Irish bishops share fears of sharp decline in faith with Pope Francis

In their two-hour meeting with Pope Francis in Rome last week the Irish bishops expressed serious concerns over the “sharp decline of faith practice” in Ireland, writes Sarah Mac Donald.

Their first ad limina visit in 10 years covered issues such as the steep decline in religious vocations, the role of women in the Church, the clerical abuse scandals, and challenges of engaging with young people as well as the World Meeting of Families to be held in Dublin in 2018.

According to Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin and Bishop Fintan Monahan of Killaloe, Pope Francis compared the role of the bishop to a goalkeeper who must be ready to deal with shots from every direction.

According to Bishop Monahan, the newest member of the hierarchy, the bishops were frank in their explanation of the situation in Ireland. “The difficult circumstances of many clergy in Ireland [were] outlined to Pope Francis, the increasing workload and pressure they are under with declining numbers of priests.”

In Ireland, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) expressed itself as “disappointed, frustrated and angry” that, after six years of attempting to engage the bishops in a “respectful and mutual consideration of issues central to the health and wellbeing of the Irish Catholic Church”, the bishops had “pulled the plug on any future engagement with the ACP”.

Separately, Irish Jesuit Fr Gerry O’Hanlon, in an article for La Civiltà Cattolica, titled “Irish Catholicism: is it in crisis?”, warned the bishops as well as lay faithful that they need to “see consultation as real and not just token, capable of tackling neuralgic issues, reaching out to the young and disaffected and not just the already committed who tend to come from a predominantly middle-aged and older demographic”.