IRELAND
Catholic Herald (United Kingdom)
By Mary O’Regan on Monday, 18 June 2012
At the entrance to the final Mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress, a man and a woman in their 30s held signs saying “RTÉ is anti-Catholic” and “Abortion: thou shalt not kill”. A middle-aged man had “Arrest Cardinal Brady, Protector of Paedophiles” on four different signs which hung from his shoulders. Streams of thousands of people were unaffected by the few demonstrators and filed past them. In all 80,000 people were present for the Mass, which Cardinal Brady concelebrated.
I met some people who had given up the faith, but came yesterday and said that at the very least it was a sublime occasion to hear Ireland’s top musical talents. The Three Tenors, The Priests and soprano Celine Byrne have voices that would melt marble. One thing I found frustrating was that the RTÉ Concert Orchestra did take over and it was hard to hear the Palestrina Choir. One young pilgrim brought an enormous 1932 Eucharistic Congress flag that had been preserved by his family until now. People saw the flag’s antiquity and gathered round to hear how it had been passed down through the generations in his family.
The Congress could prove to Rome that Ireland is ready for a papal visit. It showed that despite a few objectors, thousands of Irish people can gather in loving adoration of Christ in the Eucharist, that they can engage with people from different parts of the world; that we can put aside our bitterness about the Irish Church’s mishandling of the abuse cases, and rejoice in that which unites all the 1.4 billion Catholics: Christ in the Eucharist.
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