The Pope in Ireland
After five years has Francis lived up to Irish expectations?
Fr Alan Hillard
“No papacy is perfect”, says Fr Alan Hilliard, a Dublin-based priest and strong advocate of migrant’s rights, but in the five years that Francis has been Pope, he has exceeded expectations.
Referencing the author Austen Ivereigh, Fr Alan says that while St John Paul II said what was wrong with the world, Pope Francis is saying “do something about it”.
This message couldn’t have been clearer during the July 2013 visit to Lampedusa, when the Pontiff spoke about the trials and trauma immigrants face and to avoid becoming indifferent to their humanity. “For people for whom nobody is speaking, he is the only voice speaking to them”, says Fr Alan, adding that the Pontiff’s remarks that immigrants aren’t “dangerous” has had a massive positive impact on them.
Fr Alan adds that Francis has importantly showed the direction the curia needs to go, by speaking about the dignity of the human being, “which at the end of the day is very important and what the Church is about”.
What’s striking for Fr Alan, and what universities and organisations can learn from, is that Francis “has shown that you don’t have to lose your humanity and be the head of a big organisation. He hasn’t become a clone. He hasn’t become a bureaucrat.”
Bro. Kevin Crowley
From the beginning of his pontificate, Pope Francis has made great strides in protecting and enabling homeless people, according to Bro. Kevin, and his visit to the Capuchin Day Centre on August 25 is another example of this important mission.
“It’s a great privilege and a great honour for the homeless people in the fact that the Holy Father has recognised the great problems and the great difficulties and is coming to meet them, and to show his love and respect for them,” Bro. Kevin says.
He adds that the Pontiff’s visit is a wonderful occasion, and that meeting homeless people seems to be his “main concern” wherever he goes, noting that after being declared Pope, Francis made sure they were taken care of by providing them with showers, for example.
Those who will meet the Pope in the centre are “excited” and “absolutely thrilled”, he says, adding that none of this would have been possible without the “openness” and “generosity” of Irish people who have helped homeless people financially through their donations.
His visit, Bro. Kevin says, will not only impact those in the centre, but will make “a huge difference” to Irish people, and is an occasion of great celebration.
Fr James Kelly
“Surprise” is the word Fr Kelly uses to describe Pope Francis’ papacy – a word with substance given that he spent half of each year between 1979 and 1983 at Buenos Aires’ Jesuit-run-Collegio Máximo, where the then Fr Jorge Bergoglio was rector.
“Well I’m very surprised about how successful it has been in the sense that I find his writing very inspiring and very challenging and very spiritual. He notes in particular, that Gaudete et Exsultate (the Exhortation on the Call to Holiness) is a “very refreshing” and “stimulating” document and something that we can all learn from. Fr Kelly says that Francis has changed since his time as rector, given that he’s actually made “doctrinal changes”.
One standout point about Francis for Fr Kelly is his idea of not prejudging anybody or making assumptions, while still preaching “the orthodox stuff”. He hopes the Pontiff’s visit to Ireland will be “fruitful”, and expects Francis will concentrate on the main Christian message which is “that Christ came to save us”.
Fr John O’Connor
For this parish priest in St Anne’s, Shankill, Pope Francis is doing a “fantastic” job and his pontificate has renewed his Faith in the Church. However, Fr O’Connor says he “would’ve expected a bit more” from the Pontiff.
“I still think he’s a lot more to do and a lot more he’d like to be able to do,” he says, noting the clerical child abuse scandal, the place of women in the Church, the question of clerical celibacy, and the role of lay people in the Church generally.
There are two major aspects of Francis’ papacy that have been inspiring. One, Fr O’Connor says, is his own personal humility which is evident from the fact he doesn’t live in the apostolic palace; he doesn’t drive around a “huge” car; and he has a very simple lifestyle. “It’s Christ-like, and it’s awful that we’re actually surprised to see the Pope living so humbly,” he says.
The second impressive aspect of Francis is his emphasis on the mercy of God, rather than a judgemental God. In visiting Ireland, Fr O’Connor hopes that the Irish will listen to what he has to say. “I hope people will listen to him, and I hope he brings a message of healing to the Church in Ireland. I think we need healing very much.”
Paula McKeown
For Paula, the beginning of Francis’ papacy was “unnervingly different”, and showed Catholics all over the world “something different”.
As the Director of Down and Connor’s Living Church Office, this is important says Paula as he is communicating “what mission actually looks like”. This was demonstrated when he hugged a disfigured man in St Peter’s Square. “It wasn’t that he was doing PR stunts – he was deeply compelled and moved to act in the way he does.”
Alongside reaching out to those on the margins and peripheries, there have been some limitations during his pontificate, Paula says, in particular to bring about the Church reform he mentioned in Evangelii Gaudium. “I think I had bigger expectations about seeing more reform at this stage. Maybe that was unrealistic. I was hoping to see more women elevated to more prominent positions. I would love to see a female cardinal and this is the Pope that could make it happen. I’m still holding out for those reforms.”
While visiting Ireland, in the fallout of the abortion referendum, Paula hopes that the Pope’s message around mercy and dialogue will resonate with Irish people. In this way, we seek to understand the other person and their perspective, rather than only focus on the differences.
Sr Stan Kennedy
One of Ireland’s most famous advocates for the poor in Ireland has said she saw Pope Francis as a man who would herald a new era in the Church for people who are poor or on the margins of society when he was elected.
Sr Stan’s impression of the current Pope was of a man who would “devote his papacy to his people as a humble servant”.
As the founder of Focus Ireland and the Immigrant Council of Ireland, she said during his papacy Francis has taken a “radical stance and proclaimed the Gospel in a new way”.
He has “already taken a radical stance on two of the most crucial issues in our world today – his uncompromising option for the poor and for the earth”, she continued.
However Sr Stan added that she would like to see Pope Francis take radical steps on behalf of women, “which would be a wonderful gift to the Church and would be a major step in dismantling the clericalism that Pope Francis believes to be so damaging to the preaching of the Gospel and would also be a major influence on the wider world”.
“I would also like if he called on the Church leaders to take accountability and responsibility for sexual abuse within the Church.”
Sr Consilio
“Humble”, “joyful”, and “friendly” are just a few of the adjectives Irish nun and founder of the rehabilitation centre ‘Cuan Mhuire’ Sr Consilio uses to describe Pope Francis.
“He’s a man of deep Faith…he’s a man for the people, no airs or graces. He is one of us, he’s not aloof,” she says. Sr Consilio mentions that when she briefly met him in Lourdes, he was just plain and ordinary.
“He is just himself. He lives what he talks about. He does what he believes is the right thing”, she says, adding that he’s not in the world to impress people or glorify himself.
Alongside his courage and ongoing embrace of “all people”, Sr Consilio says that his writings are easily accessible. When he visits Ireland, she hopes the Irish people will welcome him, and that he speaks about the problems and struggles young people face today.
“I’m sure he will help young people. Our young people are the most neglected in this country and they’re lead down pathways and roadways that are damaging and destructive.”
Julie Kavanagh
At the beginning of his papacy, Pope Francis was an “unknown” for many people, but with that mystery came a “sense of hope, freshness and newness” says Julie, who is the Pastoral Resource Person for the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin.
There was a sense of humility when he greeted and addressed his audience upon being elected Pope, which were “little tell-tale signs” that Catholics were in “for a treat”. Since then, Julie says Francis has continued to reach out to people on the fringes, creating companionship with prisoners, migrants, and all those people “that maybe have been invisible”.
He definitely lived up to her expectations, even though he isn’t perfect. “He’s a man with great responsibility and at the end of it, he’s a human being as well, so he’s not going to be perfect 100% of the time. There are times himself where he says he might have made mistakes in a way that might have been better put.
“But overall, I think the bigger question, is are we living up to the expectations of the Gospel of our care of the earth, of our love of the family and these are all things he’s actually brought us to in his papacy.”