MORE THAN 10,000 people converged on Knock Shrine from all over Ireland for what was billed as the largest grandparents’ pilgrimage in the world.As the basilica became filled to the doors long before the 3pm ceremonies, one onlooker, Breda Mullen from Cong, Co Mayo, declared: “It’s a sign that the faith is really strong in Ireland contrary to what the media is saying.”
Inside the thronged building where even standing was not an option due to the overflow congregation, Knock parish priest, Msgr Joseph Quinn echoed Ms Mullen’s sentiments in his opening remarks.
Looking around him at the massed ranks of worshippers, Msgr Quinn said: “I only wish that people who write the obituary of the Catholic Church were here today or here during the national novena.”
Keynote speaker was Breda O’Brien, a teacher and Irish Times columnist, who stressed that grandparents have a crucial role in an era when, “massive changes have occurred in family form and family breakdown.”
Quoting 2009 research by the School of Social Work and Social Policy, Trinity College, Ms O’Brien said the total number of people who have experienced marriage breakdown increased from 40,000 to just under 200,000 in the two decades between 1986 and 2006.
She continued: “Grandparents are the ones who keep the wheels on the wagon, who provide an anchor for bruised and hurting adult children and grandchildren, and provide a source of support and stability to people whose world has fallen apart.”
Chief celebrant for the Mass which was the centrepoint of the fourth annual National Grandparents’ Pilgrimage was Bishop John McAreavey, Bishop of Dromore.
Among those who performed at the Mass was the former Eurovision winner, Dana; 13-year-old Ireland’s Got Talent winner Chloe Coyle and singer Michael English.
There was a special round of applause from the congregation for the founder of the Catholic Grandparents’ Association, Catherine Wiley who was described by Msgr Quinn as “an apostle for our time.”
Kathleen Madden from Ballyhaunis, Co Mayo, who attended with Katelyn Concannon, one of her 18 grandchildren, said: “I have so much more time for my grandchildren than I had for my own children. It’s lovely, almost like getting a second chance at parenthood”.
SIC: IT/IE