Fr. Mike Schmitz visited Dublin last night.
The event was, by any metric, an incredible success, with a Mass in St. Kevin’s, Harrington Street before the Parables speaking event in the National Stadium.
Schmitz is the arguably the most famous Diocesan priest in the world, with his Bible in a Year podcast surpassing an incredible 1 billion downloads. He is equally popular with every demographic of Catholic, presenting himself as a unifying figure to everyone apart from the wilfully divisive and perpetually offended.
At St. Kevin’s, the church was full up to half an hour before the Mass began at 5pm. Busses from all over the country arrived with groups of mostly young people, with many making a pilgrimage day out of it to nearby sites.
One glaring oversight was that the pre Mass hour was given to loud chat and hustle and bustle within the church. It would have been a smarter move to have had adoration or a Rosary before the Mass rather than allowing an element of circus to take over. This is the type of reverence that attracts people to Fr. Mike and it would not have been too much to ask for, in fact it would have been preferable to the loud noise that persisted in its place.
That there were so many young people present also begged the question of why there was not a youth gathering during Pope Francis's ill fated 2018 visit, widely regarded as the most poorly organised in 2,000 years of the papacy.
During the Homily at Mass, Fr. Mike got emotional speaking about his own Irish familial heritage, with his ancestors hailing from Cork. This was his first time visiting Ireland and, being the humble person that he is, he seemed genuinely moved at the turnout and the reception.
His homily dwelled also on the fact that all of the priests he grew up around in Saint Paul, Minnessota were Irish. He stated that if they had not come from Ireland, he would not be who he was.
These sorts of messages are good to hear, especially for all of the young people present. They are also far more representative of the history of the Irish church on a global scale than any movies by Harvey Weinstein or Amnesty International ads by Liam Neeson.
After Mass, most of those in attendance made the short journey down the road to the National Stadium.
Over 2,000 people were present to hear Fr. Mike, followed by a Q and A with Colm Flynn.
Before the main event started, Bishop Fintan Gavin spoke about the role that the bishops and their evangelisation initiative played in organising the event. It is certainly to be commended. Hopefully the success will spur them on to similar events in future.
Fr. Mike's Parables presentation was a deeply moving dive into the Parables of Jesus but also extremely personal and vulnerable. Schmitz shared about a 15 year old who died in his chaplaincy circle, the story was a reminder of why he is so popular. It was emotional without losing control of that emotion, it was poignant but hopeful.
There was also great humour in the explanation of the Parables.
One can see a significant contrast between how Fr. Mike, a believer and a pastor, approaches these questions versus Jordan Petersons's We who wrestle with God tour. Fr. Mike is full of hope and energy and conviction, he has seen terrible tragedies and yet his belief in the Risen Christ keeps him renewed in his trust in God. Peterson, by contrast, had a heaviness that seemed to be conviction without the trust needed for belief and a preaching if the supernatural without the light air of transcendence.
Schmitz had the crowd laughing, wondering and, in the case of the stranger beside me, crying.
In his Q and A with Colm Flynn, he gave very human and normal answers to the question of premarital sex. He was also asked by a man dating a Muslim if he could marry her, to which he gave a sensitively put but firm no.
The visit of Fr. Mike Schmitz was a triumph for both him and the Irish church.
Bishop Fintan Gavin said in his introductory remarks that it could be a sort of beginning of something new for the Irish church. If they are to take this success and replicate it, there is no reason why it cannot be so.
