Your Excellency, my fellow bishops, representatives of other Churches and local government, I feel very privileged to be with you this evening to celebrate the 175th Anniversary of the founding of this Cathedral Church of Kildare and Leighlin. I want to thank Bishop Jim Moriarty for inviting me to be part of this important event in the life of your Diocese and also to thank the Administrator, Fr John Cummins and the people of the Parish for their warm welcome and the great care I know they have given to the preparation of this liturgy.

In every Diocese the Cathedral Church is a focus of unity and it is wonderful to see representatives of every parish in the Diocese gathered here this evening. I am also delighted to meet again with so many of the young people from Kildare and Leighlin who were present at World Youth Day in Sydney. I hope Bishop Moriarty didn’t insist on you sleeping outside all night in preparation for this celebration as you did with hundreds of thousands of other young people before the Mass with Pope Benedict at Randwick Racecourse! I thank you for your faith and your joy on that occasion. You were an inspiration to me and to so many others and I thank you for bringing that faith and joy back to your own Diocese and now to this Cathedral for our celebration this evening.

Those of you from the Cathedral Parish, or who can remember being here for a special occasion, will feel they owe this Cathedral a particular debt. Although it is only, I think, the third time I have visited and celebrated Mass here, I too, feel I owe a debt, and I will tell you why.  I suspect that by now everybody will have heard of Springfield, Illinois.  It was from the steps of the State Capital there that Barack Obama launched his election campaign.

In the year 1905, my granduncle, Fr Philip Brady, was ordained here in Carlow for the diocese of Springfield, Illinois.  Three years later my uncle, Fr Hugh Brady, was ordained for the same diocese.  In the space of the next fifty years, five other members of my family, uncles and cousins, were ordained here for various dioceses.  I am conscious today that they, and more than 3,000 priests educated in St Patrick’s College, Carlow, would have visited this Cathedral, and celebrated the great ceremonies, the great mysteries of our faith here. I am sure that it was here that they derived inspiration to continue on their faith journey, to stay with their decision to give their lives to the spreading of the Gospel to the ends of the Earth.  So, I regard it as a great privilege to come here today, to thank God, with you, for all that this Cathedral has meant in our lives.  It has meant something in my life and I am sure it has meant much more in your lives.

Perhaps you have been here for a joyful ceremony, like a Baptism or First Communion.  Maybe it was a very sad, tearful occasion, like the funeral of a mother or a father or a dear friend.  Maybe it was on a day on which you made a life commitment, such as the day you were married or the day you were ordained to the priesthood.  Whatever it was, it was a privileged time, a time in which you came with others to hear the Word of God and to receive grace of God.  Whether you knew it or not, you came at the prompting of the Holy Spirit.  It was a time you met Jesus. When you heard the Scriptures, you were hearing God and when you received the Sacraments, you received in your soul the very life of God. 

This evening I want to give thanks for all of those privileged times and events in which the presence of God was especially evident and powerful.  They are what make this Cathedral hold such a special place in the hearts of Carlow people.

The late Bishop Larry Ryan once wrote, “Every Church is a public permanent statement of the faith of a community.”  Every church, and especially every cathedral, invites us to pray.  Like their tall majestic bell towers, they turn our minds from earth to heaven.  They raise our eyes to God.

So what was the public permanent statement which Bishop James Warren Doyle, the great JKL, was making when he laid the foundation stone on 18 March 1828?  Basically, I think, it was the message of today’s Second Reading. The message given by St. Paul to the Corinthians almost 2,000 years ago –
•    God is faithful –
•    God has called us and joined us to his son, Jesus Christ.  
•    God has enriched all of us in so many ways. 
•    God has given us so many gifts and graces.

The building of this Cathedral stated all of that and more.  I think it says worship of God is important.  To adore God is to recognise God as our Creator and our Saviour.  It reminds us of what Jesus said:  “You shall worship the Lord, your God and him only shall you serve”. To worship God is to praise God.  It is to acknowledge that God has done great things – in us and for us. 

In 1828 this statement was made, not in words, but in grey-blue stone from the quarry on the Tullow Road, in the white granite of Colonel Bruen’s quarry and in the majestic oak of Oak Park.  To combine all of that diversity, and much more, into the glorious building you see before you, you needed genius and inspiration.  That genius was to be found in the person of architect, Thomas Cobden. He, in turn, looked for his inspiration to Continental Europe. The inspiration for the glorious Bell Tower, for example, comes from the Beffroi Tower in Belgium.

I believe there is a great sense of unity about this Cathedral.  It is a well put-together building.  It retains part of the transept wall of the old 1787 Church, built by Bishop Staunton, reminding us that we all owe so much to the past and to the people who went before us.  The elegant medieval windows evoke memories of the glory of Duiske Abbey.  And while the majestic 150 foot tall Tower lifts our minds to God, and to heaven, as our final destiny, the low-pitched roof reminds us powerfully to keep our feet on the ground and to walk humbly in the sight of the Lord at all times.

In this way JKL, with the help of Thomas Cobden, left us, in stone, a permanent meditation on the unity which is the heart of the Christian life. It is worth remembering that JKL was a member of the Augustinian Order, so he would have been influenced by the spirituality of St Augustine.  This spirituality is fundamentally that of conversion to Christ, to the love that unifies all our energies.
It is also worth remembering that St. Augustine was heavily influenced by the writings of St. Paul. It was St. Paul who reminded us that the Church is made up of ‘living stones’.

These ‘living stones’, you and I, every baptised person, are also called into a love that unites. You and I, through our conversion to the love of Christ, are called to make a living cathedral out of our own lives, out of our homes, out of our towns and cities. We are called to make them a place of encounter with the love of Christ, a love which unifies and transforms all people. I believe the world has never been more in need of this love.

I became particularly conscious of this when I visited the Holy Land earlier this year with the leaders of Ireland’s largest Christian traditions. It was not just a pilgrimage to the Holy Sites of Christianity. It was an encounter with the ‘living stones’ – with the Christian community in Jerusalem, in Bethlehem, in the West Bank and in Gaza. There we also met a group of young Christians who travelled for over six hours from Zebabdeh to meet us!

It was an extraordinary experience. The Christian community in the Holy Land is so full of joy and life but it is also experiencing tremendous difficulty. The number of Christians in the region has decreased dramatically. They need our help and support. That is why I want to commend Bishop Moriarty and Fr Bill Kemmy, his secretary, for the excellent way in which they have connected the celebration of the dedication of the Cathedral to the Christian community in the Holy Land. The peace lamps from Taybeh which will be lit and distributed to each parish in this Mass and the olive wood gifts that will be distributed throughout the Diocese by each Parish are a practical expression of a much deeper bond of solidarity between each of us and the Christians of the Holy Land, based on our baptism.

The Gospel this evening tells us, several times, to stay awake, to stay alert to the signs of the times. In our world today there is no shortage of disturbing signs.  They make us feel anxious about the future. But there are also many positive signs.  They are the seeds below the winter soil. We should never doubt that God continues to fulfil his loving plan. Whether it is in our own lives or in the events of the world, God’s love and peace can break through at a time and in a way we do not expect? People did not expect the Saviour of the world to be born in a stable, yet God’s love made flesh was present there. People did not expect the Messiah to be put to death on a cross, yet it was through the cross that God revealed the depth of his love and achieved the final victory of good over evil.

These first two weeks of Advent call us to renew our faith that God continues to turn all things to our good. Advent calls us to believe that in spite of the twists and turns of world events, God’s time will come.  One day God’s peace and love will prevail. Our Gospel even suggests that it will come at a time we might not expect.

There is much talk at the moment of the credit crunch. I have great sympathy with those who are suffering as a result of that credit crunch. I suspect its impact on all of us, but especially the most vulnerable, may be more profound than had previously been anticipated. Can we dare to hope that despite the many negative consequences of the credit crunch the seeds of a more just and sustainable world are being sown.  Can we hope for a world dominated by global solidarity rather than global rivalry. It will require moral courage and wisdom and self-control on the part of all to avoid the individualism, excess and dominance which fuelled the credit crunch.

Yet the global impact of the credit crunch has reminded us dramatically that, as a human family, we have never been more interdependent.  If we can turn that global interdependence into a culture of global concern for the other as well as for ourselves which is the golden rule of the Gospel, then a more peaceful and sustainable future for the whole of humanity may well be closer than it has ever been before.

We have seen the dreadful pictures from Mumbai in recent days, the scenes from Iraq, Afghanistan, Somalia and Sudan.  They are all vivid reminders of the failure to beat swords into ploughshares, words and weapons of war into words and actions of peace. And yet, it may be that the world has never had a greater opportunity to develop a global culture of peace than it has today.

When I was in the Holy Land it struck me several times that the young people in Gaza city, for example, for all its misery and desolation, were using the same mobile phones, were enthusiastic about the same music and football teams as the young people in Jerusalem, Carlow and Krakow. Yes, of course, there were distinct historic and cultural differences between them but there were also bonds of solidarity and mutual encounter that had never existed before. Is it possible that with the development of global infrastructures of communication and travel, used responsibly, God is providing us with the means of a creating a more global understanding of national cultures and the possibility of more peaceful exchanges between them? Perhaps the Credit Crunch is challenging us to create stronger institutions at a global level which can guide all human activity towards a shared humanism based on solidarity?

I was particularly struck by a comment made to us by a member of the Palestinian authority. He suggested that world faith communities had to play a much more active part in finding solutions to situations of conflict in the world. In an increasingly global era, there is a strong case for making the dialogue between the major faith traditions of the world and the international political community more mainstream and permanent at a global level. The interaction of faith, politics, culture and history is so entwined that a more formal structure of ongoing international dialogue could be an invaluable contribution to the work of peace.

This Cathedral is called the Cathedral of the Assumption – the Assumption of Our Lady into Heaven. It is an ever present reminder to us, as Advent is, that our ultimate homeland is in heaven. What we await with joyful hope at this time of the year is not only the coming of Jesus in the celebration of Christmas but also the coming of our Saviour Jesus Christ at the end of time. What God has done in Mary, bringing her body and soul into heaven, he offers to all those who accept him with faith, following their judgement on the last day. This is the source of our hope.

As we reflect on the signs of our times, we give thanks for the sign of this great Cathedral and pray that it will continue to nourish the faith of the people of Kildare and Leighlin until the coming of the Lord. We pray that Mary, who pondered all these things in her heart, will bring us closer to the heart of her Son, that we may know the depths of his love and bring to us others the gift of his peace.

Amen.

I am very thankful for the invitation to come here tonight.  I appreciate the opportunity to speak to you on the occasion of Prize giving.  I congratulate, most warmly, all who are receiving prizes and certificates. I wish you well for the rest of your studies and indeed for the rest of your lives.  I wish you all, Principal, Staff and Students the very best for the rest of this academic year.  I pray God’s choicest blessings upon all of you at this vital stage of your life – and a blessing on the hugely important work of teaching and of education.

I have thought long and hard about what else I should say tonight.  I think about football and congratulate Tyrone on winning the All-Ireland championship for the third time.  But there are more people around who know a lot more about football than I do and I will leave the subject to them.

But I want to tell you a sad story.  In 1952 I went to Secondary School – St Patrick’s College, Cavan – it was the golden age of Cavan football – we were All-Ireland Champions and had also contested the minor final that year but unlike Tyrone, did not win it.  But we had won six Ulster titles in the previous ten years, contested five All-Ireland Finals and won three and then, horrors of horrors – we have not won another All-Ireland since.  I am sure that is not going to happen to Tyrone.  But I tell the story for a reason

Of course all through my Secondary School days I was indeed interested in football and I got a lot of enjoyment from both watching and playing football.  But it has gradually dawned on me that there are some people who do not share my passion for football or for sport for that matter, and they too deserve some consideration.

I was in Ennis, Co Clare on Monday night last.  There was a Mass in the Cathedral followed by a meet and greet in the Hall.  As you may know Clare is a mighty place for music – especially for Irish music.  So both the Mass and the Reception were flooded in outstanding music and song and dance.  It reminded me of one night when I was a student in St. Patrick’s College, Cavan and the Tulla Ceili Band from Co Clare came to play for us.  They have been All Ireland Champions on many occasions.  Their music that night was sheer magic.  It gave me a love for Irish traditional music ever since.

On Monday night I met a man who was a classmate of mine for five years in Secondary School.  I met him about once or twice in the past 51 years but our friendship has lasted all those years. 

So, as I racked my brain to discover something good and strong to say to you tonight I was looking for something that will last and something that will appeal to all and maybe something that will give hope to all, whether you are interested in football or not. Whether you are a student or a member of staff or a parent or whomever.

I realise I am in St. Joseph’s High School and that there are many people call Joseph or Josephine.  So I wondered what St. Joseph might want us to say on this important occasion in this illustrious institution that bears his name and is dedicated to his honour. 
St Joseph never speaks in the Gospel.  His life is dedicated totally to the care of Mary – his wife – and of her son, Jesus.  So I suspect that St. Joseph would want the attention turned away from himself and focussed on Jesus and to a lesser extent.  But I expect also that Joseph would not want us to forget the feast day which was yesterday.

What feast was that you may ask?  We are like that in Ireland – we celebrate some things well and others we let pass in a slipshod way.  Yesterday was the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland.

I lived for 20 years in Rome and this was, after St. Patrick’s Day, yesterday was the biggest feast of the year.  We used to have a big celebration – a big dinner and a play – in Irish.  Yesterday was the Feast of All the Saints of Ireland.  In other words, the feast of all our grandparents and great grandparents and of all our ancestors – who have gone forth from this world and, hopefully, safely to their true home with God.  One day, X number of years from now, 10, 20. 30, 40. 50, 100 years from now hopefully this will also be our feast when we too will have gone ar Sli na Firinne as they say in Irish – they have gone on the way of truth, the way of genuineness. 

The saints cannot speak to us directly – but indirectly they can, and do, inspire us and I hope that Blessed Patrick O’Loughlin speaks to you here in Donaghmore. 

If our deceased ancestors could speak to us I suspect they would be saying to us all that there is one thing – absolutely – which all of you and indeed all of us, should learn during our time and that is how to get to know this all-important Sli, that all important way which we must all travel if we are to reach our destination.  The fascinating thing which we will learn and which we must all discover is that the way is, in fact, a person – the person of Jesus Christ.

When I was made Archbishop of Armagh I chose as my motto To Know Jesus Christ. I chose this to be the inspiration of my own life first of all, and then secondly that it might become the inspiration of the lives of those I serve.  That is the ambition of my life – to know Jesus Christ and to imitate Jesus in my life.

So my dear friends, my dear young friends in particular, whatever else you do during your time here, try and build a friendship with Jesus Christ because friendships built during your teenage years last, and they last a life-time as witnessed by my friend of over 50 years in Ennis the other night.

It is not enough however to know about Jesus, the challenge is to know Him – and if we really know Him, we will love him and we will try to make our lives like his – built on the same values – holding the same attitudes as Jesus held; showing the same sort of qualities as Jesus showed in his life. 
Mickey Harte is a very successful Team Manager and has managed the Tyrone County team now for several very successful years and I would say that there are certain qualities he expects to find in his team members.

Firstly, I reckon he is looking for someone who really knows and loves his football.  He does not want to have to be dragging people along against their will.
Secondly, he is probably looking for people who are ready to make sacrifices, ready to put themselves out and to give up their own comfort for the sake of a great dream.
Thirdly, I imagine he looks for someone who is a team person – who puts the team first and who turns up faithfully.  I would say turning up now and then would hardly do.

Building that all-important friendship with Christ will require much the same qualities.
•    That we know Him in order to love Him.
•    That we are prepared to face the rough as well as the smooth.
•    That we make the effort to be part of the community of the Friends of Jesus Christ.

I have just come back from Rome where I attended the Synod of Bishops.  It is a gathering of many bishops from all over the world.  We were discussing the Word of God in our own lives and in the life of the Church.

It came home to me that in reading and listening to the Word of God, we really do meet Jesus Christ.  I saw that by really listening and responding to what God is saying to us in our own words and in our prayers – we get the kind of strength we need to travel our sli na firinne – in other words, to follow Jesus Christ. 
That is why the Synod recommended to the Pope that he should ask every Catholic to have his or her own Bible and to read it often.  There is an idea for a Christmas gift with a difference!
•    It would certainly be a gift for life.
•    We get ourselves phones in order to put us in contact with our friends and our parents when and if we want to contact them.
•    Getting in contact with the One who can really help, in every situation, namely Jesus Christ, seems to me to be also important.

I found the Synod a great experience.  It was amazing to hear how poor people and persecuted people got the strength and courage from hearing the Word of God and praying with it.  It became clear to me that what each one of us has got to do is to open our hearts and minds to the voice of the Holy Spirit speaking to us through the Bible.  If we do that we will begin to glimpse the real questions of life:
•    What is the purpose of my life?
•    What is the centre of my world?
•    What is my No. 1 priority?
•    What is my most precious gift?
•    What is my main problem?
•    What does the Holy Spirit mean anyway?
And if you keep on reading and thinking you will get the answers.
It has been my privilege to confirm many of you when the Holy Spirit came to make us and help us to understand what the Word of God is saying to us.  One of the things which the Word of God is saying, loud and clear, is that it is the task of all who have been baptised to announce the Good News brought by Jesus Christ. 

I know the strong faith of your parents and grandparents from the various times we have met down through the years.  My dear young friends, Jesus Christ needs you now, more than ever, to stand up for your faith.  You can do so in many ways

By your faithfulness to prayer
By your good conduct, and
By your being loyal to the Sunday Mass

I appeal to you to make Jesus Christ present in our world.  In that way, we can all be champions, not just for one year but forever.

This year has been dedicated the Year of St. Paul.  Paul wrote two letters to a young person called Timothy who later became his assistant.  There is one marvellous passage in which he compares life to a race and I would like to read it to you all:

The time will come when people will not listen to sound doctrine, but will follow their own desires and will collect for themselves more and more teachers who will tell them what they are itching to hear.  They will turn away from listening to the truth and give their attention to legends.  But you must keep control of yourself in all circumstances; endure suffering, do the work of a preacher of the Good News and perform your whole duty as a servant of God.

As for me, the hour has come for me to be sacrificed; the time is here for me to leave this life.  I have done my best in the race, I have run the full distance, and I have kept the faith.  And now there is, waiting for me, the victory prize of being put right with God, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will give me on that day – and not only me, but to all those who wait with love for Him to appear.

My dear young friends may the prize you are given tonight be the first of many.  May you receive and recognise all the prizes you will be given in life.  May this prize be a promise of the victory prize of Heaven and may the joy you feel tonight be a foretaste of the heavenly joy.

Thank you

I thank your honourable Council for according me this Civic Reception on the occasion of my visit to your beautiful and historic town for the 10th Annual Ceifinn Conference.  I am well aware that you are according me this honour on account of the office I hold and I appreciate this honour greatly. I thank you for the kind words you have spoken and for your very warm welcome.

I have not been in County Clare very many times but I have had the privilege of knowing a lot of Clare people.  I think I first came to Clare sometime in the 1970s for the Annual GAA Congress which was being hosted by this town.  I was certainly back in the 1980s in Kilmaley, Co Clare for the ordination of Father Albert McDonnell, who is a well known historian and Vice-Rector of the Irish College in Rome. 

Ennis and County Clare have always very fond associations in my imagination ever since the day, way back in the 1950s, when one of the brilliant Clare ceili bands came to entertain us as students of St. Patrick’s College, Cavan.  I think it was the Tulla or it could have been the Kilfenora.  In any case, it was the one with which Mr Reid was associated.  The pleasure and the joy and the happiness which they brought to us on that occasion has lived in my memory ever since.

When I went to Maynooth in 1957, there were many, many Killaloe men in my class.  In fact, my immediate, that is the person who sat next to me, while he wasn’t from Ennis or Clare – he was from County Tipperary but he had spent five years as a student of St Flannan’s. His name was Eamon Kelly and we were close friends.

During my years in the Irish College in Rome from 1980 to 1993, I met a lot of Clare and Ennis people – Father Brendan Quinnlivan, for example.  And of course when I went as a student to Rome in 1960 your bishop, Bishop Willie Walsh was, himself, a student there.  So, my association with Ennis and the diocese of Killaloe go back a long way.

I think some of my greatest memories of Clare people are the fact that during my 13 years on the staff of the Irish College, I had the privilege and the joy of celebrating the weddings of many, many Clare people – Ennis people too – and I hope to meet some of them on the occasion of this visit. 

I have come to Clare for the Ceifinn Conference which is an important event in the calendar of Conferences in Ireland today.  They are discussing a very important topic namely Family Life Today – The Greatest Revolution.  I have been assigned the task of speaking on marriage as the foundation of family life. 

I am delighted that my visit begins with this undeserved, undue recognition on the part of the Civic authorities.  I congratulate Ennis on the progress it has made over the last fifty years.  When I checked it in the Encyclopaedia Britannica, published in 1963, it says:  Ennis is a town of some 5,678 people – statistics of 1961”. 
I rejoice with you and congratulate you on the fact that your population of 24,253 makes you the largest town in Munster and the 6th largest town in Ireland.  Some of the literature points out that Ennis is actually bigger than the cities of Kilkenny and Armagh.  Well now, we will let that one pass!  But of course if Ennis would like to become a city, I would certainly want to support that proposal. 

I know that Ennis grew up around the Franciscan Friary which was an important seat of learning at its peak.  I am glad to number among my friends today, a great Franciscan son of Clare, Bishop Fiachra Ó Ceallaigh. 

At the recent Synod I sat beside the Cardinal Archbishop of Hong Kong.  He was loud in his praise of an illustrious son of Clare and past pupil, I think, of St Flannan’s, Mons Eugene Nugent.  He represents the Vatican in Hong Kong and surrounding territory.

I wish Ennis continued success, peace and prosperity.

Thank you.

I know that you are beginning a Triduum here tonight.  It is a privilege and joy to speak to you all on this occasion.  Today in Armagh we celebrate the Feast of St. Malachy in a big way.  After all, he is a native son and we usually have a Triduum which ends today with special Masses and with the blessing of the relic of St. Malachy.

We have great admiration for Malachy because he led the Church through a huge programme of change.  It wasn’t easy but it was necessary.  People had become slack as regards the celebration of marriage and as regards going to Confession.  The story sounds familiar.  The great abbeys were in the hands of private families, who held them for their own personal use.  When Malachy became Abbot of Bangor he refused to accept the land and revenues but he accepted the work.

In 1124 he became Bishop of Connor and his principal problems were the shortage of priests and neglect of the sacraments.  Again the story sounds familiar.  Well, Malachy set about cleaning things up and was so successful that after three years he was driven out by a local chieftain on whose corns he had obviously walked! 

In 1129, Malachy became Archbishop of Armagh after it had been left to him by Cellach. But Malachy was supplanted by a rival candidate who was supported by the local chieftain and by Cellach’s family.  Obviously they wanted to retain the post for themselves.  For three years Malachy made no attempt to assert his rights until Gilbert of Limerick, who was Papal Legate, persuaded his to overcome his reluctance. 

So, while Malachy ruled part of his diocese, but not the town or the Cathedral of Armagh, an armed peace followed until Muirchertach’s death in1134.  Muirchertach was the rival candidate.  His successor, Niall, left Armagh to Malachy, and this long dispute only ended with Malachy’s resignation in 1137.

Malachy then returned to his own diocese of Down and set out for Rome to secure confirmation of the changes made by the reformers and to seek Pallia for the Archbishops of Armagh and Cashel. 

One result of this journey was the meeting with St. Bernard which led to the foundation of Mellifont Abbey in 1142.  This Cistercian Abbey became the parents of some thirty (30) abbeys in Ireland and, of course, was the forerunner of the Cistercian Abbey, I suppose, at Roscrea. 

He wasn’t given the Pallia on the occasion of his first visit to Rome.  Formal applications had to be made for them.  This was made by the Church in Ireland in 1148.  Once again Malachy was sent to obtain them but he didn’t live to see this as he died at Chairvaux in France in the company of St Bernard on his way to Rome.

I have gone on a little bit about St. Malachy there because he lived in tough times but he was a courageous man and he was a free man.  He wasn’t intimidated by the powerful ones of this world just as Christ was a free man, as we see from today’s gospel, where he refused to be intimidated by the leading Pharisees who were the powerful ones in his times.  In fact, in that Gospel, Jesus addressed himself to the leading Pharisees and other high-class personnel as their superior.  No earthly power can intimidate him.  Nothing can deter him from announcing the truth of the Kingdom.  The fact that he was invited to dine with the leading Pharisees showed that he was as comfortable interacting with Palestine’s leaders as he was looking after their poor and their sick.

Christ sees the invitation to sow the seeds of the Gospels.  That shows that the glitz of power, wealth and fame held no sway over his heart.  That was the way of Christ then and that is the way he would have his followers to be now and I think that was the way Malachy was, as his fairly short life reveals.  He was not afraid to preach the gospel courageously. 

My hope is that as we attend Triduums and ceremonies like that, we too shall become more like Christ.  More like St. Malachy in our following of Christ.

I have just returned from attending a Synod of Bishops in Rome.  For three weeks, some 240 bishops, with some religious and lay people, gathered to discuss the topic:  The Word of God and the Life and Mission of the Church.  We began with Mass, not in St. Peter’s Basilica, but in St. Paul’s Basilica because this is the year dedicated to St. Paul. 

At that Mass, Pope Benedict marked our cards for us, in a sense, when he said:  ‘In this year dedicated to St. Paul, we will hear the urgent cry of St. Paul the apostle of the Gentiles, as follows:  I should be in trouble if I fail to preach the Gospel’ or as another translation has it:  ‘Woe to me if I fail to preach the Gospel’.  It is – says the Holy Father – a cry which becomes, for every Christian, an insistent invitation to place oneself at the service of Christ’. 

I would like you to note that this insistent invitation is extended not just to Cardinals, bishops and priests, but to every Christian.  The invitation is to place oneself at the service of Christ. 

Pope Benedict identifies four classes of people who are ‘in urgent need’ he says ‘of hearing the Good News about Jesus Christ and therefore do not know Jesus Christ.’  Perhaps there are no such people around Ennis but one never knows. 

‘First’ he says, ‘there are many who have not yet met Christ and are waiting for the first proclamation of his Gospel.  Oh yes, they may have been baptised but have they taken the message to heart?
Secondly, others though having received Christian formation, their enthusiasm has weakened and they maintain only a superficial contact with the Word of God.
Thirdly, there are others who have fallen away from the practice of their faith and are in need of a new evangelisation.
The last category, are righteous persons who are asking essential questions on the meaning of life and death – questions to which only Christ can supply and fulfilling response.

The Pope went on to say that for the next three weeks, at the Synod, we would be considering how to render, evermore effective, the proclamation of the Gospel in this our time.  He says, ‘We all sense how necessary it is to place the Word of God at the centre of our lives.  To welcome Christ as our only redeemer as the Kingdom of God in person and to allow His light to enlighten every aspect of humanity from the family to the school, to culture to work,; to free time to other sectors of society and of our life. The Pope advised us that only the Word of God can change the depth of the heart of man’. 

As a result, the Synod came up with a proposal, it says, ‘the mission of announcing the Word of God is the task of all the disciples of Jesus Christ as a result of their baptism.  And the awareness of this task should be deepened in every parish and every community and every Catholic organisation.

It was proposed that every faithful follower of Christ should have its own Bible and should use it to pray, to listen to the Word of God and to pray the Word of God. 

There is one special method of praying the Word of God which involves four steps:

1.    That we read the Word of God, to find out what it is saying.
2.    That we read it again to find out what it is saying to us, here and now, on this date, in this place.
3.    That in response we talk back to God telling him our feelings, our desires, our requests, our intentions.
4.    That we consider, carefully, what the Word of God is urging us to do in relation to our family, our neighbours, and our work situation.
I think St. Malachy had some such similar experience.  As a monk he would have meditated on the Word of God.  Remember he came from that generation of people who carved the wonderful high crosses, depicting Gospel scenes.  The Gospels were their television sets and so he would have achieved that freedom and that courage and that zeal to bring the Word of God to others.  That is the challenge that we too meet today.

As you may know this year has been designated, here in Ireland, as the Year of Vocation by the Catholic Church.  It is a year in which we concentrate a lot on putting across this message:

Through our baptism we all have a vocation.

In other words, we have all been called, by God, to bear witness to God’s presence in our lives and in the world.  We are all called to love God and love our neighbour. 

We are called to serve God and to serve our neighbours – especially those weaker and poorer than we are.  How we answer that call will decide how we will be in the world to come.

It so happens that today’s Readings fit nicely with the topic of conversation.

We believe that we are all being called, by God, to share His life for ever in Heaven.  God is offering that gift to each one of us.  But what do we have to do – if anything – to receive that gift?  Some people live their lives in the belief – apparently – that it does not matter what we do or how we live our lives – we are going to be all right on the day.  Nothing could be further from the truth!
Today’s Readings tell us, loud and clear, that we are all personally responsible for our own salvation.  We have a part to play.  Sure it is on the one hand a free gift of God to us – but on the other hand – and this is the message being hammered home today, our salvation is also the fruit of our co-operation and the result of us exercising our own free will.

St Augustine put it well when he said:  ‘The God who created you without you willing it – will not save you without you willing it’

In today’s Reading we have two sons – both being called, invited or commanded, by their father, to go and work in his vineyard.  The first, who obviously does not believe in having arguments with people, says ‘yes’ but obviously had not the slightest intention of going.  The second says ‘no’ initially but then thought better of it and actually went.  All are agreed that he is the one who did the will of his father. 

We have a third story of a son who did the will of His Father  – Jesus Christ was sent into the world, by his Father to do the will of the One who sent him.  He humbled himself to the point of dying the death of a criminal on the cross.   Sure – but God raised him up in glory. 

The fact is that God has sent each one of us into this world to do some good.  If we do not do that good it will remain undone.  Jesus said: “It is not the One who says Lord, Lord who enters the Kingdom of Heaven but the one who does the Will of the Lord”.  It is not enough to have pious sentiments and good intentions.  We need to set out to produce deeds and actions in order to fulfil the Will of the Lord.

The Year of Vocation Committee has designated today as Priesthood Sunday.  They have done so in the belief that God is calling men to become priests –and if that is so – it is important that they be helped to hear that call and to answer it and by so doing, play the part that is required for them to enter eternal life. 

This Year of Vocations Committee is headed up by Father Paddy Rushe.  Father Rushe is a native of Coalisland in Co Tyrone, a priest of the diocese of Armagh, formerly a Curate in Drogheda, now a Curate in Dundalk.  He is also National Director of Vocations.

Priesthood Sunday has two purposes:

1.    To give an opportunity to promote priesthood as a positive option today, and secondly,
2.    To support and encourage priests to be the best possible priests they can be.

This can be done by praying for them and acknowledging their presence on the ground in our parishes.

To celebrate Priesthood Sunday we are here in St. Catherine’s Church, Ballapousta.  You may ask why Ballapousta?  Last week the bishops met in Maynooth and, would you believe that some of them were asking a more basic question – Where is Ballapousta?

Of course we are here because of the late great Olivia Mary Taafe – Foundress of St. Joseph’s Young Priests Society.  She was born near Tuam, Co Galway in 1832 – three years after Catholic Emancipation.  Her maiden name was Blake and the Blakes were one of the fourteen Tribes of Galway.  Olivia married John Joseph Taafe in 1867.  After her marriage she and her husband settled at Smarmore Castle in this area. She lived here for 27 years.

St. Joseph’s Young Priests Society is a lay organisation, approved by the Irish Hierarchy.  Its purpose is to extend the Kingdom of God by promoting the Vocations of the Priesthood and to help its members to understand their own vocations as people of God.

So, I think it is quite fitting that we gather here to celebrate Priesthood Sunday. 

When we try to encourage people to become priests or to enter religious life you often hear the words of Jesus – “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the Harvest to send labourers to his harvest”. 

We are here in Ballapousta – in the parish of Ardee.  It is an area that is famous for its rich harvests.  Today I want to pay tribute to the farmers who, year in and year out, go out to plough the fields in the cold of winter and to sow the seed in the frost of spring and finally, struggle against bad summers, in order to save the harvest. 

I heard a lovely programme on BBC Radio Four last Sunday telling how the people used to turn out to sing Harvest Home – Harvest Home when the last loads of grain were bring brought to the granaries. 

Today the work of those who labour in the fields is much lonelier and far less appreciated one.  People don’t really appreciate all the work that has to go into producing the loaf of bread or the pound of butter.  Perhaps if we had a greater appreciation of, and a respect for, the work of those who produce our food, well then we might have a greater respect for, and appreciation of, those who dedicate their lives to making sure that we also have the Bread of Life – the bread of eternal life – namely those who have become priests and to whom God has given the power to change bread and wine into the Body and Blood of Christ. 
Every priest is, first and foremost, a teacher of the Word of God.  I doubt if teachers today get the credit they deserve for their help in preparing children for life.  I can think of lots of others who get far more praise and attention than teachers do and who do a lot less hard work.

The priest is also a teacher.  His subject is an important one.  It does not get points for entry into the University or the Institutes but for entry into something far more important and permanent, namely, everlasting happiness.  I have always seen preaching and teaching as a hugely important part of my life as a priest and as a bishop.  It means that I have to keep on learning myself in order to keep my sermons fresh with many examples. 

I once heard a debate about whether there was any resemblance between the work of a lawyer and that of a priest.  The lawyer pointed out that she worked to build a more just and truthful world and that she pleaded at the Bar of Justice – in the law courts and Tribunals.  The priest replied that he also pleaded for justice – the difference was that he pleaded at the Supreme Court of Heaven and Earth and before the Supreme Judge – the one who will come again in glory to judge the living and the dead.  There was this difference – that if he pleaded with faith and confidence he was absolutely certain to always get a hearing and a result.
Somebody once said to me – the priest is a wanted man. 
•    Wanted for: baptisms and burials;
•    for weddings and funerals;
•    for sick calls and anointings;
•    for times of tragedy and of triumphs.

I am often asked:  Why did you become a priest?  I have thought about the answer long and hard.  I now think that it was because the priest in the parish of Laragh, when I grew up, was always wanted.  He was wanted to pray for people, in times of sickness and of death.  I saw how the people loved their priest and, above al, I saw the efforts they made to attend Sunday Mass – walking miles in hail, rain or snow.  I decided that the one who celebrates the Mass is loved and respected and early wanted by them.

We read in the Gospels that Jesus made a tour through all the towns and villages teaching in their synagogues, proclaiming the Good News of the Kingdom and curing all kinds of diseases and sickness.  We still do the teaching and the preaching but what about the curing and the healings? I think priests who hear confessions would tell you that their work involves a lot of healing of anguished hearts and minds and of restoring peace of mind to troubled people.  So then the priest is, in a sense, a teacher, a lawyer and a doctor all rolled into one.

Jesus said:  “I am the Good Shepherd”.  The shepherd has to travel with his flock from one pasture to another and to find water.  The shepherd leads the flock to shelter in times of storms and protects them and keeps them safe against the wolves and lions and the sheep-stealers.  In the same way a Parish Priest is described as the Pastor or shepherd of the parish.  He too has to travel the journey of life with his people, sharing their sorrows and their joys and what an enriching experience that is!
Today I want to thank God for St. Joseph’s Young Priests Society.  I want to praise God for their prayers and sacrifice and for the generous support which they have given, and continue to give, to the formation of priests here in Ireland.  It all comes, I believe, from your deep faith in, and love for, the presence of Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament.  It is a love that matters – a love for Jesus present in the Eucharist and present among his people.

Today I gladly take up the invitation to pay tribute to the priests I have known.  We priests are not angels – we are human and we are sinners.  We need to go to confessions to confess our sins and to get pardon, as everybody else has to do.  But I want to pay tributes to the priests of this diocese – whom I have known for the past thirteen years.

When we were ordained – the Church looked for a number of qualities – good health, sufficient brains to follow the courses, appropriate lifestyle and right intentions. We knew that none of us has a right to receive this office for himself.  We offered ourselves because we felt called by God and we asked the Church to consider our offer and if it was so decided, to call us to be ordained.  We knew well that it was a gift that we had not merited by our actions.

It was when Jesus saw his followers harassed and dejected like sheep without a shepherd that he felt sorry for them.  He said to his disciples:  “The harvest is rich but the labourers are few, so ask the Lord of the Harvest to send labourers to his harvest”.

I grew up on a farm in an era when there was a huge variety of harvests to be saved – hay – oats – barley –wheat – potatoes – turnips.  There was quite a lot of heavy, monotonous work involved.  But there was a huge sense of satisfaction when the last load entered the haggard and the last sack of grain went out to the granary.

Mickey Harte hid the letters T.I.N.E stitched into every jersey of every Tyrone player for last Sunday’s match.  They stood for Two is not enough.  It seems to have worked and worked brilliantly.  But lo and behold – what do we now find – that neither is three enough because they are already talking about another title – next year and so on.

The Latin word for enough is Satis.  It is the basis of the word ‘satisfy’ and this begs the question – What does really satisfy the hunger of the human heart?  St Augustine recognised the question and he said: 

You have made us for yourself O Lord and our hearts are restless until they rest in you.

I have never seen young men to be found wanting when they were confronted with a harvest that needed saving.  Yes the harvest is rich – millions of people hungry to hear about Jesus Christ, worshipping so many other gods and still finding their hearts empty and thirsting for true worship. Multitudes frantically searching for reasons to hope and being led astray into deserts of despair and a wilderness of false hopes and delusions.

May St. Joseph – Protector of the Holy Family – protect all families and inspire all fathers to face up to their responsibilities in rearing their children.

May Mary, Mother of Jesus, Mother of the Church and Seat of Wisdom, help in this Year of Vocation.  May she inspire all parents to discuss, with their children, what God may be calling them to do in life.  May all those who feel that they may be called, by God, to become a priest, get the help and the support and the encouragement they need to answer that call.

Today I remember with great love and gratitude all those who helped me to answer that call.

AMEN

Good morning everyone, you are all very welcome to the launch of  “Catholic Bishops dot I E” – the new website for the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference.

The Irish Bishops’ Conference did have an internet presence since 2001 but our new website has been completely redesigned and updated.  Its content has been expanded and it now hosts a number of new features which, I hope, will be of benefit to its users.

Let me give you a brief overview of our new site and then, in conclusion, say a few words from the perspective of the Catholic Church on the importance and responsibility of the internet as a means of communication.

The purpose of “Catholic Bishops’ dot I E’ is to inform as wide an audience as possible of the online extent of the pastoral outreach of the Catholic Church in Ireland.

Our site provides detailed information on the 26 diocese on this island.  Positioned clearly on the home page there is a list of links introducing the people and organisations that make up the agencies and commissions of the Irish Bishops’ Conference.  The homepage also provides a link to the Vatican website.

Two interesting features of our new site deserve particular mention. 

•    The first is the link to the daily Mass readings, and the other
•    Is the development of an interactive diocesan map.

This is the first time that an electronic map of the dioceses of Ireland has been made available online.  

Catholic Bishops dot I E also hosts podcasts and webcasts, including interviews with bishops.   One feature which will, no doubt, prove to be very popular is the 1979 live recordings of the homilies delivered by the late Pope John Paul II during his pilgrimage to Ireland.

Major publications by the Bishops’ Conference are also available online in English and Irish and, since 2006, in Polish as well.  Subscription details for Intercom, our pastoral and liturgical resource magazine, are also provided.  The press release archive dates back to 2001.

Our new site should be of special interest to members of the clergy, religious, laity, teachers, policy makers, journalists, in fact, to anyone wishing to find out more about the activities of the Catholic Church at home and throughout the world.

The design and content of the site will change over time so as to retain its relevance to those who use it.

Of course “Catholic Bishops dot I E” is only one of many millions of websites now available on the internet.  Clearly the net is the single most revolutionary communications medium of modern times.  Its extent is incomparable.  Its volume and ease of access combine to make it an awesome tool of communication.  With its infinite length and breadth however comes a unique responsibility for the whole online global community. 

The positive and negative aspects of the internet are two sides of the same coin: Used constructively, its potential contribution to the common good is limitless. However, its cynical use, as a vehicle for exploitation, especially of children, and to advance aggression generally, also makes the internet a potentially hostile place.  Each and every one of us has a responsibility to prevent this form of abuse and, thankfully, international progress is being made in this regard.

For the Church, the internet offers us great scope for proclaiming the Good News.  In 2002 the Pontifical Council for Social Communications published The Church and Internet which outlined the benefits of the net for promoting the Good News.  It usefully suggested that:

“The Internet is relevant to many activities and programmes of the Church – evangelisation, including both re-evangelisation and new evanglisation, and the traditional missionary work ad gentes, catechetics and other kinds of education, news and information, apologetics, governance and administration and some forms of pastoral counselling and spiritual direction.”

The publication continues: “Although the virtual reality of cyberspace cannot substitute for real interpersonal community, the incarnational reality of the sacraments and the liturgy or the immediate and direct proclamation of the Gospel, it can complement them.  It will enable people to a fuller experience of the life of faith and it will enrich the religious lives of users.  It also provides the Church with a means for communicating with particular groups – young people and young adults, the elderly and home-bound, persons living in remote areas, the members of other religious bodies – who otherwise may be difficult to reach.”

It is my hope that our website fulfils such objectives and adequately serves your informational needs.  I wish to conclude by mentioning the 2002 World Communications Day message, dedicated to the theme of the internet.  In it, the late Pope John Paul II reminded us that:

“The internet causes billions of images to appear on millions of computer monitors around the planet.  From this galaxy of sight and sound will the face of Christ emerge? Will the voice of Christ be heard?  For it is only when His face is seen, and His voice is heard, that the world will know the glad tidings of our redemption.  This is the purpose of evangelisation.  This is what will make the internet a genuinely human space, for if there is no room for Christ, there is no room for man.”

Go raibh maith agat as ucht eisteacht agus beannacht Dé ort

END

About ten days ago I was attending a function in the Slieve Russell in Ballyconnell.  As I was leaving this fine young man from Ballyhaise greeted me with a smile, came over and shook hands and reminded me who he was.  He welcomed me back to my native county.  He knows who he is, I know who he is, God knows who he is and I am not going to embarrass him in any way.  But I really did appreciate that gesture because I think it sums up and typifies all that is best about the parish of Castletara and the village of Ballyhaise. 

How can I describe what I mean by, ‘all that is best’ about this parish and its people?  I mean that you are people whose hearts and minds are open to welcome good news and to welcome people.  Like Mary, in tonight’s Gospel, the people who gather to praise God here in St Mary’s and in St Patrick’s in Castletara are people who are thankful.  You are thankful, I think, to God for the gift of life.  I get the impression you are happy to be living in a beautiful part of the world on the banks of the Annalee and you are at ease and in friendship with your neighbours and your acquaintances.

I congratulate all of you, but especially Father Ray and the Parish Pastoral Council Committee, on the completion of this extension to this Church of St. Mary.  In times of recession it is good to hear some good news.  This extension is, I understand, going to be used for prayer and praise, for worship and adoration. 

In 2012 the next International Eucharistic Congress will be held in Ireland.  It is generally accepted that the most important part of the preparations will be prayers and study.  It will be prayers to Jesus in the Blessed Sacrament and study of the importance of Jesus remaining with us – in good times and bad – to offer consolation in the face of disaster and to provide hope in the face of desolation which recession often brings. 

I understand that this Pastoral Council are going out to office and I thank each and every one of you for your dedicated commitment during your tenure in bringing about this wonderful extension and the help you have given to the priests in the running of the parish.  I am pleased also to hear of the careful planning that has gone into the preparation of this Mass.  I know that people have been chosen to carry out certain functions – for very definite reasons that link them back to my year in this parish.

So tonight I repeat with Mary, ‘My heart praises the Lord’.  I thank God with all my heart for my time here in Ballyhaise, for all the friendship and prayers with which you have helped me all these years.  It is hard to believe that it is almost 14 years.  Much has happened, many things have changed, but thank God many things remain the same.  Tonight we thank God for all of you whose faith has remained strong, despite the trials, tribulations and temptations which may have come your way.

Many have died since I was here last. We remember them in a special way tonight.  In my house in Armagh I have a little Chapel – an Oratory.  There I place memorial cards of those who have died.  Just before I left today I spotted one of a man from this parish, Charlie Young, and the thought it contains give me great consolation.  It says: ‘Those who die in grace, go no further than God and God is very near’.  I suppose the challenge therefore is for all of us to discover that Jesus is very near and to discover and to know that the Holy Spirit, the Spirit of Jesus who suffered and died for love of us, is very near.

Next month I am going to Rome for a meeting.  We will be talking about the Word of God and how we read it and hear it.  Could I ask you to please pray that the discussions will bear fruit?  Maybe some of you would be so good as to read a passage from the Bible every day and talk to Jesus about it and ask Him to guide our discussions and to guide all of us, you and us, in our lives through His Word.

I often think of the young people of this parish,

•    whether in the schools, St Patrick’s and St Mary’s – and by the way, congratulations on that beautiful new school at Castletara –
•    whether it is the young people playing camogie or football in the park,
•    whether it is Castletara Band,
•    whether it is in the Agricultural College,

I think of the many students from here whom I taught in St Patrick’s College, Cavan, all those years ago.

These are difficult times for young people.  Last Sunday, in Lourdes, Pope Benedict made a speech to the young people.  He reminded them that God is looking at each one of them personally and calling them to a life of happiness, a life that has meaning and purpose.  He appealed to them not to be defeated by difficulties – Mary was troubled by the message of the Angel Gabriel who was asking her to become the Mother of Jesus – but Mary said, yes, to that call and by so doing she made sure that the Saviour of the world would be born.

Pope Benedict reminded the young people in Lourdes not to be afraid to say yes to the invitation of Jesus to follow Him. I repeat his call to the young people of this parish to respond generously to Jesus – by finding time to pray each day, by having the courage and making the effort to come to Mass each Sunday – because only Jesus can satisfy the deepest desires of your hearts.  Only He can lead you to lasting hope and joy. 

In Lourdes, last Sunday, the Pope prayed that Mary might help those called to marriage to discover the beauty of deep and lasting love.  In this year of Vocations I would wish to ask Mary to help each one of us here present, young and old, single or married, to discover the way to happiness which God has planned for us.  Naturally, I would be delighted if some were to find that this road led to priesthood and religious life, as it has done for many in the past.  Mary is, for all of us, a Beacon of Hope.  I think it is no harm to remember that here in this Church dedicated to her honour.  She is a Beacon of Hope especially for those who are sick and housebound.  I remember, with affection, the sick and the housebound whom I used to visit on the First Friday.

I praise God, with all my heart, for the example they gave us all, of patience, deep faith and hope in the face of sometimes terrible suffering.  For the Lord who is mighty did great things for them.  The same Lord can, and does, do great things for each one of us.  Mary can, and will, do great things for each one of us too, if only we allow her, if only we ask her.  Happy are those who put their trust in Jesus, the Son of Mary and the Son of God.  As He offered His life on the Cross, He offered His mother to each one of us to be our mother.  She will give us hope, even in the darkest nights.

Amen.