Opinion

Martin O'Brien: It would have been good manners for President Higgins to greet Pope Francis at Dublin airport

Pope Francis will visit the Republic next month. Picture by Martial Trezzini, pool photo via AP
Pope Francis will visit the Republic next month. Picture by Martial Trezzini, pool photo via AP Pope Francis will visit the Republic next month. Picture by Martial Trezzini, pool photo via AP

IN EXACTLY four weeks the country will be in a state of eager anticipation ahead of the scheduled arrival of Pope Francis for a historic two-day visit marking the World Meeting of Families in Dublin.

The Pope will be a welcome visitor far beyond the Catholic faithful because he is seen by so many people of all faiths and of none, as the foremost moral voice in the world today on a host of issues, including social justice and the environment.

Among many Catholics – and those who no longer practise their faith – the Holy Father will be particularly welcome because he has given the Church a more merciful, non-judgmental tone.

Above all, Francis’s simple tastes and informality, his championing of the poor and of those on the peripheries of society, has won the hearts of countless millions around the world.

This is only the second time in history that the successor of St Peter will have come to Ireland, a country where 78.3 per cent of people still self-identify as Roman Catholic.

So, it is not to the credit of President Michael D Higgins, nor to the Irish government for that matter, that Mr Higgins, the head of state, is not making the short trip out to Dublin Airport to extend céad míle fáilte (as President Hillery did to Pope St John Paul in 1979) but requiring the Pope, who is on a tight schedule, to go to see him in Áras an Uachtaráin.

The Americans have better manners in this regard even though the Catholic portion of the population in the United States, at 22 per cent, is much smaller than in Ireland.

But is the US any less a republic, and is its division between state and church any less pure because President Obama and President George W Bush had the graciousness to greet Pope Francis and Pope Benedict at the airport, now called Joint Base Andrews, in 2015 and 2008 respectively?

Once again, as in 1979, the Pope will not be coming to the north to the deep disappointment of many here, thus underlining our apartness not just from the rest of the island but from the rest of the UK and confirming our dubious distinction as the only major region in these islands not to have been visited by a pope.

The ever dwindling No Pope Here brigade will welcome the papal no-show but even they have toned down the rhetoric over the past couple of years, putting the emphasis on dignified protests, when it seemed virtually certain that Pope Francis would not skip Northern Ireland.

Last month I spent some time in Rome trying to find out why the north has been overlooked again and reported my findings in The Irish Catholic, the paper where in May I had broken the story about the unprecedented letter the Protestant church leaders wrote to the Pope last Advent telling him: “The potential that a visit to Northern Ireland could have in promoting peace and reconciliation throughout the island cannot be underestimated.”

I wondered why a Papal visit to the north that had the strong support of the Irish and British governments, the Protestant church leaders, Archbishop Eamon Martin who is the president of the Irish Bishops Conference, the northern bishops and many of their southern counterparts, and importantly, the goodwill of DUP leaders such as Sir Jeffrey Donaldson MP, had not materialised.

Key figures in the Vatican and elsewhere would only speak privately given the obvious sensitivities but in a nutshell, Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin, who is hosting the World Meeting of Families and who has decades more experience than his Armagh counterpart in working the curial corridors of power, concurred with Vatican fears that a visit to the north would overshadow the world meeting, a concern that somehow didn’t extend to the trip to Knock Shrine.

Other subsidiary factors were concern that a papal crossing of the border could exacerbate tensions over Brexit and the continued political limbo here.

As we wish for as successful a World Meeting of Families as possible our fervent hope must be after this missed opportunity that a standalone visit by Pope Francis to Northern Ireland will take place before too long, despite all the demands on his time.

After all we have suffered this place is in continuous need of leadership, reconciliation and courageous example. What better example of that would be Queen Elizabeth II welcoming the Pope to Northern Ireland?