ARCHBISHOP MARTIN PASSIONATE ABOUT NEW EVANGELISATION
Archbishop of Armagh Eamon Martin speaks passionately, but clearly and effectively, about the Redemptoris Mater and the Neocatechumenal Way that shaped it. In an interview with the Argus, Archbishop Martin explained the thinking behind the ‘New Evangelisation’ in the Catholic Church and how the Dundalk seminary fits into it.
‘New Evangelisation is the idea of going out and preaching the gospel, re-teaching it to the people who have already been evangelised and have perhaps lapsed in their practise of the faith. It is a very important challenge for the Catholic Church in Ireland. We have people who are baptised and have lapsed and have never grown in faith as adults.
‘New Evangelisation is a good idea for Ireland. The New Evangelisation means new ways of going about things. The Neocatechumenal Way is not a movement or a congregation - it is a way of living your faith and growing in it as an adult; finding ways of renewing your faith.
‘ The Neocatechumenal Way is where families try to renew their faith as a family. It’s very interesting for me, because Ireland is getting ready to host the World Meeting of Family in 2018 and it is hoped that Pope Francis will attend.
‘ The Neocatechumenal Way helps families get in touch with what it means to grow as a family in faith. Typically, a family will meet another family and will try to evangelise each other, to talk about what it means to grow in the Catholic faith.
‘It has been in Ireland for 20 or 30 years and there are families in the Dundalk and Drogheda areas. Mission is at the heart of the Neocatechumenal Way and what happens is a family comes to Ireland and lives here. We have quite a few of them and I know of one family in Newry, a man and his wife, who have come from Italy. They are leading a Neocatechumenal Way family and now they have children themselves.
‘ They meet with other families and pray together, go to Mass on a Saturday, creating a ‘family of families’ where they can talk about their faith and bring up their children in that faith’.
Archbishop Martin said that vocations in Ireland have been declining, but vocations are now coming from the Neocatechumenal Way which has taken root in a number of countries. And it is from these countries, including the North of Ireland, where the seminarians who are training in Dundalk have come from.
They have been brought up in the Neocatechumenal Way and the Redemptoris Mater in Dundalk, the only seminary of its kind in Ireland, is providing them with a path to religious life. And, following ordination, these priests will spend five years in the Armagh Archdiocese before going overseas for five years and returning to parishes here with their increased experience.