Bishop to lead `journey of penance' across diocese for wrongs of church

The Bishop of Killaloe, Dr Willie Walsh, is to lead a pilgrimage across the diocese in an effort to acknowledge and ask pardon for the hurts caused by those who have acted in the name of the Catholic Church.

Starting at its most western point at Loop Head in west Co Clare on November 26th, Bishop Walsh will lead what he calls a "journey of penance" across the diocese over three weeks ending at the eastern edge of the diocese in Co Offaly.

Dr Walsh said yesterday: "The pilgrimage will acknowledge that wrongs have been done, that great hurt has been caused down the years in so many different ways. Perhaps what most springs to people's minds have been the recent revelations of abuse in various forms. "But there are also the hurts caused in various ways to people down the years, perhaps not being treated with the respect they deserve, perhaps feeling excluded in varying ways because of their marital or non-marital status."

Dr Walsh said: "Central to the pilgrimage will be an invitation to be reconciled with each other and on the various journeys which we will make, I'll be inviting people to join with us, to walk whether it is one mile or five miles.

"I know if someone has been very deeply hurt, it's not easy to forgive. I'm not suggesting for a moment that it is easy."

He said: "I would certainly understand if people are not ready for it. As far as I'm concerned, it is a gentle invitation to people. It is in a way asking people if they have been done an injustice, perhaps to come to talk to us to see if there is anything we can do to heal the hurt caused."

Dr Walsh said: "I don't mind whether it is five or 100 people who join me on the walk . . . In some ways, I would like it to be a celebration as well and that it would be an enjoyable experience as well as a penitential one."

The pilgrimage will be part of the diocese's Jubilee 2000 celebrations. A ceremony of reconciliation will be held at all the population centres the pilgrimage passes through. Dr Walsh said the pilgrimage would not walk the estimated 120-mile distance, but walk four to eight miles each day. Though the route has not been finalised, Dr Walsh proposes that during the first week, the pilgrimage will go from Loop Head to Ennis, then from Ennis to Nenagh and then on to Roscrea or Birr during the third week.

Dr Walsh said: "I've no idea of what the reaction will be but I think it is a real occasion to try to let go and begin afresh in the millennium. The new millennium isn't going to be perfect. There will still be hurts caused and wrongs done, but I think it is important that we start afresh and put behind us the hurts of the past and begin again."