Greg Daly
Pope Francis’ visit to Ireland showed the need for the Church to hear angry voices as well as joyful ones, England’s leading cleric has said.
Speaking in Poznan, Poland, at a meeting of European bishops, Westminster’s Cardinal Vincent Nichols said the Pope’s Irish visit had been “remarkable” and “unlike any other papal visit in my knowledge”.
Negative media coverage in the days leading up to the papal visit had been normal, the London-based prelate said.
In his experience negative voices have tended to give way to a positive and warm expression of welcome to the Pope and joy in the Faith of the Church, he said, adding that in Ireland he noticed the angry voices of survivors continuing to be heard after the Pope’s arrival, with the media continuing its concentration on past wrongs and criticism of Church leaders.
The recently published Pennsylvania Grand Jury report and events surrounding the former Cardinal Theodore McCarrick fed into this, he added, describing the sustained criticism as “unsettling, to say the least”, but also something that taught him a lesson.
Admitting that he had been wrong to hope that joyous voices would overcome angry ones, he said: “Both voices have to be heard. Both voices must find an echo in our hearts. Both voices are the voice of Jesus, crying out in his Church and in the world today.”
While the Lord’s voice can be heard when people proclaim their joy in the gift of Faith and the Church, he said, the voice of Jesus must also be heard in the second voice.
“It is the voice of those who have suffered abuse and mistreatment within the community of the Church, the voice of those whom we, the pastors, have let down for we have failed to protect them from the wolves in our midst. It is the voice of many who suffer, whose need we recognise and in the spirit of solidarity we wish to help,” he said.
Pope Francis managed to heed both voices while in Ireland, he observed: “Somehow, in his person, he held them together, attending to each, responding to each, being true to each. His was a remarkable witness and a testimony to the deep peace of his soul which surely rests profoundly in the Lord.”