Members of the Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference gathered this week in Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, for their Autumn 2024 General Meeting. The President of the Conference is Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, and the Vice-President is Archbishop Dermot Farrell of Dublin.
During their gathering, bishops offered Mass in the historic College Chapel with staff and volunteers of the Bishops’ Conference, as well as for the participants of the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which is taking place from today in Rome. The Mass was followed by a reception in Pugin Hall to express gratitude to staff and volunteers for their work and commitment to the mission of the Church.
Issues discussed by bishops during their Autumn General Meeting included:
- First anniversary of Israel-Hamas war; praying for Irish peacekeeping troops
- Safeguarding – Scoping Inquiry
- Praying for the success of the Universal Synod in Rome; membership of Irish Synodal Pathway
- Bishops to publish Pastoral Letter addressing Immigration in Ireland
- Countdown to Jubilee Year 2025 in Ireland and in Rome
- Mission Sunday on 20 October encourages encounter with God
- Addressing key public policy issues in Northern Ireland
- Open days for vocations to the priesthood – see vocations.ie
- Season of Creation
- In Memoriam
- First anniversary of Israel-Hamas war; praying for Irish peacekeeping troops
Bishops reflected on Pope Francis’ statement of 9 May, announcing details for the 2025 Jubilee Year for the Universal Church, wherein the Holy Father implored:
Bishops said, “We are mindful that, in the Holy Land, the anniversary of the appalling attacks by Hamas on Israeli citizens falls on Monday next, 7 October. To date, 41,000 people have been killed in Gaza, including Israeli hostages, while other hostages remain illegally detained and at grave risk. The potential for a severe escalation has been heightened by the related conflict in neighbouring Lebanon, where only this week over one million people have been displaced. At this time we pray in a special way for members of the Irish Defence Forces on peacekeeping mission in the region.
“The clear violations of international law, as indicated by the ruling in July of the International Court of Justice, must compel the international community to ensure accountability for such violations. Trócaire, the overseas development agency of the Irish Catholic Church, continues to work with partners in the region, standing in solidarity with people in the face of such barbaric conflict.
“We are asking the faithful to join us in daily prayer for an end to war in the Holy Land, Ukraine, Syria, Yemen, Sudan and other troubled places in our world. This needless endangerment to human life is a threat to global peace and stability. Humanity deserves a much more honest and determined effort on the part of the international community to address the causes of conflict and its impact on people, families and society.”
- Safeguarding – Scoping Inquiry
Bishops discussed the Report of the Scoping Inquiry into Historical Sexual Abuse in Day and Boarding Schools Run by Religious Orders, by Mary O’Toole SC, published on 3 September.
Bishops said, “The publication of the Scoping Inquiry is a further step in shining the light of truth into our collective past. It exposes once again the widespread abuse of our most vulnerable by those in whom parents had placed so much trust. The report is testimony to the bravery of survivors who courageously expressed their heart-breaking experience of childhood abuse and trauma, whose impact lasts a lifetime.
“The report makes for harrowing reading. The failure by individuals and institutions is a strong theme in the Scoping Inquiry. All too obvious is the absence of both a culture of child safeguarding and of general respect towards children and their families. Today, it is important to assure parents and students that Catholic schools have robust child safeguarding procedures, and that the Catholic education sector is fully committed to maintaining effective child safeguarding by engaging positively with the Department of Education on the development, review and improvement of these standards. In addition, all departmental school inspections include a child safeguarding review.
“While the safeguarding of children is now well established in both policy and culture across the school system and in wider Church and civil society, we cannot relent in our vigilance or in continuing to address the traumas of the past. It is an indispensable part of the renewal of the life of the Church in Ireland”.
- Praying for the success of the Universal Synod in Rome; membership of Irish Synodal Pathway
Universal Synod
Bishops prayed for all of the participants at the Second Session of the XVI Ordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops, which formally opens today in the Vatican and will deliberate until 27 October on the theme, ‘For a Synodal Church: Communion, Participation, and Mission.’ The task of this second session is to complete the discernment begun at the first session in October 2023, and thereafter to offer the result to Pope Francis in a final document.
Attending the Synod as representatives of the Bishops’ Conference are Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick, and Bishop Alan McGuckian SJ of Down and Connor. Sister Mary Teresa Barron OLA, President of the International Union of Superiors General; and, Sister Patricia Murray IBVM, Executive Secretary of the International Union of Superiors General, both from Ireland, are also in attendance. Rev Professor Eamon Conway, a priest of the Archdiocese of Tuam, is serving the Synod as an ‘Expert and Facilitator’.
Bishops said, “We invite people of faith to pray throughout October for all members of the Synodal Assembly as, in the words of Pope Francis, ‘without prayer there will be no Synod.’ Since 2021 synodal listening has moved through parish, diocesan, national, and continental stages, fostering continuous dialogue with the Universal Church. While the synodal process nurtures participation and co-responsibility, the discernment of the Pobal Dé has been at the heart of the journey, guiding the mission of the Body of Christ into the future.”
Irish Synodal Pathway
To see the new membership list for the National Team of the Irish Synodal Pathway, click here.
As part of the Jubilee Year of Hope, the Irish Synodal Pathway is preparing for a pre-synodal assembly in October 2025. This national pre-synodal assembly will identify key priorities in advance of the first official synodal assembly for the Church in Ireland in October 2026.
- Bishops to publish Pastoral Letter addressing Immigration in Ireland
Bishops welcomed Pope Francis’ message for World Day of Migrants and Refugees 2024 last Sunday, 29 September, noting that this was the 110th annual message of the Universal Church to encourage the faithful worldwide to pray for, and support, all migrants and refugees. Pope Francis chose as the theme, God walks with His people, to emphasise the importance of encounter with migrant people “as with every brother and sister in need”, and thereby encouraging us to reflect on the reality of world migration in the lives of all people, including in the life of the Church herself.
Bishops said, “Drawing on our Catholic Social Teaching, we know that the Church at all levels is driven to build a sustainable sense of belonging and integration, and one which always recognises the many challenges facing our society. In this regard, on Sunday 13 October, the Bishops’ Conference will publish a pastoral letter to the faithful to appraise how hospitable contemporary Ireland is to migrant people.”
Bishops noted that Saint Patrick’s College, Maynooth, and the Santa Marta Group, are hosting a conference on human trafficking on 21 November in the College. Its aim is to explore the complexity of trafficking through a theological, political and policing/justice lens.
- Countdown to Jubilee Year 2025 in Ireland and in Rome
In accordance with ancient tradition, a Jubilee Year of the Church is called every twenty-five years, and Pope Francis has announced that the theme for the Jubilee/Holy Year 2025 is ‘Pilgrims of Hope’ (Spes non Confundit – Hope Does Not Disappoint). This theme encourages each of us to be messengers of hope into our very troubled world.
Bishops welcomed the invitation of Pope Francis to the faithful to offer the Rosary prayer at 7.00pm, on Monday 7 October – the Feast of the Holy Rosary – for the intention of the success of the Jubilee Year of Hope 2025.
Bishops discussed the Holy Year’s faith-filled and social programme that is currently being planned for the Church in Ireland and universally. The Holy Year will begin on this Christmas Eve, 24 December, with the opening of the Holy Door of Saint Peter’s Basilica. To echo the theme of Holy Year, Pope Francis is calling on all Catholics to renew in the hope of Christ, using Saint Paul the Apostle as a guide for this special year. Each diocesan bishop will celebrate Mass on Sunday, 29 December, to mark the solemn opening of the Holy Year. Similarly, at national and local level for the Irish Synodal Pathway, the theme of ‘Hope’ will be central to many of the meetings and prayerful discernment leading towards a national assembly in 2026.
Many different groups: clergy, religious various ministries and lay apostolates are invited to celebrate specific jubilee occasions throughout 2025 in Rome. One of the highlights of the year will be a specific youth pilgrimage to Rome next August, with Pope Francis celebrating Mass. Individual dioceses are already making concrete plans to attend.
A characteristic of a Holy Year – a plenary indulgence – has also been declared for specific jubilee pilgrimages. Last May, Pope Francis gave details for the Holy Year as well as conditions for the granting of Plenary Indulgence (see here). Many pilgrimage locations have been designated internationally for pilgrims to avail of the opportunity of the indulgence. Suitable local shrines and pilgrimage sites will be identified by individual dioceses.
Bishops invite the faithful to participate in this Holy Year by browsing https://www.iubilaeum2025.va/en.html, and to stay informed with the app IUBILAEUM25. Additionally, to encourage engagement, Jubilee Year updates, and a ‘countdown timer’ to the opening on Christmas Eve, will go live on the Irish Bishops’ website this Friday, 4 October.
- Mission Sunday on 20 October encourages encounter with God
World Mission Sunday is an annual opportunity for the entire Church to support over 1,150 young mission dioceses that exist mostly in Africa, Asia and Latin America, and to offer practical help to the poor and vulnerable through local churches and their witness to Christ.
Bishops said, “For this year’s Mission Sunday appeal, Pope Francis has chosen the theme ‘Go and invite Everyone to the Banquet’ (Mt 22:9). In this way the Holy Father is reminding us that ‘mission’ is a tireless reaching out to all men and women to invite them to encounter God and to enter into communion with Him. Every Christian is called to take part in this universal mission by living out the Gospel in our daily lives. As we do, we hear the cries of our brothers and sisters in the Global South – who know more hardship and suffering than we could ever imagine – as they call out for our solidarity.”
To assist the work of our missionaries, we are asking the faithful to support parish collections on Mission Sunday, 20 October, to donate on www.missio.ie or text ‘Mission’ to 503000, for €4. Your offering will make an immeasurable difference to the spiritual and physical wellbeing of the marginalised communities whom our missionaries serve. Thank you for your generosity.
Bishop Alphonsus Cullinan, Bishop of Waterford and Lismore, will celebrate televised Mass at 11.00am on Mission Sunday to be broadcast from the RTÉ studios in Dublin.
- Addressing key public policy issues in Northern Ireland
Bishops welcomed the continual stable functioning of power sharing in the Northern Ireland Assembly and Executive since it was re-established in February. Bishops prayed for the success of the new administration, and urged that it address key public policy issues of poverty, health and social services, education, housing and homelessness, as well as continuing the journey of reconciliation, peace and the building of sustainable relationships across the island of Ireland, and between this island and Britain.
- Open days for vocations to the diocesan priesthood – see vocations.ie
Bishops welcomed the upcoming regional open days for vocations to the diocesan priesthood, and prayed for the success of these three sessions which will be held in Dublin, Galway and Thurles. Following the success of previous years, these open days are an opportunity for Catholic men, aged 18 and over, who wish to find out more about the ministry and life of a diocesan priest; how to discern a calling to be a priest; and, to understand what is involved in seminary formation. These open days will provide participants with a supportive and confidential space to explore the vocation of priesthood along with others at the same stage. For information on attending, see www.vocations.ie
- Season of Creation
Bishops thanked members of the Laudato Si’ Working Group who prepared resources and took part in events and celebrations marking the 2024 Season of Creation, on the theme ‘To hope and act with Creation.’ The Season ran from 1 September and will end this Friday, 4 October, the Feast of Saint Francis of Assisi, patron saint of the environment and ecology. Feedback from parishes across the country who participated in Season of Creation initiatives has been positive. These events included a speaking novena in Holy Cross Abbey Thurles; film screenings in parishes of the movie The Letter – A Message for our Earth; weekly lunchtime meditations with a Laudato Si’ theme for Trócaire staff and members of the public; and, a webinar and retreat day hosted by religious congregations.
- In Memoriam
Bishops prayed for the repose of the souls of Archbishop Noël Treanor, Bishop Emeritus of Down and Connor, who passed into Eternal Life on 11 August 2024 while serving as Apostolic Nuncio to the European Union; and of Mr Justin Kilcullen, former Executive Director of Trócaire, who passed into Eternal Life on 16 July 2024. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anamacha dilís.
ENDS
