
Caption Pope Francis blessing engaged couple, Denis Nulty and Sinead Keoghan, in Saint Mary’s Pro-Cathedral, Dublin, during the 9th World Meeting of Families in August 2018, and other images show Bishop Denis Nulty blessing engaged couples in 2024 in the Church of Our Lady of Mount Carmel on Whitefriar Street, Dublin. (Catholic Communications Office archive)
- Photocall to include: 2024 Accord sacramental marriage data; new Amárach research on couples and housing; interviews with engaged couples, Bishop Denis Nulty, Bishop of Kildare & Leighlin and President of Accord CLG, Tony Shanahan, Director of Accord CLG, and Jim Adams, Marriage and Education Manager of Accord Dublin.
Ahead of the Feast of Saint Valentine you, or a representative, are invited to a photocall for the blessing of engaged couples by Bishop Nulty, at the shrine of the holy relics of Saint Valentine in Dublin city. Details:
Time and date Tomorrow, Wednesday 12 February 2025 at 2.00pm. Following this blessing, the celebration of Mass will occur at 3.00pm.
Venue Shrine of Saint Valentine, Our Lady of Mount Carmel Church, Whitefriar Street, in the Archdiocese of Dublin.
In attendance Bishop Denis Nulty, Tony Shanahan, Jim Adams and engaged couples: David Lovett and Louise O’Reilly, and Jimmy Moynihan and Margaret Gleeson. Both couples are from the Archdiocese of Dublin.
ENDS
- Photographs in Whitefriar Street Church of the blessing of engaged couples will be available to media from John McElroy on +353 (0) 87 241 6985 and johnmcelroyphotos@eircom.
net . - The blessing of the rings will be livestreamed on the Catholic Bishops’ Facebook page at 2.00pm. Following this blessing, the celebration of Mass will be livestreamed on the parish website at 3.00pm https://
whitefriarstreetchurch.com/ live-church-webcam/ - Archbishop Dermot Farrell is Archbishop of Dublin. Father James Eivers O.Carm is Prior, and Father Eánna O hÓbáin O.Carm is Parish Priest of Whitefriar Street Church.
- Accord was established in Belfast in 1962 and today its marriage preparation and couples counselling services are offered island-wide in more than 50 centres. Accord is managed from three corporate centres based in Maynooth, Dublin and Belfast. Accord’s Sacramental Marriage Preparation programme is grounded in the real life experience of couples today. It is purposeful, encouraging and fully oriented towards emphasising the good and beautiful aspects of married life. It is also very practical in providing couples with exercises, tools and resources to communicate more effectively with each other and to manage conflict constructively. Feedback from couples indicates how informative and useful they have found the programme, how engaging, relaxed and enjoyable it has been and, most significantly, that the programme has prompted them to discuss topics about their relationship that they have previously not thought to discuss or avoided discussing.
- In Catholic teaching the exchange of marriage vows creates a covenant between the couple and it is the most absolute promise two people can make to each other. The couple’s Christian baptism is what enables them to bestow the Sacrament of Marriage on each other. The presence of a bishop, priest or deacon is necessary to have as an official witness on behalf of the Church, but it does not replace the couple’s role as ministers of the Sacrament. As Pope Francis stated in his 2016 Apostolic Exhortation on love in the family, Amoris Laetitia, The Joy of Love, “May we never lose heart because of our limitations, or ever stop seeking that fullness of love and communion which God holds out before us” (Chapter 9).
- The holy relics of Saint Valentine are contained in a reliquary within a dedicated shrine in Whitefriar Street Church. The church was founded by Father John Spratt (1796-1871) in 1825 on the site of the 13th century Carmelite Monastery, and was opened in 1826 when he became its first Prior. Father Pratt was renowned in Europe for his skill as a preacher. Following a visit to Rome in 1835, Pope Gregory XVI was so impressed that he gave Father Pratt a reliquary containing relics of Saint Valentine which he brought back to Dublin. Saint Valentine was a priest who performed marriage ceremonies in defiance of the Roman emperor Claudius II’s edict, and was martyred on 14 February in 269 or 270 AD.