The Church has to learn a new approach in order not to alienate people while avoiding giving the impression that “anything goes”, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, has said.
In a major address entitled “The Church in Ireland – Signs of Hope – New Challenges”, the archbishop said criticism of society by church leaders will be welcomed often only in those areas where that criticism is the flavour of the day.
Referring to the current discussions on marriage and the family, the archbishop said the Church argues from general principles, while others argued from concrete examples of people they know and their personal hopes, frustrations and desires.
“We will attain more by reaching out to them rather than by simply condemning,” he said during the talk in Tralee. Archbishop Martin cited Pope Francis’ pedagogy, which he said is not a pastoral of “anything goes” but a “pedagogy of pastoral patience”.
Meanwhile, Bishop Kevin Doran of Elphin has said this year’s Synod on the Family is not aimed at changing the Church’s teaching on the indissolubility of marriage, but about how the Church can respond to situations of breakdown.
It is not enough just to “wave goodbye” to parishioners who feel that their relationship with the Church is somehow changed by their marital circumstances, he acknowledged in his address at Holy Trinity parish in Donaghmede.
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