The Bishop of Killaloe Bishop Willie Walsh has, in what is likely to be his last pastoral letter before retirement, claimed that a huge gulf has been created between bishops and the laity. In his Lenten pastoral letter entitled A Reflection For Our Time Bishop Walsh claims that a “bishop finds it difficult to address his flock at this time in our country.”
However he asked that his words be not construed as a plea for sympathy.
A gulf, he said, had been created between bishops and the laity in the aftermath of the Murphy (Dublin diocese) report.
Bishop Walsh’s letter continues, “I am acutely aware that in the wake of the Dublin report, bishops have experienced opprobrium at a level they have never experienced before in this country. As I said, I find it humbling and shaming and I have reflected deeply on it in an effort to learn from this experience. It has brought me to my knees and made the words of Psalm 50 speak to me with an intensity I have never felt before.”
He then asks that his words be not construed as a plea for sympathy when stating that a bishop finds it difficult to address his flock at this time in our country.
A gulf had been created between bishops and the laity in the aftermath of the Dublin report and the bishop proceeded to quote, as follows, from how one commentator succinctly put it, “Those (bishops) who could be expected to live by the values of the gospel, and to teach others, seemed to have strayed from it, while those (laity) who had been taught had absorbed in a striking way the gospel message.”
It was, said Bishop Walsh, as simple as that; the preacher not practising what he preaches.
Such was the failure of leadership that had disillusioned, angered and alienated many of the most loyal members of the Catholic Church in our country.
He was speaking to his flock now in this lenten pastoral in a spirit of humility and repentance. “You too have been sinned against and I express my sorrow to you,” he said.
Saying that he was coming to the end of his time as a serving bishop, Bishop Walsh said he had reflected on the pain, confusion and hurt felt by so many in our country at this time.
Being a former teacher of mathematics, there were those who would say that he liked to solve problems.
It could be suggested that he must be very disappointed to be retiring at this time when there were so many jagged edges in the Irish Church.
Experience had taught him that life was not a problem to be solved according to a set of ready to hand mathematical solutions. Life was a mix of joy and sorrow. There were many elements of surprise at directions taken and choices made. For every smooth path there was a rough passage.
The jagged edges were a reality that must be accepted and examined for the lessons to be learned there.
But Bishop Walsh said that he sees hope for all of us.
He sees possibilities of growth and genuine renewal for the Catholic Church in Ireland.
It was a growth, he said, “that will take place over time as green shoots emerge slowly from a well pruned branch.”
It will be a Church, he said, “where laity will be listened to and their views put into practice. Church leadership will learn through its pain to be more compassionate and lead people in a spirit of truth and honesty. The love of God will be our guiding light and inspiration.”
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