The two Archbishops of Dublin Archbishop Dermot Farrell and Archbishop Michael Jackson walk from Christ Church Cathedral to St Mary’s Pro Cathedral - carrying a cross - where a prayer service took place, April 15. Photo: John McElroy The Church must “earn the right to be listened to” in a changing Ireland rather than expect the influence it held in the past, Bishop Paul Dempsey has said.
Speaking at Croke Park on Sunday at the conclusion of the three-day Walk the Cross pilgrimage, the Auxiliary Bishop of Dublin addressed pilgrims who had walked 33 miles from Kildare to Dublin since Friday in honour of Christ.
“As we engage with a changing culture we should not attempt to ‘water down’ the Gospel in order to make it more acceptable, rather we should live the message unapologetically,” Bishop Dempsey said.
However, he said this required “genuine humility” from the Church, which must “earn the right to be listened to rather than demanding or expecting it as was the case in the past”.
While Catholicism had been “woven deeply into the fabric of Irish life” for generations, he acknowledged that many people had been deeply hurt by the Church. With 69% of the population identifying as Roman Catholic in the 2022 census, down from 79% in 2016, the bishop cautioned about simply blaming the media, secularisation or the political establishment.
“It would be naïve to enter the blame game,” he said, adding that the issues facing the Church were “far more nuanced and complex”.
Instead, Bishop Dempsey said, Catholics were being challenged to demonstrate their faith through their lives. “Ireland doesn’t need Christians who are simply good at talking about Christianity. Ireland needs Christians who are good at living it.”
Drawing on the setting of Croke Park, he said the Church was “not called to be spectators in society looking on from the stands” but should be “at the centre of the action”.
Christians, he added, should help build an Ireland where vulnerable people are protected, young people have hope, migrants are treated with dignity and “every life is valued from conception to the moment the Lord calls us home”.
“The question for us is not so much ‘What kind of Ireland do I want?’” he said. “But something far more challenging: ‘What kind of Ireland am I helping to build?’”