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3.00pm – Clongowes Wood College

‘Blessed John Sullivan Mass of Thanksgiving’

Introduction:

We gather once again in huge numbers to honour the birth of Blessed John Sullivan SJ and to give thanks for his life. I thank those of you who travelled a journey and as always acknowledge the work of Cáit Cullen, who has become ‘the promoter extraordinaire’ of the cause of Blessed John. I thank Fr. Michael and the Jesuit community for their welcome always here and for once again hosting this important moment in the unfolding story of Blessed John Sullivan. As always I welcome the concelebrating priests, conveying the apologies of the Jesuit Provincial, Fr. Shane Daly SJ and the Parish Priest of Clane, Fr. Paul O’Boyle. I welcome Canon Paul Arbuthnot, prepresenting Archbishop Michael Jackson.

Our Easter Season moves into a higher gear this evening! There is a finality to the words of Jesus; it seems as if a conversation is ending. And yet we all know it’s the kind of conversation that never ends. He remains with us, so often He is the One carrying us. He carried Blessed John as he tended to the destitute and sick around Kildare. In fact He carried Blessed John from the moment he was conceived in his Cork mother’s womb, to his birth in 41 Eccles Street, to his days in Portora College, through the tragic loss of his brother in 1877 and the sudden death of his dad in 1885, through his legal studies, his decision to become a Catholic in 1896 and to join the Jesuits in 1900. There was not a moment of Blessed John’s life that God was not carrying him, and He continues to carry us who pray through Blessed John Sullivan’s intercession …

• Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – You are the wellspring of mercy: A Thiarna, déan trócaire. 

• Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – You are the way of Truth:  A Chríost, déan trócaire. 

• Bí linn i gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – Be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan trócaire. 

Homily:

The Acts of the Apostles sees a return visit to a Samaritan town. The Samaritans hold a special place in God’s Word. It was at the well at Sychar where Jesus would encounter the Samaritan woman. While many passed on the other side as the traveller was left for dead on the road from Jerusalem to Jericho, the only one who took notice and cared was a Samaritan. Philip is welcomed into the Samaritan town; that welcome shouldn’t surprise us, it alters the perspective of the other disciples towards the people of Samaria.

Saint Peter in our second reading asks what is the reason for the hope that you all have?[1] It’s a very good question! Perhaps our responsorial psalm gives the reason for that hope and joy: “cry out with joy to God all the earth”[2].

Our gospel introduces a sensitive theme – orphans; “I shall not leave you orphans”[3] Jesus tells his disciples and all of us. The biblical understanding very much associates orphans as someone who is looked down on, or marginalised. There are few enough biblical references to orphans[4]. The death of both parents leaves us orphans. The story of orphanages often casts a dark shadow on our past in this country, the care was not what might have been expected and sometimes was nothing but cruel and callous. Jesus promises He will not leave us orphans. And He never has. He is always with us.

There was much interest in the recent publication online by the National Archives of the 1926 Census, the first one of the Irish Free State. That 1926 Census was the first at which particulars of orphanhood conditions were collected. Children under 15 years of age were required to be described in schedules according to the following classifications i) both parents alive; ii) having father alive, mother dead; iii) having mother alive, father dead; and iv) having both parents dead. The number of children under 15 who fell into that fourth category then, of having both parents dead was 6,642, slightly more boys than girls.

John Sullivan was one of a family of five, three brothers and an only sister. Fergal McGrath SJ reminds us John was the youngest of the five[5]. All the brothers attended Portora Royal School in Enniskillen. Last August, I had the opportunity to visit the former Portora, today it is Enniskillen Royal Grammar School.

As I entered the school foyer, a glass display cabinet proudly acknowledged its famous past pupil. Inside the cabinet was a copy of the Beatification booklet, a medal, a newspaper article and John Looby’s book ‘A Man sent by God’. The display noted the twinning of Clongowes and Portora in 1981 and a prize awarded to John in his student days in 1875, which is on permanent loan to Portora from Clongowes.

Blessed John Sullivan SJ isn’t the only famous alumni of Portora, outdoor plaques recognised people like the the composer of the hymn ‘Abide with Me’ Henry Francis Lyte, a student there from 1803-1809, the writer Oscar Wilde who attended Portora from 1864-1871 and the Nobel Laureate Samuel Beckett who was there from 1920-1923.  

Returning to the orphan image referred to earlier. John Sullivan at the end of 1896 made the momentous decision to become a Catholic. He was 35 years of age. He was received into the Catholic Church in the Jesuit Church, Farm Street, London. His Catholic mother, Bessie was overjoyed at his conversion. She would die two years later in 1898, two years before he entered the Jesuits, his father having died much earlier in 1885. So it would have been 1898 when Blessed John was orphaned, both parents deceased.

Returning to the 1926 Census. There are many returns from Clongowes, all completed by the then Rector Fr. John Joy. The college had 337 students and each one had to be listed. Blessed John is listed last on the first page of the Census return, simply saying: ‘John Sullivan, age 64, Male, Marital Status: Single, Occupation: Teacher’, and curiously when it comes to Religion, it records ‘N/A’, the short for ‘Not Applicable’! When you dig out the original return you see the indication ‘do’, the abbreviation for ‘ditto’, often used in lists to avoid repetition. On the first line, Fr. John Joy lists himself as ‘Catholic’; he was certainly not the only Catholic on the Clongowes staff then! John was 30 years a convert by the time of the 1926 census return.

The life of Blessed John Sullivan sets an example to all who seek to know God. Blessed John is known for his stooped, shuffling figure who rode a battered bicycle tending to the lost, the sick and the orphaned in these parts and further afield. And today we are not orphaned, because his intercession continues to heal the sick, to comfort the afflicted and to walk with those struggling to understand the hand of God in their lives.    

I include the story of Sean from Cork, a dad of five, married to Ruth. Sean has been in a coma since February. We pray that his families devotion to Blessed John will aid his recovery. I include the many intentions of those waiting for their own little miracles, too many to mention. Sometimes the one miracle we need most is to forgive ourselves or others, I always like Blessed John’s words on mercy from a meditation he gave on the Prodigal Son “God always leaves the door unlatched”[6]. It’s a miracle that might never help John Sullivan’s cause on the road to sainthood, but it might help our own!

[1] 1Pt. 3:15

[2] Ps. 65:1

[3] Jn.14:18

[4] Jn. 14:18; Ex. 22:22; Ps. 82:3; Is.1:15; Hos. 14:3; Ps.68:5; Jas.1:27; Sir. 4:10

[5] McGrath, Fergal SJ, ‘Fr. John Sullivan SJ’, Longmans Green & Co., 1941, pg.17

[6] ibid, pg. 219

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St. Conleth’s Church, Newbridge @ 7.30pm

Feast of St. Conleth

Introduction:

It’s great to join you as you continue your Novena to Our Lady of Perpetual Help. Newbridge Parish has a long and distinguished Novena tradition. The image we venerate this night, is very familiar to us. It’s in many of our parents’ homes, if not in our own. Perhaps we have seen the stunning icon in the Church of Saint Alphonsus Liguori on a walk to the Basilica of St. Mary Majors where Pope Francis’ body rests.

Legend has it that it was Saint Lazarus, a ninth-century Byzantine saint, who painted that original icon on wood in an Eastern Orthodox monastery in Crete, before a Franciscan brought it to Rome in 1415, ending up in the Church of St. Alphonsus Liguori in April 1866, 160 years ago. And ever since it has captured a place in our hearts, sometimes we called it Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, and other times Our Lady of Perpetual Help, the same image, the same devotion, the same Our Lady.

St. Conleth would not have been aware of such devotion, it came well after his time, but he would approve of it, conscious of our need for help beyond our own capacity, ability or strength. As we gather, we do so on the Feast of St. Conleth, this Bank Holiday evening, and begin by praying for forgiveness before celebrating these sacred mysteries …

• Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – You are the wellspring of mercy: A Thiarna, déan trócaire. 

• Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – You are the way of Truth:  A Chríost, déan trócaire. 

• Bí linn i gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – Be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan trócaire. 

Homily:

I remember well the afternoon I drove to Dublin, to Kildare Street, not to visit Dáil Éireann, but to the National Museum. It was the last Sunday of the exhibition ‘Words on the Wave: Ireland and St. Gallen in Early Medieval Europe’. At that exhibition of more than 100 remarkable objects linking St. Gallen with the great Irish monastic tradition, one relic label immediately drew me in; its origins was in the Abbey of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune and it was dated around 700AD. It simply named three Irish saints, but let’s listen to who those saints were.

The label was a fragment of vellum, probably originally from a reliquary box, listing the names of the three saints in Latin: St. Bridget, founder of Kildare; St. Dar Lugdach, abbess of Kildare and St. Conleth, bishop of Kildare. What a discovery on a Sunday afternoon. And what an exhibition. I hope some of you got to visit it during its six month visit to Dublin.

It is fair to say even here in Newbridge, the place of Conleth, we are not as au fait with Conleth as we are with Brigid. How wonderful to see his name alongside Brigid’s on that piece of vellum written two hundred years after his death. A tangible link to a saint, who is patron of this parish and whose feast-day we celebrate this day.

Where do we learn about Conleth, what are our sources? We learn of him from Cogitosus’s Life of Brigid (c.650AD), where he is variously referred to as Conleth, Conlaeth and Conlaid. He became a hermit in a cell out the road at Old Connell. A skilled metalsmith who worked with both gold and silver. Brigid asked him to make sacred vessels for her convent in Kildare. He was one of three chief artisans of Ireland, the head of the Kildare school of metal-work. It is believed he fashioned the fine crozier of Saint Finbarr of Termonbarry housed in the Royal Irish Academy.  He was renowned for his penmanship, an accomplished illuminator of manuscripts.

Cogitosus tells us that Conleth and Brigid developed a warm relationship, respecting one another’s gifts. Perhaps the commissioning of those sacred vessels was the precursor to the friendship that followed? Conleth was invited by Brigid to be part of her community in Kildare and so he departed from Old Connell. As he settled into Kildare a group of monks grew up around him, excelling in the making of chalices and in the writing of manuscripts. It was the beginning of a double monastery, unique then and now. The historian Fr. John O’Hanlon’s ‘Lives of the Irish Saints’ reminds us “this holy virgin selected St. Conlaeth to be the first bishop over her newly established city of Kildare”[1]. That was around 490AD, centuries before the amalgamation of the diocese of Kildare with the diocese of Leighlin in 1678.

It’s in Conleth’s shoes I walk as bishop. Newbridge, the place of Conleth is indeed sacred ground. The hermitage out at Old Connell. The air we breathe the fields we walk, the environment that surrounds us, embraced Conleth over 1500 years back. We find these days challenging, we come to the Novena with many more petitions than thanksgivings. In a world so deeply in need of hope, healing and peace, we gather each evening under the protection of Our Lady. She has our back, as she had Conleth’s. If we didn’t have crises we wouldn’t be alive. We can be sure Conleth faced his own all those years back.

Conleth had an ability to think outside the box, to do things differently, to be bold and creative. What gave him his strength was his rootedness in Christ. He kept God’s word. It was this that sustained him. We tend to be creatures of habit and bishops are no different, doing things the way they were always done.

John’s gospel invites us to keep God’s word “whoever loves me will keep my word, and my Father will love him”[2]. We hear mention of a Judas in the gospel, not to be mixed up with the Iscariot. Yet even the Iscariot, whose character always fascinates me, how someone who walked with Jesus could see himself betraying Him, he too heard God’s word, but sadly didn’t keep it. Loving God is in the keeping of His word. And whatever more we need to live a life of faith and deal with the crises that confront us, the Holy Spirit will fill in the rest.    

While Conleth met his end in his native Wicklow in 519AD, on pilgrimage to Rome, it is often said St. Brigid was against his going. I have read since, this may simply be because he was by then an old man. And so we have his name Conleth – “coin” meaning the plural “dogs” and “leath” meaning “half”, in other words savaged in half by wild dogs. Not the ending anyone would desire.

Conleth was rooted here in Newbridge as well as in God’s Word. As Pope Francis reminded us “roots are not anchors chaining to past times and preventing us from facing the present and creating something new. Instead they are a fixed point from which we can grow and meet new challenges”[3]. Newbridge, the place of Conleth, is that fixed point from which a reflection might begin of how we could become a different Church that remains faithful to God’s Word, but is fully alive to all that is happening.

How did that relic of Conleth wrapped in vellum ever reach the Abbey of Saint-Maurice d’Agaune in Swiss canton of Valis around 700AD? A more important question for us this Novena evening is how can we fully live the message of Conleth? How can we fully own the Saint that once was a simple hermit out at Old Connell? By Loving God. By keeping His Word. 

[1] O’Hanlon, John: ‘Lives of the Irish Saints’, Vol. 5, pg. 74

[2] Jn.14:23

[3] Pope Francis, ‘Christus Vivit’, 2019, ¶200

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A Pilgrimage from the Diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, led by Bishop Denis Nulty, will travel to Lodi in Italy this July to participate in the 27th International Columban Meeting, continuing County Carlow’s central role in celebrating the life and legacy of St Columbanus.

Taking place from Friday July 3^rd to Monday July 6^th 2026, the international gathering forms part of a long-standing annual European tradition honouring Columbanus, the 6th century Irish missionary monk born in the shadow of Mount Leinster near Myshall, County Carlow, whose influence extended across Ireland and mainland Europe. Following the successful hosting of the Columbanus Weekend in Carlow in July 2025, which welcomed visitors from across France, Italy, Germany and Switzerland, this year’s event represents an important opportunity to strengthen those international connections and reaffirm Carlow’s place at the heart of the Columbanus story.

A rich and engaging programme has been developed for the visit, combining pilgrimage, cultural exchange and spiritual reflection. Highlights of the three-day programme include a visit to the historic town of Bobbio, where Columbanus founded his final monastery and where he is buried, as well as evening concerts, cultural gatherings and shared meals with international participants.

A 13km walk along the Columban Way in Italy, tracing the footsteps of the saint through Sant’Angelo Lodigiano to San Colombano al Lambro, a solemn celebration of the Eucharist, a pilgrims dinner in the courtyard of the Bishop’s Palace and a visit to Milan forms also form part of the programme.

Speaking ahead of the event Bishop Denis Nulty said:
“We all remember with great fondness the celebrations in Carlow last July honouring St. Columbanus. This pilgrimage offers a unique opportunity to deepen our understanding of St Columbanus and to strengthen the bonds that exist between communities across Europe. As the birthplace of Columbanus, Carlow has a special responsibility to keep his legacy alive. This gathering in Lodi is not only a celebration of faith, but also of shared heritage, friendship and cultural exchange.”

The pilgrimage is open to those wishing to take part in what promises to be a memorable experience of shared cultural learning and spiritual development. Travel arrangements, including flights, accommodation and a full programme of events, are being coordinated by Tully’s Travel, Carlow, who are acting as official booking agents for the group.

The Columban Way, which stretches over 5,000km across Europe, including a 571km route in Ireland from Myshall to Bangor, continues to grow as a significant cultural and pilgrimage route, linking Carlow with key Columbanus sites across the continent.

For further information or to book, contact Tully’s Travel, Carlow at 059-9136100 or visit www.kandle.ie or www.carlowtourism.com/thecolumbanway

Photos from the launch of the Pilgrimage, 22nd April 2026 in Myshall.

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All times correct at time of publishing, please check locally in case of changes.

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Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow

Mass @ 7.30pm

Introduction:

The Chrism Mass is our evening of the Oils – the blessing of Oil of Catechumen, the blessing of the Oil of the Sick, and the consecration of the Oil of Chrism. It is the evening when Priestly Promises are renewed and priests, collaborating with their lay brothers and sisters, are encouraged, supported, and affirmed in their ministry.

From wherever you have travelled from this night to our Cathedral, know that you are very welcome. As the front cover of your booklet reads: ‘Fifty-Six Parishes, Three Deaneries and Eleven Pastoral Areas: Gathered as One Family in Faith’ …

… and so, as that family of faith in this Holy of Weeks, on this sacred night let us acknowledge our sins, and so, prepare ourselves to celebrate the sacred mysteries …

Homily:

There is a familiarity around Luke’s gospel text for this Mass of Chrism. We have heard it before. This is not our first Chrism Mass. And yet every time we hear the text from St. Luke there is freshness and an urgency that is a stimulus to action: “the spirt of the Lord has been given to me, for he has anointed me. He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to proclaim liberty to captives and to the blind new sight …”[1]. All of us here this Chrism night have been anointed, we are called in our many different callings to live out that anointing.  

The oils that are blessed and consecrated this night are the oils poured on us at baptism. Baptism is the most important sacrament, everything else – the openness to mercy and healing in Reconciliation, the commitment to be nourished at His table in Eucharist, the promise to live out our the gifts and fruits of the Holy Spirit at Confirmation, the commitment to another person in Sacramental Marriage, the promise to be an alter Christus at Ordination and the soothing balm of Anointing at times of Sickness – all are inextricably linked to baptism.

Baptism is the most important sacrament of Christian leadership. Preparation for baptism is very necessary; we should never rush it. I encourage the many baptism preparation teams at work in several parishes. It is great to know that there are adults being welcomed fully into our Church later in the week at Easter Vigils.

We have entered an exciting time in our diocese with the formal training of twenty-five candidates who will work as lay pastoral workers. I welcome many of them who are in our congregation this night. Indeed, the offertory gifts will be presented by some of those very candidates in a short while. Lay Pastoral Ministry formation is the fruit of decades of effort on the part of many to promote and encourage the full and active participation of the laity in the mission of the Church.  We have been blessed in Kildare & Leighlin with a number of full-time lay people whose work and example in our diocese continues to be a valuable resource and blessing for us.

I am reminded of the comment that a Church of only ordained members would be a peculiar place indeed. But it is also true that a Church without the ordained would be a much-impoverished witness to the values of the Gospel.

As we continue the vital work of encouraging the active participation of the laity in the mission of the Church I would ask this Chrism Night that we give equal emphasis and ardour to encouraging vocations to the priesthood so that the Good News of Christ will be preached to the new generations of Kildare & Leighlin folk.

I am very conscious this night, of priests who are unwell or facing a challenging diagnosis, you are in all our prayers. As always, I congratulate those celebrating significant jubilees of ordination this year: Matt Kelly (70 years); Jim O’Connell (60 years); Tom Little & John McEvoy (50 years); Ger Ahern, Ger Breen & Andy Leahy (40 years); Willie Byrne, Liam Morgan & John Heinhold (30 years) and Paddy Byrne (25 years). Mick Noonan, our eldest priest will be 72 years ordained this June. I thank the nineteen priests from overseas who work among us; their contribution is appreciated. I thank our Permanent Deacons and welcome all of them here, especially the most recently ordained: Jody Callan, John Delaney, Sebastian Kopijka, Michal Mizgala and Declan Prendergast. I thank all my brother priests and deacons for their great ministry and all of you who collaborate with them.

The Mass of Chrism reminds us of our calling, a calling that is rooted in our baptism. All of us are, as this year’s Confirmation theme runs, ‘Loved, Chosen, Necessary’. Baptism allows us all to belong, and the synod Synthesis reminds us ‘belonging’ is critical to our faith journey. Every one of you in the Cathedral this night is needed in our Church. Lay Pastoral Ministers do not replace the clergy. Lay Pastoral Ministers do not replace the lay faithful already immersed in the life of their parish. The clergy do not replace the call of every baptised person. The Church of Kildare & Leighlin needs everyone.

Each of us has a role in fostering and encouraging all vocations. On this Chrism night let us be especially mindful of our priests who are needed to ensure that we continue as eucharistic communities, as they preach the word of God and celebrate the Mass, giving us the nourishment of Christ whose name we all bear through our baptism.

As we gather in such numbers, I am very conscious of the small Christian communities in the Holy Land, who are unable to celebrate Chrism and the other ceremonies of Holy Week because of the ongoing conflict. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa asks his people and all of us to pray the rosary for peace. I suggest we also light our Taybeh Peace oil lamp, the Diocesan Reach Out gift back in 2008; let us light it in all our churches during the ceremonies this Holy Week. Taybeh is the last fully Christian town on the West Bank currently under renewed Israeli settler incursions. In a small way, we will be walking with those unable to mark these hugely significant moments in our Christian calendar. I now light the Cathedral Taybeh lamp.

[1] Lk.4:18

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Cill Mhuire Church, Newbridge

Mass @ 10.30am

Homily:

More than at any other time of the year, Palm Sunday opens up for us an experience that will last a week, an experience of liturgy as sacred theatre, liturgy as drama. There will be moments in the week that disturb, that upset, that leave us cold. In this week of theatre we are invited not just to be spectators, but to become active participants.

Today congregations across the world in their own way, will reenact Christ’s entry into Jerusalem. But Christians in Jerusalem will be unable to participate in such a celebration on the Mount of Olives. The situation is not new, the local community has been unable to follow the usual Lenten journey celebrations because of the conflict that has beset their region. The Latin Patriarch of Jerusalem, Cardinal Pierbattista Pizzaballa encourages us to pray the rosary for peace. I suggest we also light our candle for peace in all our parishes as our own Holy Week sacred theatre unfolds.

The joy of Palm Sunday passes too quickly. The ‘short gospel’[1] as it’s known from Matthew, ends too quickly. The joy seems very surface and momentary. Sometimes I questioned about the inclusion of the much longer Passion Narrative just proclaimed. We will hear a version of it again, later on Good Friday, so I wondered then, why the repetition? It’s there to allow us to anticipate, like in all drama’s ’to whet our appetite’. When we go to a play we know how it will end, but it doesn’t stop us going; we allow the plot lines, the actors, the stage settings to invite us into all the other aspects of the production.

Palm Sunday opens up for us all Holy Week, the drama of Jesus’ living and dying for us. We participated moments ago too willingly in the crowd scenes shouting to release Barabbas[2] and to crucify Jesus[3]. Let’s go deeper. Allow ourselves to become Simon of Cyrene, of whom Matthew barely mentions[4]. Wherever there is pain or poverty or loneliness, Jesus waits for our helping hand. As we reach out to help, it’s the hand of Jesus this week we hold.

[1] Mt.21:1-11

[2] Mt.27:21

[3] Mt.27:22; Mt.27:23

[4] Mt.27:32

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Ardeaglais, Ceatharlach: Aifreann: 10.30am

Beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh go léir! A very happy & blessed St. Patrick’s Day to all of you. A special welcome to our many guests who join us for our Mass this Lá Fheile Pádraig; Her Excellency Florence Ensch, Ambassador of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg to Ireland, Mayor Francy Weyrich, Mayor of Vianden with his wife Denise, and Josy Bassing, a Medieval Historian. Last June our Willibrord Pilgrimage led by Fr. Thomas, visited and were warmly received in Vianden, the home town of Ambassador Ensch. To all of you and the other dignitaries, visitors and parishioners, I say: Tá failte roimh go léir go dtí an tAifreann ar Lá Fheile Phadraig.

Matthews text begins: “Ansin chuir Íosa parabal eile os a gcomhair”[1] (then Jesus put another parable before them). St. Patrick would have been very familiar with Matthew’s text. Saint Patrick’s world of the fourth and fifth century was an adventurous time to live, coming between the Roman Empire and the birth of the Middle Ages. Persecution ended; the opportunity for mission began.

As the old order of the Empire passed on, a new Europe was born, a Europe rich for evangelisation, for the sowing of the good seed (“an síol maith”[2]).

Patrick sowed an síol maith, Columbanus, Willibrord and many more sowed it. It is said that the success of Patrick was his ability to translate the gospel into the local culture, we call that today ‘inculturation’. Many Irish women and men: priests, religious and lay have responded to that missionary call and have been drawn to other continents to follow the example of Patrick. Every one of them in their day were masters at inculturation. And today Ireland has become mission land for many international priests and religious who populate our parishes, presbyteries and religious houses, continuing to spread among us the fruit of those early Irish missionaries to their home countries, we might call it ‘a reverse missionary journey’.

Patrick, unlike many of our saints, has left behind us two important testimonies: his Confession and his Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus. The Confession reveals a man of deep prayer, who trusts completely in God, who has a great commitment to mission and an intense love for the Irish. If we don’t love those we are missioning to, we are not imitating Christ. His Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus, we meet a man completely opposed to the horrors of  violence. On reading it, I shudder to think of his excoriating message to today’s world leaders, as we look on at Iran, the Middle East, Ukraine and of course Gaza.

Both writings of Patrick begin with an acknowledgement that he is a sinner. His Confession begins: “I am Patrick, a sinner, the most rustic and least of all the faithful, the most contemptible in the eyes of a great many people”[3]. He begins the ‘Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus’ in a similar vein: “I, Patrick, a sinner and untaught, established in Ireland, declare myself to be a bishop. I believe most firmly that what I am I have received from God …”[4] with that paragraph ending “… if I am worthy, I live only for God, to teach the heathens, even though some despise me”[5]. Patrick was deeply aware of his own worthiness, scarred by a sin he had committed in his youth, a sin that would remain with him in later years. Indeed church authorities of the day used it to undermine his mission.

Maybe we sometimes find it hard to comprehend that our faith was brought to us by a sinner who became a saint. It’s not easy to accept that the messenger can be flawed. Pope Francis reminded us “the saints were not supermen, nor were they born perfect. They are like us, like each of us …”[6].

On this day as we celebrate St. Patrick, his mission to us, and his putting flesh on Christ, we pray that his faith may inspire ours. That the light of Christ may open our eyes and those of our world leaders to the darkness that is war, to the anger of vitriolic language, the actions that follow and the loss of countless innocent lives.

We need to look beyond the snakes and the shamrocks. We need to look for substance beneath the shallow glitter that is too readily associated with this day. Patrick was a man of substance. Yet a man who like us often felt “briste agus bruite” broken and crushed, whose faith sustained him. May our faith sustain us in the knowledge that it is centred on Christ: “Críost linn, Críost romhainn, Críost in ár ndiaidh, Críost istigh ionainn”, “Christ with me, Christ before me,  Christ behind me, Christ in me”.

[1] Mt.13:24

[2] Mt.13:24; Mt.13:27

[3] Duffy, Joseph, ‘Patrick in his own words’, Veritas, 2019, pg. 15 ‘Confession’, ¶1

[4] Duffy, Joseph, ‘Patrick in his own words’, Veritas, 2019, pg. 33 ‘Letter to the Soldiers of Coroticus’, ¶1

[5] ibid.

[6] Pope Francis, Angelus Address, St. Peter’s Square, 1^st November 2013

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Mass @ 9.30am – Mount St. Anne’s Conference & Retreat Centre

Catholic Education Partnership (CEP) reception of Croí Project – Vision Document

‘A Vision for Catholic Schools In Ireland’

Introduction:

We gather in Mount St. Anne’s in this, the 250^th anniversary, since Venerable Nano Nagle lit her lantern and began her mission of compassion, courage and conviction. Nano was just one woman walking those dark alleys and lanes of Cork 250 years ago; today her Presentation Congregation is a global network who continue to nurture her flame.

This morning we come from many sectors and represent various stakeholders, under the umbrella of CEP (Catholic Education Partnership) to launch the Vision Document ‘A Vision for Catholic Schools in Ireland’ and much more importantly to prepare for the reception of this vision document into all our Catholic Schools and Colleges and among the various bodies that support Catholic education. The Vision Document is the first fruit of the Croí project, a project that has been cradled here in Mount St. Anne’s.

Azariah’s powerful yet tender prayer in our first reading from the Book of Daniel is a cry from a broken heart. He feels all is lost and perhaps we who are passionate about Catholic Education might at times empathise with Azariah’s plight and prayer. Matthew’s gospel brings us upfront with mercy, and the inter-human dimension that is mercy.

And so we pray …    

•  Is tusa Tobar na Trócaire – you are the wellspring of mercy: A Thiarna, déan trócaire 

• Is tusa Slí na Fírinne – you are the way of Truth:  A Chríost, déan trócaire

• Bí linn i gcónaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – be with us always, showing us the way. A Thiarna, déan Trócaire

Homily:

“I only teach him religion” the teacher apologised to the parent as she ushered the mother off to the queue for one of the core curricular subjects. We must have the passion and belief that what happens in religion class at Primary and Post Primary and what happens in our Teaching Training Colleges is core to the education of that young man and every young man and woman.

The teacher, the chaplain, the staffroom, the classroom, the student, the pupil all must grow to realise that religion is core to the development and well-being of every young person, made in God’s image and likeness. Our schools begin with an invitation into a personal relationship with Jesus Christ, into a friendship with God who is love, and into a local community where young people are accompanied in their search for purpose and meaning in life. And they are accompanied in so many wonderful ways by our schools who are welcoming and inclusive of all faiths and none.

The last time we had a launch of a vision for Catholic Education was in May 2008 with the launch of ‘Vision 08’. That’s eighteen years ago. Todays Leaving Certs were born in the same year as Vision 08! It envisaged then “a fruitful dialogue about the best way of ensuring that our Catholic schools can develop in the coming decades”[1]. Like all visions, they are aspirational, we realise quickly a decade is a long time and eighteen years is very much another world, the world of Gen Z.

Two years before ‘Vision 08’ the then Minister for Education & Science, Mary Hanafin T.D. speaking at one of the Easter week teachers’ conferences, commended the commitment of the Catholic Church to education in Ireland. She said “there are people and places in Ireland who would not have been educated or who would not have a school provided only for you (the Church)”[2]. We can too easily forget all that has been achieved, opportunities that have been afforded, offering young people a deeper appreciation of their faith and their place in the unfolding story of creation. And yet we allow the secular voices to cauterise these messages in mainstream media, as if to suggest Catholic Education is equivalent to indoctrination!

That’s why today is so important. Because we are passionate about Catholic education, we find ourselves challenged by the 2022 Genesis Report and the later findings of the Grace Research; we are equally conscious of a recent Iona Institute paper asking ‘Will Modern Ireland tolerate Catholic Schools?’[3], and despite the very significant challenges facing the Catholic education sector, people still seem to vote with their feet for a kind of ‘cultural’ or ‘light touch’ Catholicism. For some our schools are too Catholic and for more they are not Catholic enough!

As we await the findings of the more recent Department survey on school patronage, I will be very surprised if in the broad scheme of things there will be any great demand for change. I meet parents and families at Confirmation these days, they unashamedly tell me of their memory of the last confirmation of an older son or daughter. Have they engaged with Church much since? Perhaps the Children’s Mass on Christmas Eve! Yet they are ‘on side’ and would wish to retain their Catholic School, why wouldn’t they. Perhaps we need less schools, but we need schools that are intentionally Catholic.

My prayer and hope is that this vision document for Catholic Schools in Ireland will by using the seven strands build up these intentionally Catholic Schools. The only way this will happen is through proper resources to support each of these strands, offering training around ethos and identity. Research findings tell us ongoing training/CPD is critical for all school personnel.

Learning to be merciful, learning to forgive is central to any school setting. It starts at an early age: “I didn’t let so and so play in my games”. Mercy is at the heart of education, sometimes mercy like in our gospel is hard learned. This year’s Confirmation theme is ‘Loved, Necessary, Chosen’, very much focusing on wellbeing. I invite all the confirmandi to write to me before Confirmation, I read all their letters. Often the teacher doesn’t want to let her school down and you can easily sense a template or dare I say a ‘straightjacket formula’ unfold! I had one recently where the local priests surname was misspelt in every letter!

A letter from a recent confirmandi that underpins the need for our un-apologetic belief in the value of Catholic education as a core subject in all our schools speaks volumes of our vision and mission today.

[1] Pastoral Letter from the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference, ‘Vision 08’, May 2008, pg.8.

[2] Address of Mary Hanafin TD, Minister of Education & Science at the CPSMA AGM, 25 March 2006

[3] Murray, John: ‘Will Modern Ireland tolerate Catholic Schools?’, Iona Institute, September 2022

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