NORTHERN PERSPECTIVE ON PAPAL VISIT

The Dean of Belfast, Dr Houston McKelvey, was the guest columnist on the Churches Pages of the Belfast published Newsletter on Sept. 25. He writes:

My wife and I had the immense privilege of being presented to Pope John Paul II on a dais in St Mark’s Square which was packed with pilgrims from all over the world on a gloriously hot Rome afternoon. 

The fact that we were there as part of an international dialogue between Christians and Jews made the occasion even more remarkable. 

It was genuinely a very humbling experience as I recalled the Catholic friends of my childhood village who were the most faithful members of their Church. In particular I said a prayer of thankfulness for my friend’s mother Mary, who cycled five miles each day to attend the daily mass in St Comgall’s, Antrim, and recalled the innumerable messages and acts of service she did for her protestant neighbours when on her daily journey of faith.

I am not one who will dodge denominational differences. And anyone who knows my track record in the introduction of child protection measures in the Church of Ireland, knows that this is not an issue that I will compromise on. I have met with too many victims and will carry their shared memories to my grave.

Despite this, I rejoice that the visit of Pope Benedict was a resounding success. His meeting with the Queen at Holyrood, the youth rallies, the visit to Westminster Hall and especially the services at Westminster Abbey and Cathedral, spoke to me and uplifted me immensely spiritually. I found the response of my fellow Christians of the Roman Catholic persuasion to be inspirational and moving. 

There is nothing quite as infectious as seeing people at prayer. The merging of ceremonial worship with a depth of enthusiasm was potent and Divine. I found renewal of my faith in simply watching the devotion of these Christians. For it by far outdistanced my concerns about inter-church doctrinal differences, issues of sexuality and so on.

One of the most eccentric and wonderful characters I have ever met was the late Hugh Charles Fay, a Quaker and head of classics at Inst. He will be chortling in some part of God’s heaven when I say that it was a phrase in Latin which summed up this entire visit for me - Charlie having said to me a few months before I was ordained, “Good heavens McKelvey, you don’t mean to say the Church of Ireland is going to pollute the countryside with a clergyman who knows very little Latin and even less Greek”. Sadly he was true, but it was a Latin phrase which got to me. It was to the fore at the ceremony declaring Cardinal John Henry Newman from henceforth would be called “Blessed” - the first English”confessor of the faith” to be beatified in more than 600 years.

Over 50,000 people had stood in the wet, in a muddy park, for five hours for this service. And before them were displayed the words, “Cor ad Cor loquitur”, Heart speaks unto Heart - the motto taken by Newman from his hero, the 16th century St Francis of Sales. These were the words embroidered on his funeral pall when he was buried in 1890. In Cofton Park, Birmingham, they were visible around the altar and on the tabbards the stewards wore.

The little valley resounded to the word’s of Newman’s magnificent and best known hymn “Praise to the Holiest in the height” , which forms part of the Dream of Gerontius, the oratoria later set to music by Elgar. This was complimented by the Gloria, Sanctus and Agnus Dei, to setting specially commissioned for this service by the leading church composer, James McMillan.

At a time when secularism is threatening to engulf western society, I certainly don’t begrudge a penny of tax to pay for this visit. I saw thousands of people being uplifted in their faith, and over the past week I have surfed along on the tide of wonderful spirituality, music and reverence which this visit generated. I wonder how many non-Roman Catholics were also affected by this Pope.