Martin O'Brien
WMOF 2018
“This is a wonderful opportunity, a Kairos moment for the renewal of the Church in Ireland and the young people here, they are just simply excited at the prospect of being in the same field as Pope Francis.” There is no mistaking the sense of excitement and expectation in the voice of Brendan Dowd as preparations intensify in Down and Connor Diocese for the World Meeting of Families and the visit of the Holy Father to Dublin and Knock in just three weeks’ time.
Brendan is one of the adult youth leaders in charge of more than 150 youth volunteers aged between 16 and 25 from the second largest diocese in Ireland who will assist at the WMOF events in Dublin.
To add to his personal sense of buzz and anticipation, Brendan, a teacher of religious education at St Malachy’s College, Belfast and a composer of liturgical music (one of his songs will feature at WMOF) is at the final stage of his preparation for ordination to the permanent diaconate.
He and eight others are due to be ordained by Bishop Noel Treanor in St Peter’s Cathedral, Belfast on October 14.
Pauline Dowd, director of youth ministry in Down and Connor for nearly six years, is married to Brendan and they make a formidable team. When we talk, both Pauline and Brendan are in the Living Youth/Down and Connor Youth Commission offices in central Belfast not just focussing on WMOF matters but also making final arrangements for the annual diocesan youth pilgrimage which began on Sunday last [ July 29].
Pilgrimage
After Rome, Krakow (for World Youth Day) and Bobbio (for the 1,400th Columbanus anniversary) in recent years, this year 43 young people are taking a week in Taizé and a few days in Paris.
When they return from their six-day pilgrimage to Dublin for WMOF, that big date with the Pope will only be days away.
Pauline stresses that the Pope’s skipping of Northern Ireland has not dampened preparations in any way. “If the Pope crossed the border, his trip would no longer have been about the World Meeting. Our young people are thrilled that he is visiting their country.”
Asked what she thinks the impact of WMOF and the visit of the Pope may have, she points immediately to the transforming effect that Pope St John Paul had on her personally when she attended his youth Mass in Galway as a schoolgirl in 1979 and World Youth Day in Toronto in 2002.
“Both events were unforgettable and inspiring. Pope Francis speaks in a very special way to young people. He prioritises them and looks on them the way Jesus looked at people. The young people I meet are deeply touched by his humility, for example by him having breakfast with homeless people on his birthday and phoning up the newsagent to cancel his paper back in Argentina.”
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Pauline says that in Living Youth they have been planning for the World Meeting for well over a year with the Year of Mercy being “a fantastic idea” but that in a sense WMOF “is reinforcing what we and indeed the youth commissions around Ireland are doing any way”.
She points to “a very significant investment in youth ministry with me and two other full-time youth ministry workers delivering on a strategic plan to put in place a cycle of care for children and young people between the age of 11 and 25”.
“We have more than 20 parishes involved in the Parish GIFT programmes one, two and three, for children in years 8, 9 and 10. We are piloting the John Bosco programme later this year for year 11 children and we have plans for a year 12 programme”.
Their plan is to roll out GIFT to all 87 parishes eventually and one senses that an impactful WMOF and Synod of Bishops on young people in the autumn would help enormously.
Pauline adds: “In Down and Connor, youth ministry is moving in the right direction and gathering speed each year with increasing numbers and reach. We have hundreds of children and young people involved in their Faith, with their parents and siblings volunteering to help.
“Our young people are evangelising as they live their lives with a passion and energy that only comes with youth. Our challenge is to fund youth ministry adequately so that it can continue to grow.”
Fr Michael McGinnity, parish priest of St Malachy’s, Belfast and diocesan director of family ministry for 20 years, as one of 26 diocesan delegates – one for each diocese in the country – is the key link between WMOF HQ in Dublin and Down and Connor.
For more than a year he and the other delegates have had monthly meetings with Fr Timothy Bartlett, the secretary general of WMOF and his team.
His task, he says, is two-fold, looking after the practical logistical arrangements in terms of online registration, transport to Croke Park and Phoenix Park etc., and trying to prepare people “to reflect on some of the key messages” Pope Francis wrote in Amoris Laetitia (The Joy of Love).
Already we know that around 60 coaches will be taking 3,000 pilgrims from parishes all over the diocese to Phoenix Park with many more travelling in smaller buses, by train and their cars.
Fr McGinnity stresses that the World Meeting is much more than a one-off event, rather a process of catechesis, and that the resource kits, including the six-session parish conversation, available online at amoris.ie “have no sell-by date and will be as relevant next year as they are today.”
He highlights the Pope’s theme of the World Meeting, ‘The Gospel of the Family: joy for the world’ and speaks
of the need to “develop a family centred model of Church”. “Pope Francis tell us that we have a duty not only to
evangelise families but to allow families to evangelise the Church, [given that] in the dynamics of the family we learn to receive and to give love.”
He commends the Pope for dispensing with “churchy language” and finding new words and phrases to communicate the reality that “God is involved in your life.”
Fr McGinnity asks people to reflect deeply on the themes of the World Meeting some of which are “very Francis”.
These are the roles of technology in the family: the impact of conflict on families and children; building a more sustainable approach to the economy, work and the environment; Faith and family; women’s leadership roles, globally and locally; and the role of education in raising families out of poverty.
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Asked to reflect on what he would see as a good legacy from the World Meeting Fr McGinnity, drawing on Pope Francis’ writings and speeches, identified at least four areas.
He would like to see an increased focus on “seeing marriage preparation as an opportunity for supporting and evangelising engaged couples in discovering and rediscovering their mission and role in the Church in the context of the sacrament of marriage.”
Secondly, he stressed the need for “an inter-generational approach to Faith formation and to resource families to realise their vocation to be this evangelising agent in parishes as well as in wider society.”
Thirdly, he would like to see a better understanding and promotion of family spirituality and recognition that God never deserts those who are open to him.
Finally, Fr McGinnity stresses that “God is searching for us” regardless of the situation or the mess that we are in, even if we feel “we don’t measure up”.
“It is not just about us approaching God. God is constantly searching for us and he is not waiting for us to be perfect and we as a Church must keep that to the forefront of our minds in our pastoral practice.
“My underlying point is that as part of legacy we have to be looking at our ministry to the divorced and the remarried and to the LGBT community.
“We need to be looking at anybody who feels alienated from the Church and try to reach out to them in so far as we can and to support their journey through life.”