Our Wonderful world at risk

a cold morning with numbing fingers. There was a good community spirit. Neighbours would drop by in the evening and exchange local gossip. Newspapers were rarely seen. The family rosary was routine. There was no crime. We never locked the door of the house when we went to Mass on Sunday.

Religion came to us clothed in the garments of penance. Preparation for First Holy Communion and for Confirmation was not a joyful experience with too much emphasis on obligation rather than celebration, with fear of God more stressed than love of God. Later on, when studying moral theology in the Seminary, sin and obligation were also dominant factors. The multiplication of mortal and venial sins would do justice to any rigid Pharisee.

Welcome changes

As a young priest, I greatly welcomed the changes that took place after the Second Vatican Council. We discovered the spirituality of Easter, the goodness of all creation and the importance of secular values. We added the 15th station, the Resurrection, to the Way of the Cross. Black vestments were left in the drawer. Dies Irae, a hymn about the wrathful judgement of God, was heard no more. Many imposed penances were removed to give people more responsibility about what was suitable for them. The Good News of the Gospel was emphasised. In prayer we were encouraged to make the longest journey, from the head to the heart. Revelation was seen not just as God revealing to us what to believe and how to act, but rather as communion with a loving God sharing divine life with us. Faith was understood not just as intellectual belief in God but should be experienced as a loving trust in God whom we dare to call Abba, Father.

As I write these words early in 2021, with corona-virus dominant the future looks challenging for society as a whole and for the Church. What is God saying to us by this epidemic? For some it is a sign that God does not exist. For many it is a reminder how dependent we are on circumstances beyond our control. Thank God medical science is making good progress fighting the disease but it will take a long time.

How will the Church fare when it is all over? It is very hard to predict. In addition to facing up to the challenge of getting people to attend church regularly, it has to bear the burden of past scandals, such as clerical sexual abuse and more recently the mother and child revelations when unmarried mothers and their babies were treated in a most unchristian way and so many babies were left to die without care and buried in unmarked graves. Unmarried mothers were denounced from the altar. Reading about that Yet I believe that the Church will be saved by good lay women and men, by dedicated priests and religious and by courageous leadership. It will be purified and chastened by this desert experience and we should remember that it was in the desert that God revealed Himself to the Israelites, purified them and made them His people.” (Introduction to Fr Christy’s book: ‘The Miracle of the Universe’)

“The love of God for us symbolised by the Sacred Heart of Jesus must be revealed by us in our daily lives by our love for others. It is expressed in a thousand different ways, by caring, sharing, forgiving and helping. Mercy and kindness are at the heart of the Christian Gospel. Love lights up the world and makes it beautiful. The absence of love means darkness and despair.” (Closing paragraph of Fr Christy’s book)

(The book (costing 12 Euros) is available from Fr Christy Fox at our Mill Hill address. Fr Christy’s phone number is: 01 412 7718.)

Diamond Jubilee Card

In memory of

Fr Tom Rafferty, mhm

Fr Tom Rafferty, mhm, died on May 7, 2021. Tom was born on June 8, 1945, at Milltown, Ashbourne, Co. Meath, one of a family of seven; he had three brothers and three sisters.

Tom followed the usual route to ordination for Irish Mill Hill priests - secondary education at St Joseph’s College, Freshford, Co. Kilkenny; philosophy at University College Dublin; theology at St Joseph’s College, Mill Hill, London. He was ordained in 1970 in St. Patrick’s Church, Donaghmore – his home parish.

Tom went on to spend over 50 years as a Mill Hill Missionary in Pakistan, working in the Diocese of Islamabad/ Rawalpindi. He ministered in a very difficult and dangerous area; last year he wrote: “the police, who stand guard over our church in Nowshera since 2001, are the first people I greet every morning. The parish is roughly the size of Ireland, with the Himalaya mountain range running through the greater part of it.”

Tom published two books: ‘Never Easy’ and ‘The Crimson Lily in Our Midst’. In ‘Never Easy’, he gives a detailed account of his ministry in the Nowshera area through the terrible floods in 1973, and the massive earthquake in 2005 that left hundreds of thousands dead. Then there was another terrible time with the invasion from Afghanistan of Al-Quida in 2007 - this brought destruction and death to the beautiful valleys. In 1987, Tom spent weeks on end roaming in the foothills of the Himalayas searching for, and finding pockets of Christians. His experience convinced him of the need to promote the missionary spirit of the local church. So on July 3, 1988, the Feast of St. Thomas the Apostle, Patron of Pakistan, Tom together with Sister Iris Gill founded the Missionary Sisters of St Thomas the Apostle (MST).

On the occasion of his Golden Jubilee last year, Tom wrote: “Aid in all the times of disaster came from the generosity of the Irish People, from Mill Hill and from Church Organizations. It has helped us rise again, build back people’s lives, build back their houses, drag them through dark winters, bind up their wounds, cloth and feed them. Through it all, we thank God for his Divine Mercy and constant protection from violence, bomb and bullet, danger where you live and danger when you travel in search of the needy and isolated. Amen.”

On May 10, 2021, Tom’s funeral Mass was celebrated in St Joseph’s Cathedral, Rawalpindi. There was also a Mass in Nowshera on May 11 and in Donaghmore, his home parish, on May 12. His family, his Mill Hill colleagues and the people in Pakistan where he spent so much of his life, remember Tom with deep affection.

Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis

OBITUARY LIST

(Up until 24/06/2021) Most Sacred Heart of Jesus have mercy on the souls of:

Fr. Tom Rafferty, MHM Margaret Doyle, aunt of Fr. Gerald Doyle MHM Padraig Jordan, brother of the late Fr. Brendan Jordan, MHM Séan Daly, brother of Fr. Bart Daly, MHM Breda Corbett, sister of the late Fr. John Wrenn, MHM Maureen McCarthy, sister of Sr. Ursula McCarthy FMSJ

MEMBERS

Very Rev. Fr. Joseph Cooney, Rev. James Dollard, Rev. Cannon John Fallon, Very Rev. Fr. Peter Canon Grant, Sr. Bridget Blewitt, Isa Brennan, Sr. Alphonsus Mary Corry, Sr. Cora Ferriter, Sr. Xavier Garavan, Sr. Pius Keane, Sr. Carmel Scanlon. Claude H. Bailey, Elizabeth Barrett, Bill Beausang, Edith Marie Boggan Adamonicz, Mary Bowe, Francis Brady, Margaret Brannigan, Teresa Browne, Annie Burns, Joe Burns, Tom Byrne, Philomena Byrne, Richard Byrne, Kathleen Caffrey, Aileen Cahalan, Betty Campbell, Nora Campbell, John Campbell Snr., Breeda Carroll, Jim Carroll, Margaret Carroll, Rita Carroll, Michael Casey, James Clancy, Loretta Clarke, Sally Clarke, Michael Cleary, Madge Conlon, Mary Conlon, Collette Connolly, Agnes Conroy, Joan Conway, Rose Conway, William Cornally, Catherine Cosgrave, Anna Costigan, Gerald Cotter, Michael Cotter, Esther Coughlan, Peggy Coughlan, Annette Creaney, Mary Creedon, Nora Creedon, Ann Cronin, Patrick Crosby, Patrick Cullinan, John Joe Cunningham, Monica Curran, Myrrid Curran, Pat Curran, Bridget Cusack.

Brigid Daly, John Daly, Thomas Daly, Madeline Mary Davis, Maureen Deane, Bill Devlin, Eddie Dillon, Kathleen Dineen, Mamie Dineen, Mary Dolan, Bridie Doherty, Ellen Doherty, Sheila Doherty, Margaret Donnelly, Mary Donnelly, Monica Donnelly, Sheila Donoghue and her sons, John and Joseph Donoghue, Rose Donovan, Rita Dooley, Phil Doyle, Sheila Doyle, Marie Dunican, Kathleen Dunleavy, J.J. Dunne, Samuel Dunne, Maura Egan, Maureen Egan, Philip Egan, Tony Egan, Breda English, Bridie Enright, Margaret Farrell, Mary Farrell, Eileen Fitzgerald, Esther Flynn, Mary Flynn, Patricia Friel, Vincent Fullam, James Gallagher, Syl Gannon, Annie Gaughan, Angela Gleeson, Sally Glennon, Maura Goldrick, Carmel Gorman, John Gormley, Mary Graham, Robert Graham, Marian Greene, Mary Griffin, Nora Griffin, Timothy Guiney.

Michael Hall, Ann Hanna, Mary Hanna, Mary Hayes, Myra Healy, Kathleen Heelan, Josephine Hegarty, Ellen Helferty, Frances Hennessy, John J. Herlihy, Marie Herlihy, Billy Hogan, Mary Holland, Mary Hollingsworth, Sarah Holohan, Martha Horan, Tom Hughes, Margaret Jones, Benedicta Jordan, Michael Jordan, Padraig Jordan, Stephen Joyce. Mr and Mrs Pierce Kavanagh, Breda Kealy, Monica Kearney, Sheila Kearney, John Keenaghan, Gabriel Kelly, Margaret Kelly, Michael Kelly, Nora Kelly, Mary Rose Kelly, Peter Kelly, Josie Kenehan, Maureen Kenneally, Mary Kennedy, Phyllis Kenny, Mary Keogh, Mary Kilkenny, Patricia Lacomber, May Lambert, Mary Lane, N. Lawton, Tony Leahy, Kathleen Leslie, Owen Linehan, James Lonergan, Mary Looney, Eileen Lucey, Mary Lynam, John Lyne, Mary Lyons.

Ellen and James Gerard Maguire, Teresa Maguire, Bridget Maher, Mary Maher, Rosemary Mangan, Josie Manning, Katie Martin, Angela Mason, Nora Meenaghan, Helen Moloney, Michael Mohan, Michael Moore, Mary Mulgrew, Cecily Murphy, Mick Murphy, James Murray,

Colette McAnee, Olive McCarthy, P. McCluskey, Benny McDonnell, Ita McDonnell, Loughlin McEvoy, Kathleen McGarrigle, Kathleen McGarvey, Patrick McGeough, Kathleen McGrath, Patrick Joseph McGrath, Annie McGoldrick, Martin McMahon, Vera McManus, Denis McNulty, Mary McPolin, William McQuaid, Kitty Moloney, Mary J Moran, Margaret (Peggy) Morgan, Marian Moylan, Mary Mulgrew, Louise Murray, James Nicholls, Christina Normoyle.

Margaret O’Boyle, Eileen O’Brien, Joan O’Brien, Mary O’Brien, Veronica O’Brien, Sadie O’Callaghan, Christina O’Connell, Margaret Ann O’Connell, Joan O’Connell, John O’Connor, Jim O’Connor, Peggy O’Connor, Mary K. O’Donnell.

Berni O’Donoghue, Kathleen O’Donoghue, Margaret O’Donoghue, Michael O’Driscoll, Pat O’Driscoll, Frances O’Dwyer, Dermot O’Grady, Mary O’Grady, Ursula O’Halloran, Margaret O’Hara, Bridget O’Leary, Jer O’Leary, Eileen O’Loughlin, Theresa O’Mahony, Peggy O’Neill, Tom O’Reilly, Timothy O’Riordan, Mary O’Rourke, Eileen O’Shea, Mary O’Shea, Maura O’Shea, Connie O’Sullivan, Joan (Hannah) O’Sullivan, Joe O’Sullivan, Margaret O’Sullivan. Joan Philbin, Henry J Place, Nuala Power, Teresa Prendergast, Eileen Prior, Joan Purcell, Tommy Purcell.

Tony Quigley, Sean Hugh Quigley, Anne Quinn, Bernie Quinn, Brigid Reynolds, Larry Rogers, Molly (Mary) Rohan, Agnes Ryan, Brigid Ryan, Philomena Ryan, John Salmon, Mary Sargent, Peter Sherry, Veronica Sloan, Maura Smith, Sheila Smith, Olive Smyth, Aine Somers, Dora Soraghan, Margaret St John, Kathleen Stack, Pauline Stack, Margaret Staunton, Sean Sullivan, Moira Sweeney, Nan Sweeney, Rosie Sweeney. Donal Twomey, Eibhlín Uí Dhonnchadha, Lizzy Veale, Gloria Walsh, Helen Walsh, Myra Walsh, T Walsh, Bernadette Ward, Isobel Watterson, Bridie Woods, Ellen Young.

• It keeps our friends and supporters in touch with our missionary work. • It promotes devotion to St. Joseph - our patron and protector • There are three issues per year plus a Calendar at Christmas. It is sent

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