FAREWELL Of APOSTOLIC MOST REVEREND LAZZAROTTO,

ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE, MAYNOOTH

PRESENTATION BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

SATURDAY 19 JANUARY 2008

It is my privilege to interpret the sentiments of the Irish Bishops and to express their good wishes and gratitude to you, Archbishop Giuseppe, as you prepare to leave our shores.

You and I have known each other for some 20 years, since your days at the Irish Desk in the Secretariat of State and mine at Via SS Quattro.

Before coming to Ireland you had some knowledge of our country through your friendship with the late Monsignor Cyril Mulligan. So, when you came you were not a stranger. But you immediately revealed yourself to be a man of great human qualities, with a wonderful capacity for empathy, understanding and friendship. You were always willing to work with the bishops, offering every assistance you could to safeguard what related to the mission of the Church and the Apostolic See. You gladly travelled the length and breadth of our country. You brought your fellow priests from Padua to visit Ireland and to do their retreat here. The sense of joy and happiness which you obviously experienced yourself and displayed has helped and inspired many others. So, for all of that we thank you. We are genuinely sorry to see you go and we wish you every blessing in the future.

I was speaking to your colleague, Archbishop Franco, earlier this week and he sends you greetings and the invitation to spend some time in Jerusalem with him en route to Australia.

Your superiors in Rome are very happy with your work here and I am sure they know that they are entrusting the immediate preparations for World Youth Day to a very competent Nuncio.

As one who represents the very best of the religious life and culture of Padua with its University, Scrovegni Palace Giotta, Santa Justince etc, we thought a painting with a religious theme might be an acceptable souvenir of your stay in Ireland.

The name of the artist is O’Brien. An name that evokes the kings of Munster. The setting is Glendalough – the Glen of the two Loughs – one of the most evocative names in the history of Irish monastic life with its association with St. Kevin. The Round Tower evokes persecution and threat and defence.

It is a winter scene reminding us all that even in the green island of Ireland it is sometimes winter, despite global warming. The branches of the trees reminds us of nature and the cycle of the seasons – that spring always follows winter.

The love bird is singing – singing the praises of God whose name is great and whose magnificence is always to be glorified.

We hope that as you glance at this picture somewhere it will evoke good memories for you. They say seven is the perfect number so a seven year stay is the perfect term.

We wish you sincerely God’s blessing and hope that someday you will return to our country where you will find many friends.

Thank you.

PRESENTATION OF JOHN PAUL II AWARDS

MILLENNIUM THEATRE, DERRY

WEDNESDAY 23 JANUARY 2008

ADDRESS BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

I am delighted to be here in Daire Colmcille tonight. It is always a joy to come to St. Colmcille’s city and that for many reasons.

Down in Armagh there are many pockets of devotions to Colmcille. For example in the historic parish of Termonmaguirc there is a fine Millennium High Cross, built to honour St. Colmcille.

In the Cathedral Parish of Armagh the out-church of Knockaconey, one of the most beautiful Churches in the diocese, is dedicated to the memory of Colmcille.

Colmcille was a Donegal man, a Tir Conaill man, but, like many others from that county, he was so filled with zeal for the spreading of the Gospel that he felt the need to leave his native hearth and more. That same faith and love has inspired a lot of people to go great things and make great sacrifices down through the centuries for love of Christ.

I am glad to be n Derry tonight because it gives me a chance to meet again some old friends. When I went to Maynooth to begin my studies for the priesthood I met there an outstanding bunch of seminarians from Derry. We studied and prayed together. We played football together and we became friends – such good friends that many of them went to Rome last November to be in St. Peter’s to see and hear Pope Benedict make me a Cardinal. I suspect that some of them could not believe it was rally happening and so they went along to see and hear for themselves.

After three years in Maynooth, I went to the Irish College in Rome to complete my studies and to be ordained a priest.

ORDINATION OF MGR BRENDAN KELLY
AS
BISHOP OF ACHONRY
CHURCH OF THE ANNUNCIATION & ST NATHY
SUNDAY 27 JANUARY 2008
INTRODUCTION
CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

We come together this afternoon in this Cathedral of the Annunciation and St Nathy, to ordain Mons. Brendan Kelly, Bishop of Achonry. Today Jesus, the Good Shepherd, entrusts his people, with unfailing love, to a new shepherd, a successor of St Nathy – the founder and patron of the diocese. With the help of the priests, the new bishop will continue to nurture the flock with the Good News of the Gospel, and to lead them in the ways of holiness through the Eucharist in the power of the Holy Spirit.

Usually the principal consecration of a suffrage bishop is the Metropolitan bishop. I thank Archbishop Neary for graciously bestowing this invitation and honour on me today. So today we entrust Achonry’s new bishop to the loving protection of its patron saints Attracta and Nathy. As we do so, we thank God for the faithful and generous service of Bishop Tom Flynn, over the last thirty-one years. May he continue to live in good health and happiness after the example of his illustrious predecessor, Eugene O’Hart, who lived to be a hundred and is reported to have been administering Confirmation when he was well into his nineties.

I know that you will accompany both Bishop Kelly and Flynn with the support of your prayers and sacrifices which in this Mass we unite to the prayers of Jesus.

FAREWELL MASS FOR APOSTOLIC MOST REVEREND LAZZAROTTO,

ST JOSEPH’S ORATORY

IN

ST PATRICK’S COLLEGE, MAYNOOTH

HOMILY GIVEN BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

SATURDAY 19 JANUARY 2008

Last Sunday I celebrated Mass in a parish in Palestine on the border between Samaria and Galilee. There was a terrific energy and vibrancy in the liturgy. It was really inspiring. Afterwards we were introduced to the Elders of the parish over a cup of Bedouin Coffee in the Parish Hall. The village is about 40 kilometres from Nazareth and quite near to the village of the 10 lepers and right on the road that goes from Galilee to Jerusalem.

There was a community of nuns in that parish and two volunteer women teachers from France and a small Anglican community. The Parish Priest was from Jordan, a Bedouin, who lived, as he said himself, under the tent. But unfortunately he has not been able to get home for two and a half years to see his elderly parents because of the famous ‘Wall’ that divides that country.

As we drove up and down the steep hills and mountains of Samaria, I thought of Jesus, Mary and Joseph on their many journeys back and forth from home to the Holy City.

As I moved from place to place myself during the past week, I thought of the journey of life. For many it involves moving from place to place, meeting different people and adapting to different circumstances. When I came to Rome I took possession of the Titular Church on Wednesday. Its patrons Quiricus and Julitta, who were a mother and her three year old son, martyred for the faith, suggest the Gospel of the Flight into Egypt.

Then I thought of you, Archbishop Giuseppe, and your preparations to depart from here in Ireland to go to Australia. Now, like Levi, the son of Alphaeus in today’s Gospel, with exemplary obedience, you get up and you go to follow the call of the Master. We are all genuinely sorry to see you go. Many bishops, who cannot be here today, have sent their apologies. Over the past seven years you have helped us immensely with your kind actions and wise counsel while always leaving intact the exercise of the bishop’s lawful power. They have not been easy years. But your constant availability has served wonderfully to foster close and cordial relations with the Bishops’ Conference. You were always ready and willing to take pains to contribute to peace and harmony, to do whatever made for progress and united effort. We promise to accompany you with our prayers. Some of us will see you at World Youth Day.

In any case, a spell in Ireland was, for some people, quite a good preparation for life in Australia.

Daniel Mannex was President here from 1903 to 1912 before going to Australia as Archbishop of Melbourne and there he lived for the next 51 years.
Patrick Francis Moran had been Vice Rector of the Irish College in Rome, Secretary to the Archbishop of Dublin, Bishop of Ossory, before setting off for Australia in 1884 to become Archbishop of Sydney where he lived for the next 27 years.
More importantly, you will be accompanied by the protection and intercession of the saints of your native diocese to which I know you are very devoted. Prosdocimus, Justina, Bellinus, San Antonio, of course. Gregorio Barbarico, Blessed Forzate and Blessed Arnaldo. There is more one missing, most recent of all. It has been noted that in sacred art, St. Joseph is rarely depicted alone but usually in the company of Jesus and Mary. We know that you will not be alone either because you will be in the presence of Jesus, under the protection of Mary because you travel in the service of the body of Christ for the building up of God’s kingdom here on earth. May the Lord always bless you as you do so.

AMEN

Address by
His Eminence Seán Cardinal Brady
Post Primary Review Conference
City Hotel, Armagh
Tuesday 5th February 2008

It is a pleasure to be here this morning for this important gathering of principals and governors. Last week many of you will have been busy celebrating Catholic Education Week. And, this week, so many of your primary colleagues will be under huge pressure to process their children through the next stage of the current Transfer Procedure, following the receipt of the Test results last Saturday. And these two events focus our attention on the purpose, not just of this meeting, but of the whole Post primary Review process in which you are engaged. We are seeking to develop our network of sustainable Catholic schools into the future – schools which will proclaim and celebrate the Good News of the Beatitudes, and offer top quality educational opportunities to young people of all faith backgrounds and none

Firstly, I would like to thank all of those who have given so much time to this process. I know that it is one more burden on top of a very full programme that you already have. But this is a time of major social and economic change and it is important that we do everything we can to get a system in place which is fit for purpose, and which takes people forward from where they are at present. Schools are integral to the strength and resilience of any society. As we know from the terrible years of conflict, our schools and churches were and are vital elements in holding society together. We have only one chance to implement the necessary changes. If we make a mess of it this time, it is future generations who will pay. If we get it right, we will have made an enormous contribution to the future welfare of our children and of their children.

What we are seeking to do in this Post-Primary Review process is to provide a continuity of educational excellence from a child enters Nursery school or Primary 1, right through till the time when they leave formal education and enter the world of work – and of the many other responsibilities that they will have as adults. Education, however, is not just about the training of people to be good, employable individuals. Education is the process whereby society seeks to enable its members to learn all those skills and qualities that they will need to help them thrive as individuals and as positive members of their communities. It is about helping everyone to develop as human beings, made in God’s image and likeness, whatever their talents and whatever challenges they face.

The Trustees have been very actively engaged in this whole process. The Northern Ireland Commission for Catholic Education represents all the Trustees – diocesan and religious – and it has sought to co-ordinate the work of the entire Catholic managed sector. The Consultative Group for Catholic Education has done a great service in helping all Catholic schools to clarify their shared vision in the new circumstances that prevail in NI. These bodies have enabled the Catholic-managed sector to be proud of both its identity and its achievements – and to have the confidence to face the future along with all our partners in education. The Post Primary Review process that we have established –with financial support from DE – has developed a way of working which is based on partnership, extensive discussions, wide public consultation and consensus. That is the way forward if we are to develop sustainable educational provision and ensure that parents feel included in the development of this.

I know that Governors, principals and teachers have also already undertaken a huge amount of work in introducing a conveyor belt of change. We all owe them our thanks and praise, because the Trustees and administrators know they cannot simply publish edicts and expect things to happen immediately. Change management in a school is a high level skill. The new is always unsettling and everyone needs to be reassured that change will be for the better and not just change for change’s sake. Despite the workload involved, our schools have introduced the new curriculum – and have also had to cope with the downward demographic trend, and the arrival of many welcome guests from other countries, with the attendant challenges that this brings. Many people are weary of implementing these changes.

So in support of schools and administrators, there are just two key points that I would like to make this morning.

Firstly, I have indicated that the Trustees – and indeed all parties in Catholic education – are happy to engage with DE and with all the other sectors in managing the plethora of change that is coming at us.

But it is vital that the Minister ensures that there is root and branch cohesion across all these initiatives. Thus, while it has been important to announce the end of the 11+ and a transfer at 11 based on parental election, this needs to be accompanied by putting systems in place to promote an area planning process and the announcement of the Sustainable Schools policy. Otherwise, some schools face a very uncertain future and will continue to die a slow lingering death. A society is uncivilised if it leaves the educational welfare of its children – and especially its weakest – to the vagaries of Darwinian economics. The survival of the fittest is neither an acceptable method of method nor an appropriate content for education.

We in the Catholic sector – along with many people across civic society – are clear that this is a social justice issue. All our children deserve the best we can give them. That will not happen unless there is a closely woven pattern of coordinated initiatives. am sure that we will all agree that educational structures would have to be based on seeking quality outcomes for all and not on any other basis.. That lies at the heart of the Core Principles which inform and guide all the 21 Catholic post-primary projects across the North. Thus, the Catholic Trustees are working on the key principle of social justice. However, this exemplary Post Primary Review process will not be able to continue unless the Department gives coherent policy coverage.
Secondly, I am very glad that DE has recognised that the need for sectoral support in those areas where sectoral coherence can complement the responsibilities of the Education and Skills Authority (ESA). The Review of Public Administration is not about a structure that will look streamlined on paper. It is based on what delivers quality outcomes and maximises the efficient use of resources. The Catholic sector has shown that ethos adds value. We have only to look at DE’s own published figures to see just how much Catholic schools have been setting standards in achievement at GCSE and A-level and in attendance at Higher Education. That is the proof that targeted sectoral support is money well spent.

There are those who see any sectoral support as part of a horse trading exercise and who want all power to be concentrated in ESA. There are others who would rather that there were no faith-based schools but that they just be blended into the totality of state-owned schools – with nothing but a brief nod to their historical roots. But we have to see what it is that helps to deliver quality outcomes. A sector, which is motivated by a shared vision, which can inspire staff and governors and which can then help to promote social cohesion, is a vital educational partner. Schools are not numbers on a list or dots on a map. They are part of communities. Grant aid which is targeted at the specific contribution that ESA cannot make, is money well spent, not a sop to anybody. The spirit of RPA is that all partners have an opportunity to focus on outcomes and not on empires, on pupils and not on personalities, on individuals and not on institutions. Thus I know that the Trustees are working with DE to see the establishment of a slim-line Trustee support body. I look forward to an early completion of these negotiations and this planning. Pupils deserve not the leanest structures but the most effective structures.

You have many more issues to hear about from others today. It is most encouraging that the Permanent Secretary from the Department of Education, Mr Will Haire is here. This is a tribute to his consultative style in the enormous task that the Department has before it. But I also see it as a recognition of major role that the Catholic managed schools have made to raising standards, embracing change and facing the future.

To all you who are participating today, I thank you for taking the time to be here and for all that you have already put into this Post Primary Review process. This is an enormous undertaking. With support from DE and from the Minister, we have the potential to develop a wonderful, robust system of sustainable schools into the future.

(I would like to finish on a personal note and thank so many people for their kindness and encouragement since my nomination as Cardinal last October. The goodness of so many people has been a sign that there is still a great hunger for faith, hope and love. These are exciting times to be alive in Northern Ireland – and great times to be involved in Catholic education.)
Guím beannacht Dé ar bhur n-obair.

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR?

CONFERENCE IN CROKE PARK HOTEL, DUBLIN

ADDRESS BY

CARDINAL SEÁN BRADY

MONDAY 18 FEBRUARY 2008

Archbishop Martin, representatives of other Churches and faith communities, esteemed guests, ladies and gentlemen;

It is a great pleasure to open this Conference on Pope Benedict’s first encyclical letter Deus Caritas Est. It is a mark of the appeal and significance of the Holy Father’s chosen theme, unexpected by some, that this Conference is so heavily oversubscribed. We haven’t quite filled Croke Park, but we have certainly stretched the capacity of this large Conference room in the Hogan Stand and more people wanted to come. I thank all of you for being here.

I thank, in anticipation, our speakers; Professor Conor Gearty, Lucy Fallon Byrne and Bishop Donal Murray. I thank our Chair and speakers on the afternoon discussion panel: Mayor Rotimi Adebari, Sister Joan Roddy, Professor John Monaghan, Dr Duncan Morrow and Dr Fergus O’Farrell.

I congratulate Bishop Raymond Field and the Advisory Board of the Bishops’ Commission for Justice and Social Affairs on this excellent initiative. In a relatively short space of time Bishop Field and his colleagues have brought the ICJSA from a standing start to become one of most active and widely known Commissions of the Bishops’ Conference. On behalf of the Conference I want to thank them for their vital work.

I want to welcome especially this morning the newest member of the Commission’s team, Miss Nicola Rooney from just outside Newry. As the new Researcher and Administrator of ICJSA Nicola brings with her many personal and intellectual gifts, including the gift of youth. I hope many of you who work in this field already will get to know Nicola in the weeks and months ahead. I know that her doctoral studies on the role of the Catholic Church in conflict resolution will make a particularly important contribution to the work of the Commission.

Of course, no event like this comes together without a lot of careful preparation. In formally opening the Conference I also want to thank those who worked so hard behind the scenes to bring today’s event together. A special word of thanks to Sandra Garry, Bernie Moloney and others from the Columba Centre in Maynooth; thanks also to Martin Long, Brenda Drumm, Marie Purcell and Kathy Tynan from the Catholic Communications Office. They are all here today to provide you with whatever assistance you may need as the day goes on.

Our day began with the beautiful prayer service which they prepared. At the heart of that prayer service was the Gospel of the Good Samaritan. It is significant, I believe, that the story begins with the fundamental human question: ‘Master, what must I do to inherit eternal life?’ The Lord responds with the perfect summary of the law, the prophets and the new Covenant: ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your strength, and with all your mind – and you must love your neighbour as you love yourself.’
Clearly this answer catches the questioner somewhat by surprise, and the part which most challenges him, is the emphasis given to making our love of God a reality in our human relationships. His inclination is to deflect the question because something within him instinctively tells him his comfort zones are about to be challenged: ‘And who is my neighbour’? The answer – someone you do not expect, someone from outside your assumed cultural, political, social and religious parameters for inclusion. The answer is the iconic story of the Good Samaritan. It is a story of love, of the face of God, revealed in unexpected people. It is the story of borders in our minds and hearts becoming new horizons of hope and healing for the whole human family because of the message of Jesus Christ.
Three weeks ago this story of the Good Samaritan took on a whole new significance for me. Thanks to Trocaire, who are co-sponsoring today’s event with the Bishops’ Conference, I was in the Holy Land. We said Mass in a Christian village called Zababdeh in the north of Samaria – near the border with Galilee. The village was on the road from Nazareth to Jerusalem. The Holy Family would have passed through there several times. The village is near the place where Jesus cured the ten lepers. I seem to remember that the only one who came back to say thanks on that occasion was also a Samaritan.
Well, we had this extremely lively liturgy – great singing – great participation. After Mass we all went to the Parish Hall for a cup of strong Bedouin coffee and a very hearty Ceád Mile Fáilte from the village elders. I thought to myself that the Lord surely had some of the ancestors of these sturdy people in mind when he told the story of the Good Samaritan. They were so welcoming and so helpful. It was a real joy to be in their company.

As I drove through the Israeli check points on the long car journey back to Jerusalem, I looked, in amazement, at the huge and winding concrete wall which hemmed people in, separated them physically and psychologically throughout the territory. As I did so, I was also struck by how relevant, how urgent the story of the Good Samaritan still is for our world today. Even in Belfast, despite the progress of recent years in our own country, score of peace walls continue to exist. Of course, there are other walls of social, cultural, religious, philosophical and political division in our world and in our society. There are other walls of prejudice and exclusion in our minds and in our hearts, walls of suspicion and distrust.

Hence the significance of Pope Benedict’s compelling exposition of the theological, spiritual and practical consequences of God’s identity – God is love.
Last weekend I was in Drogheda. I called to see the Medical Missionaries of Mary. I love being in the company of people like that who, despite the fact that they are now in their twilight years of life, are so happy that they have given their best days to the love of their neighbours in the mission fields of Africa and elsewhere. By the way, it is wonderful to see so many religious sisters here today!
I met there a religious sister in her autumn years, with her arm in a sling because she had had a slight accident. That was not going to hold her back though. She was setting out the next day to return to her mission field, bringing medical care to those would not otherwise receive it. She didn’t need to be reminded that God is love and that love is the service which the Church carries out to attend constantly to the sufferings and needs of humankind, including material needs. She knew it instinctively. It was a reflex, born of prayer, of a personal closeness to the Lord. She was, like so many others, a person who knows what it is to make the civilisation of love a reality. She did so by transforming the ordinary tasks of everyday life into moments of encounter with God’s life giving love. She was, like so many others – mothers and fathers, medical personnel, carers, the list could on – she was the living embodiment of that which Pope Benedict speaks of in paragraph 19 of his letter when he says: “The entire activity of the Church is an expression of a love that seeks the integral good of the human family: it seeks his evangelization through Word and Sacrament, an undertaking that is often heroic in the way it is acted out in history; and it seeks to promote the human person in the various arenas of life and human activity.”

This Encyclical talks a lot about responsibilities and this is a welcome change. Responsibility obviously has to do with answering for something to somebody.

The first challenge is to face up to the fact that love of neighbour, grounded in the love of God, first and foremost, is a responsibility for each individual member of the faithful. Anyone who needs help, and whom I can help, is my neighbour.

But love of neighbour is a responsibility for the Church at every level – at parish level; diocesan level; the level of the Universal Church. “Love of neighbour needs to be organised” the Pope says. The introduction of Deacons in the early Church was the response to this need. The decision has been taken to introduce Permanent Deacons to Ireland. The realisation that this exercise of charity is one of the essential activities of the Church alongside that of proclaiming the Word and celebrating the sacraments should add a new energy and urgency to our approach to the introduction of the permanent diaconate.

There is a special challenge for bishops in this encyclical. It recalls that in the Rite of Episcopal Ordination, the Bishop-elect promises to be welcoming and merciful to the poor and to all those in need of consolation and assistance. The directory for the pastoral ministry of bishops highlights most specifically the duty of charity as a responsibility on the whole Church and on each bishop in his diocese.

The directory emphasises charity as an action of the Church as such and that like the Ministry of Word and Sacrament, it too has been an essential part of our mission from the very beginning.

The Church’s deepest nature is expressed in this three-fold responsibility:

1. To preach the Word of God,
2. Celebrate the sacraments, and
3. To exercise the ministry of charity.

The Catechism which I learned at school had a question, who is my neighbour? The answer went something like this. ‘My neighbour is all mankind, of every description without exception, even those who injure me or differ from me in religion’.

What a difference it would make if, in fact, we were to love all humankind, of every description, without distinction, even those who injure us or differ from us in culture, politics or religion. What a difference it would make to the history of this country for example, and to the history of the world.

In the words of Pope Benedict, “Love promises something far greater and different than our everyday existence”. But the way to reach the something greater is not simply to give in to instinct but to grow in maturity. This happens when body and soul are intimately linked. Christian faith has always seen the human person as a unity – where spirit and matter mix – where each is brought to a new nobility through purification and self-control”.

Genuine love seeks the good of the Beloved. Love involves care and concern for the other person. Love is ready and willing to make sacrifices but the human person cannot always give but must sometimes receive. And so, biblical faith intervenes in this human search for love by enriching the notion of love. Biblical faith purifies the search for love and enriches it. It does this by presenting, first of all, a new image of God. We are created in that image. We are called to be the living presence of God’s image to others.

Jesus, in the Eucharist, is that living presence to us. Jesus not only offered himself for us on the cross. He now invites us to share his body and blood so that we may be united with him and united with God. But union with Christ also implies union with all those to whom he gives himself. I cannot possess Christ for myself. I can belong to him only in union with all those who have become His Own.

This is why for the Church charity is not an optional extra that could be equally well left to others. It is part of our nature and an indispensable expression of our very being. The Church is God’s family in the world. In this family, no-one ought to go without the necessities of life. And yet, charity extends beyond the frontiers of the Church.

This is why, in the words of Pope Benedict “Love of neighbour needs to be organised”. This Conference give us an opportunity to begin the reflection on how we are organising it?

It gives us the chance to:

1. Study the content of this most important encyclical.
2. Take on board the urgent challenges which it addresses to the Church in Ireland at this time;
3. Assess how we are, in fact, responding to those challenges,
and
4. Identify what needs to be done and what can be done to fill the gaps in our response.

The Church is called to ‘reawaken’, the encyclical says, ‘the moral forces without which just structures are neither established nor proved effective’. There is quite a challenge here – are we, for example, to reawaken the moral forces to pay more taxes so as to provide better social services? Are we called to redress the balance between individual pursuit of wealth and our duty to the common good in the form of better education for our children and better health services for the elderly and those who are ill? No doubt these are the kind of questions which will underpin much of what we reflect on today.

Yet it is not to economists, to politicians or even human rights activists that the Church turns in this Encyclical for example, vital and respected as the work of these vocations are. The encyclical turns attention instead to the saints. In doing so, it is not suggesting that these other insights into the human condition are secondary. It is reminding us, in a timely fashion, that what we need are economists, human rights activists, politicians and journalists indeed, who are themselves saints, who are themselves in touch with, motivated by and witnesses to others of the love and care of God. What we need today are more St. Vincent de Paul’s, new Mother Teresa’s, new St Brigid’s of Kildare who built her monasteries to feed the poor, to clothe the naked, to house the homeless.

These are the people who will be able to bring young people to Christ, young people with their instinct for justice and solidarity in a shrinking world. Indeed, one of the great signs of the times is a growing sense of solidarity between all the different people of the world. It is a source of hope for the future of the human family, one which we should build on.
State agencies and humanitarian associations are increasingly co-operating to promote this. Many forms of co-operation between State and Church agencies have borne immense fruit. Here I pay tribute to the contribution of the Irish State and to their willingness to co-operate with agencies like Trócaire in offering humanitarian assistance to our brothers and sisters in need.

In conclusion, let me note that the story of the Good Samaritan ends with words that sum up the whole mission of the Church – Our Lord turns to the man and says – ‘GO AND DO THE SAME!’ These words sums up the reason for the Church has Trocaire, Accord, Cura and all its other activities which support the cause of the human person. It is why Pope Benedict reminds us that the fundamental vocation is every Christian is to make the civilisation love a reality in the bits and pieces of everyday life – from politics and development, to our own homes, parishes and neighbourhoods.

As I formally open this Conference, let me conclude with the prayer with which Pope Benedict concludes his encyclical. It expressed my heartfelt wish that today will be a source of renewal for all is in our knowledge of and witness to the first truth of our faith – God is love! Let us pray:
Holy Mary, Mother of God,
Show us Jesus. Lead us to him.
Teach us to know him and to love Him,
So that we, too, can become
capable of true love
and be fountains of living water
in the midst of a thirsting world.
Amen.