Greg DalyThousands of people are due in Dublin this weekend for the Divine Mercy Conference, writes Greg Daly
This weekend’s Divine Mercy Conference will be Ireland’s 24th since Fr Cathal Price and a small committee of “dedicated and hardworking Catholics” arranged the first such conference in 1992, according to Don Devaney, chairman of the conference committee.
Mr Devaney explains that from the beginning the conference has been “rooted in prayer” with a strong Marian influence, ties to Fatima and Medjugorje, and a deep sense among those involved that the conference is “God’s work” with the organisers being but “human instruments”.
About 3,500 people are expected to attend the conference on Saturday when Archbishop Diarmuid Martin will celebrate Mass, with perhaps 2,500 to 3,000 present on Sunday, according to Mr Devaney. Key speakers at this year’s conference, he says, will include Fr Kevin Scallon and Sr Briege McKenna.
This year’s conference theme, says Mr Devaney, is “Forgive us our trespasses”, and among those speaking on the subject will be Ballyfermot priest Fr Joe McDonald, a survivor of sexual abuse who Mr Devaney describes as someone who “has suffered and learned the value of forgiveness”.
Pilgrim
Other speakers will include Philip Ryan, speaking as a pilgrim who has experienced great graces and healing in Medjugorje, and Fr Michael Ross, who has recently completed a PhD on Legion of Mary founder Frank Duff, speaking on Mary.
Those attending the conference, says Mr Devaney, are “ordinary, honest-to-goodness, faith-filled people”, from all over Ireland as well as from Britain and further abroad. Others join in online, he adds, commending this year’s “enterprising” decision to livestream the conference in a Buncrana cinema, and saying that last year’s conference live stream had 80,000 hits.
The “healing power of forgiveness”, has been a frequent theme of the conference which seeks “to strive for unity”, he says, pointing out how in the mid-1990s, there was a huge emphasis on the peace process in the North and praying for the continuation of the IRA ceasefire. There is “a constant need for reconciliation and confession”, he continues, with the charism of the conference being “very much about forgiveness and respecting of difficulties and processes especially with things like abuse.”
Controversy
Last year’s conference drew unprecedented controversy, Mr Devaney ruefully adds, when attempts were made to disrupt the conference by a small and determined “right wing brigade” who objected to the involvement of the Dominican former Master General Timothy Radcliffe OP.
Describing as “soul-destroying” the conduct of those opposed to Fr Radcliffe’s attempts to minister to, for instance, London’s gay community, Mr Devaney said the affair gave him a “glimpse of an element in Irish society that was just frightening”. The participation of Fr Radcliffe in the conference had, he explained, been approved by Rome as well as the archdioceses of Westminster and Dublin, he said, but “others set themselves up as judge and jury”, condemning the English Dominican for “going out to the margins to people that nobody was reaching out to” and “just doing his job”.
“God’s mercy,” Mr Devaney stresses, “is for everyone.”
This year’s conference, he says, looks like being a far more peaceful affair, with a key aim being the promotion of devotion to Divine Mercy.
The conference, he says, will be “offering to give a free picture to every church in the country without one, helping people to celebrate it without extra work for the local priest”.
A new initiative, he says, is the “Divine Mercy Way”, an evangelisation project “reaching out over social media to a new generation”.
Describing how the conference organisers have received emails from as far away as India, with people saying how inspiring they have found the talks on the conference website, Mr Devaney says that Divine Mercy Way will attempt to build on that platform to be a “legacy” for others.
Explaining the enduring popularity of the conference, Mr Devaney says that it allows people to “find fellowship sharing faith and belief”, but above all offers a way of drawing people to the faith by through confession, Mass, and benediction recalling “something we’ve lost along the way”.