Last Friday during a sojourn in the pleasant County of Mayo I visited the National Shrine of Ireland in the little village of Knock. It was a most interesting experience not in a spiritual sense but in a social and cultural sense. I also attended Mass at the Shrine which was a most empty experience.
The little village itself is flooded with Catholic gift shops of the most extreme kind. Plastic statues of the Saints and Our Lady, and all sorts of cheap and nasty items. I did purchase a knock medal as a memento of the visit.
The Mass was awful, it must have lasted twenty minutes at most and it was conducted by a Priest who clearly had no interest in what he was doing. Imagine if you will during a Church service that a Priest continually says "whatever" while praying. For example "We pray for the members of the Cork MS Society and whatever". It was incredibly empty. The Priest also said something that rocked the very fibres of my theological intellect. He exclaimed that if anyone had bought a Holy Picture, Rosaries, Statues, Holy water etc that they should hold them up now to be blessed. The items he said did not have to be taken out of their plastic bags for if it was your intention that they should be blessed then they would indeed be blessed. From that moment on those items would bestow graces to all who used them. How awful. Also during the Mass there was the odd impromptu singing of a Marian Hymn, it started as wail and lead me to think that someone was having a fit.
I have to say that it was not nice at all. It give me an experience of how the Roman system can be so very empty and lacking in theology. It also lead me to question the circumstances of the alleged visit of the Blessed Virgin Mary. The social and historical context of rural Ireland at the time of the vision are more interesting than the vision itself. It was tumultuous period in Irish History, at least twenty years after the famine and apparently there had been a bad harvest prior to the vision that brought about fears of a second famine. So it seems to me that Irish Catholics needed some sort of sign and seal of their faith to help them through their lives in an ever changing society. I do not doubt the credibility of the witnesses I am sure that they were all very sincere people, but I can't help but think that there is more to this than meets the eye. When we compare it with Fatima and Lourdes there are striking similarities with the social and cultural backgrounds surrounding the vision. It would provide for an interesting discussion.
I have never really been in tune with the extreme Marian devotion in Ireland and I know many Roman Catholics who don't bother with it. I can't help but feel that there is something amiss when a Priest says " all our intentions we ask to Mary through Jesus Christ Our Lord". To me that simply does not make sense when you think about it. Why ask Mary through Christ? We are told that no one comes to Father except through the Son. Anyway moving on....
The Basilica at Knock is horrid except for the Stations of the Cross inside which are quite beautiful. One noted the vomit inside that had not been cleaned up, which to me summed up the whole affair. The Old Parish Church has been changed inside ever so slightly and I did not like it either.
It is worth a visit and you can make a judgement on what you see yourself.
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