‘Sense of sacred’ disappearing in Europe, says archbishop

More people are living their lives without God

Warning that there is “a definite temptation nowadays to rob the Church of hope”, Archbishop Eamonn Martin has urged Catholics “get out there” and to “bring faith to life”.  The Archbishop of Armagh made his remarks in a homily in San Colombano Al Lambro in northern Italy at a concelebrated Mass to mark the 1400th anniversary of the death of St Columbanus.

Archbishop Eamon noted that people often speak about the decline in Church practice or the lack of vocations to the priesthood and religious life “as signals that Europe has lost the faith.  

“It is true that many people in Europe have drifted away from regular Church practice; there is an increasing loss of the ‘sense of the sacred’, and more and more people seem to be growing used to living their lives with little or no reference to belief and trust in God,” the archbishop said.

However, he reminded the faithful that Pope Francis tells us that it is now, more than ever, that the world needs to hear the joy of the Gospel. “He challenges us to get out there and to bring faith to life. A Church which does not come out of herself to evangelise, he said, becomes self-reverential and then gets sick,” Dr Martin said.

In his homily, the Primate of All Ireland said the greatest challenge and opportunity facing the Church these days was how to become missionary. Citing Pope Francis’ apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, Archbishop Eamon recalled the Pope’s call for pastoral ministry in a missionary key which “‘seeks to abandon the complacent attitude that says: “We have always done it this way”. It invites everyone to be bold and creative in this task of rethinking the goals, structures, style and methods of evangelisation in their respective communities’”.