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GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, MARCH 16, 1967 7
— - THE CHURCH INIRELAND-II
Irish Were Receptive To Winds Of Change
By DESMOND FISHER
1967, Georgia Bulletin-St. Louis Review Service
DUBLIN, Ireland—-The winds of change- released by Vati
can II found Ireland in a receptive mood.
Psychologically Ireland itself was at a turning-point in her
history. 1966 marked the 50th anniversary of the 1916 Easter
week rising which led to independence from Britain. A new
Prime Minister, who had not even been born in 1916, had come
to power. The' country was waiting for Common Market mem
bership. The economic situation was sound, with the old mood
of defeatism and reluctance to accept risk having disappear
ed.
Above all, increasing prosperity had made out of date a
religious attitude based on the patient acceptance of suffering
and deprivation. A new theology was required by a people whose
religious instincts were strong but who were within sight of
building an affluent society.
Waiting For Other Changes
The Council seemed to promise it. So, by the time Vatican
II was ending, the Irish people were enthusiastic about it and
prepared for any changes it would entail. They took the li
turgical innovations in their stride: their reaction to the ecu
menical movement was favorable. But these, they now realize,
are not enough in themselves to guarantee the new Pentecost
which Pope John expected the Council to inaugurate. They
are waiting for the other changes they feel to be necessary.
"We Irish are slow to change,” says Bishop Michael Rus
sell of Waterford, at 46, the youngest of the Irish hierarchy.
"But the liturgical renewal showed that the people are even
more open than the priests. The Council has created a cli
mate in which the new problems facing the Church can be
approached. It is now up to us Bishops to keep the climate
right.”
Desmond Fennell, recently-appointed editor of Herder Cor
respondence, agrees. "Ireland’s docility to Rome in the past
has become a docility to the Council,” he says. "The Irish
people feel that a big thing has happened in the life of the
Church. But when they look around them they do not see the
signs of it.”
Editor More Cautious
Dr. J.G. McGarry, editor of the monthly The Furrow, is
more cautious. "The Irish are very pragmatic,” he says.
"They are not over-concerned with the Council documents
and they have not a naive trust in the new institutions being
set up. But there are plenty of new ideas, particularly in the
pastoral field, coming into prominence. And given God’s
grace, honest and committed priests and bishops, who, to put
it minimally, are not opposed to it, the aggiornamento has
a good chance here. But the reforms it entails must be seen
to be relevant to the Irish situation."
Ireland’s leading theologian is Father Enda McDonagh,
professor of moral theology at Maynooth, one of the biggest
seminaries (600 students and 40 staff) in the world. For him
there is a danger in "canonizing” the Council as, he thinks
the Irish, and particularly the Bishops, are inclined to do.
"The Council was of limited value and of limited relevance,"
he told me. "It gave no evidence of concern with or aware
ness of the real problems of people today, especially the loss
of faith which is becoming very disturbing. The people of this
and coming generations are finding it hard to recognize that
the Mass or Christianity means anything."
Father McDonagh does not think that a gradual approach is
the correct one. "History is against gradualism," he says.
"It only resigns people to a gradual emptying out of the struc
tures. We need a faithful listening to the word of God and an ur
gent attempt to understand the situation in Ireland today.”
4 Darling Priest’ Dies Hard
How far the Bishops and priests understand the situation
is difficult to determine. Most of them would rule out any idea
that there is a gap between them and the people. The old idea
of the "saggart aroon” (darling priest), the beloved leader of
his flock, dies hard.
But some recognize that the real feelings of the people are
seldom shown. Bishop Russell, resignedly pouring another
cup of tea in his study, says: "No matter how bitter the facts
are, the laymen will coat them with sugar before telling them
to me. It is very hard to get at the true situation. Sometimes
1 sit on a platform for an hour or two discussing a situation
with one of the Catholic societies.Onlyafter the meeting will
one or two of them come up to me and give me real facts.”
But Bishop Russell thinks the situation is improving. "In the
past, the people were very critical of the priests behind their
backs./ They knew that if they criticized openly they would get
it hot and strong. But that day is going. The younger priests
are breaking down the reserve between clergy and laity. I
would like myself to bridge the gap to the people and very often
the priests. I think I am succeeding: certainly my door-bell is
going day and night.”
He did not add, but I heard elsewhere, that the person who
answers the bell is very often the Bishop himself.
The younger priests are most aware of the gap between them
and the laity. "We are simply not in touch with our people,"
one of them said. "We do not seem to be on the same wave
length. The clergy of Ireland are, by and large, a closed,
cliquey group, with professional interests, watching the next
appointment.. Even when they are on first-name terms with
lay people, they are not really in touch with them."
4 In A Fool’s Paradise’
One of the most trenchant comments on laity-clergy relations
in Ireland was written in the Dominican publication Irish Spot
light by a television reporter, Sean MacReamoinn, who cover
ed the Council for the Irish Broadcasting service. He wrote:
"In Ireland we have prided ourselves on a healthy kind of
priest-people relationship. We have exaggerated its healthi
ness and we have also undervalued it. . . There are aspects
of it which could make one live in a fool’s paradise.” ,
MacReamoinn wrote of the people’s attitude to the priest:
"They recognize and they are - or should be- grateful for
his personal holiness, his devotion to duty, his chastity and
usually his goodness to lame dogs. What, rightly or wrongly,
they don’t see so clearly are his humility, his intellectual ho
nesty, his contempt for status or prestige, his wish to serve
rather than be served, his charity to dogs who are not lame
but, maybe, not quite domesticated."
The Bishops are also felt by many to be out of touch with
the attitudes and feeling of people. Desmond Fennell says of
them: "Either they are treated with near-adoration by pious
women or as some sort of weird and irrelevant people, who
are nice enough but who don’t count. There is more of a tendency
now for people to do things themselves."
Are Bishops Cushions?
A religious order priest said the bishops regarded them
selves as cushions between the Council and the people.
"They came back from, Rome with no sense of excitement,
giving the impression that the Council was not really for our
people. Now they are reluctantly putting the Council to work."
Another priest criticized the absence of a national cam
paign of adult education to educate people in the Council
ideas and spirit. He thought this should have been done in a
series of joint pastoral letters.
In fact, one joint message was issued by the bishops after
the Council and this year a joint Lenten pastoral, which stress
ed the necessity of penance, was issued. "The goodness, the
solidarity of faith and the willingness of the laity to accept
change are being frustrated,” the priest declared.
A seminary professor felt that some of the Irish Bishops
are poorly inforined theologically and not quite committed
to the Council spirit. Another said that the decisions they
had taken as a result of the Council "have been too watery
and too few.”
• **
NEXT WEEK: How the Bishops themselves view these cri
ticisms and what is being done in practice will be reported
in the next article by Desmond Fisher.
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Priests Protest Pastor’s Removal
BOGOTA, Columbia(NC) —A
bitter conflict between a priest
and his bishop has been ended
by a decision in the Vatican
supporting the bishop. But the
bitterness the affair aroused
goes on.
What should we do
with abandoned children?
This Sister knows. She is one of .'100,000
missionaries now at work all over the world
bringing help to those in need. If she had not
been there, a child like this would have been
left to die. The Society for the Propagation
of the Faith helps to support these dedicated
women and men and maintain 5,000 orphan
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RT. REV. EDWARD T. O'MEARA. NATIONAL DIRECTOR. 366 FIFTH AVE.. N. Y.. N. Y. 10001.
THE SOCIETY FOR THE PROPAGATION OF THE FAITH
The Congregation of the
Council rejected an appeal of
Father Abelardo Arias Arbe-
laez, 44, made to the Holy See
seeking a reversal of his re
moval as pastor in Don Matias
by Bishop Miguel Angel Builes
of Santa Rosa de Osos.
4 The 'controversy over the bis- 1
hPpV'adtitfft'-hdir'BeSeff rekindled 4
by the Vatican’s support of the
prelate.
A group of priests addressed
an unsigned letter to Bogota’s
most important newspaper, El
Tiempo, protesting the Vati
can’s decision and condemning
the bishop for his removal of
Father Arias as permanent pas
tor.
The majority of the towns
people in Don Matias expressed
grief. The rang the parish
church bells. Peasants and pa
rish school children cried. The
priest’s opponents, however,
organized dances and "fiestas”
to celebrate the outcome.
Father Arias’ efforts to crack
f eudal patterns of living in Don
Matias brought him into conflict
with 78-year-old Bishop Builes,
a one-time close friend. When
be-was appointed to Don Mafias
if was as "irremovable" pas
tor, a status which gave him a
number of protections against
transfer or removal.
Father Arias' reform -
oriented programs in the village
stirred local opposition before
the bishop’s involvement in the
case. Among other things, he
set up a savings and loan coo
perative that lent money at lo
wer rates than other money len
ders. He directed the Catholic
school be opened to poorer chil
dren. He attempted to change
the rules in the school operated
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by the Capuchin Sisters, such as
reducing the number of required
uniforms.
The village's wealthier citi
zens protested to the bishop.
The Capuchin Sisters left. Bis
hop Builes decided to remove
Father Arias and sent -Father
Santiago Echeverri as his-suc-
cessor. Father Arias, however,
refused to leave or surrender
the church property, and the vil
lagers rallied behind him.
Contending he could not be
removed as pastor under canon
law, Father Arias took his case
to the apostolic nunciature here
for transmittal to Rome.
Father Arias said he will now
abide by Rome’s decision, al
though he disagreed with it. An
other priest, Father Roberto
Arroyave, has been named as
his successor. Father Arias
said Rome’s decision would im
pede other progressive priests
in struggling on behalf of the
poor and combating injustice.
He also said that he will leave
the diocese.
Activities
To Honor
St. Patrick
The Irish of Atlanta will join
with the Irish of the world Fri
day to celebrate St. Patrick’s
Day with a parade and a dance.
The day will begin at 9;30
a.m. with a St. Patrick's Mass
at Sacred Heart Church follow
ed by a breakfast at the Riviera
Motel at 11 a.m.
A parade down Peachtree
Street will begin at 2 p.m.
Eugene O’Brien, parade direc
tor, said it will be the biggest
St. Patrick’s parade in the his
tory of Atlanta.
The parade will include the
Third Army Band, Marines,
Navy* Air Force personnel, ve
terans of Vietnam and area high
school bands. An Irish colleen
will deliver authentic sham
rocks, brought from Ireland by
an Irish Airlines jet named
"Sl Patrick.”
Show cars and floats will
add color to the parade which
starts at Baker St.
The day’s activities will be
capped with a dance at the
Knights of Columbus Home on
Buford Highway at 8 p.m. The
dance will feature Irish dancers
in native costumes.
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