Under one Roof

Logo of the 2012 Congress
As BULLS has happily been restored from the bowels of deletion, this blog will no longer need to inherit the mantle nor keep the home fire burning. However, I have taken a fancy to the very nice template and to the blog's quirky title, so I have no intention of giving it up.

So now we're left with a blog in search of a mission.

As the 2012 International Eucharistic Congress is to be held in Dublin in June, I think I'll devote this blog to following it's progress, at least until then. And is not the title so appropriate for such a mission?

There are lots of interesting aspects to this upcoming Congress:

• how well will it be attended, and with what degree of enthusiasm, compared to its 1932 predecessor?
  
• to what degree will the State be involved in what is essentially a private function?
  
• after the closure of the Irish embassy in Rome, following the standoff between the State and the Vatican, is there any chance the Pope might risk a visit to the Congress, and if so, how would he be received, by the State, and by the people?
  
• will the RC Church, now on the verge of bankruptcy, be able to raise enough funding to put on a reasonable show?
  
• how will the Church handle the participation of its "separated brethern", particularly when it is the "real presence" itself which divides it from other Christian Churches?
  
• how will the "dramatis personae" be constructed. Front of house bishops à la Casey and clerics à la Cleary will have to be carefully avoided.
  
• will it become clearer at Congress time whether Dublin's Archbishop Martin has full Vatican backing in his efforts to modernise the monolith, or not?
  
• What role will the Nuncio play, given his ambiguous roles as an official diplomat on the one hand and a purely apostolic functionary on the other.
  
• will the choice of specific papal legate to the Congress give any indication of how the power struggle is progressing inside the Vatican?
  
• will the Congress exacerbate the divisions within Government over the closing of the embassy in Rome?
  
• will there be anyone from the State sector available to kiss Bishops' rings or will the whole sector get a stiff "belt of a crozier" at the appropriate moment?
  
• will there be any special indulgences allocated for participants in the Congress and, if so, will these be in any way related to financial contributions?
  
• ditto in relation to masses?

In short, will we end up with the Pope's head on a coin or on a plate.

Stay tuned. Who said we didn't live in interesting times?


Logo of the 1932 Congress

Some further thoughts from last Summer.

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