Ongoing Ministries

The continuing story of Irish Religious Sisters is captured during this era of Ongoing Ministries from 2001-2023. With an ageing population and reducing numbers, religious sisters continue to minister at home and in missions overseas. Many are diversifying into new roles and handing over their ministries to colleagues and to younger religious sisters from the Global South.

3 Daring to Hope_Ongoing Ministries (Aug_23) 2_10. Ongoing

Global

Political

The global financial crisis had severe consequences in Europe. In Ireland, emigration and unemployment reached levels not experienced since the 1980s. The European Troika (European Commission, European Central Bank, IMF) agreed to a bank bailout on condition of a programme of far-reaching austerity measures. This severely impacted pension funds, savings, and job security, increased negative equity concerns and affected people’s well-being.

Social

Cultural

Catholic Church

This era was dominated by wide-ranging investigations that produced damning reports on the extent of sexual, physical and psychological abuse in state and religious run institutions. Shock and outrage followed this betrayal, leading to disillusionment and abandonment of the church across faith communities. Apologies were offered in some instances and redress schemes were established to compensate survivors. Alongside this, counselling and support services like Towards Healing and Towards Peace were made available. In 2021 Pope Francis invited Catholics across the world to honestly share their views and concerns about the state of the Church. These will be shared in Rome at a Synod, a meeting of Bishops, priests and representatives from parishes in order to re-vision a church living out Gospel values.

Religious

Vocations to religious life in Europe and the Western world continue to decrease in contrast to Asia, Africa and South America. The process of handing over responsibility and control of health, education and social projects to colleagues continues. In a letter to the world, entitled Laudato Si, Pope Francis called all human beings to respect, cherish and stop exploiting our planet Earth which is the home of all creation. This letter also focuses on the poor of the world who are most affected by global environmental issues. Despite diminishing numbers and an ageing profile, Sisters are responding to Pope Francis’ call by extending their involvement in ways to protect the environment and making urgent calls to governments to take more action to protect the planet. In response to the serious increase in the number of people seeking asylum as a result of fleeing war economic hardship and hunger in their home countries, Sisters continue to respond to the needs of refugees with offers of accommodation, counselling and advocacy to ensure their basic rights are respected.

Images FromExhibition Banners

The photographs in the photo gallery and on the banners were sourced from member congregations and orders of AMRI representing their work across the globe. They demonstrate diverse vocations across a variety of sectors: social services, healthcare, education, social enterprise, agriculture, arts, home help, activism, environmentalism / ecology, spirituality and sports. Photos and videos were also sourced from Diarmuid O’Murchu, Marjolie Design, Avalon Print, Trócaire, Irish Aid, Radharc Trust, Ken Saro-Wiwa Archive at Maynooth University, Misean Cara, Veritas, MissionVale Ireland, Derek Speirs (photographer), UTV Archive Partnership Project, James Creedon (journalist), RTE Archives.