Opinion

Time for a new cultural consensus to replace ‘traditional values’

Across the world Catholics have come together to discuss their relationship with the church and voice concerns

Pope Francis waves from the window of the apostolic palace during the weekly Angelus prayer on Sunday in the Vatican. Photograph: Tiziana Fabi/AFP via Getty Images

Carmel Heaney
Mon Mar 13 2023 - 00:30

“Confessions of a recovering atheist” was the title of an article in The Irish Times last January in which Yvonne Redmond described how she had experienced an insight into the meaning of faith when she listened to a minister of religion called Hannah deliver a sermon on television. The sermon was eloquent, engaging and relevant and caused Redmond to re-examine her alienation from religion.

She contrasted the human quality of the religion that the minister expressed with the repressive nature of the Irish Catholicism of her youth and that of her grandmother. Rev Hannah’s sermon conveyed acceptance, support, concern, warmth – in a word, love. It is the quality by which St Paul defined religion in his letter to the Corinthians: “If I speak in the tongues of men and of angels but have not love, I am but a resounding gong or a tinkling cymbal.”

Yet love requires attention, nurturing and fostering. Examples of that fragile blossom withering on the bough abound in life and in history. Consider the “summer of love” of the 1960s. The avowed values of the hippie movement were admirable: peace, antimaterialism, a shared economy and, above all, love. The movement disintegrated, however, into chaotic living conditions, drug addiction and violence against women.

The love expressed in the sermon which so impressed Yvonne, however, springs from a combination of faith and religious practice. Religion can provide a structure within which love can flourish in everyday life. It is not the only environment in one can live virtuously, but it is one of the most powerful and one which has fired the human imagination throughout the ages.

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A religious way of life includes service to others, respect for the created universe, commitment to social justice and the diligent exercise of individual talents. It involves the subjection of the ego and the moderation of appetites. It is essentially experiential rather than cerebral. It is supported by ancient practices – prayer, meditation and mindfulness.

The charismatic quality of the Rev Hannah’s discourse rose from her theological formation allied to her human gifts. Mature religion is manifested in lives marked by compassion and integrity. Such lives may be unremarkable and people of faith may be out of step with the zeitgeist.

The philosopher Ken Wilber distinguishes between “states” and “stages” in personalities. A person may be advanced in spiritual awareness while ignorant of current knowledge in science and sociology. Such a person will express her understanding of moral issues simplistically and in the vocabulary of obsolete concepts. This phenomenon is often observed in everyday life when a religious believer will behave with compassion and good sense while expressing views that betray ignorance or superstition.

It may be time for a debate within our society to explore a new cultural consensus, in the light of the attrition of ‘traditional values’

In the case of the Roman Catholic Church, the need to update obsolete concepts and insensitive language was recognised by the Second Vatican Council. Pope Francis has signalled a revival of the work of the Council with his initiation of a Synod of Bishops, to be held in October, 2023. The Synod was, in early Christian times, a gathering of all the baptised, laity as well as hierarchy, but in succeeding centuries it became limited to bishops.

Pope Francis, whose election to the papacy took place 10 years ago today, has opened the process to the laity, a move proposed in the Second Vatican Council but since sidelined. Consultation with the laity has now taken place. All across the world, Catholics came together to discuss their relationship with the church and to voice their concerns.

Among those concerns are the exclusion of women from the ministry; the need to engage with marginalised groups such as LGBTQ+ and divorced people; and the need for creative and unconventional ways of reaching out to those, especially young people, who are alienated from the church.

It is this last cohort – the alienated – who represent the elephant in the room. In the 2016 Irish census, 78 per cent of citizens identified themselves as Catholic. It is estimated that only 48 per cent, probably fewer, go to church. There is a clear discrepancy between professed attachment to the Catholic religion and adherence to the church’s regulations.

These so-called “cultural Catholics” have not necessarily rejected Christianity nor religion in general. It may be time for a debate within our society to explore a new cultural consensus, in the light of the attrition of “traditional values”. The elements of such a consensus would include: the experience of 100 years of independence in a quasi-confessional State; the principles espoused by the multiplicity of religious denominations now supported in Ireland: our participation in the development of human rights norms promulgated by the United Nations; and expansion of our European identity through the European Union.

A basic element of such a cultural consensus would be examination of the connection between religion and the wellbeing of society. The institutional abuse scandals are being addressed to some extent, but contemporary problems include high rates of self-harm, suicide and addiction among the young. In seeking for remedies, it seems egregious to ignore the legacy of wisdom in religion as well as the invaluable tools its practice provides.

Carmel Heaney is retired from the Department of Foreign Affairs and a freelance writer

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