Michael Kelly
Yes vote forces Church to re-evaluate teaching on human sexuality, writes Michael Kelly
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was quite right when he said the Church needed a “reality check” in the wake of the resounding ‘yes’ vote in the referendum on same-sex marriage. I suspect few people within the Church will disagree with him.
The problem, of course, is that people will predictably divide depending on their vision of the Church.
Those Catholics who might describe themselves as conservative or orthodox will blame the fact that many Catholics voted ‘yes’ on the Church’s woeful lack of catechesis and teaching over recent decades.
Those Catholics who might describe themselves as liberal or progressive will say that the ‘yes’ vote means that the Church should “get with it” and move with the times.
But where does the truth lie? Anyone who is surprised that the Church and modern Ireland find themselves out of step must have been living in outer space.
The consultation process in the run-up to last year’s Synod on the Family in Rome revealed that amongst many Irish Catholics (the majority?), Church teaching on human sexuality is poorly understood and poorly followed.
Some scratch their heads and wonder why. Of course, it’s no surprise that it is the teachings that people find personally difficult that are largely rejected. I’ve never heard a Catholic say they struggle to understand the Hypostatic union or the procession of the Holy Spirit from the Father and the Son. Instead, it is areas that touch very directly on sexuality and relationships.
It’s true that the Church in Ireland has been negligent in teaching in recent decades. But catechesis is not a panacea. We also need to reflect deeply on our complacency in relation to Catholic schools.
A woman once told me that she didn’t bother talking to her children about the Faith because her children were “being raised as Catholics by the school”.
Dominant culture
Our children in Catholic schools are by-and-large being formed by the dominant culture, rather than anything particularly Catholic. This must be a starting point for our discussion on the way forward.
Part of the reality check must also be an honest admission that many people are simply not interested in what the Church has to say about human sexuality. There is a kind of self-referencing myth in many Church circles shared by liberals and conservatives that there is quite a simple formula for the growth of the Church: conservatives believe that the truth is, ultimately, irresistible and it is only necessary to expose young people to the truth to engage their religious sense.
Liberals are convinced that only a wholescale dismantling of Church teachings that are found difficult will bring life to the Church.
Both extremes are as naïve as they are inaccurate. The Church needs to find a new way of engaging with people in what is genuinely a post-Catholic environment. Even many Mass-going Catholics are post-Catholic in their attitudes. It’s a curious (though not unique) feature of the decline of Irish Catholicism that many have walked away from the teaching without walking away from the practise of the Faith.
We need to find ways to reengage people who want to be reengaged. And we need to find ways to live with tension and become more comfortable with the reality that many peoples’ lives are not lived in simple black and white, but with various shades of grey.
Pope Francis is asking us to move beyond arid dogmatism and to be confronted by the reality of life. This will often mean bridging the gap between the Church’s teaching and how people experience their ability to live that teaching.
New language and new ways of engaging – particularly with younger people – must be found. Ultimately, however, the Church must be true to its mandate and teach.
Sometimes this will win acclaim, more often than not it will bring derision and ridicule.
The ultimate reality check is that believers are called to “proclaim the message and, welcome or unwelcome, insist on it” (II Timothy 4:2).
