Scottish Catholic Observer

Last report I concluded by asking you to pray for sun at the last Mass of the Congress. And the sun shone! But what a long day! It was like a re-living of Bellahouston in September 2010, but on an even larger scale.

Croke Park in Dublin, the Home of Gaelic Football, was the venue for the Statio Orbis, the final Mass summing up the preparation, work and celebration of the congress. It ordinarily holds 70,000 people. The stands were almost full. But the entire pitch was covered in protective plastic sheeting and there must have been many thousands of seats–all filled–in the area of the stadium itself. I haven’t seen any figures yet, but numbers don’t matter: what matters is that here was an international gathering–a truly Catholic gathering–from the four corners of the world. The atmosphere was electric. The music was fabulous–from Gregorian chant to Gospel singing. But it was the Gaelic music that stole our hearts!

Final day

But back to the structure of the last day.

We left the hotel at 10.30am and were dropped off with the last few hundred yards to walk at about 11.15am. The ground was immense. The organisation was impeccable. The sheer scale of this final congress venue must have given many planners permanent headaches! By 12.15pm our people from Scotland were in their places–and they were there until our bus was called at 7.45pm. But the time sped by.

From 1pm for a full two hours there was the ‘warm up’ event. Those who remember Benedict XVIs visit to Bellahouston will know what a ‘warm up’ event is!

One after another there were singers and groups who shared faith through music with us: the three tenors; The Priests; the Palestrina Choir; the Archdiocese of Dublin Choir, Gospel choirs and many others, including the impeccable music-making of the RTE Symphony Orchestra.

By 1.15pm the Bishops and priests were in place, fully vested. From 2pm RTE began to transmit live the whole event–together with Salt and Light TV from Canada and EWTN from the US.

A few occasional light showers punctuated with brilliant sunshine was to be the order of the day.

Scottish bishops

On a personal note, the Scottish bishops, with the exception of Cardinal Keith O’Brien who was one of the principal concelebrants, were all quite close together. I had Bishop Philip Tartaglia of Paisley, Bishop Joseph Toal of Argyll and the Isles behind us and on my right hand side I was privileged to have Archbishop Tagle of Manila, Philippines. I had mentioned him previously in my Friday dispatches and I mentioned then how enthusiastic I was about his freshness and ability to communicate. He had a terrific simplicity and joy. I’m not good at numbers but there must have been about 170 bishops and around eight cardinals with about 700 priests. The joy and enthusiasm of all was tangible.

Before Mass started there were various testimonies from young people including a beautiful young lady who had been knocked down by a taxi at last year’s World Youth Day event in Madrid. Though her bones had been shattered, her spirit, love and hope was moving and very helpful, I believe, to those who feel rather crushed by suffering.

The preparation period was concluded with a short film of the 1932 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin with scenes accompanied by Canon Sidney MacEwan signing Panis Angelicus and the anthem was concluded with a seamless transfer to scenes of our 2012 International Eucharistic Congress in Dublin with the same anthem being sung by the Irish group ‘The Priests’ from the Diocese of Down and Connor.

Closing Mass

The Mass began about 3.15pm with the Congress hymn Though we are many we are one body… the hymn which had followed us throughout the week of the Congress. The Readings of the Mass were those of the current Sunday with the Gospel of the mustard seed. The Mass was presided over by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, Prefect of the Congregation of Bishops and the Holy Father’s Legate to the Congress, who also preached the homily* ( click here or first link at bottom). Believing as I do that the Homily was too important to put into paraphrase today, I have instead sent with this posting an electronic link of the wholeto the Homily. At the end of the Liturgy of the Word the transition to the Liturgy of the Eucharist was made by a seamlessly sung glorious hymn in Gaelic accompanied by Irish pipes and violin. It was magnificent and really helped move us spiritually towards the heart of the mystery of the Sacrifice of the Eucharist which were all present to celebrate.

Similarly at the end of the Mass the Congress Greeting from the **Holy Father Benedict XVI and the closing address of ***Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin were delivered. Again, thinking these addresses too important to paraphrase I have included them with this posting (below).

The end, and the next congress

As I have mentioned I was sitting next to Archbishop Tagle of Manila, Philippines. When the Holy Father announced that the next Congress was to be in the Philippines in Cebu in 2016, the place erupted. There were hundreds of Philippinos around us and Archbishop Tagle of Manila was like a ‘dog with two tails’! I would love to go to the next congress there, but we shall see!

The Mass was brought to a conclusion with the Apostolic Benediction given by the Papa Legate in the name of the Holy Father. The Stadium in Croke park was then shattered by a powerful rendition of the Battle-song of the Republic: Glory, glory Hallelujah, which unfortunately would have been more fitting for a sporting fixture rather than bring to a conclusion a glorious Mass with inspiring music. But as my old housekeeper used to say: Father, chacun à son goût!

-Auxiliary Bishop Stephen Robson is the Bishops’ Conference of Scotland’s national delegate for the 50th International Eucharistic Congress. He was ordained Auxiliary Bishop of St Andrews and Edinburgh on June 9 2012 before heading to IEC 2012.

* For the closing Mass homily of by Papal Legate Cardinal Marc Ouellet, click here.

**For Pope Benedict XVI’s Message to Ireland, click here.

*** For closing greetings from Archbishop Diarmuid Martin at the Final Mass of the 50th International Eucharistic Congress 2012, click here.