So, this has been an interesting week for Church and State relations in Ireland, or perhaps more specifically Dublin. Let’s go back to the beginning.
Last Saturday evening, at a church in Mount Merrion, one of the more affluent areas of south Dublin, people gathered, as they do each Saturday evening, for the Vigil Mass for Sunday. Nothing could be more normal. 6:00pm came and went and unusually, no sign of the priest. After a while, and it being obvious that a priest was, by that point, unlikely to arrive, a lay member of the congregation, who also happens to be a Minister in the Irish Government, and who was scheduled to act as a Minister of the Word at the Vigil Mass, was joined by two others and led the congregation in a prayer service. No Mass was said; her ministry of the Word was fulfilled, she didn’t read the Gospel, there was no consecration, and Communion was brought from the Tabernacle and distributed.
So far, and while unusual in the Dublin Archdiocese, there was nothing here about which many could say that have never seen nor heard of before. It is a well-known fact that there are parishes in Ireland that no longer have a priest and plenty of places where lay people or other non-ordained (liturgical) ministers lead a prayer service when in the past, there would have been a daily Mass.
While I would not be a supporter of the politician in question, it is difficult to interpret her actions as anything other than doing the right thing in unexpected circumstances. Was it a good thing for a woman (in this instance) to respond to her baptismal calling? I don’t think that this was about seeking any publicity and if it hadn’t been for a story in The Irish Independent on Monday morning, that might well have been the end of it. However, either through ignorance or as a way of baiting those who might well find objection in what this woman did, the reporter wrote that the woman had, “… stepped up to ‘say Mass’ in her local parish …”
This is where it all seems to have gone pear-shaped. Having realised that the winds of PR were blowing in her direction, the politician couldn’t resist taking what seems on the face of it, to have been a genuine and local response to an unexpected situation in which she found herself, and using it as a pretext for pontificating on how the Church in the world needs to change.
As a seemingly active member of her parish and of the congregation at St Teresa’s church in Mount Merrion, she knew well that the problem that had faced her on Saturday evening had nothing whatsoever to do with a shortage of priests, and neither did it illustrate a need for the Church to adapt as otherwise, there would be a “severe decline” in church participation. What the circumstances might have illustrated was the need for improvement in communication between the parish team and those that replace them when they are scheduled to be away! Of course, it is fair comment to look at declining attendance at the sacraments, of an aging priesthood to which young men no longer feel the same vocation, of the lamentable role and voice of women in the church; all of these are valid concerns. But politicians cannot help themselves and I think in this instance, she couldn’t resist the column inches that would inevitably result from her recasting of the circumstances to suit what was, by any measure, her own personal (and valid) agenda. But it had nothing to do with the problem on Saturday evening.
Would that it all ended there and by the end of the week, it would have been forgotten by all but a few. But no! You can imagine my surprise when in steps the Archbishop of Dublin. No doubt the reporter’s bait had found its fish! While he should have referred to the great witness in St Teresa’s Parish that evening, and to the sign in that parish for his diocese and the wider church, of the commitment of lay people, he focussed instead on the politician’s agenda and her commentary about the wider church deficits and needs. Perhaps his own PR staff were out that day, or perhaps he was door stepped by a journalist – it isn’t clear. But in his rebuke (for that is how it came across, irrespective of what was intended), he played the man, and not the ball (forgive the gender mis-match!).
There is no-one who is right here. The Archbishop should have thought more carefully about his response – and there is good reason for saying that he might have said more, by saying nothing. But it is too late now. There was no thanks, the opportunity to illustrate the positives of Catholic commitment were not taken, and in their place, what came across was condemnation. That was unfortunate.
But fairness would say that the Archbishop isn’t solely to blame for the column inches that followed. There was an arrogance in the politician’s words too and perhaps the Minister title created in her a sense of importance to the wider world that isn’t matched by reality. This is best illustrated in her statement that, when Pope Francis visits Ireland at the end of August, that she intends to raise her concerns [about the Church] with him! Let me get this right – “hello Pope Francis. I’m a very important parishioner in a rich parish here in Ireland and I think you need to change the church in the world.” Really? She was elected to parliament by the people of Dublin Rathdown. I don’t know if she speaks for all of them on this. Also, she is a member of the congregation at St Teresa’s – and I don’t know if she speaks for all of them either. I know that Mount Merrion, with its affluent residential profile, probably believes that there comes with that affluence a greater voice in the world, but someone needs to bring this politician down to earth.
What she did on a Saturday night was the right thing. That’s all. I don’t think the Pope knows who she is. Like the rest of us, when she steps into the church, she is just ordinary.