GAA stars call to rally round isolated religious

‘They’ve cared for us, now it’s our turn’ – Mickey Harte

Prominent GAA figures have made calls to help older priests and religious who may be isolated and in need of spiritual and practical assistance after all those over 70 were ordered to be ‘cocooned’ in a bid to save them from coronavirus.

Dublin GAA footballing legend Bernard Brogan appealed to his more than 100,000 followers on Twitter urging people to help a community of religious sisters who were isolated in Cork.

He wrote: “SOS Help needed SOS, I got a call in relation to a house of elderly nuns in Cork City who are in need of care assistant or nurse, local health authorities don’t have resources to help. Please contact for details.” The sisters in question are now receiving the help they need.

All-Ireland winning Tyrone GAA manager Mickey Harte commended his Dublin rival and others who are reaching out to help people through the pandemic.

Mr Harte told The Irish Catholic that “it’s good that people like Bernard Brogan, who have a platform that people will be reading and seeing, that he would advocate for people that may be isolated in all of this”.

Mr Harte highlighted the need for people also to look out for elderly priests, saying: “They have cared and served us well for many, many years. The way it is now many of our priests are of a higher age bracket, so we have to be very aware.

“They’re in the same category of dependence as many others at this stage because of the limitations place on them through regulation. So, both practically and spiritually we need to connect with them for sure.”

Prayer

He highlighted prayer as another way of connecting with priests aside from phone calls, social media and other supports such as doing their shopping.

“The medium of prayer has always been there and will connect you with your priest now too so I think it would be very good to take time out and think of them in our prayers,” Mr Harte said.

“Even if it’s not a social media connection, FaceTime and WhatsApp and all these new ways people keep in touch with each other, I always believe there’s great connection through prayer anyway.

Deliberately pray for them; that they will be well through all of this,” he said.

Meanwhile, Bishop Fintan Monahan of Killaloe said that “a lot of priests over 70 are still very active and for them not to be available to do the basic services, that’s quite a restraint on them.

“One of the big things I’m dealing with is priests in their 80s, trying to encourage them to stay at home and comply with that regulation for their own sake because they’re so active and so much out there,” he said.

Dr Monahan called on the Faithful “to renew the effort of community”, and to look out for people who are currently cocooning and care for them.

“Make sure they’re not only medically well but have basic supplies and that they feel that they could stay in and not have to go out, they can’t do that unless people are going to facilitate them to do that,” he said.

Bishop of Limerick Brendan Leahy said that as far as regulations allow “it’s good for people to check in with the priest that everything is okay, or the religious community as the case may be, because religious communities to can be quite isolated in their own way”.

“The great thing about parish is in some ways parishioners come to the fore at a crisis so much and I absolutely know they’ll be great support to one another and all people who are cocooned. Equally the priests who are not, and the other people who are not, will do their best, leaving messages on walls, or on gates or on hall doors, little chores that can help,” Bishop Leahy said.