Denying the right of the Church to intervene in public debate “is the hallmark of a country that seeks to deny a fundamental human right: the right of religious freedom,” Archbishop Michael Neary (pictured) has said.
Speaking on Sunday at the annual Croagh Patrick pilgrimage, Archbishop Neary pointed out that the past year a number of issues relating to the common good had arisen.
He said: “Whenever the service of the common good is in question the Church involves herself in public debate.”
However he added that the Church did not seek “to have her moral teaching enshrined in law simply because the Church teaches it”.
“Instead, the Church proposes that a particular issue on which she has clear moral teaching, ought to be safeguarded in civil law,” he said.
“When the Church seeks this, it is not doing so out of a sense of entitlement or wish to dominate. Instead, the Church is concerned that the value at stake ought to enjoy the protection of civil law. In fact, the status in civil law of such an issue does not affect its moral value.”
Archbishop Neary added: “To deny the right of the Church, or any religious body, to participate in public debates is a hallmark of a country that seeks to deny a fundamental human right: the right of religious freedom.
“It attempts to corral religious believers and excises their contribution to important discussions about the kind of society that twenty-first century Ireland should have. It also reduces religion to a sort of private sphere that is prohibited from influencing public life.”
A mature secularism, he said “would welcome and provide space for religious believers in the public sphere while a mature Catholicism “would make its contributions with courtesy and respect for those with whom we disagree”.
Archbishop Neary continued: “I cannot speak too highly, in this regard, of those who do not share our beliefs but who have insisted throughout recent crucial public debates that we be heard.
“This is an approach which may truly be called liberal. I only wish we had encountered it more.
“It should be remembered here that religion is more than just worship; freedom in matters of religion also involves freedom to propose a moral code. A truly liberal atmosphere not only permits but actively encourages the Church’s voice.”
Archbishop Neary said that when faith was weakened, “the foundations of humanity also risk being weakened”.
“The light of faith can never allow us to forget the sufferings of this world. Faith does not dispel all our darkness, but rather guides our perilous steps on life’s journey,” he said.
“The service which faith provides to the common good is always one of hope. Religion and faith are persisting features of the human situation and will not disappear so long as we ask the fundamental questions of why we are here and what kind of world we seek to create.”
