Gerald Archibald, Edmonton

While I’ve believed church reform was critically needed for many years, I’ve come to the point where I wonder if it is too late for any kind of reform to occur… reform that will bring back young families, our youth, ‘fallen away’ older Catholics, a reform that will attract people and help give a meaning and purpose in their lives.

I participated in a ‘synod’ listening group and it was fantastic. The participants wanted fundamental change desperately, were prayerful and optimistic people, and people who listened to each other with complete respect. This was, for me, a vision of what church should be like…where we believe that the Holy Spirit is present and active.

I thought afterwards that Christ’s promise “…where two or three are gathered, there am I in their midst” was so evident. The last time I was at Mass, it was anything but an uplifting experience. I had to consciously try very hard to be aware of what was happening.

The music was abstract, the responses of the laity to the prayers were mumbled, the homily was anything but inspiring. I contacted a network of people who are working towards reform, and I got back very similar feedback from their experiences within their parishes.

I have been following the situation in Ireland regarding the Church in that country. I believe what they have been going through may well be what we are going through in Canada – if not now, very soon. I have cousins in Ireland and asked them to share their views of how the Church is doing considering the tragic scandals that have come to light over the past twenty years.

The answers I got back were very frank – ‘even if we brought women fully into the Church including ordination, and even if we allowed married priests, I’m afraid all of that would be too late. The Church has little meaning for most people now’ was one response. The other was very similar. Further I have a friend who belongs to the Association of Irish Priests, and through him I can obtain public documents that it produces.

The Irish church is in crisis, and this Association is advocating for meaningful change in so many ways. Rev. Brendan Hoban, a member, writes a blog and he reports on a highly unusual event that occurred on June 18 of this year in Ireland.

I wish to draw heavily on his description of what happened on that date. In this description, he refers a couple of times to Tony Flannery, a Redemptorist priest, who has been ‘silenced’ by the Superior General of that Congregation as well as the Curia’s infamous “Congregation of Doctrine and Faith”.

They both suspended Father Flannery from all priestly functions. (I wrote about him in a past column describing the books he has written and how he got into trouble with the Vatican. (You may guess I felt Tony Flannery was mistreated terribly).

Athlone Synod

Brendan Hoban’s blog dated July 22/2022 is titled “This was the day I thought I’d never witness” and it begins “The gathering in Athlone on June 18 of bishops, priests, religious as well as delegates and representatives of varied Catholic associations – 162 in all was, as we say, something else altogether. It’s even difficult to find words that exaggerate its importance.

The word ‘historic’ is not out of place in that it never happened before in the long history of the Catholic Church in Ireland, not since the Protestant Reformation in the sixteenth century, not since St. Patrick came to Ireland, not ever. We had expected that, after the Second Vatican Council (1962-65) the focus on becoming a People’s Church would have led to a multiplicity of such gatherings when, to implement the vision of the council, such gatherings seemed both necessary and inevitable.”

“But it was not to be. It was a devastating failure to trust the voice of the highest teaching authority in the church – the bishops of the world gathered in general council, mapping out the future of the Church. It needed nerve to overturn centuries of tradition, to learn from ‘the sign of the times’ (a key phrase used in Council documents-GA), to hold in appropriate esteem and focus the vision of a People’s Church. It was too a supreme failure in leadership, listening to those in love with the past rather than trusting those able and ready to live in the present and to shape the future.”

“So, 60 years after the Second Vatican Council, the reforms intended by that council were truly launched when, as part of Pope Francis’ challenge to become a People’s Church, a representative gathering of the Irish Catholic Church met in Athlone recently.”

“As expected on the day – a day longed for and yearned for by so many for so long – there was a huge sense of expectancy, even nervousness, that the occasion would not deliver or that, after being used to being told what to do, the spirit of openness that Francis was encouraging would not be translated into this first, crucial test, if for so long we had become used to eating gruel instead of real food.”

“We shouldn’t have worried: I met Tony Flannery on the way in. There was a delicious irony in the fact that Tony had been ‘silenced’ and his ministry as a priest taken from him because he had written about most if not all the issues now on the Athlone agenda.”

“When Tony entered the room, Archbishop Eamon Martin, rushed over to welcome him. The gesture set the tone for the day. Everyone was welcome and everyone was happy that everyone was welcome. We were, I felt, like children arriving at a party to which for years we had longed to attend but had never been invited…there was a sense that’s, after all the work and the talk, the synodal pathway was opening out in front of us.”

“…we listened, discussed, prayed to discern God’s will and, effectively, decided on a process that would involve a journeying together of lay Catholics, bishops, priests and religious.

The goal of that journey, we could all see, was nothing less than embracing a different way of being church, a People’s Church.

Brendan Hoban goes on to say as he looked around and saw the energy and excitement in the room as the participants discussed critical issues, even including Tony Flannery (who in pre-Francis time would not be allowed to be in the room), he had to pinch himself that it was even happening.

“Even more extraordinary was the energy in the room, the sense of united, respectful purpose, a fathering enthusiasm, even at times a feeling of pure joy and a hope that our withering Church, battered and bruised for within and without, might yet become an effect conduit of the gospel message of Jesus Christ.”

Hoban goes on to say that a continuation of this synodal pathway “is for the Catholic Church in Ireland to become effective in today’s society. “We may re-find our voice and confidence…we may find that some of the many who have disengaged may consider. We may even engage the doubters that change is real.

I say that because we know, if there’s nothing else, we know that this is for the Catholic Church in Ireland, probably the last chance we have for getting things right. Not moving forward now on the synodal pathway, would be a disaster.”

“A good start would be to bring Tony Flannery in from the cold!”

At least Ireland is taking the Synod and Synodal pathway very seriously. They have finished their analysis of each of the dioceses’ reports, and word is the synthesis report being submitted to Rome truly reflects what was said in the respective dioceses. I have a friend who examined every diocesan web page in Canada, and there is barely a mention of the Synod. There seems to be little passion for the Synodal pathway in Canada.

I strongly believe the Church in Canada is going through the deep valley of despair, similar to what the Irish Church is going through. I, however, believe if we are to become a Peoples’ Church, we must openly and fearlessly, address the many issues that have not been seriously addressed for so many years. I’m tired of the ‘gruel’ and want ‘real food.’

As Martin Luther King famously said: “We are confronted with the fierce urgency of now. In this unfolding conundrum of life and history, there ‘is’ such a thing as being too late. There is no time for apathy or complacency. This is a time for vigorous and positive action.”
This is the way I see it! As always, let me know what you think! (archibaldjerry@gmail.com)