“Ireland is experiencing a crisis of culture rather than faith”, said the Most Reverend Seán Brady, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all Ireland, in addressing the meeting between the Irish churches held in Cork, European capital of culture 2005, on 5/6 May. The ecumenical meeting forms part of a series started in 1972 as a sign of dialogue between the churches, at the most critical time of the civil war in Northern Ireland. “More than a crisis of faith said the Primate Ireland is suffering from a loss of sensibility in things of the spirit and the soul. We can grasp this from what we see in the streets, from what we read and hear in the media. People are gradually losing touch with everything that gives life to the soul. We run the risk of losing our centre, our balance. We are ever less inclined to pose ourselves questions linked to eternity, to the contemplation of beauty”. So the task of the Church, said Archbishop Brady, is to “help those close to us to rediscover the signs of a new hope in the symbols of Christianity. Hope is also expressed by our being gathered here to pursue this ecumenical process, strengthened by the words of Benedict XVI, for whom dialogue between the churches needs not so much good intentions as concrete gestures that may prick consciences and urge conversion”.
