WELCOME BACK:
With the beginning of another academic year, I sense a mood of optimism and good will and an opportunity to make some fresh starts in all sorts of areas. I have observed with interest and satisfaction the gradual revival of many areas of parish and school life since the pandemic. I am hoping that during the autumn we can gently review what needs doing in order to help us cope as efficiently as possible. For example, last Wednesday I attended a day on Safeguarding at the Archdiocesan Centre, and inevitably, there are new recommendations and protocols resulting from past experience, which it is important that we discuss with all those who have the DBS safeguarding clearance for different fields of ministry. I do not have the numbers at my fingertips, but it is a measure of how many of you are involved that they must run into the hundreds if we take the two parishes together. Likewise, I think the time has come to review the main structures of parish life, finding out who is available to serve on councils or teams to ensure the greatest efficiency. We will not rush at all this but find opportunities to meet and discuss with all of you who wish to contribute.
Meanwhile, I will continue to explore the possibility of the mutual support that could be forthcoming if some kind of twinning with another Redemptorist parish across the Irish Sea proves feasible. On Thursday I will be going to Ireland on behalf of the Provincial Council, and then I plan to spend the weekend in Dundalk, where Fr Brendan Callanan is the Rector and Parish Priest. He is even older than I am, and we struck up a good rapport when we were in Rome together a few weeks ago. So, watch this space in a couple of weeks’ time for the early fruits of our meeting!
Our Irish confrères have been instrumental in promoting annual Novenas which attract tens of thousands of people in places like Belfast and Limerick. Most of these are unique in that they focus on Our Lady of Perpetual Succour, but Dundalk is unique in that its Novena focuses on St Gerard Majella. Since we have shrines to both, we should have much to learn from them about developing our shrine ministry.
