Taoiseach Bertie Ahern has praised organised religion as a force for good in Irish society. Speaking at the opening of an ongoing structured dialogue between the State and religious groups, the Taoiseach said that there was no place in Ireland for “aggressive secularism”.
Such a secularism, he said “would be a betrayal of the best traditions of Irish Republicanism” and would “diminish democracy”. Describing those who wanted to remove religion from public debate as “illiberal”, Mr Ahern went to say that extreme secularism denied “a crucial dimension of the dignity of every person and their rights to live out their spiritual code within a framework of lawful practice”.
Mr Ahern was inaugurating a forum for Church-State dialogue which he said was “a new and important strand in the civic and political culture of the State”. The body, officially called a “Structured Dialogue with Churches, Faith Communities and Non-confessional bodies” is the first of its kind to be established in the European Union.
The leaders of at least 15 Christian churches joined Jews, Muslims, Bahais and humanists in Dublin Castle to hear Mr Ahern launch the forum. However, Government sources were keen to stress that the new dialogue with the Department of the Taoiseach will not displace the existing contacts between organised religion and other government departments, like education.
Mr Ahern continued by saying that Christianity was still indelibly shaping Ireland, adding that other faiths had made their mark here, especially in the past decade. “We cannot understand who we are today, let alone where we hope to go tomorrow, if we do not first understand and listen with an open ear to the deepest influences within our national life,” he went on
He said a further consideration in initiating the process was the recognition of the contribution which the churches and Church personnel have made to the building up of this country and its place in the world.
As Mr Ahern praised organised religion for being a powerful means of making immigrants feel at home in Ireland, Dr Ali Al Saleh, an Imam in Milltown Mosque in Dublin, said it would help end the marginalisation which many fellow believers can feel.
Meanwhile, the Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin, said that now the State had begun this dialogue, ecumenical and inter-faith discussions needed to intensify to create greater understanding between churches and religions.
