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Irish Daily Mirror
06-08-2025
- Politics
- Irish Daily Mirror
Daniel O'Connell: One of Ireland's most important figures and ahead of his time
Today, August 6, marks the 250th anniversary of the birth of Daniel O'Connell, one of Ireland's most significant historical figures. O'Connell - known as The Great Liberator for freeing Catholics from the Penal Laws - was born this week in 1775, near Cahirsiveen in Co Kerry. A formal State-led commemoration will take place at his ancestral home in Derrynane House to remember how his life-long pursuit of justice, equality and civil rights changed Ireland. The capital's main street is named after the man who managed to achieve his political goals through peaceful means, securing emancipation and repealing the Act of Union. Here, historian Donal Fallon looks at the life and work of a man far ahead of his time, a man who was an anti-slavery pacifist but who also had his critics and who had an enduring impact on us as a nation. Portrait of Daniel O'Connell (Image: Getty Images) The next time you're passing the Daniel O'Connell monument facing onto Dublin's O'Connell Bridge, look closely. On top, when a seagull isn't claiming the position, we see The Great Liberator O'Connell, but in the row below him, the central figure is Ireland herself. She's standing on broken chains and holding the Act of Catholic Emancipation in her hand. Around her are artisans, lawyers, artists, a bishop, children and more besides. The monument has a simple message: all of Ireland stood behind Daniel O'Connell. But closer inspection still reveals bullet holes aplenty. Ireland has taken one to her arm, while several are in O'Connell's chest. The end product of the fierce fighting at Easter Week 1916, there's a certain irony in their presence here. O'Connell was very much a pacifist and someone who rejected revolution. No freedom, he believed, "is worth the shedding of a single drop of human blood". O'Connell entered the world on August 6, 1775, 250 years ago today. Born near Cahersiveen in the Kingdom of Kerry, his life was greatly shaped by the turbulence of the world in the late 18th century. In an Ireland where Catholics were denied many fundamental rights, the generosity of his wealthy uncle Maurice allowed O'Connell to seek an education in France, a place he happened to find himself in when the revolution there took hold. One story has it that the young O'Connell, fleeing from France on boat, encountered the Irish brothers John and Henry Sheares. Rather than being horrified by what had taken hold in France, they instead showed Daniel a handkerchief they had dipped in the blood of the guillotined French king. In 1798, the brothers would meet their own end, hanged outside Dublin's Newgate Prison. In time, O'Connell's political machine became the Catholic Association, a mass movement that charged a membership fee of a single penny, thus bringing the Irish poor into the political arena. Opponents would mock O'Connell as the 'King of the Beggars', but he maintained: "A people who can be thus brought to act together, and by one impulse, are too powerful to be neglected and too formidable to be long opposed." Perhaps fearful of what such a movement could become, the London government granted Catholic Emancipation in 1829, ensuring O'Connell would enter Irish folk memory as 'The Liberator'. In his own lifetime, O'Connell inspired many other movements. Most famously, the American abolitionist Frederick Douglass would spend several months touring the island of Ireland, speaking in cities as diverse as Limerick and Belfast and telling a Dublin audience of the need for a 'Black O'Connell' to emerge in the US. O'Connell was a consistent opponent of slavery wherever it existed and caused major divisions in Irish America by refusing to accept any financial or political support from those who participated in it. Douglass remembered that "while with one arm the Liberator was bursting the fetters of Irishmen, with the other he was striking off the literal chains from the limbs of the Negro". When Barack Obama spoke on College Green in 2011, he focused his speech on the alliance between O'Connell and Douglass, bringing the story to a new generation here. Former US President Barack Obama and First Lady Michelle Obama attend a rally on College Green on May 23, 2011 in Dublin (Image: Getty Images) O'Connell also condemned "the vicious and atrocious conduct of the East India Company towards the natives" when it came to India and its place in the Empire. But in England, O'Connell was sometimes at loggerheads with democrats and trade unionists, clashing publicly with the Chartists (who believed in many things we take for granted today, like universal suffrage and vote by secret ballot) on several occasions. On the economy, he could be conservative and he dismissed trade unions as "the childish folly of regulating the labour of adults". James Connolly, the executed leader of the Easter Rising, came to hold a deep distaste for O'Connell's record on such issues. The Liberator could also be gushing towards monarchy, insisting when Victoria became queen that "we have on the throne a monarch educated to cherish the rights and liberties of all the people, free from preoccupations and prejudice, and ready to do justice to all". By the end of the century, she would be denounced here as 'The Famine Queen'. If O'Connell was a liberal icon in the eyes of some, he was far too conservative to others. But there is universal agreement on the good O'Connell's commitment to breaking sectarianism in Irish society did. Glasnevin Cemetery and Goldenbridge Cemetery were both founded, thanks to the Catholic Association, as non-denominational cemeteries, finally bringing equality to burials. Many would agree too that O'Connell's 'Monster Meetings', where hundreds of thousands of people would come together demanding political reform, gave Irish people a long-denied voice. New stamps released by An Post capture some of the energy of those massive demonstrations, where people would assemble from all directions at a rallying point. They were a riot of colour, banners and marching bands. The two great political crusades of O'Connell's life were Catholic Emancipation and the return of an Irish Parliament to Dublin. While one of these missions succeeded, the other did not and when O'Connell's statue was put in place in Dublin in 1882, it was looking across the Liffey in the direction of the old Irish Parliament on College Green. At the time of his death in 1847, his passing was noted around the world, reminding us that he was an Irishman whose interest in change extended beyond this tiny island. Donal Fallon is a historian, broadcaster, writer and host of the podcast Three Castles Burning. Subscribe to our newsletter for the latest news from the Irish Mirror direct to your inbox: Sign up here. The Irish Mirror's Crime Writers Michael O'Toole and Paul Healy are writing a new weekly newsletter called Crime Ireland. Click here to sign up and get it delivered to your inbox every week
Boston Globe
09-05-2025
- Politics
- Boston Globe
‘He checked all the boxes.' Pope Leo XIV overcame a liability — being American.
Advertisement He knew, and was one of, the voting cardinals in the church's powerful bureaucracy, but he put liberals at ease with his strong support for Francis' arguably greatest change, which sought to make the church's decision-making process more bottom-up and closer to the faithful. In uncertain times, he ran a global religious group, the Order of St. Augustine, that required a sophisticated understanding of the world. His deep theological formation may have put conservatives worried about doctrine at ease. At age 69, the new pope is the ideal age for a papal candidate. The major strike against him was his American nationality, a deal breaker in decades past because it was seen as being too closely aligned with the world's dominant super power. But in a world order that has changed significantly and in a church that increasingly sees beyond nationality, that apparently turned out not to matter to the 133 cardinals voting in the Sistine Chapel. Advertisement 'He checked all the boxes,' said John Allen, a veteran Vatican analyst and author of the book 'Conclave.' He added, 'Geography and nationality stopped being a voting issue.' American Catholics across the political spectrum are citing Leo's choice of name as a sign that he may advance their interests. 'By picking the name Leo XIV, he shows he is committed to the social teaching of the church,' said Thomas J. Reese, a Jesuit priest and veteran Vatican analyst. More conservative Catholics see a different implication. 'He takes his name from a pope who stood firmly against the negative culture of moral relativism,' said Ashley McGuire, senior fellow with the Catholic Association. After a dozen years of Francis' shaking up the church, the College of Cardinals apparently wanted to keep moving in Francis' direction but with fewer detours and crashes. They chose a mild-mannered pastor, moderate in tone but resolute in his defense of doctrine, one with deep Roman experience and governing chops. 'We have to look together how to be a missionary church, building bridges, dialogue, always open to receiving with open arms for everyone, like this square, open to all, to all who need our charity, our presence, dialogue, love,' Pope Leo said in Italian from the balcony of St. Peter's Basilica in his maiden address Thursday as the leader of the world's 1.4 billion Roman Catholics. Only hours after his election, it was impossible to know how Leo would govern. But his first words, and the name he took, gave some clues. The Vatican said his name echoed the previous Leo, a pope in the late 1800s who helped establish the church's Catholic social justice tradition. He also name-checked Francis, saying, 'Thank you, Pope Francis!' and prompting an outburst of applause from the crowd below. Advertisement He said the word 'synodality,' which means little or nothing to secular ears but which inside the church spoke volumes about his intention to carry out Francis' vision for a church that rules less from on high in Rome than by consulting its faithful, bringing bishops and lay people, including women, together to make the big decisions. And he spoke about peace and being close to those who suffered, reflecting his pastoral sense, but also reverted to Vatican tradition by appearing on the balcony in a vestment that Francis had shed. While the Americans in the crowd rejoiced at the naming of one of their own -- 'USA! USA!' some chanted -- and received congratulations from the Italians who seemed bewildered by the unfamiliar face on the balcony, supporters of Francis expressed a sigh of relief. The front-runner to succeed Francis had been the church's secretary of state, Pietro Parolin, who, while an experienced diplomat with a distinguished career in the church, did not have pastoral experience. In the weeks and days leading up to the conclave, critics of Parolin, including Italian cardinals, spoke admiringly of other candidates, including Prevost, suggesting that Parolin's support was softer than expected. But when the white smoke billowed from the chimney over the Sistine Chapel on the second day of voting, many liberals worried that it meant the voters had coalesced around Parolin, a bureaucrat they feared would suck out all the fresh air Francis had breathed into the church. Advertisement Parolin did emerge on the balcony, but still cloaked in cardinal red. He smiled easily, a background figure to a new pope who liberals believed would protect Francis' legacy. In October, Prevost sounded much like Francis when he told Vatican News that a 'bishop is not supposed to be a little prince sitting in his kingdom, but rather called authentically to be humble, to be close to the people he serves, to walk with them and to suffer with them.' Vatican analysts expect Leo to clearly stick up for migrants, the poor and those exploited by great powers, though perhaps less provocatively than Francis did. He is viewed as pastoral, and so open to listening to the concerns of a wide variety of Catholics. But, at least for now, he is seen as less than likely to make changes to church teaching on issues like the ordination of women as deacons, birth control and the status of gay men in the church. Alberto Melloni, a church historian, said that while Leo was clearly in Francis' mold on his vision of a church moving closer to the people and being governed more from the bottom-up, on hot-button social issues, 'he kept his hands free.' Not entirely. In a 2012 address to bishops, he lamented that Western news media and popular culture fostered 'sympathy for beliefs and practices that are at odds with the gospel.' He cited the 'homosexual lifestyle' and 'alternative families comprised of same-sex partners and their adopted children.' But as Francis showed, people change when they become pope: He was considered a conservative cardinal in his native Argentina. Advertisement In a 2023 interview with Catholic News Service, Leo, then a cardinal, stressed that clerics respond to problems in their parishes by reflecting on their oath to 'live and work in communion with the Holy Father.' That is now him. This article originally appeared in
Yahoo
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Church expert predicts election of next pope will feature ‘most diverse' conclave in Church history
Pope Francis' emphasis on reaching out to the "peripheries" of the Catholic Church and world will result in the most diverse collection of church leaders in history gathering to select the new pope. According to Mary FioRito, an expert on papal elections and a senior fellow at the Catholic Association, this could very well result in the next pope having a very different set of priorities than the late pontiff. Francis has selected about 80% of the 135 church leaders – called cardinals – who will vote for the next pope in the upcoming papal conclave. The result will be that instead of being dominated by European or even Western cardinals, the conclave will have large contingents from regions like Africa and Asia. What Is The Papal Conclave: Inside The Ancient Process Of Choosing The Next Pope "This will be the most diverse conclave in the history of the church," FioRito said. Read On The Fox News App But this diversity could spell a departure from some of the defining focuses of Francis' pontificate, such as his emphasis on "synodality," that is, gatherings of small groups from around the world to discuss questions of theology and church practice. FioRito sees this next conclave, which she said will likely begin May 5, as a question of whether the next pope will be a man who continues Francis' legacy or shifts the church's focus to problems like persecution and poverty, which are major issues in countries like Nigeria, Pakistan and India. In Nigeria alone, where about half of the population is Christian, 3,100 Christians were killed and 2,830 were kidnapped in 2024, according a report by international religious freedom watchdog Open Doors. Bishop Barron Reacts To Death Of Pope Francis, Praises Papacy Marked By 'Mercy And Evangelization' In this sense, FioRito predicted that the African cardinals, who now form a significant voting bloc in the conclave, will play a major role in selecting the next pope. She explained that the African church has a very different set of priorities, which have been shaped in large part by the realities of rapid growth coupled with intense persecution. "We're concerned about things like climate change, and they're concerned about not being locked in a church and set on fire," she explained. "They're not sitting around at these tables for 10 discussing great ideas. They just want to make sure their kid gets to school without getting shot and they can pay their rent this month." With that will come a desire to select a pope who will respect the African church as an equal and who will stand against "ideological colonization" from the West with concepts like climate change, abortion and gender ideology. Trump, World Leaders React To The Death Of Pope Francis "The cardinals in Africa are very sensitive to this kind of ideological colonization where they're not being colonized in the traditional way, but the ideas of the West are coming in and attempting to change African culture with Western ideas without listening to the people first," she said. With this in mind, FioRito pointed to Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdő, who at 71 is young enough to be selected and is seen by many as a "John Paul II-type personality." He is respected by both the Pope Francis synodality camps as well as the African bishops. Another candidate, FioRito said, who could possibly "bridge the gap" between the different worlds is American-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, who currently serves as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. However, FioRito noted that Prevost may be less likely if cardinals "don't want to see so much of the world's power concentrated in the United States." FioRito also predicted issues of modernity versus tradition, which have spelled some of the most significant controversies during Francis' pontificate in the West, will also play a factor. Who Could Be The Next Pope? She said that amid a general decline in faith in the West, there has been a palpable shift in young people embracing more traditional forms of worship in the church, such as the traditional Latin Mass. "That's where the 20-somethings are going to Mass," she said. "In a world where there's so much crassness and vulgarity, you have something here that's timeless and just kind of transports you to another world." Despite this, she said the issue of the traditional Latin Mass is more of a "niche liturgical issue that I don't think is going to have much impact." FioRito noted that, unlike political elections, the selection of the next pope is less about a set of issues or policies, but instead is more about the man himself. 5 Ways Pope Francis Impacted The Catholic Church "I wouldn't phrase it in terms of issues, as if we're talking about the economy or migration. We're looking at individual men and asking ourselves, who can serve the church best at this moment and who is the person best equipped to take on this international role?" she said. "The holy father's role is to be a center of unity for the church in preaching the message and the gospel," FioRito went on. "So, it's looking at individual people, their strengths, their weaknesses, their backgrounds, what limitations they might have. And then really, in a very prayerful way, asking, what does the church need now in a new pope?" "My sense of it," she went on, "I think the cardinals need to be looking at the church today globally and not just in their own backyards, but globally and saying, 'Who is the man who can best take the church forward into this new era?'"Original article source: Church expert predicts election of next pope will feature 'most diverse' conclave in Church history
Fox News
26-04-2025
- Politics
- Fox News
Church expert predicts election of next pope will feature ‘most diverse' conclave in Church history
Pope Francis' emphasis on reaching out to the "peripheries" of the Catholic Church and world will result in the most diverse collection of church leaders in history gathering to select the new pope. According to Mary FioRito, an expert on papal elections and a senior fellow at the Catholic Association, this could very well result in the next pope having a very different set of priorities than the late pontiff. Francis has selected about 80% of the 135 church leaders – called cardinals – who will vote for the next pope in the upcoming papal conclave. The result will be that instead of being dominated by European or even Western cardinals, the conclave will have large contingents from regions like Africa and Asia. "This will be the most diverse conclave in the history of the church," FioRito said. But this diversity could spell a departure from some of the defining focuses of Francis' pontificate, such as his emphasis on "synodality," that is, gatherings of small groups from around the world to discuss questions of theology and church practice. FioRito sees this next conclave, which she said will likely begin May 5, as a question of whether the next pope will be a man who continues Francis' legacy or shifts the church's focus to problems like persecution and poverty, which are major issues in countries like Nigeria, Pakistan and India. In Nigeria alone, where about half of the population is Christian, 3,100 Christians were killed and 2,830 were kidnapped in 2024, according a report by international religious freedom watchdog Open Doors. In this sense, FioRito predicted that the African cardinals, who now form a significant voting bloc in the conclave, will play a major role in selecting the next pope. She explained that the African church has a very different set of priorities, which have been shaped in large part by the realities of rapid growth coupled with intense persecution. "We're concerned about things like climate change, and they're concerned about not being locked in a church and set on fire," she explained. "They're not sitting around at these tables for 10 discussing great ideas. They just want to make sure their kid gets to school without getting shot and they can pay their rent this month." With that will come a desire to select a pope who will respect the African church as an equal and who will stand against "ideological colonization" from the West with concepts like climate change, abortion and gender ideology. "The cardinals in Africa are very sensitive to this kind of ideological colonization where they're not being colonized in the traditional way, but the ideas of the West are coming in and attempting to change African culture with Western ideas without listening to the people first," she said. With this in mind, FioRito pointed to Hungarian Cardinal Péter Erdő, who at 71 is young enough to be selected and is seen by many as a "John Paul II-type personality." He is respected by both the Pope Francis synodality camps as well as the African bishops. Another candidate, FioRito said, who could possibly "bridge the gap" between the different worlds is American-born Cardinal Robert Prevost, who currently serves as the president of the Pontifical Commission for Latin America. However, FioRito noted that Prevost may be less likely if cardinals "don't want to see so much of the world's power concentrated in the United States." FioRito also predicted issues of modernity versus tradition, which have spelled some of the most significant controversies during Francis' pontificate in the West, will also play a factor. She said that amid a general decline in faith in the West, there has been a palpable shift in young people embracing more traditional forms of worship in the church, such as the traditional Latin Mass. "That's where the 20-somethings are going to Mass," she said. "In a world where there's so much crassness and vulgarity, you have something here that's timeless and just kind of transports you to another world." Despite this, she said the issue of the traditional Latin Mass is more of a "niche liturgical issue that I don't think is going to have much impact." FioRito noted that, unlike political elections, the selection of the next pope is less about a set of issues or policies, but instead is more about the man himself. "I wouldn't phrase it in terms of issues, as if we're talking about the economy or migration. We're looking at individual men and asking ourselves, who can serve the church best at this moment and who is the person best equipped to take on this international role?" she said. "The holy father's role is to be a center of unity for the church in preaching the message and the gospel," FioRito went on. "So, it's looking at individual people, their strengths, their weaknesses, their backgrounds, what limitations they might have. And then really, in a very prayerful way, asking, what does the church need now in a new pope?" "My sense of it," she went on, "I think the cardinals need to be looking at the church today globally and not just in their own backyards, but globally and saying, 'Who is the man who can best take the church forward into this new era?'"
