Farewell, Fr Enda. Welcome, Fr John

Fr Enda, Parish Priest since 2008, has been appointed to the parish of St Andrew's, Westland Row. There will be a farewell reception in his honour on Thursday, 6th October, in St Mary's GAA Club, Saggart, at 8 pm. Tribute will be paid to him then for all his good work among us. All parishioners are welcome to attend.

Fr John Gilligan, Parish Administrator, St Andrew's, Westland Row, since 2007 (see here) has been appointed Moderator to our two parishes. He will be given a public welcome at the reception above mentioned in St Mary's GAA Club.

For an explanation of the term 'Moderator', see par. 4 of Dublin's Priest Appointments 2008, the same document that announces the appointment of Fr Enda to Saggart (here).

The work of each team [i.e. Team Ministry in a 'Pastoral Area' made up of a group of parishes] will be coordinated by a priest Moderator.  His role will be one of primus inter pares [i.e. first among equalsl], since each of the Team Members has an equal responsibility within the entire pastoral area. Each of the priest members of the team will celebrate Mass in each of the parish Churches and is bound to fulfill the duties and obligations of a Parish Priest referred to in cc. 528-530, 543. In addition, each Priest is also responsible to the Archbishop and to the faithful of the Parishes.    

For more information see the Newsletters for the 11th and 18th September. In the latter there is a very important notice from the Parish Pastoral Council entitled  'Potential Sale of Old School Building, Saggart'.

Tiptop Work! Renovation Complete with Repair of Tower Pinnacle

Back Again in its Place : The Repaired Finial (foreground, right)  5.9.2016

Many parishioners were unaware of it, maybe, while others were, though saying nothing about it. What are we talking about?  A small piece of unfinished business from the great work done on the exterior of St Mary's from late autumn 2014 to Easter 2015. Once you became aware of it, it just would not go away, and remained there to detract somewhat from the magnificent overall effect left by the rest of the work. We have a lovely church tower capped by a fine crenellated parapet with four pinnacles rising high at each corner. On top of each pinnacle there is what is called a 'finial' which, in our case, is in the form of a stone ball (click on above photo to enlarge it). Now one of these finials must not have been attached securely enough into the top of its pinnacle and had to be taken down for repair sometime in April of last year. Months went by, those who had noticed its going waiting patiently for its reappearance. Summer came and went. 2016 came and was going swiftly by.  Still no sign. The knowledgeable Christy Keane assured those who inquired that the matter was being dealt with and to just hold on a bit longer. Every day as one drove through the village, a glance up at the church tower revealed whether there was any news. Was there ever going to be any great news at all, one wondered ever more sceptically.  So then, what great joy it was when yet another weary glance up at the sky on Thursday, 25th August showed that, yes, yes, it had come back! 

Now we can show off the finally completed work with great fanfare. For photos of the entire work of external renovation see here.  For the story of the 'missing' finial, see here.  (To change slide at your own pace, click on the screen for a desktop or touch it for a tablet.)