The Church, like our politicians, must understand the complexity of social change

We have reached the eve of the General Election, a time of choice for the people of our country in the political make up of the next government. The outcome is still unclear as the final opinion polls show a gap in voting intentions and it’s too close to call.

For many this will be their first opportunity to exercise their right to vote as they come of age. How will they react to the choice before them, which has been confused and cluttered with the statistics and speculation about who will do deals when the counting is over? Most of these young people’s understanding of politics is limited, their experience of social change relating only to recent years.

For older people, this is not so. Their memories go back to the immediate post war years, through governments of the right and the left. Their social construct is very different. They have a history that they cannot ignore; it formed the families they came from, wove the tapestries of their lives.

The political confusion, the complexity of social change, are mirrored in the Church of our time. The contrasting voices, the expression of different points of view is striking, and for some is a threat to a faith that has always presumed conformity. This has affected both young and old, but in different ways. Those over 60 still have memory of the lived experience in the pre-Vatican II years. They know the road we have travelled and many are reluctant to turn the clock back.

For our younger people, leaving school or university, maybe in the early years of marriage, the context is different. They do not have such a personal history. We should understand that when we are critical of their attitudes or responses to current issues.

In fact they often see no issue at all where those who are older are still influenced by the conflicts and arguments of earlier years.

As the vote takes place and we recognise the confusion of the likely outcomes, maybe we can also turn attention to present church issues and accept the many grey edges that separate black and white opinion. The response of the Church has to recognise the streets where the people live and the communities they generate.

Fr Seamus Ahearne, writing on the website of the Irish Association of Catholic Priests, recently said this about his parish in Dublin:

“Evangelisation happens on the streets, in the shops, in the schools, at the door, in the community and especially in the homes. We are interpreting experiences. We are the learners. We are the outsiders. Evangelisation is about humility. When we realise how little we know and how fragile we are now in a culture that doesn’t know our God or our Church; we can relax and learn”.

A salutary comment for the wider Church to recognise.

Chris McDonnell is a lay Catholic and retired headteacher in the diocese of Birmingham