Lourdes 2009
Killaloe Diocesan Pilgrimage to Lourdes June 26th -July 1st 2009
Bishop Willie Walsh led the 53rd Diocesan Pilgrimage from Killaloe Diocese to the Marian Shrine of Lourdes from Friday 26th June, to 1st July. Five hundred and thirty pilgrims travelled on three separate flights from Shannon Airport. Fifty six sick and disabled pilgrims were cared for by Dr. Martin Fitzgerald, Tulla and a team of Nurses and carers from all over the Diocese. Roscrea Folk Group, under the direction of Margaret Moloney, led the singing for the pilgrimage. Forty two young people from parishes and Secondary Schools across the Diocese assisted the sick pilgrims.
The 530 pilgrims gathered in Lourdes as members of the Diocese of Killaloe and the wider Irish Church to pray to give thanks to God for all their blessings, to ask for healing and forgiveness for themselves and for others. They brought their joys and sorrows, their successes and failures, their hopes and fears, as well as those of family and friends and the whole Irish Church and its people.
In his homily at Mass at the Grotto, Bishop Walsh spoke about the recent Ryan Report on the dreadful abuse suffered by thousands of children in industrial schools in the past century and acknowledged how so many are affected, both directly and indirectly, by the actions of priests and religious who were entrusted with the care of those innocent victims at that time.
Lourdes is a place of healing and the Bishop spoke of the need of healing for the victims of the awful abuse as well as those who perpetrated such abuse, those who had some knowledge of the harshness of conditions in these schools and who chose to ignore it; those who have understandably reacted with shock, horror and anger at the revelations and also the thousands of religious – priests, sisters and brothers who had no part in any such abuse but who now have to bear the burdens of the failures of a small number of colleagues.
Healing and forgiveness is possible but healing cannot happen without forgiveness. For most of the past century an image of God as a harsh, judging God prevailed and many of us were reared on an image of God who would love us if we were good, rather than the God who loves us and never withdraws that love even when we fail to live up to His ideals. God’s love for us is imaged by a parent’s love for their child and parents don’t withdraw their love for their child even if they don’t live up to their principles. Jesus has always presented to us an image of a loving and forgiving God who loves us no matter what our faults and failings are, and this is already at work especially in our schools today where children are respected, cherished and loved.
That gives us hope in the midst of the sadness about the past and there are many aspects of the Irish Church today which give reason for joy and for hope. There is still wonderful goodness and generosity, wonderful faith, hope and love among the vast majority of people, priests and religious in the Irish Church today.
We pray that we may find and deepen our faith in a loving and forgiving God who loves us no matter what our story is.
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