Martin O'Brien
Did the Vatican over-rely on the advice of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin on a papal visit to the North, asks Martin O’Brien
Why should a Papal visit to the North that enjoyed the enthusiastic support of the Irish and British governments, the Protestant Church leaders, not to mention the Northern bishops to a man, (and many of their Southern colleagues) led by Primate of All-Ireland Dr Eamon Martin not be taking place, after all?
I spent some time in Rome last week trying to find out.
Talking to highly-placed figures based in the Vatican and elsewhere one was immediately struck by how highly sensitive the issue of a possible visit to Northern Ireland really is. One curial figure agreed to talk to me and then changed his mind although he has been engaging with overseas media.
Others, both in the Vatican and elsewhere were prepared to talk but insisted on private ‘off the record’ conversations.
Confidence
A year ago, there was great confidence among those planning the World Meeting Of Families in Dublin that the North would be included.
As recently as March, right up to the moment of the formal announcement that the Pope would be coming to Dublin, an Irish official with close links to Rome still thought the North would not be overlooked.
Several reasons have been advanced since the March 21 announcement for skipping the North once again and confirming its dubious status as the only major region in these islands not to have been visited by a Pope.
One has been the handling of the clerical abuse scandal that precipitated the resignation of the Bishop of Dromore Dr John McAreavey.
That can be quickly discounted. As a senior Vatican official remarked to me, the Pope will have to address the issue in Dublin, the archdiocese of the damning Murphy Report.
A more credible reason, cited by diverse informants, has been Vatican concern that a papal visit to Northern Ireland, with all its recent history, would overshadow the World Meeting of Families, which is the raison d’être of the Pope’s trip. No such similar concern appears evident about the Pope’s stop-off in Knock.
And it would appear that this concern is shared by Dr Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, who was chosen by Pope Francis to host the gathering, even though he must know the deep disappointment and hurt this has caused his brother bishops in the North and members of their flock.
It was indicated to me that Philadelphia 2015 had been eclipsed by the Pope’s visit to the White House and the UN General Assembly and that the Vatican is anxious there isn’t a repeat.
A senior Vatican insider spoke of ‘trade-offs’, accepting on one hand that a visit to Northern Ireland would have fitted in nicely with the Pope’s messages of peace and ecumenical endeavour but would have distracted from the Church’s focus on the World Meeting of Families which he likened to World Youth Day in the universal Church’s calendar.
A subsidiary reason for keeping the North out of bounds, not cited by Vatican sources but by those closer to the political situation there was the absence of a power-sharing government, whose twin heads would otherwise have welcomed the Pope, were he to have come, in a major show of reconciliation.
And related to that, concern, given the deep uncertainty over the Brexit negotiations, that come August the Pope could somehow find himself drawn into a spat over the Border, over which he would have to cross.
It was stressed that both the British and Irish governments, not just publicly but privately communicated their strong support for the Holy Father to go North in the belief that his presence and messages would be a much-needed positive influence.
Given that it was always a priority for the Vatican that the WMOF would not be eclipsed it seems possible that those concerns over Brexit helped nullify the lobbying by Archbishop Eamon Martin in support of even a brief ecumenically tinted pilgrimage across the Border.
However, one wonders if the outcome would have been different if Archbishop Eamon had the decades of experience working the curial corridors of his Dublin counterpart, Dr Diarmuid Martin.
One well-placed figure opined that enthusiastic support from Archbishop Diarmuid for a Northern visit could have tipped the balance.
Another source said that the transfer of the then Apostolic Nuncio, Archbishop Charles Brown, to Albania early last year may also have been significant as Brown is understood to have been a keen supporter of a papal visit to the North.
The most senior figure in the Roman Curia advising Pope Francis on his Irish visit was his effective chief of staff and Substitute or number two in the Secretariat of State, Sicilian-born Archbishop Giovanni Angelo Becciu, described to me as the Pope’s deputy prime minister.
His knowledge of the Northern Ireland situation is not thought to have been great, according to one source. One wonders did he over rely on the advice of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin while considering a possible papal visit to Northern Ireland. Archbishop Becciu is shortly to become a cardinal and is leaving the Secretariat of State to become Prefect of the Congregation for the Causes of Saints.
Archbishop Paul Gallagher, the Liverpudlian Vatican foreign minister, who delivered a lecture in honour of Cardinal Cahal Daly in Belfast in October last year is said to have a good grasp of Northern affairs and is believed to have supported Francis coming North but he did not have the same clout and access to the Pope as Dr Becciu, I have been told.
Archbishop Eamon Martin said last month that he would continue to work for a papal visit to the North in the future. And there are key figures in Rome who will keep pushing for a stand-alone visit, especially if it could be linked to an inter-Church initiative to promote reconciliation and healing.
The presence of Protestant church leaders at an event in Rome a few weeks ago, organised jointly by the British and Irish Ambassadors to the Holy See, marking the 20th anniversary of the Good Friday Agreement, and the disclosure of unprecedented support for a papal visit North, expressed by the Protestant church leaders in a letter to the Pope last December, will redouble those efforts to secure a historic visit by Pope Francis (or his successor) at some stage.
However, given everything else in the Pope’s in-tray – curial reform, Chile, China, the synodal process, women deacons, to mention just a few issues – and the countless number of invitations from all over the world, one senses that the best opportunity for a papal visit to Northern Ireland has been missed.
However, there is hope in the unprompted observations of a senior Vatican source who remarked that Northern Ireland is now on the radar of the Holy See for the first time in several years and that in terms of distance it is not that far from Rome.