That was “his unusually precocious sexuality”, said the Abbot of Glenstal, Mark Patrick Hederman.
He said: “For a boy of his age in a Dublin day school, he seems to have had considerable sexual experience. His sexuality formed the warring partner in the struggle towards his ultimate destiny. He realised that the call to the priesthood meant the eradication of this vital aspect of himself. He saw the Catholic Church as a call to a certain kind of perfection which demanded emasculation and evisceration.”
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man described “the bitter and lonely struggle between these two warring elements in an almost unbearably sensitive youth. The famous sermon on hell was the final blow to the possible vocation to the priesthood.”
Speaking on the theme of “James Joyce and the Structure of the Mass”, Abbot Hederman proposed that, along with Homer’s Odyssey, there was a parallel structure in Joyce’s novel Ulysses – that of the Mass, which coincided with its beginning, middle and end.
“Joyce, I would hold, was a religious man. He wasn’t an atheist. He believed that the humanity being presented, endorsed and canonised by the church was a fake. He gave his life to defending the orthodoxy of humanity.”
Rev Dr Eugene Duffy told pilgrims 50 per cent of Irish Catholic priests were now aged over 65, and soon in Ireland “many existing local church communities will not have access to the Eucharist on a weekly basis”.
In an address on the topic, “When the Christian Community Gathers on Sunday in the Absence of the Presbyter: What Happens?” he said Sunday was “vital to the community”.
Outlining steps to cope with a scarcity of priests when it came to celebration of the Eucharist, he referred to the Vatican 1998 Directory for Sunday Celebrations in the Absence of a Presbyter.
Among its proposals were that a visiting priest celebrate the Eucharist in the community; that the community join with a neighbouring parish to celebrate the Eucharist; that there be just a Liturgy of the Word and/or or a Liturgy of the Word with distribution of Communion (consecrated elsewhere that day).
Also on Saturday, up to 6,000 people attended Mass at the basilica in Knock at which the chief celebrant was the papal legate to the congress, Cardinal Marc Ouellett. In his homily, he said he had been asked by Pope Benedict to visit the shrine.
“The holy father knows that the church here is suffering at this time and is in need of hope and renewal.”