Church dominance a thing of the past as youth throw off religious shackles

CHANGE has been in the air for many years but on Saturday morning we learned just how much Irish society has been transformed since the 1990s. Since the Irish Constitution was written in 1937 – with considerable input from the influential John Charles McQuaid – the Church has enjoyed a domineering, and many would argue stifling, influence over life in Ireland.

The first cracks in the Catholic Church’s power base began to appear in the mid 1990s following the divisive ‘X-Case’; the divorce referendum; the expose of the horrors of the Magdalene Laundries and the first cases in the torrent of abuse revelations that would eventually destroy the credibility of many of Ireland’s previously untouchable clerics.

For 25 years these cracks worked their way into the foundations of the Catholic Church’s Irish regime and on Saturday the edifice finally tumbled.

The Catholic Church still has an important role to play in our society – as all religions do – but Saturday’s landslide result proves that the Irish people no longer have any fear of the crozier.

Ireland’s Millennial Generation, who came of age after the litany of Church scandals began to emerge, have offered a stinging rebuke to the Church’s lingering notions of political and moral authority.

That Ireland’s youth rejected Church authority is hardly surprising, and should not have come as a shock to anyone in Rome.

What was surprising is how many older voters – especially those over 50 – also voted in huge numbers to cast aside the dogma that has defined Irish society for generations.

A majority of over 65s did vote ‘No’ but the fact that around 40 per cent of Irish pensioners – the generation that provides the Church’s last firm bastion of support – voted to repeal the Eighth Amendment, is enormously significant and will give senior figures in the Clergy cause for concern.

In the wake of the landslide ‘Yes’ victories in both the 2015 marriage referendum and last week’s repeal vote, it is now obvious that the last vestiges of power has been taken out of the Church’s velvet fist.

If they hope to remain in any way relevant in our new, secular, modern Ireland the Catholic hierarchy will have to do some serious soul searching in the coming weeks and months.

One senior Catholic figure who appreciates how much Ireland has changed – unlike some prominent figures on the ‘No’ side of the Repeal campaign whose post Referendum comments border on the delusional – is Archbishop of Dublin Dr Diarmuid Martin.

On Sunday the Archbishop acknowledged to Mass-goers that the Church is now widely regarded with indifference and as having only a marginal role in the formation of culture in Ireland.

He also said the Church may be seen as “lacking in compassion” and that actions not words are needed to show the people that the Church is compassionate and caring.

Dr Martin’s words are wise and if the Church hopes to regain even a modest measure of its former position the hierarchy needs to listen to him.