Archbishop Charles J Brown Papal Nuncio to Ireland and Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. Pic: Steve Humphreys Niall Guinan
Archbishop Charles Brown was an encouraging presence in Ireland, particularly for young people, writes Niall Guinan
The 37th chapter of Ezekiel contains the famous description of the prophet placed in a “valley of dry bones,” a scene of total despair and desolation. There could hardly be a more fitting image for the environment to which Archbishop Charles Brown was sent as Papal Nuncio by Pope Benedict XVI in late 2011.
The Church in Ireland had been shaken by horrific revelations of its shameful and wicked behaviour in the past, and relations between the Holy See and the Government had never been so strained. He now leaves these shores for Albania, another place where the Church has faced great suffering though of a very different kind.
It is almost certain that Archbishop Brown is leaving the Church in a better condition than the desperate state in which he found it. One area in which he has been particularly successful is his engagement with young people.
At the World Youth Day in Sydney in 2008, Pope Benedict told millions of young people that the “quest for novelty leaves us unsatisfied” for we are, in the depths of our hearts, “looking for an eternal gift”.
Those of us who have rediscovered the pearl of great price that is our faith, having lost it while growing up, will testify that what the modern world offers us is a sham.
Culture
The consumerist mindset, the never-ending pursuit of material goods and popularity, the obsession with sex which treats our bodies as toys to be used and discarded at a whim, as well as what Pope Francis calls the “throwaway culture” which destroys the dignity of human life, are all a fraud which may provide brief explosions of self-indulgent pleasure but can only ultimately lead to misery and self-destruction.
There is a mistaken and dangerous tendency to believe that the Church needs to accommodate herself to the modern world, to be more ‘down-to-earth’ by changing her doctrines and by banalising and de-sacralising her liturgy.
Some of Archbishop Brown’s critics would have the Church become a ‘safe space’ in which no difficult doctrines should ever ‘trigger’ or challenge us and in which Jesus Christ is reduced to an inoffensive teddy bear in the corner, the Cross replaced by a tacky Valentine’s Day love-heart.
However, Archbishop Brown has consistently shown that he knows what young people are truly crying out for is the “eternal gift” Pope Benedict spoke of, the living water which enabled the Samaritan woman to leave her jar of earthly water behind her and sing the praises of the Saviour of the World to all who would listen. We need a Church that has her feet on the ground, but her heart and her mind in Heaven.
Young people do not need a Church which thinks of itself merely as a glorified self-help club in fancy dress, designed only to make us feel good. We need a Church which helps us in our path to sainthood and to eternal life.
In his homily at the Youth 2000 festival in Roscrea in 2016, Archbishop Brown spoke of the miracles that God was working in the hearts of the young people at that retreat.
He placed before them the example of Blessed Charles de Foucauld who sought happiness in a playboy lifestyle and transitory material pleasures but who ultimately found happiness in prayer as a Trappist monk and a hermit. He also provided them with powerful and much needed encouragement to “shout their faith from the rooftops”.
The world we live in would rather young Catholics be neither seen nor heard. Particularly on college campuses, students who openly proclaim their faith have become, in many cases, the targets of hostility and abuse and the butt of jokes.
This is especially acute in the behaviour of the passionate student movements to repeal the Eighth Amendment who are apparently so insecure in their views that they cannot tolerate even a whisper of dissent.
It is perhaps unsurprising that when Archbishop Brown came to Trinity College last year, the large number of students who gathered to hear him asked him for a blessing on their pro-life witness in that exceptionally hostile environment. The message he brought to us then was, like his message in Roscrea: “Don’t be afraid. Jesus has conquered everything.”
Happiness
Whoever Archbishop Brown’s successor may be, we must pray that he too will encourage young Catholics not to be afraid to proclaim their faith because, irrespective of how popular or unpopular it may be, it is where true happiness and joy is found.
“They have been with Jesus.” These were the words spoken by the Sanhedrin after being confronted by the Apostles Peter and John in the fourth chapter of the Acts of the Apostles.
Fulton Sheen, the great American bishop, once said that these words are what people should be saying after meeting and hearing Catholic priests and bishops. It must be said that the people of Albania are extremely blessed because Archbishop Charles Brown has truly “been with Jesus”.