News • Spirituality • Culture • Education • Life OfficialFLOURISH Journal of the Archdiocese of Glasgow July 2021 I am with you always – this is the promise the Lord made to his disciples... They are the words that I, as Bishop of Rome, and an elderly person like yourselves, would like to address to you on this first World Day of Grandparents and the Elderly… – POPE FRANCIS by ronnie convery ope Francis has sent a mov- Ping and powerful letter to the elderly as the Church prepares to celebrate the first ever World Day of Grandparents and Elderly People. The celebration which will be marked this year on July 25 is intended to place the focus of the Church on the often hid- den but heroic work done by older peo- ple and is intended to thank them and encourage them. The letter, written in a deeply personal way by the Holy Father is sure to touch the hearts of senior citizens and all who care for them. Flourish has therefore de- cided to carry an abridged version of the letter and dedicates this special issue to our older readers. In the words of the Holy Father … “The whole Church is close to you – to us – and cares about you, loves you and does not want to leave you alone!” Continued on page 4 cardinal great hunger parliament Remembering Famine Dumbarton’s Cardinal Tom memorial to John is new 20 years on be unveiled Speaker full report page 9-11 full report page 2 full report page 5 2 news FLOURISH July 2021 Irish famine memorial will grace St Mary’s cotland’s first memo- by brian the church re- other million fled starva- rial dedicated solely swanson garded as the tion in the Great Hunger Sto the dead and displaced spiritual home years from 1845 to 1852 with Irish victims of the Great of the impover- 100,000 eventually finding Hunger will be unveiled in ished Catholic families who a new life in Glasgow. the grounds of St Mary’s in were forced to seek a new Celtic Football Club was the Calton later this month life in Glasgow during one founded at St Mary’s, ini- after a lengthy campaign of the darkest periods in tially as a way of raising by the descendants of those Irish history more than 170 money to alleviate poverty it commemorates. years ago, when the country among the Irish families The stainless steel sculp- was devastated by the po- whose descendants now ac- ture, created by Donegal- tato famine. count for around a third of based artist John McCarron, It is estimated that a mil- Glasgow’s population. will stand in the grounds of lion people died and an- The same generos- ity which distinguished the community who supported Brother Walfrid in his work St Nicholas Care Fund in the 1880s, was evident in A charity of the Archdiocese of Glasgow the fundraising campaign to build the memorial which St. Nicholas Care Fund continues to offer grant support will be soon be numbered to any group that is supporting disadvantaged people. among more than a hun- Schools, churches and community groups can submit dred such spaces in towns applications to us at any time. and cities all over the world. Plans for a Glasgow me- Application forms are available on our website and can morial by Coiste Cuimh- be submitted electronically. nveachain An Gorta Mor Project2:Layout 2 www.rcag.org.uk27/07/2017 13:55 Page 1 (the Great Hunger Memo- [email protected] · 0141 226 5898 · Scottish Charity SC029832 rial Committee) began in 2015 and in under two years raised an impressive £80,000 . File name: SNCF 5x2 Donations came from all A tribute in steel Client: St Nicholas Care Fund – July 2021 Size:I s G85mmx50mmod calling you? over the world and included an incredible £22,000 raised rtist John McCarron, based in Don- children. They are rural people in an urban Publication:to a lif eFlourishof silence and solitude within a Artworker: RP at a single dinner-dance at Aegal, was chosen from a large number landscape. Time: coJunemm 28,u n2021ity 6:05of f ePMllow seekers? Celtic Park. of entries to create the memorial which “This sculpture represents my inter- Status:Th e CisClientterc iproofan m 1onks at Nunraw Abbey Jeanette Findlay, chair he has called ‘Tower of Silence’ which pretation and attempt to relay a sense of of CCAGM said: “It is only will stand on a three metre high plinth in truth. Truth about starvation, despera- offer such an opportunity. right their legacy and strug- a small area of ground to the right of the tion, emigration and integration into the gle are commemorated by entrance to St Mary’s Church. Scottish nation. With them you can praise God through their descendants in a per- John said: “This was a terrible event so a a “The sculpture is titled The Tower of Si- the psalms and liturgy at set times during manent and fitting way.” memorial to the estimated hundred thou- lence. In many cultures, a tower of silence the day. You will have time to study the sand people who fled to Glasgow should was an elevated platform where bodies ■ A full report with be worthy of a powerful statement.” were placed after a battle for carrion to ways of God and to meet God in your pictures of the unveiling The square stainless steel column repre- feed on. In the context of An Gorta Mór lectio divina. And, you will find work and blessing of the sents Glasgow, though the steel patchwork the combatants, those fighting for sur- that will keep body and soul together. sculpture is scheduled to echoes the stone-built cabins from where vival, are on their own tower of silence, take place, in line with the people came. The abstract steel fig- their old lives and way of life gone, a city If you have good reason to believe level 2 Covid restrictions, ures that stand atop the column are semi awaits where they must adapt to an urban on Sunday July 25, will be abstract figures, gaunt and thin, starving, lifestyle to survive”. God may be calling you to be a monk, published in the August carrying nothing but themselves and their write to: edition of Flourish. Vocation Director, Nunraw Abbey HADDINGTON, EH41 4LW, Scotland Or email: [email protected] Bernard Corrigan 6x2.qxd 2019-11-19 11:24 Page 1 Scottish Charity No SCO22611 Communion dress recycling initiative GlasGow based char- of next year’s sacrament. now since the First Com- time for them and their chil- ity is appealing for Mary Beth Graham, sales munion ‘season’ coming to dren.” Adonations of unwanted and marketing manager an end and rather than put ApparelXchange, who in- communion dresses to help with the charity said: “I grew dresses in a cupboard or a tend to work closely with families of next year’s first up in a Catholic family of six charity shop we would ask Catholic schools to let communicants facing fi- so I personally recognise the families who no longer need families find out more the Bernard Corrigan Ltd nancial hardship. importance of this Sacra- them to donate them to us scheme, are now accepting W H O L E S A L E F I S H M O N G E R • P O U LT E R E R & G A M E D E A L E R ApparelXchange, a social ment but I also know how for next year. donations at its shop in St enterprise which recycles many families can struggle Enoch’s centre next to the Opportunity 184–200 HOWARD STREET and re-uses children’s cloth- with financial and social Vue Cinema. ing, will clean, store and sell pressures for this special “It’s an ideal opportunity GLASGOW G1 4HW – at a fraction of the normal day where items are bought to help families who find Telephone: 0141 552 4368 • Fax: 0141-552 4731 cost – any donated dresses, then used only once. themselves struggling and ■ For more details shoes, kilts, jackets and ac- “For that reason we’ve de- facing needless pressure at email:Marybeth@ cessories for the celebration cided to launch this drive what should be a very happy apparelxchange.co.uk July 2021 FLOURISH news 3 Youthful saints’ relics now venerated at St Ninian’s he relics of two young by ronnie convery people born almost a Tthousand years apart have pictures by paul mcsherry been placed in a Glasgow school oratory in a moving ceremony conducted by Covid world is greater than Archbishop Conti. ever. In 1625, as a plague The occasion was the swept Palermo and killed blessing of the new altar at dozens of people each day, St Ninian’s High School in the Saint appeared before a Giffnock at the end of the man. school term, and the Arch- Rosalia, a young Sicilian bishop took the opportunity hermit who died 500 years to encourage young people earlier, told him that if the to imitate the example of the people of Palermo walked in young ‘heroes of the faith’ procession while carrying over whose relics Mass will her relics, to be found in a now be said in the school’s grotto on Monte Pellegrino, magnificent oratory. then the “evil fever” would Head teacher John Do- disappear. cherty told Flourish that the school felt privileged to ‘Evil fever’ have the relics of the new Archbishop Conti used ‘internet saint’, Blessed their example to encourage Carlo Acutis and the young the staff and pupils to keep Italian saint, St Rosalia of struggling for holiness.