In the first of a five-part series exploring the role of the major religions in 21st-century Ireland, Patsy McGarry, Religious Affairs Correspondent, examines the quiet revolution taking place among the faiths
WE ARE LIVING through a peaceful revolution where religion is concerned in Ireland. Not since the Famine have we had more believers here. Not since then, either, have we had as many non-believers. Immigration and secularisation have been major factors in all of this.
The great majority of our immigrants are practising believers who have brought a new vitality to many Catholic and Protestant communities, while also introducing Orthodox Christians and Muslims in much larger numbers.
Muslims in the Republic are now the third-largest faith grouping, after Catholics and members of the Church of Ireland. Meanwhile, the number of non-believers in the Republic exceeds that of Muslims, making them the second-largest grouping overall, after Catholics.
The great monolith that was the Catholic Church in Ireland now seems more content to take its place as a partner among other Christian denominations and faiths, while Protestants feel more confident in the Republic than at any time since the foundation of the State.
This strong relationship is reflected at a leadership level. In November, there was an extraordinary turnout of church representatives at a ceremony in the chapel at Dublin airport to welcome home the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, after he had received a red hat in Rome. Then, on March 20th, the four main church leaders in Ireland took part, with the then first minister of Northern Ireland, Rev Ian Paisley and Queen Elizabeth, supreme governor of the Church of England, in a Maundy Thursday service at the Church of Ireland's St Patrick's Cathedral in Armagh. Representatives of the Muslim, Jewish and Hindu communities in Ireland also attended.
The relationships between Ireland's traditional faiths and those more recently introduced here will be explored in this series on Wednesday by Imam Hussein Halawa of the Islamic Cultural Centre in Dublin's Clonskeagh and Fr Godfrey O'Donnell of the Romanian Orthodox Church in Ireland.
There remain local instances of lesser co-operation between the churches, particularly in Northern Ireland, where sectarian lines, rarely crossed during The Troubles, remain intact. The Church of Ireland, with its Hard Gospel project, has been addressing sectarianism within for almost a decade with a commitment and honesty that deserves particular praise.
On April 22nd in Government Buildings, at a reception for the churches, faith and ethical communities, the then taoiseach Bertie Ahern said he was "greatly encouraged" that "relations between the different denominations and faith communities are so positive, despite the persistence of deep confessional differences". But he regretted "that this is not reflected in those parts of this island where sectarian division and community segregation are all too prevalent". He spoke of the "civic responsibility" of religious and faith communities "to foster good community relations and the highest standards of respectful engagement with those of differing beliefs, and of none". It was a recognition of what remains to be done in an Ireland at peace.
On October 4th, as if announcing the revolution in religion in Ireland, President Mary McAleese said during a Newstalk interview: "We don't impose religion on anybody. We had our day with that. We know what it was like when we were forced into a conformity and a uniformity which was anti-human and certainly very clearly against the human and civil rights that we expect in today's democratic world that we have fought for."
In modern times, this imposition of religion on the Irish people took two primary forms. First, there was the established Anglican Church of Ireland, to which only approximately 10 per cent of the population of Ireland was affiliated, but which by law all had to support as the State church until it was disestablished in 1869. More recently, we had the de facto dominance of the Catholic Church, particularly in the new State. Neither church distinguished itself when it came to the treatment of other Christians.
NOW, HOWEVER, the Catholic Church is abandoning a triumphalist 19th-century model with alacrity, as it shifts emphasis from more recent despondency and nostalgia to a challenging future. Believers here remain Catholic by a large majority and continue to assert this in successive censuses, yet no religious institution is perceived to be in as much trouble.
However, these difficulties could be the symptoms of a painful transition to a newer form. This will be explored on Monday, when the Catholic Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin and the Catholic Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary will give their views.
Since 2000, 10 times more Catholic priests have died than were ordained. In 1996, there were 46 people ordained. By 2006, that number was down to nine. The average age of the Irish Catholic priest today is estimated at 63. They retire at 75.
The Catholic Church in Ireland is becoming more like what it was in pre-Famine times. Then, too, the attitude of young people to it and to marriage was as informal as now, with many simply choosing to live together and to attend services irregularly. At that time, weekly Mass attendance in general, in far fewer churches with far fewer priests, was much lower than the 45 per cent of today (according to an Irish Examiner poll of March 20th).
Many members of the Catholic clergy, however, say that the numbers attending Mass are lower than this recent statistic would suggest.
One reason for increased confidence among Protestants has been the gradual softening by the Catholic Church in the implementation of its Ne Temere mixed marriages decree, first promulgated by Pope St Pius X a century ago in 1908, under which partners in a mixed marriage had to give a written undertaking that all children resulting would be raised Catholic.
In the Republic, this decree was responsible for what can only be described as "bloodless genocide" where the Protestant minorities were concerned. In conversation with this reporter in 1988, the late Church of Ireland Dean of Cashel, David Woodworth spoke of four large Church of Ireland families who had lived in the south-west of Ireland in the 1930s, each with 13 children. By then, not one of their descendants was a member of the Church of Ireland, thanks to Ne Temere.
Its relaxation, which will be addressed by the Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin, Dr John Neill on Tuesday, has had a positive effect where Anglicans and Protestants are concerned, as more children in mixed marriages tend to be raised in the non-Catholic partner's denomination. In many instances, the situation has reverted to what it was pre-Ne Temere, with boys being raised in their father's denominations and girls in their mother's.
Other good news for the Church of Ireland has been the increase in the number of its ordinations, with 20 in total in 2007, comprising 13 men and seven women. Nine of these are non-stipendiary (unpaid). To put that in context, Church of Ireland membership represents about one per cent of the Catholic population, while just nine Catholic priests were ordained last year.
Two major events in February 2007 could be said to have acted as midwife to an emerging Ireland, where religion is concerned.
The first took secularising forces by surprise. It had long been expected that the last great battle in the moral civil wars involving the Catholic Church and secularising forces in Ireland would be over education. Since the establishment of the primary schools system in 1831, the vast majority of schools have been controlled by Catholic boards of management. It was believed the church would fight tooth and claw to hold on to such control.
Then, on February 17th, 2007, Bishop Leo O'Reilly, chair of the Education Commission of the Irish (Catholic) Bishops' Conference, welcomed an announcement by then minister for education Mary Hanafin of a pilot model of primary-school patronage under the VEC at Diswellstown in Dublin. It represents the first direct State involvement in management at primary-school level since 1831.
ON OCTOBER 2nd, launching the church's policy document, Catholic Primary Schools - A Policy for Provision into the Future, Bishop O'Reilly said the church had no desire to be the sole provider of education in individual communities in Ireland. The document said that "in new centres of population it is incumbent upon the State to plan for the provision of school sites and to ensure . . . that there is a plurality of school provision reflecting the wishes of the parents in the area". The comments and the Church's policy document were met with surprise and enthusiasm - it was clear that the Catholic Church in Ireland now sees itself as a partner in the provision of education. It must also be said that no other church has been as generous in providing places in its schools for children of other denominations, other faiths and of other nationalities.
On February 26th, 2007, the then-taoiseach Bertie Ahern put relations between the State and its religions on a formal plane for the first time by establishing the Structured Dialogue for churches, faith and ethical communities, at a ceremony in Dublin Castle. Under its terms, each of these bodies will meet the Government annually, and thereafter as needs arise.
Originally part of the Constitutional Treaty on Europe, the Structured Dialogue is now part of the Lisbon Treaty. To date, this Structured Dialogue exists only in Ireland and, as Cardinal Brady has pointed out, it creates "legally binding grounds for the first time in the history of the EU to establish and maintain dialogue between the member states of the Union and church and faith communities".
In the past year, all churches and faiths in Ireland, as well as the Humanist Association of Ireland, have met members of the Government under the Structured Dialogue and have indicated satisfaction with it.
In general, a more level playing field is emerging where relations between churches, faith and ethical communities are concerned, and between those bodies and the State. This has to be welcome and indications are that this will continue.
Following his election as leader of Fianna Fáil on April 9th, Brian Cowen said, "The revolutionary concept that is part of the Good Friday agreement really . . . is about embarking on a common journey without insisting upon the ultimate destination". You might say that this is where our churches, faiths and ethical communities now find themselves in their relations with one another.
