Change is afoot among the faithful of the Catholic Church, says Angela Hanley
Recently I was witness to an extraordinary event that was simultaneously the beginning and the end of something radical. It was the end of the first of three modules of a new distance education programme in theology, but the beginning of an extraordinary journey for more than 170 people.
These students (two-thirds women) come from a wide variety of experiences, ages and backgrounds (including priests and religious), but all have one thing in common - an immense thirst for the "living water" of theology.
For many, allied to their great thirst is another powerful force: righteous anger. They are angry because the Church they love has been sacrificed on the altar of clericalism, with all the abuses of power and people that implies. They are angry at being kept ignorant of the theological richness that lies at the heart of the Church to bring greater understanding of the gospel message and the sacraments.
They are angry at the paternalistic attitude of a hierarchical Church that has reneged on its responsibility to provide adult catechesis and that has engaged in subtle (and not so subtle) methods of control, telling God's people only what it wanted them to know.
They are angry at the impoverishment of ritual that ought to be a joyful celebration of the contact with God in our lives. They are tired of dull homilies that patronise the faithful.
When, among others, women in their 70s (the mainstay of the Catholic Church in Ireland, contributing in so many ways to its functioning) are now saying - and I have heard many - that a new Reformation is necessary, it is a measure of the disaffection with the Church as it is presently constituted.
The malaise is more profound than the cardinals, archbishops and bishops can possibly imagine. The unedifying spectacle of the senior hierarchy being forced to deal with the crime of child sexual abuse because of the tenacity of the media and the odium of the people does not inspire the confidence of God's people in the ability of the leaders to lead.
However, change is afoot. God's spirit moves in mysterious ways her wonders to perform. Yes, there will be a new Reformation, but not one where the reformers will be calumniated and pushed out of the fold. The reformers will be the ordinary people of God who are reclaiming the Church that rightfully belongs to them as much as to any pope, prelate or priest (a fact successfully kept from them for years).
If the Church's leaders in Ireland do not want to become irrelevant in this Reformation, they must assist it in every way possible, because it will happen with or without them. This change is not something peculiar to Ireland; it is happening worldwide. The Voice of the Faithful group in the US is only one manifestation.
Distance education is, by its nature, removed from centres of learning with their valuable reference and research resources. As a first step in acknowledging the right of God's people to ownership of the Church and the right of access to the "living word", the Irish episcopal conference would do well to consider how to make similar resources available more widely through the network of dioceses.
Although dioceses are independent of one another, they can choose to contribute significant finance to a central cause. Providing meeting rooms would be useful to students who wish to gather for discussion, study and solidarity. The Dominicans of the Priory Institute, Tallaght, are to be especially commended for developing this introductory distance education programme which, despite some teething problems, has met with great enthusiasm from the students. The next module begins in September.
At a time when many congregations are consolidating and focusing their energies and resources on the maintenance of an ageing population, the Dominicans are looking outwards with a challenge and an opportunity to which God's people are rising with vigour and enthusiasm.
Angela Hanley is a tutor with the Priory Institute distance education theology programme