So, England left the EU

Terry O'Keefe · Jun 28, 2016

Our Pastor, Rev Troy Gately, is on Holiday in Ireland. His last missive before he left was about Ireland and the changes. It's not so Catholic anymore and while many of the things he attributes to the decline of the faith are true no doubt, he curiously left out the scandals that have come to the surface about the Church in Ireland.

https://www.stjohnvianney.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Ad_Bulletin-06-26-16-Eng.pdf

Sadly, the days of Irish seminaries bursng
at the seams with the fresh young faces of Irish lads ready to travel the world to serve Christ and his
gospel are gone. I remember on that first trip stopping by one of the seminaries. I asked how they
were doing in vocaons. “Terrible” was the response, “we only had two hundred men enter the first
year!” That was one seminary. Today, Ireland is lucky to have a couple of dozen new seminarians for
the enre country. Houston ordains more priests than Dublin! When I first visited in 1989, Ireland
had a weekly mass aendance of over 90%. Today, it is only around 30% of Catholics who aend
weekly mass. Ireland’s Constuon which begins with a prayer, now has legalized same sex
“marriage” and there is a push for legalized aboron on demand. What happened?
I am sure that sociologists and theologians are connuing to dissect that queson. The simple answer
is these wonderful people lost their faith in God and are worshipping false gods. It has been a
combinaon of church leaders and members giving scandal by the way in which they failed to live
their faith, compeng forces and vying for people’s allegiance and devoon (materialism,
consumerism, relavism, hedonism etc.) and a general a=tude of taking the faith for granted. The
dramac and steep collapse of the Catholic Church in Ireland, while incredibly sad and heartbreaking,
can teach us a lesson. When things were not going well for the Catholic Church in the U.S., Canada or
in Europe, the Irish were a bit smug. I heard people here and there say it could never happen to the
Irish! Well, they were wrong. Such a dramac shi! on religious fortunes could never have occurred if
the foundaons of faith were really strong (Mt 13). Obviously, there was more of a veneer of faith
than a living faith that was deeply rooted in people’s hearts, truly formed and guiding their lives.
While indeed the picture has changed dramacally, the Catholic Faith is not dead in Ireland. Christ is
sll with the Irish and the Holy Spirit is sll acve. The Church is sll very much alive, although it is
wounded.
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So, England left the EU

Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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So, England left the EU

Terry O'Keefe Well-Known Member Administrator

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