A Papal Visit in 2012 ?

There were reports over the week-end that the Irish bishops during their meeting with the Pope invited him to visit Ireland in 2012. I presume that this is standard practice for national bishops when they meet the Pope but this invitation has particular significance because in 2012 a Eucharistic Congress will be held in Dublin and I presume that the bishops are encouraging the Pope himself to attend instead of sending a Legate.

This raises a number of issues. The recent visit by the bishops to the Pope was by all accounts a PR shot in the foot. Images of the bishops bending the knee and kissing the Popes ring did not go down well with the general public in the context of the Hierarchy’s response to the Murphy report and the Vatican’s failure to co-operate with Justice Murphy. It was optics but in our media saturated world optics count. Should we host the Eucharistic Congress 2012 we can expect an avalanche of such images. Without serious action by the bishops and the religious orders to conciliate the victims of clerical abuse and their families the great tableau of a Eucharistic Congress will just rub salt into their wounds.

In the aftermath of the Rome meeting Archbishop Diarmuid Martin said that the constant expressions of regret and sorrow by the Vatican and the bishops were beginning to ring hollow, so many of them have been made. He is right. The time has come for the Church both here in Ireland and in HQ in Rome to make a significant gesture of penance and reconciliation to those victims of clerical abuse. Cancelling the Eucharistic Congress would be one such powerful gesture.

Should the Church continue in its cavalier attitude to the victims of clerical abuse the Eucharistic Congress will not be a celebration of the central mystery of the Roman Catholic faith but a divisive indication of the Church’s intention to continue with business as usual. Can we really expect the victims of clerical abuse and their supporters to remain silent while the country is filled with foreign bishops and media? We had enough of culture wars in the 80’s let us not embark on another one. The Bishop of Galway said last week that there is a need for healing. There sure is. Cancelling the Eucharistic Congress as an expression of penitence would contribute to that healing and avoid an unseemly horde of embarrassing counter events.

However from the Church’s own point of view the Congress should not go ahead. Archbishop Diarmuid Martin has already said that the Church in Ireland is a sinful Church. Is it appropriate then that such a Church should be rewarded by being allowed to host one of the most important events in the Church’s calendar? Forgiveness of sin requires an act of penance. There is one available to the Church. It just requires an act of will to grasp it.

If the Pope has any sense he will refuse the invitation for 2012 and tell the Irish Church that the Eucharistic Congress is being re-located.