Churches offer not just a vision of how we should organise our common lives together, but also a spiritual vision that touches every part of our lives and demands a great deal of us because it asks us to put ourselves at the service of others in the name of love. It asks us to be willing to put our own happiness second. This is a radically counter-cultural message in a society which teaches everyone to pursue their own self-fulfilment first and foremost.
In his address, Archbishop Martin also said that the “Irish Church needs a new generation of strong and articulate lay men and women”. He’s right about that, of course.
But those “strong and articulate lay men and women” are bound to be controversial unless they stick to safe issues like poverty and the environment, issues that do need to be addressed but at the same time do not challenge the establishment view of things in the same way the Church’s view of the right to life, education, the family, human sexuality and the place of religion in society does.
The “strong and articulate lay men and women” will need plenty of support from their bishops when they do take on these issues because they can expect the Establishment to train its guns on those lay people when they do.
Ultimately what is needed is much more collaboration between laity and clergy in presenting to the world a view of a common good that challenges the present, deeply individualistic one.