Speaking at Mass for the Feast of Saint Ita in Raheenagh Church, Kileedy, where Limerick’s patron saint set up her community of nuns in the fifth century, Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick said that an example for the future of the Church can be drawn from both the prophetic words of the late Pope Benedict XVI and the lives of Saint Ita and Brigid over 1,500 years ago.
Referencing a radio interview given by Pope Benedict in 1969, Bishop Leahy said, “Pope Benedict, then a young theologian, concluded with prophetic words that are often repeated and certainly speak to us in Ireland today. He said the Church: ‘will become small and will have to start afresh more or less from the beginning. She will no longer be able to inhabit many of the edifices she built in prosperity. As the number of her adherents diminishes, so it will lose many of her social privileges. In contrast to an earlier age, it will be seen much more as a voluntary society, entered only by free decision’.
“He told us that, as a small community, it will make much bigger demands on the initiative of her individual members. This is something we are readying ourselves for, not least through Synodal pathway embarked on by his successor Pope Francis.”
