Colm Fitzpatrick
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin The future of the Church in Ireland rests in the hands of its community of believers who must decide where it should be going, Dublin’s Archbishop has said.
Speaking in St Mary’s Pro-Cathedral on Sunday, Dr Diarmuid Martin said that one challenge which the Church in Ireland faces is that of “discerning where the essentials of the Christian life lie and how our institutions, in their daily life, witness to what is essential”.
He added that the Christian message is not just a message of “comfort or conformity”, but that true faith in Jesus allows us rather to be purified through “the liberating truth of the Gospel”.
In light of this, Dr Martin has called on all parishes in the diocese of Dublin to find “concrete ways” of reflecting on this challenge in the weeks around the Feast of St Laurence O’Toole, Principal Patron of the Diocese, on November 14.
“It is not a question of a political style consultation, but a call to each believer and faith community radically to interiorise what the challenge of faith in Jesus entails,” he said. “Each parish and parish community can find its own path of reflection, with the help of the Parish Pastoral Council. The aim is not to provide instant answers but at least to begin to set out a realistic agenda for renewal of the Church in the years to come.”