A recent opinion poll commissioned by The Iona Institute on attitudes in Ireland toward the Catholic Church, Christianity, and religion in general garnered plenty of coverage and comment in Catholic and other religious media. The prestigious American journal, First Things, carried a comment piece on it last week which particularly zeroed in on the finding that a quarter of Irish people would be glad if the Catholic Church vanished from Ireland completely. If that is not anti-Catholicism, then what is?

The piece is called “When Ireland Erases Its Catholic Inheritance”.  The article is not only a reaction to the poll but also a reflection on the way in which Ireland is bit by bit erasing the Church from its cultural memory. The author, John Duggan, encourages readers to consider what Ireland’s future might look like without its historical religious foundations.

The piece can be read here: Ireland Erases Its Catholic Inheritance – First Things