Dermot Farrell was appointed Catholic Archbishop of Dublin just over a year ago and has yet to engage with the Dublin City Interfaith Forum (DCIF), the main vehicle for inter-faith dialogue in the capital. But at least he seems inclined to do so, which is more than his predecessor Diarmuid Martin.
Despite successive approaches, Archbishop Martin declined to get genuinely and regularly involved, or to send a regular official representative to forum meetings. Hopefully the new archbishop will take a new approach when it comes to inter-faith engagement in Dublin city, as well as nationally.
What this track record of reticence displays is a reluctance to meet other faiths as equals. No such reluctance is displayed by Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson, who regularly attends and is active at DCIF events and meetings.
In contrast, and despite being involved with the forum for more than five years, I have never seen a Catholic Archbishop of Dublin attend a forum meeting or even send someone on his behalf. Invitations have been made but not taken up.
This is out of step with Pope Francis and his approach to interfaith dialogue since he became pope in 2013. The unfortunate incident of refusing to meet the Dalai Lama aside, Pope Francis has been an active participant in interfaith dialogue, meeting representatives from the broader Christian world, praying at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, and visiting Islamic countries, as well as meeting with prominent imams.
Now, more than a year after the pope's third encyclical, Fratelli Tutti, we see the Catholic Church on the ground being slow to follow its pontiff's lead regarding interfaith engagement as set out in that document.
The encyclical states that “we, the believers of the different religions, know that our witness to God benefits our societies”. It also has the wisdom to see the bigger picture: “We Christians ask that, in those countries where we are a minority, we be guaranteed freedom, even as we ourselves promote that freedom for non-Christians in places where they are a minority.”
The pope writes: “As religious leaders, we are called to be true ‘people of dialogue’ ”. But for such dialogue to happen, it is necessary to show up.
Lip service
Sadly, the kind of enlightened leadership the pope offers in interfaith matters is yet to find expression in Irish Catholicism at a national and hierarchical level, and in some wider Christian congregations on this island.
The regressive position shown by the Presbyterian Church in Ireland at its 2018 General Assembly is a case in point. The Presbyterian Church then passed a resolution saying that "out of concern for God's glory and the good of our neighbour, we decline to participate in nontrinitarian interfaith worship".
At least such a withdrawal from the complexities of society to one’s own silo is upfront and articulated in the Presbyterian case. In Irish Catholicism, we often see public support for interfaith dialogue in words, falling badly short in actual behind-the-scenes deeds.
Also, there is a blinkered belief that interfaith engagement extends only to those other Christians you share a common faith with. The Christian-only event marking a centenary of partition in Ireland at Armagh last October was an example of this narrow view of religious inclusion.
It is time for the Christian churches here to do better. They need to look around and take in what Ireland looks like in 2022. And the Catholic Church as the majority faith tradition should lead the way.
As in so many other areas, the Catholic laity is way ahead. We have active and committed Catholic members in the DCIF, but they are involved because of their own convictions and without official encouragement and backing from the hierarchy. Indeed, through their engagement, they have a religious literacy far more developed than many I have met in the hierarchy over the years.
Sacred robe
They know, for example, that in my tradition, the Buddhist robe is sacred as the crucifix is to Christians. And yet once a prominent Catholic cleric asked me if my Buddhist robe was, in fact, a “bulletproof vest”. I later corrected this lack of respect via an email, which never received a response. Sadly, at our next meeting, he made the same remark a second time.
This anecdote is a sorry reflection of the level of interfaith engagement and religious literacy that has come from the Catholic hierarchy in Ireland over many years.
But Fratelli Tutti marks a new articulation of the direction we should all be moving, in terms of interfaith dialogue. It remains unbelievable that the main faith tradition here has displayed near total indifference to the DCIF, declining to take up successive invitations to get involved.
However, with the new direction and energy that Archbishop Dermot Farrell’s appointment represents, maybe the new man leading the archdiocese will respond more favourably to interfaith approaches. Watch this space.
Rev Myozan Kodo Kilroy is a Soto Zen Buddhist priest