Sir, – Recent history refutes Nick Folley's certitude that "the revitalisation of the Catholic Church won't happen because of synods or the laity demanding a change in church teaching" (Letters, May 28th).
St John Henry Newman referred to the “effusions” of the Holy Spirit that every so often shake up and quicken the dry bones of an exhausted church. Vatican II is one clear example of such an event of renewal. It created a new church of humble dialogue and learning. As a result of lay experience and insight, it issued the declaration Nostra Aetate, which brought a radical departure in the church’s attitude to Judaism, reversing centuries of dismal anti-Jewish papal bulls and inquisitorial practice, and even risking contradiction with older ecumenical councils.
There is nothing at all to prevent the Spirit from bringing about a similar new departure with regard to the church’s embrace of its LGBT members. The church cannot be “changed at will”, but it can be changed at the Spirit’s will, using His favoured vehicle of open dialogue.
A church too immature and dysfunctional to discuss openly topics of huge concern to ordinary people is not the church of Vatican II but a rigid Tower of Babel resisting the Spirit. – Yours, etc,
JOSEPH S O’LEARY,
Tokyo.
Sir, – The church is not a democracy, which is clearly a problem for many people. However, we would, I think, agree totally that the church in most of Europe and elsewhere has signally failed to engage with the highly educated laity on many issues on which it has had the final and only say in the past. Our knowledge derived from the bio-sciences, psychology, medicine, etc, has radically altered the way we understand humanity but the hierarchy are generally pretty ignorant of these subjects and are very disinclined to engage with the topics which flow from them. Unless they are prepared to enter into serious discussions and then explain why at the end of the day they take a particular position, the laity will continue to distance themselves from the church.
But let us remember that on climate change and the devastation we are causing to the environment, the church, and Pope Francis in particular, have been instrumental in pushing the agreements, such as they were, in the Paris climate accords, supporting the divest movement which is putting real pressure on the fossil fuel industries to clean up their act, and in general bringing “care for our common home” to the front of world consciousness. – Yours, etc,
Dr PATRICK DAVEY,
Shankill,
Dublin 18.
Sir, – “The Catholic Church will be revitalised the day the faithful set aside their own desires and pray earnestly to the Holy Spirit for an outpouring of grace”, states Nick Folley (Letters, May 28th).
Maybe they believe that past performance is not an indicator of future results, but as roughly 2,000 years of prayer from the faithful haven’t prevented the institution’s current poor state of repair, it might be time to try more direct means of reform. – Yours, etc,
JAMES MARSTON,
Finglas,
Dublin 11.
Sir, – Margaret O'Callaghan in her article "Making sense of 1921 and all that came after it" (Opinion & Analysis, May 27th) refers to the 19th-century Catholic Church's antipathy to and suppression of traditional Irish forms of Catholicism, holy wells, places of pilgrimage, patterns and wakes, etc.
However, when very many Irish people have abandoned the institutional church, it is interesting that many people, young and old, still feel close to the traditional spiritual rituals that kept their ancestors’ faith alive in the darkest days. At times of great sorrow or joy, so many feel drawn towards the spiritual.
With the institutional church at a crossroads, it would be slightly ironic if the traditional forms of Catholicism, the stone cast out, ultimately proved to be a cornerstone again. – Yours, etc,
EUGENE HORGAN,
Dún Laoghaire,
Co Dublin.