RTÉ can take a well-deserved bow for the service to people of faith

St Patrick’s Day dominated last week and it has been the second Covid version – never thought that would happen!

It was also the one-year anniversary of weekday Masses on the RTÉ News Now channel, as Fr Michael Toomey pointed out last Friday when saying Mass from Ardfinnan. This has been a brilliant service that started for last Lent and continued throughout the year. Fr Toomey said the first of these Masses and he’s still going strong. He graciously thanked Roger Childs of RTÉ and Tony Bolger of Churchservices.tv – the plaudits are well deserved.

There have been several special programmes for the saint’s day. One of the best was Nationwide (RTÉ One, Monday) which was an enjoyable episode on the life of St Patrick. Donal Byrne was an engaging presenter as he introduced to St Patrick’s Camino in Co. Down, centred on Downpatrick. We met two pilgrim guides with an intriguing story. Martina Purdy had been a political correspondent with BBC Northern Ireland, while Elaine Kelly had been a barrister. The vocation to religious life was pretty sudden for Elaine, but slow enough for Martina (she spoke of playing ‘hard to get’ with God!) Before they could take final vows, it became clear their order couldn’t survive and so they had to leave and now describe themselves as consecrated laypeople.

We also met Dr Tim Campbell, Director of the St Patrick Centre, and he seemed tickled by the fact that someone from Britain was patron saint of Ireland! Dr Anthony Harvey gave some useful background on the history of Patrick’s time, and of how stories like the banishment of the snakes might have arisen, as a metaphor for the banishment of pagan ways. Dr Cáitríona Ó Dochartaigh spoke of how revolutionary a religion Christianity was at the time, especially for women, proposing as it did equality between all children of God. Slave or master, rich or poor, male or female, all souls were equal in value.

Apart from the feastday it was also a good week for the Church in Ireland when Pope Francis recognised Knock Shrine as a designated international Marian and Eucharistic shrine, an event covered on RTÉ News last Friday.

But there was negativity towards Pope Francis as well – former president Mary McAleese had a go at him for assenting to the Vatican document ruling out the blessing of same sex unions. On Morning Ireland (RTÉ Radio One, Friday), she was reported as accusing him of being a “populist” (a handy dig) who “raises expectations only to dash them”, unfair I thought. Sometimes expectations are unreal and more like wishful thinking. Elsewhere she accused the Pope of trying to “ride two horses” – but isn’t that a good description of the approach of à la carte Catholics?

On the same programme, the Association of Catholic Priests (ACP) was reported as saying the document was divisive and strangely said it showed a “breathtaking certainty about what God can or cannot do”, and yet one of their number, Fr Tim Hazlewood, seemed to suggest he knew what Jesus’ attitude on the matter would be. It wasn’t clear whether he disagreed with the teaching or with the language used to convey it. At one stage he said the Church’s teaching on what marriage is hadn’t changed, but seemed to imply that he would bless same-sex unions – certainly the interviewer took it that way and he didn’t correct her.

Later that day on Today with Claire Byrne (RTÉ Radio One) there was an interview with Bishop Donal McKeown about the matter. It was telling that the host asked him: “What did Jesus say about gay marriage?”, surely a pointless question to which she already knew the answer. In respect of the idea of it being impossible for God to “bless sin”, from the document, she didn’t ask, but rather stated “that’s not respect”. Bishop McKeown said that particular sentence “jarred” with him, which showed the importance of choice of language when the Church explains and conveys its message. However, he did say he agreed with the Pope in the overall teaching of the document. The Church, he said, wasn’t going to bless those unions as if they were the same as marriage. There were awkward truths in Christianity, he said, but the presence of “shrill voices” from left or right was not the way forward.

“The truth will very often be uncomfortable”, he said.

Pick of the Week

Brotherhood: The Inner Life of Monks

BBC 4 Sunday March 28, 8pm

The monks of Mount St Bernard Abbey, are opening the first Trappist brewery in the UK. For their historic, countercultural lifestyle to survive, the venture must succeed.

Mass of the Lord’s Supper

RTÉ One Holy Thursday, April 1, 4.40pm (repeated Radio One Extra/ LW252, 7pm)

Celebrated by Fr Martin Smith (Chaplain, Carlow IT) with members of RTÉ Cór Linn.

Solemn Liturgy for Good Friday

RTÉ One Good Friday, April 2, 3pm

Live from the Basilica of Our Lady Queen of Ireland, Knock Shrine, Co. Mayo. The principal celebrant is rector of Knock, Fr Richard Gibbons. Liturgical music by Schola Cantorum Basilicae.