The website can be accessed at www.armaghpriest.com

On Tuesday evening, a new website on “Priesthood in the Archdiocese of Armagh” was launched in the Synod Hall at St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh. The website which is the fruit of much work over the last few months is very creative and it contains a lot of information as well as a number of video clips from different priests and students from the diocese. Representatives from schools and parishes across the diocese attended on the evening as well as representatives from many of the different branches of St Joseph’s Young Priests Society.
Fr Peter McAnenly welcomed all present and following the welcome, there was a beautiful prayer service, the music for which was provided by Stonebridge Folk Group. The main speaker on the evening was Dr Eamon Martin, Coadjutor Archbishop of Armagh. After he formally launched the new website, a few video clips from the site were shown by Mr Damien Quigley, a student for the diocese who was largely responsible for designing the site.

In his address, Archbishop Martin said “We must never neglect the need to pray for vocations and if we want to reap an abundant harvest, we have much work to do”. He went on to say that “We need to be in partnership with God, in order to reap that harvest” and he also referred to Pope Francis’ message for Vocations Sunday this year where he said “A vocation is a fruit that ripens in a well cultivated field of mutual love that becomes mutual service”.

A member of the Diocesan Vocations Team shared a few words on the value of the priest in our world today and a member of St Joseph’s Young Priests Society spoke of the work of the society.

Fr Peter who is Director of Vocations for the diocese said:
“It’s hoped that this new site armaghpriest.com will be of great help to any man who is discerning the call to priesthood”. He added “As the number of priests in our diocese continues to decline, all of us need to be pro active in promoting the call. We need to be constantly praying that more men will respond to God’s call and give of their lives for service at this time”.

 Click here to read Address made by Archbishop Eamon at the launch

Click here to read the Irish Bishops document for Vocation Sunday.

VOCATION PRAYER

Lord, make me a better person, more considerate towards others, more honest with myself, more faithful to you. Make me generous enough to want to do your will, whatever it may be. Help me find my true vocation in life and grant that through it, I may find happiness myself and bring happiness to others. We pray through Christ our Lord, AMEN

Click here to read and download a pack of resources for Vocation resources:

Vocations Resources

Download the Vocations Sunday Poster

This year we have also been given the RTE 1 televised Mass on Vocations Sunday at 10 am.

VOCATION PRAYER

Lord, make me a better person, more considerate towards others, more honest with myself, more faithful to you. Make me generous enough to want to do your will, whatever it may be. Help me find my true vocation in life and grant that through it, I may find happiness myself and bring happiness to others. We pray through Christ our Lord, AMEN

Family Vocation Prayer

Jesus, you are the Good Shepherd who is always mindful of your Church. Watch over those who are baptised in your name, and grant peace and harmony to all families. Bless all parents, and help them to find peace and happiness through their vocation. We ask you to help all young people to discover the vocation that will enable them to live life to the full as they become their best selves in the service of God’s Kingdom, We make this prayer in your name, Amen.

Prayer for young people discerning their Vocation

God, I know you love me and are calling me to choose life. But sometimes, I am overwhelmed by the thoughts of my future. Help me to listen to your call, in all the ways you speak to me: through prayer and the scriptures, through the Church and the circumstances of my life, through those who love and care for me, and through my own hopes and desires. Guide me to search openly and learn about life’s choices, so that I may respond generously to your call, and choose the vocation and career that will enable me to love wholeheartedly, and serve others with the special gifts you have given me. God, today, I thank you for your love and for all things, Amen.

Every year we plan a number of summer pilgrimages both local in Ireland and International around Europe.

Click here to read the Summer Pilgrimages leaflet:  ADYC_2014 Pilgramages_leaflet

Our three pilgrimages this year include Taize, Lourdes and the Camino.

For more info check contact Dermot Kelly at our Youth Office:

Click here to see the Run Flyer 2014

Click here to download a Sponsorship form if you want to join Fr Gerry on the run: Run Sponsor Sheet 2014

You can donate online using the Trocaire website here: http://www.trocaire.org/sponsor-me/gerrycampbell/bann-boyne

A local priest is aiming to run more than 85 miles over four days from 6th to 9th of April to raise awareness of, and funds for, Trócaire’s Lenten campaign. Fr. Gerry Campbell says he was inspired to do something special to help people in Malawi after visiting the southern African country in January.

“I was privileged to visit Malawi ahead of the Lenten campaign, which is focusing on the global water crisis, to meet some of the communities Trócaire works with and hear first-hand the problems people are facing there,” said Fr. Gerry who is the Trócaire Diocesan representative for the Archdiocese of Armagh.

“I met some extraordinary people during my trip – people who had very little but were still full of hope and determination. I met the little girl on this year’s Trócaire Box – little Enestina who is nine years old. Until a couple of months ago at 5am in their village in Dedza, Enestina and her mum, Eliyeta, made a one kilometer round trip every morning to fetch water for their family of six. When they got to the river there was usually a long queue. Eliyeta and Enestina returned home two hours later, laden with their precious cargo on their heads, heavy buckets of dirty water.”

Fr. Gerry said, “Enestina frets when she talks about collecting water. “I don’t like carrying water. It’s very far and it’s heavy to carry. I have neck pains,” she told me. She started carrying water when she was six years old. It made her late for school. The time she spent getting water would have been better used to study. Her mother, Eliyeta, spent at least four hours a day fetching water which was dirty and diseased. She said they had no option. It was the only source of water they had.”

“In November 2013 Trócaire installed a drinking water pump in the village that is supplying half of the community’s water needs. But there are queues for the pump and it is being over-used as there are over 1,000 people in the village. The pump has helped but has not solved all of the village’s problems.”

Fr. Gerry is hoping people here at home will get behind his fundraising run. “I know the four days of running will be a challenge but I feel it is the least I can do to help support the wonderful work Trócaire does on our behalf overseas. I have seen the difference this support makes with my own eyes and it’s important that I spread the message that we can all make a difference as individuals.”

To sponsor Fr. Gerry’s efforts or to take part in the run you can email him at [email protected] or Peter McLoughlin at Trócaire at [email protected].

The UK government will match, pound for pound, public donations to the Lenten Campaign in Northern Ireland. This extra funding will support programmes in Malawi and Zimbabwe for the next three years and help improve the lives of tens of thousands more people.

Sunday 6^thApril

• Newbridge to Dungannon
  • Church of St. Trea to Moneymore MainStreet 9 miles- Stage 1
  • Moneymore to Cookstown Church of the Holy Trinity 4.5 miles- Stage 2
  • Cookstown to Dungannon Church of St. Patrick 9.8 miles- Stage 3

Monday 7 ^thApril

• Dungannon to Newtownhamilton

• Church of St.Patrick Dungannon to Armagh: St. Patrick’s Cathedral 12 miles- Stage 4
• Armagh to Newtownhamilton: St. Michael’s Church 12.4 miles- Stage 5

Tuesday 8^thApril

• Newtownhamilton to Castlebellingham
  • St Michael’s Church Newtownhamilton to Silverbridge GAA Club 7.8 miles- Stage 6
  • Silverbridge,(via St. Brigid’s Church, Kilcurry 4.6 miles) to St. Patrick’s Church, Dundalk 9 miles- Stage 7
  • Dundalk to Castlebellingham Post Office 7.7 miles- Stage 8

Wednesday 9^thApril

• Castlebellingham to Drogheda
  • Church of St. Mary Castlebellingham to St. Brigid’s Church, Dunleer 4.9 miles- Stage 9
  • Dunleer to St. Peter’s Church,Drogheda 8.8 miles- Stage 10
    

Each Day*: Prayer 8.30am Run Starts 9am Run Ends at 2pm
*Please Note: Monday 7^th April run will now start at 10am*

Pope Francis has asked that special emphasis be given to the Sacrament of Penance on the weekend of the fourth Sunday of Lent. Next weekend and a Church will remain open in Rome for 24 hours, during which time Eucharistic Adoration will take place and the Holy Father will be available for some of the time to administer the Sacrament. To coincide with this, Cardinal Brady will join with the priests of the parish in celebrating the Sacrament of Penance in StMalachy’s Church, Armagh on Saturday 29 March. Confessions will be heard from 11am – 5pm and during this time, the Blessed Sacrament will be exposed. A member of the Parish Pastoral Council will lead prayers on the hour and people are encouraged to make a special effort to visit the Church and send some time in the presence of God and celebrate the special Sacrament and experience God’s healing and grace. Evening Prayer will be celebrated in the Church at 5pm. The sacrament will also be celebrated as usual in St Patrick’s Cathedral on that evening from 6.30pm – 7pm.

Please find a thank you and information on the recently held questionnaire on the Family Synod. Family Synod – Thank you

Armagh Archdiocese Questionnaire

On Family Synod

Thank You

We would like to thank all of those who contributed to the questionnaire and the group meetings on The Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelisation. The exercise provided very rich material which informed the final document that was sent from the Irish Episcopal Conference to the Vatican in preparation for the forthcoming Synod on the Family. (See Appended Statement from IEC at end of document)

Methodology

_¥ The Office of Pastoral Renewal and Family Ministry was asked to organise the distribution, the collection, the collation, the overview of the feedback and to compile a plenary report to Cardinal Sean Brady before Christmas 2013.

_¥ In speaking to a number of priests and lay people who had the opportunity to look at the preparatory document that emerged from the Vatican there was a view that the language and some of the technical terms were more than a little problematic for the ordinary parishioner.

_¥ In order to simplify the process but with a view to remaining faithful to the intent of the questions a small group (Dympna Mallon, Fr Gerry Campbell and Dr. Tony Hanna) created an alternative document which we hoped would prove more accessible for the average parishioner.

_¥ Almost 100% of the responses came from the simplified questionnaire, although both options were made available to people.

_¥ We received responses from approximately three hundred people from across the Archdiocese, most of them individual respondents but we also had a significant number of group responses, typically from Parish gatherings, Parish Pastoral Councils or couples who chose to engage collegially with the questionnaire

_¥ Aware of the human tendency to see things from the perspective of our own paradigm,we created a team of four readers (male & female, cleric and lay) who examined the material and individually summarised the salient points that were emerging.

_¥ We then pooled our findings and agreed the key, recurring responses to each question.In this way we hoped to have a balanced perspective of the relevant data.

_¥ Where statistics were invited by the question we took the mean of the responses.

Welcome and Critique

_¥ The opportunity for the faithful to engage in this process was widely welcomed. Many of the respondents expressed their delight at being consulted.As one older woman put it, ”This is the first time I have been asked for my views and it is really important that we let Rome know what we think about these issues.”

_¥ The quality and impressive detail in many of the responses bore eloquent witness to the desire of the faithful to be involved in this discernment

_¥ Other voices criticised the language of the official document and many were of the view that the use of the terminology involved in the questions showed just “how much the Vatican is out of touch with ordinary Catholics.”

_¥ “This questionnaire is very poorly though out. The questions are not easily answerable by members of the laity. Getting reliable statistics from the answers will not be possible. Sorry to be so negative about such a great idea. But if the Church is serious it must do it better.”

_¥ Many respondents felt that the time frame for completion was very short and the promotion and distribution of the material was haphazard and in some cases it appeared not to be supported by the local clergy who did not promote it nor make it readily available.

Profile of Respondents

Approximately 300 people responded to the invitation to complete the survey. The breakdown of returns was as follows:

_¥ 102 individual responses

_¥ 8 Parish Pastoral Councils’ Responses

_¥ Reports from four open group meetings

_¥ 12 couples made joint returns

Statement of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference regarding the questionnaire from the Synod on the Family

13. MAR, 2014

Bishops thanked the thousands of people who responded to the questionnaire on the theme “Pastoral Challenges to the Family in the Context of Evangelization”. These responses from the dioceses of Ireland are already helping to inform the preparations for next October’s Extraordinary Meeting of the Synod of Bishops. The responses also provide us with a framework for considering important pastoral issues regarding marriage and the family.

Support for marriage and family life is central to what the Church teaches and lives. Marriage is a sacrament, a sign of God’s love, which mirrors the love of Christ for His Church. The gift from God of the family, based on the love of wife and husband and open to life, is a gift that the Church seeks to protect and cherish. As the original cell of society, the family is essential for the formation of members of society. It is a place where generosity, tenderness, forgiveness, stability, care, acceptance, and truth can be best taught and learned. Parents are also “the first and best teachers of their children in faith”. The parish community has an important role in assisting parents in bringing their children to Jesus Christ and leading them in the ways of faith.

The responses to the Synod questionnaire identify the immense challenges faced by families in Ireland, including problems arising from severe financial hardship, unemployment and emigration, domestic violence, neglect and other forms of abuse, infidelity and constant pressures on ‘family time’ together. Some respondents expressed particular concern about the limited amount of State support for marriage and the family. These challenges form the context in which the Church in this country continues to proclaim to the world the ‘Gospel (Good News) of the family’.

We wish to encourage and accompany with love those who are struggling to live family life. Many of those who responded to the questionnaire expressed particular difficulties with the teachings on extra-marital sex and cohabitation by unmarried couples, divorce and remarriage, family planning, assisted human reproduction, homosexuality. The Church’s teaching in these sensitive areas is often not experienced as realistic, compassionate, or life-enhancing. Some see it as disconnected from real-life experience, leaving them feeling guilty and excluded. We recognise our responsibility as bishops to present faithfully the Church’s teaching on marriage and the family in a positive and engaging way, whilst showing compassion and mercy towards those who are finding difficulty in accepting or living it.

Bishops encourage all the faithful to engage in continued dialogue and discussions in these critical areas particularly over the coming two years. This will be facilitated by the Bishops’ Council for Marriage and the Family which will host a special conference on the family and marriage on 14 June next. The Extraordinary Synod in the Vatican in October will be followed by an Ordinary Assembly of the Synod in 2015, also be themed on the ‘Family’. In addition, the World Meeting of Families will take place in Philadelphia in September 2015.

Irish bishops ask people, priests and religious to pray for families and for the success of these gatherings in line with Pope Francis’ recent request in his Letter to Families on 25 February.

 
The Archdiocese of Armagh is sad to announce the sudden death on 17 March 2014 of Fr Eamon Treanor, Parish Priest of Kilsaran, at his residence.

Following are the funeral arrangements:

Reposing at the Parochial House, Kilsaran from 1.00 pm on Thursday, 20 March;

Removal on Thursday evening to St Mary’s Church Kilsaran, arriving at 7.00 pm for Mass;

Requiem Mass on Friday, 21 March at 12.00 noon, followed by burial in the adjoining Cemetery.

Our sympathies are with his sisters, Mary and Ita, brother Aidan, brother-in-law Joe, sister-in-law, Maureen, nieces and nephews and family circle and brother priests. May he rest in peace.

Biography

Born 12 January 1956, Dundalk

Studied
De La Salle School, Dundalk
St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

Ordained 3 June 1979 in St Patrick’s Church, Dundalk

Appointments