Each year on Saint Patrick’s Day, special collections for Irish emigrants take place in many dioceses across the island. These collections help fund the work of the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants which has been responding to the needs of our emigrants around the world since 1957. It continues to do so through the work of its pastoral centres in the United States and the UK, which provide a myriad of services to marginalised and vulnerable groups of Irish people, many of whom are living lives of quiet desperation including the destitute, elderly, Travellers and prisoners. Grants from the emigrant collection are provided to other organisations who provide targeted and specialist support to discrete categories of vulnerable emigrants such as the aged, lonely and to those with addiction and mental health problems.
Bishops said, “We ask the faithful to contribute what they can to collections at Mass to support our emigrants. As a Church, and a people, we are obliged as Christians to reach out to those who are affected by emigration as they are often the most marginalised in their new home. We pray for all Irish people overseas – those who are recently departed and for those who left our shores many years ago. We remember the families they have left behind and pray that they will find strength and comfort as they cope with the pain of separation.”
ENDS
