THE HISTORIC two-day meeting between Pope Benedict, his senior Curia officials and Ireland’s Catholic bishops enters its final session this morning at the Apostolic Palace in the Vatican.
It concludes at lunchtime today to accommodate those Irish bishops who must attend Ash Wednesday ceremonies in their dioceses tomorrow. This will include Archbishop Diarmuid Martin. The Irish bishops have been incommunicado since early yesterday and no statements have been issued.
It was indicated yesterday that Pope Benedict’s promised pastoral letter to the Irish faithful, originally scheduled to be published before Lent but delayed because of this visit to Rome by the Irish bishops, may be released sooner than expected.
The meeting with the pope was preceded by a Mass in St Peter’s Basilica, celebrated by Vatican secretary of state Cardinal Tarcisio Bertone. In his homily Cardinal Bertone said that only “an authentic and sincere humility” could lead to a “true renewal” of the Irish Church.
Speaking directly to the Irish bishops, he said: “Trials for the church can come from within and from without. Both are painful but the ones that come from within are obviously harder to take and more humiliating. Such is the huge trial that your communities are currently undergoing, trials which see some men of the church involved in particularly execrable acts.”
Calling on God to offer the bishops “humility of heart”, he said: “Only if we arrive at an authentic and sincere humility can the grace of God truly work deeply for us and thus realise a true renewal.”
He warned against the temptation to discouragement and despair touching the hearts of believers, shaking their faith and threatening their ability to trust God. For this reason, he concluded, the bishops must accept God’s will with a “good and faithful heart in order to receive the full force of renewal”.
The Mass was concelebrated with the Irish bishops by the Vatican’s most powerful figures, including Cardinal William Levada, Cardinal Giovanni Battista Re, Cardinal Claudio Hummes, Cardinal Franc Rode and Cardinal Zenon Grocholewski. Afterwards the bishops were taken to the Apostolic Palace where each was introduced to Pope Benedict separately before proceedings began. The first Irish speaker was Cardinal Seán Brady.
In Rome this afternoon Cardinal Brady will host a press conference at which he is expected to outline what has taken place in discussions at the Apostolic Palace over the past two days. The 24 Irish bishops stayed at the Santa Marta centre in the Vatican last night. It was prepared originally to accommodate cardinals during a papal conclave and like those cardinals the Irish bishops have not spoken publicly since their discussions with the pope began.
Meanwhile, it emerged last night that the papal nuncio to Ireland, Archbishop Giuseppe Leanza, has declined an invitation to appear before the joint Oireachtas Committee on Foreign Affairs.
In a letter to its chairman, Dr Michael Woods, he said it was “not the practice of the Holy See that Apostolic Nuncios appear before Parliamentary Commissions”. Fine Gael TD Alan Shatter, a member of the committee, described the nuncio’s decision as “not only regrettable but incomprehensible”.
Earlier this month, proposing that Archbishop Leanza be invited before the committee, Mr Shatter noted the nunciature’s failure, and that of the Vatican’s Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, to respond to the Murphy commission’s inquiries.
He said the nuncio should be asked “that the assistance the Murphy commission sought, be now provided to it”, if he agreed to attend.