Young Catholics of Ireland "reassured" by World Youth Day

Among the hundreds of thousands pilgrims in Madrid for World Youth Day are many from Ireland. The Irish Church has recently been shaken by the sexual abuse crisis, and the Irish pilgrims say they have received much encouragement from other nationalities.

“Saying you were from the Irish Church was actually a wonderful badge of honour as far as most other countries were concerned,” said Bishop Donal McKeown, Auxiliary Bishop of Down & Connor.

“We were very encouraged by their experience of Irish missionaries, of their contacts with the Irish Church down through the years,” he told Vatican Radio. “That has been a wonderful reassurance for our young people who perhaps in Ireland feel the headwinds are so strong, that we are part of a dying breed. One of my young people said a lovely thing: We are not part of the problem, we are part of the solution.”

Listen to full interview by Emer McCarthy with Bishop McKeown: