Church, Culture and Credibility: A Perspective from Ireland

This article explores the crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland in light of the child-abuse scandals exposed in recent reports and outlines some of the theological responses to that crisis. It suggests that it is necessary to examine not just the crimes of the perpetrators of abuse and the inadeq...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Regan, Ethna (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
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Published: Cambridge University Press 2013
In: New blackfriars
Year: 2013, Volume: 94, Issue: 1050, Pages: 160-176
Further subjects:B Catholic Social Teaching
B structural sin
B Clerical child-abuse
B Hiberno-Christendom
B Political Theology
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Parallel Edition:Electronic
Description
Summary:This article explores the crisis in the Catholic Church in Ireland in light of the child-abuse scandals exposed in recent reports and outlines some of the theological responses to that crisis. It suggests that it is necessary to examine not just the crimes of the perpetrators of abuse and the inadequate response of individual church leaders but also the structural sin within the Church that is at the root of the crisis. It is argued that the collusion between Church and State in modern Ireland that emerges from these reports can be defined in terms of Hiberno-Christendom, drawing from Charles Taylor definition of “Christendom”. In the midst of the crisis, the ongoing revelations of clerical abuse and the accompanying analysis, there is still pastoral vibrancy and people are trying to cultivate hope. The Catholic Church in Ireland may need to learn how to become what Juan Luis Segundo calls a “creative minority”, re-imagining the parameters of its power and developing a new political theology.
ISSN:1741-2005
Contains:Enthalten in: New blackfriars
Persistent identifiers:DOI: 10.1111/nbfr.12012