Belonging Without Believing

Belonging Without Believing | Michael Kelly | Catholic World Report

While 84 percent of Irish people self-identify as Catholics, support for key Church teachings is at an all-time low.

During a meeting at the Vatican in 1946, Msgr. Giovanni Battista Montini—the future Pope Paul VI—told Ireland’s ambassador to the Holy See, “You are the most Catholic country in the world!” The latest figures from the country’s census show that, in some respects at least, Ireland remains an overwhelmingly Catholic country.

Bucking a trend all across Western Europe, the census recorded that the Catholic population in Ireland rose by around 5 percent from 2006-2011. Eighty-four percent of Irish people now describe themselves as Catholic.

That headline figure, however, masks a Church in deep trouble, with many of her priests appearing to no longer hold the Catholic faith. This fact was noted in the report of the recent Apostolic Visitation to Ireland, which mentioned a “certain tendency, not dominant but nevertheless fairly widespread among priests, religious, and laity, to hold theological opinions at variance with the teachings of the Magisterium.”

“This serious situation requires particular attention, directed principally towards improved theological formation,” the visitation report said, going on to point out that “it must be stressed that dissent from the fundamental teachings of the Church is not the authentic path towards renewal.”

Underlining the problem, a recent survey of Irish priests found that 60 percent of respondents wanted the Church to change its teaching to permit women priests. Just 30 percent of priests surveyed supported the Church’s teaching on this crucial issue.

One priest insisted that “women priests would have a lot to offer in many ways. They are good listeners, more understanding, and very sensitive to peoples’ needs.”

“Women priests are doing a great job in other Christian churches,” he insisted.

In the same survey, 78 percent of surveyed priests said they thought Catholic clergy ought to be allowed to get married. Sixty-seven percent said they felt Irish bishops were “too subservient” to the Holy See.

Perhaps exposing a fault line, however, 96 percent of those priests who responded had been ordained for more than 10 years. Anecdotal evidence suggests that younger priests are, by-and-large, more orthodox.

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Comments

[Peter L]

This article hits all the nails on the head at once.The only surprising thing was the older priests were the ones having a crisis of faith and not the younger ones.I do not believe the abuse crisis is all to blame for the loss of faith in Ireland also.The passing down of faith has played the most prominent part in this.Only for my own family,i probably would of been a lethargic Catholic for the rest of my life,attending mass 5 or 6 times a year.Family was the key thing for me,my mother especially,who let me know how disappointed she was in my lack of attendance.

This article has me thinking.I have noticed some strange goings on in my local parish,maybe related to the Apostolic Visitation to Ireland,maybe not.Our usual parish priest has gone missing lately,he usually had mass over in twenty minutes and has been replaced with one who is more appreciated by me.His sermon can last 15 minutes and is both inspiring and informative and never boring.He never starts mass on time and asks those in the pews to help him lay the altar to get everyone involved.Mass can last nearly an hour now.He told the parishioners he would win the race for the doors when mass had finished,in other words,why is everyone in such a rush to get in and out.I enjoy mass more now with this priest.Maybe someone complained on the other priest,he did rush it a lot.

I will keep an eye out for this new group called Catholic Comment,it is something i hope takes hold and is successful,the Church needs to reinvigorate the people here again,show them how beautiful their faith is,show them it is something to be enjoyed and how mass should be looked forward to.Above all,how its teaching is essential to spiritual nourishment and why it is important to be in Communion with God.

BTW,really enjoying the book you recommended,Carl,by Peter Kreeft on how to understand the Bible.I could never have seen Genesis or Exodus in the way Kreeft describes.It is nice to be able to hold my own on other blogs now,to have a better understanding.

[bill bannon]

Let a Pope step forward and move the no woman priest issue to the extraordinary magisterium. If one can write three bestsellers, I would think one has the time to enter into the charism of infallibility on this. Stating that it is definitively settled through non infallible venues like the CDF has not worked since 1968. John Paul realized that and used quasi ex cathedra wording in condemning abortion (EV sect.62) after polling the world's bishops and getting unanimity (an alternative to ex cathedra but just as clear). Strangely he thereafter didn't advertise that he had just used it. Let Benedict put the matter in clearly infallible form. The older priests have read Church history far more than the younger and have noticed how long there was papal support for "burning heretics" (arguably from 1253 til 1816 per Brian Harrison) and papal proximate
cooperation in the castrati system (29 Popes from Sixtus V til Leo XIII stopped it 1878 ...78 years after opera stopped it.). It would have been great if priests between 1253 and 1816 dissented from burning heretics by noting that Christ twice made a point of praising Samaritan mercy and Samaritan gratitude despite their rejecting the full canon.
Yes I know that heretics in Europe could also be rebels. Then kill them with the sword as per Romans 13:4 instead of barbequeing them. Now our local Magisterium tried to save Timothy McVeigh. Now we are saddled with the opposite extreme in a Catholic Lambeth to Euro culture and Amnesty International on the death penalty. Yes ...I've had my Saturday AM coffee after a run on the NY harbor and after watching the Knicks lose to Cleveland last night.

[Robert Miller]

Ireland is misunderstood by everyone -- including, most importantly, by the Irish themselves.
We live in a world turned upside down.Irish Catholics are reprimanded sternly by the Vatican, while English Anglicans are found a comfortable berth in the Church that accommodates their questionable (to say the least) historic sensibilities. The Irish are singled out for exemplary blame, when they have only fallen into vices rampant in England and the US -- countries into whose language and culture they were impressed forcibly.
Now the Irish take the next step, and start blaming themselves for their problems. Why don't they point the finger at the real culprits: England and the US -- and yes, I mean specifically English Catholics, Anglicans and US Catholics (or at least the Irish-American among them, especially the Kennedys and the whole coterie of hierarchs of the 1960s-1980s, who fostered the "John F. Kennedy Church" in this country and the world at large).

If the Irish feel the need to repent, it ought to be for having sent out so many scalawags to the Anglo-American empire. (I feel I have the right to say this because two of my grandparents -- who most assuredly were not scalawags -- came to the US from Ireland because of the material consequences of English Protestant oppression).

[LJ]

I am not entirely surprised by these findings. It is sad, to be sure, considering the Catholic history of Ireland and the Irish contribution to the spreading of the faith over the centuries.
Coming from a tradition that would never consider baptizing anyone without a profession of faith, it all looks quite obvious. (The glib words of a convert!) I think it was in Catechesi Tradendae the JPII pointed out that an integral part of catechesis is evangelization. Put another way we may say, knowing what the Church teaches is not the same thing as believing what the Church teaches.
Put yet another way, crudely speaking, infant baptism only gets a person to heaven until they reach the age of reason, after that, they are progressively more responsible for their own salvation through faith, as we read in Trent.
Now obviously there has been a big problem with just knowing what the Church teaches to begin with, in many quarters. I don't know how true that has been in Ireland, but it seems to me, as a North American observer, that evangelization may have been neglected along the way as well.
The problem with a dominantly Catholic society is that for whatever reason, this essential element of "the" faith, faith itself, is often not brought to the forefront. This happened in many European countries it seems, it happened in Quebec, Canada, an insular Catholic society for many generations if there ever was one. That is the reason that even priests can be in such a state of unbelief. In this context, the sexual abuse, to my mind, is an effect rather than a cause.
Perhaps the more in-your-face style of Protestant Evangelicalism (are you saved, brother?!) has had some effect in producing the opposite style in the Catholic world. I sometimes wonder if that is perhaps one of the most detrimental legacies of the Reformation in that the more ardent expression of faith in Jesus Christ was ceded to the rebels early on. Perhaps that is more a North American phenomenon.
I have heard the "wheat and the tares" explanation enough times to suspect that it is being overemphasized and overused. Maybe we need to look at another of Christ's parables, that of the Sower and the Seed.
There is likely much more good soil within the confines of the baptized that we may often credit and it has been lack of working the soil and watering it, to extend the farming analogy, that is the cause of so much unbelief.
Put simply, the question of personal belief in Jesus Christ should come up early and often in catechesis, so that the one who rejects Church teaching is fully aware of what they are doing long before they do it, and that they are not only rejecting the Church but rejecting Christ. And chances are they will not remain within the Church and become priests and such.
It is often lamented that Catholics will go into college or university and lose their faith, even ostensibly Catholic institutions. Living a holy Catholic life is hard work even at the best of times. Ask any saint. But if we send young people onto the battlefield of the world (a university should introduce them to all the whacky and evil ideas that exist out there) without any combat training, we should not be surprised if they fall at the first skirmish. Fish in a barrel as the old saying goes.
Having said that, we can never underestimate the ability of the Holy Spirit to speak to and convict people, inside or outside of the Church, and conversion of heart is what we pray for, for all such, and what the angels rejoice over when it happens.