Ireland: card. O’Connor on Church renewal “The things I remember about my life as a priest are not the successes but rather the failures”. From that experience “I learnt yet again to pray for perseverance and obedience to my vocation”, said Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O’Connor Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster and apostolic visitor for the archdiocese of Armagh on June 15, commenting on the cases of abuse on minors by members of the Church during a meeting to mark the end of the Year for Priests at the Saint Patrick’s College in Maynooth, Ireland. “It does not matter that the great majority of priests and bishops are good servants and pastors of their people. When the scandal of abuse runs so deep, it casts its shadow over everything”, His Eminence said. Thus, “those who have suffered abuse are foremost in our thoughts and prayers”. Retracing the events of his life, the prelate recalled the “painful” event occurred ten years ago, owing to “my grave mishandling of a priest who was an abuser” for which “I was attacked and vilified for nearly two years”. From that mistake, he remarked, “I was to become a a wounded healer” which brought “some positive benefit because of the national safeguarding policies, procedures and structures which are now in place and used in all our parishes and dioceses in England and Wales”. The Cardinal recalled that “Some have spoken of this time as the ‘dark night’ of the Church in Ireland”, and observed that this “night” is also “a time of learning; a time of purifying and of trusting” in the belief that “God has not abandoned us” and that He is “working with us”. Thus in some way that “poverty is also a gift”. “When writing to the Church in Ireland – stated the Archbishop Emeritus of Westminster – the Pope acknowledged this” and began to map out “a path of repentance and renewal”. Renewing structures alone “will not heal the grieving soul and wounded spirit”. This is why, the Cardinal said, the Pope “also sets another process in motion. It goes deep into the great spiritual patrimony of the Irish Church” which requires “not only a commitment to truth and understanding, especially understanding the roots and consequences of what has happened, but a commitment also to love”. We must “not rush”, His Eminence pointed out. In order to overcome “situations of desolation”, he admonishes, “we must give it the time it needs” along with “a different sort of leadership to persevere in the desert times and to remain faithful to the truth”. “Our unity and our strength and our hope – he concludes – is the Mass, the people gathered around the altar where the Eucharist is celebrated”. Poland: the bishops’ plenary and the presidential elections The 352nd plenary meeting of the Polish Bishops’ Conference (KEP) opened today in Olsztyn (ongoing until June 20). It will focus on the Year of the Priest that has recently ended. KEP President, Msgr. Jozef Michalik, explained: “The Year of the Priest is an actual confirmation” that “humble, beautiful and holy priesthood is possible”. “Although – he adds – its fruits cannot be ascertained with statistics since we cannot calculate the conversions, the internal modifications and the strengthening of the faith”. In view of the forthcoming visit of Metropolitan bishop Ilarion, (June 24), chairman of the Foreign Affairs Department of Moscow’s Patriarchate, the prelates will equally address the relations with the Russian Orthodox Church. During the works the director of Caritas Poland Fr. Marian Subocz will present the situation in the areas in the south of the Country devastated by the floods of May and June. In the region of Malopolska the water covered an area of almost 1000 sq. kilometers and inundated some 700 villages destroying over 3thousand km. of asphalted roads and over 16 km. of railroads. Caritas Poland has collected over 2 million euro, while relief convoys are being organized across the Country’s dioceses. On Sunday June 20 will be held the first round of the Presidential elections, that were rescheduled after the Smolensk plane crash past April 10, which caused the death of President Lech Kaczynski and of numerous high-ranking State officers. The bishops, said the archbishop of Lublin Msgr. Jozef Zycinski, “cannot be tied to a group that supports a candidate or a presidential program”; to support one candidate “would be an abuse”. Msgr. Michalik urged the faithful “to vote a group or a person whose actions are guided by conscience”, while Msgr. Józef Kowalczyk, Metropolitan bishop of Gniezno and Primate of Poland, underlined that “the priests’ task is not to mix in the electoral propaganda and to work for the rectitude of consciences”.
