Thanks Ireland
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FREE www.catholicvoiceoancaster.co.uk The Ocial Newspaper to Inside this month: the Diocese of Lancaster p3 Diamond Celebrations p11 Rev Deacon Kevin Hickey RIP Issue 242 + September 2012 p12 Local Martyrs Thanks Ireland - for a wonderful International Eucharistic Congress I led a group of alking to members of the group there the Papal Legate, and attended by a thirty pilgrims Twas a common sense of wanting to congregation of over 80,000. A personal attend the International Eucharistic message from Pope Benedict was broadcast K&M Maintenance from our diocese Heating - Electrical - Building Congress to show our solidarity with Irish at the conclusion of the Mass. Telephone: 01772 704530 Fax 01722 798801 to the 50th Catholics who have been going through Heating, Electrical and Building services across the North West of England International such a hard time in recent years. We There was a wonderful atmosphere of joyful Gas wanted to say ‘Thank you’ to the Irish celebration of being Catholic among the tens • Emergency Boiler Repairs for all makes Eucharistic • Boiler Installations & servicing Church on behalf of the Diocese of of thousands at Dublin’s Congress. There was • Central Heating System repairs/upgrades/leaks Congress held Lancaster for all the wonderful Irish also an exuberant sense of life among the • New fitted Central Heating Systems • Landlord Gas Safety Certificates (CP12) priests, religious sisters and brothers, who exhibition stands that displayed the work in Dublin. We Electrical joined 7,000 have ministered to us over the generations of hundreds of ministries in Ireland, the UK • New consumer units supplied and fitted as much-loved and respected parish and around the world. The Congress made it • All emergency breakdowns • Power tripping international • New lighting • Additional sockets priests, teachers and catechists. clear to everyone just how wrong the media • Faulty sockets • Rewiring pilgrims who had reports are in portraying the Church as • Outdoor lighting/sockets travelled from The reason why we’ve been able to celebrate exhausted and dying. Nothing could be Building • Extension work all over the world the Eucharist in many of our parishes over further from the truth. • Alterations • Driveways, paths and patios the past hundred years is because of the • Conservatories • Double glazing to celebrate with generosity of Irish priests coming over to I lost count of the number of nationalities • Fascias and Soffits the Irish Church serve the English Church. The International I met over the three days. You really get a Prices Boiler Service - £39 + VAT plus £10 for every additional appliance. Eucharistic Congress was a wonderful sense of just how huge the Church is when the heart of the Tel No: 01772 704530 Mobile: 07941 554730 Fax No: opportunity for the Diocese of Lancaster to Catholics gather in one place from all over Catholic faith – 01772 798801 say, ‘Thank you Ireland’. the world. It truly is a universal Church. Address: K & M Maintenance Services Ltd, Jesus’ continuing Unit 9 Romay Way, Preston, Lancs PR2 5BB and real presence Lancaster’s pilgrims came from the length There are so many highlights from the More information: wwwkmmaintenance.co.uk in the Most Holy and breadth of the diocese, from Carlisle and Congress that stand out in my memory: The Sacrament of Keswick in the north, Barrow-in-Furness in sound of thousands of rosary beads being the west, and Morecambe and Lancaster taken out of pockets and handbags; the the Altar. in the south. Our diocese’s pilgrim group sight of hundreds of pilgrims young and represented young and old, with the old receiving the sacrament of the sick; youngest member 18 and the oldest member listening to a teenage boy singing St. 89. Bishop Campbell and Fr. Billing, the Patrick’s Breastplate; hearing 80,000 Bishop’s Secretary, joined us for an evening’s Catholics praying the Our Father at Croke walk and dinner in Dublin. Park; seeing hundreds of priests and Thanks Ireland deacons stand up and applaud Cardinal for a wonderful During the three days of the Congress we Ouellet’s exhortation to listen to the Holy International attended workshops, lectures, and concerts, Father with great respect and gratitude, and participated in open-air Masses with trust and sincere obedience; the Eucharistic attended by tens of thousands of pilgrims reverence and hushed silence of thousands Congress. from around the world. receiving communion. Deacon Nick Donnelly, Our time at the Congress concluded with the I’d like to thank all who joined our diocesan St Mary of Furness, Statio Orbis Mass at the famous Croke Park group and made our pilgrimage to Dublin Barrow. Stadium, presided by Cardinal Marc Ouellet, such an enjoyable and Catholic experience. 2 + The Catholic Voice of Lancaster + September 2012 www.catholicvoiceo ancaster.co.uk EDITORIAL ope Benedict XVI has set aside a special year for Catholics homes and among our families, so that everyone may feel a Pthroughout the world to rediscover, and share with others, strong need to know better and to transmit to future generations the precious gift of Faith entrusted to the Church and the the faith of all times. personal gift of faith that we have each received. He also wants us to approach the Year of Faith as a time of The Holy Father has decreed that the Catholic Church will puri£cation for the Church and for individuals, a summons to an observe the Year of Faith between 11 October 2012 and 24 authentic and renewed conversion to the Lord. Pope Benedict is November 2013. The 11th October 2012 is the anniversary of clear that faced with the urgent need for the puri£cation of the two important events in the life of the Catholic Church: the 50th Church the ‘one thing that will be of decisive importance in this anniversary of the opening of the Second Vatican Council and Year is retracing the history of our faith, marked as it is by the the 20th anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the unfathomable mystery of the interweaving of holiness and sin.’ Catholic Church by Blessed John Paul II. What does Pope Benedict mean by this? It is easy to become Pope Benedict explains that though the Second Vatican Council discouraged, even heart-broken at the sins and abuses occurred half a century ago it remains ‘the great grace bestowed committed by some of our fellow Catholics. There seems to have on the Church in the twentieth century’ that is ‘a sure compass by been one scandal after another. The history of humanity’s Contact us which to take our bearings in the century now beginning.’ relationship with God is one of God’s faithfulness and man’s The Catholic Voice of Lancaster in£delity and sin, terrible, appalling sin. The wonder is that God, is published on the last Sunday of the The Holy Father is also convinced that the Second Vatican in His goodness and holiness, wants anything to do with us. month previous to publication date. Council, if interpreted and implemented according to the mind And yet, out of unfathomable and incomprehensible love, God of the Church stretching back to the Apostles, ‘can be and can became a man to redeem us from our sin. The history of the The Catholic Voice of Lancaster is become increasingly powerful for the ever necessary renewal of the people of God, the Church, is the history of God’s call to share published by its owners. The Trustees Church’. (Porta Fidei, 5). in His holiness and man’s sinful betrayal. This is why the Church of the Roman Catholic Diocese of needs puri£cation, because she is made up of human beings who Lancaster, a registered charity, This is why an important component of the Year of Faith will be are in constant need of puri£cation. (No. 234331), and is wholly independent reection and rediscovery of the riches contained in the texts of and separate from any previous of Vatican II. During the Year of Faith Pope Benedict encourages us to focus on newspaper published by or on behalf the great £gures of our Faith who have answered God’s call to of the diocese. The anniversary of the publication of the Catechism of the holiness and struggled against humanity’s propensity to sin. So Catholic Church is also important because it is ‘a precious and during the Year of Faith we need to become more familiar with the EDITOR: indispensable tool. It is one of the most important fruits of the great £gures of our Faith, from Mary and the Apostles, to the Edwina Gillett Second Vatican Council’. (Porta Fidei, 11). saints, martyrs, confessors and virgins. Pope Benedict concludes 01253 736630 / 07969 967268 with a beautiful expression of his hopes for us: [email protected] Blessed John Paul II declared that the Catechism of the Catholic www.catholicvoiceoancaster.co.uk Church is ‘a sure norm for teaching the faith’. It was his hope that it would ‘serve the renewal to which the Holy Spirit ceaselessly calls ADVERTISING: the Church of God,, the Body of Christ, on her pilgrimage to the Intent on gathering the signs of the times Caroline Gonella / CathCom Ltd. undiminished light of the Kingdom!’ ‘ 01223 969506 in the present of history, faith commits [email protected] In order for us rediscover the content of the faith, the Holy Father every one of us to become a living sign of www.cathcom.org proposes that the Year of Faith will have to see a concerted e¡ort the presence of the Risen Lord in the world. to rediscover and study the fundamental content of the faith DESIGN & LAYOUT: that receives its systematic and organic synthesis in the What the world is in particular need of today Rob Hotchkiss / Hot Creative Catechism of the Catholic Church.