Newest Arrivals Enliven Irish Catholicism

I have always been proud of my Irish ancestry – I am 3/8 Irish from my mother’s side of the family (plus 1/8 French), my dad being American born but of 100% Austrian ancestry, hence my Germanic last name. My major thesis in history at UVA was in fact focused on Irish politics and the political home rule movements of O’Connell and Parnell in the 1800’s.

As a former Catholic I followed the Catholic Church’s sexual abuse scandal closely and with disgust. I believe it is remarkable how rapidly the Catholic Church in Ireland has lost power and membership attendance in a little over a decade or two. Why? Because Ireland has been transformed and the increased education of the populace and the exposure of the Church’s corruption and the moral bankruptcy of the Church leadership from the Pope on down have taken a huge toll. This article from MSNBC (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/23636868) is of interest because it shows that the only way the Church has been able to fill the emptying pews has been based on less educated immigrants from more backward and economically deprived nations. In my view, religious fundamentalism and a totalitarian Church leadership are mutually exclusive of an intelligent and educated populace. Hence, the Church’s decline in the West while experiencing a net growth only in backward areas of the globe. Here are some story highlights:

Ireland . . . is rapidly evolving from a land of emigration into one of immigration, where at least 1 in 10 people is foreign-born. This transformation — fueled by a decade-long economic boom and relatively liberal immigration laws — means Ireland has gone from Western Europe’s poorest and most homogeneous country to one of its wealthiest and most cosmopolitan in little more than a generation. For the first time in its history, Ireland, which sent hundreds of thousands of emigrants to the United States, Britain and elsewhere, is wooing large numbers of migrants.

In the 1980s, Ireland was barely able to retain its own. The unemployment rate was around 18 percent and thousands of young people were fleeing the country annually for Britain, the United States and elsewhere. The endless conflict in Northern Ireland along with divisive battles over social issues in the south combined to scare off the best and brightest. Between 1995 and 2000, the economy expanded at an astounding average of 9.5 percent per year; now it has eased to a still robust rate of 4-5 percent annual growth. The newest arrivals have helped boost Ireland’s population — now at around 4.2 million — to its highest level since 1861. It’s the fastest-growing country in Europe.

Less than two years ago, St. Audeon’s Catholic Church was dying. It offered one sparsely attended weekly Mass in Latin and was on the brink of closure. Now resurrected as the main home for Polish Catholicism in Ireland, the central Dublin church is one of the most dynamic in the country, providing 18 services a week, 11 of which are in Polish, and drawing up to 5,000 parishioners every Sunday.The fate of St. Audeon’s illustrates how this country’s recent immigrant wave, roughly half of which is composed of Catholics, is helping to re-energize Ireland’s Roman Catholic Church, an institution that had been in steep decline, caused in part by a series of sex scandals involving priests over the past two decades.

Though frequently suppressed during centuries of British rule, the Catholic Church gained a dominating role in society after independence in 1922, running virtually all of the elementary and secondary schools and infusing the state with its conservative ethos. When Pope John Paul II visited Ireland for three days in 1979, an estimated 2.5 million of the country’s 3.5 million flocked to hear him speak. But that visit turned out to be the high point for the Irish church. It was rapidly followed by horror stories of abuse of boys and women by members of the Irish clergy — revelations that accelerated a decline in Irish church-going. A 2006 survey by state broadcaster RTE found that 48 percent of Irish people attended Mass every week. That is still high by European standards, but far lower than the 81 percent who attended regularly in 1990.

Statistics published last month in The Irish Catholic newspaper revealed that 160 priests had died in the past year, chiefly due to old age, and only nine new priests were ordained. By way of comparison, 193 seminarians were ordained in Ireland in 1990. If current trends continue, the total number of Catholic priests in Ireland — now at around 4,750 — is projected to drop to about 1,500 by 2028, according to the newspaper. The shortage of priests is expected to be felt across Ireland, a country that once exported priests all over the world, especially to the United States. As if to underscore the crisis, a former Catholic priest, the Rev. Dermot Dunne, in February became dean of the Protestant Christ Church Cathedral in Dublin. While taking up his new position, Dunne symbolically kissed his wife on the front steps of the ornate cathedral.