Any violent death, is one too many, said Bishop Colm O'Reilly of Ardagh & Clonmacnois yesterday as he offered the Latin Mass (Extraordinary Form).Referring to the recent violent death of a young mother in Longford, he said: "It is very understandable that the general population here is angry as well as saddened. It is important that now as never before all of us are also strongly committed to the protection of life, to the support of those who work for peace in the community and to giving them our full co-operation. We cannot become apathetic."
He went on: "Nothing can excuse indifference to the sacredness of human life."
He reminded people of the 'Day for Life' which occurs on 7th October.
The Latin Mass took place as part of a commemoration of the Bicentenary of the death of Monsignor Henry Essex Edgeworth de Firmont.
During his homily, Bishop O'Reilly said the Abbé had an assured place in history for bravery, standing by the condemned Louis XVI as he died by the guillotine.
"This Commemorative Mass is celebrated in the form of the Roman Rite in which the Abbé celebrated Mass for the doomed monarch. We honour a man whose life speaks of profound respect for the sacredness of life at a time when France was experiencing the genocide of the Reign of Terror," he added.
The Abbé de Firmont, as the Catholic priest Henry Essex Edgeworth was known, lived in times so troubled that he might have despaired of a future for the ministry he exercised. He did not.
In our times we could lose hope for a future when the right to life is upheld. Today, as we look back to the life of a man who died 200 years ago having lived faithfully to the last: the witness of his life gives reason to hope for the future, Bishop O'Reilly concluded.
Bishop O'Reilly was the fourth Irish diocesan bishop to offer traditional Mass in recent years, following Bishops Daly and Hegarty of Derry and Archbishop Martin of Dublin.
Since Pope Benedict XVI’s letter on the Latin Mass, released during the summer, sales of the missal for the extraordinary rite have doubled, reported the London-based publisher, Baronius Press.
John Newton, editor of Baronius Press, commented: "It would seem that Summorum Pontificum has generated a considerable amount of interest and excitement in the traditional Latin liturgy among the Catholic laity."
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