THE COMING years will be crucial for the Catholic Church in Dublin, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin has said.
In a homily at the Chrism Mass in Dublin’s Pro Cathedral yesterday, the archbishop warned against clericalism, which can “deviate” priests from their true ministry, and he apologised for his own “inadequacies as a pastoral leader”.
Dr Martin said: “It is not a platitude to say that the coming years will be among the most crucial years in recent history regarding the life of the church in Dublin and regarding transmission of the faith to future generations.
“We live in what, I believe, will be probably the most challenging years that the church will have encountered for many generations. The future will bring new difficulties. But these are exciting years. The Lord has called all of us here today to live our Christian life and to build up the church of Christ at this moment and not in imaginary better days.”
At a Mass traditionally attended by most priests in the archdiocese, he said: “Priestly ministry is not a call to prestige or privilege . . . When we affirm the theological distinction between ministerial priesthood and the common priesthood of Gods holy people, we are not affirming a position of social status or difference. That would be clericalism.”
He added: “We know just how such clericalism can deviate us from our true ministry. And clericalism has many forms. Clericalism is not about clerical dress or what we might call traditionalism. We can be clerical in the wrong sense whatever way we dress, in whatever role or rank or responsibility we are called to.”
The primate was also “acutely aware of my own lacks and inadequacies. I apologise to anyone whom I may have offended personally in this year and to those who have expected more from me. I know, however, that my inadequacies as a pastoral leader are made up for a hundredfold by the goodness and love of the community of faith which I am called to lead.” He said he was aware that “the challenges that we as Catholic Christians face are the same challenges that other Christian communities face also. All Christians must learn to work together.”
He issued a “word of welcome” to the new Church of Ireland Archbishop of Dublin Michael Jackson. “His predecessor, Archbishop John Neill, showed himself to be a real Christian support to me personally and I look forward to working with and learning from Archbishop Jackson.”
Archbishop Jackson had accepted his invitation to lead a Liturgy of the Word during the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next year, he said. The congress could “become a moment of real renewal in the life of the church in Dublin and a true celebration of what the church authentically is and should be.”
The theme of the Eucharistic Congress would stress “the unity between our communion with Christ and our communion with each other. There is no way we can separate one from the other. Holy Communion is never just something for ourselves. In the Eucharist we ‘become one body and one spirit in Christ’,” he said.
In a homily at the Chrism Mass in St Peter’s in Rome yesterday, Pope Benedict asked if Christians had become “a people of unbelief and distance from God”.
“Is it perhaps the case that the West, the heartlands of Christianity, are tired of their faith, bored by their history and culture, and no longer wish to know faith in Jesus Christ?” the pontiff asked.
