Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ

What do Bruce Springsteen and Nick Cave have in common, or directors John Huston and Quentin Tarantino, or writers such as Raymond Carver and Elizabeth Bishop? Nothing, perhaps – except Flannery O’Connor (1925-1964), who was read, loved, represented or imitated by all of them.

Flannery O’Connor considered her country to be the ‘dear old dirty south’ between the foothills of Georgia and east Tennessee. She was a daughter of the land from which the Southerners hailed, writers such as Erskine Caldwell, Carson McCullers, Truman Capote, Tennessee Williams, William Faulkner. Her volume of work was not massive, but it was enough to earn her the status of a worshipped writer.

She died at the age of 39, leaving only two novels –Wise Blood (1952) and The Violent Bear it Away (1960) – and a handful of short stories published in two stages (1955 and 1965). However, her few writings have since been cherished as iconic, a ‘sacred monster’, a paradigm. The Italian writer, Attilio Bertolucci once said that the essays in O’Connor’s Mystery and Manners collection ‘electrified’ from its pages. This shock factor has at least three dimensions.

Expression

The first: O’Connor writes the way she sees the world. Though the expression may seem trivial, it’s true. She has a vision of reality; there are no mazes of conscience or romantic memoirs.

The materials which make up her stories are ‘dusty’: according to her, “fiction is about everything human and we are made out of dust, and if you scorn getting yourself dusty, then you shouldn’t try to write fiction”. From this stems a valuable warning: you cannot arouse emotion in the reader through texts riddled with uncontrollable feelings or thoughts, not even by venting those thoughts from every angle of the story. Writing isn’t a matter of saying things, but showing them to the reader.

If a character is wooden, they should have a wooden leg. If their personality changes, then you must get a thief to steal the leg!

This is one of the strong bases of O’Connor’s poetics. Characters and events have elements that can be perceived, they are embodied and material. The phrase “the world of the fiction writer is full of matter” is believed to refer to the tumultuous emotions or ideas required to make a great story. Not at all. Abstract concepts do not make stories. It is the matter and concreteness of life that gives reality to the mystery of our being in the world.

The second reason for the electrifying nature of O’Connor’s work is precisely this mystery. O’Connor is the epitome of mystery. Her vision of reality is never icy and minimalist.

Her perspective, rather, focuses particularly on the “mystery of our position on Earth”. O’Connor’s realism is always oriented in the direction of mystery, which is manifested, for example, in the form of the unexpected, or even the grotesque “if the writer believes that our life is and will remain mysterious, if he looks upon us as beings existing in a created order to whose laws we freely respond, then what he sees on the surface will be of interest to him only as he can go through it into an experience of mystery itself”.

And that can happen with just about anything. Even gratuitous violence, the bizarre and the grotesque, a mixture of comedy and horror, can serve to stretch one’s vision.

When this happens, it is as if the author slaps the reader, messing with his perception by moving the face, angling it sideways. What is knocked out is that ‘common sense’, which is vaguely secular, rational and enlightened, that corrupts true inspiration. Only from this inner shaking, not from mellifluous new age sensations, can one derive the deep peace and inner serenity that lends to a writer their good humour – even when they’re hit by a tumour from lupus erythematosus that would lead a young woman to death, as it did for O’Connor.

The third reason is that the topic of O’Connor’s fiction is “the action of grace in territory held largely by the devil”. This is the domain of the drama of good and evil, salvation and damnation, of grace and of the devil: “In my stories,” O’Connor writes paradoxically, “a reader will find that the devil accomplishes a good deal of ground work that seems to be necessary before grace is effected”.

The sense of evil is the guarantee of our sense of mystery, and thus the devil becomes, in some way, “a dramatic necessity of the writer”.

O’Connor affirms repeatedly that she is a Catholic writer. She was fond of St Thomas Aquinas (“I am a hillbilly Thomist”), the French Jesuit theologian Teilhard de Chardin (whom she considered to be the greatest novelist), the philosopher Jacques Maritain, and mystics such as Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross.

Without the ‘vision’ (that of Dante, for example; she was not a visionary, which is quite another thing) that is given by faith, O’Connor’s writing would be nothing but ink on a page. And in this respect, the dogma of faith plays a fundamental role: she believed that dogma safeguards mystery for the benefit of the human mind, and so she can say, “I write with a solid belief in all the Christian dogmas”. The first of these is that of the incarnation: God became human flesh, dust. From here, one cannot help but see differently a world that she has described as ‘Christ-haunted’. The roots of this beguiling expression are found in O’Connor’s sensitivity to the most dramatic and paradoxical incisiveness of Grace, which can cause coarsening of the character: “writers who see by the light of their Christian faith will have, in these times, the sharpest eyes for the grotesque, for the perverse and for the unacceptable”.

“Mystery is a great embarrassment to the modern mind”, writes O’Connor, and so her writing causes terrible embarrassment, but it is irresistible. It has inspired the violence of Tarantino’s Pulp Fiction and the intense acoustic simplicity of a record like Springsteen’s Nebraska, all shaped by her vision of the Badlands.

It has inspired the novel And the Ass Saw the Angel by Nick Cave, and the atmosphere of the Bible Belt that comes through in many of his songs; but it has also inspired intense theological reflection about the sacramental vision of reality.

In a preface to the 2003 Italian translation of Mystery and Manners, Christian Raimo gives a sense of O’Connor’s breadth of vision when he lists the questions that her writing addresses: “Why do you write? How do you become a writer? What is a vocation? How is one freed from its self-centeredness? What is art? What is the relationship between art and money? What does it mean to be pure? How can you be true to yourself and appeal to your readership? How can you take care of talent? What is a story? What is its significance? How do you give life to characters? How do you talk to them? How do you build a symbolic key?

And still there is the central, inescapable question: if the Bible ‘is nothing but a dimly-lit mirror’ (I Cor. 13:12), how can you try to embody the mystery of God with literature?”

Fr Antonio Spadaro SJ is Editor of La Civiltà Cattolica.

When flight EI 4102 arrived at Ireland West Airport Knock on Sunday August 9, carrying Knock Shrine’s first diocesan pilgrimage tour from the US, it marked the realisation of Msgr James Horan’s dream for the airport.  

“That’s why it was built,” says the shrine’s rector, Fr Richard Gibbons. “As I said when it was announced, ‘He’ll be smiling down on us’.”

Maria Hunt, head of marketing and communications at the shrine, agrees that this kind of international pilgrimage group is exactly “what the airport was intended for”.

“Think back to when the airport was built,” she says. “Msgr Horan’s main motivation wasn’t daily flights to London. His vision was to get pilgrimages into Knock. It’s finally happening from New York. This is realising his vision.“

The idea for the pilgrimage should be understood in the context of the shrine’s Witness to Hope initiative which entails among things a greater promotion of the shrine. “The international element of that comes in then,” she says, “and the hope is to bring in pilgrimages from all over the world.”

Invitation

The pilgrimage is being led by the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, who Fr Gibbons says “comes to Knock every time he comes over, even when he’s on holidays”, and who in 2013 had Fr Gibbons preach in New York’s St Patrick’s Cathedral on St Patrick’s Day.

“He was over here for the Eucharistic Congress in 2012 and we entertained him here in Knock,” he says. “Just in the course of the lunch he invited me to preach for Saint Patrick’s Day which took me completely by surprise!

“It was a great honour,” he continues. “He told me I’d got 10 minutes to preach and no longer, because we’d to go out and see the parade, so that was perfect. 

“You would be nervous for that because the Governor of New York was there and the mayor – the cardinal wasn’t there because he was in Rome electing the Pope!”

In the aftermath of the visit, Fr Gibbons explains, “we kept up relations and the connection and I simply posited the idea wouldn’t it be great to bring the archdiocese over on a pilgrimage, and he said it would be and that’s where this came out of.”

It’s clear that the cardinal is deeply invested in this pilgrimage: not merely is he leading it, but he played a crucial role in its planning, according to New York-based tour operator Peter Bahou, CEO and President of Peter’s Way Tours, a company that’s been running since 1985, the same year the first flights took off from Knock airport, and which specialises in pilgrimages and tours for choral groups.

“Usually I dream up all of the programmes and itinerary, but the cardinal had a lot to say on the programme,” he says, describing how he was instrumental in mapping out the details of the pilgrimage which will be conducted on the ground by Dublin-based Abbey Tours.

The itinerary certainly can’t be faulted for a lack of ambition. Leaving New York on Saturday, August 8, the group was greeted with a reception at Knock airport on Sunday, August 9, after which they headed directly to Knock Shrine where they attended Mass – televised by RTÉ – celebrated by Fr Gibbons in the basilica.

This was followed by a gala dinner.

The following day saw the group leaving their Westport hotel at six in the morning for Lough Derg, where the cardinal planned to celebrate Mass, taking in some Sligo sights on the way back to their hotel. 

The next day they visited the Burren and the Cliffs of Moher as they made their way to Killarney, where on Wednesday they toured the lakes and some highlights of the Ring of Kerry before the cardinal celebrated Mass in St Mary’s Cathedral.

Today – Thursday – the group plan to visit the Gallarus Oratory on the Dingle Peninsula and hope to celebrate Mass at Poll an Aifrinn, the hollow that’s home to the Mass rock where Cromwellian troops arrested the Dominican martyr Fr Tadhg Moriarty in 1653. 

Mass

Friday will see the group visiting Galway City and Connemara on the way back to Knock, where Cardinal Dolan will celebrate the opening Mass of this year’s Knock novena.

Saturday, August 15, will of course be the feast of the Assumption, so after a trip to Croagh Patrick Visitor Centre and Ballintubber Abbey, the group’s last night in Ireland will see them attending Mass in the basilica at Knock, joining afterwards in the novena prayers and the candlelit procession to the Apparition Chapel.

For the first pilgrimage group to come to Knock from New York in so ambitious a way, Maria Hunt says, is a “huge, huge thing”. 

Explaining that 70% of the pilgrims to the shrine come from within Ireland, with the bulk of the remaining 30% from the UK and mainland Europe, she says “the dream would be to make it a more ongoing and regular thing, not just for New York – but other groups could do it too.

“This is kind of a trial run, or test,” she says. “It’s a new thing for us – it’s never really been done before, so we’ll try to assess how it goes, to find out what does and what doesn’t work.”

It’s significant that the group is led by Cardinal Dolan, she says, describing him as “a huge draw for people”, with focal figures being vitally important when helping groups to gel. 

It will help too, she says, that the tour will give ordinary New York Catholics “an opportunity to spend time with their diocesan leader”.

Not that everyone on the tour is a New Yorker, though, stresses Mr Bahou, who says that “close to 50% of the pilgrims are from outside New York state, coming from all across America.”.

“The cardinal is very popular outside New York as well,” he continues, highlighting how Cardinal Dolan has been promoting the tour on radio shows, talking about the pilgrimage and Knock in general.

Welcome

The result, he says, is that the pilgrimage is drawing pilgrims from all across the US, whether from New England dioceses like Hartford and Boston, Midwestern ones like the archdioceses of Chicago and the cardinal’s old stomping ground of Milwaukee, and even from states as far south as Florida and Louisiana and as far west as California and Nevada.  

Couples make up the overwhelming majority of the group’s pilgrims according to Ms Hunt, but Mr Bahou says there are quite a few single people coming too, and even some families, with a real mix of young and old people. Many, he says, are of Irish background, and Ms Hunt says that for those with strong Irish connections the pilgrimage offers “a chance to come back and reconnect with their heritage”.

No doubt Msgr Horan will be smiling down the whole time.

It was about seven on the evening of August 21, 1879, while it was still bright, that Mary McLoughlin, housekeeper to the parish priest of Knock, was on her way to visit the Byrne family who lived near the village church. Some distance away from the church she spotted an “extraordinary group” of figures by its gable end. Thinking that perhaps the parish priest, Archdeacon Bartholomew Cavanagh, “had been supplied with these beautiful figures from Dublin or somewhere else”, she hurried on.

About half an hour later Margaret Byrne, while locking up the church, noticed a light off the south gable, but thinking nothing of it went home without looking to find out its source, only to be called back shortly after eight o’clock.

Mary McLoughlin had left the Byrne house with Margaret’s older sister Mary, who spotted the figures when some way off the church, and recognised them as Mary, St Joseph, and – she thought – St John the Evangelist, all standing by an altar upon which stood a lamb. The sun had set and the sky begun to darken, with heavy rain, as Mary Byrne went to call her family while Mary McLoughlin stayed watching.

Word spread, and in all 15 people witnessed the apparition that evening, with it ending about half past nine. 

Phenomenon

Local, national and even international newspapers immediately took an interest in the phenomenon, and people began to flock to the site, with which miraculous cures were quickly linked. That October, the Archbishop of Tuam, Dr John MacHale, launched a commission of inquiry, which received depositions from the 15 witnesses and found that taken as a whole, the testimonies of the witnesses was trustworthy. 

Although some 5,000 people visited Knock on the fourth anniversary of the vision, interest faded away, and it was not until after 1929, with the apparition’s 50th anniversary, that devotion at the shrine began to grow. Judy Coyne, subsequently Ireland’s first papal dame, founded the Knock Shrine Society with her husband Liam in 1935, the same year that a diocesan commission reviewed the evidence favourably. In the summer of 1939, about 120,000 pilgrims visited the shrine.

In 1960, Prof. Lorenzo Ferri in Rome sculpted the statues that stand now in the shrine’s Apparition Chapel, built off the gable wall where the apparition was witnessed, basing them on the witnesses’ depositions and modelling the face of the Virgin Mary on the image, thought to be of Jesus, preserved on the Shroud of Turin.

Few names are more closely linked with the shrine than that of Msgr James Horan, parish priest of Knock between 1967 and 1986 and a man indelibly associated with the building of Knock airport. It was under his stewardship that the first national novena took place at the shrine in 1977, the year after the official opening of the new Church of Our Lady, Queen of Ireland, built to accommodate as many as 10,000 pilgrims.

Two years later, a month after the centenary of the apparition, St John Paul II visited the shrine where he knelt in silent prayer at the gable wall of the Apparition Chapel, raised the new church to the status of a basilica, and gave the shrine a golden rose reminiscent of the rose one of the witnesses had described Our Lady as wearing in the apparition. He described his visit to Knock as “the goal of my journey to Ireland”.

Since the papal visit, Knock’s fame has continued to grow, with 1.5 million pilgrims visiting the shrine every year. Last year 150,000 people attended the national novena alone. The shrine’s future looks bright.

Fr Richard Gibbons might be the driving force behind the dramatic changes taking place at Knock Shrine, but he’s quick to stress that even before he became parish priest in 2012 there was talk that things would have to change. 

“The shrine just kind of basically ploughed along as it was doing for a good few years,” he says, explaining that towards the end of his nine years there as curate he and then parish priest Msgr Joseph Quinn took to discussing the future of the shrine.

Following Msgr Quinn’s sudden death from a heart attack at the age of 65, Fr Richard was given the job as parish priest and rector. “We decided to look at the whole place, because we needed to restructure. The financial crisis had caused us problems – we were financially a basket case, with no money and running at a loss. So, we just restructured the whole place from top to bottom, set up committees, got expertise and all that.

“This brought us to look at the whole situation of Knock – what we’re doing, what we’re offering, and where we need to be in terms of the renewal of the Church in the country,” he says.

The first step in this was a wide information-gathering exercise. “We decided then to interview everybody that came here and consult and all the rest of it – every pilgrim, every bishop, priest, religious, parishioner, visitor, everybody! We conducted roughly a year and a half of consultation with everybody,” he says, asking what they thought Knock was and wasn’t doing well, what it could improve on, what more it could do for pilgrims, and in general what it should be doing.

Professional

Such a professional approach is the sort that sometimes raises eyebrows in the Church, with people muttering darkly of “managerialism”, but Fr Richard says the survey was deliberately conducted in terms of “we know where we are, but we know things need to happen”.

Further professional help was brought in to establish what needed to be done in terms of financial rectitude and other practical matters. “While it is a shrine,” he says, “and we need to focus on the religious aspect, there is a business to it as well.”

The surveys enabled Fr Gibbons and his team at the shrine to see what the people were saying. Their answers consistently made the same three points, he says.

Firstly, he says, “they said ‘give us more’”. People travel a long way to Knock, and want to do as much as they can there, he explains, so it’s worth giving them things so they’ll spend even longer there when they get here. Beyond the devotional aspect to the shrine, people regularly mentioned workshops and seminars, he says, as the sort of thing they would be interested in.

Secondly, he says, respondents regularly urged the shrine to promote itself. “We don’t see you anywhere,” he says they would say. “’Where are you? You’re not in the papers, you’re very quiet. And what are you doing in terms of promoting international pilgrimages?

“And thirdly,” he continues, “they said, ‘for God’s sake, do something with the basilica’.”

Armed with these three objectives, the shrine started the Witness to Hope programme with the bones of a plan. “We brought together a committee to formulate what we were going to do, and then of course we had to finance this, so we put the plan together and we costed it and then I brought in professional fundraisers – CCS – to help me in terms of this.”

The American fundraisers CCS – Community Counselling Service – have been subject to criticism in some Dublin parishes, but Fr Richard clearly has complete confidence in them.  

“They’re excellent at their job,” he says. “They’re a very professional outfit. They get a bit of bad press but they’re very, very good. They keep you on the ball. They know what they’re doing. And it’s not that they’re any way nefarious or anything like that.

“It’s a different way of looking at things, you see. It’s an American way of looking at things, and it’s no harm,” he continues, given the need to change how the Irish Church conducts itself in an age of fewer clerical and religious vocations and a more active laity who will need to be paid properly for quality work.

“In terms of the restructuring of the shrine, I’ve set out departments, and put in department heads with each of them in charge of their own departments,” he says, adding that “everybody’s paid here, but we to develop a sense then of volunteerism”.

The project is galvanising that sense, he says. “We had last year, for the first time, 15 local volunteers on the shrine, just to help out, which we didn’t have before, and this year we have 70,” he says, continuing, “and on top of that 105 of the young volunteers – the VAKS, they’re called.”

The volunteers are a complete novelty at the shrine, and can sometimes confuse Irish pilgrims. “They’re not used to that, they think that they’re collecting initially, but the Americans get it when they come,” he says. “They’re delighted with this – they think it’s a welcome committee – which brings up our profile.”

There’s a real sense of urgency and efficiency in how things are changing at Knock, Fr Richard makes clear, describing how “when we’re fundraising, it’s not that we’re asking people to do something down the road – ‘Wouldn’t this be nice to do, so please give me your money now.’ We’re saying ‘we’re doing it, and it is being done’.”

The shrine started its faith renewal programmes last year with the novena, he explains. “During the novena we just had the two Masses, one at three and one at half past eight, and people came for those, and we had the processions and all the rest of it, so we incorporated workshops and seminars. They were very, very well-attended – they were a complete success and showed us that this is the way we should go.”

This year, he says, there will be a programme of events in the autumn which will be rolled out to parishes around the country as well to show what’s happening at Knock. “We already have carried out a week here in terms of focus on family – workshops and seminars, liturgies and blessing of babies,” he continues, adding that “we have a series of workshops as well for the novena and seminars”.

Refurbishment of the basilica, which he describes as “completely transformed”, is 80% complete, and is already “warmer, more friendly, more inviting” and with a “greater sense of prayerfulness”, he says.

“After nine years as curate, I knew what we needed – just the starkness of the concrete needed to go, it needed upgrading on all fronts – the wiring hadn’t been touched, the heating had been there for ages and was costing a fortune and was ineffective in terms of the blower system, it needed to be ready for broadcasting, new seating, new sanctuary area, everything. 

“We lowered the sanctuary and took away the wall surrounding it. It’s covered in white marble for optical reasons to focus people on the centre of the basilica itself, because behind the altar and the sanctuary we’ll put a very large mosaic of the apparition itself.” 

The mosaic, he says, will be a unique piece, currently being created in the Italian town of Spilimbergo by a renowned family of mosaists who work on the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem and in the US National Shrine in Washington DC, which is where Fr Richard came across them, after which he contacted them and sent them a representation of the apparition, crucially incorporating the witnesses.

“It won’t go in until next February,” he says, adding that 2016 is the basilica’s fortieth anniversary.

As for the third aspect of the plan, the promotion of the shrine at home and abroad, the arrival on August 9 of the first diocesan pilgrimage from New York could hardly be a more flamboyant statement of intent. “We’re very happy that it’s Aer Lingus, our very own national carrier, that brings it in,” he says, adding that he hopes this pilgrimage will prove the first of many.

Potential

“There’s so much potential for other dioceses,” he says. “That’s the project. We know what we’re doing, we know how to do it, and of course it’s to get the wherewithal to be able to do it. We’re very clear in terms of what we need to do.”

“So it’s all systems go on each of the three and we feel that there’s a great buzz about the place,” he continues, “and there’s a great sense that we’re doing something but we can do more. It gives the impetus then that if we’re successful we can do far more with Knock and have this as a resource for the Church in the country.”

Not, of course, that the shrine hasn’t already been a great resource for Ireland and the Irish Church. “It’s been an oasis of peace and prayer and tranquillity, a place where people can just simply come and not be afraid and see that they’re not alone in the practice of their faith,” he says. 

“We have roughly 1.6 million people coming here every year, so that’s its role: its role is to be a place of peacefulness, prayer, tranquillity and reconnection with God. That’s what it has been, and that’s what it will continue to be, however maybe at a different level.

“There’s no reason why Knock can’t be as important as Lourdes or Fatima in terms of faith renewal, and we want to be at the heart of that as well,” he continues, stressing that “Knock is the national Marian shrine. It is there for the country. It’s not just there for Mayo or the West of Ireland – it’s there for the entire country,”

Underlining the role of the shrine in the national Church, Fr Richard points to how the national Eucharistic congress, an initiative of the hierarchy, is to take place in Knock at the end of September.

“We have the space in which to host it, and there is a direct connection here with the Eucharist in terms of the apparition because at the centre of that is the altar with the lamb and the cross, so it’s as much a Eucharistic shrine as it is a Marian shrine,” he says. “At the heart and core is the Eucharist – even Our Lady herself is over to the side, but at the centre of it is the Eucharist and that’s hugely important and another aspect that we want to emphasise.

“I think it’s one of the only shrines in the world that has a unique connection with the Eucharist like that,” he observes.

It’s also, he adds, a place beloved of the Irish diaspora. “Take for example – which was a surprise to me when I started travelling around – I went to a community in New York down on Long Island, and the Ancient Order of Hibernians section there is dedicated to Our Lady of Knock. It’s very prominent – they have the statue and everything, and it means an awful lot to them,” he says, adding that Our Lady of Knock is an almost ubiquitous hymn at Irish funerals abroad. 

In terms of the shrine’s future, Fr Richard talks proudly of the work done on youth ministry, which he says has been “completely reinvigorated” to become “a safe and friendly catechetical environment” where visiting parents can leave their children to be taught in an enjoyable way about their faith, while they engage in their devotions at the shrine. 

This, he thinks, is a stark contrast to how “you could go back over our own time coming here and you were dragged around stations and this and that and the other, and you didn’t a) know about them and b) you didn’t really want to do them”.

Essential

Such work is essential for the future of Knock and the wider Church, he thinks. “That’s where this in terms of the renewal is so vitally important and that we give not only a catechetical but also an intellectual basis for what Knock is,” he says, pointing out the need for this when dealing with people who don’t believe or are confused by Catholicism, and who no longer live in and rely on a Catholic culture.

Describing how the shrine will be arranging days of recollection for pastoral councils, he also says he hopes the shrine can offer something to those whose links with the Church are not what they might once have been.

“We’re trying to reach out, now only to those who come here all the time, but to those who would have a tenuous connection with Knock or their faith,” he says. “Usually they’d have in their mind something from their childhood to do with rock candy, that sort of thing. 

“I think one of the ways that we can do that is with the novena itself,” he says, adding that at the shrine they call it the national novena because people come from all over the country to it. If an effort is made to choose topics for the novena that speak to people’s lives and interests, and to promote them accordingly, people might be tempted to visit. 

“And if they come for one,” he says, “it doesn’t mean that they’re forced to go to Mass or doing anything else, but you just let the grace of God work. Once they’re here, you don’t know what happens. I’ve seen that time and time again.

“If you offer people something that they can come to, that might be of interest, then you can let the grace of God work,” he says, “and it does work, and you have to trust in that.”

Gráinne Treanor

A former lecturer in moral theology at Mater Dei Institute of Education in Dublin, where she earned her PhD in 2003, and in medical ethics at Trinity College, Dublin, Dr Treanor was a secondary school teacher for six years before entering the higher education sector.

In conjunction with Cardinal Dolan’s homilies on ‘Faith & Family’, Dr Treanor will be leading workshops on ‘Faith at the Kitchen Table’.

Rise of the Roses

Formally launched by Archbishop Eamon Martin at a St Brigid’s Day Mass for consecrated life in St Patrick’s Cathedral, Armagh, Rise of the Roses has its roots in the 2012 Eucharistic Congress and in Tyrone’s Michaela Foundation.

Dedicated to encouraging young women to say ‘yes’ to God’s call, whatever it may be, the movement is about “young people ministering to young people, from the bottom up”, according to Lisa O’Hare, one of its founders.

Since June 13, Rise of the Roses has been touring Ireland, visiting a different women’s religious community each Saturday, and Saturday August 15 will see them rounding off their national tour with a visit to Knock Shrine.

As Eamon Martin speaks that day on the Biblical mandate ‘You are a Consecrated Nation, a People Set Apart’, so the Roses will be bringing their experiences and observations of the summer to the table in addressing the question ‘Consecrated Life – Does it Matter?’

Harry Casey

With Bishop Kevin Doran preaching on Sunday afternoon on the theme ‘Always and Everywhere Giving Thanks – The Gift of Family’, and with Accord national chaplain Fr Peter Murphy speaking on Sunday evening on ‘Marriage and Family: A Mission of Faith and Love’, Harry Casey is an obvious choice to lead that day’s workshops.

Executive Administrator of Commissions and Agencies at Accord, the Church’s national marriage preparation and counselling service, where he started work in January 2012, Meath-based Mr Casey is married with four children. Educated in Maynooth and Rome, prior to working with the Bishops’ Conference, Mr Casey taught Religion, English and History at St Patrick’s Classical School, Navan, Co Meath.

He will be chairing workshops on ‘Nurturing Hope and Harmony – Caring for Marriage in the Family’.

Fiona McCarthy

The Masses in which Pieta House founder Joan Freeman will talk on ‘The Pieta Way – The Act of Caring in Families’ will be preceded by workshops run by the Knock Counselling Centre’s Fiona McCarthy on ‘Family Life: Living with Compassion’.

The Knock Counselling Centre was established in 1988, and provides high quality, low cost counselling services for individuals and couples, as well as providing after-school guidance counselling and support for young people aged 12 – 18. The centre also provides a drop-in service where pilgrims or others can come in on a once-off basis to talk confidentially about personal difficulties.

Monica Morley

Knock itself is central to the homilies of Friday, August 21, with Fr Richard Gibbons preaching on ‘Knock – a Sign of Hope’ and Archbishop Michael Neary’s homily being entitled ‘Knock Shrine Society – a Witness to Service’, so it’s fitting that the shrine’s family centre director Monica Morley will be leading that day’s workshops on ‘Knock – a Place that Welcomes Families’.

For many years Ms Morley has co-hosted the popular ‘Faith Alive’ show on MidWest Radio, first with Fr Colm Kilcoyne and now with Fr Brendan Hoban. More recently, Ms Morley has taken on the role of Volunteers Co-ordinator at Knock Shrine, where she organises various Faith and Family related workshops and talk aimed to supporting family life.

Workshop Schedule:

Friday, August 14 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at St John’s Rest & Care Centre

Gráinne Treanor, Knock parishioner and former lecturer in Moral Theology 

‘Faith at the Kitchen Table’.

Saturday, August 15 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at the Prayer Guidance Centre

Rise of the Roses, vocations promotion group

‘Consecrated Life – Does it Matter?’.

Sunday, August 16 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at the Prayer Guidance Centre

Harry Casey, Executive Admin. of Communion and Agencies, Accord.

‘Nurturing Harmony and Hope – Caring for Marriage in the Family’.

Monday, August 17 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at St John’s Rest & Care Centre

Peter Sutherland, UN Special Rep. for International Migration

‘Our Responsibility towards the Human Family’.

Tuesday, August 18 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at St John’s Rest & Care Centre

Kate Liffey, National Director of Catechics

‘Passing on the Faith in Family – What’s the Plan?’.

Wednesday, August 19 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at the Prayer Guidance Centre

Fiona McCarthy, Knock Counselling Centre

‘Family Life: Living with Compassion’.

Thursday, August 20 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at St John’s Rest & Care Centre

John F. Deane, award-winning Mayo poet.

‘Realising Mary – Faith and Family’.

Friday, August 21 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at St John’s Rest & Care Centre

Monica Morley, Director of Family Centre, Knock

‘Knock – a Place that Welcomes Families’.

Saturday, August 22 – 12.00 noon and 6.00 pm

at St John’s Rest & Care Centre

Dan O’Connell, lecturer , University of Limerick

‘Grow in Love – the New Religious Education Programme for Primary Schools’.

A weekend visitor to Knock Shrine this summer will not fail to notice a number of teenagers around the shrine grounds wearing luminous t-shirts and hoodies offering their assistance to any pilgrim who looks in need of help.

These young ‘Volunteers at Knock Shrine’ or VAKS are participating in a new programme developed by Knock Youth Ministry this year, which combines a faith experience with voluntary work.

“The young people are not coming here to do the shrine a service really, they are here as part of a faith programme,” explains Helen Toner, Co-ordinator at Knock Youth Ministry. “The idea was born from Fr Mike Murphy, a diocesan priest that brings young people to Lourdes. He said some of them said in passing it is a pity that Knock couldn’t be like this. So he came to us and we sat down and talked it over and came up with this programme. A couple of us went out to the schools promoting it and we got 160 applications forms. We nearly fell off our chairs!”

Programme

VAKS is open to young people between the ages of 16-18 and is currently open to teens in the Archdiocese of Tuam, although with the success of the programme so far the organisers are hoping to open it out on a national level.

“We now have a core group of 70 young people who signed up for weeks throughout the summer and we are so happy with the result,” Helen says. “Every single one of them is so nice. Their hearts are so open. If you ask them why did you want to do this programme, they say ‘I just want to help’. That seems to be the reoccurring theme. I want to give something back. Which is just so touching.”

The VAKS programme offers a training period over three Sundays which varies from manual handling and communication skills to prayer and liturgy. The young people are then allocated a weekend and they stay at the shrine from the Thursday night to Sunday evening.

“When they get here on the Thursday night, it is very much about getting to know each other. There could be one person on their own or a gang of three or four friends. They are going to be spending a lot of time together over the weekend and in a sense they are living in community for those three days,” Helen says.

“Friday, Saturday and Sunday morning they start with a prayer and then go out in the grounds and they are basically giving service. Even though they will point people to the bathrooms or tell them where the basilica is, it is more about their presence on the grounds and meeting the pilgrims, talking to them, listening to their stories. Why people come to Knock Shrine.

“Last week, one of the volunteers was shocked because an American couple said it was on their bucket list to come here. They were just blown away by this! They are so many different things that can happen out on the grounds that would touch you or stay with you.

“It’s about them trying to soak that up and realise what a place of peace this is and what a pilgrimage means to so many thousands of people that are coming here.”

Chloe Durban (16) from Balla says she loves to talk to people at Knock, especially pilgrims from different countries. “Loads of people come up to us congratulating us as if we have done something amazing. They say well done, you’re great girls. It’s mostly the elderly people. They like the fact that we are interested in the Church and the future of the Church.

“I didn’t actually realise so many people from Ireland come here. I met a woman yesterday from Wexford, who came down especially for the anointing of the sick. It’s also interesting to see how in to the Mass some pilgrims are. It’s also interesting to see the different ways people behave at Mass, like kneeling to receive Communion – I never saw that before.”

Ellen Steering (16) from Claremorris says everyone she meets seems “so happy and pleased to be there”. “I met one elderly man walking with a cane and I thought he might need some help so I approached him. One of his friends said this man has done incredible things. He said he went bungee jumping two years ago and he has been to the Antarctic. When I asked him why he came to Knock, he said because I haven’t been before!”

The VAKS share a house with their leaders and have all their meals together. In the evening they have time for reflection and to share their experience of the day before night prayer.

“It’s all about what happened to you that day. Did you meet anyone interesting? How did that make you feel?” Helen explains. “Yesterday for example one volunteer said I couldn’t believe how reverent people are at Mass or how into the prayers they were.

“They felt it was different to Mass they have experienced anywhere else. Another week one of the volunteers said they were amazed how much it means to people to see young people here. They said I can’t believe my presence would have that effect on another person. That is what the VAKS programme is about.”

Up close and personal

Brooke Whiteley

“We have been helping people finding places, watching movies, bonding and learning different things. I was in the carpark helping people off busses. It is amazing how many people have been here before and know their way around. But there are also loads of new people coming from all over the world. Today I met people from Australia.”

Chloe Durban

“VAKS seemed like something different to do for the summer. I never did volunteer work before. I love talking to people, especially from different countries and hearing their stories. I had never set foot in the basilica before and it is actually amazing, it is so different. It doesn’t even seem like you are in Ireland when you are inside it. I feel like Mass is really enjoyable here.”

Leanne Jennings

“We have morning prayer and then we are assigned to different places like the carpark, basilica or the church. We help people if we see them in difficulty. We break for lunch and then go out again until it is time for Mass and we help stewarding and with the collection baskets.

“Then we hand out leaflets after Mass. We have dinner and evening prayer and talk about our day.”

Ellen Steering

“I absolutely love it. This is my second week and I came back because I just fell in love with it. The people you meet are so nice. I think before this I was just in Knock once before and I was so surprised at how spiritual of an experience it is. I want to come back again for a third time.”

Knock Shrine’s Witness to Hope programme is an ambitious project that emcompasses a refurbishment of Our Lady’s Basilica, greater promotion of the site as a place of pilgrimage and enhancements to its faith development programme.

The Witness to Hope office can be found at the centre of the shrine grounds and it is a hub of activity on a daily basis. Part of the comings and goings are local parish volunteers who have stepped forward to become part of the re-invigoration of their beloved holy site by offering their time and energy.

“With the Witness to Hope programme Fr Richard Gibbons wanted us to have as many people as possible in the grounds and involved in it. Not just because we want to get the message out but also we want to raise that sense that this is our church, this is our parish, this is our place,” says Monica Morley.

Monica is the Director of the Family Centre, but also co-ordinates the Witness to Hope volunteers from Knock parish.

“This particular group is mainly people from the parish. There are the Stewards and Handmaids which would be nationwide, and the youngsters in VAKS would be from the schools around the diocese, but the Witness to Hope volunteers would be very much people from the parish,” she says.

“We have had a very good reaction. I have been astonished. It is not a very big parish but there is a strong sense that this is our place.”

In total there are about 120 volunteers, but they work in different ways. The volunteers come from different walks of life and slot in their time around their daily life. Those who aren’t working come in on weekdays to welcome pilgrims, man the information desk or to help with promotional materials. Some come in the evenings or at weekends to fill information packs and input information on the computer.

“What we have tried to do is give opportunities whereby people of the parish can volunteer in ways that suit their lifestyles. So people who are working day-to-day, Monday to Friday, can’t volunteer on those days but many of them are quite happy to do an hour in the evening or on a Saturday afternoon. So what we have done is to tailor-make what volunteering at Knock can mean,” Monica says.

“So if you are working all day you might do an hour on a Saturday morning. We have quite a few young mothers who leave their kids at the crèche and come in for 11am on a Wednesday and have a coffee and then go out and do the meet and greet. There is a lot of older people in the parish who are happy to come in on a Thursday morning and prepare information packs for us to have them ready for the weekend.”

Monica says one aspect of the project that has become very successful is a once a month meeting of the volunteers at the St John’s Rest and Care Centre to fill information packs.

“We ask local people to give one hour between 6-10pm. It is a kind of rolling shift. We have tea in the background and they are meeting each other and they do their shift and then they head off. We have about 155 from the parish for that and it is as much a social event as a working event, and that is what we want. The volunteers have to be getting something back. We have to make sure they are treated well.”

Questions

Padraig Keogh volunteers two days a week from 10-4pm meeting and greeting pilgrims. “I work as a Knock shrine ambassador, so I go around the grounds with a hi-vis jacket answering questions and handing out visitor guides. I also work in the office and people often call in looking for directions or asking for bus to Galway or where to find Confessions, or the museum or recommendations for somewhere to eat,” he says.

“I love talking to the pilgrims. I am so passionate about Knock so it comes very natural. I love the place and I can see that it helps a lot of people, so if I can be of any help I am quite happy to do that.”

Breeda Burke retired from working in Knock Shrine last Christmas, but decided to come back to help as a volunteer.

“I would meet and greet people coming off the buses and provide a map if they need one, direct them and tell them where the different services are. I have met pilgrims from all the different countries. Language can be a barrier sometimes but you can always point them in the right way,” she says.

“Some people could tell you their life story, their problems and why they came to Knock. You listen and give them a sympathetic ear. We get a lot of Americans, French and Japanese. Some days you only meet Irish people. For me it is about meeting people. You feel good when you help put somebody on the right road and some old people find it difficult to get around.”

The Witness to Hope volunteers have review meetings once a month, where they are asked what they feel is working and what they think should be changed. The project is evolving to suits the needs of the people of the parish and to integrate their suggestions.

“In that sense it is very much a work in progress,” Monica says. “The whole idea is that we will build up a sense of parish, community, sharing and witnessing to hope. We have a good story to tell and we want to meet people and share the good news.”

In their own words...

Tom Finn, Steward

“One of the last witnesses to die, Patrick Byrne, was my grandmother’s uncle. I joined because of him. I am a third Sunday steward so I come here once a month. It’s nice to be able to help people. There was no message and nothing was said here. People talk about the silence and it is the kind of place that you can be with your thoughts.”

Kathleen Mooney, Handmaid

“I have been a handmaid for 35 years. Knock appealed to me because Our Lady has been very good to me. I had problems in my family and she solved a lot of my problems. It is a joy coming to Knock. I always feel good going home and I get something out of it. I feel very privileged to be a handmaid.”

Kevin Murphy, Steward

“We were founded in 1935 by Dame Judy Coyne and her husband. This year we celebrate our 80th anniversary and on August 21 there will be a special ceremony here led by Archbishop Michael Neary. His father and mother were a steward and handmaid. We help pilgrims, direct them where to go and maybe walk with them and talk with them to lighten their burden.”

Mary Jordan, Handmaid

“I enjoy talking to people. You think you might have problems yourself but they are only minor compared to what some people have. They sometimes like to talk about their problems and I help to help people. I think it’s Our Lady that brings me to Knock. There is something very special here and you always go home a happier and freer person.”

Sr Valerie Rooney

On the arrival of our community to Knock in 1981, the then Archbishop of Tuam Dr Joseph Cunnane asked that we would support through our prayer the work of reconciliation and confessional ministry, in particular.

As a child, and indeed into my 20s, I went with my family for a yearly trip to Knock Shrine which involved three things:

• Confession;
• Many rosaries (with much reluctance, speed and laughter on many occasions!); and
• Mass.

The Sacrament of Reconciliation or confession is often referred to as the sacrament of God’s Mercy or God’s Love. Pope Francis has announced that a ‘Year of Mercy’ will commence on December 8, 2015.

Knock is a shrine dedicated to mercy in a particular way. The apparition at Knock has the Lamb of God in a central place. The apparition turns our hearts and minds towards the Mass.

At every Mass, we call upon the Lamb of God to “have mercy on us” and “grant us peace”. This prayer or petition to the Lamb of God takes place at the Mass following the consecration, that is to say, the coming of Christ Jesus, the Lamb of God, in the Eucharist and before the reception of Jesus in Holy Communion.

Confession

In Confession, our sins are forgiven. For me, personally, my greatest joy in life has been through going to Confession and having my sins forgiven. That is the truth. The more frequently I went to Confession, I noticed that in a spontaneous sort of way, over time, my conscience was becoming more finely-tuned and tuned in with God’s way of thinking.

In receiving mercy, we receive the Holy Spirit who enables us to live as God desires and this guarantees our peace and happiness even on earth.

The Lamb of God brings us mercy and peace, enabling us to live at peace with ourselves, God and one another and indeed all creation. The frequency and availability of confession at Knock, thanks to the generosity of the priests involved, is a priceless treasure.

Mary, of course, is the second figure that stands out in the scene of the apparition of Knock, Mary crowned. For me this recalls, “Hail Holy Queen, Mother of Mercy…”

Pope Francis, in speaking of Mary, tells us when we have a problem to go before Mary, tell her our problem and then listen, listen to ourselves, to what solution is being proposed within ourself.

The silence of Knock, the silence of the apparition itself reminds us of the necessity of silence.

We need silence to listen to ourselves, to listen to God. Having received the mercy of God in confession and Jesus Christ Himself in the Mass, what better time to listen in silence.

If Heaven revealed silence as necessary in 1879, how much more so in 2015. Knock facilitates this place of silence, of prayer.

Silence and the presence of Mary pervade the life of a Carmelite. We are nuns of ‘The Order of The Blessed Virgin Mary of Mount Carmel’.

Each morning we come together to celebrate Mass in our monastery to which pilgrims are welcome to attend. We are very grateful to the shrine who ensures we have a priest to bring Jesus Christ, the Lamb of God, to our community each day and thus enabling us to answer and live God’s call as cloistered Carmelites.

I am a daughter of St Teresa of Jesus (Avila), who entitled the book of her life ‘the mercies of God’.

Sr Valerie Rooney is a member of the Carmelite community at Knock. She made her profession as a Carmelite Sister in May.

Monica Morley

One of the annual outings many families make each summer is to Our Lady’s Shrine at Knock. And on a visit there you can see the evidence of their presence. A family moves around the old church saying the rosary. A young couple recently engaged stop by to light a candle.

An old woman, worried for an ill grandchild, kneels in the silence of the Blessed Sacrament Chapel. Young people enthused by the invitation to serve gather in the HUB. A young man devoted to his invalided father comes forward with him for the anointing of the sick.

Indian communities estranged from their homeland assemble to pray the stations together. All God’s people and all part of the great family of pilgrims that wind their way to Mary’s Shrine every year.

Shapes

Today, families come in many different shapes and sizes and family experiences are always varied and personal.

But what they all have in common, at some level, is the human need to pilgrim: to celebrate and give thanks, to search for answers; to find comfort and consolation, to be healed, to ask for a special request and to spend time in prayer.

And at a time when so much of family life is filled with the busy-ness of activity and a fascination with technology, finding a haven of quiet and peace under the mantle of Mary’s care still reassures many families. So resting at Knock, even for a short while, still draws many to this wellspring of faith and hope and love.

Responding to the needs of the visiting pilgrim families is the focus of the family centre at the shrine. With the election of Pope Francis, the Church worldwide has put a fresh emphasis on the importance of supporting family life and on what the Church needs to do to help families live contentedly and well in a changing world. Wishing life was different or that problems were less complex are not options.

Life and faith must be lived and celebrated in the ordinary and often mundane and difficult elements of real life.

So, ministering to families who come on pilgrimage at Knock involves providing ongoing support for those who struggle to build or maintain good relationships; it requires walking the lonely road of grief with those bereft by the sudden loss of a child or spouse; it means celebrating with those excitedly preparing for marriage; it necessitates encouraging the young, appreciating the elderly, understanding the weak, and being, in the words of Pope Francis, a ‘field hospital’ for the many broken and wounded pilgrims.

What underpins the ethos of the family centre and unites many pilgrims is the belief that whatever road a family must travel or whatever stage they find themselves on that journey, there is a richness to be gleaned from weaving a pattern of prayer through the threads of their experiences. And doing this, for families, while on pilgrimage at Knock takes many different forms.

For some it means becoming actively involved in the Masses which are held in the basilica, for others it is about leading family prayer times before the Blessed Sacrament at the shrine, while for others still, it is about opting to avail of prayer guidance and nurture an appreciation of scripture.

Of course prayer takes many forms and part of the outreach of the family centre is to provide a variety of liturgies and rituals which help families to mark and celebrate significant family occasions.

That is why preparing and publishing materials which encourage prayer as part of every home and which facilitates God being discovered in the warm atmosphere of the kitchen, is so important.

And it is our prayer that this ‘family place’ to which Mary came more than a century ago may continue to be an oasis of peace and consolation for all families who come as pilgrims in 2015 and beyond.

Monica Morley  is director of Knock Shrine’s family centre and co-hosts ‘Faith Alive’ on MidWest Radio.

The Family Centre can be contacted on 094-9375320 or email familycentre@knockshrine.iewww.knockshrine.ie/familycentre

Knock Shrine is changing, and faith renewal is envisaged as being at the centre of Knock Shrine’s future, according to Úna Nolan, the shrine’s director of music.

 “When Fr Richard first got the idea of refurbishing the basilica and renewing Knock in general, he carried out surveys and something that came back very strongly in the surveys was that people wanted something else, and had an appetite for something more.

 This is where the notion of faith formation – or faith renewal or development or whatever – came about,” she explains.

 As part of the ‘Witness to Hope’ project, faith renewal has become – with the basilica’s refurbishment and the shrine’s promotion – one of the three strands in the shrine’s development plan, and is “probably the most important one”.  

Renewal

Given how important faith renewal is, it matters to get it right and so the shrine’s Faith Formation Council is taking the time to do so. Úna explains that the group was only assembled in March, and consists of herself, prayer guidance director Patricia McCarthy, youth ministry co-ordinator Helen Ralph, shrine rector Fr Richard Gibbons and curate Fr Patrick Burke, Fr Brian Grogan SJ, Fr Michael Duignan, Fr Pat Farragher and Msgr Dermot Maloney.

 “We’re trying to come to the bottom of this,” she says, explaining how a facilitating meeting was organised with the staff of Knock Shrine, intended as “a think-in day”. Describing as “amazing” the kinds of things people proposed, she says “there were some really good, meaty ideas there” that could form starting points for medium- and long-term projects.

 “We’ll be looking for ideas and different ways to involve people, to get people back to Church, families as well – it’s nice to see people coming round with small kids,” she says, although in the meantime the group isn’t sitting still.

 “Just in the short term we thought we’d put something on for the back end of this year, just to be making a start and we’re going to have to start getting our teeth into it now and getting some good ideas for faith renewal,” she says.

 “So at the moment we’ve come up with a programme for the Autumn to Winter, from October to December,” she continues, “and we’ve come up with a few different things that are like feelers to see what people are interested in.”

As an example of what the programme will entail, she says, “We’ve a very strong prayer guidance centre here, so they came up with a nice retreat – they’re calling it ‘Quiet days for busy people’, so it’s a day-long escape, I suppose, where there’ll be prayer guidance, talks, input, and that sort of thing. 

“We’re hoping to see will that sate an appetite for anybody. It’s not aimed directly at a certain group – we’ll leave it open and see who’ll come along.”

 The one-day retreats are due to take place on October 3, November 7 and December 5, but the Autumn-Winter programme won’t stop there. “We’ve also got Fr Brian Grogan, the Jesuit, who’s part of our council and was involved in the founding of the prayer guidance centre here,” she says, explaining that he will be running two day-long workshops in October and November on the papal exhortation Evangelii Gaudium.

Enrichment day

“Also, we have Fr Sean McDonagh and he’s going to talk on the encyclical Laudato Si, so that’s something coming up now as well,” she continues, adding, “And also we’re going to do an enrichment day for pastoral councils, where maybe two or three members of pastoral councils will come together here; they’ll be able to talk to each other and they’ll have some input from – hopefully – Donal Harrington.”

 The entire faith renewal project will entail making Knock into a place that can serve the entire Irish Church, she continues. 

“Long term our hopes would be nationally, obviously,” she says, “that we would see ourselves as a national resource more than anything, so we’re not going to try to lead the way, we’re not going to try to be the experts in anything – we’ll try that as well! – but the idea is to be a resource, to be able to make things available to people.”

 The challenge, she admits, is to establish what sort of things the group should be offering. “We have to come up with this,” she says, suggesting that the shrine might become a resource for parishes. 

“We have thought of maybe doing something for pastoral councils, as a kind of a reflective day for pastoral councils, to come away and maybe take a break away from the slog of issues, and kind of get in touch with themselves,” she says. “So, that would be a resource – we’re still looking into it, we’ve only had four or five meetings so it’s early stages.”

 Another possibility might actually be the production of materials and programmes like the Alpha Course that others might use in the wider Irish Church, but Úna is uncertain of whether that’s a direction the shrine is likely to go down.

 “People have mentioned the Alpha thing, and it seems to be very successful and people seem to go for it, so yeah – I’m not sure whether we will look into kind of producing a course like this ourselves, or maybe be the place where it is put on, that people come here to it,” she says.

 “We’re still in very early stages: as you’re asking the questions, we’re kind of asking them ourselves. What do we do? How do we do it?”

 The key to thinking of Knock, other than its obvious spiritual role, is as a sanctuary, Úna explains.

 “Even somebody that’s kind of struggling with their faith a bit can come to Knock, where you’re not kind of mocked for your faith or for your practicing,” she says, continuing, “I think it’s important to meet like-minded people, and be in a place that reinforces your own faith.  I think even for priests as well, it’s nice for priests to be able to come here too.”

 The shrine team are “facilitators” she explains, and are willing to put themselves at the service of anything that will help with faith renewal.

 “We see ourselves as a resource,” she reiterates, adding that when people visit, “we definitely would love to have lots of things happening here that people can come to: they feel secure, they’re in their sanctuary, and they can grow in their faith, maybe go to a day talk that educates them a little bit more in their faith”.

 “Simple things like that that could mean a lot to one person”, she says. “It’s little steps.”

Marcin Burchardt

Cenacolo was founded 32 years ago by an Italian nun, Mother Elvira Petrozzi. Seeing young people sad and desperate, addicted to drugs, she felt a call to help them find the real joy of life. While other programmes tried to help people with addictions through medication, Mother Elvira felt the real answer lay in the love of God, so her goal from the very beginning was to show us Jesus, his love and mercy.

The first house she managed to open was on the hill of Saluzzo. Like our lives, it was in ruins, so she had the idea to rebuild and renew it together with the boys. After a couple of years the house filled up. We opened another one later, then a third etc. 

An important moment of development for our community was when we opened a house in Medjugorje. Mother Elvira used to go there with the boys for pilgrimages and after a few years a group of friends proposed to give us a piece of land for the use of our community. From there we started to spread all over the world. 

We now have houses in Europe, South America, North America and Africa – over 2,000 men and women are currently living in Cenacolo communities around the world, and mission houses in South America and Liberia provide homes for the children from the street. 

Many people have discovered their vocations in our community, so now the movement has priests, nuns and consecrated brothers living in community with us.

The house in Ireland was started 16 years ago. Two groups of Irish people who had encountered Cenacolo in Medjugorje desired to have this community in their own country. 

They didn’t know about one another but they both kept praying for Cenacolo to come to Ireland. After a while some of them went to Italy to experience life in Cenacolo’s mother house, which helped them to understand the place better. 

After a few Irish boys with drug problems joined Cenacolo in Italy, Mother Elvira came to Ireland to look for a house for the community here. 

The houses she saw first weren’t suitable, in her opinion, and the community members didn’t know what to do. 

They still didn’t have a house when Mother Elvira was going to leave Ireland. Finally they found a suitable but expensive house in Co. Mayo. Mother Elvira said that if God wanted the community to have the house he would help them, and eventually they managed to raise the necessary funds to buy it. Shortly after, in December 1999, the first group from Italy came over to open the house and started to welcome Irish boys there. 

The community, which receives no State funding, relies heavily on God’s providence. Through the generosity of many friends of the community, we want for nothing. Essentials like food, clothing and household products all come from donors while much-needed cash donations help to pay utility bills and to buy farming tools and building materials. 

Living reliant on God’s providence through the generosity of so many people helps to strengthen our faith and build strong bonds with the friends who help our community. For someone who wouldn’t believe in God, this providential living helps a lot in building faith.

Every day we start at 6 am with the joyful mysteries of the Rosary. Half an hour before, whoever wants goes to the Blessed Sacrament chapel for private Eucharistic adoration – Mother Elvira insists that every Cenacolo house has a Blessed Sacrament chapel. 

After some time spent in community, adoration became the most important part of my day. We can offer to Jesus all our difficulties and struggles so he can change our lives and heal them. 

We take time to read the Gospel, to reflect on it and to build a strong foundation for our future, and sometimes after the morning Rosary we share the Gospel with the others. 

It helps us to find out who we really are, to be honest with each other, and to put the Gospel in practice. 

Friendships

Most of the day we work learning new things, discovering our gifts and building friendships with one another. We have a bit of free time after lunch and after supper, and twice a week play football. Between everything, we learn to be organised and to fill our time to the maximum. 

Every Sunday, we participate in Holy Mass at the parish church in Shanvaghera, and as our house is only a few kilometres away from Knock Shrine, on the first Saturday of each month we have a Holy Hour in the Apparition Chapel, where we pray for all the lads who are still living on the streets and are struggling with their addictions. 

Every first Monday of the month we have a little walking pilgrimage to Knock Shrine. We pray three rosaries on the way there and another three on the way back for our Mother Elvira and for all the intentions of the community. Sometimes the shrine invites us to give testimonies for the groups of young people visiting them. 

Living this way in community I have come to understand why I was using drugs. I lacked faith and I missed Jesus in my life. I’ve tried many times to change my life without Jesus and it never worked out, because I wasn’t happy – I was looking for my own way to happiness. 

In community I started to pray because everyone prayed, so I followed the crowd like I used to do all my life. 

Through personal Eucharistic Adoration I started to understand who I really am. Jesus showed me the truth about me and although it sometimes was hard to accept, my friends let me know that they still accepted me. 

It was me who didn’t love myself and Jesus helped me to change that. 

I joined Cenacolo weighed down with hate for my father. I was blaming everyone but me. 

By daily reading of the Gospel I learned that Jesus doesn’t want me to hate but to forgive. When I started to forgive I started also to understand that my dad always loved me. 

Jesus changed not only my life but also the lives of all my family, and I know that without him I cannot be happy. 

That’s how prayer has changed my life. Jesus was what I was looking for all the time.    

It is not only Knock Basilica that has undergone a recent face lift – Knock Youth Ministry has grown and developed in an incredible way over the last few years, changing from a weekend youth festival to a full yearly programme offering services to young people of all ages.

Co-ordinated by Helen Toner and Nicola Mitchell and operating out of a small office in Knock Shrine, the youth ministry offers school retreats, diocesan retreats, summer camps, a kids club, a drop in centre for teens and now a new programme called VAKS which offers young people the opportunity to volunteer at Knock Shrine.

“We used to run the Knock Summer Youth Festival, which was very successful, but we were working almost throughout the whole year and all through the summer for this one weekend for young people aged 18-35 and I suppose the final summer we held the festival [in 2012], we thought to ourselves are we missing something here,” Helen explains.

“There were two of us working in an office for one weekend and if a young person called into this office and they couldn’t come to the weekend, there was nothing we could offer them.

“Also we felt the majority of the people at the festival were already practising their faith and were coming here almost as a celebration of faith, which was great but we felt we needed to be a bit more. We noticed when we looked out the window there was family after family with young kids all over the shrine grounds.

“So we went to the management here after thinking and praying about it, and we decided to work with what we already have with the thousands of pilgrims who are coming here.”

Arts and crafts

The team decided to cancel the annual festival and instead developed a new spiritual programme called the HUB (Hear, Understand, Believe).

In the first year they began with a kids club, which is something like a Sunday school. “We have two or three sessions per day where the kids come in for the day to do colouring and arts and crafts,” Helen says. Then they opened a drop in centre for teens and young adults “which is a very casual space to chill out and there is someone there to talk to if they want”.

The HUB also offers diocesan retreats for youth ministries across the country so when a diocese comes to Knock on its annual pilgrimage, it can include a group of young people who spend the day at the HUB and then meet up with the rest of the pilgrimage for the 3pm Mass.

“That’s what we did the first year and it was really successful. People took up on it straight away and I suppose it reaffirmed what we were doing,” says Helen, who is now in her eighth year at Knock.

“I feel almost that when we opened the HUB we decided to go back to basics. From that things like the summer camps have grown. Even the VAKS project, we would never have been able to dream of hosting the VAKS weekends while we were hosting the summer festival. It just wouldn’t have been possible.

“So I think with something like this you are building up young people and they are recognising Knock is a place for young people, and they are going to come back again,” she says.

“There is an opportunity for them to have their own time and do what they enjoy doing, while their parents go off to Confession or Mass or have a coffee, and then they can all meet up together as a family for Mass.

“Most importantly they can leave Knock saying that was a wonderful experience for all of the family.

“That’s what the HUB is – what it’s function is.”

A motive for hope and a call to love

If there was a Reeling in the Years for the Irish Church over the past 20 years it would leave one feeling very insecure as to the future of the Church and especially its young people. The scandals have pierced the Church to its heart, there is no denying. The demands on her as she moves into another generation bring challenge after challenge.

However, coming to this conclusion does not permit us to stand stagnant and sombre, for the Lord always wills progress, and this is something I have experienced while working in youth ministry at Knock Shrine.

The team of two in the shrine has soldiered on through the difficulties and trials over the past years to inspire hope and great confidence in God once again to a generation of young people who have grown up in a Church surrounded in scandal.

In Knock I have experienced a charism of joyful energy, a spirit of hope, and a grounding in the Lord all directed toward the up-building of our Catholic youth today. I see the diary almost full a year in advance with bookings from people wishing to attend the inspiring and thought-provoking retreats.

Mission

This mission of the youth ministry at Knock is towards young people, to encourage them to a state of interior joy and prosperity even in the midst of trials.

Unfortunately such trials surround all our lives, but Helen and Nicola guide the students to transcend these trials with God, who will lead them to fulfilment. I have seen countless groups coming to Knock (either on a school retreat, with the VAKS programme or with a parish youth group), having the chance to encounter God in a wholesome way.

What is offered to the youth at Knock is an encounter, a deepening of their relationship with God, a God of hope who, in spite of misery, disappointments and hopelessness, is always there ready to inspire and empower, a God who works with them every day to reach contentment.

Helen and Nicola strive and dedicate themselves to these young people who come to show each and everyone their self-worth and uniqueness in order to declare that they are worth more than the exterior demands that are pushed upon them.

Pope Francis exhorts youths to rebel against the culture of relativism that sees everything as temporary, and which believes that they are incapable of responsibility and true love.

He tells them to “have the courage to be happy” by renouncing and denouncing anything that is contrary to the Gospel of life and authentic and holistic love.

Here in a small corner of Ireland I truly see the Church alive and I see that there are indeed many young people active in their faith - this is the reality: we may not always see them but they are there. Let us pray for our young people and encourage them.

We can encourage them by living our faith in a way that is attractive and which is in line with their nature. This is lived out every day in Knock by the ministers here who have allowed themselves to be infected by God’s transforming presence.

This past Monday I had the privilege of concelebrating at the Funeral Mass of Mary Ann O’Driscoll, a young lay missionary from my home parish of Our Lady of Dolours: the parish church is about a hundred yards from the entrance to the Botanic Gardens in Glasnevin. At a time when we need role models of Christian commitment more than ever, Mary Ann’s exemplary life stands out as a shining beacon.

Mary Ann was working for the religious charity Franciscan Works as the director of their Liberia Mission. She was on her second stint as a lay missionary in the country. This African nation has been ravaged by the Ebola epidemic, but in fact it was a speeding vehicle that tragically ended her life, knocking her down, and although she was not killed on the spot, she died soon afterwards on July 15 at the all-too-young age of 24.

Faith

Her parents, Betty and Paddy, and her seven brothers and sisters, had to endure an agonising few weeks before Mary Ann’s body was finally returned to Ireland late last week. They found solace in their marvellous faith, and in the prayers and support of their relatives, neighbours and friends.

You can get a sense of the extraordinary calibre of Mary Ann from a recent letter she wrote to the people of Glasnevin parish:

“I couldn’t really explain it in words but Liberia made me feel so close to God. My first time on the mission was so difficult; it was a real struggle and challenge accepting my vocation and my limitations. We all want to change the world in some way, and it is true that we must start with ourselves. The hardest part for me was accepting that I probably would not be changing the world or the mission in the idealistic way I had imagined. I started out as a teacher and packed that in quickly, it took me a long time until I realised I had to stop trying to ‘fix it’ and start allowing God to use me how he wished. 

“It is a huge challenge surrendering everything to God. Your weaknesses, your strengths, your worries, your anxieties and your ambitions. There is incredible joy in giving it all to God even if it means you feel powerless. 

“My stomach turned at first but I just allowed God to use me as His instrument and the rewards were plenty. I did not even realise what Liberia meant to me until I returned to Ireland and realised what a home Liberia had become. It was a home to me because it is the place I feel closest to God.”

Mary Ann took up God’s challenging but wonderful invitation to surrender everything to him. She lived out this surrender in the midst of the duties of directing the mission. 

Journey

Surrender is the journey of a lifetime, because each day we must repeat this full ‘yes’ from the deepest place in our hearts. Busy with the work of overseeing the construction of a new science lab and pushing forward the project of building a 100ft well, she missed simply ‘wasting’ time with the local children as she had always loved doing: “I miss having the chance to spend time just chatting to the children. I loved when I could sit on the step and talk to them. Now that is my sacrifice; I have to accept my new calling and focus on being the best version of myself to glorify God.”

In his homily at her Funeral Mass, Fr Sean Mundow spoke of Mary Ann’s infectious enthusiasm, her sheer joy in life, which came from having given herself to the God of life. Mary Ann cared about human life in all its stages and phases – the young children and students in Liberia, and also the fate of the unborn children of Ireland, working hard between her two stints in Liberia to prepare the National Vigil for Life in Dublin last year.

Leading the prayers at the removal for Mary Ann in Glasnevin last Saturday, Ethiopian priest Fr Sintayehu Gelan Gemchu sang a hymn in the ancient language of his people. 

The tune sounded uncannily similar to an Irish caoineadh or lament. Although the music was melancholic, the lyrics (which he translated for us afterwards) were full of hope. As we know from chapter eight of the Acts of the Apostles, the apostle Philip baptised an Ethiopian eunuch soon after the Resurrection of Christ on the road from Jerusalem to Gaza, and the man returned back to his country to spread the Good News. 

It seemed particularly appropriate to hear a priest from one of the first Christian nations on Earth paying this tribute to Mary Ann. It was as though Fr Sintayehu was not only singing on behalf of the continent of Africa, but in the name of Christianity itself.

Mary Ann’s short life was a life distinguished by her service to the continent of Africa and to Christianity itself. How many of us call home the place we feel closest to God – or have yet to discover where that place is?

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a hanam uasal. 

Fr Bernard Healy

When the delegates from the Irish dioceses met back in April 2009 to begin planning for the International Eucharistic Congress in 2012, two questions were on our minds: What a 21st Century Eucharistic Congress might look like and whether anyone would show up? 

As it happened, both questions answered themselves. The congress ended up being a vibrant gathering of prayer, learning and fellowship for tens of thousands of pilgrims from Ireland and further afield. There were workshops, talks, activities, prayer and the celebration of the Eucharist, to say nothing of the social dimension of meeting up with fellow-Catholics from around the world. 

Everywhere one met pilgrims from every corner of Ireland who said, “We didn’t know what to expect, but we’re glad we came”. As the congress drew to a close people began to say, “We need to do this again”. 

Experience

There was a strong sense that the experience of the Eucharistic Congress shouldn’t remain just a single event that faded into the past. 

The congress met a need in the Irish Church that demanded some kind of follow-up. That follow-up will happen in Knock Shrine next month as the Irish Church gathers for a National Eucharistic Congress on Saturday, September 26 and Sunday, September 27. 

Over the past few weeks our Sunday Gospels have been taken from the Bread of Life discourse of St John’s Gospel. We have been hearing how Christ presents himself as the true bread, the bread of life, the bread that comes down from Heaven. 

In other words, he promises himself as spiritual nourishment to his followers, responding to a hunger within them. That promise helps explain the aims and importance of a Eucharistic Congress. 

Our International Eucharistic Congress was successful in as much as it provided nourishment that the Church in Ireland and beyond was hungering for. When Christ promises himself as food, we think first and foremost of the nourishment given by his body and blood in the Eucharist. 

However, related to the gift of the Eucharist, we see that Christ also wants to nourish us by his teaching, by closeness to his heavenly father in prayer and in the Communion of being part of his Church, the gathering-together of God’s people. So it was that the International Congress nourished the people who gathered around the Eucharist in 2012 and so it will be that the National Eucharistic Congress can be a source of nourishment in 2015. 

Speakers

There will be speakers inviting us to deepen our faith and discussing how the Gospel of Jesus Christ can be lived out in our homes, parishes and everyday lives. There will be times of prayer and reconciliation so that we can strengthen our relationship with God, and there will be the chance to meet fellow pilgrims from all over the country who will remind us that as part of the Catholic Church we are part of a huge family of brothers and sisters, sharing many of the same hopes and concerns.

Back in 2012 the International Congress explored the meaning of ‘Communion with Christ and One Another’. Building on that, the theme for the congress in Knock is ‘Christ Our Hope’. Hope is one of the fruits of our communion with Christ and one another – we realise that as a Church we are called to glory by Christ. He has one positive plan for us when we cooperate with him and that is a great reason for hope. 

But this hope is about more than looking at the future; as a people of hope, Christ’s presence among us should shine a new light on how we live here and now. 

Nourished by the Eucharist and founded on faith, Christian hope should open new possibilities for us as we are called to live generously according to the Gospel invitation of Christ. At Knock this theme of hope will be explored in the context of marriage and consecrated life. In marriage and religious life we see reflections of the way in which Christ gives Himself generously in the Eucharist, and both marriage and consecrated life are Christian vocations that are lived to the full when inspired by Christian hope. 

There will also be activities for children and for youth, allowing the full participation of families who are, in a special way, the hope we have for the future of our Church. 

The National Congress in Knock is also part of the preparation for the next International Congress. One of the unforgettable moments of the 2012 Statio Orbis in Croke Park was the joy of Filipino pilgrims and the Irish Filipino community at the video-announcement by Pope Benedict that the 2016 International Eucharistic Congress would be held in the city of Cebu. 

As the Irish prepared for IEC2012, the support and advice of the Canadian organisers of the 2008 Quebec Eucharistic Congress were of huge help, and the large Canadian contingent of pilgrims added greatly to the joy and atmosphere of Dublin 2012. 

Members of the Irish Congress team have already visited Cebu to assist in the planning, and the Irish contingent who are travelling to Cebu are hopeful that the celebration of the National Congress in Knock will encourage people to join us in the Philippines in January 2016. The idea of a pilgrimage to such a distant place is obviously a daunting prospect, but there are many reasons to consider it. It will be a sign of support for the Church in the Philippines and a chance to experience something like Dublin 2012 in a new context. 

It will be an opportunity to visit the land where so many of the ‘new Irish’ come from and where so many Irish missionaries spread the Gospel. Finally the Cebu Congress will give a once-in-a-lifetime chance for Irish pilgrims to see a vibrant manifestation of the Church in a part of the world where she is young and growing rapidly. Bí ann!

Fr Bernard Healy is a curate in St John’s Parish, Tralee and the Kerry Diocesan Delegate to the Eucharistic Congress National Committee.

Like St Ignatius of Loyola, it was on a hospital bed recovering from a broken leg that Galway man Niall McDonagh found his faith.

Back in 2004 at the age of 20, Niall was living a “carefree life” when he was faced with potentially losing his leg after suffering a double compound fracture during a soccer match.

It was a turning point for the young man who hadn’t taken his faith “seriously” until that point. 

“Back then I didn’t think for a second it could affect my life on a day-to-day basis as it currently is,” he told The Irish Catholic.

“I was very far away from God. I did many things I am not very proud of and there are somethings I regret doing to. Growing up my priorities were all wrong,” he said.

The night before the first of five major surgeries required to save his leg, Niall prayed to God. 

“It was in desperation that I said the prayer. I was disillusioned with life as it was. I was very unhappy in myself. I had no purpose or meaning to what I was doing. I had no direction. I was lost.”

Luckily, in time, Niall made a full recovery. 

“It felt like God had listened to my prayer.”

Tragedy

However, just nine months later Niall was faced with another tragedy. His older brother took his own life at the age of 22.

“It filled me with anger. In the space of a year I was just learning how to walk again and then I had to bury my older brother. You’re lost for words at times because you don’t plan for these things,” he said.

That summer he decided to accompany his mother on a pilgrimage to Medjugorje.

Hesitant at first, Niall quickly began to warm to the people there.

“They were so friendly and genuine. They were so unconditional in their love. I just couldn’t understand it. I was really struck by the Catholic people there and how they were living their lives,” he said.

Niall also took inspiration from an Irishman who was living in a Cenacolo community there. 

“When he was speaking there was something really stirring in me. In hindsight I know now it was the Holy Spirit. I couldn’t understand how this man had so much joy despite living in the mountains with nothing.”

Having approached the recovering drug addict after hearing his testimony, he told Niall to ‘ask God to come into your life’.

His words of wisdom became Niall’s prayer for the rest of his time in Medjugorje.

“When I came home I began to feel different about myself. My angry nature started to subside, my relationships started to improve, I began to view the world with a different set of eyes as such.”

It was then that Niall began “flicking through the pages” of his late brother’s Bible. 

“The pages really started to talk to me. I started comparing my own life to passages in the Bible. From then onwards I began to seek out my faith a bit more. I found it very isolating because I was doing it all by myself. I found it hard to meet people that I could share my faith with,” he said.

Niall went on to complete his degree in construction management and worked for a number of months before moving to Edinburgh to begin teaching studies.

“There I felt at home working with disadvantaged children in particular. It was more challenging but I could relate to them more. I loved it.”

It was a year-long experience that led him to apply for a postgraduate diploma in school guidance and counselling in Maynooth, which in turn landed him a job in Tallaght Community School in Dublin.

“I began to realise that God was using my past experiences, hurts and even mistakes for the good of not only me but for other people. He had armed me with all these tools that I didn’t even know I had. 

“I could be compassionate. I could empathise with people’s struggles. I felt so privileged to be able to offer a person who was struggling a word of hope or encouragement. I was so humbled that God was using me that way,” he said.

Missionary work was Niall’s next calling, a task he undertook during his summer holidays. He worked with the Missionaries of Charity in Rio de Janeiro in Brazil for two summers before spending time in Manilla in the Philippians with Fr Shay Cullen’s organisation PREDA. 

It was working with the disadvantaged in both countries that the Gospels “really began to come alive” for Niall. “I could see my faith in practice,” he said.

“When I returned from missionary work it was as if I was looking at everything with a completely new lens. It was like a veil had been lifted from my eyes.”

Mass even “began to take on a new meaning” for the young man.  “Sometimes at Mass I didn’t even know why I was there. I had no understanding of it. It’s a big problem nowadays, people aren’t educated in why we even go to Mass,” he said.

Praying then on where to take his missionary work next, Niall felt a calling to the US and New York in particular. 

“At first I was doubting it because I thought New York had everything. I was used to places with a lot of poverty and deprivation.”

In the end, Niall decided to work once again with the Missionaries of Charity in the South Bronx.

“It was only there that I realised the biggest poverty isn’t material poverty, its spiritual poverty. New York on the surface has so much materially, but it is lacking in so many other ways.

“I love New York’s energy but when you see people living their lives chasing the American dream where time is money and they haven’t time for their families or faith it’s crazy,” he said.

For Niall, two months missionary work just wasn’t enough. “When I returned home I felt a draw back out there in my prayer. I felt the Lord calling back out there to be honest.”

He handed in his notice at work, sold his car and headed back across the pond.

Sometime later, while immersed in his missionary and pro-life work on New York’s streets, Niall felt another calling - this time to the priesthood.

“I felt the Lord asking me to go to a deeper level and explore the possibility of entering seminary. There was a draw there. Entering seminary these days is so counter-cultural,” he said.

The young Irishman attended a number of vocational weekends to assess his “attraction” to the lifestyle and was eventually accepted to the seminary of the Archdiocese of New York.

“That door is open to me now and I can spend the rest of my life wondering what’s behind that door or I could go check it out for myself.”

Niall, who begins his formation in the city that never sleeps this week, admits he is a little anxious about this new chapter in his life. 

“It’s a step into the unknown and when anything is unknown it causes a small bit of anxiety. That’s where faith comes in. That’s why we need faith.”

Niall, who has had no shortage of testing experiences in his life, believes his faith has only grown stronger over time.

“It’s easy to have faith when the sun is shining and everything is going well but it’s only when the storms of life come in that your faith is really tested. The testing of your faith brings you to a deeper level where you otherwise wouldn’t have ever been. Sometimes when you have the least amount of prosperity you have the greater amount of faith.”

Whatever comes next, one gets the impression that with his faith, Niall will be well equipped to cope. 

A seemingly endless parade of broadsheet articles in recent weeks have ensured that to many observers schools patronage must seem to be the most pressing issue in Irish education. 

Dublin Mid-West TD Joanna Tuffy, however, points out that “patronage is not necessarily the number one factor for the majority of people”, since “the big factor for parents is that they want to get a place in the local school – for most parents that trumps everything else”.

Ms Tuffy, who has been a TD since 2007, chairs the Oireachtas Joint Committee on Education and Social Protection which in March 2014 published its report on the Draft General Scheme of an Education (Admission to Schools) Bill 2013, observing that “multiple patronage and ethos as a basis for policy can lead to segregation and inequality in the education system”. 

“My own view,” Ms Tuffy says, stressing that hers was not the only view on the committee, “is that diversity of patronage isn't the best approach. It can divide up children and segregate them according to patron.” 

In its report the committee cited the Department of Education’s 2008 Audit of School Enrolment Policies which did not find evidence of “any system-wide enrolment practices that would give rise to concern”, and though the committee recognised that there is in principle a problem with oversubscribed schools rejecting students on the basis of religion, it cited no evidence that this is in practice a widespread problem. 

While there is a lack of serious data on the issue, prominently reported anecdotes have made clear that it does happen. “If a local Catholic school is oversubscribed, people who are not Catholics can lose out,” Ms Tuffy observes, adding they’re more likely to do so if they live just beyond a school’s catchment area. 

Citing an example from her own experience of a Muslim parent who lived just outside a catchment area who was told that her child would have very little chance of getting a place in an over-subscribed school, Ms Tuffy says problems can arise with oversubscribed schools with religious patrons, but nonetheless stresses “my experience of my own constituency is that Catholic schools are very, very inclusive”.

“In my own daughter’s school,” she continues, “there would be a very high percentage of Muslim girls. The school is very inclusive in terms of managing to have different religions in the school.” The school has a history of inclusivity, she says, adding, “when I went there, there were travellers in my class and Church of Ireland children”.

That a traditional Irish national school with a religious patron should prove so welcoming a home to Muslim children might surprise some, but those familiar with British faith schools, for example, would expect no less: roughly 30% of students in Catholic schools in England and Wales are not from Catholic families. 

Indeed, speaking in the Vatican in early 2012, Muslim Baroness Sayeeda Warsi, then co-chairperson of Britain’s Conservative Party, explained that she had sent her daughter to a convent school because she knew “she would be free to follow her faith there” and “would not be looked down on because she believed”. 

Ireland’s Church-run schools are not merely inclusive, as a rule, towards those of other faiths, Ms Tuffy explained, but tend towards socio-economic inclusivity too, welcoming both immigrants and Ireland’s poorest.

“If you go to the areas designated most disadvantaged, there are only Catholic schools,” she says, citing how all the DEIS schools – those designated by the Department of Education and Skills to tackle educational disadvantage – in the poorest part of Dublin Mid-West are under Catholic patronage. 

“There’s no doubt that Catholic schools have the highest proportion of DEIS schools by a mile,” she continues, explaining that throughout the country “they’ve a higher percentage of DEIS schools than their total percentage of schools overall – they’re definitely doing their bit.”  

Stressing that “the lion's share of DEIS schools are Catholic national schools”, Ms Tuff points out that in disadvantaged areas like north Clondalkin, the issue of diversity of patronage doesn’t arise. “It’s a middle-class thing,” she says.

Diversity of patronage can in fact be detrimental to social inclusivity, she points out, noting that “there definitely has been a phenomenon of segregation on class and racial grounds” where “some people get to exercise parental choice and others don't”. 

The big losers in situations where is a diversity of patrons tend to be people who are new to areas, whether these be immigrants or simply people who have just moved in, she says. 

The committee had recognised this fact, citing the 2009 ESRI study Adapting to Diversity: Irish Schools and Newcomer Students which surveyed 1,200 school principals and found that schools with “a high proportion of newcomer children tended to be urban schools, often catering for more disadvantaged students”. 

Far from identifying religious discrimination as a serious problem in the Irish educational system, the report instead found that “Where schools are oversubscribed, they tend to operate enrolment polices which favour ‘first come, first served’, and priority to siblings etc. These policies favour more settled communities and newcomer students tend to be under-represented in these schools.”

Unsurprisingly, it’s a Catholic national school, that of St John the Evangelist in Adamstown, that has the country’s highest percentage of immigrant students, but more surprising is the fact that more than 90% of its pupils are of immigrant origin. This figure is all the more startling given that only 9% of pupils nationwide are immigrants or the children of immigrants. It’s hard not to be reminded again of how Britain’s Catholic schools play a key role in building social cohesion through catering for children from ethnic minorities, 27.5% of children in English Catholic schools being from ethnic minorities as compared to the national average of 22.5%.

Keen to emphasise that Educate Together schools in Adamstown and Esker also take in high numbers of pupils from immigrant backgrounds, and that Educate Together schools as a whole are improving in this regard, Ms Tuffy nonetheless follows the 2009 ESRI study in taking issue with those Educate Together schools that operate a ‘first come, first served’ policy. 

“One policy that I’d be very critical of is the ‘first come, first served approach’,” she says. “That’s contributed to immigrants being kept out – they wouldn’t know about it, they wouldn't have the child’s name down in time. If a school’s not oversubscribed it doesn't matter, but if it is, ‘first come, first served’ means children of immigrants lose out.”

The committee’s conclusion on this point last year could hardly have been more blunt, declaring that “the use of waiting lists can give rise to discrimination against newcomers to an area”, and anyone who doubts that segregation is a live issue in Ireland’s educational system need look only at how 80% of pupils from immigrant backgrounds attend a mere 23% of the country’s schools, with 20 schools having two thirds of their pupils from such backgrounds.

Recognising that to some degree schools simply reflect local demographics, Ms Tuffy nonetheless says this isn’t the whole story. “Segregation is an issue, and that comes down to some people exercising choice,” she says. “Diversity of patronage just exacerbates that.”

While it’s possible in an area like Lucan which has several schools to bus children to so they can go to their parents’ school of choice, she says that this would be completely impractical in small towns across the country where local schools must cater for everybody. 

What’s more, she thinks, it would be undesirable: “Increasing diversity is not a good approach as it doesn't cater for villages, and makes the system more divided, moving from a system of Catholic schools that are relatively inclusive to more segregation. It’s just perpetuating things and making things even more divided than currently.”

Reiterating how most people in Ireland simply want their children to go to the local school, she points out that “the issue of diversity of patronage and parental choice is a thing exercised more by middle-class white people”. 

It’s certainly not an issue that the population at the whole are clamouring for, as the Department of Education and Skills’s April 2013 report on parental preferences in 38 areas with regard to primary school patronage made all too clear. 

On the face of it, the report seemed to demonstrate a substantial wish for increased diversity, with the department saying that there was “sufficient parental demand in 23 out of the 38 areas to support an immediate change in the existing school patronage”. However, closer scrutiny of the data revealed that in not even one of the 23 identified areas did more than 8% of parents with children in school respond to surveys to say they wanted change. 

Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, long an advocate for dioceses and religious orders divesting themselves of some of the schools they built and remain patrons of, has recently argued that the Church should not be blamed for the slow pace of divestment. Local communities, he says, often oppose divestment, with local politicians even going against national party policies by opposing divestment in their areas.

“This thing of local politicians lining up with residents to resist divestment,” Ms Tuffy says, “when you’re a local politician you can see on the ground what's happening and can see where parents are coming from.

“Divestment hasn't been very popular with parents, and I actually think that’s understandable,” she explains, pointing out that stability and confidence in schools matter to parents. “You’re asking them to move from one kind of patron to another – it’s understandable that parents and school communities don’t want divestment. I absolutely understand where they're coming from. They need to be given more and that situation needs to be understood more.”

The 2009 report found that 80% of schools could take all children who applied to them, but that 20% of schools were oversubscribed; an obvious solution, if a costly one, might seem to be for the State to provide more schools.

“I think you have to build new schools according to need, but I don’t think that’s the answer,” Ms Tuffy disagrees, pointing out that the situation can sometimes look worse than it really is. “Because there isn't a common enrolment and application system with dates and deadlines it can lead to confusion – parents don’t know where they stand and can get the impression that there are no places”. Not knowing exactly where they stand, she says, “parents might apply for several schools, and some may be more oversubscribed than others”.

While more places are definitely needed, she says, we “can fill the bulk of the places at existing schools - we have to address the issue of existing schools.” 

Her long-term objective, she thinks, would be for the State to adopt a single multi-denominational model into which the Church and other groups, religious and otherwise, would be willing to buy. 

“I want to get to a place where over time we’d move to a state multi-denominational system,” she says. “I’m not sure how we’d get there or how long it would take, but it should be possible to come up with model that has everybody on board including the Church.”

Emphasising that this is simply her own view, albeit one shared by others across Ireland’s political spectrum, she says it is worth going back to “the original idea of a national school”. There was a time, she says, Church-run schools could effectively meet the needs of an overwhelmingly Catholic population, but things are not so simple now. 

“It’s important in our model, whatever model we come up with, to be inclusive from a social point of view,” she says. “Diversity could lead to much more segregation on class and racial grounds. I don’t think that’s a good thing at all. Our ultimate objective should be local schools for local children, with equality between schools, so you don’t start having exclusive Catholic schools for just Catholics, and some going to Educate Together. We need to move towards a more equal system.

“Personally I don’t have any hang ups on whether religion is taught within or outside of school”, she says, insisting that she’s “not a purist when it comes to this issue” and that it’s important to be willing to compromise.

“You have to keep people on board,” she says. “If you want to develop a model of multidenominational school, you want Muslims etc. to buy in.”

Acknowledging that people haven’t shown a great desire so far to change the current system, she says “maybe with a state model people might be more willing to change – it won’t happen overnight, and it needs to be negotiated with stakeholders”.

In the meantime, Ms Tuffy says, the country’s schools should strive to serve as many of the country’s children as possible, heedless of their status. “There’s been a tradition of Catholic schools, which is still predominant, of being inclusive on a socio-economic basis, taking travellers and people of different faiths. I wouldn't like to lose that.”

My journey home began on the morning of Saturday March 5, 2011. I was doing my morning Gongyo, which is a Buddhist chanting ceremony, when I started thinking of visiting Knock Shrine. Even though I was a leader in a Buddhist organisation, I had been having doubts for some time. I felt it was a beautiful way of looking at life, but there was something missing, and I kept thinking of my once strong Catholic Christian faith, which I had abandoned 10 years previously.

I decided there and then that I would make the journey to Knock (a four-and-a- half-hour drive) with an open mind, and my attitude was ‘may the best one win’. I was on a mission to find the truth, not a subjective view of things, but the actual objective truth.

At 3.30pm that day, outside the apparition chapel at Knock, I had my re-conversion. It wasn’t like a bolt of lightning with music and lights, it was a still small voice, an awakening, a realisation that my faith had come back, and I would be a committed Catholic from that moment for the rest of my life. I went straight to Confession feeling excited, but nervous, after 10 years away from the Faith. I didn’t know where to start, but the priest was great, making me feel like he just wanted to welcome me home.

Responsibilities

Once I had reorganised my life and unravelled my responsibilities in the Buddhist organisation, and got involved in the life of my local parish, it dawned on me that while my faith had indeed come back to me at Knock, it had also left me at Knock, or rather I had left it.

Ten years earlier, I went as a pilgrim to Knock. 

My life was becoming a mess at the time. I had developed a serious drinking problem and when I arrived in Knock, I headed straight for the pub before making a quick visit to the shrine praying simply: “help”.

 I grew up in a good Catholic home and I had a strong faith. 

As a boy, I used to have crushes on other boys, but never girls. At the time, I just thought that was how all boys felt and that feelings for girls would come when it was time to settle down, get married and have a family.

Then, as a teenager, I fell in love with a boy a few months older than me. He had bet me 10 pence that I wouldn’t kiss him – so I did. 

I then went home and read in the notes at the back of our family Bible that practicing homosexuality was sinful, and I sat on my bed and cried. I thought that I would go to hell for that kiss.

I went to college, and after my studies I went on to explore the ‘gay scene’. I spent many years in long-term (and some very short-term) relationships whilst at the same time trying to practice my faith.

I always felt drawn to celibacy, but platonic relationships weren’t readily available on the gay scene, and I was a nervous young man who was inclined to ‘go with the flow’.

Shooting

Gradually I developed a problem with alcohol. I found myself in all kinds of scrapes due to drinking, including being caught up in a random shooting incident when I got hit in the back of my leg.

Eventually I ended up with that drunken visit to Knock Shrine asking for help. 

Life then got even worse! I was convinced that God had ignored my plea for help. 

As a result, I stopped practicing my Catholic faith.

I got involved more and more with people who took advantage of my good nature and then became surrounded by a world of drink, drugs and criminal gangs. 

Fortunately I stuck to alcohol and cigarettes and didn’t get in to the hard drugs. Eventually I had a nervous breakdown. I behaved very badly during that period, which I deeply regret. 

I ended up letting down the very people I should have listened to, and had listened to those I shouldn’t have. I even ended up being arrested, locked up for a night and having two court appearances.

With the help of family and friends, life gradually improved. I busied myself with work and getting on with life, including embracing Buddhism.

Then came that day in 2011 when I was chanting away and felt strongly drawn to go to Knock. I now realise that when I had been there 10 years previously asking for help, that my prayer was answered: by being kept safe through all kinds of experiences, then being drawn back 10 years later – when I was ready – to a renewed faith built on the firm foundations of life experience.

I am now a teetotal non-smoker. I am happily celibate whilst comfortable and open in my sexuality. I have discovered there are lots of people who are gay and happily celibate for the sake of the Kingdom of God whilst not judging those who live differently.

God really does work in mysterious ways.   

Nestled in woodland and overlooking a beautiful panorama of three counties, the story of the woman known as ‘Margaret of New Orleans’ is told in a thatched cottage over tea and a turf fire. Built from scratch by the local community in Tully, Carrigallen Co. Leitrim, the cottage marks where Margaret Gaffney was born and lived the first few years of her life before her family moved to the US and she became the ‘Mother of Orphans’ in New Orleans.

In 2008, the Margaret of New Orleans Community Association was established in Carrigallen to create a memorial cottage, raise public awareness of her story and to pray for her beatification, while another dedicated committee in New Orleans collects evidence to present to the Vatican in the hope of beginning the process of her canonisation. 

Margaret was born in 1813, and at the age of five she emigrated with her parents, brother and sister, landing in Baltimore, Maryland. In a terrible series of tragic losses, first Margaret’s baby sister died and four years later her parents died from yellow fever and her brother disappeared and was never heard from again.

Though still a child herself Margaret found work as a domestic servant and in 1835 she married an Irish man named Charles Haughery. Charles had poor health so they moved to the city of New Orleans in Louisiana hoping that a different climate would help him and they had a daughter, Frances. The New Orleans climate did not help Charles and he decided to return to Ireland where he died shortly afterwards. A few months later, Frances became sick and died. Margaret was once again left devastated and alone in the world.

Irish widow

The life of an Irish widow in New Orleans was not easy. To support herself, Margaret worked as a laundress for the St Charles Hotel. She became acquainted with the Sisters of Charity and volunteered her time and her savings to the orphans they cared for.

“When she first went into the orphanage the children had no food or clothes. She got a handcart and started going around vegetable markets and collecting any donations people could spare,” says Carrigallen PP, Fr Denis Murray.

“The children were originally inside the city and she got the idea to take them out, so she bought a run-down farm and bought two cows. Then she had too much milk so she used the handcart to sell the milk. That was her first enterprise. Then she took over a bakery and it was the first steam bakery in America. It was hugely successful, and because of her business acumen businessmen would look for financial advice from her. Nothing was done for herself and she shows that in business you do not have to be ruthless or selfish.”

All the profits from Margaret’s business were used to support the work of caring for orphans and the poor, while Margaret herself was noted for her frugal lifestyle. Her charity crossed all races and religions, and she became a much loved and highly respected figure in New Orleans.

Margaret’s journey from destitute orphan to epic philanthropist ended in the care of the Sisters of Charity in 1882. She was given a state funeral – the largest ever seen in the city. She was the second woman in the US to have a statue erected in her honour, which was commissioned by the citizens of New Orleans soon after her death and still stands in the Lower Garden District.

Margaret’s legacy and the memory of her incredible charity work lives on in New Orleans, but her story has also been kept alive in her native parish. “The memory of Margaret has always been here with the people of Carrigallen,” says Bernie O’Rourke, the committee chairperson. “When we started building the cottage, people were fit to say this photograph came from America years ago to Augharan school and that’s it now on the wall of the cottage.”

Committee secretary, Maura Williamson says a former local school principal, Joe Doonan kept the history very much alive in the school. “He always got the school children to write Margaret’s story and other little projects. It was very much alive before we ever began.”

Stories and memories of Margaret had been shared over and back across the Atlantic until finally a group of locals in Carrigallen decided they had to do something in her memory. Michael Smith came up with the idea of rebuilding Margaret’s cottage. A meeting was held and the committee was formed.

“There was nothing but woods here and the well had fallen in, but from the locals we knew exactly where the house was,” says committee founder member, Kieran O’Rourke. “The local farmer who owns the land gave us a 99-year lease. We excavated the site and found old stones and rebuilt the well.”

Community

It was very much a community project and even local children helped out in any way they could. “We had nothing, it just came together,” Kieran says. “We broke down the ditch and we started to build. Help seemed to just come.”

“We were just about thatching the house when we held a fun day and we thought we had counted wrong when we saw the amount of donations,” Bernie says. “All the work has been done by volunteers and through donations, until the last two years when we got grants to put in the solar panels, toilets and other extras.”

The cottage is open for visitors in the summer months and for the last number of years a group of visitors have travelled from New Orleans to Carrigallen to trace Margaret’s footsteps. 

“During the months of July and August we open the cottage every Sunday between 2-5pm,” says assistant secretary Helen Corcoran. “The fire is lit and the kettle is on the boil. You will get a cup of tea and whatever food is on the table, if there is a local musician you will get a song or a dance, and you will get Margaret’s story from whatever member of the committee is here.”

Margaret was regarded as a saint in her lifetime and now her cause is making progress with support from both sides of the Atlantic. The director of the Carrigallen committee, Loughlin McManus might even be her first miracle, after he survived a life threatening illness.

“I was in hospital for 2-3 months. I went in for an operation and I picked up a bug called C Diff (Clostridium difficil). It’s a killer and only about 20% of people who get it survive. I was on a life support machine for three weeks. My whole system shut down and I had kidney dialysis four times. Everyone had been praying to Margaret and I got about 100 Mass cards. I think it was a miracle.”

Fr Murray says that as a saint Margaret could be of help to people who have experienced loss or are left alone in the world. “They could see hope and that’s what the world needs today,” he says.

“After all she lost, through her hope and her belief in God she not only overcame but she became a hugely fruitful person. Her love towards others is really the miracle of Margaret and underpinning her miracle is her spirituality. She got that inner strength somewhere beyond herself, because it was almost superhuman what she achieved.”

For more information on Margaret visit www.margaretsbirthplace.com or on Facebook view Beloved Margaret Haughery of New Orleans

The Story of Knock began on the evening of Thursday August 21, 1879.

Mary McLoughlin saw an apparition of the Blessed Virgin Mary, St Joseph and St John the Evangelist and alerted 15 family members and friends to come and watch.

For two hours, the witnesses stood in the driving rain reciting the rosary as they observed the heavenly apparition. Beside Our Lady, St Joseph and St John and a little to their left the witnesses reported an altar with a cross and the figure of the Lamb of God, around which angels hovered.

Two Church Commissions of Inquiry, in 1879 and 1936, accepted the witnesses’ testimony as trustworthy and satisfactory.

Almost ever since, Knock has played a vital role in the story of Irish Catholicism and has been an important site of pilgrimage attracting some 1.5million visitors every year.

St John Paul II, during his historic visit to the shine in 1979 described Knock as “the goal of my journey to Ireland”.

Reflecting on the story of Knock, John Paul II said that “yours is a long spiritual tradition of devotion to Our Lady. Mary can truly say of Ireland… “So I took root in an honoured people” (Sir 24 :12). Your veneration of Mary is so deeply interwoven in your faith that its origins are lost in the early centuries of the evangelisation of your country”.

Referring to the Irish language, the Pontiff said “I have been told that, in Irish speech, the names of God and Jesus and Mary are linked with one another, and that God is seldom named in prayer or in blessing without Mary’s name being mentioned also.

“I also know that you have an 8th-Century Irish poem that calls Mary ‘Sun of our race’, and that a litany from that same period honours her as ‘Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church’. But better than any literary source, it is the constant and deeply rooted devotion to Mary that testifies to the success of evangelisation by St Patrick, who brought you the Catholic faith in all its fullness.”

Special place

Knock, like other Marian shrines, has always had a special place for those experiencing any kind of suffering. John Paul II captured this when he told pilgrims in 1979 that “from that day of grace, 21 August 1879, until this very day, the sick and suffering, people handicapped in body or mind, troubled in their faith or their conscience, all have been healed, comforted and confirmed in their faith because they trusted that the Mother of God would lead them to her Son, Jesus.

“Every time a pilgrim comes up to what was once an obscure bogside village in Co. Mayo, every time a man, woman or child comes up to the old church with the apparition gable or to the new Shrine of Mary Queen of Ireland, it is to renew his or her faith in the salvation that comes through Jesus, who made us all children of God and heirs of the Kingdom of Heaven,” he said.

St John Paul II’s visit offered a powerful papal affirmation of the special place that Knock has within the Church in Ireland. As the shrine prepares to celebrate 135 years and looks to the next 135 years and beyond, this special issue of The Irish Catholic traces the history of Marian devotion in the Church and charts the unique and living spiritual legacy of Knock.

St John Paul II described Our Lady’s Shrine at Knock as “the goal of my journey to Ireland” during his 1979 pilgrimage.

The Pope said to the many pilgrims who had joined him at the shrine that “yours is a long spiritual tradition of devotion to Our Lady.

“Your veneration of Mary is so deeply interwoven in your faith that its origins are lost in the early centuries of the evangelisation of your country.

“I have been told that, in Irish speech, the names of God and Jesus and Mary are linked with one another, and that God is seldom named in prayer or in blessing without Mary’s name being mentioned also,” the Pope said.

John Paul II went on to recall a famous 8th-Century Irish poem that refers to Our Lady as ‘Sun of our race’ and a litany from the same period that honours Mary as “Mother of the heavenly and earthly Church”.

“But better than any literary source,” the Pope said, “it is the constant and deeply rooted devotion to Mary that testifies to the success of evangelisation by Saint Patrick, who brought you the Catholic faith in all its fullness”.

This year, Knock Shrine is celebrating 136 years since the apparition. The shrine has an enduring appeal and while the cultural circumstances have changed, Our Lady still speaks through Knock to people who are bruised and broken.

Marian devotion has always identified Catholicism with the vulnerable and marginalised. Mary’s ‘Magnificat’ is a powerful hymn that exalts the downtrodden: “He puts forth his arm in strength and scatters the proud-hearted. He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly. He fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty”.

Knock continues to be a singular place of grace and prayer for the Church in Ireland – a powerhouse of spirituality. While the apparition is the central focus, Knock is a living tradition rather than simply the commemoration of 1879.

In 2014, Knock Shrine launched the ‘Witness to Hope’ initiative which has faith renewal and the promotion of the shrine as its core priorities.

Workshops and seminars are now an integral part of the Knock Novena experience and have proven to be extremely popular amongst pilgrims. People responded very positively to the interactivity and discussion that arose from this, as well as the varied themes and topics themselves.

Reasons

People come to Knock for a variety of reasons: some people come in search of peace, others for a special intention, still others as an act of thanksgiving. Many people come as part of a journey, sometimes even unaware of what draws them to Knock. The shrine has an enduring power which draws people to journey with Mary to God revealed in the miracle of the Eucharist.

The message of Knock “was unspoken, but the truth in silence lies”.