The Primate of All Ireland has warned of a “crisis in the vocation of
parenting” which is resulting in the fragmentation of traditional
family bonds.
Speaking on Sunday in the Basilica of St Gotthard in Lamspringe in
the German Diocese of Hildesheim, Cardinal Sean Brady expressed concern
at the under-valuing of the stability and commitment in marriage by
political and cultural elements.
These presented “unprecedented challenges to the family as the first
agent of evangelisation”, he warned and added that the “committed
marriage between a woman and a man” was an “essential part of the
transformation and purification of our culture.”
In his homily, which he preached to commemorate the life and ministry
of St Oliver Plunkett, patron saint of the Archdiocese of Armagh, the
Cardinal said the witness of St Oliver called the faithful to “a renewed
appreciation of the need to support stable, committed marriage between a
woman and a man.”
He explained that he was in Lamspringe to take part in the annual celebrations in honour of his martyred predecessor.
“It is to the glory and praise of the people of this diocese of
Hildesheim and to the monks of Lamspringe in particular, that the mortal
remains of St Oliver found, for 200 years, a resting place in the
shrine in the Church of Sts Hadrian and Dionysius”, he explained.
Recalling the link between the Benedictines in Lamspringe and
Downside in Yorkshire, Cardinal Brady explained that one of the monks St
Oliver had met in Newgate prison was Dom Maurus Corker.
St Oliver was accused of treason and plotting an invasion of Ireland
to overthrow the King.
He was convicted, sentenced to death and executed
at Tyburn on 1 July 1681, the last person to be executed for his faith
in England. His remains were buried in a nearby churchyard.
Dom Corker was not executed but eventually released from prison. He
immediately set about exhuming the remains of Oliver Plunkett and
transported them to Lamspringe for burial in a shrine in the ancient
Church of Sts Hadrian and Dionysius – which was the Abbey Church at the
time.
“It is to the eternal glory of Dom, later Abbot Corker, that he
carried out this corporal work of mercy for his deceased friend. It is
to the eternal glory of the community that they welcomed the move and
that they built the beautiful shrine. It is to the glory of the citizens
of Lamspringe that they welcomed and buried the remains of Archbishop
Plunkett at a time when he was neither Blessed nor Saint,” Cardinal
Brady told his German congregation.
“As an Irishman and as the present Archbishop of Armagh, I am
grateful to all of you for all you do to keep alive the memory and
spirit of my fellow Irishman and heroic martyr for the faith, St Oliver
Plunkett,” he said.
The Primate also recalled a saying of St Oliver’s: “This is the time
for doing good. We must follow the example of sailors at sea. When the
wind is favourable, they unfurl their canvas and skim swiftly across the
ocean under full sail”.
He explained that there was an obvious allusion in this to the Holy
Spirit as the breath of God and to the current challenge before the
Barque of Peter, the Church.
“In the modern world it is a time for doing good. Pope Francis
reminds us of the importance of authentic witnesses to the reality and
transforming power of Christ’s love in the ordinary, everyday moments
and encounters of life. In this we will be well served by looking to the
life and example of St Oliver Plunkett,” he said.