By D. Vincent Twomey

Published by Veritas

2003, Softcover, 220 pages

In a wide-ranging and stimulating series of essays, drawing on the experience of the author’s own Irish Catholic upbringing, and some fifteen years of studying, teaching and pastoral work abroad, Vincent Twomey comes to the conclusion that traditional Irish Catholicism was neither authentically Irish nor fully Catholic. But it can become both.

The End of Irish Catholicism? argues that only a comprehensive cultural and intellectual renewal will enable the contemporary Church to rise effectively to the challenges posed by modern Ireland. This renewal will involve a new self-consciousness rooted in faith and drawing inspiration from our rich Irish tradition, and will call for new ecclesiastical structures to fit a much changed world. The topics discussed include Irish Catholic identity its nature and cultural expression, an exploration of how the modern Irish Church can recover her public, secular and divine ‘voices’; an examination of possible new Church structures, a new approach to the relationship between Church and State, the so-called crisis of vocations – in reality a crisis of faith – and the standing of theology in the Irish Church. (From the back cover)