IRELAND
Questions from a Ewe
I arrived at Dublin airport only a few hours ago but in time to attend Sunday Mass at a nearby neighborhood church. Mass began with the deacon reading Archbishop of Dublin, Diarmuid Martin’s pastoral reflections about Ireland’s upcoming constitutional referendum on marriage equality. Spoiler alert: he’s against it.
For those unfamiliar with this Friday’s referendum in Ireland, the proposed constitutional amendment would insert the following text in a new subsection to Article 41 of the Irish Constitution. “Marriage may be contracted in accordance with law by two persons without distinction as to their sex.”
Anyway, I was the first person to arrive for Mass – the very first – though I arrived about 10 minutes prior to Mass. The parking lot had but one vehicle as well so I began to question the accuracy of the Mass time posted on the internet. No worries, a priest greeted me at the door and reassured me that a Mass actually would start in a few minutes; I was just early, said he. Despite his reassurances, as I opened the door to the empty sanctuary the lyrics from Pink Floyd’s “Comfortably Numb” popped into my head…“Hello, hello, hello, is there anybody in there?”
I thought, “O.K., the stampeding herds here must slide into their pews just before Mass…kind of like Ty Cobb sliding into home base on a steal.” I sat awaiting the rush.
Well, if the teeming masses came to this Mass, they were invisible because what I saw was barely more people in the pews than on the altar. We had two priests, a deacon, a lector, an altar server and an old guy whose role never became clear to me – all to attend to just a few dozen mass goers. The PPP (priest per person) ratio was pretty high today, enough so to cause me to doubt lamentations about priest shortages.
As the deacon read the Archbishop’s statement, I found myself musing about what must be going through his mind as he reads this pastoral reflection practically to himself. I again heard Pink Floyd playing in my head, ”just nod if you can hear me…is there anyone at home?”
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