Struggling to sustain relevance - Vatican conference on abuse

Apart from achieving independence, joining the European Union, and almost unlimited access to education, nothing has changed this society as dramatically as the Catholic Church’s spectacular loss of power.

Driven by endless abuse scandals, credo-based authoritarianism on medical and educational practice, and its evasion of agreed responsibilities on redress schemes, a once-unquestioned hegemony is but a whisper. That dominance was all but absolute as recently as 40 years ago, when John Paul II became the first pope to visit Ireland and the country came to a halt. That visit was expected to call lapsing Catholics to order, but time shows it bookended centuries of religious dominance that was often, but not always, conflated with frustrated nationalism. That argument stands even as Britain’s looming departure from the EU underlines how very dependent we remain on our largest neighbour, no matter how that relationship is framed.