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Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow

Introduction:

It makes such great sense to me to launch my Pastoral Letter here in the Cathedral of our diocese. Published during the week, it says no more than what has been flagged in several pastoral letters issued in recent times (2022, 2024 and in February this year).

Indeed declining numbers of priests and the scarcity of vocations is nothing new. We can go back to Bishop Larry Ryan’s time when he sounded the alarm bells in 1998 launching the ‘Challenging Times’ campaign. The truth is that the diocese for the last 70 years has been carried along by the boom of vocations in the 1950’s, 60’s and 70’s. Many have very generously stayed working for which I, those before me, and their parishioners remain deeply grateful.

In our second reading St. Paul reminds us that just like the early Christian community, we too must discern, we must discover, God’s will for us, what is the right thing to do and then we must do it. Matthew’s gospel reminds us pain and suffering are always part of this response.

Peter loves Jesus, but he wanted a Christ without a Cross, a victory without a sacrifice, an Easter without Good Friday. As we gather and ask “what is God saying, what is God asking, of the Church in Kildare & Leighlin at this time?”, each of us are called to play our part – for failures, for those moments of reticence, for the times where we’ve been laggards, we pray for forgiveness …

• Lord Jesus, you are forgiving and kind to all who call on you,

Lord, have mercy …

• Lord Jesus, for you my soul is thirsting,

Christ, have mercy …

• Lord Jesus, you guard us in the shadow of your wings,

Lord, have mercy …

Homily:

Pastoral Letters take their cue from the New Testament texts, such as First and Second Timothy and Titus; all written to guide the early church leaders on matters of governance, pastoral practice, doctrine and general conduct. Bishops might issue one or two a year. They normally are written to address a situation or a particular context. They might be written by a bishop for the concerns of his local diocese or they could be written by the entire hierarchy to address a particular situation, perhaps an upcoming Referendum or a moment in history. 

In recent times much was made by historians of the Pastoral Letter issued by the Irish Hierarchy in October 1922 which forbade the sacraments to some who were active in the Civil War.

The first pastoral letter I wrote was for Good Shepherd Sunday 2014, and the most recent one was written following the clergy changes announced earlier this month. As it was a list of reductions, retirements and absences, it made for stark reading for everyone, myself included. So I thought it might be opportune to speak to these set of changes in the context of a pastoral letter.

I won’t read it word for word, line by line, but just reflect on a few points. In the first paragraph I speak of the age profile of our priests, and the fact that “many of them are serving parishes, long beyond the acceptable retirement age in the secular world”. By the end of next month there will be 45 priests over 75 in the diocese; 27 of them holding posts in parishes, 10 of them are Parish Priests/Administrators. This is the generosity I spoke about earlier.

While I speak of a “new reality”, in honesty we have seen it coming and there has been groundwork undertaken that is helping us and will help us – the ordination of deacons, the training of lay pastoral ministers, increasing number of lay people, religious and clergy working togther in councils, commissions and parish groups. But this groundwork needs the cooperation not just of a few but of all in our parishes. The time has come for people across the diocese to recognise that the parish, as the place where the Church lives, will be as strong and as vibrant as people’s cooperation and generosity with their gifts and the resources, that we can be assured God has provided in every one of our 56 parishes. 

Back to Bishop Larry Ryan and the launch in the late 1990’s of ‘Challenging Times’, the real act of prophesy is not about predicting how numbers will change, because we know they will, but to understand what this is saying to us and how best we can respond. St. Paul reminds us we need to discern God’s will for us, for our time, so what is he asking of us in Kildare & Leighlin at this time? How can our parishes respond to the call to become the parishes of the baptised? Communities of faith, hope and love.

First of all communities, places of welcome where all feel welcomed. Faith where there are formation programmes offered perhaps at Pastoral Area level, to deepen our faith, to understand our faith. Hope where liturgy is celebrated well and Love where the parish reaches out to the sick, the dying, the lonely and the alone.

Change is never easy. We can all be prone to waiting until we have no choice and only take it fully on board when change comes to our door. Our diocese has 56 parishes and 117 churches. It is natural that people are tied to their parish and their local church. However, we have now reached the point when it is not possible for every parish to have a resident priest. 

In the past year, we have grouped the parishes in 11 Pastoral areas so that they can pull together and come up with the best schedule of Masses given the priests available.  Adjustments will have to be made and some of these will be difficult to accept. I encourage engagement by all in this process; also in the letter “I ask parishioners not to make uunreasonable demands or to have unrealistic expectations of their priest”.

In this evening gospel, Peter remonstrates with Jesus about taking the road to Calvary. He cries out “Heaven preserve you Lord, this must not happen to you”[1]. What the Lord teaches Peter and all of us is that sacrifice is part of our journey if we want to be his true follower. This is a spiritual challenge that we are facing. It will test us and we will need to think beyond our own concerns. That prophetic question remains with us: “what is God saying, what is God asking, of the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin at this time?”

We need more and more Lay involvement and Lay leadership.  We need to warmly welcome and support those who offer themselves for a ministry in their parish or pastoral area.

As I mentioned in my announcement of the clergy changes for 2026, I will continue to seek out international priests to serve in our diocese. But I‘m also very conscious while we warmly welcome those who choose to serve in our diocese, I ask everyone to pray for vocations from our own parishes, our own diocese, to the priesthood.  We need priests.  I also ask everyone to pray for our priests and to continue to support them, encourage them, affirm them.

But remember the Final Document of the Univeral Synodal journey in late 2024 reminded us: “Baptism is the foundation of Christian life. This is because it introduces everyone to the greatest gift, which is to be children of God, that is, to share in Jesus’ relationship to the Father in the Spirit. There is nothing higher than this baptismal dignity, equally bestowed upon each person”[2]. In other words baptism is a much more important sacrament than ordination, so let’s live up to our own baptismal calling. As I say in the letter “it is out of a deeper and richer understanding of what our baptism means that we all begin to find our place in the Church today”. God always provides, but that provision needs our cooperation. We can be hope-filled in the belief that God has given us what we need, but we can’t be complacent and ignore our part in bringing that to fruition. 

We must never forget the Church belongs to Christ whom we serve. We can be consoled and inspired by the witness of those who went before us, who knew great hardship and sacrifice but were able to keep the flame of faith burning. While these are certainly challenging times, we remain a people of hope. There will always be changes in life, but there are realities which do not change and that is our faith in God who as I sign off in the pastoral letter “can do immeasurably more than we can ever ask or imagine”[3]. I commend this Pastoral Letter to your kind attention.

[1] Mt.16:22

[2] Final Document of the Universal Synod, ‘Communion, Participation, Mission’, ¶21, 2024

[3] Ep.3:20

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They include:  

1. Sunday Liturgy Notes for Season of Creation 2026
2. Prayers and Readings for Mass for the Care for Creation: For weekdays, ad experimentum

3. The Season of Creation Prayer for 2026 (seasonofcreation.org ) 
4. A River Ritual:  to be celebrated by a river or stream.
5. Brother River Meditation
6. Rubbish Graveyard – a resource which helps to show people just how long it takes for items to biodegrade.  
7. A Blessing for Animals: Produced by K&L diocese for year of preparation for World Meeting of Families  
8. An Ecological Rosary: with Slides.  
9. Creation Walk Moments:  adapted from the booklet by Fr. Brian Grogan SJ, Creation Walk: The Amazing Story of a Small Blue Planet 
10. Tree Planting Resource 
11. Other Useful Resources: Nurturing your Family Faith in Nature: from Trócaire (as Gaeilge).  Earth Day Prayer Service – Celebrated on April 22^nd each year. With thanks to the Care for Creation team in Balally Parish, Dublin. Listening to Nature: A Trócaire resource.

Also, an online season of Creation worldwide opening prayer will take place next Tuesday, 1^st September at 2pm Dublin Time.  Join/register here: https://seasonofcreation.org/events-soc/september-1st-prayer-service-for-creation-day/

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16.08.26, 3.00pm: Fr. Moore’s Well

Introduction:

It was a Spring day, last February, when Betty O’Shea first contacted me about ‘Fr. Moore’s Well’ and the strong desire to honour it in this bicentenary year of Fr. John Moore’s death. She had the full support of Fr. Willie. I think Betty had some hunch on this summers weather, because she had originally hoped to have the celebration on March 12^th, but thought the weather might not be climatic then for the event! It’s great to welcome the many who have gathered this splendid afternoon.

I have passed by this way many times, this is my first time to visit the well. And how appropriate to have this bicentenary celebration during National Heritage Week 2026, which began yesterday. I begin this week here at ‘Fr. Moore’s Well’ in Rathbride and finish it next Saturday in a Famine Graveyard at Robinstown.

The theme for National Heritage Week 2026 is ‘Heritage at Risk’ and all the events that I’m involved in this week, will highlight heritage that needs our support, our attention, our protection. The local committee here have set up a ‘gofundme’ page to address the immediate need for new gates to the well, wall repairs, road resurfacing and erecting a path to Fr. Moore’s house and that’s probably only the start of their plans! All essential to ensure that ‘Fr. Moore’s Well’ and the rituals associated with it, will be here long after our time.  

Gathering in prayer around the well, around this sacred place, as many have done before us, we call to mind our sins, and pray for God’s love and mercy …

•  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:

We associate wells with scripture passages. There is Jacob’s well near Shechem. It’s the well where Jesus met the woman who came to draw water in the midday sun as recounted in John‘s gospel. There are many wells spoken about in the Book of Genesis, didn’t Joseph’s brothers throw him into an empty well, until they thought the better of it and sold him off to a group of Ishmaelite traders. But I want to return to Jacob’s Well. Fifty years ago a Spiritan priest Adrian Van Kaam wrote probably the best exegesis or commentary on this passage from John 4:4-42. While it’s a Caananite woman and her plight that occupies the mind of todays gospel[1], I will come back to that encounter of Jesus with the woman at the well, weaving a poem written by an American poet Krista Besselman throughout this homily.

“When our past has cast a shadow

Even sunshine can’t dispel,

There is One who knows and loves us

Who will met us at the well”[2].

It’s estimated that there are 3000 holy wells, tobar beannaithe, across Ireland. Each has a devotion, a tradition, a heritage unique to itself. I think of the great devotion to St. Moling on Pattern Day every July as people visit St. Molings Well in St. Mullins, at the other end of the diocese in South Carlow. I think of St. Fintan’s Well near Raheen in Laois where the faithful gather around June 15^th. And of course St. Brigid’s Well in Kildare, a place of great pilgrimage every February 1^st and indeed all year around. I come from Slane in County Meath and yesterday, August 15^th, is known locally as ‘Lady Well Day’ as pilgrims make the journey to the holy well there on the castle grounds. Pilgrims walk in the footsteps of music fans who have been on the same castle grounds on other occasions to enjoy Springsteen, Madonna, Queen, the Rolling Stones and too many more to mention.

“When our first love’s far behind us

And we’re shocked how far we fell,

Look how far He’s come to save us.

Look! He’s waiting at the well”[3].

But what makes this well, ‘Fr. Moore’s Well’ special? I’m told that barely a week goes by that someone comes away from the well, healed physically or spiritually. Of course others will question the authenticity of such healing, but talk to the one who has been healed. They know their pain and they are the ones who experience the healing. Perhaps it’s the water, maybe it’s the hat, or just being here in this holy place. I think of our own Fr. Liam Lawton’s composition: ¯ “This is holy ground / In this holy place / where God’s love is found / we come to seek his face”.

“When we’re shackled with a secret,

Like a captive in a cell,

There is One who knows completely

And will free us at the well”[4].

Water is very transformative, very healing, it allows us to tell our story. The water flows as our narrative unfolds. It remains a miracle how life-giving water can issue from the dry earth. It’s no wonder that wells, springs, fountains, have long been seen as holy places, sacred places. Water also is part of religious ablutions in scripture, as the one being healed[5] is often invited to wash in the water. And so we arrive at the healing powers water offers. Letting go, the flow of the water, reminds us things move on, nothing remains static, but God’s purifying love for each one of us.

“When we’re hurt by long rejection

Bitter looks and angry yells

We find pardon and acceptance

Offered freely at the well”[6].

John Moore was born in Rathbride in 1779. He matriculated to enter the Seminary in Maynooth in 1799 and was ordained on 26^th May 1804[7]. He was appointed here to Allen parish. He seems to have served most of his priesthood here, although it wasn’t always a harmonius time. John Lawlor was Parish Priest during his entire time here, appointed to the parish in 1802 and dying in 1830, four years after Fr. Moore. Fr. John Moore lived with his mother in a tatched house a short distance from the well. Local gentry reported him to Bishop James Doyle, better known as JKL. Accompanied by Fr. Patrick Brennan PP of Kildare and other clergy, JKL asked Fr. Moore to desist from his kind of ministry in Allen parish. Fr. Moore held his ground, respectfully but firmly. He lit two candles by blowing on them, having read from scripture for a while. JKL departed, telling Fr. Moore “to continue your good work”. It was interesting that it was in June 1823, three years before Fr. Moore’s death, that JKL would write a Pastoral to the faithful of the diocese regarding a miraculous cure, twelve days earlier, through the intercession of the Dean of Bamberg[8]. It was the cure of a woman, named Maria Lalor, of a speech impediment, which for over six years she had suffered. So JKL believed in these kind of supernatural events, and we are certain that he crossed paths with Fr. Moore. 

“When we’ve drunk the living water

But we feel like empty shells,

We are overdue a visit

To the Healer at the well”[9].

While John 4 brings us the account of the Woman at the Well, its from Matthew 15 that this afternoons gospel is taken. It tells of the Canaanite woman, the first woman to speak in Matthews gospel. She, an outsider, has come to Jesus, she has come not for heself, but for her daughter. It’s a powerful message of healing. The disciples are uncomfortable with her antics. I love the line: “give her what she wants, because she is shouting after us”[10], not because she deserves it, not because she cares deeply about her daughter but because they are embarrassed by her shouting. For them, the woman is an inconvenience. This comes out of their smallness, their impoverishment. Two weeks ago they wanted to send the crowds away and yet Jesus found it within himself to feed “the 5,000 men, to say nothing of women or children”[11]. The disciples are slow to learn the signs.

“When we can’t afford perfection

But find grace a harder sell,

If we’re ready to accept it,

There is freedom at the well”[12].

I began by speaking of the number of holy wells, its estimated there are 3,000 tobar beannaithe across the country. Someone asked me does the priest bless the water at the particular well, the water is blessed by the fact of so many coming and believing in its curative qualities. Relics get us up close with the one who has a reputation for holiness; there is only one relic of Fr. John Moore and that’s his hat, not just an ordinary hat, but a silk chimney-pot hat! Nothing else remains, but folklore, tradition and custom. When we are in pain, whether it’s a migrane or some other ache, like the Canaanite woman we too will understandably cry: “Lord, help me”[13].

“When we’re busy and exhausted,

Sit beside Him for a spell.

There’s an open invitation

Come and join Him at the well”[14].

National Heritage Week allows us a week to celebrate places off the beaten track, places where signposting can be dubious or even suspect. We do that this afternoon here in Rathbride. That a priest who died at the tender age of 47 back in 1826 should have us gathering two hundred years later is itself a feat. I commend the local committee and encourage what you do to keep the story of Fr. John Moore alive in these parts. A little like the persistence of the Canaanite woman, today your prayers are answered!

“When we find such love and mercy

It’s our joy to run and tell.

Come and bring the others with you,

Come, be women at the well”[15].

[1] Mt.15:21-28

[2] Besselman, Krista, ‘Woman at the Well’, 2015

[3] ibid

[4] ibid

[5] 2K5-13; Jn.5:1-15; Jn.9:7

[6] Besselman, Krista, ‘Woman at the Well’, 2015.

[7] Hamell, Patrick J., ‘Maynooth Students and Ordinations Index 1795-1895’, 1982, Student #6391, pg.174

[8] Comerford, Fr. Michael, Dioceses of Kildare & Leighlin, Volume 1, 1883, pg. 99.

[9] Besselman, Krista, ‘Woman at the Well’, 2015.

[10] Mt.15:23

[11] Mt.14:21

[12] Besselman, Krista, ‘Woman at the Well’, 2015.

[13] Mt.15:25

[14] Besselman, Krista, ‘Woman at the Well’, 2015.

[15] ibid

The post Homily of Bishop Denis at Mass celebrated at Fr Moore’s Well, Allen Parish appeared first on Kandle.

Introduction:

It’s August 14^th – the Memorial of St. Maximilian Kolbe – priest and martyr. We know his story well. A Conventual Franciscan Friar who worked in the apostolate of the press in Poland and Japan, and died in Auschwitz.

Last year, during the Youth 2000 Summer Festival, I celebrated with you the Memorial of Edith Stein. Another one of our saints whose story came to prominence in the same concentration camp. Edith or St. Teresa Benedicta of the Cross as she is known now, died on August 9^th, 1942. Maximilian Kolbe died a year earlier on August 14^th, 1941.

‘Died’ isn’t the correct word for it; historians estimate 1.1M perished in Auschwitz over its five years of existence.

The prophet Ezekiel exhorts us to live life to the full. Israel is described as an unfaithful wife. He pardons her because of the covenant he had made with her. And so we pray for God’s love and mercy as we call to mind all that impedes our relationship with God, with one another and with self …  

• 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:

It is said he was Prisoner #16670. It was believed that by giving someone a number dehumanises them, and that’s why the numbering system in Auschwitz, Birkenau and elsewhere was so cold and calculating. We know Prisoner #16670 best as St. Maximilian Kolbe. Pope John Paul II said “Maximilian did not die but gave his life … for his brother”.

Maximilian Kolbe’s life was marked by an ardent devotion to Our Lady from a young age. It is said that he did something to bother his mam as a young ten year old, she told him to go and pray, asking what will become of him. He turned to Our Lady. She came to him in his prayer offering him two crowns, a white one and a red one. The former representing a life of purity; the latter representing martyrdom. He accepted both.

What happened in Auschwitz didn’t come out of thin air; Kolbe lived a pure life. Everything he did, led to those actions, known now the world over. His story of heroism, courage and self-sacrifice didn’t begin the day he volunteered to die in place of a stranger at Auschwitz. The prisoner he saved Franciszek Gajowniczek, a husband and a dad would years later attend his beatification and canonisation ceremonies. For Maximilian Kolbe it was the ultimate sacrifice he made, giving up his own life to save a man who had a wife and children. 

Three words jump out for me in the story of Maximilian Kolbe, from today’s scripture readings fusing on both the Prophet Ezekial and St. Matthew, promise, sacrifice and generosity. Friday at Youth 2000 Festivals is always ‘confession night’. An opportunity to be reconciled with God, with one another and with self. Are you good at keeping a promise? When did you last make a sacrifice? When did you miss an opportunity for generosity?

It is said that a promise is easy to make when the sun is shining, their true worth begins when the storms begin. Ezekiel has God speaking to Jerusalem as a bridegroom speaks to his bride. It’s not an easy reading, because Israel has been unfaithful, Isreal has failed to keep its side of the covenant. But God never forgets us, he has carved us on the palm of his hand, he always invites the sinner home.

In Matthew’s gospel we move to a debate around marriage and divorce, again not of itself bedside light reading. This is a tough message. The Pharisees are setting a trap, as someone wrote “they come to the wedding feast carrying a legal measuring tape!” Every time Jesus brings them back to the start, to the beginning, what marriage is, not what divorce disrupts. Marriage is, like the wedding I celebrated recently for my nephew Brendan and his wife now Eimear, marriage is a covenant, a promise before God. As Robert Frosts poem says “promises to keep and miles to go before I sleep”, tell the priest tonight about your broken promises.

And then comes Prisoner #16670 into the frame. Maximilian Kolbe wasn’t chosen by the German officer Karl Fritsch as one of the ten who must be starved to death because a man had escaped the camp. Franciszek Gajowniczek cried out because he had a wife and children; Maximilian broke ranks and put himself forward: “I am a Catholic priest. I want to die for that man; I am old; he has a wife and children”. He went to the dark cellar and sang hymns to Our Lady. Two weeks of starvation didn’t kill him, it was a fatal dose of phenol on this day, 85 years ago. Maximilian sacrificed himself for another. What is your understanding of sacrifice? The sacrifice of the Mass, the life, death and resurrection of Christ. As a young person is Mass a central part of my life?  

Generosity. Maximilian Kolbe had nothing to gain by stepping forward. It was the ultimate act of generosity. Maximilian didn’t begin his act of generosity on the day he entered the bunker. He practiced it from his youngest years – living love through prayer, purity, obedience, being a good priest and having a deep devotion to Our Lady. A tree does not become strong on the day of the storm, it becomes strong through years of putting down roots. It’s no wonder St. John Paul II proclaimed Maximilan Kolbe patron of the “suffering”. All of us suffer – confession, reconciliation, penance – is a wonderful tool to free us from that suffering.

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Introduction:

We gather on August 11^th, the Feast of St. Clare. Her feast is determined, like many of our saints feasts, by the date of their death – in her case it was August 11^th. But this year we also honour the eighth centenary of the death of St. Francis.

We gather in St. Clare’s Church, Graiguecullen once again in celebration of St. Clare and St. Francis and indeed in celebration of the Poor Clare’s presence among us here in Carlow for the past 133 years. The Rule of their Order was only confirmed by Papal Bull, the day before St. Clare’s death. The Poor Clare’s, by their life and example witness to us the face of God.

We seek His face. We ring their bell. We knock on their door. We write out our petitions. Let’s for a moment recollect ourselves as we call to mind our woundedness and brokenness in His presence as 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 gconaí, ós ár gcomhair amach – be with us always, showing us the way.                                                                      A Thiarna, déan Trócaire

Homily:

I have celebrated a lot of weddings in my life. There is nothing I enjoy more than sacramental moments with family and friends. Indeed Saturday last I baptised my four month old grandniece, Isla Kate, a daughter to my nephew Leo and his wife Shauna.

In all the weddings I’ve celebrated over the past 39 years, including my earlier year as a deacon, the gospel from Matthew that relays ‘the parable of the ten wedding attendants’ has never been used by a couple. Today we use this text from St. Matthew to honour the Poor Clare’s and to celebrate the Feast of St. Clare.

It speaks a language that always grates a little with me, words like “foolish”[1]; “drowsy”[2]; phrases like “the door was closed”[3] and “I do not know you”[4]. The Strait of Hormuz reminds us of our global dependency on oil. One fifth of the world’s oil supply passes through the Strait.

And here we have a parable presented to us of five foolish and five wise girls. The foolish ones took lamps but no oil; the wise brought flasks of oil along with lamps. Again I’ll remind you ‘foolish’ is a judgemental word and one which shouldn’t be in anyone’s vocabulary. What seems absent for me is the generosity that comes with having flasks of oil. There is a world of difference between “there may not be enough for us and for you …”[5] and ‘there is not enough …”. Five loaves and two fish fed thousands, it wasn’t in Jesus’ vocabulary to say “there may not be enough”[6]. 

The Feast of St. Clare celebrates generosity, the generosity of an 18 year old in 1212 who belonged to the noblest family, leaving everything behind her, making her way to Assisi to find Francis. He had made a similar journey, the same sacrifice, seven years earlier.

Clare could have chosen fine clothing, comfort, a socially acceptable marriage; instead she heard Francis preach about Christ, about the poor, about distain for riches. That word entered her heart, and she acted upon it.

We are told it was Palm Sunday in 1212 when Clare walked out on her family and found her way to the Portiuncula. Before the altar of the Blessed Virgin, she laid aside her rich, lavish clothing, to wear the clothes of Christ. As St. Paul says Clare “put on Christ”[7]. She became little before God. Her poverty was not misery, but it freed her. Her hands, empty of riches, now allowed her entirely to hold onto Christ.

Francis had done this some years earlier. In the Portiuncula Clare was freed  of her riches and veiled for Christ. Fourteen years later in 1226 Francis sensing his imminent death, asked the brothers to carry to the Portiuncula, the same chapel were Clare was veiled. It was there he would breathe his last on October 4^th.

It was in the Portiuncula that Francis first heard the instruction: “Francis, go repair my church, which, as you see, is falling into ruin”, at first believing it was the one in Assisi, but in fact it was the Church, universal. It still needs repairing, there will always be work to be done. This year we honour the eighth centenary of Francis’ death, we are very aware that while he has died, his poetry, his song, his example, like Clare’s remains.

The Poor Clare’s here in Carlow, as we fondly remember Sr. Therese who died exactly a month ago on July 11^th, the Poor Clare’s continue the song of St. Clare and the poetry of St. Francis. Without Francis, there wouldn’t have been Clare. The man in the rough, tattered habit, the man who wore a knotted rope for a belt, changed Clare’s way of looking at everything and forever altered the direction of her life.

Was she foolish? Her family thought so, and like Francis’ tried to drag her back home to see reality. Was she wise? Well eight centuries later we are still talking about her. The oil in her lamp continues to reflect the face of Christ. She has entered the wedding feast. We see the same reflective love in the face of the Poor Clare’s, let’s also find it in one another.

[1] Mt.25:2

[2] Mt.25:4

[3] Mt.25:10

[4] Mt.25:12

[5] Mt.25:9

[6] ibid

[7] Rm.13:14

The post Feast of St Clare 11th August 2026 appeared first on Kandle.

With a big reduction in the number of priests available this year, I am reminded of just how much each priest gives of himself when appointed to a parish. This is never taken for granted and we should always be thankful for their work and ministry. 

Clergy who are moving and those who are taking on more, have my deepest respect and support. Going forward parishes will undoubtably be without a resident priest and so with fewer clergy it is more important than ever to pray for our priests and to encourage vocations.

I am in contact with a number of international priests who hopefully will be in a position to take up appointments in the diocese over the coming months.

I ask you to keep all our priests and deacons in your prayers, to help them and to support them at this important time in our diocese. The changes come into effect on Friday 18^th September next.

Fr. Tom Dooley, PP Portarlington & Emo to retire.

Fr. Yanbo Chen, SVD CC, The Cathedral Parish, recalled by the SVD Order.

Fr. Theodore Tomasik, SVD CC, The Cathedral Parish, recalled by the SVD Order.

Fr. Erik Ebot, SVD CC, Portlaoise, recalled by the SVD Order.

Fr. Eugen Dragas Tamas, CC, Portarlington & Emo returning to Iasi Diocese in Romania.

Fr. Ciprian Matei, CC, Portlaoise returning to Bucharest Archdiocese in Romania.

Fr. Joe O’Neill, PP, Kill to take sabbatical leave.

Fr. David Vard PP Stradbally taking personal leave of absence with my full support.

Fr. Pat Hughes, PP, Myshall & Clonegal, to become PP, Portarlington & Emo.

Fr. Andy Leahy, CC, Myshall & Clonegal, to become PP Myshall & Clonegal while continuing to reside in St. Patrick’s Missionary Society, Kiltegan.

Fr. Yohan Fernando, CC, Naas, Sallins and Two-Mile-House, to become Adm., Kill while remaining part of the team in Naas, Sallins and Two-Mile-House Pastoral Area.

Fr. Piotr Jakubiak, Polish Chaplain, to become CC in the Portarlington  Mountmellick Pastoral Area, while continuing to support the Polish community.

Fr. Petru Medves, CC, Abbeyleix, Ballinakill & Raheen, to become also CC, Portlaoise. The three curates in Portlaoise (Fr. Adriano de Oliveira, Fr. Simon Jin and Fr. Petru Medves) will assist in ministry in the wider Pastoral Area.

As previously announced (which came into effect on 1^st August):

Fr. Sean Maher, PP Balyna,  appointed to the staff of the Seminary, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth.

Fr. Brian Kavanagh, CC, Allen & AP Newbridge, to become PP, Balyna.

Once again many thanks and blessings to all,

+Denis Nulty

12 August 2026

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Biography

Date of Birth:
3rd February 1934

Date of Ordination:
22nd June 1958

Appointments
1958 – 1959: CC, Clane
1959 – 1969: Teaching Staff, Knockbeg
1969 – 1987: CC, Portlaoise
1987 – 1992: PP, Daingean. Appointed Vicar General in 1988.
1992 – 2000: PP, Portlaoise
2000 – 2026: PE CC, Killeigh

Funeral Arrangements:

Sunday, the 2nd day of August – Monsignor Tom will repose at Saint Joseph’s Church, Ballinagar, (R35 W728) from 3 pm with prayers at 7.30 pm.

Monday, the 3rd day of August – Monsignor Tom’s Requiem Mass will be celebrated in Saint Patrick’s Church, Killeigh (R35 H343) at 12 pm.
Following the Mass, Monsignor Tom will be laid to rest in Saint Mary’s Graveyard, Raheen (R35 K096).

Monsignor Tom’s Requiem Mass can be viewed on the following link: https://mcn.live/Camera/st-patricks-church-killeigh

May Monsignor Tom rest in peace.

Bishop Denis’ Homily at Msgr. Tom Coonan’s Requiem: St. Patrick’s Church, Killeigh              03.08.26

In ‘The Green and Red of Mayo’ The Saw Doctors sing:

“Oh take me to Clare Island

The home of Granuaile

It’s waters harbour fishes

From the herring to the whale”

For as good as fifty years Tom Coonan has been covering summer supply on Clare Island nestled in Clew Bay. It may be Mayo for Sam, Kerry for Butter, but Tom was for Clare Island!

Tom was born in Graiguenamanagh and never forgot those Kilkenny roots. He was ordained by Archbishop John Charles McQuaid out of Maynooth on June 22^nd, 1958 with 48 classmates, including the late Ned Whelan. It was the same year that Noel Dunphy was ordained from the Pontifical Irish College, Rome. Bishop Tom Keogh earlier that same month ordained 21 priests, mostly for the foreign missions from Carlow College, St. Patrick’s while Bishop Patrick Cleary, Bishop of Nancheng in China ordained 9 priests in St. Patrick’s, Kiltegan. A very different world and time then to 2026.

Tom Coonan was acutely aware that the world he was ordained into, and the one he continued to generously minister in, up until a couple of months ago, were different places. Tom was a voracious reader in his day, keeping up to speed with the latest theological discourse and thinking. He liked poetry. One that fell out of his breviary yesterday afternoon was titled ‘The Undertaker’ by Kildare poet John MacKenna:

“Each time I pass the undertaker’s store

I swear I see him wink and gently smile.

Behind him, through a widely open door,

a vast array of coffins to beguile,

like invitations issued year on year

to parties that are bound to end in tears”

Tom’s breviary was well worn and well used. Sometimes passing through Geashill, I would see him walking out the road from his home, praying the office as he walked, at one with the Creator God.

I purposefully chose the Road to Emmaus story for today’s Requiem. The first Book of Kings shows David passing on the baton to his son Solomon. Our psalmist reassures us that the Lord never leaves us, the Shepherd never abandons his sheep. St. Paul gives the preacher, the homilist, clear instructions. Tom is well remembered for his homilies, as attested to in the many tributes on rip.ie. He was there for families when loved ones were sick; he was there for couples as they welcomed new life in baptism; he was there for the younger children receiving their First Holy Communion and the older confirmandi.

Returning to that account of the Supper at Emmaus. The two disciples were heading away from Jerusalem, their faces downcast, their dreams shattered. Jesus came and walked by their side. And he invites them to tell their story. He empathised with them in their disillusionment; he gently probed, maybe even chastised, before sitting with them around the supper table. And as they recognise him, He is gone; but they too are then fired up and return the journey they had just travelled, to breathe new life into their dispirited colleagues. I never left a conversation with Msgr. Tom without in some way feeling challenged, but always the better for it.

Tom loved the schools. Recently a younger teacher at a diocesan in-service spoke of how the school valued the visit of the local priest, that priest was Tom Coonan. What he did in the four schools in Killeigh was shaped by his life in Clane, in Daingean, in Portlaoise and of course life as the History and Geography teacher in Knockbeg.

In the 1980’s the diocese gathered in the Ard Rí Hotel, it stood then proudly perched on the hill, overlooking the River Suir on the way into Waterford city. No longer an operating hotel as it was closed following a fire in 2005. The diocesan gathering was a momentous event in the time of Bishop Larry Ryan, and became a reference point for those of us coming afterwards and the work it stimulated and the conversations it began, have continued with greater intensity in more recent years. Tom Coonan had a key role in organising this event.

He was great with the sick and housebound and as the years passed those calls lasted longer, as those being attended were no longer parishioners, they had become friends. His outreach to Uganda is well recognised. How fitting it was that Fr. Tom Smith, a priest on mission in Uganda, should have been the one to anoint Tom, two days before his passing. His ministry to the sick is well noted in his many visits to Tullamore Hospital, to Nursing Homes and in the setting up of that health-care facility in Uganda.

In the days of the Covid pandemic and lockdown, Tom continued to reach out to parishioners by celebrating Mass on FaceBook from his Oratory in Geashill. He was then in his late 80’s. And when his sight began to fail in more recent times, he would learn the readings for the following weekend off by heart, print them in large font, because Tom Coonan knew a parish and its people are built around the Eucharist. And it’s in the Eucharist, like at Emmaus, we recognise “him at the breaking of bread”^[1].

His party piece in his day was ‘The Rose of Mooncoin’, a little different from the Saw Doctors fayre. The song is over for Msgr. Tom, but the melody lingers on. May he rest in peace. Amen.   

[1] Lk.24:35

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Reflections on the XXVII Columbanus Day in Lodi (Italy)

A year ago the weekend gone by, Carlow hosted the XXVI Columbanus Day. It was a huge venture, an enormous undertaking, a coming together of so many working together to make it a most successful weekend. Perhaps you attended some part of the festivities a year ago?

I think of the opening in Carlow County Museum, and the welcome from the late and much loved Museum Curator, Dermot Mulligan. The biodiversity conference in Carlow College stands out as do the different receptions hosted at the college. Maybe you walked the Columban Way from Mount Leinster to Myshall and enjoyed the splendid July weather that Saturday morning. I think of the most hospitable lunch served by the local ladies in Myshall and the talk that afternoon by former President Mary McAleese on ‘Columbanus, the Man from Myshall’. And then the reception of the relic and that walk from the Adelaide Church to the Church of the Exaltation of the Holy Cross. That splendid concert in the Cathedral on Saturday evening culminating with Mass to honour the XXVI Columbanus Day on Sunday morning. The weekend concluded with the customary ‘Pilgrims Lunch’ in the Dolmen Hotel.

I returned last week with a group who flew the Carlow flag high at the XXVII Columbanus Day celebrations in Lodi, in the north of Italy. We had a wonderful weekend, with many pilgrims still commenting so favourably on last year’s celebrations.

The event this year began on Friday evening with a visit to San Colombano al Lambro to see the parish church of San Colombano Abate where we stepped into centuries of history and faith. The church is permanent home to a splendidly ornate reliquary of Saint Columbanus consisting of two ribs and a vertebra of the saint. While there we took time to pray and bring to the fore the intentions of our pilgrimage. Also we admired the more contemporary paintings depicting the life of Columbanus, including one where he with his twelve companions set sail from Bangor and another one of the saint and his monks planning the construction of the famous monastery at Bobbio. Our evening was to have concluded with an Irish Night in the Piazza del Populo, but a delayed start suggested our bus journey back to our hotel was a greater priority. We needed a good sleep for Day II.

On Saturday we walked the 13km walk, beginning at the church in Sant’Angelo Lodigiano, to San Colombano al Lambro on the Italian stretch of the Columban Way. How proud we were to think that the route we walked began on the side of Mount Leinster in Myshall.  Pope Leo XIV had been to Sant’Angelo Lodigiano a few weeks earlier to honour the birthplace of St. Frances Xavier Cabrini, the first US saint and patroness of migrants. Many of the shops and businesses were still festooned in papal colours and memorabilia recalling that pastoral visit. One message caught my eye: “Anche oggi un Leone guida la Chiesa e una Colomba continua a indicare la strada del cuore” giving the title to this reflection ‘Today too a lion (Leo) guides the Church and a dove (Columbanus) continues to show the way of the heart’. The Columban Way is indeed the way of the heart across Europe. Our walk was made enjoyable by the many fellow pilgrims we encountered along the way. It may not have been Mount Leinster but it was equally spectacular!

Later that evening the relics of St. Columbanus were brought from Bobbio and welcomed to Lodi Cathedral. It was such a moving moment to be present as the relics were carried shoulder high up the main aisle to be placed in the sanctuary. The man from Myshall had travelled far indeed. The brief ceremony was followed by a concert in the Piazza della Vittoria, the Piazza in front of Lodi Cathedral. Piazzas in Italy are great places for people to congregate, gather and celebrate; the Piazza della Vittoria did not let the side down.

On Sunday morning our group travelled the one hour journey to Bobbio, nestled in the Trebbia Valley, where Columbanus founded his last monastery and where he died and is laid to rest. We had a simple but moving prayer moment in the crypt of the Abbey of St. Columbanus around his resting place as our pilgrim group circled the splendidly ornate sarcophagus, realising we had travelled from the womb to the tomb of this sixth century saint.

That afternoon in the searing heat of Lodi we attended the welcome reception, hosted by Bishop Maurizio Malvestiti, along with several ecclesial and civic leaders. This was followed by the Mass honouring XXVII Columbanus Day. In a letter from Pope Leo to the Bishop of Lodi, Pope Leo prayed that “the days dedicated to the Saint help bring together people of different languages and nations, inviting them to rediscover together the values of the Christian tradition in order to respond to the challenges of our time”. He highlighted Columbanus’ emphasis on mercy, describing it as indispensable.  A proud moment for our Carlow pilgrims was when a number of our pilgrims had a prominent role during the Mass, including one of them reciting an intercessory prayer as gaeilge: “Guimid go spreagfaidh Naomh Columbán sinn chun Críost a leanúint, aire a thabhairt don bpláinéad agus síocháin a chur chun cinn. A Thiarna, éist linn” (We pray that St. Columbanus will inspire us to follow Christ, to take care of our planet and to promote peace, Lord hear us). And then the announcement, greeted by all of us with great joy that next year we will gather in Bangor and Belfast from 11 to 13 June 2027 to celebrate the XXVIII Columbanus Day. The formal announcement concluded that from Bangor, which for centuries was one of the foremost schools of monasticism throughout Europe, will resound, “with renewed vigor, the message of peace, of universal fraternity, and of unity that brings light to the darkness of present-day Europe”. The Pilgrim lunch was relished afterwards. And so the curtain fell on a most enjoyable XXVII Columbanus Day.

The celebration of these Columbanus Days is not an exercise of historical memory. They are a reminder at this time, as Ireland holds the six month Presidency of the European Union, that Columbanus was the first to write of a “totius Europae”, it didn’t matter if you were Turk, Frank or Irish, you were European. He crossed borders, literally and figuratively, and was the first to speak of a European identity; that is why the concept of these ‘Columbanus Days’ is so important.

X Denis Nulty

13 July 2026

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