Dear Editor, Like many readers of The Irish Catholic I was delighted to see the news in last week’s edition (IC 19/05/2016) that a visit to Ireland by Pope Francis is increasingly likely in order to participate in the 2018 World Meeting of Families.
I also noted at the weekend that a collection is to be taken up at Masses across the country next week to raise funds to cover the costs of hosting the meeting.
This is necessary, but I hope it will not be at the expense of much-needed catechetical preparations. Traditionally, we’ve been very good at logistical organisation around the Catholic Church in Ireland. The area in the Phoenix Park used for the Papal Mass in 1979 was planned to such an extent to facilitate more than a million people that the United Nations borrowed the plans and have been modelling emergency refugee camps on the blueprint ever since! But, arguably, given the collapse in Mass attendance – particularly in Dublin – the logistics of the 1979 visit were prioritised ahead of faith formation.
I hope that Pope Francis will come and visit Dublin and, indeed, many other sites around Ireland. Admittedly, he will be two years older by the time August 2018 comes around, but Ireland is a small country and it would be possible for Pope Francis to undertake a lot of engagements on both sides of the border.
But, if the visit and the World Meeting of Families is to be fruitful for the Church in Ireland, a comprehensive build-up will be vital. At the press conference in Rome announcing further details of the event this week, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin revealed how last Autumn Pope Francis said to him “Remember, Dublin starts today”.
It is to be hoped that Dr Martin and his fellow bishops have taken this message to heart and that catechetical preparations are already at an advanced stage.
Yours etc.,
Tom Martin,
Ennis, Co. Clare.