Bringing rebellion broached on his sword.
There is already now a
schism in all but name between the orthodox and the liberals among Irish Catholics.
And the politicking at
the Dublin General Synod over marriage and sexuality, with an eye to the succession
to the Primatial See of Armagh, indicates that the Church of Ireland’s long-impending
schism between mostly Southern liberals and mostly Northern Conservative Evangelicals will
now happen as soon as that appointment is made, whoever is the beneficiary, if
that is quite the word.
Forget the delicate
balance among Irish Presbyterians between supporters and opponents of
ecumenical engagement with Rome. With whom to remain on fraternal terms among
those claiming the Anglican mantle will blow all of that to the four winds. Methodists
and others will face the same dilemma.
The lessons for this
side of the water are obvious all round.
We know that you have misgivings about the Irish who have a place in the church that makes you, a convert, feel somewhat trapped at the end of the bed.
ReplyDeleteWhy don't you reach out further by addingalys a pic of yourself to your twitter handle? You're better than the plain old egg.
Oh, that one again. You have been watching too much Corrie. For at least two generations, it might be more, most Catholics in England with Irish backgrounds have denied it, made a joke of it, or simply been oblivious to it. Under 40, possibly 50, that last is now somewhere between the norm and almost universal.
ReplyDeleteConverts are a high proportion of practising Catholics in this country, and a very high proportion of those being ordained, rapidly approaching a majority. Perhaps the lack of them is why next to no one is ordained in Ireland anymore. Next to no one would be ordained in England anymore (not that very many people ever were, really) if it were not for converts. At least one English diocese only still exists because of priests formerly ordained in the Church of England. It would literally have been closed down years ago without them.
Together with the vastly more middle-class feel produced by the Catholic school system, very often the nearest thing to a grammar school in its locality and these days often more traditional institutionally than it was 20 years ago (my old one now has blazers, for example, and Sixth Formers writing and producing their own theatrical pieces from scratch), the high number of converts gives the Church in general and the Priesthood in particular a completely different feel and ethos from that which you seem to have in mind, which has not existed in many places for decades, and which is now almost completely unknown.
Personally, I was made a governor of the flagship local Catholic secondary school within a year of becoming a Catholic. So much for "feeling trapped at the end of the bed". I doubt that you have been to Mass regularly for 20 years. You certainly can't be going to the tea and coffee afterwards. Or are you a member either of the Ordinariate or of the obstinate Papalist remnant within the C of E? They both try and justify themselves with this sort of rubbish: "We'll be made unwelcome by the Irish." What Irish? There is roughly one in each parish, if that. Probably more than half now have none at all.