The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, has said the Catholic Church is perhaps suffering in recent years "even more than in the days of open persecution".
In his homily for the Croagh Patrick pilgrimage yesterday, he told pilgrims the church "is your church and, as the early years of this century unfold, we will discover that all of us together will be better equipped and more willing to take on leadership of our local church community."
Dr Neary said: "The days of passive commitment are gone, the days when we thought to be a Catholic meant clocking in for Mass on a Sunday. Now we face the challenge of taking the teaching of Christ into every facet of life . . . to the home, to the school, to work, to leisure, to the sick and dying, to the bereaved and the handicapped.
"By baptism we are called to minister. For too long ministry was seen as the preserve of the priest. He will continue to celebrate liturgies with the people of God, but will spend many days empowering others in ministry. The concept may be startling and a new beginning, but the God of Mount Sinai declared in the Book of Revelation 'behold I make all things new'. Today we are part of that challenging renewal in which lay people, with their priests, accept responsibility for parish life.
"In days and nights of darkness we feel frightened and insecure," he said. "The old certainties are not there. We feel let down by governments, by what we thought was the stable world of banking and commerce.
"We feel that the church has been shaken to its roots in the revelation of its human face of sin. Are we, a people gathered here, a people who have climbed a mountain path and have come to a crossroads to find that the sign-post has been removed? We can no longer be honorary Christians, no longer sideline spectators as light grapples with darkness in a difficult age. If we let go of the God of our ancestors, the eyes of a new generation may turn to the shrine of another god we have dubbed the tiger."
