Archbishops, bishops, nuncios, priests and laypeople filled St Peter’s Cathedral in Belfast to join Archbishop Noël’s family in saying a last farewell to the Monaghan man who was Bishop Emeritus of Down and Connor and Nuncio to the European Union.
In his homily Bishop Alan McGuckian recalled working with Bishop Noël. “His dream for the diocese was of all the baptised, clergy, laity and religious working together for the mission of the Church and for the common good. He admired equally the priest who ministered with joy, the business person who worked and provided jobs that sustained many people in work, the religious who were to be found on the front lines of poverty and injustice, the teachers who strove to make a better society through Catholic education and to bring Christ to young people.”
Bishop Alan recalled his commitment to the European project. “That was born out of a desire to forge a shared, life-giving culture in a situation of terrible division manifested at its worst in the horrible excesses of the Second World War. Noël saw that the great leaders of the recently warring nations had striven to create something in common that was authentically secular and inclusive. They were convinced, as was Noël, that the most reliable source for the values that could carry such a bold project was the Gospel of Jesus.”
Bishop Alan said that above all Noël was passionate about the Church’s Social Teaching. “Archbishop Noël dearly wanted to share his passion for Catholic Social Teaching with all of us and especially young Catholics. In 2018, inspired by the World Peace Messages of Pope Francis, Archbishop Noël wrote a Pastoral Letter aimed at students and young adults. When I read over it now I have a sense of his frustration that the glorious patrimony of Catholic Social Teaching is not constantly before our eyes and on our lips; our faith tells us that ‘every human life, every human person is a mystery’ and must be treated as such.”
He said Archbishop Noël wanted our young people to be schooled in the social teaching of the Church because the “role of committed Catholics in the formation of a new world order will not be to ‘impose’ our vision, as Pope Benedict XVl put it so well. It will be our duty, rather, to invite and ‘propose’ a wholesome culture worthy of human beings created in the Image of God, a culture inspired by the truth, justice and mercy taught to us by the Lord Jesus.”