Eucharistic Congress - Members face up to challenges

The eight days of the 50th Eucharistic Congress opened in Dublin yesterday.

Our economic troubles and the deep divisions in politics and society in general are inevitably being compared with the last Eucharistic Congress held in Dublin 80 years ago.

People talked about that gathering for decades. In one sense it is a very different Ireland today, and the gathering yesterday was vastly smaller than the 20,000 expected, but Diarmuid Martin, the Archbishop of Dublin, noted there were also many similarities.

The previous Congress was held at a time of deep divisions within Irish society— less than a decade after the conclusion of the civil war. It was also in the midst of the Great Depression.

Members of the cabinet were invited to take a high profile in the ceremonies in 1932, and this helped the Church to play a major role in healing the divisions within society. The public attitude towards Church figures is very different today in the wake of the clerical paedophile scandals, which were made vastly worst by the cover-ups and the way in which political and religious leaders shamelessly shirked their own responsibilities to the Church, the public, and especially to the children.

Outrageous things were allowed to happen and then covered up and even facilitated by the irresponsible behaviour of authorities. The Archbishop of Dublin was at pains to stress over the weekend that there should be a full investigation of the activities of Fr Brendan Smyth, because it is important that the public should know what happened and how those things were allowed to happen both within society and within the Church. A thorough investigation would be one way of ensuring something similar never happens again.

The hierarchy and politician leaders appeared to allow canon law to take primacy over the Constitution, but in this case appearances were deceptive, because paedophile behaviour — whether clerical or otherwise — is an aberration of Christianity. Hence it was a perversion of the canon law that was used to obscure such conduct.

Archbishop Martin claimed the ceremonies yesterday were in no way attempting to hide or gloss over what happened. “The abuse that took place is very clearly a travesty of what the Gospel is about,” he declared. And he said he had no issue with those groups who were protesting outside the grounds yesterday.

There is obviously unrest within the Church itself over the way in which some priests are being silenced. Archbishop Martin explained in an RTÉ interview that he was not consulted and was thus initially unaware that this had happened. Even if he has lost some support among Church authorities by speaking out, he stressed that his Episcopal role should not be to engage in classic spin but to follow his conscience. That often means saying uncomfortable things that will challenge people. He admits the Catholic Church is divided and in crisis.

The congress is an important gathering affording the more committed members to face up to the problems and demand for effective action.