THE POPE’S pastoral letter needs to be read in a spirit of “faith and openness”, Bishop of Galway Dr Martin Drennan said in Galway Cathedral at the weekend.The letter is at times “very direct”, refers to “courage and resolve” and also acknowledges that there is “no quick-fix solution”, Dr Drennan said, when he read extracts from the text at 6pm Mass on Saturday.
Although it clashed with the Six Nations rugby tournament, several hundred people attended the service.
A Galway diocesan spokesman said Dr Drennan had opted for Saturday evening as he had confirmations to attend on Sunday.
In his précis of the pastoral letter, Dr Drennan said that “the Holy Father names a reality that is now to be the starting point anew”, and he had noted that “healing and restoration” would be “a long-term process”.
The pope spoke to different groups, including the survivors of abuse and their families, to whom he had said he was “truly sorry”.
At Carlow’s Cathedral of the Assumption, a large congregation at 11am Mass listened to Fr Pádraig Shelley in a silence punctuated only by the crying of some infants in buggies.
He announced that the diocese (of Kildare and Leighlin) would hold two public meetings later this week to “discuss and reflect on” the papal letter.
He made no reference to the local bishop, Jim Moriarty, who announced his resignation on December 23rd last but who remains in office pending a decision by the Vatican.
A diocesan spokesman later said the bishop was “away”.
In a statement issued to the media on Saturday night, Bishop Moriarty said that the pastoral letter “indicates the seriousness with which Pope Benedict regards the current crisis and his heartfelt concern for the people of Ireland, particularly those who were abused”.
He made no reference to his own resignation.
Diocesan sources believe that the Vatican will formally announce Bishop Moriarty’s departure “in two weeks’ time”.
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