Times change... but Pope is still welcome

OVER the past few weeks, as the country prepared for the World Meeting of Families and the visit of Pope Francis, critics of the Catholic Church have been vocal in their opposition.

The two events have been the fulcrum around which praise and criticism alike have coalesced, but there are opinions on both sides that are equally valid.

On the positive wing of the debate, many choose to focus on the good the Church has done since the foundation of the State, providing healthcare and education to those who might otherwise have been ignored. They think too of the devoted priests who offer sympathetic pastoral care without judgment, men whose spiritual guidance has saved many a parishioner from the abyss of despair.

On the opposing side are those who rightly condemn the wrongs of the past, and the problems of the present.

The abuse scandals and the institutional brutality and cruelty of industrial schools and Magdalene laundries are undeniable. Whatever your opinion, whether you favour tradition or change, it also is irrefutable that women are under-represented in the running of the Church, and that minority groups – gay people and the divorced especially – feel they are denied full communion with their fellow Catholics, and in a way completely at odds with the message of love for thy neighbour preached by Jesus Christ.

Vocal contributions from Marie Collins, Mary McAleese and Ursula Halligan have been provocative but balanced too, because the Church remains so important at the centre of so many people’s lives.

They care, not because they want to destroy the Church but because they want to feel fully a part of it. That, surely, is understandable to anyone of faith.

Somewhere in the middle, though, are the people such polarisation ignores.

They do not deny or lightly dismiss the imperfections of the Church, and they are far from the bigots they are sometimes painted as. They are simply devout believers, and place their relationship with God above everything else.

In Pope Francis, they see a humble man trying his best to bring change, however slowly it drops. And his arrival today will be a source of joy to millions.

In darker times, Ireland kept alive the flame of Christianity, and it is nice to see its special place in the worldwide Catholic family recognised. For, make no mistake, this is still a Catholic country, just not the rigid doctrinaire version of Catholicism that once prevailed.

Despite falling attendance at Mass, almost 80% of Irish people identified as Catholic in Census 2016.

That doesn’t make them hypocritical – it just means they have worked out their own ways of worship, mindful of what is wrong with some within the hierarchy, but still living their lives by the tenets they learned as children.

Even the lapsed faithful, atheists, agnostics and cynics can take inspiration from the simple Christian message of charity and love that Pope Francis brings with him this weekend.

It is, of course, to be hoped that he confronts head-on the failings of the Vatican, and has a meaningful dialogue with the people the Church failed, and failed so dismally.

His past utterances show he is hardly impervious to them, and even his detractors could be won over by honesty and contrition.

The Ireland of today is a changed country from the Ireland visited by Pope John Paul II in 1979, but not totally unrecognisable.

Many will feel the same sense of joy they experienced 39 years ago. We hope they have a weekend they remember for the rest of their lives and we welcome Pope Francis to Ireland.