The above two photos are taken from this week's Irish Catholic newspaper published last Thursday 20th. The events they illustrate are certainly worth recording here. The top photo shows Fr Michael Shortall (left) presiding for the first time as President of Maynooth College at the annual conferring ceremony. On the right is Archbishop Eamon Martin who, as Chancellor of the University whose degress were being awarded (i.e. SPPU, St Patrick's Pontifical University), presented these to the happy students one by one. (The caption, I'm afraid, gets the roles mixed up -- it is Archbishop Eamon who is Chancellor, not Rev. Dr Michael.)
The other photo shows Archbishop Dermot Farrell announcing a truly historic event, i.e. the recognition by Rome of Dublin's Pro-Cathedral as a cathedral in the full sense of the word, no longer hyphenated somewhat awkwardly and puzzlingly as before but a cathedral now with all the high status that comes with that title.
And so we have the students in SPPU overjoyed on receiving their award from Rome in the form of a degree and Archbishop Dermot (former President of Maynooth) jubilantly sharing another document from Rome granting the Archdiocese of Dublin a cathedral at last. Everyone happy -- a degree for the students and a papal decree for the Catholic faithful of Dublin!
