Dublin Archbishop: Irish Church on Brink of Collapse

Ireland was once a Roman Catholic Church bastion. Those days are clearly gone and the continued downward spiral of the Church has nothing to do with outside enemies or the secularization of society despite whatever disingenuous bull shit may emanate from the Vatican. No, the Church has destroyed itself in Ireland - and seems to be working hard to achieve similar results across North America, Europe and ever corner of the educated world. In remarks delivered at at Cambridge University in Britain Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin pointedly said the Catholic Church in Ireland is on the brink of total collapse. He give it another 10 years to either undergo radical change or be relegated to an irrelevant minority element of society. Obviously, under the current Pope who is up to his neck in the sex abuse scandal and chose to protect child rapists over children and youth, the needed change is unlikely to occur. Irish Central has coverage on Archbishop Martin's no holds barred remarks. Here are some highlights:
*
Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin says the Irish Catholic Church must resign itself to being a minority culture and believes it is on the brink of collapse. In a strikingly frank admission, he said he had failed to lead the church in the changes it needed to survive. Ireland's second most senior cleric said the Catholic Church would have to relinquish control of grade schools and commented that sacraments had become social events.
*
He also hit out at his peers. Martin said there was a lack of proper thought and debate about the church and how to deal with its difficulties. . . . He also revealed that the congregation at Sunday Mass was only two percent of the Catholic population.
*
He had said the Irish church had only five to 10 years before it would fall. . . . . He added that for decades the church policy had merely been "keeping the show on the road.” He commented that the church's crisis pre-dated the child sex abuse scandals. He said the church’s policy lacked thought as to where it was going, and that the abuse scandal had simply damaged it further. He insisted that only a radical change would ensure the Catholic Church’s survival.

*

Absent dramatic change, what is occurring in Ireland will continue to sweep the educated world where irrational positions on celibacy, homophobia, the subjugation of women, etc., have no objective or empirical support - and only have justification based on a few passages in the Bible - simply no longer are accepted by anyone but the emotionally troubled or ignorant. The choice is change or die.