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Ireland
Roman Catholicism

“How does a country that only seven years ago had nearly 70 percent of its population declare themselves Roman Catholic ignore the heeding of the church?” WRN

Discussion

Wed, 05/30/18

…..is that church attendance in Ireland was still around 46% in 2009. I have to wonder if the same dynamics are in play as were in the U.S. church in the 1950s; being “Catholic” is more or less synonymous with being “Irish” due to centuries of English domination in the same way that being “Christian” was more or less synonymous with being “American” in the days of clear threats from the USSR. And just like the church here is paying a heavy price for politicized theology back then (and now), there it’s paying the same price of cultural irrelevance for about the same reason.

Aspiring to be a stick in the mud.

Wed, 05/30/18

I’ve ministered in heavily Roman Catholic areas and was initially surprised at how many Roman Catholics ignore church teachings that they don’t agree with. I’ve come to see that as the norm. Acceptance of abortion is just the latest. Members have been practicing birth control, marrying outside the faith, not going to confession or making incomplete confessions, and rejecting church teachings on things like purgatory for years. While there are “good” Catholics, the majority are nominal. The Bachelor of the Tiber’s latest public statements regarding God’s acceptance of atheists and homosexuality are just examples of his playing to his constituency.

"Some things are of that nature as to make one's fancy chuckle, while his heart doth ache." John Bunyan