Church ‘must stop and consider message’ says Archbishop

By Niall Murray

The Catholic Church should stop to consider its message before preaching to the nation as it faces up to declining faith in Ireland, Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary told Croagh Patrick pilgrims.

In his Reek Sunday homily at the summit of the Mayo mountain, Archbishop of Tuam Michael Neary said pilgrimages are an opportunity to take stock as “we are very conscious of the slow, silent decline of faith in Ireland”.

He made his comments during yesterday evening’s Mass for some of the thousands of pilgrims who made the annual trek up Croagh Patrick.

Although critical of the pace at which careers in politics, business, entertainment, and sport are “made, unmade, or simply just die unnoticed” in a world where terrific concentration and effort are animated by short-and medium-term goals, he also questioned the way students are taught.

“Our educational system makes fewer and fewer bones about the socioeconomic goals of learning and there is less and less value placed on knowledge for its own sake and wisdom as an end in education,” said Archbishop Neary.

He told pilgrims, it would be easy for the Catholic Church to spend its remaining energy desperately vying for the attention of this culture and grabbing any chance to address the nation “from any pulpit at which it will now briefly gather”.

“The truth is that we must ensure, before talking, that we have something to say. No prophet goes to the people without having first listened to God,” he said.

To do that, pilgrims were told, the Catholic Church and its community must learn “to look away from the social mirror which allegedly tells us who we are”.

“Just as once we were consulted and heard in the most powerful circles, now we must get used to preaching on street corners and making the Gospel heard over the incessant hubbub of the public square,” said Archbishop Neary.

“If we have one mission, it is surely to subvert the closed shop that is the modern, western worldview and to startle that careful, calculating world with the unaccounting largesse, the generosity, the hospitality of God,” he said.

The annual pilgrimage continues to attract thousands to climb Croagh Patrick. Mountain rescue services from around Ireland were joined by Calder Valley Mountain Rescue from the UK, all under the co-ordination of Mayo Mountain Rescue Team.

They were kept busy from early morning, including assisting with a 46-year-old man with chest pain, who was taken to hospital by Air Corps helicopter. Others, from children up to walkers in their seventies, were treated on the mountain for twisted ankles, dehydration, and other ailments.