Priests increasingly demoralised by uncommitted Catholics’ lack of appreciation for sacred – Bishop
The sacredness of the liturgy is being eroded by people who don’t understand it and want to personalise it, and this is demoralising priests, according to Bishop Donal Roche, Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic as a contributor to the ‘Relentless Ministry’ series in this paper, he said that people were looking for “pop songs at funerals and wanting to bring up footballs and fishing rods in the offertory procession.”
“I can understand that sense that priests have, I have it myself, the sacredness of the liturgy is being eroded by people who don’t really understand it and want it personalised. And even among the faithful – ‘well it’s daddy’s funeral’- they want a celebration of daddy’s life instead of what it should be, it’s a prayer, we’re praying for the person who died and for God to have mercy on his or her soul. We’ve lost that; now it’s golf balls and fishing rods and so on. That gets priests down a lot, the liturgy being compromised and people wanting to bring in their own stuff and music etc.”
He added: “It’s very hard to say ‘No’ and we’ve allowed it to happen, and we didn’t want to be unpopular and we didn’t want to say ‘No’ and now more and more it’s being taken over. Fr Chris Hayden writing in The Irish Catholic made that point very well about the way a lot of priests feel about the lack of sense of appreciation of the liturgy and what we offer. That’s at the heart of it. He captured so much in his piece on how priests feel. He said one of the causes of this relentless ministry are the catholics who make demands but are not committed enough to make sense of the Church’s mission. I think that captured for me a lot of what is going on in parishes.”
One solution he suggested is a service without a mass. “I try to explain, not to give in, maybe compromise a bit but one solution is a funeral without a Mass, a religious service that is not mass allows for more flexibility and takes the tension out of it. Because you haven’t got the sacredness of the eucharist and people talking and laughing during Holy Communion. It is an alternative way and leave the sacrament for those who appreciate it. That’s not trying to sound elitist but it is something we could explore more to help priests with that tension, that there are options.”