Dublin, Ireland, Sep 29, 2004 / 22:00 pm
Darmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, said this week during a priestly retreat, that “pervasive individualism” is undermining the nation’s Catholic faith, and called for a the creation of strong faith communities as a “new clerical culture,” to revert the process of secularization.
The Archbishop spoke of the need for priests, bishops, lay Catholics and the Church’s ministries to reflect a sense of community, centered on the Eucharist, “the center of any spirituality of the ordained priest” and the “pinnacle of all the activities of the Church.”
He said that “people are happy to support a Church which witnesses to its faith through service and caring,” and will judge communities on whether they are “caring and compassionate communities.” However, because of individualism many who “want to keep a space for God in their lives” do not feel the need to participate in a worshipping community.”
“There is also a specific religious individualism,” he says “a tendency to interpret a mission which springs from baptism in an individualistic way, as if it were “my baptism” which empowers me as an individual, rather than seeing baptism, and this ministry which derives from baptism, as linked to the Eucharistic community.”