Report from Meeting with Cardinal O’Malley

At this meeting which took place on the 20th^h & 21st February Cardinal O’Malley  and his team met with approximately twenty chairpersons on each evening from the Dublin Diocese .  Every representative was given an opportunity to speak  and express the feelings and thoughts of their collective Pastoral Councils.

Prior to this meeting the chairpersons of eleven Pastoral Councils from the Fingal South West Deanery met in Our Lady of Victories and agreed that the chairpersons from Phibsboro and Ballygall would be their representatives.  Each Pastoral Council would give a written submission and the representatives would present a verbal summary of this.

There was no doubt that the Cardinal listened respectfully to what was said on both these evenings.  He also welcomed the written submissions.  He did not respond except to thank those who came and said he hoped that there would be a response from Rome after Easter.

The areas reported on were: The Murphy Report, The Apostolic Visitation and Renewal in the Diocese

While most of the thoughts and feelings were the same and repeated as each representative spoke, it was a different story for those who were representing parishes where abuse had taken place.  The pain of these revelations remained very raw and one chairperson spoke of the collective guilt that the parish community felt.  Some were dealing not only the reality of the revelations but also witnessing the pain and anguish of the abusers families who lived in their parish.

The feelings that were expressed were honest and truthful, a mixture of the hurt, anger and betrayal by Rome and the Institutional church but there was also hope as people shared what was happening in their parishes especially the huge progress we have made in the area of child protection.

There was a follow up meeting with the eleven councils who had been represented from the Fingal South West Deanery on the 10^th March in Our Lady of Victories.  All agreed that it had been a worthwhile exercise to gather the thoughts and feelings of all the parish councils.  Those who were the representatives felt that it gave them courage and conviction on the night and there was a great sense of everyone working together.  The submission from Ballygall is available on our website.