A Renaissance of new Irish Catholic voices

And so it ends, the great and famous Catholic Church in Ireland is folding its tent and disappearing into the sunset. With aging congregations and clergy, attracting nothing but vitriol from informed and educated Irish society, its closing down or amalgamating parishes and maybe even dioceses to cope with a catastrophic vocations crisis, etc etc.

That I think summarises the way that even most of its clergy view the current Catholic Church in Ireland. But its premature end has been called many times before, and it hasn't happened yet, instead its noticeable to this observer anyway, how much new effort and dynamism can be seen in new media in Ireland, calling for or leading a renewal of this Church. While I guess it might be premature, and maybe an exaggeration, to say so, it almost seems like a new renaissance of Catholic thinking is upon us.

Of course this collection of sources actually talk about lots of different themes and issues but I think a few trends can be seen, for example:

a) Many of these new blogs and youtube channels etc, come out of or are inspired by the traditionalist movement in Ireland. This is where the Latin mass is at least weekly celebrated by groups like the SSPX (in Dublin, Athlone, Cork, Newry and Belfast), the SSPX resistance (in places like West Cork, Longford and Kesh Co. Fermanagh), Institution of Christ the King Sovereign priest (Limerick, Galway and Belfast), and diocesan Latin masses in places like St Kevin's in Harrington Street in Dublin city.

That said, its not the case that even most of this new media comes out of that movement, but its noticeable that even where it doesn't it tends to emphasise the same core principles. Meaning for example: respect for the Eucharist (e.g. receiving kneeling and on the tongue while not in a state of mortal sin), which is really built into the structure of the Latin mass, but maybe less so otherwise; and emphasis on confession and prayer. I know in theory all Catholic churches preach and practice that, but actually the 'dying' Church mentioned above, often never talks or practices in those terms.

b) People are rediscovering the great Fathers and Doctors of the Catholic Church. Irish people have been left bereft for over half a century now, from any really intellectually stimulating understanding of religion and obviously Christianity in particular. All they learnt from school is that God loves you, and really never put any more detail or learning to go with that.

But now nearly all these new writers and broadcasters are reading up on these great philosophers and discovering the solid and logical, two thousand year old intellectual roots of Catholicism.

c) Discovering the mystical and beauties of the Catholic Church. You can see this in something like the Saints and Scholars podcast interviewing an exorcist, and the Decrevi channel talking about the beauty of the Orthodox rite in places like Mount Athos in Greece. Its like a current generation of Irish people have gone all over the world to admire the reputed sanctity and holiness of Buddhist monks etc and just never explored the real holiness and radiant love of the great mystics, pilgrimages, music, and beautiful buildings and places in general of the Catholic Church in Ireland and around the world.

d) Deeply critical of the society we currently live in. While all of these media have a great spiritual focus, its nonetheless the case that they can be very critical of the world we live in now, with its education system, abortion and hugely hyped and sponsored gay pride parades etc etc. So we have new rebels of the New World Order been created maybe much like the previous Irish rebels were, as Catholics in a Protestant empire!

Anyway this small list is just scratching the surface of this new media which I am sure can be added to in the replies in this thread:

Called to More,

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCuTsNUh9sBx3hs1sN3wtgrg and https://www.calledtomore.org/ .

Featuring Fr Columba Jordan, from Kildare, of the Franciscan Friars of the Renewal.

Paving the Way Home

https://pavingthewayhome.com/ , https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCkxIdVA6fnKsCdVcXXxKd8w/ .

Although it broadcasts a variety of Catholic thinkers and writers, its core seems to derive from the Dominicans in Ireland, or people who studied with them like Kevin O'Driscoll.

Catholic Voice

http://www.catholicvoice.ie

A newspaper founded by Anthony Murphy, who was originally from England but lived then in Athy in Co. Kildare, it is now mostly run by John Lacken from Mayo. The father of a large family he is active in giving talks around Ireland as well as producing this newspaper, and they also run (at least pre-Covid) a very successful annual conference in Limerick City in cooperation with the traditionalist order, the Institute of Christ the King Sovereign Priest, in that city.

Alive

http://www.alive.ie

A free newspaper distributed mainly through Churches, it was founded in the Dominican Priory of St. Mary’s Tallaght by Fr Brian McKevitt O.P. from Dundalk, and now edited by Dubliner Fr Maurice Colgan O.P. Under Fr McKevitt's direction particularly, it was unafraid to include a few political pieces frequently very critical of the powers that be, including RTE, the EU and UN.

Catholic Arena

https://www.catholicarena.com/

https://www.youtube.com/c/CatholicArena/

Very active on social media, like twitter, it features a lot of Irish and international Catholic news, reflecting a focus of the organisation and their extensive contacts. They highlight articles by people like Stephen Browne, who you can see here at a recent Legion of Mary conference in Dublin: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nv0MkqcmcAU .

Saints and Scholars podcast

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCijCPtrkbWm38L84KYW6w7Q/

Run anonymously by Johnny G, Creda and Bosco, it interviews many interesting guests and is also very knowledgeable about the international political situation. Its anonymity does not disguise that the main interviewer comes from Cork!

Decrevi Determined to be Catholic

https://www.youtube.com/c/DecreviDeterminedtobeCatholic

A husband and father, settled in Ballina Co. Mayo but actually from a family located for probably an unbroken eight hundred years in the parish of Delvin Co. Westmeath ('decrevi' is the motto of the Nugents), nine years a seminarian, perfectly fluent in inter alia French, Spanish, Italian, and Polish, Robert Nugent broadcasts from a mostly traditionalist perspective and is sometimes critical of the current hierarchy and clergy, especially if disrespectful of the Eucharist.