Opinion

William Scholes: Still waiting for white smoke on northern papal visit

William Scholes

William Scholes

William has worked at The Irish News since 2002. His areas of interest include religion and motoring.

Pope Francis is coming to Dublin - but probably not going north of the border. He poses for a photo with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, second from left, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, right, and a group of families from Ireland at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday. Picture by AP Photo/Andrew Medichini
Pope Francis is coming to Dublin - but probably not going north of the border. He poses for a photo with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, second from left, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, right, and a group of families from Ireland at the end of his weekly g Pope Francis is coming to Dublin - but probably not going north of the border. He poses for a photo with Cardinal Kevin Farrell, second from left, Archbishop of Dublin Diarmuid Martin, right, and a group of families from Ireland at the end of his weekly general audience at the Vatican on Wednesday. Picture by AP Photo/Andrew Medichini

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WISPS of white smoke were still escaping from the Sistine Chapel's chimney when Jorge Mario Bergoglio turned to his fellow cardinals and said, "May God forgive you."

Bergoglio became known as Pope Francis on that cool Rome night. With the benefit of five years' hindsight we now know that he was advising the cardinals - and the Catholic Church - to hold tight as he embarked on a papacy that would be very different to those which had preceded it.

Even if that early promise has lost momentum and some of his big ideas become bogged down in Vatican and Church politics, there is little doubt that Francis himself remains a hugely popular figure.

A visit - anywhere, at any time - by any Pope is going to draw large crowds and considerable interest, but Francis has something of the X factor about him.

Some Catholics may not like the description, but Pope Francis is showbiz; he is box office.

Wednesday's confirmation that the Pope will attend the World Meeting of Families in Dublin at the end of August will only energise the race to secure tickets to the events at Phoenix Park and Croke Park.

Northern Catholics will, of course, be among those wanting to travel to Dublin.

But their enthusiasm will be tempered by disappointment - maybe also disgruntlement and a little hurt pride - that the Pope has not yet included a visit to Northern Ireland on his schedule.

It is, of course, possible that a northern visit could be added closer to the time. Doubtless the bishops will be lobbying for that to happen, though it is a case that has been made many, many times before.

However, one imagines that as time passes, the prospects will become increasingly slender, not least because of the mammoth organisation that lies behind a papal visit at diplomatic, security, ecclesiastical and practical levels.

A northern papal visit has been a tantalising but elusive prospect since Pope John Paul II's triumphant Irish pilgrimage in 1979.

He had hoped to visit Armagh, Ireland's ecclesiastical capital, but the Troubles put a halt to that.

The closest he got was Killineer, near Drogheda, which at least was in the Archdiocese of Armagh.

Hope flickered briefly in 2010 when John Paul II's successor, Pope Benedict XVI, made a state visit to the United Kingdom.

However, only Scotland and England featured on the itinerary.

The idea that this summer's Dublin visit presents the ideal opportunity to tie Armagh's loose end from 1979 is a persuasive one.

It is maybe too neat, though. The Vatican and Catholic Church does not operate that way.

Francis is coming to participate in the World Meeting of Families, an event of considerable stature hosted by the Archdiocese of Dublin and a hugely important date in the life of the global Church.

The Pope is not, in other words, travelling to Ireland in some general sense, or because he has identified an opportunity to draw a line under 1979.

Nor has Europe proved particularly high on Francis's priorities. The Pope 'of the periphery' has tended to focus his energies elsewhere.

Still, Francis's visit to Ireland, however limited it ends up being, will be a shot in the arm for the Irish Church.

It badly needs it.

The Ireland John Paul II encountered was a bulwark against the secularism taking hold elsewhere in Europe.

But in less than 40 years, Mass attendance has collapsed; priests are getting thinner on the ground; the Catholic Church is in an existential crisis; 'Catholic Ireland' has become post-Catholic - perhaps even post-Christian - Ireland.

The reasons for this are, naturally, complex and multi-layered. The continuing impact of clerical abuse cannot, and should not, be ignored.

It is also difficult to think of another place where the "dictatorship of relativism", identified by Cardinal Joseph Ratzinger in the days before he became Pope Benedict as a regime that "does not recognise anything as definitive and whose ultimate goal consists solely of one's own ego and desires", has taken hold more efficiently, so quickly.

The Churches are also seeking to find their place in the emerging social order in the north, which is perhaps the only place in Europe never to receive a papal visit.

A visit by Pope Francis to Northern Ireland would undoubtedly encourage Catholics; it would be some vindication of their steadfastness since the disappointment of 1979.

And if he doesn't make it, it will be northern Catholics who say to him, "May God forgive you."