THE WELLINGTON monument cast an early-afternoon shadow over the Phoenix Park in Dublin yesterday as hundreds of people gathered to take part in the sixth Way of the Cross procession.
Despite an icy northwest wind that lifted scarves and got under collars, and an earlier starting time, the faithful congregated to await the ceremony and the words of Archbishop Diarmuid Martin of Dublin.
Children hopped from one foot to the other, and adults spoke softly, in accents from Ireland, Poland, the Philippines, Italy and Angola. Cllr Vincent Jackson, attending in place of the Lord Mayor, stood with Fr Juan Antonio Cruz Serrano of the papal nunciature.
Then the talking stopped and a plain wooden cross was lifted. "The cross is the way to salvation, to true freedom," the archbishop said, his words ripped by the wind.
The Communion and Liberation Choir sang Ave Maria and the hushed crowd began to move, following the cross on foot, in prams and on bicycles.
Ushers handed out booklets and guided the crowd on to the footpath along the park's main road.
In the shelter of an evergreen copse, the first station of the cross was remembered, with words from the Gospel of Matthew and Gregorian chant from the choir temporarily rent by a car horn and the wail of an ambulance siren.
The archbishop spoke of imperfect love and the limits of egoism.
The crowd, swelling to more than 1,000, walked on along the treelined footpath.
The second station was marked with the story of Gethsemane.
Archbishop Martin spoke about contemporary culture. "Being fulfilled and happy is considered more about being one's self and doing one's own thing than obeying any other," he said.
Clouds, long threatening, burst in the midst of the third station, soaking the crowds. The Gospel told of Peter and disownment.
"How can those who today profess to be believers in a loving God humiliate people in their dignity and self-esteem? How can they resort to behaviour which is below human dignity, in order to advance an agenda of personal satisfaction, for personal, economic or political exploitation or for religious superiority, and yet call their behaviour religious?" the archbishop asked. "Christ's church, the community of believers, must purify itself."
The rain continued for the fourth station, and the Gospel spoke of Pilate. Archbishop Martin said people often took refuge in what appeared to be politically correct. "We find a way to convince ourselves that we have done our bit and there is really no purpose in going the extra mile."
At the fifth stop, the rain eased and the story of the Crucifixion was told. The archbishop said that if the community did not "live the essential Christ-centred nature of the church", the church would be "emptied of its meaning".
"It will quickly be reduced to just a mixed bag of providing welfare, of being nice to people, of doing good, of being a depositary of values from which we can pick and choose at will," he said.
"If that is all the church is, then it becomes just one benevolent organisation alongside others."
He prayed for renewal of the church and its people, and for help to defend human dignity.
As the crowd approached the papal cross, the wind swept the clouds away and the sun shone, echoing a day almost 30 years ago when a million filled the park.
