Courtney McGrailDear Editor, How horrifying it was to read in The Irish Catholic (13/11/2014) Archbishop Neary’s contention that the Catholic Church has lost the battle with secularism and that Ireland is witnessing the death rattle of Christendom.
What has happened to “…this is my rock and the gates of hell shall not prevail against it”? So is the rock that is God’s Church in Ireland to be pulverised into dust? Does the archbishop really believe that God has abandoned us, that the Holy Spirit will no longer continue to protect us?
Michael Kelly tells us in his editorial that “…the need for spirituality and transcendence is unmet by the Church”.
But are there not some green shoots that herald a positive new dawn?
I read from time to time about a new movement, uncoordinated and spasmodic but growing, among today’s youth that shows the Faith is spreading and touching their hearts in all sorts of places.
Many parishes in Ireland have now wakened to the need for laity involvement through the new Parish Pastoral Councils. Will our Catholic teachers resist calls from politicians for faith-free integrated schools and wake up to their responsibility to pass on the Faith?
It is no use saying that this is a job for the parents at the hearth. Today’s new generation of parents, for the most part, are sadly a lost generation who are not capable of passing on the Faith.
And there is an excellent suggestion in this same edition of The Irish Catholic (Letters, 13/11/2014) from Frank Reynolds that “…we provide and resource professionally trained and paid Catholic youth workers to work with the youth in our parishes and in our colleges and university chaplaincies”.
The future is not bleak. There is no death rattle for Christendom in Ireland. There is simply a challenge to our priests and to our Catholic laity. Are we up to it?
Yours etc.,
Brian O’Hare,
Newry,
Co. Down.