Cardinal Paul Cullen (1803-1878) and Our Former P.P. Fr Ciarán O'Carroll

 Photo from diocesan website

Report from the Irish Times, 25th June: "The remains of Ireland’s first cardinal and architect of the Catholic Church on this island were removed from Clonliffe College in Dublin this morning and reinterred at the Pro-Cathedral crypt in the city centre. Since his death in 1878 Cardinal Cullen has rested beneath the high altar of the chapel at Clonliffe, a college he founded in 1854. Clonliffe’s recent sale meant his body had to be reinterred in the Pro-Cathedral crypt. The ceremony was marked by a liturgy presided over by Archbishop Dermot Farrell, Cardinal Cullen’s successor as Archbishop of Dublin. Also in attendance was Msgr Ciarán O’Carroll, administrator at the Church of the Sacred Heart in Donnybrook and Cardinal Cullen’s successor as former rector of the Irish College in Rome. Msgr O’Carroll is also author of the 2009 biography Paul Cardinal Cullen : Portrait of a Practical Nationalist."

Msgr O'Carroll (seen in photo above) was parish priest of Saggart, Rathcoole and Brittas from 2004 to 2008. (Newcastle was a parish of its own from 1974 to 2010.) For the life of Cardinal Cullen see the Dictionary of Irish Biography here.

Reading the Signs of the Times: Archbishop Farrell's Homily on the Feast of St Kevin, 3rd June

The full text of the homily can be read HERE.

Some Extracts

(1)   What we are experiencing today is a crisis in a particular historical form of Church. The Church, however, is more than any one particular historical form. Since change occurs over a period of years, our generation cannot easily see the contours—not to mention the final form—of what is going to emerge.  However, just as the raindrops on the footpath suggests the imminence of rain, we are surrounded by signs of change that are as profound as they are imminent.

(2)   What is now emerging is a different sense of “ownership” of the Church and its mission—from a “clergy-owned” to a Church truly “owned” by the People of God. This change, indeed, this transformation will take time. But there’s more: it also implies a different role and a new self-understanding by those of us in ministerial priesthood. We are servants of the Gospel of God (see Mark 1:14)—but we cannot continue failing to appreciate that all the baptised share this mission. We may no longer ignore that God’s people are the Church, and their contribution cannot be underestimated in the Church.

(3)   Among the raindrops falling on the Church’s path today are those that make it clear that the current parish system is not sustainable. The way we are Church in Dublin needs to evolve as the resources available no longer allow me to appoint priests, deacons and other pastoral ministers to meet the pastoral needs of every faith community.  Moreover, the decreasing number of priests cannot limit themselves to an ever increasing number of sacramental celebrations.  This situation requires decision and discernment to know what we bring with us from the past into the future.

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"We're getting few vocations for the priesthood. The calls we're getting now are for the diaconate."  Read Fr John Gilligan's interview in The Irish Catholic, 10 June 2021, p.17 HERE. 

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See the June issue of the monthly newsletter, eJ4, HERE.