As the Irish church faces a decade of closures and restructures, one bright spark has been the rise of interest in public expressions of the faith.
The monthly Men’s (and now Women’s) Rosary shows the interest in personal and provocative public forms of worship.
On Ash Wednesday, one Irish bishop went out to the people to show his eagerness to minister to them.
The beginning of Lent is traditionally one of the busiest for priests in Western Europe with many who wouldn’t dare darken a church door nonetheless feeling the need to publicly wear the Cross. It is a remarkable socio religious phenomenon, with many of those who do so not even being Catholic.
In Waterford, Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan went into John Roberts Square and began to distribute ashes at around 11.30am.
The bishop ended up attracting huge crowds for hours upon hours, staying until the evening, finishing up close to 6pm.
Workers in shops, young people, Buddhists, all kinds of people came up to receive the ashes.
Images of the marathon effort have since gone viral.
It just goes to show, that to engage with modern Ireland, the church here need not reinvent the wheel, merely they need to make more of an effort to meet people and to be present with them.
