Divorce pushed Church to do more for marriage - Irish Jesuit

Divorce in Ireland strengthened the Church's resolve to make an increased effort to help marriages survive, according to Irish Provincial Jesuit John Dardis.

He stopped short of commenting on whether the introduction of divorce had a mostly positive or negative effect on society.

"I don't know if there's an answer to that," he said, in a wide-ranging joint interview with another provincial, Fr Francis Gouin, who works in the Maghreb region.

The two were in Malta with more than 40 other provincials for the annual Jesuit Conference for European Provincials which was held this week.

Fr Dardis explained that since 1995, when a referendum overturned the ban on divorce in his home country, the Church had to learn to work within a different legislative context but the message remained the same.

However, he felt he was not in a position to give advice to the Maltese Church on the issue.

Explaining the current situation in his country, Fr Dardis said the child abuse scandals in Ireland were a big blow to the Church and showed what could happen when power was given to certain individuals without accountability.

"The Church needs a strong renewal. Often, we preached a harsh judgmental God instead of one who is loving, compassionate and caring. The faith of many has been damaged and this is a difficult time for the Church, but we need to listen to the criticism and not get defensive," he said.

Fr Gouin, who works with small Christian minorities in Muslim countries, believes the Church's message should be one of reconciliation, human rights, justice and a search for peace.

Like his colleague, he believes the Church needs to change in many ways, but most radically he believes there should be no element of power. "The Church should be a servant to mankind," he said.

He said that while Europe had a bad perception of Muslims, these in turn had the wrong views on Christians, and the way forward was intercultural dialogue and respect.

Fr Gouin has a motto which he feels is very relevant to the Maltese context: "I saw him from far away and I thought he was a monster. But when I approached him I realised he was a man. Then I recognised him as my brother."

On the subject of immigration, Fr Dardis said it had brought a huge richness to Ireland but there had to be policies to help the process and one had to stop thinking in terms of being invaded.

He said immigration was a symptom of the fact that "the system" did not work and that the world was exploiting Africa, fuelling wars and imposing trade barriers.

"The only solution is to help Africa develop," Fr Gouin said.

Fr Dardis believes faith is about asking and addressing questions rather than having answers.

"Sometimes the Church has too many answers and it makes us too proud," he said.

He believes a Jesuit's role, even in Malta, is to be on the edges of a society where faith is absent and requires renewal.

Fr Goiun said many people were repelled from the Church because there was a lack of freedom, whereby the Church was simply seen as something that told people what to do and what not to do.

He said while he was proud of his Catholic faith, the role of religious people should be to dialogue rather than to force people to think like them.

"My best friends are atheists, but we all believe in the same things: justice, human rights and the dignity of man," he said.

cperegin@timesofmalta.com