St Patrick´s Day 2016

The 17th of March is a special day not only in Ireland but in places around the globe where the Irish diaspora has reached.  It is a religious feast but it also reminds us of our nationhood because of the association between faith and nation that has been forged over the centuries.  This association has not always been an easy one, but nonetheless it has been a close one.

We rightly celebrate and thank God for the apostle Patrick.  His proclamation of the Gospel sixteen hundred years ago enabled people in this country to know and appreciate the Good News of Salvation which Jesus had embodied four centuries earlier.  Our celebration of the feast is a joyful expression of gratitude for the gift of faith which generation after generation has made part of its own life and which we also have received.  Living the faith has not always been easy in this country – just think of the Penal Days by way of example – nor has it always been exemplary as some aspects of recent history illustrate.  Nonetheless one can affirm that the Christian faith is still lived with great conviction by many people in Ireland to-day.  It is a measure of our appreciation of the gift of faith that we commit ourselves to living it more intensely.  In so doing this generation enables younger and future generations the opportunity to know and appreciate that God´s saving love is offered to all people.

The Gospel message is as necessary and as important in contemporary Ireland as it was at any time in the past.  In the context of homelessness, deprivation, drug trafficking and violence the Christian virtues of solidarity, compassion, reconciliation, justice and peace are both relevant and challenging.  Ireland can be a better place and the Good News of the Gospel, first proclaimed on this island by St Patrick, can help us to chart a way forward.

The relationship between Church and State in Ireland has changed significantly in recent decades.  Deference and acquiescence to the Church´s views on moral, social, economic and political issues is largely gone and that in itself is no bad thing.  The Church needs to demonstrate the validity of its positions like any other protagonist in the market place.  Opposition to the Church has been at times so vehement that some Church people feel intimidated and even brushed aside simply because they are Church voices.  This attitude is neither good nor acceptable either.  The Church has every right to express its views and convictions about whatever issues are under discussion.  Society will be the poorer if it does not.