Renewing Ireland requires giving youth hope and truth, bishops say

A session of the Synod of Bishops

Ireland’s delegation to the Synod of Bishops on the New Evangelization presented ways to re-evangelize a country shaken by abuse scandals, undermined by poor catechesis and assaulted by secularism.

“(T)he Church must now speak with a voice which is hopeful yet humble, confident yet compassionate, with a claim to authority that must be more evidently rooted in the Gospel and the love of Christ,” said Bishop Kieran O’Reilly of Killaloe during the Oct. 16 afternoon session of the synod.

“This is the context in which the new evangelization will take place” in Ireland, he stated.

Referring to the abuse scandals, Bishop O’Reilly said the Church in Ireland is living the “recent crises in a dramatic way.”

But he expressed hope for renewal through a 10-year program of re-evangelization that the bishops’ conference will be implementing. It will emphasize catechesis and deep appreciation for Christ’s message.

Bishop O’Reilly also said the New Evangelization must involve a “fuller and significant biblical apostolate.”

Addressing the same synod session was the other member of the Irish delegation, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.

He broached a subject pertinent to Ireland that also has broader relevance to the English-speaking world. The archbishop warned about “the manipulation of language and the management of information where the meaning of words is changed and manipulated for commercial, ideological or political motives.”

He said this has had an especially confusing effect upon youth. [More]

SOURCE

CNA/EWTN News