CPW Virtual Summer Week in Review | Day 2 - A Report on Diarmuid O’Murchu's Talk

Developing Adult Faith in the 21st Century & Discipleship after Laudato Si

By Christine Cusack

Diarmuid O’Murchu, the first speaker to present at CPW’s 2020 Virtual Summer Week, is a member of the Sacred Heart Missionary Order and a social psychologist who has spent most of his working life in social ministry. He has worked throughout the world facilitating programmes of Adult Faith Development and is renowned for his expertise in the understanding of science and its importance for the Christian faith.

His first talk looked back over the years, painting a picture of faith development and the changes from the mid-20th century to the present day. He began with a quotation from Paul’s letter to the Corinthians: 1 13;11:

 “When I was a child I spoke like a child, I thought like a child, I reasoned like a child. When I became an adult, I gave up childish ways.”

He suggested, however, that within the Catholic Church there has been a tendency for what we have learned as children to be kept for the rest of our lives. We needed to outgrow what we learned as children, allowing early wisdom to morph into more adult ways of dealing with faith in our lives and in our relationship with others. He outlined three possible approaches to this new understanding: we could stay with our childhood faith; we could abandon our faith; or, we could adopt a stance of critical acceptance.

He pointed out that we had moved from the idea of faith growing solely from the teaching authority of the Church, through the insights of scripture scholars and theologians of the 20st century, and into the adult spirituality of the 21st century. He highlighted this as a paradigm shift in ways of thinking from what he termed a pre-evolutionary model, in which the truth comes from the top down, often seeking domination and control. In this model truth was often static and unchanging.

In the evolutionary model truth evolves through reactional individuals seeking out truth through a range of discerning groups – a consensual approach leading to a deeper truth. He cited the controversy over artificial methods of birth control in the mid 1960’s. Initially adults would ask their priests for advice, later turning to the “experts” the doctors, and finally coming to their own conclusion, often after much discussion and soul-searching. He suggested that faith development in the Church has undergone a similar transformation. Scripture and theology having developed from an authoritarian model into the more adult spirituality of the 21st century - the Sensus Fidelium. Scripture and theology, having developed from a communal discernment, has led to a deeper understanding of God.

Our earlier co-dependent faith expected us to behave like a child responding to the judgemental words of authority, a faith practised in an atmosphere of fear. The adult faith developing in the late 20th and early 21st centuries recognises that growth requires change. We put our faith in communal wisdom in which we reflect critically, constantly informing our minds and embracing truth and diversity as it evolves. In such a model of growth and development of adult faith there is a need to engage with others so that we can support and be supported as we journey into a deeper understanding of our faith. Networking can lead to our reclaiming our integrity as adult Catholics.

Discipleship after Laudato Si

In his second lecture Diarmuid reflected on what he considered to be the key themes and what might be in the mind of Pope Francis in writing the document. He began with a brief examination of the changing nature of discipleship and went on to consider extracts from Laudato Si and the challenges arising from them:

64# Faith is not just about church life but about how we have a responsibility for Creation and to God.

139# Nature cannot be regarded as something separate from ourselves. We are part of nature, included in it and in constant interaction with it.

Diarmuid emphasised the importance of the Pope’s words in urging us to live out our vocations as protectors of God’s handiwork. Faith was not just about people but also about creation; not merely about salvation in the world to come but about engaging anew with life on this earth.

He also emphasised the need to embrace new directions of faith, away from the narrow and disconnected understandings of the past, into the wider reality of God’s creation. God’s primary revelation was in creation and we needed a spirituality to integrate that newly expanded understanding of faith. Christian spirituality proposed an alternative understanding of the quality of life, it encouraged a prophetic, contemplative lifestyle capable of deep enjoyment free from the obsession with consumption. Our growth in holiness was inescapably intertwined with the degree to which we engaged responsibly with the natural world. 

We were being changed, drawn to see everything in proper proportion. Living in the ecological vocation of the power of the Holy Spirit set us off on a great adventure of mind and heart. A transition leading to a new religious maturity embracing interdependence and mutuality.