Dogma will not solve Irish Church’s troubles

RENEWAL IN the Irish Church will not be achieved “by throwing books of dogma” at people, the Archbishop of Dublin has warned.

Speaking as he ordained three Jesuit deacons in Milltown in Dublin, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin admitted that the Church in Ireland is living in “a challenging moment”, and it has to find a new way of communicating with the realities of today.

Contrasting the present and the past, the archbishop said faith in Ireland was once embedded in so many dimensions of personal and public life, but that this is no longer the case today.

“Our young people no longer automatically inherit faith. That may not be a bad idea. Faith must be sought. Faith must be intimately linked with the search for identity as a person and the search for purpose as a society and a world in which we live,” said the archbishop.

He said service in the Church today was not simply about activism but about being alongside people in the critical moments of their lives – leading them into an understanding of the orientation of their lives and who Jesus is – “not a vague Jesus of our own liking and making”. But he added: “We will not heal those whose lives have drifted from Jesus Christ by throwing books of dogma at them.”

Jesus, Archbishop Martin said, is to be found in his word and not “simply through social media and gadgetry”.

In a more pluralist setting, the Archbishop of Dublin said, the missionary may attract others to the Church’s views but not impose them and their journey must be one of respect and encountering cultures “which we may not always like” but which “we must always attempt to understand”.