Twenty-five years later” “

“As the great Jumbo jet passed over the vast concourse of people gathered in Phoenix Park twenty-five years ago, little did I realise what an expression of faith and of love was awaiting the vicar of Christ, Pope John Paul II, as he set foot on Irish soil. History was being made that day and history was being recalled. Some 47 years previously Phoenix Park had hosted, in 1932, the International Eucharistic Congress, and now, on the very same spot, the Vicar of Christ would celebrate the Eucharist in thanksgiving for the centuries of fidelity to the Eucharist which have marked the faith of the Irish people”. So said the bishop of Cloyne JOHN MAGEE, in his homily during the Mass celebrated in St. Colman’s Cathedral, Cobh, on 29 September that opened the celebrations for the 25th anniversary of John Paul II’s pastoral visit to Ireland (29 September – 1st October 1979). The various initiatives of the Irish Bishops’ Conference marking the event include a pastoral letter of the bishop of Limerick, Donald Murray, a prayer vigil for the Church held in the chapel of St. Patrick’s College at Maynooth on 30 September, and “Living Mission” that will open in Cork City on Sunday 3 October. MORE COHERENT FAITH. Bishop Magee expressed profound gratitude for John Paul II’s visit, but also concerns about the present and future: “In the intervening years [since the Pope’s visit], when Ireland has taken her rightful place among the nations of the new Europe and is experiencing an unprecedented well-being from an economic and material point of view, are we losing those values and that respect for the spiritual which our forefathers in difficult and penal times cherished and preserved?” Citing the words then pronounced by the Pope on the risks linked to the “weakening of the moral fibre of a nation” and the “diminution of the sense of personal responsibility”, and recalling the inability or reticence of the Irish nation to “ensure that due recognition of the Christian heritage of Europe be recognized in its new Constitution”, the bishop of Cloyne declared that “we can only find our way through the morass of present-day challenges to our Christian way of life, by remaining close to Jesus and by cherishing our personal encounters with Him in the Sacraments of Penance and the Eucharist”. The anniversary of John Paul II’s visit, he concluded, “is a rallying call to return to a more fervent and coherent practice of our faith”. SPEAKING TO THE HEART. “We are faced not by state atheism, but by the false and destructive affirmation that religion is only a private affair”, yet “the inspiration to be good citizens comes precisely from deep convictions, often religious in nature, about the meaning and purpose of life”. That’s the reflection that the bishop of Limerick DONALD MURRAY entrusts to a special pastoral letter published on the occasion of the anniversary of the visit of the Pope, who had recalled “the special vocation of the Christian laity” in the Church and in society. How can it be, asks Murray, “that societies that boast of their own pluralism and their own tolerance tend to remove religious convictions and values from public discourse and relegate them to the private sphere?”. Reviewing the twenty-five years since the Pope’s visit, characterised by “tremendous disappointments and moments of hope in the peace process of our island”, the bishop of Limerick underlines the importance of maintaining “the sense of belonging to the same community, that is in the first place one of men and women”. Further questions touched on in the pastoral letter include the need to “support the family on which the future of the Church and of humanity depends” and the question of vocations that also calls into question the family and requires a change of heart of the Christian community within which, Murray remarks, “many young people don’t feel like speaking of the possibility of having a vocation”. So an environment needs to be created in which “the deepest issues are not pushed to one side and it is easier for heart to speak to heart”. LIVING MISSION. “Living Mission” will be inaugurated on Sunday, 3 October, with a mass celebrated in the church of the Holy Spirit in Cork by Pius Ncube, archbishop of Bulawayo (Republic of Zimbabwe) and a fierce opponent of President Mugabe. This year the missionary initiative will support the “Day for Life” proclaimed by the Irish Bishops for the same day. Recalling the visit of the Pope, “missionary par excellence“, and his teachings on the sacredness of human life, the Bishops’ Conference is proposing for 2004 a deeper study of the papal teachings. The bishops, moreover, will publish a pastoral letter on suicide to mark this occasion. “Living Mission”, established during the Jubilee of 2000, will consist this year of a four-day programme of events (3-6 October) including concerts and exhibitions of arts and crafts, against a background of traditional Irish, Latin American, Asian and African music, and the personal testimonies of various missionaries. Symbol of the event is the “currach”, the reed boat used in Wales and Ireland, which, after it has been blessed, will sail down the river Lee. Several thousand participants are expected to attend; among them the pupils of over fifty schools from county Cork and neighbouring countries.