A humble and listening church is the most appropriate instrument for dialogue with science, the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has said.
This was so "because in a humble and listening church the scientist encounters not the preacher but the message: the message of Jesus...".
"Faith and science are not opposed," he said, and advised that the believer be careful to remember that the only certainties he or she possesses are the certainties of God, and not substitute them with certainties of his or her own.
"Such certainties might very well be attempts at finding false security," he said at Trinity College, Dublin, yesterday. He was speaking at a service of commemoration and thanksgiving to mark Trinity Monday
Commenting on the occasion, he said "times have indeed changed, and some of those who saw Trinity as being there for the advancement of one expression of faith might not be totally happy to see the Roman Catholic Archbishop of Dublin standing here in this pulpit speaking about his version of faith.
"And perhaps some earlier Roman Catholic archbishops of Dublin might not look benignly either at my presence. Times have changed, and they have changed for the better."
He found " a certain paradox in the fact that very often persons of faith and persons dedicated to science have a common weakness: they long for certainties, they feel that they possess their certainties."
He would be foolhardy to try to give the impression that he belonged to a faith tradition and a church which did not espouse certainties.
"But there is a true sense in which one must say that the path to belief and the path to science both pass through a journey of questioning, of openness to ideas, and above all of asking those questions to which there is no mechanical formula of response: the fundamental questions concerning the meaning of human existence and of hope.
"In all of this, the authentic believer and the authentic scientist must share the same sense of honest seeking; they must share the same sense of having the honesty to say where doubts and questionings remain, alongside the certainties of faith and science.
"The scientist and the believer, coming from different perspectives, must have the honesty to proclaim that they do not own the cosmos.
"The scientist must have the honesty to recognise the limited character of his or her knowledge. The believer must affirm that the cosmos and humankind belong to God; they are gift, and they are only the objects of our stewardship."
In an increasingly secular Irish society "we must attentively work together in rooting our values and our responsibilities in such a way that all - believers and non-believers - can have a true sense of ownership of the project for a future just, honest and responsible Irish and global society."
Referring to Pope Benedict XVI's description of his mission on the day he was inaugurated Pope, Archbishop Martin quoted "my real programme of governance is not to do my own will, not to pursue my own ideas, but to listen, together with the whole church, to the word and the will of the Lord, to be guided by Him, so that He himself will lead the church at this hour of our history".
From "such an attitude of listening to the word of God, the church will also be more attentive to the signs of the times, and more anxious to enter into dialogue with the sciences and scientists, with the culture of the day and with men and women of culture."
