Members of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference gathered in-person this week for their Summer 2022 General Meeting at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. The President of the Conference is Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh and the Vice-President is Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin.
During their meeting bishops prayed for the repose of the souls of those who died from Covid-19; in consolation for their bereaved, and for everyone who continues to suffer from the virus. Bishops also remembered in their prayers victims and families of the violent atrocities perpetrated against the innocent during Mass on Pentecost Sunday in Owo, Nigeria. They also included in their prayers victims of shootings in the United States, on 24 May, in Uvalde, Texas, and in Buffalo, New York, on 14 May.
Maynooth Union
Bishops offered their prayerful good wishes to clergy attending the annual Maynooth Union conference this week at Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth. The conference is an opportunity for those priests, who are celebrating significant anniversaries of their ordination, to gather with classmates in a spirit of prayer. 2022 sees several diamond, golden and silver jubilees being marked of priests ordained sixty, fifty and twenty-five years ago. This year’s event is the first in-person gathering of Jubilarians since before the Covid-19 pandemic. Guest speakers included Sister Nathalie Becquart, Undersecretary of the Synod of Bishops; Baroness Nuala O’Loan, and Bishop Paul Tighe, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for Culture. Bishops also offered prayers for the ministry of all priests at this time.
The main issues discussed by the bishops during their Summer General Meeting included:
- National Pre-Synodal Assembly to take place in Athlone this Saturday, 18 June
- Bishops’ appreciation for €4.3m collected for the people of Ukraine and discuss plight of refugees in Ireland
- Child safeguarding
- Northern Ireland
- 10th World Meeting of Families in Rome
- World Day for Grandparents and the Elderly – In old age they will still bear fruit
- Trócaire – one person to die from hunger every 48 seconds in the Horn of Africa
- Appointments
For more see www.catholicbishops.ie.
ENDS
