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The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, has told the priests of the diocese that Pope Benedict asked for the forgiveness of the clerical sex abuse victims during a meeting with Irish bishops on February 15.

The Archbishop of Tuam, Dr Michael Neary, has told the priests of the diocese that Pope Benedict asked for the forgiveness of the clerical sex abuse victims during a meeting with Irish bishops on February 15.

Week III

For the first time the national Reek Sunday pilgrimage to Croagh Patrick will be televised live on RTÉ1 at 11am. The annual pilgrimage, which takes place this Sunday July 27, will be led by Archbishop of Tuam, Michael Neary. Television presenter Nuala Carey will commence coverage at 10.45am.

In a week when The Irish Times reports an unseemly brawl between Armenian and Greek Orthodox monks who physically battled over turf and influence in the Church of the Holy Sepulchre in Jerusalem, revered as the site of Jesus’ crucifixion, I was reminded of the unfortunate battle for the souls of Catholics in the aftermath of the Great Famine. This episode in Connemara’s long history still engenders passionate feelings today. The expression ‘they took the soup’ is still very much alive. At the time the campaign for souls splintered communities, and divided families. In a new book Soupers and Jumpers* Miriam Moffitt reminds us that Catholics and Protestants were convinced that their religion - and only theirs - was the ‘one true faith,’ and that anyone who lived, or more importantly died, outside their particular belief system could not enter heaven. From the middle of the 19th century, the poor of Connemara and the Dublin slums were targeted by the well intentioned Anglican Irish Church Missions.

On February 28 1879 a desperate row erupted on peaceful Omey Island, near Cleggan, Connemara. The local curate Fr William Rhatigan burst into the local Protestant schoolhouse, run by the Irish Church Mission Society, saying he was ‘in search of his straying sheep’*. An argument broke out between him and the Rev William Lindsey MacNeice, the schoolmaster. Blows were struck. Who struck the first blow will forever be in dispute. But the evidence of Fr Rhatigan’s temper and strength is testified by the fact that it took the combined efforts of MacNeice, aided by his wife, his daughter Charlotte, his young son John Frederick, and two teachers from Claddaghduff, Messrs Davis and Coursey, to force him backwards out of the schoolhouse.

Encircled by mountains and straddling the river Salzach, this beautiful Austrian city has a dramatic setting that matches its own baroque splendour. With its Alpine surroundings and historic centre that was listed by UNESCO as a World Heritage Site in 1997, Salzburg really is just as lovely as the city portrayed in The Sound of Music.

During Archbishop Neary’s celebration of Mass from “nature’s Cathedral of the West”—Croagh Patrick's summit—he commented on the failure of society to find peace and faith from the recent wealth and prosperity experienced in the country and called on parishioners during the Year of Vocation to “reflect upon and pray about the call or vocation we have received”.

Voluntary FÁS worker Eddie Hoban has responded to allegations made against the organisation in Castlebar on RTÉ’s Prime Time Investigates programme on Tuesday night. The programme raised more questions than answers and left the people of Castlebar feeling confused, hurt, and angry about allegations made.

If any reader thought that spirituality was a dying aspiration of the Irish people, they might recall the 20,000 or so who climbed Croagh Patrick on the last Sunday of July, or go to Knock, Co Mayo, on August 15, the Feast of the Blessed Virgin Assumed into Heaven, to see thousands of people, many in family groups, happily attending Mass, saying the Stations of the Cross, eating ice-cream and chips, thoroughly enjoying the day out.