Mary McAleese hurt over Church stance
Mary McAleese says her family feel unwelcome in the church in the run-up to the Pope’s visit.
In a TV documentary, the former president tells of her hurt at the airbrushing of same-sex couples from promotional family material for the papal visit.
It has emerged that references to same-sex relationships in original family booklets were removed from newly edited editions printed for the arrival of Pope Francis to the World Meeting of Families.
The former president charts the changes in Irish families since Pope John Paul II’s visit for her new RTÉ documentary, Mary McAleese’s Modern Ireland.
While traditional family patterns still dominate in today’s Ireland, new and more diverse family types are on the rise and are increasingly accepted without prejudice. However, Mary McAleese, whose son Justin is a prominent gay rights campaigner, spoke of her distress at the omission of same-sex couples from the family summit being held for the first papal visit in the 21st century.
She said: “As a family, we were devastated, we realised just we were not welcome. That has been really upsetting. Worse than that it cements a view of church as being unwelcoming, possibly a view of our pope as being unwelcoming and that’s not what I wanted ever to give to my children.”
While Ireland is almost unrecognisable from the country visited by Pope John Paul II, religion still plays a strong role.
According to the 2016 census, 78% still identified as Catholic and the speed with which tickets to see the Pope were snapped up suggests that Ireland remains a far from secular place.
However, the documentary also delves into how more than 100,000 people have legally divorced and enthusiastic majorities voted in favour of same-sex marriage and abortion.
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