Brendan Hoban: A People’s Church is closer than ever before

Western People 14.6.2022

During the Covid lockdowns, the traditional obligation for Catholics to attend Mass was waived for two main reasons. One was that, in a pandemic, it was an impossible (and dangerous) obligation to fulfil and, two, not gathering people unless absolutely necessary was an accepted strategy in saving lives. 

Thus, the Irish bishops and their counterparts around the world formally announced the official waiver – the obligation to attend weekend Mass was temporarily relaxed. 

It seemed, in the circumstances, an obvious and responsible decision to make. However, it was greeted with some surprise across a broad spectrum of Catholic life from a general eyebrow-raising that bishops felt they needed to point out the obvious to adult Catholics to an unease sometimes bordering on anger that bishops were living on another planet if they thought (a) infantilism (treating people as children) was still a factor in the lives of adult Catholics and (b) that Catholics would take that kind of instruction seriously. That ship has long sailed.  

But clearly not everyone is familiar with the obvious truth that generally Catholics no longer take direct instruction or guidance from bishops. Listing arguments in support of that truth is no longer necessary, as can be seen from the Marriage Equality referendum and other multiple examples.

To awkwardly paraphrase the poet, John Milton, in Lycidas, ‘The hungry sheep’ no longer ‘look up to be fed’. 

Yet as recently as a few weeks ago, the Catholic bishops of England and Wales announced the reintroduction of the Sunday Mass obligation using, as the English Catholic paper, The Tablet, pointed out, the word ‘obligation’ six times in their statement. 

Now the question is: will the Irish bishops follow the same route? Or will they respect their people enough to leave that decision to themselves – in the certain knowledge that, if they don’t, all they will achieve is a further lessening of their own authority compounded once again when Catholics in the pew will pay little if any heed to them.

The word is that the Irish bishops are considering a move along the same lines of their colleagues across the Irish Sea. I can think of a number of obvious reasons not to do so: (i) it attempts to reinstate an image of God dependant on a fear-based and a scrupulosity-driven approach to religion;  (ii) it proposes a return to the infantilism of the past where grown adults are not trusted to make adult decisions about their own lives; (iii) it makes no sense, knowing what we do about its probable impact; and, (iv), it ignores the broadened definition of Irish Catholics who, in the main, have made their  peace with their own untidy beliefs and ambivalent lives. And the more bishops and others try to drag Irish Catholics back into what they see as a medieval world-view of instructions, prohibitions and anathemas, the easier it is for lay Catholics to dismiss them as ‘living on a different planet’.

If you don’t agree, try to get your hands on a copy of the recent report of the Dublin diocese on their efforts to surface the needs of the Catholic Church going forward in preparation for the world synod in 2023 and the national synod a few years later. 

It presents in startling terms what Dublin Catholics think and the changes they deem necessary in the Catholic Church. And it confirms, in broad outline, the same agenda as surfaced in other dioceses, including Killala, Achonry and others, now available (or soon to be available) on their diocesan websites. 

In a short summary gleaned from the reports published to date – and the expectation is that further reports will confirm the basic findings already clear – Irish Catholics want: ’urgent change’; a new language in worship that is not a barrier to communication; the development of new lay ministries as priest numbers continue to decline;  ‘a meaningful role for women in ministry and in the governance of the Church, including ordination’; a focus on the vulnerable, the disadvantaged and the oppressed; optional celibacy for priests; a focus on the needs of young people; a reaching out in welcome to marginalised groups including unmarried couples, divorced and remarried, LGBTQ+; and, yes you guessed it, an improvement in the quality of sermons!

Reports to date confirm that the reforms introduced by Pope Francis have huge support among Catholics and have generated a real sense of the opportunity offered now to parishes through the synodal pathway he recommends – a new and very different way of being Church – as evidenced by the desire of people to participate and the energy, enthusiasm and momentum already generated. It is, in effect, a welcome for the reforms envisaged by the Second Vatican Council but never implemented.

The great fear of those who have already participated is that the opportunity offered by the synodal pathway may be lost and that, as so often happened in the past, no real change will take place. It would be a disaster beyond words for the Catholic Church. 

That said, the reforms now deemed necessary by the people – in the main those who are committed to faith and parish – will not be easy to deliver as they will demand painful and difficult changes in attitude and approach. 

But, the clear and obvious truth, is that there is no option to change.  There is, as many have said, no other game in town. The prize is a People’s Church, something that is now no longer as out of reach as it was even a few years ago. 

We live in interesting times.