“The new normal cannot be the old normal”

IF there is one thing to take from this pandemic, according to Father Harry Bohan, it’s that we cannot return to what was ‘normal’, the future has to be different from the past.

Rearing The Future: Is The Future Our Responsibility? Reflections on Irish Society and its Institutions During And Post Pandemic is the title of a new publication from Fr Bohan.

A distinguished observer of Irish society for many years, he feels that Covid-19 has thrown the country off the path it was on, and that it was necessary. “Covid-19 was an unwelcome visitor in the spring of this year. This long later it looks like it’s going to continue for some time to come. Any attempt to fully interpret it is premature, but something that struck me straight away is that our post Covid world should be very different to what we came from. I think most people would agree that the future has to be different from the past,” he says.

In the early days of the pandemic he began to wonder what the reasons were for what was happening, and he began to look at what changes could be coming for individuals, for families and for systems and institutions.

A big theme of what he has written is about hope, and what the future might bring. “What I wrote was to emphasise what could give people hope and what could communities do. I suppose I put a lot of emphasis on communities and saw from a very early stage the way communities rallied and responded to this whole thing, people looking after people and so on.

“I began to look at systems like schooling and parenting and families and the whole world of spirituality. I began to see that while the Government will play their part and medical people will play their part, a lot of the responsibility will be in our own hands.

“What I was saying in the book was that the early stages in Covid brought out the best in people at local level and I think that should be emphasised and maybe that’s a lesson for the future.

“The thing that gave me most hope was my experience in the Bridge and Kilmurry, the way people rallied and what I saw there. In a way it’s a little booklet about hope. As time went on people were crying out for that.”

Spirituality, not very widely discussed nowadays, is something he approaches in some depth. “The word spiritual is thrown out a lot, people say I’m spiritual but I’m not religious. “I define spirituality as four connections, the four connections to me seem to be something we should be looking at.

“One is our inner selves, we’ve been emphasising the externals a lot over the last 20 years, maybe it’s time to look at our inner selves.

“Then our connections with one another, with family and community. Thirdly nature, obviously there’s a massive lesson coming from the world of nature and the way we might have been abusing it.

“The fourth one then is connection with creator. We need to be examining ourselves I think, we regard to each one of these.”

He is quite optimistic about the future, feeling that the pandemic has been so significant as that it will change some long held views and values. “We needed something enormous to realise we couldn’t stay on the path we were on, and we got that.” It is still very uncertain how long the pandemic will persist, but ultimately he hopes that a changed society will follow.

“The new normal cannot be the old normal. We have to have a look at what we have been ignoring in our own personal lives and in our world. I suppose that’s the thrust of it.”

He feels that education has been too focused on moulding people for the needs of the economy, while he also calls for the Church to change itself. “Most people will agree that as a Church we are suffering from tiredness, a lot of engagement with ritual and formality, but maybe too little engagement with Christ and Christianity, we probably need to go back to basics.”

Retired Bishop Willie Walsh wrote that the book is required reading for those interested in the Irish response to this year’s crisis. “Once more, Fr Harry Bohan proves his skill of ‘Swimming Upstream’ in this absorbing reflection on our response to the Covid-19 pandemic. His record as a reader of the times and the need for change in all society’s institutions (including the Church) makes this a vital read for anyone interested in Ireland’s coping with the pandemic.

“Harry eases our sense of helplessness by sharing his reflections on the future and how the Church in particular needs not so much to reinvent as reattach itself to the root level of its founder Jesus Christ. “In this compelling piece he challenges us to reflect on our own lives as impacted by the pandemic and the lessons it has taught us to date.”

Proceeds from the book will go to Cahercalla Hospice.