Returning Irish missionaries and the Irish Church

Jul 10, 2020

Columban Fr Hugh MacMahon has an article in the June 2020 issue of The Furrow titled ‘Finding the Way Back’ which looks at the contribution returning Irish missionaries can play in the Irish Church.  

Extract:

It is hard to know which is the most urgent challenge facing the Church today. Is it celibacy, the shortage of clergy, married priests, the fragility of marriage itself, the role of women, democratic governance, a new attitude to sexual morality, falling Mass attendance?

Others might see it as a seeming inability to relate to young people among whom are high rates of depression and suicide, increasing violent crime and a disinterest in organised religion. What about the Church’s role in ensuring a greater sharing of wealth among all the citizens, combatting the deterioration of the environment and addressing the causes and results of mass migrations?

Commentators usually view the present weakening influence of the Church in terms of human, scientific and economic progress. They suggest that religion does best among poorer and less educated people but fades in the face of economic prosperity and greater scientific knowledge.

However, religion survived while empires rose and fell and while its expressions can change from age to age, often influenced by economic and scientific factors, it exists on its own energy. If its influence diminishes in any one period, it is because the forms its message took failed to inspire and nourish people. Here in Ireland the Church is facing a critical moment but if the causes, and solutions, are to be found it will only be done by exploring them from a religious standpoint.

My own appreciation of the steps by which a religion inspires, or fails to inspire, a people came from my involvement with Christian communities in Korea and Ireland.

At first look the two Churches may seem to have little in common, one is new, the other old.

In 1964 there were only 500,000 Catholics in Korea, today there are 5.8 million. During much the same period in Ireland the number of Sunday mass-goers dropped from 91% in 1973 to 30%. Despite their seemingly different fortunes, it is from their similarities that something can be learnt.

As a companion of mine used to say about a certain type of person, ‘He was an inspiration, and a warning, to us all.’ How the Churches in Korea and Ireland got to where they are today can be an inspiration and a lesson for us all.

A Modern Miracle

Modesty aside, the significant contribution of foreign missionaries to the dramatic development of the Korean Church was not due to any well designed and executed missionary plan.

The Church we brought to Korea was transplanted straight from the West with little consideration for the religious and cultural heritage of the people. The liturgy was Roman, and in Latin till the late ‘60s.

Key words used in the sacraments and catechetics were transliterated from the Latin or created from Chinese characters. Outside the Church they had no meaning. The Western theology which the words articulated was accepted on faith but with little understanding.

Why then did the Church flourish?

Continue reading Fr Hugh Mac Mahon’s article here: https://thefurrow.ie/wp-content/uploads/2020/06/Furrow-June-2020-Pages-68.pdf

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