The Archbishop of Dublin, Dr Diarmuid Martin, has welcomed the current debate on 1916. "It is a good idea to reflect on it and on what freedom and identity mean," he said yesterday. He was in the Phoenix Park to lead the "Way of the Cross" procession from the Wellington monument to the papal cross, which began shortly after 3pm.
Up to 1,500 people took part, including the papal nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarotto.
Referring to the 1916 period, Dr Martin said: "They were different days and it is hard for us to imagine what it was like. There was the oppression of the poverty of Dublin; being led from abroad; and strong idealism." Later there was the "ideology of nationalism" he recalled from his schooldays.
His two aunts were in Cumann na mBan, he said, two uncles were in the IRA, while another uncle was in the British army. There was a photograph of one of those aunts - his godmother - in her Cumann na mBan uniform shouldering a rifle, he said, and he remembered his mother talking of seeing her mother placing bullets in a bandolier.
In the context of the broader 1916 debate, Dr Martin said that in a Dublin school recently he heard that a pupil had asked the teacher "Why are all the 1916 leaders named after the flats?"
In a reflection during the procession, which was organised by the Communion and Liberation movement, Dr Martin said: "We live in a changing Ireland, an Ireland which has many successes but which is also looking for its identity."
He continued: "Where is the real soul of Ireland? What is the contribution of believers to that identity? Perhaps in the past believers and church leaders attempted to think that decisions could be made for others."
During another meditation on the procession - there were six, one at each stop en route to and including the papal cross - he compared clerical child sex abusers to Judas.
"Judas not just betrays, his very presence is hypocritical. He feels that he can somehow be with the company of Jesus and still lead a double life ... How many times has Jesus been betrayed in our day by those who appeared as those closest to him?
"How many of those who have shared in the most intimate ministry of the church have yet gone on betraying Jesus and those in their charge? How many have sat in the company of Jesus, who belong to his company, have never really accepted his challenge to be real disciples, real disciples ready to accept his chalice?" he asked.
In a further reflection, Dr Martin spoke of Jesus as the wrongly accused. "He knows the details of the lies that are concocted against him. He knows the sad weakness of those whose integrity has been bought for almost nothing.
"He remains totally serene, mostly in silence, never a word out of place, never the notion of anger or revenge."
The Easter Vigil will take place in Dublin's Pro-Cathedral at 9pm tonight, with Masses tomorrow at 8.30am, 10am, 11.15am, 12.30pm and 6pm.
The Easter Vigil at Christ Church tonight begins at 9pm also, with a Eucharist Service at 11am tomorrow, where Archbishop John Neill will be the preacher.
The Festival Eucharist at St Patrick's Cathedral takes place at 11.15am tomorrow. Dean Robert MacCarthy will be the preacher.
