No more negativity: celebrate this visit
LET’S hope the Irish people give Pope Francis a Céad Míle Fáilte when he arrives to our shores, a welcome comparable to those extended to other visiting guests, most recently to Prince Harry and Meghan.
Please, no more negativity. We should be a lot more positive about this visit, which should be a wonderful occasion. Pope Francis is such a warm-hearted and lovely person and as the Vicar of Christ on earth is the leader of an estimated 1.2billion Catholics in the world. He deserves it.
After all, the eyes of the world will be watching us.
M O’DWYER, Dublin 5.
Problem solved!
I THINK it’s fantastic the way the Holy Father took time out of his busy schedule to write a 2,000word encyclical about abuse by clergy. Now all the abusers and even victims should feel much better.
PETER McGINNITY, by email.
What really matters
CALLS for ‘the truth about abuse cover-ups’, and ‘a road map for the future’, which go beyond the inadequacy of apologies, condemnations and compensation, characterised the run-up to Pope Francis’s visit.
Coming to such awareness of our utter impotence in the face of evil, is absolutely essential if we are to allow the Good News, that has been the hallmark of Pope Francis’s papacy, touch our hearts and penetrate our national psyche.
Jesus did not come into the world to exhume wrongs, apportion blame, and wallow in tears over what might have been. Rather, He proclaimed an amnesty for even the most reviled sinners.
This so scandalised those who saw no need for God’s mercy that they had Him publicly executed, only to be confronted with reports of His resurrection.
We really need our Holy Father to reach out to us and confirm us in this faith – the faith of our Church – that no matter what horror has marked our past, it need not go on doing so. Jesus Christ can break its control over us. He can deliver us from its power.
This is the message of forgiveness, reconciliation and hope: the ‘unique selling point’ of the Church Jesus founded. It is to bring good out of every evil, it is to participate in God’s Kingdom taking shape, coming alive in our own person.
This is not to minimise any betrayal of trust. It is, however, to point out that there is a bigger picture, and our lives are not complete until we embrace it, and nothing anyone has done, can rob us of it, the greatest joy on earth, experiencing our Heavenly Father’s tender care for us.
This is why Pope Francis’s visit means so much to me. GEARÓID DUFFY,
Lee Road, Cork.
The first step
POPE Francis has acknowledged the sexual abuse that has been committed by many priests and clerics. In most attempts to solve a problem the first step is to recognise what the problem is and later to make good to those hurt – there is a long way to go on this journey.
How this evil could occur, be tolerated and at times hidden with the perpetrators protected is beyond understanding and certainly criminal.
Anybody must realise that the Pope’s condemnation and the laws of the land means that there will be no spot ‘upstairs’ and any spot on Earth may involve bars on the windows and doors.
Let’s praise Pope Francis for condemning the evil doers and starting on the journey to a better world. DENNIS FITZGERALD, Melbourne, Australia.
Church’s dark history
A DOCUMENTARY at the weekend on RTÉ Radio dealt with the story of an unfortunate young woman in Kerry in the 1940s. She suffered inhuman treatment from the Catholic Church, doctors and hospitals because she became pregnant outside of marriage and eventually gave birth to a baby.
Sadly, some medical people would not attend to her because of the terrible sin committed and after she died the local parish priest refused to accept her body into the church. Some locals strongly protested and the unfortunate woman was afforded a Christian burial but no Mass was celebrated.
It was a time of narrow-minded thinking and a distinct lack of Christianity within the Church.
Thankfully, this country has moved on but there are still many staunch devout Catholics, as they like to call themselves, who tend to look down on people who bring up children outside of marriage.
There will be no shortage of bellringing and thumping of chests this week but I sometimes feel that the Church has not apologised sufficiently for the sad treatment of members of their flock in the dark, distant decades of the past.
LIZ LAWLESS, Navan, Co Meath.
Heroic Halligan
IF John Halligan had his way, he would no doubt lock the Pope up with our Irish landlords, thereby solving all the problems of this country in one fell swoop.
Who will save us from turbulent priests and property owners? John Halligan will, that’s who. What a guy. ROBERT SULLIVAN, Bantry, Co. Cork.