Are Irish Catechetics a disaster? Looks like it.

Speaking about right of Catholic schools being just that in a pluralist society, Dr Diarmuid Martin of Dublin today had stiff comments to say about effectiveness of Catholic schools and catechetical programmes. Has the penny finally dropped about the total failure of present catechetical programmes used in Catholic schools to convey knowledge never mind commitment, to young Irish people. Eanna Johnson has a fine number of studies about deficiencies of AliveO programmes here.

Archbishop Martin says Catholic school identity at risk
CATHOLIC SCHOOLS must not water down their identity to conform with a more pluralist society, the Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin said yesterday.

At a conference to mark the first Catholic Schools Week in the Republic, Dr Martin said the Catholic school system had its rightful place within a multicultural society.

“Pluralism does not mean watering down identity. Indeed, a Catholic school which waters down its identity waters down its real contribution to society and renders itself useless,” he said.

“The survival of Catholic education in Ireland will not depend on it fitting in to an overall pluralist secularist philosophy, but on it being fully Catholic, bringing that specific contribution of the message of Jesus Christ to society........"

The archbishop also questioned the success of Catholic schools in passing on the faith to young people.

“What are we to say about a Catholic school system and catechetical programmes which have produced the numerically largest cohort of unchurched young people in recent Irish history?” he asked.

“Irish young people are among the most catechised in western Europe, with religious instruction right through primary and secondary school, and yet we cannot say that they are among the most evangelised.

“Indeed, the biggest challenge that I, as archbishop, see for the church in Dublin is precisely that of the evangelisation of young people and their insertion as true and committed members of a believing and worshipping community.”.......

Bishop Leo O’Reilly, chair of the Bishops Commission for Education, said it was important that Catholic schools became more conscious of their identity as the schools system became more pluralist.

Souce: The Irish Times Tuesday Jan 27, 2009.

Is Dublin's Archbishop Diarmuid Martin being Intellectually honest?

The Archbishop of Dublin has taken umbrage at people stating the obvious meaning of the words and phrases that he uses when he approaches the issue of homosexual acts. This time concerning his interview with Vincent Browne.

For the umteempth time, he claims that he has been mis-understood again! Yet another clarification is offered.

The problem is not that he is mis-understood, the problem is his refusal to publicly attest to the immorality of homosexual acts and publicly declare that he is opposed to the legalisation of gay / civil union. It is really that simple.
Until Dr Martin does both these things it is difficult to see anything but his refusal to publicly endorse Church teaching.

He says below he does not know about the moral culpability of individuals in regards homosexual acts.
Thing is, as he should well know - An intrinsically evil act is one that is objectively wrong in and of itself, and which therefore can never be justified by circumstances or consequences.

There are no circumstances in which an intrinsically evil act - such as homosexual acts - would be morally good.
So his reply of not knowing subjective moral culpability is nonsense - We must ask if he is being  intellectually honest on this matter?

Securus iudicat orbis terrarum ("The whole world will safely judge"), declared St. Augustine of the Church's all-embracing Catholicity.

Below is the statement from Archbhishop's House concerning his interview with Vincent Browne:

15/1/09 Church Teaching on Mutuality of the Sexes

In a recent television interview, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin was quizzed about the significance of certain phrases taken, often in isolation, from documents of the Church on homosexuality.

In response the first question of the interview Archbishop Martin clearly and without hesitation replied that he fully accepted the teaching of the Church on the morality of homosexual acts in its entirety.

In a later section of the interview Archbishop Martin was asked a question which touched on the moral culpability of individuals. He replied that he could not make generalized statements about individual situations, noting “I do not know”, in a sense in which the “not knowing” referred not to the Church’s teaching but to the specific circumstances of individuals.

Unfortunately, many anonymous sources have spread the view that Archbishop Martin had refused to endorse Catholic teaching. One website even invites its readers to begin looking at the interview a full two minutes after the point where the Archbishop spoke of his full adherence to the teaching of the Church.

Archbishop Martin confirms once again his complete adherence to this teaching which also constitutes the norm for teaching and preaching in the diocese.

The Archbishop has repeatedly, over a number of years, stressed how the Church’s position on human sexuality is based on a vision in which the mutuality of the sexes is recognised as something anthropologically unique and irreplaceable and not as a simple cultural construct which can be adapted and changed.

The relevant church teachings are reproduced here:

Catechism of the Catholic Church (2357, 2358, 2359)

Considerations regarding proposals to give Legal Recognition to Unions between Homosexual Persons (June 3, 2003)

Letter to the Bishops of the Catholic Church on the Pastoral Care of Homosexual Persons (1/10/1986)

Persona Humana Declaration on certain questions concerning sexual ethics

Previous posts on this issue:
post 1, post 2, post 3, post 4.