Archbishop Michael Neary says a more involved laity is the Catholic Church's promising future

SEEKING A METAPHOR to help illustrate the current situation of the Catholic Church in Ireland, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, reverts to what is familiar stomping ground for him: the Old Testament.

A former teacher of scripture at St Patrick's College, Maynooth, he speaks of "exile", or, more precisely, exile as experienced by God's chosen people.

They found themselves "uprooted", he says. "They experienced an eclipse of God, a feeling of being abandoned."

Some church members today feel uprooted, he says. They have experienced "a loss of structure, of that reliable world which gave meaning and coherence. They find themselves in a context where their most treasured and trusted symbols of faith have been trampled on".

They have also experienced exile in the moral sense, he argues. "Today, many Christians find themselves increasingly at odds with the dominant values of consumerist capitalism."

They, and their pastors, have to take account of the fact that they live in a society where faith is marginalised, and where "very often a caricature of faith is held up as faith itself". It is a context where people's catechetical knowledge is far outstripped by their academic development and this often means faith is something they believe they have outgrown.

He also cites a general disaffection among young people with institutions. Young people are "terrified of being alone or being considered 'a freak' . . . they come under enormous peer pressure", which makes them essentially "conservative, conformist", he says. A diocesan youth council is being set up in Tuam to inquire into such matters.

As for the church as a whole, he says Irish Catholics "needed help to let go of 'a home' which no longer existed; that is gone and will not return. They need to be encouraged and enabled to enter a new place they may sense as deeply alien."

Observing that in the Japanese language the same character represents both crisis and opportunity, he says "we cannot go on lamenting forever". It is "time to put pieces together in a new way. Jagged pieces can have a beauty, a symmetry of their own."

Exile enabled the Old Testament people to produce "the most brilliant literature and the most daring theology", he says. It was "a buoyant response to trouble and to challenge".

The greatest threat of the current situation is "the power of despair, which robs energy and generosity". There is also the danger of becoming preoccupied with the self, where it becomes impossible to get "outside, to think of the larger realities".

Identifying priorities for the church today, he says leaders - both lay and clerical - need "to build the human, in terms of small groups and communities".

In the Tuam archdiocese, one of the most rural in Ireland, the church still remains a focal point in the community. This, he says, is in a context where the rural-urban divide has become blurred.

Covering parts of counties Mayo, Galway and Roscommon, the archdiocese has 121,536 Catholics in 56 parishes. This includes six islands and the gaeltacht, with active pastoral councils in 80 per cent of parishes.

In September 2006, those councils held a diocesan assembly, which was attended by more than 5,000 people who were encouraged to take ownership of the church. An implementation body of 19 members was set up to carry out assembly recommendations. Just three members were appointed by the archbishop, reflecting a willingness of the hierarchy to hand over more decision-making power to the laity.

"The challenge was to let go and trust them," Archbishop Neary says, "to give them their head and let them get on with it." Fifty volunteers completed two months of training recently, and on March 5th they made presentations in every parish.

Reflecting on the recent change in worshipping patterns, and an ageing clergy, he says there may be fewer Masses said in the archdiocese in future - just five men are preparing to serve as priests in the archdiocese.

He finds it difficult to assess weekly Mass attendance figures but believes they are "fairly good . . . quite high in rural areas. But there's no cause for complacency".

As to the future, he recalls an episode from Clare Island recently which might well become a template for times to come. The priest was unable to get to the island to celebrate Mass, due to weather or some such circumstance, and so "someone from the community took responsibility for the readings, the prayers of the faithful, and distributed the Communion [ which had been consecrated during a previous Mass]".

It was a situation which "will become more common", he predicts.

He agrees there are concerns among some bishops about introducing a permanent diaconate, or clerical office, for the laity. This could be seen as "introducing another layer of clericalism which could impede involvement by the laity", he comments.

In general, though, he remains optimistic. "As we shed some of the useless accretions we have been burdened by over the years, it is likely a better understanding of faith will emerge."