Those attending the Athlone Literary Festival may have heard One In Four founder Colm O'Gorman speak.O'Gorman, who is now executive director of the Irish section of Amnesty International took part in a debate session on Friday night in the Prince of Wales Hotel, addressing the topic of whether the dream of an Irish Republic was finished.
He touched on themes of active citizenship, of participatory democracy, of leadership and of the need for all in Ireland to take control of our own destinies.
He came across to most audience members as a passionate, thoughtful and insightful man, whose contribution to Irish civic life in recent years cannot be underestimated. Of course, he came to national prominence initially after blowing open the sexual abuse scandal in the Diocese of Ferns.
And if O'Gorman represented an Ireland of the present and of the future, an Ireland that's willing to deal with its past and build a brighter future, then unfortunately, last weekend, at the same time as O'Gorman was in Athlone, the Catholic Church showed how it continues to exemplify the past.
The decision by the church to withdraw an invite to O'Gorman represented yet another example of the church's utter inability to change.
O'Gorman had been invited to take part in a Mass of healing and reconciliation planned by Fr Iggy O'Donovan at the Augustinian Church in Drogheda on Sunday last. The Mass was designed to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the visit of Pope John Paul 11 to Ireland.
It appears that the Archdiocese of Armagh instructed Fr O'Donovan to withdraw the invitation.
It was "a shame that senior church leaders have chosen to close their hearts, their minds and their ears to words offered in a true spirit of hope. Hope informed by an absolute belief in the endless possibilities to be found in our human capacity to transcend terrible trauma and find a way forward together", O'Gorman was quoted in the Irish Times.
Instead they had "used their power to prevent such a process from finding even more powerful expression by locating it in church". In his planned address he had "no intention of raking over old, now established hurts".
Those who have heard O'Gorman speak will know that his focus now is to help chart a way forward for Ireland and its institutions, religious and secular alike.
That this man should be seen as unsuitable to speak at Mass of Reconciliation by the same church which has shown, at best, unforgivable tardiness in dealing with abusers in its own midst speaks volume for the mindset of the Catholic Church today.
We need the Catholic Church to change and to grow - but it can only do so by embracing the assistance of those like O'Gorman, whom it has failed so badly.
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