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Ireland Grows Increasingly Anti-Clerical

By Austin Cline

Ireland has long been one of the staunches Catholic countries in Europe; today, though, it's becoming one of the staunchest anti-clerical countries in Europe. The two situations are not contradictory; in fact the latter grows out of the former. The extreme deference given to churches and church leaders led to incredible abuses of power, no to mention abuses of children, and that's creating an incredible backlash -- especially given the immoral, callous manner in which the Vatican is handling things.

The airwaves are full of bitter remarks supporting Taoiseach Enda Kenny's attack on the "disgraceful" Vatican, and recommending every anti-church measure from the dissolution of the monasteries to the expulsion of the Papal Nuncio and the severing of all links with the Holy See. (The recall of the Papal Nuncio this week marks the lowest point of relations between Ireland and Rome.)

One correspondent wrote that it was his ardent hope that the Catholic Church would follow the example of the News of the World, and hold a "last Mass" before shutting down. The Taoiseach, meanwhile, has been met with standing ovations for his salvo against the Vatican for failing to respond with sufficient concern to the clerical sex abuse scandals as described in the Cloyne report. His justice minister, Alan Shatter, is introducing a highly controversial Bill which will compel Irish priests to disclose the secrets of the confessional where paedophilia is mentioned: failure to do so could result in a five-year prison sentence. Source: Telegraph

The secularist movement in Ireland is growing in support, power, and influence. I expect that few Irish or even experts on Ireland would have expected such a shift a couple of decades ago, but it is happening and the momentum right now is very much with the advocates of increased secularism rather than with apologists for clericalism and for the church.

Church and state are already formally separate in Ireland -- there is no official state church and the Catholic Church has no official position within the government. However, there isn't much separation between church and culture in Ireland. That sort of separation is much harder to achieve. It can be done legislatively and through force, though that tends to have bad effects. Better, long-term separation must come from the ground up. In Ireland, there might be a chance of that happening. Read more at atheism.about.com

 

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