I walked the mile or so from my house to the Phoenix Park last Sunday, to see the Pope. On balance, I’m pleased I did. The visit of Pope Francis went well. It brought great happiness and joy to so many people and his smile and humility is certainly infectious.

But when I say “on balance”, I am of course referring to the fact that the church he is head of – and which so many of us are members of – has inflicted pain, suffering and humiliation on ordinary, defenceless people; particularly women and children.

For those hardliners within the church who remain in denial of what happened, do they never stop for a moment and think that it so easily could have happened to them or their children? I served mass in primary school and I went to a Christian Brothers secondary school. I came across zero abuse in either. But in another parish or school I could have.

And when we paused for a moment of silence during the Papal mass, I purposely spent that time thinking of the poor innocents who were subjected to abuse and slavery by nuns and priests. I was almost begging their forgiveness for being there, as if being there was in some way condoning what happened to them. We shouldn’t feel like that, but the reality is that until the Vatican is at least seen to be genuine and proactive in weeding out the criminals and exposing the cover-ups, it is a fair charge. What seems to bypass general opinion is the fact that surely the vast majority of ordinary practising Catholics share that desire that the church acknowledges its failings.

I think that opinion was aptly reflected in Taoiseach Leo Varadkar’s speech in Dublin Castle. He spoke for us all, with a very fair and measured speech. Well maybe not all, because there still remains a very vocal hardcore holding back progress, such as the man interviewed on the news on Sunday who thought Pope Francis gave too much time apologising for abuse at the start of the Papal mass.

Divided society

It must be said that such zealous opinion is well matched among the anti-catholic side of society too. Not surprisingly, the murky world of social media was full of tiresome, vile, hate-filled messages against the Pope. In contrast, the protests on the streets by members of the LGBT community and by abuse survivors and former residents of mother and baby homes were most dignified, poignant and emotional.

All in all, the combined events of last weekend left us in no doubt about the sort of country we now live in. Apart from the extremists, it shows that we can live in harmony and even more so if the church is seen to be progressive.

So why is Rome so slow in moving with the times? Does it not see that so many of their faithful flock are hanging on in there by their fingernails, afraid to profess their faith for fear of ridicule even among their friends? That is a sad fact today.

Most institutional church laws are manmade and so can be changed. And it is why I feel Deputy Mattie McGrath is so out of touch telling Mary McAleese to get off the stage.

Looking around the Phoenix Park last Sunday particularly at the numbers of young mothers, I bet she has more in common with ordinary, young, middle-of-the-road Catholics than he does. One hopes so for the sake of its future.

The big final

Win, lose or draw next Sunday, RTÉ viewers will not hear from any of the Tyrone team management or players. Does anybody really care?