Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin accompanied the International Eucharistic Congress
Bell to the Vatican on Wednesday, saying “there is a real sense of renewal in the
Church in Ireland” in the lead up to this June event.
Recalling the Eucharistic
Congress that took place in Dublin back in 1932, the Archbishop said that gathering
marked a moment of reconciliation for people who had recently emerged from a bitter
civil war. In a similar way, he said, the year’s event aims to be “a moment of healing
within the Irish Church” after these “very difficult times”.
Archbishop Martin
noted that the pilgrimage of the bell – a symbol of gathering people in and stressing
their communion with Christ and with one another – comes exactly two years after Pope
Benedict’s letter to Irish Catholics on March 19th 2010 at the height of
the sexual abuse crisis. The pilgrimage of the bell started in Dublin one year ago,
he stresssed, "so these are two processes that belong together”.
Listen to
Philippa Hitchen’s interview with Archbishop Diarmuid Martin: