The Pope in Ireland, Then and Now
The Pope is visiting Ireland and things couldn't look more different than they appear to be from photos, or at least from this meme:
There is clearly a huge difference here and the photo locations may not have been fairly compared, I don't know. I can't see them reaching these levels:
Because there has been a seismic shift in attitudes that can be seen by the fact there was a papal protest ("Say nope to the Pope") and the actions of the taoiseach:
When free tickets for the mass to be celebrated by Pope Francis in Phoenix Park in Dublin were advertised, Mary Coll applied for two – one in her name and the other in the name of her birth mother, who gave her up for adoption in 1962.
But Coll will not be using the tickets. “This is my protest, not to go,” she said. Instead, she will drive from her home in Limerick to Tuam, where a vigil will be held at the site of a mass grave discovered last year at a former Catholic church mother-and-baby home. It contained the remains of up to 800 infants.
Coll got the idea of applying but not using tickets for the mass on Sunday from Say Nope to the Pope, a campaign of “silent and peaceful protest” against his visit. The group’s Facebook page has about 9,000 supporters.
Michael Stewart, one of the organisers, said the idea resonated with people “because it’s an effective form of protest”.
“As Irish citizens, we were all entitled to a ticket to the papal mass if we wished. The taxpayer was funding this visit regardless of their faith, and that was the icing on the cake for many,” he said.
Half a million tickets were available to the public for the mass, with a further 45,000 for the papal visit to the Marian shrine in Knock.
“Why shouldn’t [people] claim their ticket and use it how they see fit?” Stewart said. “It seems that actively and deliberately not using their ticket was an appropriate option while we stand in solidarity with the excessive number of victims from this atrocious organisation.”
Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach, has sat down with the Pope to talk about the future relationship of state and church in Ireland, a conversation that is long overdue. And Varadkar has not held back:
The Irish prime minister has called for a new relationship between church and state in which religion is no longer at the centre of society, as the pope made his first visit to Ireland this weekend.
In a blistering speech focusing on the failings of the church, delivered in the presence of Pope Francis, Leo Varadkar, the taoiseach, said a new covenant for the 21st century was needed that reflected the modern country Ireland had become and learned from “our shared mistakes”.
Pope Francis, who is on a two-day visit to Ireland, repeated earlier acknowledgements of the “grave scandal” of child sexual abuse and the church’s failures to confront it, but he failed to address survivors’ growing demands for action.
Francis said: “I cannot fail to acknowledge the grave scandal caused in Ireland by the abuse of young people by members of the church charged with responsibility for their protection and education.
“The failure of ecclesiastical authorities – bishops, religious superiors, priests and others – adequately to address these repellent crimes has rightly given rise to outrage and remains a source of pain and shame for the Catholic community. I myself share those sentiments.”
On Saturday evening, the pope spent more than an hour meeting in private with eight survivors of abuse committed by clerics or church institutions.
Varadkar’s speech focused on the “dark aspects” of the Ireland’s history. “The failures of both church and state, and wider society, created a bitter and broken heritage for so many, leaving a legacy of pain and suffering. It is a history of sorrow and shame,” he said.
Child sexual abuse, the Magdalene Laundries, mother and baby homes and illegal adoptions were “stains on our state, our society and also the Catholic church. People kept in dark corners behind closed doors, cries for help that went unheard.”
The taoiseach also referred to the recent grand jury report on clerical abuse in Pennsylvania, talking of “brutal crimes perpetrated by people within the Catholic church, and then obscured to protect the institution at the expense of innocent victims”.
“It is a story all too tragically familiar here in Ireland,” he said.
He also said there was “much to be done to bring about justice and truth and healing for victims and survivors … We must now ensure that from words flow actions.”
Turning to the profound changes in Irish society since the last papal visit in 1979, Varadkar said the country was more diverse, less religious and had modernised its laws on divorce, contraception, abortion and same sex marriage, “understanding that marriages do not always work, that women should make their own decisions, and that families come in many different, wonderful forms, including those headed by a grandparent, lone parent or same-sex parents, or parents who are divorced”.
The changes meant the time had come “for us to build a new, more mature relationship between church and state in Ireland – a new covenant for the 21st century”.
It would be one “in which religion is no longer at the centre of our society, but in which it still has an important place”, he said.
Things are definitely moving in the right direction there, and Varadkar has a lot to be thanked for.
Stay in touch! Like A Tippling Philosopher on Facebook:
A Tippling Philosopher