Cathal BarryDespite the challenges, consecrated men and women are determined to play a vital role in helping to “keep the Gospel alive” here, the head of Ireland’s conference of religious has said.
While many communities are facing dwindling numbers, Fr Peter Rodgers head of the Conference of Religious of Ireland (Cori), is confident that religious life can help “reawaken” the Church in Ireland.
His comments came after the Prefect of the Vatican’s Congregation for Religious urged Ireland’s priests, brothers and nuns to set an example for others by living out the Gospel message.
On first visit to Ireland, Brazilian Cardinal João Braz de Aviz (pictured) called on Irish consecrated men and women to be “an example for other Christians of how one can live the radical choice of God and of the Gospel, not alone but in communion”.
The upbeat message comes ahead of a special year-long focus on consecrated life called for by Pope Francis, who asked the Church’s religious sisters, brothers and priests to “wake up the world” with their testimony of faith.
Speaking to The Irish Catholic this week, Fr Rodgers said the Year for Consecrated Life, which kicks-off in November, offers an “opportunity to refocus on religious life as a way of life” within the Church here.
“It also offers religious life an opportunity to look at itself with a view to renewal from the inside,” he said.
Capuchin Fr Rodgers claimed that by engaging in effective collaboration with the laypeople, religious life “can in some way play a role in reawakening the Church in Ireland”.
“In so far as religious remain faithful to the message of the Gospel, we will always have something to say. In that way, religious life will help to keep the Gospel alive,” he said.