Mgr Stephen Robson, the Scottish bishops national delegate to the
50th International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin next year, believes
the event could be a healing opportunity for Irish Catholics.
Preparation for next year’s event was recently overshadowed by the
publication and aftermath of the Cloyne Report, which suggested that the
Church protected priests involved in clerical abuse from the
authorities in Cork until 2007.
Healing Sacrament
Mgr Robson hopes the congress will be an opportunity to heal some of hurt within the Catholic community in Ireland.
“After they’ve suffered such a trauma in Ireland in the last few
years I would like to think that the Eucharistic Congress and support of
so many Catholics from all over the world might be seen as some kind of
aid towards healing and reconciliation, because the Eucharist is the
sacrament of healing,” he said.
“The Catholics in Ireland, who at the moment are feeling very
isolated, may realise there are people round the world in solidarity
with them in their Faith and together we need to work and pray for the
victims and for a healing of the confidence that has been shattered in
the bishops and priests.”
Cancellation fears
Mgr Robson, chancellor of St Andrews and Edinburgh Archdiocese, told
the SCO of his of his hopes shortly after an Irish politician had echoed
the call of the Association of Catholic Priests in Ireland for the
event to be postponed.
Senator Cait Keane of the ruling Fine Gael party
suggested to the Irish parliament that ‘everyone will be better served,
given the sensitivities around the findings of this report,’ if the
congress is ‘held at a later date.’
Fr Kevin Doran, the secretary general of the Eucharistic Congress, has since said the congress will not be cancelled.
“It is especially important for people in times of challenge or
crisis that they can gather in solidarity and rediscover their essential
truths,” he said, adding ‘Catholics are no different in this regard’
and that the Eucharistic Congress will ‘support that need’ within the
Church.
Fr Doran went on to say that there was ‘substantial enthusiasm for
the Congress,’ both locally and internationally, and noted that the
Church had been planning the event since June 2008.
He added that the congress is not just a week-long event but a
‘pilgrimage of renewal,’ where participants can come together to explore
the meaning of Eucharist in all its dimensions, including the challenge
of ‘acting justly and walking humbly with God.’
Eucharistic appreciation
Mgr Robson said he hoped, in addition to helping to Ireland, that the
congress would promote a greater appreciation of the Eucharist in
Scotland.
“I hope it makes our people even more aware of centrality and
importance of mass and the dignity of mass as sacrament and sacrifice,”
he said.
“Of the opportunity to celebrate Mass, which is a little
Easter, every Sunday, and that we see the presence of Christ in the
Eucharist not only during Mass.”