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Sin Agog wrote: The church is actually the main provider for the homeless in England right now. I have my problems with it, but there needs to be an alternative institution that isn't in the hands of big biznezz. That recent letter from the Church of England might have appealed to Barton, as it addressed such topics as: "political leaders resorting to aiming 'sterile arguments' at swing voters", sticking with the EU, scrapping the Trident missile system, the widening gap of the class system, “an ugly undercurrent of racism”, enforcing a living wage... I'm sure there are a whole heavenly host of incorrigible squares in the C of E, but it seems to also be a barometer of how far to the right society has swung if the relatively static church now sounds pinko.
Some years ago I was chatting with an elderly gentleman as we both waited to see a doctor in a hospital in Cork. It turns out he was himself a retired doctor and was delighting in telling me horror stories about surgery in 1950s Ireland.
He paused at one stage, though, and pointed towards a - let's say... less than 100% clean - corner of the waiting room. "That would never have been allowed happen when the nuns ran the hospitals", he commented, "Difficult women at times, but the place was always spotless when they were in control".
Or something along those lines.
And I honestly feel he was revealing, in microcosm, a very real truth about the secularisation of society. And one that's far from trivial.
You will find nobody less supportive of the role of Catholicism in Irish society than me. The Christian Brothers had me in their clutches for most of my childhood and I will never forgive them. But religion (and religious orders) fulfilled other roles in society... not just the horrible ones we all know about today. And as those religions and clergy have receded, I don't believe we have come close to adequately replacing those vital roles they played.
The hospitals are now cleaned by minimum-wage contract workers. They do about as good a job as you or I would do, after a year of cleaning hospitals for minimum wage. In other words... an adequate one. On the other hand, it turns out, if someone honestly believes they are doing God's Work, the hospitals are much cleaner (and therefore categorically better all round).
I don't know what the solution is (though I'm pretty sure it's not "chuck another 30 cent on top of the minimum wage"). Even if we wanted to return to a religious society (and we don't), I doubt we could. But although getting rid of (or starting to) the poisonous guilt and twisted cruelty of Irish Catholicism is hardly a project one would oppose... I'm not sure replacing cathedrals with shopping malls, charity with ethical consumerism and vocations with temp jobs is turning out too well for us.
Is there a third option?
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