pope79

Cork Free Presbyterian Church, 10 Briarscourt (Annex) Shanakiel, Cork, Ireland
Pastor: Colin Maxwell. Email: colin.maxwell@fpcmission.org

As predicted in the Catholic press, the main Irish television channel (RTE) celebrated the 25th Anniversary of John Paul II's elevation to the Papacy with a nostalgic look at the Papal visit to the Republic back in 1979. It is always somewhat amusing to view that era on television. The technical side of colour television was not as advanced as it is today and we still cringe at the long hair and bushy beards which were the go among the men folk and the flared trousers and bright coloured shirts which were the fashion.

Back in 1979, Ireland turned out in force to greet the new athletic and young-for-the-Vatican Pope from Poland. With no Celtic tiger even on the horizon, Ireland then was still struggling with a massive national debt and the estimated cost of the visit ran to £1.5 million. However the hierarchy resorted to the usual means of raising much needed cash for the visit. Forget the family silver and put the screws on the faithful once again. The late Cardinal Thomas O’Fiaich, Archbishop of Armagh, said if everyone contributed the price of a couple of packs of cigarettes or two gallons of petrol, the clergy would have no worries about the amount of finance involved. The Pope visited four centres - Dublin where most of the people live, Galway - the main city in the mid west, Limerick which is near Shannon airport and Drogheda. The writer's adopted city of Cork was pretty peeved at being ignored especially in preference to Limerick. Drogheda was chosen to accommodate the Pope's many followers from Northern Ireland. "The North" was not on the Papal itinerary because of the ongoing political unrest. The Free Presbyterian Church was very focal and successful at the time in its opposition to the idea of the Pope coming to the north.

It is an old joke that nostalgia just isn't what it used to be. We tend to romanticise the past and refer to it as "the good old days" but Ireland has not had a chance to do this. Ireland's past has been playing catch up and even pictures of the Papal visit only prove to remind even the starry eyed that things were radically wrong when the belief was that everything was right. Always to the fore in the Papal visit was one Bishop Eamon Casey. He shot to fame later on when his housekeeper cum mistress revealed him to be the father of her child. This entailed the Bishop of Galway doing a runner to the United States and then missionary work in the back of beyond in Peru. Yet with a secret love child growing up at this time, Casey was prominent in the Papal tour of this state. Even if we do concede that what happens between two consenting adults is their business, none can forget that at this time of Papal revivalism in Ireland, there were hundreds if not thousands of sex abuse victims suffering in various parishes and schools right across the country. Time and time again the Papal authorities were made aware of these crimes and yet they closed ranks and left the innocent to suffer. It sure takes a mighty effort for people to keep focussed on all that was perceived to be good about the 1979 visit.

Significantly, the Pope was never asked to return to Ireland again. He will hardly now, for the man is dying, but even when he was able still to travel and when money was more plentiful, the Papal authorities quietly got on with their work without him. There was talk of another visit after the signing of the Good Friday agreement but it soon petered out. The 1979 visit was seen to be too successful and the fear was that another visit would not generate anywhere near the same interest. Disillusioned people on a later visit might even have protested publicly at any events and so Rome was content to milk the past as oppose to test the present.

Irish Television did it's bit this week by rerunning the Papal Visit. But the same week also saw one of its investigative journalists go to the United States to confront an ex President of Maynooth Seminary with claims that he had struck up some "inappropriate relationships" with young trainees for the priesthood. The media have unrelenting in their investigations. We wish them well.