Irish archbishop says to have mature faith, change church structures

Published: 2005-07-20

DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- Ireland will still be a Christian society in 25 years, but Dublin Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said the church must change its pastoral structures if there is to be a mature Christian faith. "The pastoral structures of the church must be structured in such a way that the believer, young and old, knows that he or she belongs to a community which desires that they be free, responsible and fully human," Archbishop Martin told an audience at the MacGill Summer School in Glenties, Ireland, July 18. The archbishop spoke on the subject, "Will Ireland Be Christian in 2030?" While Ireland has one of the highest levels of religious practice in Europe, surveys show that Sunday Mass attendance and religious vocations have been declining since the 1960s. Archbishop Martin acknowledged that Ireland was becoming more secular, but he said the media often put a spin on the results of surveys about religious practice. The archbishop said that to achieve a greater level of "mature Christian faith in today's world, we have to revolutionize our structures of faith formation as a lifelong task."

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