Bishop Denis Nulty has paid tribute to the tireless work of priests – many of them elderly – in parishes across the country. Speaking at the annual Kildare and Leighlin Chrism Mass on Monday of Holy Week, Dr Nulty referred to the fact that it is an occasion for priests to renew the commitment of their ordination.
The bishop said that he had been struck in conversations around the dioceses that in talking about the challenges “the one constant recurring theme has been the familiarity parishioners have with their priest in the parish, how much he is valued and appreciated.
“Some of those priests in their eighties still administering parishes,” Dr Nulty said. He said that “as a diocese, as a faith family we have so much this Chrism night to give thanks for our priests and the witness they give, sometimes at a cost to their own health and mental well-being.
“I, like you, am most grateful for that witness and that support,” he said before urging parishioners “to pray for your priests and to keep them in your prayer in addition to the daily intention to pray for more vocations”.
Referring to the World Meeting of Families – due to be held in Dublin in August – the bishop gave thanks for the diocesan gathering of families from all 56 parishes held in Punchestown Racecourse in August 2017.
He said that “the Amoris Programme ‘Let’s Talk Family! Let’s Be Family!’ is being offered in more than 20 different locations across the diocese.
“Parishes are clubbing together in many cases, and the conversations may even stray beyond the prescribed text to how those parishes can create more ways of working collaboratively together, lay people, men and women, religious, deacons and priests,” he said.
The traditional Chrism Mass is held during Holy Week in every Catholic diocese in the world, usually in the cathedral church. During this Mass, the priests, deacons and representatives of the entire diocesan community gather around their bishop, who blesses the Holy Oils for use in the coming year. These are: Oil of the Sick, Oil of Catechumens, and Sacred Chrism.