And So It Begins....We Hope!!

It has been announced that the archbishops of Ireland are to travel to Rome next week heralding the beginning of the Apostolic Visitation of the Church in Ireland according to a statement issued by the Catholic Communications Office.  Our prayers and hopes will go with them.   Many of us have been looking for a renewal in the Church in Ireland for a long time, and we hope that this is, at last, the start.  That said, I sense there is also a tinge of pessimism among some.  Having endured mediocrity for years, the hope of a reform in the Church here seems almost like a pipe dream - too good to be true.  I suppose it is no harm to be thinking that way, after all, there is only so much you can expect in any given time.  Not all the problems in the Church in Ireland are going to be solved.  There is also a hint of anxiety: the self-styled progressives will say they are expecting major change, but when the Visitators do not overturn Catholic teaching to suit them, we will have to endure the usual reactionary howling which has become commonplace from that quarter, and I am just fed up of that.  God forgive me!

At the end of the day, renewal is a long process simply because, being human, bishops, priests and people have to change.  Renewal, you see, is not about changing structures and dogmas, but about changing hearts: ultimately renewal is achieved in union with personal conversion - that daily conversion which the Lord requires of all of us.  The mistake many of our "liberals" make is exactly the same as that of Marxism and other political ideologies: they think that by changing the structures we can change the Church for the better (we won't mention the fact that many of the changes they want to make are contrary to the teachings of Christ).  I think the Soviet Union stands as a good example of how false this belief actually is.  It is people who need to change.  Speaking in terms of  faith, if our Church is going to be a better Church, then the members of that Church need to be more like the founder of our Church, Jesus Christ: they need to be holy.  When people are holy, then virtue ensures that the structures are just, right and good.  The reform of the Church in Ireland begins with me.

Many dismiss this as unrealisable and idealistic, but history and experience show us that that way is the only successful way of reform.  History is a great teacher.  Numerous "reform" movements ended as tyrannies because they tried to force structural change: the French Revolution, Marxism, Nazism, to name a few, had the dream of a perfect society and a perfect people.  When people could not rise to the standard, they had to be eliminated so as not to drag the rest down.  Funny that people never learn from the mistakes of history.  I still find it ironic that after the Berlin Wall fell to cries of "Freedom!", radical atheist socialism is still flourishing in Western society, and that the media which toasted the fall of the Iron Curtain are as left-wing as those who built it. 

Anyway, pray for Ireland.  For some reason the hobbits from The Lord of the Rings come to mind.  Four simple creatures heading off on an unknown journey, one which would ultimately change the course of history for Middle Earth, for the good.  On the journey there was a lot of suffering, lessons to be learned and, for some of them, humiliation.  But there was also great nobility and determination, and it was through their efforts that the ring of power was destroyed.  Not a bad example for our Archbishops as they begin a journey which may prove difficult, but, we hope and pray, it will be one which will bring great blessings and renewal to the Church in our land.  Let us also pray for the Visitators, may the wisdom of the Holy Spirit help them get to the truth and see through those who might be trying to hide it - now there's another story!