World Meeting
“I think in Ireland we risk seeing the upcoming World Meeting through an Irish prism and only through that lens. This is going to be a world event where Pope Francis has something to say to all families”. These are the words that Denis Nulty, bishop of Kildare and Leighlin, said in Knock, yesterday, while he officiated Mass for the yearly pilgrimage of Saint Joseph’s Young Priests Society, a lay organisation that supports young people training for priesthood. Pope Francis will be in Knock in about two months’ time and will be there “as a pilgrim. He will pray for family life, for the strengthening of the family unit”, the bishop pointed out, then he went on to say that “it is in the family that a vocation to the priesthood or religious life is nourished and formed, though it takes much more than a family, it takes a whole parish and many more to nurture a vocation”. Speaking to the members of St Joseph’s Society, the bishop stated that, to encourage vocations, one must “begin a conversation at parish level. Priestly vocations are everyone’s business, but, if priests, deacons, parish pastoral workers, parish council members do not lead the conversation, then who will?” “The Church is no longer the dominant force it once was in Irish life and that is a good thing” and “a priest today works collaboratively with lay women and men, young and old, at the coalface of parish life”. Bishop Nulty also asked people to support younger priests living in Irish parishes and communities, as much as those in seminary formation in Ireland.
