This is the second blog in a series of two about Bishop Willie Walsh of Ireland and his pilgrimage of forgiveness and reconciliation. If you missed the first blog, you may find it in “recent posts”.

As Bishop Walsh set out walking on the pilgrimage, he was always joined by many people. In the middle of each day they stopped to eat and relax. Then they began their walk again usually arriving at a parish church around sundown. They ended each day with a liturgy of reconciliation. Large numbers of people turned out for those services. In their pilgrimage prayer they said these powerful words: “May we be signs of healing, bringers of forgiveness, and sources of reconciliation.”

Bishop Walsh never walked with less than 40 or 50 people as he moved through the diocese. Usually on weekends there were several hundred people because youth and children also joined them. On the last day of the walk, nearly 1,000 people walked the final part of the journey to the Bishop’s hometown of Roscrea, where there were nearly 1,500 more people waiting.

“It was quite an extraordinary experience to simply walk the roads with parishioners and priests from all the parishes throughout the diocese,” the Bishop exclaimed. “I was often asked: ‘Why are you doing this at this time of the year?’ I think there was something special, perhaps even healing, about walking through the wind and rain. As we walked, I heard astonishing stories. People came to me with hurts that had been carried through their family for more than seventy years and passed on from generation to generation. There were serious injustices done by the Church and priests. I remember one family who had suffered a significant injustice in the 1920s. They continued to be ‘friendly’ with priests in the parish, but never told any priest about the problem. It was a constant source of pain and anger for them. I had a number of meetings with the family and listened to their story. Eventually they seemed to feel a sense of forgiveness and healing.

“Sometimes if you speak about reconciliation and forgiveness, you can be misunderstood, as if in some way you are trying to ‘get away’ with things or are trying to avoid paying compensation. We need to understand that there can be no complete healing without at least the beginnings of reconciliation and forgiveness. We have to do it – in as gentle a way as possible. And we must make it clear that we will cooperate, that any cover-up or any lack of cooperation is totally out of the question and not in keeping with our Christian obligations.

“Of all the experiences I’ve had as Bishop, that walk was the most moving for me. It seemed to strike a chord with people, because it was a public acknowledgment – not just by the priests, but by everybody. There was an equality about it – just walking and talking on the road in the rain and wind. I believe the whole pilgrimage did effect some sort of healing.

“I have a sense at this time that most people are struggling with many things in their lives. I too find myself struggling – struggling with life, struggling with faith, struggling with aging. I believe the Church could help us to heal by identifying and acknowledging that we are all struggling and frail pilgrims.”

When I returned to the United States and thought about my visit with Bishop Walsh, I was reminded that we are all pilgrims struggling on the journey of life. Each one of us has our unique defects and blemishes. We do and will make mistakes and blunders, and we have shadow sides that we might not want to admit. But if we can learn to face the truth, we may be surprised to find that within us there is a deep sacredness. Then we can appreciate that all of us have both good and bad qualities. And we may learn that we need not judge others because they are less than perfect – they are really just like us.

O God of forgiveness, of peace, of reconciliation, thank you for providing us opportunities to face ourselves – both our good and bad qualities. Yes, we are like everyone else; we too are less than perfect. But, like Bishop Walsh, we are your sacred children and we can forgive and be forgiven. Help us learn to do that. Amen.

Joy Carol
www.joycarol.com