Opinion

Allison Morris: Pope must take this opportunity to start the process of healing

 Pope Francis is to travel through Dublin on Saturday
 Pope Francis is to travel through Dublin on Saturday  Pope Francis is to travel through Dublin on Saturday

Later this week Pope Francis will arrive in Ireland and thousands of Catholics will flock to sites in Dublin and Knock for the opportunity to see the pontiff and hear him speak.

The World Meeting of Families, held every three years, with thousands of people from across the world attending, will by all accounts be a glorious celebration of faith.

In a video message to his followers the Argentinian Pope said he hoped his visit would “further the growth of unity and reconciliation”.

Something we’ve been trying but never fully achieved in Ireland for many years, but it was a message that - whether a believer or not - most people would welcome.

And so, it is a shame that the DUP shunned the invitation to attend the papal visit.

I’m not at all religious, the most lapsed of lapsed Catholics, but this is not just about endorsing Catholicism but showing respect to a global public figure and one who provides spiritual comfort to millions.

Martin McGuinness meeting the queen seems a lifetime ago now, this was Arlene Foster’s chance to be that statesperson, or at the very least send a senior member of her party.

Not to engage is a missed opportunity.

What will form a major part of the debate around the visit is the child abuse scandals, the cover up and failure of the Church to properly report and punish those responsible.

We talk a lot about the ‘new Ireland’ the one that voted for same sex marriage and to repeal the eighth amendment, many people, including some priests, have claimed that supporting one or more of those issues diminishes or precludes people from being ‘true’ Catholics, but this week will I think dispel that.

Catholics have changed, religion has changed, no longer is the priest to be revered no matter what, that type of unquestioning worship is what helped give protection to those who exploited and abused children for decades.

People can and do now practice their faith while also being critical of aspects of the Church.

Members of my family have got great comfort from religion in times of hardship, while also being appalled by the criminality and abuse of children and unmarried mothers in our not so recent past.

I’m old enough to remember the last papal visit, sitting on the floor of a classroom in Holy Child Primary school watching the then pontiff John Paul II, a man whose picture adorned the walls of every Irish grandmother’s home, addressing the nation.

Less than a mile away from where I sat that very day were victims of serial paedophile Brendan Smyth, a man whose crimes were beyond vile and too numerous to mention.

A man, who at the very time of that papal visit, was being moved from one parish to another, the allegations against him unreported to police, the victims treated like collateral damage by the Church.

The pervert priest’s order allowed him to evade arrest for several years by hiding out in Kilnacrott Abbey in Co Cavan.

Fear was what kept the Church’s dark secrets for so many decades.

No longer the case, slowly, encouraged by each others, victims have come forward.

They’ve told their stories, they’ve broken the silence, they’ve shaken off the shackles of a powerful institution that ruled unquestioned for far too long.

Those people should not only be commended by society but by the Church itself, because by telling their stories they have made it possible for the Church to take a mirror to itself.

Change has been slow, the hierarchy still more focused on saving reputation than helping those who have hurt, documents remain concealed, victims regularly disbelieved.

I've spoken to so many of those victims over the years, some show superhuman resilience, others are broken, possibly beyond repair, others have since died, some in poverty having never managed to live functioning adult lives due to the sheer trauma of their childhoods.

And while there is no one size fits all solution, here we have the most powerful and influential Catholic in the world on our doorstep and what a missed opportunity it would be if he didn’t start that process of healing.

This is not a time for constructive ambiguity, for ‘acknowledgement’ of hurt, this is a chance to apologise to victims of abuse, mother and baby homes and forced adoption, to say that all powerful word ‘sorry’.

And then to follow that up with action and redress, then and only then can the Catholic Church look to the future without the constant spectre of the past.