Michael Kelly
Editor’s Comment
News that the final Mass during the Pope’s expected visit next year will almost certainly be held in Dublin’s Phoenix Park is a welcome sign that Church leaders are thinking big. There has been precious little to be joyful about in the Church in Ireland in recent decades, and many people acutely feel the need for a shot in the arm.
It would be easy to avoid the park given the obvious comparisons that will be made with both the 1932 Eucharistic Congress and the 1979 visit of Pope St John Paul II. The fact that organisers of the World Meeting of Families are looking at Dublin’s largest greenfield site for the Mass is a sign of optimism winning out over caution.
Caution has never been a Christian virtue. Pope Francis’ papacy is living proof of that – he embodies Christ’s command to “put out into deep water” in his journeying to the existential peripheries. In a certain sense, his visit to Ireland with all the tumult in the Church in recent decades can be a moment to recalibrate Irish Catholicism and help chart a more hope-filled future.
Of course, everyone will want to avoid a sense of triumphalism, but Irish Catholics will also relish the opportunity for a large gathering with the Successor of St Peter. It will be an opportunity to showcase the diversity of the Church and a moment for young Catholics to experience that they are not alone in their faith.
The International Eucharistic Congress in 2012 was a remarkable success given the pessimism that was coming from some – including some Church leaders – in the run-up to the event. Fr (now Bishop) Kevin Doran and his team managed to pull-off an extraordinary event that saw Catholics from every corner of the island descend on Dublin to celebrate their faith.
Celebration
But, it sometimes felt that it was a private event. With the exception of the Eucharistic procession through Dublin 4, there was little enough going on outside the RDS. The closing Mass in Croke Park stadium was a wonderful celebration, but also seemed a little bit hidden from public view.
There can be no mistaking that the Phoenix Park is a hugely ambitious venue. When the announcement is made public, there will be inevitable questions: one such question will surely be whether or not Church leaders expect a million people to attend like in 1979. We’re not where we were in 1979, but as last week’s story on the latest European Social Survey (ESS) shows, the Faith remains remarkably resilient in Ireland.
As the countdown to the World Meeting of Families continues, organisers will intensity the engagement with local parishes and dioceses. The expected confirmation that Pope Francis will indeed attend the event is expected in the first half of 2018 – this will also intensity excitement about the World Meeting of Families.
Francis is a hugely popular Pope. He is one that many people outside of the Church or those who choose not to practise their Catholicism look to for leadership. Austen Ivereigh – the papal biographer – has remarked that Francis conjures up memories for people of a faith they once had and now miss. There are many people in that boat in Ireland, his visit might be the impetus that they need to re-connect.
A choice of a venue like the Phoenix Park represents a serious declaration of intent that organisers want the World Meeting of Families to be a vital milestone in the reform and renewal of the Church here.