Thursday, April 17, 2025

Priest arrested outside hotel after he is challenged by ‘paedophile hunters'

UPDATE : We have obtained a copy of the video referred to in relation to this matter.

For legal reasons we will not yet broadcast it.

However, legally we can identify the priest as Fr Edward Gallagher, currently serving in Lifford, and originally from Derry.

The Diocese of Derry has confirmed it is aware of an alleged incident outside a hotel in Derry involving a priest of the diocese.

It comes after videos circulated online of a man in clerical garb being challenged by self-styled "paedophile hunters”.

The PSNI say a 58-year-old man was arrested at a hotel in Derry on suspicion of alleged attempted sexual communication with a child.

A spokesperson for the PSNI said, “A 58-year-old man was arrested on Thursday, April 17, on suspicion of alleged attempted sexual communication with a child.

"He remains in police custody at his time.

“There are no further details."

The Diocese of Derry said they are aware of the incident and a video circulating on social media.

A spokesperson for the Diocese said, “The Diocese of Derry is aware of an alleged incident outside a hotel in the Derry city involving a priest of this diocese.

"The diocese knows that a video of the incident has been posted on-line and we understand the PSNI have been involved.

"Currently, the diocese has no further information.”

The Catholic Church was contacted for comment. It shared the same statement issued by the diocese.

The Diocese of Derry serves the Catholic congregation of 51 parishes across almost all of Co Derry, parts of Co Tyrone and Co Donegal, and a small area across the River Bann in Co Antrim.

Methodists apologise for mother-and-baby homes

THE Methodist Church has offered “sincerest apologies” to “anyone who was hurt or abused” in the mother-and baby homes it ran in the 1950s and ’60s.

A formal apology was issued by the Connexional Council — the trustees of the Methodist Church — on Wednesday of last week.

“Part of the mission of the Methodist Church in the 20th century was to work with single mothers who did not have others to support them. The aim of the Church (which no longer runs any homes) was to offer compassion and care.

“But we are deeply saddened and ashamed that some mothers who lived in these homes, and some children who started their lives there, have shared with us that they experienced poor or abusive care and were denied control and decision making over their own lives,” the statement said.

“For decades these institutions operated under our oversight, and many vulnerable individuals, we have been told, were subjected to harsh conditions, neglect and abuse. We deeply regret any pain and trauma which may have been caused by our actions and the systemic failures that allowed such injustice to occur.”

The Council thanked women who had revealed their experiences, and expressed hope that this would “encourage more women to come forward to we can offer ongoing support.

“We recognise the profound impact these experiences have had on survivors and their families and we are committed to supporting the healing process and ensuring that such injustices are never repeated,” the statement said.

Only a small percentage of mother-and-baby homes were run by the Methodist Church; more were overseen by the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of England.

According to the Children’s Homes website, most of the Methodist homes were located in England, two were in Northern Ireland, and one was in Dublin.

Mother-and-baby homes run by religious organisations in Ireland were the focus of five-year commission of investigation. 

Discussions about compensation payments continue.

'Government should do better' on local mother and baby home memorials, says campaigner

The lack of progress on local memorialisation for survivors of mother and baby homes has been criticised by a campaigner who says the Government "should do better".

Maureen Considine, spokeswoman of the Cork Survivors and Supporters Alliance, made a submission to the consultation phase undertaken by the Working Group on Actions Involving Local Authorities. 

The working group was set up as part of the Action Plan for Survivors and Former Residents of Mother and Baby and County Home Institutions.

While it was expected the group would submit a report to then minister with responsibility for local government, Alan Dillon, last year, the report has not yet been finalised.

The working group has responsibility for drawing up guidelines on the provision of support for survivors and their families by local authorities, as well as for local memorialisation projects in line with the wishes of former residents of mother and baby homes.

Among the strands for consideration were the issues at local level “in relation to the memorialisation of known burial sites and/or sites of particular interest to former residents and their support groups, including where those sites are not in the ownership of local authorities, and the challenges and opportunities these might present.” 

According to the Department of Housing, Local Government and Heritage, the final drafting of the report and guidelines is under way. In the coming weeks, it will be submitted for Minister James Browne's approval. Following Mr Browne's approval, the report will be forwarded to all local authorities and published.

Ms Considine said that the lack of progress on local memorialisation by central government “reflects its attitude towards the institutions in both the past and present”.

“The graves of women and girls in the Good Shepherds (institution) remain inaccessible and the burial place of Bessborough babies is unmarked and owned by a developer," Ms Considine said. 

"After all that has occurred in the recent past, we should be able to expect better, the Government should do better.” 

Remembering those who died

It comes as efforts are under way to acknowledge dozens of people who died in several institutions in Cork City and who are buried in a large plot in Curraghkippane cemetery, near Kerry Pike.

Currently, there are 53 crosses in place inside the railing which blocks the plot off from the rest of the cemetery. 

Among those buried in the plot are people who died in psychiatric hospitals, industrial schools, and mother and baby homes in Cork City between the 1940s and early 2000s.

Among the institutions where those buried in the plot died were Our Lady’s Hospital, St Finbarr’s Hospital and St Stephen’s Hospital in Glanmire, as well as Magdalene laundries and industrial schools.

The plot is owned by the HSE. A HSE spokesperson said a meeting is due to take place shortly between HSE South West and other agencies in relation to the site there.

‘She never saw him’ – Man reunited with mother and baby home survivor searching ‘high and low’ to find out if brother is alive

A man who was reunited with his birth mother, a survivor of one of Ireland’s most notorious mother and baby homes, has launched a fundraiser to help her buy her house.

Patrick Naughton, 70, from Ealing, west London, was taken from his mother, Christina “Chrissie” Tully, from the Tuam mother and baby home in Co Galway, in 1954, just weeks after she gave birth to him aged 24.

Mr Naughton, who moved to the UK with his adoptive parents aged 13, was reunited with Ms Tully, now 93, in 2013.

Ms Tully, who had given birth to another boy in 1949, when she was 18, via caesarean section, was told by doctors at the time that he had died.

But she believes her son, whom she named Michael, is still alive.

In a bid to help his birth mother, whom he said “never had anything in her life”, Mr Naughton has set up a fundraiser to help her buy her council home, so her son Michael will “always have a home” to which he can return.

“I am terribly sorry for the raw deal that Chrissie has got,” Mr Naughton told the PA news agency.

“I came out all right, I wasn’t put in with a bad family. I was put in with a good mum and dad that cared, but Chrissie lost.

“Chrissie has had no life from the age of 15 onwards and she has suffered.”

As many as 68,000 people went through the religious-run mother and baby homes. Women’s babies were forcibly taken from them and adopted.

Up to 9,000 children died in institutions across the country, in appalling conditions.

Mr Naughton, who visits Ireland regularly, spoke of his mother’s experience under the care of the Bon Secours nuns as an unmarried mother in 1950s’ Ireland.

“Chrissy was put in the Tuam home because nobody wanted her,” he said.

“Her mother didn’t want her. There was nobody she had to return to.

“The local priest took her and put her in the Tuam home because she was a disgrace to the village.”

When she was due to give birth to her first child, aged 18, she was taken into hospital as she needed to have a caesarean section.

“When her time was right to go to the hospital they couldn’t do the birth in the home, so they had to take her into Galway Central Hospital,” he said.

“She gave birth to a baby. The doctor came in and said ‘the baby’s dead’. I don’t know how long after the child was born, but she never saw it.”

Mr Naughton said he and his mother have searched “high and low” in recent years for records of her first child, but have been unable to find anything.

He said Ms Tully received a record from a Freedom of Information request that said the baby had been “returned to Tuam home” after he died.

In 2014, it was revealed that hundreds of babies had been “indecently buried” in a sewage tank at the Tuam mother and baby home.

The research by local historian Catherine Corless found that 796 babies and young children had died and been “indecently buried in a defunct sewage system” at the home between 1925 and 1961.

Ms Tully, who said “he could be in that pit in Tuam, but he could also have been adopted”, said she wanted to keep her home for after she had died, in case he came looking for her, like Mr Naughton.

She said her wish was for the house to remain her family home so Michael knows that “she waited for him”.

Mr Naughton said: “I am desperate. She’s never had anything in her life, and nobody has ever helped her.

“I’ll never make up the lost time if I lived to be a million. I’m trying to give her what she hasn’t got. I try to do everything.”

Female vicar in her 20s goes viral after sharing life inside the church

A young female vicar has become a TikTok sensation, racking up millions of views with her behind-the-scenes videos of church life. 

Reverend Pippa White, 29, started her channel just a year ago as a way to connect with younger generations after moving to a parish in Shropshire.

The former barmaid, now known as "The Tiktok Vicar", has since gained tens of thousands of followers on the platform.

Pippa's content ranges from lighthearted glimpses into her life at St Alkmund's Church to attending Taylor Swift concerts and playing rugby. The Church of England priest expressed her desire to represent young women in the church and promote faith among Generations Z and Alpha.

Originally from Norfolk and now residing in Whitchurch, Shropshire, Pippa revealed that it was her sister who first suggested she become a "TikTok vicar". She said: "When I moved to Whitchurch, I was like 'well, maybe I'll give it a go'."

Despite her initial videos not gaining much traction, Pippa enjoyed making them for her own amusement. However, when one of her videos went viral, she decided to continue creating content.

She described the experience as "It's mostly a very joyous thing, which is really fun."

With 20,000 followers on TikTok, Pippa's videos strike a balance between comedy and education, allowing her to engage with a younger audience.

In a cheeky TikTok that's gone viral with nearly 900,000 views and 129,000 likes, Pippa quipped to viewers that "giving up men" for Lent might be a good plan, with the caption reading "Jesus was such a girl's girl".

Pippa highlighted the need to reshape how young people view the church and faith, asserting that despite their spiritual curiosity, Gen Z doesn't often translate this into church attendance.

She remarked: "For Gen Z, there is a high spiritual awareness and drive but that's not correlating to church attendance figures and things like that.

"There is a gap between young people and organised religion - I think it's the organised part of religion that Gen Z really struggles with."

Pippa accredited her venture into TikTok as a response to the disconnect between the Church of England and younger generations, spurred by a perceived irrelevance or negative news.

"So I think there is a lot of mistrust between the Church of England and young people.

"And I completely understand why - I do not blame people for that."

She sees her TikToks as an opportunity to combat false impressions about what the church represents.

"A big part of my TikTok, for me, is just trying to gently push back against misconceptions, and what people may think church is."

The response to her Lent-themed video took Pippa by surprise, revealing a wider divide in perceptions between feminism and Christianity.

"The Lent video went much bigger than I predicted. It also really shocked me because I am so used to feminist theology and viewing Jesus as feminist and things like that.

"I forget that, for a lot of people, they see feminism and Christianity as completely mutually exclusive.

"So the comments on that and the engagement with that was a real shot in the arm to remind me that actually a lot of people see Christianity as quite misogynistic. That was really interesting.

"And when you have positive engagement like that, it's so life-giving. I'm really helping people just gently explore what they might be missing in all of this."

While her family practised Christianity, Pippa explained she wasn't raised in an overly religious household.

The youngest sibling in a set of four, Pippa's faith was left up to her to choose. She admitted that religion was not something she considered much until her university days.

Pippa shared: "I kind of fell into it.

"My mum is Christian, but my dad, who experienced strict Catholic upbringing, did not want to impose that on his children."

She reminisced about church visits during the festive seasons, saying, "We went to church at Christmas and Easter, so we knew what it was about and I quite liked it."

Growing up in a small village, Pippa described the church scene as unsuitable for youngsters: "But I grew up in a tiny village in the middle of nowhere where just kids didn't go to church because it was really boring."

Her exploration into her faith deepened during her time at university, leading Pippa to question the significance of attending church and being a Christian.

A history graduate, Pippa recalled a pivotal moment: "There was a very clear conversation - it was like a lightning bolt moment."

Reflecting on a pivotal conversation with her boyfriend, Pippa recounted, "I was walking on a road with my boyfriend at the time. I did history but I didn't want to go into teaching or archiving or anything like that and I was like 'I don't know what to do with this degree'.

"We talked about all the sensible options, and then we kind of got into the ridiculous ones - plumber, engineer, astronaut.

"I was like 'oh, I could be a vicar'. And there was this really weird thing where I thought 'why did I say that?' But after that, I just couldn't shake it."

Pippa, who had no clue about the daily responsibilities of a vicar, dived headfirst into her calling and embarked on theological training.

She observed: "The amazing thing about this job is that you can make it what the community needs it to be, what you're good at, what needs to be tended to.

"So being a priest does look very different on very different people and it does get shaped a lot by where you are.

"But I'm also aware the Church of England is going through a time of change. It's becoming a bigger and bigger role and it's changing as we go, which is quite exciting but also a bit fast-paced."

Pippa undertakes a myriad of tasks, form officiating at wakes and weddings to hospital chaplaincy duties and instructing youngsters in ethics.

Her rounds include care home visits and seeing parishioners too infirm to venture out. Crafting sermons occupies a significant portion of her schedule, too.

Despite her TikTok's impactful presence, Pippa is conscious that it doesn't supplant her physical ministry at the church.

Pippa expressed her concern: "This is where I do get a bit concerned with the TikTok stuff: I'm very aware social media is not a replacement for church.

"This is a really interesting bit in academic theology right now asking 'can you have virtual religion?'".

"For me, I come down quite hard on the no - because I think there is something about human communities that have to be face-to-face. I don't want to encourage people to stay online."

Book claims Vatican already knew of sexual abuse accusations in 1950s against French charity icon

The authors of a book published on Thursday, April 17, said the Vatican knew about sexual abuse allegations against French charity icon Abbé Pierre as early as the 1950s. 

The Catholic cleric – who founded the d'Emmaüs charity that's now present in over 40 countries – was widely praised for his work for the poverty-stricken and homeless when he died in 2007, at 94.

But in recent months, more than 30 people have alleged he committed sexual abuse against them, some when they were children, between 1950 and 2000, shattering his saintly image. 

Prosecutors in February said no criminal investigation could be opened because the statute of limitations had expired in all cases.

In their book L'Abbé Pierre, la fabrique d'un saint ("Abbé Pierre, the Making of a Saint"), journalists Laetitia Cherel and Marie-France Etchegoin say the Vatican knew about some of the accusations for decades. "As early as autumn 1955, not only did top French clergy know about the dark side and danger in Abbé Pierre, but so did the Holy See," they wrote.

In the book, they report that the Vatican requested the bishop of Versailles launch "a judicial procedure," but none was begun. 

The journalists said they gained access to declassified Vatican archives that showed that a priest had written to the Holy See in October 1955 to say Abbé Pierre had done "immoral things" while visiting the United States.

'Problematic' behavior

The archives also included the minutes of a 1957 meeting about Abbé Pierre, born Henri Groues in 1912. 

The 10-page document noted that two US and Canadian cardinals had alerted the Vatican in 1955, and detailed allegations against the French religious figure from 1955 to 1957, the journalists said.

The Vatican asked its ambassador to France at the time to keep an eye on Abbé Pierre, also suspecting him of having ties to Communism, it showed. 

Archives of the French church, consulted after the scandal first broke last year, show French religious leaders remained quiet about what they termed Abbé Pierre's "problematic" behavior.

Pope Francis said in September that the Vatican had known about the accusations against the French charity figure, at least since his death in 2007. 

The Conference of Bishops of France at the time asked the Vatican to examine its archives to see what was known before then, but there has been no follow-up so far.

The 1939-1958 Vatican archives that the journalists consulted were declassified in 2020 to allow historians to examine the Holy See's attitude to Nazi Germany, the book's authors said. 

It contained a blue file titled "Abbé Pierre," which one of them said the Vatican possibly did not realize was included.

Arrest of Italian priest for abuse may renew calls for national reckoning

An Italian priest has been placed under house arrest on charges of aggravated sexual assault against a minor, while also facing at least five other charges of abuse in other communities said to date from 2011 to 2013.

The arrest came after Father Ciro Panigara, 48, stepped down as the pastor of a small parish in the northern Italian province of Brescia earlier this year. 

The resignation came after a 15-year-old boy reported what media accounts have described as “inappropriate attention” by Panigara to teachers at a local school.

According to media reports, Panigara had invited the boy to an overnight youth event and then, citing the cold temperature, suggested the boy spend the night with him in his own bed.

The episode comes as activists on behalf of survivors are pressing the Italian Catholic church to engage in the sort of systematic study of its record vis-à-vis clerical abuse that other European nations such as France and Germany have already conducted.

At the time Panigara resigned in January, he had only been the pastor of San Paolo, a community of some 4,500 people, for roughly two months. At the time, Bishop Pierantonio Tremolada of Bresica sent a letter to the parish saying only that “situations and critical issues have emerged which recommend that he immediately interrupt his experience in your parish communities.”

Later, however, the diocese released a statement acknowledging that Panigara had been accused of sexual abuse.

“The news deeply saddens us,” the statement said. “The grave tenor of the accusations against Father Ciro Panigara must be carefully evaluated.”

“The priest, following certain verbal reports, was immediately suspended from his pastoral ministry by the bishop with a precautionary canonical procedure on January 10, 2025, while awaiting, and in respect for, investigations by the competent civil authorities which subsequently have been launched.”

The local carabinieri, Italy’s military police which investigated the case, also released a written statement on the arrest.

Inquiries, it said, “have allowed us to ascertain that the [priest] under investigation, in his capacity as curate and pastor of two communities in the province of Brescia, from 2011 to 2013 and again in 2024, allegedly carried out numerous acts of aggravated sexual violence against some minors who were entrusted to him for carrying out activities within the parish.”

Local media reports indicate that although there were no formal accusations against Panigara from that earlier period, he was nonetheless sent for psychological counseling afterwards and judged fit to continue in ministry.

The Brescia diocese has pledged full cooperation with the ongoing investigations.

“The drama of minors as victims of abuse cannot be in any way undervalued, all the more so if it involves priests,” the diocesan statement said, while adding that the rights of the accused party must also be “respected and protected.”

“The measures taken are strong and painful,” it said. “We trust they’ll lead as rapidly as possible to clarifying the facts and the responsibility.”

“We manifest our closeness to all the persons involved in this painful episode,” the diocese said, “and we assure our full collaboration with the civil authorities.”

Panigara’s arrest may renew calls for the Italian Catholic church to carry out a comprehensive national review of past abuse cases, which it has so far insisted on limiting to the period 2020-2022.

In January, however, the far northern Italian diocese of Bolzano-Brixen, on the border with Austria, released its own more sweeping study, covering the period from 1964, when the diocese was founded, until 2023.

The study identified 67 possible abuse situations, including 53 backed by firm or plausible evidence. It found that 41 priests were involved in these cases, representing 4.1 percent of all the clergy who had served in the diocese during the nearly sixty years covered by the research.

The authors of the study, pointing out that victims often wait for decades before speaking out, said their findings had probably only uncovered the tip of an iceberg, with “a high number of hidden cases,” they said.

Activists on behalf of abuse survivors in Italy have called on the powerful national bishops’ conference, known by its Italian acronym CEI, to conduct a similar review on a national level, but so far the conference has not responded.

Pope at Chrism Mass : Pray for the joy of priests

"For us priests, the Jubilee year thus represents a specific summons to a new beginning on our path of conversion." 

Pope Francis stressed this in his homily on Holy Thursday morning during the Chrism Mass in St. Peter's Basilica.

Cardinal Domenico Calcagno was chosen by the Pope as his delegate to preside over the Mass and read the Holy Father's homily.

"If only we let Him teach us, our ministry," he marvelled, "becomes one of hope, because in each of our stories God opens a jubilee: a time and an oasis of grace." 

'I am making all things new'

For priests, he continued, the Jubilee year is an important moment for us to begin again. 

As pilgrims of hope, he said, "We are called to leave clericalism behind and to become heralds of hope."  

Changing hearts

The shepherd who loves his people, the Pope marvelled, "does not seek consensus and approval at any cost," reminding that "the fidelity of love changes hearts." 

Thus, he encouraged, "We are gathered here, dear brothers, to make our own and to repeat that 'Amen.'”  

"The Passion, Death and Resurrection of Jesus, which we are about to relive," he emphasized, "are the soil that solidly sustains the Church and, within her, our priestly ministry."

Our first home is God's Word

Each priest, the Pope noted, has a long-standing relationship with the Word of God. "We put it at the service of others," he said, "only when the Bible remains our first home. " 

Within it, he marvelled, each of us has some pages that touch us more than others.  "That is beautiful and important!  We also help others to find the pages that touch their lives: such as newlyweds, when they choose the readings for their wedding; or those who are grieving and seek passages to entrust a dear one who has died to the mercy of God and the prayers of the community."  

More incredible, he suggested, is that there is a page for a vocation, normally at the beginning of each of our journeys. "Whenever we read this page, God still calls us, if only we cherish it and do not allow our love to grow cold."

Lord comforts and is with us

The Holy Father urged those present to remember the Lord's comforting reminder to the faithful,: 'See, I am making all things new.'

In addition, the Pope reminded that the Holy Spirit continues to be the silent protagonist of priestly service.  "The people feel His breath," he noted, "when our words become a reality in our lives." 

God's work, not ours

Reminding that the sacred chrism "that we consecrate today seals this mystery of transformation at work in the different stages of Christian life," he urged, "Take care to never grow discouraged, for it is all God’s work." 

With this in mind, he gave them some homework. "Believe! Believe that God did not make a mistake with me!  God never makes mistakes.  

"Let us always remember," he stressed, "the words spoken at our ordination: “May God who has begun the good work in you bring it to fulfilment,” adding, "He does."

This, the Holy Father said, "is God’s work, not ours." The Lord, Pope Francis reminded, opens our eyes and lifts the burdens from our shoulders.  

Pope Francis concluded by inviting all members of the faithful, as people of hope, to pray today for the joy of priests.

Chrism Mass Homily - Dublin

Holy Thursday is the Feast of Communion, it is the Feast of One-ness, of Unity. It is a feast in two parts: the second part is this evening when we remember the Lord’s Supper, and how we are made one: “this is my body given for you … this is my blood poured out for you.” (Luke 22:19–20)

The first part is this morning—this Chrism Mass, in which we remember the mission of Christ, what he is truly about, and to what all of us who minister in his name are called. And to each one of you—priests, deacons, lay faithful I extend a warm welcome.

The readings we have just heard are deeply rooted in two things: in service and in the future. Our familiarity with them in the context of Jesus’ fulfilling Isaiah’s prophecy may dull our sense of the service that Jesus embraces, while hiding from us the radical future character of that call: “He has sent me to give, to proclaim, to announce …. to give the oil of gladness …” During this Jubilee of Hope, is it with this future dimension that I’d like spend some time.

The mission of Jesus is radically future-oriented. He has a profound clarity—one could call it a confidence—about why he has been sent. He comes as God’s compassion and hope for his sisters and brothers who are ‘poor, blind, oppressed, those worn down by the daily grind of trying to make ends meet.’

Jesus’ compassion, is born of God’s compassion. His compassion is born of his relationship with his Father. Like us all, Jesus takes time to come to know his Father. It is in this relationship with his Father that he discovers his own identity: “You are my Son the beloved …” and this discovery, like our own, is ongoing, full of ups and downs—“I bless you, Father because you have hidden these things from the wise and the learned and have revealed them to mere infants.” (Matt 11:25) but also “Father let his cup pass from me…” (Luke 22:42)

Here we come to see something profound about the nature of hope: the hope that Jesus has, and the hope on which he puts flesh is born of his relationship with his Father: the hope he expresses in his “neither do I condemn you” to the woman caught in adultery (as we saw two weeks ago—see John 8:11), the hope which empowers him to give of himself—the “take, this is my Body” of the Last Supper—is brought to life and kept alive, nourished by his relationship with his Father.

Fifty years ago—in 1975—Donal Murray could say, faith, hope and charity “are essentially one. They are our readiness to allow the implications of Christ’s glorification [i.e., his resurrection] to be worked out in our lives.” (Jesus is Lord [Veritas, 1975], 40; emphasis mine).

“They are the implication of Christ’s [resurrection] worked out in our lives.” With his characteristic clarity Murray would name what was at stake: “if faith is our welcoming of God’s activity, hope is our reliance on God.” (ibid.) “Hope is our reliance on God.” Hope is the working out of our reliance on God in our lives. Without God, we have nothing in the end. Without God we are nothing in the end. This we see in Jesus. This we learn from Jesus.

If there is one thing I’d like you take away with you today, it is the profound difference between hope and optimism. The word hope fills the language of our lives: “we hope to be able to return to work after an illness,” “we hope to be able to make that meeting,” “we are hopeful of a positive outcome of this or that negotiation.” This is the way we speak. “The doctors are hopeful …”—words we all want to hear. This is the way we speak.

Our faith uses the very same language, but it is saying more. In our day-to-day speech, when we speak of hope, we are really talking of a prognosis, a calculation that we make. We look at the weather and make a calculation: sailors and fishers have to become very good a reading the sky, the wind, and the sea. Hill-walkers, too, have to learn to read the weather, to know when something will pass, and when it is prudent to turn back. It is a calculation, based on knowledge and experience. Our doctors have to be able to be able to read and interpret our test results, something that is not always easy.

However, when our faith speaks of hope, we are saying more. “Our own hope had been…,” (Luke 24:21) say the two disciples to the risen Lord on the road to Emmaus, and the Lord brings them on a journey that refocuses their hope. As they walk with him, and listen to him, the horizon of their hope shifts; they are moved from concern with their own loss, to concern for this stranger. In sitting at table with the one whom they invited in, “their eyes are opened and they come to recognise him.” (Luke 24:31, cf. 24:29)

We are like those two disciples, especially those of us in priesthood: “our own hope had been.” In many ways, the crisis that we are living through in our Church is a crisis of hope. Jürgen Moltmann, the great theologian of hope who died last year, captured it well: “without hope, faith falls to pieces, becomes a fainthearted and ultimately a dead faith. It is through faith we find the path of true life, but only hope keeps us on that path.” (Theology of Hope [1964], 20)

We see a faith falling to pieces. We have allowed optimism to slide into the place of hope, and allowed prognosis to replace relationship. Life-giving hope cannot be delivered by human effort alone; it is more than calculation and strategy; life-giving hope is rooted in our relationship with Christ, someone whose story was that of failure (see Pope Benedict XVI, Spe Salvi, 31).

Tonight, after the Mass of the Lord’s Supper, all of us, will accompany the Blessed Sacrament to an “Altar of Repose.” Then, following the Lord’s command, we will watch with Jesus. We will watch with him who prayed, “Father, let this cup pass from me, but not my will but thine be done.” (Luke 22:42) Here we see the hope of Jesus! Here we see Jesus working out “his reliance on” his Father, to use Donal Murray’s helpful phrase. He is anchored in someone beyond himself. This is more than optimism. Christ, anchored in his Father, is our hope, and our school of hope.¹

Like the Emmaus disciples, our hope comes to life when we are attentive to the needs of others: concern and compassion are “the path that leads to hope. Hope is not a self-comforting expectation of better days. It’s even less about awaiting what’s going to happen. Hope does not mean looking to a hypothetical future. It is knowing how to recognise the invisible at the heart of the visible, the indescribable at the heart of the audible.” (see Cardinal José Mendonça, The Mysticism of the Present Moment, 23).

The witness of the saints, from Paul to the martyrs of our own days—I think especially of the monks of Tibhirine, the martyrs of Atlas—points to the transforming hope that is born of closeness to God in Christ, and nourished, day-in-day out, in searching for him, listening for him, bringing our cares and concerns to him.

But there is another martyrdom: the dying to self in the ordinary life of our parishes, much less dramatic, but no less draining, and no less real. It is there that we give witness, in lives dealing with the ordinary work of accompanying the sick and dying, of disputes between people who should know better, the failure of marriages, the young person who has done something really foolish, the celebration of a life of someone we may not particularly like, questions of whether you still need another” evening Mass … for whatever “special occasion.”

Without hope, priesthood “loses its taste” (see Matt 5:13), it won’t even “see us out,” as some say. Without true hope, in Moltmann’s phrase, “it will fall to pieces.” And where will we find hope? Surely by practicing hope, by “calling to him while he is still near” (see Isaiah 55:6), by giving him time, by allowing his light to shine, by discovering—and tasting—his weakness in our own (see 1 Cor 1:25, cf. 2 Cor 12:10), by letting the Spirit come upon us also, bringing God’s good news to us who are poor (see Luke 4:18, cf. Isa 61:1).

As we renew our promises, may Christ the High Priest sanctify us, and guide us along his way.

+Dermot Farrell
Archbishop of Dublin

Chrism Mass Homily - Elphin

 HOMILY OF BISHOP KEVIN AT THE MASS OF CHRISM

ST ANNE'S CHURCH, SLIGO 

Wednesday 16th April 2025

"Can we at least put priesthood back on the menu in our families and in our parishes, as a valid and worthwhile life-choice, alongside all the other ways in which people are called by God".

For some years now, we seem to have been living in a time of massive upheaval such as the world has never seen before. It is probably not as dramatic as all that, but it is happening in our lifetime, and it is appearing on all our devices in a way that never happened in the past. 

In the eighth century BC, when Isaiah was a prophet in Jerusalem, the whole region was in turmoil. Israel was occupied by Foreign armies and the people had been sent into captivity in Babylon. 

The passage that we have in our first reading this evening looks forward to the end of the exile and carries the hope that comes with a new beginning.

As you probably noticed, if you were listening carefully to the Gospel, these words of Isaiah are the words that Jesus read to the people in the Synagogue, in his home-town of Nazareth. Isaiah and Jesus, each in his own way, is aware of having been entrusted with a mission? That is the meaning of being anointed. Like Isaiah, Jesus proclaims that, in spite of all the negativity going around, the Spirit of God is at work in the world. God is about to do something new; something beyond all expectation.

He has sent me to bring good news to the poor, to bind up hearts that are broken, to proclaim liberty to captives, freedom to those in prison; to proclaim a year of favour from the Lord,

In the case of Isaiah, it is not just about the end of a physical exile; it is about a healing of relationship with God, a spiritual liberation and a cultural renewal. In the case of Jesus, it is all of that, but much more: an end to the power of sin and death; the gift of new and everlasting life.

This evening, once again, the words of Isaiah are spoken in this community and, as we celebrate the ancient ritual of the blessing of oil, we are reminded that here, now, in this time and place, we are the ones to whom the Spirit has been given, we are the ones who are anointed. 

Like Isaiah and like Jesus, we are called to bear witness to the fact that, in spite of all the chaos in the world around us, the Spirit is at work. In the Synagogue at Nazareth, Jesus said “today these words are being fulfilled, even as you listen”. That is just as true in our time as it was then, because the Spirit is at work in us.

The oil which we bless this evening is the oil that will be used in the celebration of the Sacraments all over the Diocese in the months ahead. Like so many of the things we use in the Sacraments (the water, the bread and the wine) the oil is a simple natural ingredient. It is one of the fruits of the earth that God has given us, and now it will become for us a source of strength and healing and a symbol of mission. 

This is what the Incarnation means: - that by his sharing in our created nature, Jesus, the Son of God, has made it possible for the whole of creation to be a visible sign of God. Joseph Mary Plunkett captures that very well: “I see his blood upon the rose, and in the stars the glory of his eyes”.

People sometimes speak of Sacraments as if they were just blessings that we receive at a particular time. They are so much more than that. Every Sacrament is a ritual in which we are called, and through which we are empowered to become the person God wants us to be. The oils which we bless this evening will be used in four of the seven Sacraments.

Anointing with the Oil of Catechumens is part of the ritual of preparation for Baptism. In adult candidates it happens, sometimes more than once, in the time of preparation. In the Baptism of infants its significance as a separate ritual is not as obvious, because it happens immediately before the Baptism itself. 

We use oil on machinery and on anything with moving parts to protect it while it works. In much the same way, the oil of catechumens, is a visible outward sign of the spiritual protection which God gives to those preparing for Baptism, so that at this crucial time and in the future, they will be protected and strengthened against the attraction of evil, and helped to choose what is good. 

In the Bible, anointing with Chrism was the means by which people were entrusted with mission, beginning with Aaron and his sons who were anointed as priests by Moses before the Hebrews entered the promised land. 

Chrism is used as an effective sign of mission in the Sacrament of Baptism. As the person is anointed, the minister says: “As Christ was anointed Priest, Prophet, and King, so may you live always as a member of his body, sharing everlasting life.” 

In the time ahead the oil of Chrism will be used again as hundreds of young people are Confirmed across the Diocese, receiving the spiritual gifts to empower them for mission. Our challenge will be to support them in discerning and living that mission in our parish communities and in society in the years ahead.  

The Sacred Chrism is also used to anoint priests and bishops for their mission. We will not have the opportunity to use it for that purpose in our Diocese during the coming year, but can we perhaps let our blessing of it this evening be a challenge to all of us. Can we at least put priesthood back on the menu in our families and in our parishes, as a valid and worthwhile life-choice, alongside all the other ways in which people are called by God.

The Oil of the Sick will be used in family homes, hospitals and nursing homes, as well as on the roadsides and in shopping centres and farmyards across the Diocese. We think of it primarily as a visible sign of the healing presence of Christ, an expression of the tenderness which is so important in a time of suffering. Strange as it may seem, however, this Sacrament is also a sacrament of mission. 

Those who suffer serious illness and trauma share in a rather unique way in the cross of Christ. Their suffering is joined to his, and their courage and patience “on the cross” of suffering, can be a powerful witness to their faith in Him.

This comes across very strongly in the life of Carlo Acutis, the teenage saint, who will be canonised at the end of next week. On a number of occasions, he very consciously joined his suffering with the suffering of Christ. 

Psalm 133 describes the unity of family and friends as being like precious oil on the head. The only time I had oil poured on my head was when I was Ordained bishop and, as it happens, the people of the Diocese, together with my family and friends were gathered around me. 

I am reminded of that this evening, because the blessing of the Holy Oils is one of those things that the Bishop does for the people of the whole Diocese. 

I think this is a way of saying that the Sacramental ministry in the Diocese is intimately connected to the mission of the Bishop to be a sign and means of unity, both within the Diocese and with the universal Church. Each one of you through your prayer and your presence is part of that unity of mission to which we are all called.

I want to finish with a few words to the priests as we prepare to renew the promises of our Ordination. From time to time, you will hear people say, on a Sunday: “I’m sorry to disturb you Father, on your busy day”. 

The Sunday Mass – you might say - is our shop window. Everything else we do and are as priests flows from the Eucharist. I am aware, however, that much of what you priests do in the service of God’s people is done discretely and remains unseen. You will never know the ways in which the Holy Spirit works through you, to touch the lives of the people who are entrusted to your care. 

You support parents in sharing faith with their children. You are particularly close to the sick and the elderly. You are called, often on the same day, to accompany a young couple who are preparing to celebrate their love and to walk with those who have lost a spouse, a parent or a child. 

In that context it is appropriate for us to pause and to remember in prayer, Fr. Dominick Gillooly and Fr. Donal Morris who died during the past year, and Deacon Martin Reidy who shared with us in the ordained ministry. May they rest in peace. 

I understand, of course, that, in recent years, you have been challenged with the need to implement new administrative procedures. It is not an easy time to be a priest, but it is a great time to be a good priest.

In a few moments, you will be invited to renew the promises of your ordination. These promises call for a generous gift of self. You are asked to be people of communion, exercising a ministry of leadership in your parishes. 

But nowhere are you asked to do everything all by yourself. To be a leader in a Christian community as in any other organisation is to inspire others to take responsibility and to support them in doing so.  

Our communion will be authentic when each person is being helped to develop and to use the gifts he or she has received from nature and through grace. In God’s Church, either we all grow together, or nobody grows at all. 

I take this opportunity to thank you all for your encouragement and partnership in mission during the past year and I look forward to working alongside you in the years to come.

An Easter Message from Bishop William Crean

“Living in Joyful Hope”

A Cháirde,

It is extraordinary to witness the turmoil and suffering that has been inflicted by a few autocratic leaders on the lives of millions of unfortunate and powerless people.  It is a tragedy of enormous proportions.  We too seem so powerless in the face of so much dark and evil intentions.  It is difficult to find the seeds of hope in such a dark landscape.

For us who believe and trust in the action of God in our midst through the Lord Jesus and his disciples we live with hope in our hearts, hope that is rooted in Christ sharing our human trials and afflictions.  Holy Week and Easter enables us to spiritually journey with Him through his suffering and death at the hands of his oppressors.  But his death on the Cross was not the end rather the seed of victory.

Easter is a perpetual season of hope and new horizon for the faithful disciple.  The disciples on the Road to Emmaus Luke 24: 13-35 who, in their dejection met the Risen Lord were transformed by his companionship.  Easter is equally for us a time of grace, of hope and inspiration if we take some personal time to reflect and pray.  A simple prayer of thanks can be the beginning of a new joy for living with gratitude, generosity and hope.

In our blessing and good fortune, we continue to remember and help those afflicted by violence and war.

Wishing you the joyful hope that Easter brings.

+ William Crean

Vatican's solemn run-up to Easter opens with recovering Pope Francis improving but on the sidelines

The Vatican on Thursday opened the most solemn period of Holy Week with a recovering Pope Francis largely on the sidelines, as cardinals were designated to take his place presiding over the most important liturgical services leading up to Easter.

The 88-year-old Francis, who survived a life-threatening bout of double pneumonia this winter, is expected to make some appearances, however. 

He made a surprise cameo at the end of Palm Sunday Mass last weekend and in recent days has made some unannounced visits — including one in which he wasn’t dressed in his papal white cassock — to pray in St. Peter’s Basilica and St. Mary Major basilica across town.

By all indications he is continuing to improve after his five-week hospital stay and is slowly resuming some of his normal activities. 

In recent outings, he has been seen without the nasal tubes that provide supplemental oxygen and Vatican officials say he is increasingly less reliant on the therapy.

On Wednesday, Francis held his first formal group audience since returning to the Vatican on March 23, meeting with the medical staff of the Gemelli hospital who cared for him during his 38-day stay. 

Gathered in a Vatican audience hall, Francis thanked the 70-plus doctors, nurses and administrators and asked them for their continued prayers.

“Thank you for everything you did,” Francis said, his voice still labored but seemingly stronger as he continues respiratory and physical therapy.

He gave special thanks to the rector of Gemelli’s affiliated Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Elena Beccalli, whom he praised for her strong leadership. “When women command, things go well,” he said in his longest public remarks since his hospitalization.

Francis has delegated the demanding Holy Week liturgical celebrations to hand-picked cardinals, but the Vatican says the pope himself composed the meditations that will be read aloud by others during the Via Crucis (Way of the Cross) procession on Friday night at Rome’s Colosseum.

The Holy Thursday Mass, for example, during which the oils used in liturgical rituals throughout the year are blessed, was being celebrated by the retired head of the Vatican’s patrimony office, Cardinal Domenico Calcagno. 

Friday’s solemn commemoration of the crucifixion of Christ was assigned to Cardinal Claudio Gugerotti, who heads the Vatican office in charge of eastern rite Catholics. 

Easter Sunday was assigned to the retired administrator of St. Peter’s, Cardinal Angelo Comastri.

It remains to be seen how Francis will handle Easter Sunday’s traditional “Urbi et Orbi” speech and blessing (Latin for “to the city and the world”). 

Normally the pope delivers a sometimes lengthy discourse on the state of the world from the loggia of St. Peter’s, and then imparts a special blessing to the faithful in the piazza below. 

In theory someone else could read the speech while Francis could impart the blessing.

Francis was admitted to Gemelli on Feb. 14 with bronchitis that quickly developed into a life-threatening case of double pneumonia. 

Upon his release March 23, doctors proscribed two months of convalescence at the Vatican with daily respiratory and physical therapy to improve his breathing and vocal function. 

With time, they have predicted he will be able to resume his normal activities.

Vatican: It is impossible to remove oneself from baptismal registry

The Prefect of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts, Archbishop Filippo Iannone, and its Secretary, Bishop Juan Ignacio Arrieta, have signed an explanatory note outlining the reasons for prohibiting deleting entries from parish registers that record the administration of the sacrament of Baptism.

A person is free to abandon the Church if they so choose. 

What one cannot do, however, is erase their name from the Baptismal Register, because for the Church, the reception of this sacrament is a "foundational historical fact" that must be accurately recorded. 

From Baptism proceed all other sacraments, making it essential to verify whether it has been validly conferred. 

Consequently, it is “not permitted to alter or delete” entries in the sacramental registers, “except to correct transcription errors.”

Objective verification of a fact

This clarification was issued today, April 17, in a note dated April 7 and signed by the heads of the Dicastery for Legislative Texts.

Canon Law, the document states, “does not allow for the modification or deletion of entries in the Baptismal Register, except in cases of transcription errors.”

The purpose of the register is to “provide certainty regarding particular acts, making it possible to verify their actual occurrence.”

Thus, the register is “the objective verification of sacramental actions or events related to the sacraments historically carried out by the Church.”

Baptism as the basis of other sacraments

The note reiterates the obligation of parishes to keep and safeguard the register, particularly with regard to Baptism.

This sacrament is the prerequisite for others—Confirmation, Holy Orders, Matrimony, religious profession, change of rite, and adoption.

Therefore, establishing the “valid reception” of these sacraments “requires certainty about the reception of Baptism.”

The maintenance of these registers is thus important for the “pastoral and administrative order,” for theological reasons, and also for “legal certainty” and “potential protection of the rights of the individual and of third parties.”

No infringement on personal freedom

Although Canon 535 of the Code of Canon Law “does not state this explicitly,” the mandatory nature of registering and certifying such acts clearly implies, the Vatican note emphasizes, an “absolute prohibition” against tampering with the Baptismal Register.

Importantly, this register “is not a list of members,” but rather “a record of an ecclesial historical fact.”

As such, it “does not intend to certify the religious belief of individuals or that a person is a member of the Church.”

The note affirms that “the sacraments received and the entries made do not in any way limit the free will of Christian faithful who, by an act of that same will, choose to leave the Church.”

The act of defection

If someone does decide to leave, the register may include what is known as the "actus formalis defectionis ab Ecclesia Catholica", a formal act of defection from the Catholic Church.

The note specifies, “Even though the data contained in the Church’s registers cannot be deleted, in light of the interest of the person involved and all other relevant parties, it is permitted—at the simple request of the person concerned—to record their expression of will to leave the Church in the context of a formal hearing.”

One cannot be baptized twice

The note reaffirms that being baptized is an “objective condition” and that “a person who has already been baptized cannot be baptized again,” since such an act would be “simply invalid” from a sacramental point of view.

The note refers to Canon 869, which does not represent a case of re-administering Baptism, but rather allows a minister to confer Baptism sub conditione—conditionally—if there is “doubt whether a person, usually an infant, has in fact been baptized.”

In these situations, “there is no new administration of Baptism, since the minister conditions the efficacy of the act on the non-existence of a prior valid Baptism.”

Witnesses to the sacrament

Lastly, the note emphasizes the importance of having witnesses present at the celebration of Baptism, “as with other non-repeatable sacraments,” in order to ensure “certainty of the event,” which must be registered.

Nonetheless, the note concludes, a “witness cannot replace the register, but is only a supporting element in providing certainty for those responsible for making the entry.”

Chrism Mass Homily - Clogher

Service is at the heart of today’s scripture readings.

Here are readings that are alive and addressed to each one of us.

In the first reading, the prophet Isaiah speaks with the voice of an animated one:                   

“The Spirit of the Lord has been given to me…..He has sent me to bring good news to the poor”     

These words were spoken in ancient times but have a clear message for today.

In the Gospel Jesus reads the same passage and gives it life in his day.                   

“this text is being fulfilled today, even as you listen” he says.

Christ continues to give us the same message through his body, the Church.
 
This message of service is addressed to all who are baptised but, in particular, to those in leadership.

The future of the Church in Ireland gets quite a bit of coverage these days. Nostalgia for what was is hardly the road to travel. Rather it will be shaped by those brave enough to say “Here I am, Lord send me.”
 
And so I thank all who serve in any capacity within the Diocese. Your service is appreciated by the Good Shepherd, Christ who us the Church.

In this Jubilee Year of Hope we are invited to put Christ at the centre of Life. We are called to walk in God’s company, trusting his goodness and guided by his wisdom. Jesus Christ, the Good Shepherd loves his Church and will guide it in the years ahead.
          
We may see a humbler, holier and smaller Church but it is in safe hands.
         
We rejoice in the Lord’s goodness.
         
May he who began the good work in us bring it to completion.

Chrism Mass Homily - Limerick

Our Chrism Mass this year is taking place during a Jubilee Year with its focus on hope.  

During the ceremony we will bless the oils that will be used in sacraments that communicate hope. Priests will renew their promises recognising they are called to be signs of hope in the Christian community.  

With representatives of the whole Diocese gathered together, we thank God for our calling to be pilgrims of hope.  

During the Diocesan Jubilee pilgrimage to Rome, those on pilgrimage entrusted our Diocese, our parishes and our loved ones to the God of Hope as we passed through the Jubilee Holy Doors of the four great Basilicas.

The Prophet Isaiah and the Jubilee Year Tradition 

It is striking to note in the Gospel we’ve just heard how Jesus, in his first homily at Nazareth two thousand years ago, echoed the prophet Isaiah in making reference to the Biblical Jubilee Year tradition. He told the people gathered in the synagogue that day that God the Father had sent him to announce a year of favour, offering hope, light and freedom to a people walking in darkness.

Let us remember that the prophet Isaiah’s reference to the Jubilee tradition was made in the context of the Babylonian exile, a real trauma for the people of Israel. Having been settled for many centuries in the Promised Land, suddenly they were overtaken by the Bablyonian Empire and were relocated to Babylon.  

Removed from their land which had been their security, the symbol of God’s Covenant promise that he was with them, suddenly the certainty of old ways was taken from them. They found themselves displaced from their beloved city of King David, Jerusalem. No wonder they cried out: how can we continue to hope? how can we sing anymore? As one of the psalms puts it, they “sat down and wept” (Ps 137).

Some of you here will recall Boney M’s song, By the Rivers of Babylon based on this event, and its refrain “How can we sing the Lord’s song in a strange land?” It was in that context that the prophets such as Isaiah helped them keep hope alive. Isaiah referred to the Jubilee Year tradition by way of saying: do not lose heart, God can always do a new thing, God faithful to his covenant, have eyes to see the new beginnings, new possibilities; lift up your hearts in trust, move forward.
 
Jesus, the Jubilee Year, and Us 

Jesus takes up this line of prophetic encouragement. Anointed by the Holy Spirit, Jesus was sent to his people that were also going through a socio-political turmoil. Once more the people of Israel were under the rule of a foreign oppressive regime, the Roman Empire.  

It was a time when some Romans themselves were searching for new ways. In his mission statement declared that day in the Synagogue of Nazareth, Jesus refers to the Jubilee Year tradition. He has come to announce a Year of Favour. He is the One who has been sent to bring about a new beginning, a time of God’s closeness. He is offering a re-set.  

And so, he makes his own of God’s words: “I am making a lasting covenant with you”. He is not only speaking about all of this.  He is the Jubilee Year in Person.  He is the time of new beginnings and re-set not just for one year but always. With him the Jubilee Year’s promises are always available. He is travelling with us as the God of hope who does not disappoint.

All of this speaks to us too as we celebrate a Jubilee Year as Pilgrims of Hope. Perhaps at times, sisters and brothers, in the circumstances of the world around us and even of our own situation of Church, we are tempted to “sit down and weep”. There’s too much noise about wars and tariffs, bombs, political wrangling and fractious relations between nations. Even in the land where Jesus walked. There’s no shortage of negative vibes about the Church.  

So many securities seem to be gone. We can hardly begin to imagine what the future shape of our Church community will be like. Illness and fragility are increasingly evident. So, yes, there’s a temptation to sit down and weep. The Devil will always be lurking to drag us down. But the Spirit who was upon Jesus and who comes to us from the heart of the Risen Jesus puts fire into our hearts, instilling hope and perseverance in mission. It is the Spirit who convinces us again and again that all of us together, lay faithful, those in consecrated life and priests, together we continue the presence of Christ, the Jubilee Year in person, the heart of the world, bringing hope. 

So let us renew that conviction this evening. We have a message to communicate. We have a life to hand on. We have a vision to offer. We have the great consolation of faith, hope and charity to share.

Facing Challenges in Hope 

Dear brothers and sisters, it is with renewed hope that we are called to face the many serious challenges facing us regarding our Diocesan and parish arrangements and services. There is a lot to do!  

But, above all, as we tackle issues, let us be anchored in the hope that comes from the heart of Jesus Christ. Let us renew our belief that He is at work in all the changes, He is doing a new thing, He wants to come among us in a new way responding to new times and new needs.

In the coming months, also as an exercise in synodality, I hope we will engage across the Diocese in a series of parish conversations about the future directions of our parishes, asking some tough questions – is our parish viable in terms of mission?  

Are its resources in terms of volunteers, finance and young people sufficient to generate life going forward into the future? Looking forward ten years, can our parish go it alone? Can we sustain the maintenance of our church and other buildings? Do we need perhaps to amalgamate with neighbouring parishes?

We cannot postpone difficult decisions. We urgently need to take serious steps in terms of lay ministry. For instance, at this point, it should normally only be lay people saying prayers in funeral parlours or leading removal ceremonies.  

We need to see lay people as members of Pastoral Unit Teams. We already have 24 out of 60 parishes without a resident priest. We have only one native Limerick Diocesan priest aged under 50.  

Many wonderful priests are going to retire in the coming few years. We have one ordination coming up in May with Deacon Tim Collins being ordained here in the Cathedral.  

Thank God we will have one man entering priestly formation for the Diocese. We are grateful also for the priests who have come from abroad. But the situation is clear: we will possibly have two ordinations in 15 years. I don’t need to spell it out much more.

The Importance of the Heart 

All of that said, lest we find ourselves caught up just with merely external questions, however important they may be, it is important to recognise that contemporary crises are always an invitation on the part of God to go deeper in our faith, hope and charity.  

That is what the Jubilee Year invites us to do. In the lead up to the Jubilee Year, Pope Francis issued a letter on the human and divine love of the heart of Jesus Christ, Dilexit Nos.  

In that letter he reminds us of the need to rediscover the importance of the heart. As Pope Francis puts it: “our real personal history is built with the heart.  At the end of our lives, that alone will matter” (n.11).  “In a word”, he says, “if love reigns in our heart, we become, in a complete and luminous way, the persons we are meant to be, for every human being is created above all else for love. In the deepest fibre of our being, we were made to love and to be loved” (n. 21).

Dear brothers in the priesthood, as we renew our promises this evening, we remember that our anointing on ordination day was a sign that in our ministry it would no longer be we who would be at work but Christ himself at work through us. Our calling is to become instruments of Christ’s ministry building up the Church. Through the Holy Spirit, the ministry to which we are called comes primarily from Christ in terms of gift.  

While grateful for the gift, we immediately remember also that the fruitfulness of our preaching of the Word, our celebrating of the sacraments and our building up of the community always requires our response of love and that is where the heart comes in.

As we renew our promises, let us take our lead from Pope Francis’ invitation to learn from the heart of Jesus Christ two ways that will help us grow as missionaries of hope. Firstly, we are to focus on our interior life of union with God, making a deeply personal renewed declaration of love for Jesus Christ.  We offer him our “memory, understanding and will.” Along with Therese of Lisieux, we are to “place heartfelt trust not in ourselves but in the infinite mercy of a God who loves us unconditionally and has already given us everything in the cross of Jesus Christ” (n. 90).  

Saint Vincent de Paul used to say that what God desires is the heart: “God asks primarily for our heart – our heart – and that is what counts.” We console the heart of Christ by offering our heart. We are to have a complete trust in the mysterious working of God’s grace.

The second pathway to recall as we renew our promises is to ask for the grace to let ourselves become more and more worthy instruments of Jesus Christ who wants to spread waves of infinite tenderness in and through our ministry. Jesus present in the sisters and brothers we serve and meet day by day thirsts for our love, the love of our heart. Indeed, our best response to the love of Christ’s heart is to love our brothers and sisters in the way we learn from the heart of Christ: to be the first to love, to love everyone, to love even our enemies. With love from the heart, we are to go about our ministry mending wounds, repairing the fabric of the Church that has been damaged (I read a striking phrase recently – we are to be “pilgrims of repair”) and preparing the future for coming generations.

In recent years, it seems to me the Holy Spirit is clarifying increasingly how, among the many aspects of our busy lives, our ministry of love revolves around three specific highways: forging bonds of fraternity at all levels; recognising and defending the dignity of each human being (especially the weak, scorned, suffering and abandoned) and working together to care for our common home.

Conclusion 

I conclude. “Behold He is coming” we hear in the Second Reading in our liturgy this evening.  

In this Jubilee Year of Hope, let’s welcome Jesus Crucified and Risen, who wants to come every more deeply, in the power of the Spirit, into our soul, our parish and our diocese. Yes, He may be coming in ways that we didn’t expect. The current directions of the Church are not the ways we would have suggested!  

But if we love one another, we are filled with a kind of fuel, as Pope Francis puts it, that feeds our friendship with Jesus. It is He, anchor of Hope that leads us forward in trust and hope. What matters is to bow spiritually before Him who has been sent to us by God the Father to bring Good News and who is now sending us in the power of the Spirit to be agents of that Good News for our time.

May Mary Mother of Hope sustain us.