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6 GEORGIA BULLETIN, THURSDAY, MARCH 23, 1967
THE CHURCH IN IRELAND-111
A Model Of Post-Conciliar Development?
By DESMOND FISHER
1967, Georgia Bulletin-St. Louis Review Service
DUBLIN, Ireland—-Dr. Samuel Johnson of dictionary fame
once said to the Bishop of Killaloe in Ireland: “The Irish are
a fair people. They never speak well of one another.” This
stinging comment has not lost its point. No nation, accept
perhaps the Greeks, have such a capacity for cutting one
another down to size.
It is' useful to keep this in mind when weighing up the cri
ticism which priests and people freely make about the bis
hops. These do not at all tally with the picture of an alert
and committed hierarchy faithfully carrying out an intelligent
strategy for making the Council work in Ireland, as Car
dinal William Conway, the Primate of All-Ireland maintained.
One obvious anomaly in this picture is that the implementa
tion of the Vatican Council is proceeding very slowly in some
dioceses.
Altars Don’t Face People
In the Archdiocese of Dublin, for instance, no church is
allowed to have the altar arranged for Masses facing the
people. The liturgy of the Word must be celebrated at the al
tar and the priests turn around only for the reading of the
Epistle and Gospel.
In Cork, there is less vernacular in the Mass than in the
other dioceses, Bishop Cornelius Lucey allowing less Eng
lish than the rest of the Irish bishops agreed upon. And there
is only one evening Mass in the diocese, because the Bishop
believes that the element of sacrifice involved in getting up
early for Mass in some way relates to the. Sacrifice of the
Mass.
But these two dioceses -- Dublin in particular -- are not
typical. Everywhere I went in Ireland I \yas advised, even by
bishops: "Don’t make the mistake of imagining Dublin is Ire
land.” One priest described the regime there as “Byzantine.”
Yet Dublin’s Archbishop, JohnCharles McQuaid, anascetic—
looking prelate with gimlet eyes, is known for his great pas
toral zeal and unpublicized charitableness. He is widely cri
ticized for his authoritarianism, (though a truer judgment
would be that he has a paternalistic attitude which is now
totally anachronistic) while still held in the sort of sneaking
regard the Irish feel for a man of strong principles, however
much they disagree with the application of those principles.
‘No Change’ Proven Wrong
It was Archbishop McQuaid who said on his return from the
Council's last session that Vatican II would make no change in
the peaceful life of the Church in Ireland. Everything that
has happened since has proved that he was mistaken. But the
view of Cardinal Conway that the bishops are united in their
strategy for implementing the Council is, therefore, not uni
versally applicable. And some critics disagree with the idea
that the bishops are making the progress.
One religious magazine editor believes that in most dio
ceses it is a committed group of younger priests which is
changing the clerical climate. The bishops were not the ac
tivators of this movement, though they allowed it to grow.
Cardinal Conway, he said, is a man of good ideas and vision,
a courageous realist who wants results. But many of the other
Bishops were not actively committed to the Council.
The same criticism of the body of bishops, often in much
stronger terms, was made by many of the priests and lay
peopled talked to.
On second thoughts, some of the critics admitted that there
had been a change in the climate in recent months and that
the bishops, instead of merely permitting the forward move
ment to develop, are now more actively sponsoring it.
Nevertheless, some of the main work of the renewal in
Ireland is being done in ways which owe little to direct epis
copal initiative.
Preparing For Renewal
One is by means of the several excellent monthly maga
zines which are spreading new ideas to the priests and peo
ple. For the past 17 years, “The Furrow”, published from
Maynooth seminary, has been preparing the ground for the
aggiornamento by bringing the “new theology,” in a form
carefully tailored for its readership, to Ireland.
Father J.G. McGarry, its editor, is probably the most
respected priest in Ireland and his influence on the younger
priests in the country is immense.
In his book-strewn study he showed me his plans (already
in operation) for publishing quarterly supplements on cate-
chetics, the Bible and books with the monthly issue of 'The
Furrow,” which now has a circulation of 8,000, of which
some 1,000 are U.S. library subscriptions.
. “My policy as editor,” he said, “has been based on the view
that to influence Irish opinion one can do nothing better than
to report little positive developments. For instance, we have
done a lot on modern art and a description of one well-
designed church has influenced many priests when it came to
their turn."
Dr. McGarry feels strongly that, in the Irish situation, the
key to the renewal movement is to work through the clergy.
‘^Many of them,” he said, “may not yet be on the conciliar
wave length but in every diocese there is a group of committed
men who are changing the climate.”
New Ideas To People
There are a number of other magazines besides The Furrow
which are bringing the new ideas to priests and people. Among
them are Reality, published by the Redemptorists; Irish Spot
light and Doctrine and Life (Dominican); The Word (Divine
Word Fathers,); Hibernia (lay owned).
Their very number is perhaps an embarrassment and, if
the orders could agree, some mergers might be in order.
The Catholic Press in Ireland cannot match the excellence
of the monthlies and in any case is competing against a secu
lar press which covers most of the religious stories.
Another important element in bringing the aggiornamento
to Ireland has been what is popularly called the “Maynooth
Flying Squad.” This is a team of four of the college’s pro
fessorial staff — Fathers Enda McDonagh, Kevin McNamara^
Denis O’Callaghan and Donal Flanagan -- who have been giv
ing courses of lectures to priests in various parts of the
country, with the full cooperation and encouragement of the
Bishops.
Over a three-day period, the team gives 12 lectures, the
first of each pair being dogmatic and the second an exposition
of the moral consequences of the doctrine. A discussion fol-
lows each lecture and on the final evening a question-and-
answer session is held. Priests who have attended these
courses speak enthusiastically of the way they introduced
them to the new ideas in the Churth.
One of the indirect results of the “Flying Squad’s” talks
is that many priests throughout the country have been awaken
ed to the need for a deeper theology of marriage and sex
and have been prepared for the expected Papal announce
ment on birth control, whatever it may be.
‘Trendy’ Thing To Do
Following these courses, study groups have been form
ed in many areas. Every three or four weeks, groups of eight
to ten priests meet to study some aspect of theology. Two
10-minute papers are read, one on doctrine, the other on the
pastoral applications. Each paper is followed by a 50-minute
discussion period.
‘This is now the ‘trendy’ thing to do,” one priest told me.
“Before we used to meet only very occasionally. All we would
do is to play cards. Now we look forward to the discussions
and the difference they have made toourlives is tremendous.”
Some of the groups collaborate in producing sermons. This
may lead to an improvement in the homilies which one writer
recently described as “formalized cliche-ridden, sentimental
and irrelevant ... the most neglected part of the priest's
ministry.”
Another force for the renewal in Ireland is a group oi
priests and laymen who meet once a month in Dublin to hear
a talk from a lay or clerical speaker. The group welds wri
ters, journalists and broadcasters into an influential, if in
direct, force in bringing the aggiornamento to Ireland.
‘‘The Plastered Saints’
(In a bit of Irish whimsey the unnamed group is sometimes
irreverevently known as the "Plastered Saints" since early
meetings were held in a pub,)
It would be wrong to suggest that these intiuences are mak
ing the progress while the bishops are dragging their feet.
The position in Ireland is one of controlled tensions between
the various elements in the Church. This produces some un
certainty, a great deal of criticism and a kind of suspicious
awareness on all sides. This may appear to some to be an
unhealthy atmosphere in an organization where internal har
mony and brotherly love should reign.
Irish Catholicism is benefitting a great deal from this ten
sion, particularly since it is held, by some almost instinctive
process, within limits and has not been allowed to produce the
left-and right-wing division experienced in other countries.
Because of this, Irish Catholics are maturing rapidly, re
taining their old zeal and religious sense while coming to a
more conscious understanding of what Catholicism is all
about and a more intelligent commitment to it.
In many ways, indeed, Ireland is a model of what post-
Conciliar development should be — though the Irish themselves,
with their intense capacity for self-criticism, would be the last
to admit it.
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