Cardinal Seán Brady said yesterday in Armagh.
Speaking in reference to the clerical child sex abuse scandals, “we ask for the graces to accept humiliation as an exhortation to truth and a call to renewal”, Patsy McGarry reports in today’s Irish Times.
He said “we ask, with Pope Benedict, what was wrong in our proclamation, in our way of living the Christian life, to allow such a thing to happen? So, we too ask for a new resoluteness in faith and in doing good and in doing penance”.
It was “also the moment to offer, with the Pope, heartfelt thanks to all those who work to help survivors, in helping to restore their trust in the church, and their capacity to believe her message. This is also the moment to give thanks for the many good priests who act as channels of the Lord’s goodness in humility and fidelity.”
Cardinal Brady was speaking in Armagh at the first anniversary Mass in remembrance of the late Cardinal Cahal Daly and what had been designated a special day of prayer for renewal of the faith in the church in Ireland. He recalled that, in his pastoral letter to the Catholics of Ireland last March, the Pope proposed some concrete initiatives.
“He asked that time be set aside to pray for an outpouring of God’s mercy. He urged us to implore the gifts of the Holy Spirit of holiness and strength upon the church in Ireland at this time. He suggested that the grace of healing and renewal for the church in Ireland be requested in prayer and fasting,” he said.
More at:
http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2011/0103/1224286668678.html