‘It seems that the worst is not over for the institutional church. Recent exposure of sexual abuse of pupils by priests and teachers in schools run by religious orders has given rise to a political commitment to establish some form of public inquiry.’
The late Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI lays in state at St Peter's Basilica, in the Vatican, on January 3rd, 2023. Benedict, a conservative intellectual, had in 2013 become the first pontiff to resign in six centuries. Photograph: Andreas Solaro/AFP/GettyA friend commented that there has been a remarkable difference in the amount of media attention devoted to the death of Pelé compared with the death of Pope Emeritus Benedict XV.
Time was when Radio Éireann would suspend normal programming and play solemn music instead to mark the death of a pope. There was huge interest and widespread public understanding in Ireland of the detailed process of succession to the papacy. Schoolboys would collect specialBut now that is all changed.
On the ground, the Irish Catholic Church is visibly withering. Mass attendance has slumped and the Covid pandemic added to the rate of decline in overt religious practice among Irish Catholics. In rural Ireland, parishes are being grouped together so that Sunday masses are shared on a rotating basis among grouped parish churches. Decline in the number of priests and vocations seems irreversible.
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