Enda’s speech dashed hope of Pope visit, says bishop

THE Pope’s decision to stay away from this summer’s International Eucharistic Congress is due to the tension between the Government and the Vatican, a leading cleric has claimed.

Bishop of Kerry Dr Bill Murphy said relations between the Church and State are ‘not very good’ since last year’s speech by Taoiseach Enda Kenny, in which he denounced the Holy See.

The decision by Foreign Affairs Minister Eamon Gilmore to close the embassy to the Vatican has added to the rift, he said.

Bishop Murphy added: ‘That has caused a certain strain and I think it would be difficult for the Pope to come in that atmosphere.’

If Pope Benedict XVI does visit in the future, he would almost certainly want a stop-off in the North as part of his itinerary.

‘I don’t know if the North is ready for that or not,’ said Bishop Murphy, who added that the Pope has since given a commitment to visit many other countries. Those visits have already been planned.

The bishop acknowledged that there is very little excitement about the Eucharistic Congress in Dublin, which is now just ten weeks away. However, he described the first such gathering here for 80 years as a historic event for the country and the Church.

‘If you go back to when Pope John Paul came to Ireland, people were saying nobody would go and then when it came closer to the event, it created its own momentum and most of the country turned out,’ said Bishop Murphy, who has told the Vatican of his desire to retire since reaching his 75th birthday last June.

‘The same happened last year in England when Pope Benedict came,’ he said.

‘I met Irish priests working in England and they said it was going to be a damp squib and yet think of the millions who turned out.

‘As it comes closer to the event, more and more people here will be anxious to go to it.’