Mass for the Irish Community

St Andrew’s Cathedral, 14 March 2009

My dear brothers and sisters in Christ,

It was, would you believe, 30 years ago this year that the late Pope John Paul visited Ireland on one of his first pastoral visits outside the Vatican.

I imagine many of you here today remember that visit, indeed some of you may have been present in Ireland at that time. It was a visit which left so many happy memories in the hearts of the Irish diaspora worldwide.

I remember it vividly. I was a young bishop at the time and could hardly pull myself away from the TV coverage of the immense gathering at Phoenix Park for the Papal Mass. All Ireland seemed to be there. What a proud time it was to be Irish. In fact I would have happily changed my name to O’Conti!

Of course, my family roots lie elsewhere – in the continent of Europe to which, at a critical moment in the centuries following the collapse of Imperial Roman power, Irish monks and scholars travelled, founding monasteries and schools, the evidence of which can still be seen today.

Indeed the provincial city of my grandparents in Italy has an Irish missionary as its patron!

Pope John Paul alluded to Ireland’s history and the tenacity of its Catholic faith when he addressed that vast crowd 30 years ago ...

“In the name of the Lord I exhort you to preserve the great treasure of your fidelity to Jesus Christ and to his Church.

“Like the early Christian community described in the Acts of the Apostles, Ireland is called to be "faithful to the teaching of the apostles, to the brotherhood, to the breaking of bread and to the prayers" (Acts 2 :42).

“Ireland : semper fidelis, always faithful!”

Looking back we can delight in those words. “Ireland semper fidelis”. It is a tribute made all the more powerful by the fact that the title “Semper fidelis” is normally applied only to Poland: “Polonia semper fidelis”. In applying it to Ireland, the proudly Polish Pontiff was offering an accolade from the heart!

But though we recall such times with immense pleasure, we cannot afford to wallow in the nostalgia of a bygone age.

Today, Ireland and Irish people face the same challenges of secularization, moral relativism and consumerism that confront every other nation.

The Church of Patrick, of Columkille, of Brigid, of Oliver Plunkett and so many Irish missionaries is not immune from the requirement to renew its faith, to equip it to meet the challenges of the day.

And so with that in mind I am delighted that you have chosen to mark the start of this weekend of festivities here, at the very heart of the diocese, in this Cathedral, which as Mgr Chris has already pointed out to you reflects in its iconography and artwork the very strong influence of Ireland on the Archdiocesan community.

It is said that when the forefathers of many of you arrived on Glasgow’s Broomielaw, as penniless immigrants in search of a better life the first landmark they saw was this Cathedral Church – though in those days before the restoration of the hierarchy it was better known as “St Andrew’s Chapel”, built by a priest of that name, Andrew Scott, from the Enzie of Banffshire (1815).

What mattered to those early arrivals was not the designation of the building, nor its architectural merits, but rather the fact that it was the “Domus Dei” – the house of God, the “eaglais” [òg-lish] in their adopted land. A place where they could feel at home, at peace, and united to their brethren in the faith.

I hope that something of that feeling remains.

It is essential that any immigrant community hold fast to its heritage and culture, and I am glad to say that in the case of the Irish, that culture is permeated with the habits of piety that so many of you learned at your mother’s knee.

I refer to a devotion to the Mass and the Blessed Sacrament, a tender love for Our Lady and her Rosary, a humility that manifests itself through regular confession, a prayer life that is regular and devout and a rhythm of life which is marked by the great seasons of the Church’s year such as Lent and Eastertide.

That description is not intended to hark back to a golden era, but rather to place before you the life that the Church presents to us as being the model for the lay Christian, a model that has been very much part of Irish life over the years.

I hope that you will consider the great responsibility that is yours to pass down the generations the traditions of faith which you received, so that 30 years from now people will gather here with my successor or my successor’s successor and celebrate this Mass!

Of course the story of the Glasgow Irish extends beyond this church and encompasses many places dear to you the length and breadth of the country. I think especially of all those fine churches dedicated to your patron, not least in this Archdiocese, St Patrick’s in Dumbarton and St Patrick’s, Anderston. We can think also of St Patrick’s in the Cowgate in Edinburgh – another fine church dedicated to Ireland’s patron.

I think too of Carfin where the monument to the victims of the Famine is placed, a monument which I know is held very dear in the hearts of Irish people all over Scotland.

I want to mention also St Mary’s in Abercromby Street in the Calton area of the city.  It was to that church that tens of thousands of Irish people flocked in the famine years and beyond, and of course it was in a hall adjacent to St Mary’s that Brother Walfrid, a Marist Brother from Sligo, established Celtic football club as a means of raising funds for the poor, largely Irish population of the East End of Glasgow.

I am delighted that today I am able to announce an initiative which builds on that heritage and which I hope you will agree, marks very appropriately a dark period in Ireland’s history.

The Archdiocese has commissioned Peter Howson to paint a series of works commemorating the Great Famine. I am glad to say those works are now almost complete, and will go on public display at the St Mungo Museum in High Street from May 29 this year, running for four months.

I am also glad to announce that a proportion of the money raised from the sale of these works will go towards the restoration of St Mary’s Abercromby Street.

Our hope is to raise the profile of both this historical tragedy, and tell its story in a new and imaginative way.  I hope that you will support this effort and visit the exhibition, which is, I believe, the first such joint venture between the Archdiocese and the City Council.

But that is for the future.

Today we recall the saint whose charismatic preaching and force of personality brought Christianity to Ireland.

Just as I began by citing the late Pope John Paul, so let me end, with his words of challenge … issued 30 years ago at Greenpark Racecourse in Limerick.

“Ireland must choose. You the present generation of Irish people must decide; your choice must be clear and your decision firm. Let the voice of your forefathers, who suffered so much to maintain their faith in Christ and thus to preserve Ireland's soul, resound today in your ears through the voice of the Pope when he repeats the words of Christ: "What will it profit a man, if he gains the whole world, and forfeits his life?" (Mt 16 :26). What would it profit Ireland to go the easy way of the world and suffer the loss of her own soul?”

And to you, my own people, people of this great city of Glasgow - also in Pope John Paul’s words …

“I ask you today for a great, intense and growing prayer for all the people of Ireland, for the Church in Ireland, for all the Church which owes so much to the people and the land of Ireland.”

Remember this: the world still needs your faith!