Greg Daly
Knock Shrine, Knock, Co. Mayo. Shrines and sanctuaries are increasingly important for Catholics who may feel cut off from parish life, a leading cardinal has said.
“In an age when so many people are disconnected from their parishes, the ministry of sanctuaries and shrines takes on a greater importance than ever,” Boston’s Cardinal Sean O’Malley said at a renewal Mass for the dedication of the basilica at Knock, continuing, “In a world of individualism and isolation, here people discover that they are part of a community of faith.”
Introducing himself as “a simple Capuchin friar”, the cardinal, who is a member of Pope Francis’ ‘kitchen cabinet’, the Council of Cardinal Advisors, described how he had given a book about Knock to the Pope, and fed speculation about the possibility of the Pontiff visiting the shrine.
If Pope Francis visits Dublin in August 2018 for the World Meeting of Families, as is widely anticipated, visits to Northern Ireland and – following in the footsteps of St John Paul II – to Knock would be probable elements in a papal agenda.
Encounter
“I do hope he has the opportunity to visit this holy place,” Cardinal O’Malley said, continuing, “I know that he will love Knock, since so many of the themes that are dear to Pope Francis in his teaching and preaching are truly part of the fabric of this Marian apparition and the special mystique of this shrine.”
The Holy Father, he explained, speaks frequently about “the culture of encounter, the art of accompaniment, tenderness, closeness”, all of which, he said, “define the message of Knock, not expressed in words but in gestures.”
Describing Pope Francis is “a man who speaks in gestures”, he asked, “Who better than Pope Francis would understand the message of Knock?”
The cardinal was in Ireland as part of a Knock-focused pilgrimage from the Archdiocese of Boston, the second US pilgrimage to the Mayo shrine following last August’s pioneering pilgrimage from New York led by the city’s Cardinal Timothy Dolan.
“We are trying to bring pilgrims in from the United States through Knock airport, and expand Knock in people’s horizons and imagination in terms of a pilgrim destination for the United States,” Knock’s rector Fr Richard Gibbons told The Irish Catholic.
“Last year we thought, why not concentrate on cities that have large Irish diasporas,” he said, adding that, “People of Irish background have a great affinity with Ireland culturally but also as well through their faith.
“A lot of them are good practising Catholics who want to maintain that connection.”
Rather than a rededication, Saturday’s Mass had been “a renewal of dedication”, he explained. “It was already dedicated back on July 18, 1976, so we were actually within two days of the anniversary of its original dedication.”
Such renewals of dedication are common following major building projects on churches, he continued, likening the effects of Knock’s €9million refurbishment to the restoration of St Mel’s Cathedral in Longford following the Christmas Day fire in 2009. “Paradoxically,” he said, after such large scale projects, he said, “it’s the same building but it’s a completely transformed building”.
Commenting on how the anointing of the basilica would have been an unfamiliar sight for many in the packed basilica, Fr Gibbons said another element that would stay with people would be the commemoration of witnesses from near the end of the ceremony.
“We had local people who would be relations of the witnesses themselves dress up in period costume,” he explained, “to make it a bit real that witnesses were real people – these weren’t figments of people’s imagination. That really stood out for an awful lot of people.”
The ‘Sé do Bheatha Mhuire’ communion piece had been composed specially for the occasion by Odhrán O’Casaide, while the Mass as a whole was composed by the shrine’s director of music, Úna Nolan, who also coordinated the combined voices of the Witness to Hope Gospel Choir, the Children’s Choir, Shanvaghera Choir and Knock Parish Choir during the ceremony.
“The music was outstanding,” Fr Richard said, noting that Ms Nolan “did a fantastic job”, and commenting on how a personal highlight for him was, “of course a rousing rendition of our ‘anthem’, as I call it, ‘Our Lady of Knock’”.