500! That is the number of issues of Position Papers which have been produced it started since back in 1974. And in this 500th issue we carry an account of the beginnings of Position Papers from Fr Charles Connolly, the first editor. Since Fr Connolly was the one who produced well over 400 of those 500 issues the credit must go to him for the longevity of the publication. Over the years the fact that Position Papers has appeared on the shelves, or has been packaged up and posted across the country, and indeed across the world, is due in no small part to the indefatigable work of a small but intrepid Position Papers team.
Since Position Papers first appeared in 1974, what changes the Church has seen, especially here in Ireland. In the early Seventies the Church the post-Conciliar enthusiasm and optimism had probably not entirely waned and been replaced by an awareness that something had gone seriously wrong since the heady years of the Council. Who would have guessed in 1974 what would befall the Church in Ireland over the next four decades? And yet even then the cracks in the edifice were beginning to show: the Seventies was the decade with the highest incidence of sexual abuse by clergy of children, vocations were already falling, the practice of the Faith was falling –Ireland was even back then on the firm path to secularisation.
For Irish Catholics the seventeen years spanning the beginning of the Brendan Smyth affair in 1994 to the Ryan and Murphy Reports in 2009 and the publication of the Cloyne Report in 2011 were traumatic. Added to this there has been the relentless pressure – unfortunately not without success – to introduce liberal laws on abortion, divorce and same-sex marriage.
But the past four decades has not been all darkness; indeed now we can see that the trials of these years have served to purify the Catholic Church in Ireland; at the same time the crisis has clearly galvanised laymen and women, young and old, in the task of re-evangelising the country. In recent years we have carried articles addressing the new role which committed Catholics find being thrust on them in an increasingly secularised, and decaying society: the role of what Pope Benedict termed ‘the creative minority’. While finding themselves with less societal and political support – indeed quite the contrary – Catholics here and elsewhere have refused the exit the public square and retreat into the catacombs as some would wish. Instead we find a small but courageous body of Catholic laity working on renovating and transforming an otherwise doomed world.
We hope that during these years of ‘crisis’ Position Papers has been making its own small contribution to this task of re-evangelisation. Since 1974 we have sought to provide our readers with sound Catholic analysis of a wide range of current issues. I think we can truthfully say that not once in its 500 issues has Position Papers ever carried an article out of keeping with the Magisterium of the Church. At the same time I think we have also succeeded in avoiding falling into something almost as bad as doctrinal unorthodoxy: pessimism. It is all too easy to fall into sterile lamentation in commenting on the post-conciliar crisis, and to work on the presumption that the whole world is going to hell in a handcart! Position Papers has always been inspired by the optimistic attitude of St Josemaria Escriva towards the world, despite the undeniable negative elements and developments in many areas of modernity. This positive (which doesn’t mean naive) approach is well summed up in a point in his work Furrow:
Since you want to acquire a Catholic or universal mentality, here are some characteristics you should aim at:
– a breadth of vision and a deepening insight into the things that remain alive and unchanged in Catholic orthodoxy;
– a proper and healthy desire, which should never be frivolous, to present anew the standard teachings of traditional thought in philosophy and the interpretation of history;
– a careful awareness of trends in science and contemporary thought;
– and a positive and open attitude towards the current changes in society and in ways of living. (Furrow 428)
Forty-two eventful and sometimes harrowing years have passed since the Position Papers saw the light of day. I wonder what kind of Ireland will greet issue 1000, which, if all goes to plan, will be in 2066. One thing is fairly sure, there will be a different editor, and hopefully a new name (incidentally the search for a new name is continuing). Prophecy is a dangerous business and perhaps a little unwise if it leads us to forget that Christ is the Lord of history and that God is the God of surprises. A lot can happen in a half century. Nevertheless I would hazard the guess that two things are certain: on the one hand the growth of a dictatorship of relativism centred on gender ideology, and on the other hand the advent of well-formed and fervent Catholics, both priests and laity, who will be ones to have the courage and wherewithal to resist the tyranny of gender ideology. I hope too that Position Papers will continue to play its small part in the defence of the family in the coming years, and especially in these two years leading up to the World Meeting of Families to take place in Ireland in 2018.
I would like to finish with a small quote from Pope Benedict which sums up the way we view our work here in Position Papers:
“Dear friends, may no adversity paralyze you. Be afraid neither of the world, nor of the future, nor of your weakness. The Lord has allowed you to live in this moment of history so that, by your faith, his name will continue to resound throughout the world.”