Apostolic Work Members from all over Ireland and Missionary friends gathered at St Malachy’s Church, Alfred Street, Belfast to celebrate the Centenary year in 2023. Apostolic Work, the charity led by lay people who support Irish missionaries abroad marked World Mission Sunday with a concelebrated Mass by 14 priests hosted by Drumbo and Carryduff parish in the Church of the Immaculate Heart of Mary.
In his homily Fr Derek Kearney SMA, thanked all who had organised the Mass and recalled the great difference the generosity of Apostolic Work has made and continues to make in the mission fields since its foundation in 1923.
Fr Kearney said: “Over the years I received vestments and Mass kits and altar linens, finance for the purchase of parish vehicles. But my deepest gratitude lay in my ability to purchase medical books for medical and nursing students in Nigeria and Zambia.”
Delivering those books to the African students, Fr Kearney continued, “always filled me with profound gratitude when I saw the joy in their faces.”
He added that there could be no way of knowing how much healing was brought to numerous African patients over the years.
Fr Kearney said along with the need for the proclamation of the Gospel abroad “there is the realisation of the need to proclaim the Gospel here at home in our post-modern culture”.