Sister Cyril Mooney (72), A Bray native who moved to India when she was twenty, runs programmes in Calcutta aimed at helping street children.She was honoured in Carlow by the Friends of Calcutta group, who organised a “This is Your Life” tribute. It was attended by over 200 people including the Indian ambassador.

Sr Mooney has previously received one of India’s highest honours, the Padma Shree; she is one of the few foreigners to be so honoured.

Read the report in the Irish Times:
Irish nun honoured for 50 years of helping street children of India

Here is the entire text of his comments:

Guím beannachtaí na Féile Pádraig oraibh uilig. On this, the Feast of our National Apostle, I send warm greetings to Irish people at home and abroad and to all those who join in the celebration of our national feast, including the many immigrants to our own shores.  Saint Patrick first encountered Ireland as a migrant. Thus, it is fitting that on the Feast of our National Patron, we again seek to highlight the needs of the many Irish emigrants spread throughout the world.

Article 2 of our Constitution, Bunreacht na hÉireann, rightly states that ‘The Irish nation cherishes its special affinity with people of Irish ancestry living abroad who share its cultural identity and heritage.’

The Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants (IECE) has, for over fifty years, sought to provide pastoral support to our emigrants and in cooperation with our many apostolates, sister organisations and volunteers will continue to do so.

As a consequence of the current downturn in the economy, increasing numbers of Irish men and women are again leaving our shores in the hope of making a new life for themselves and their families. For many, this can be a difficult journey to make and so at this time of increasing outward migration, I urge the Irish Diaspora to continue to work together in the spirit of charity and compassion to ensure the welfare of all Irish emigrants.

Today we remember in a special way those Irish emigrants whose journey has been a difficult one. We are especially mindful of the elderly Irish in Britain and our undocumented in the United States. IECE continues to highlight the longstanding problems facing generations of Irish emigrants. The outreach services provided to emigrants, pioneered by priests, religious and supportive lay people over many years, continue to expand and are truly in keeping with Gospel values.

On this Saint Patrick’s Day, I am reminded of the words of our Holy Father Pope Benedict XVI who, in this the year of Saint Paul invites us to:

‘love to the full without making any kind of distinction and without discrimination, in the conviction that any one who needs us and whom we can help is our neighbour (cf. Deus Caritas Est, n. 15). May the teaching and example of St Paul, a great and humble Apostle and a migrant, an evangelizer of peoples and cultures, spur us to understand that the exercise of charity is the culmination and synthesis of the whole of Christian life.’[1]

It is also important on this day that we, as a society, recognise the difficulties faced by those who have come to this country seeking to make Ireland their home. I hope that they will receive the same ceád míle fáilte that we would wish for our own emigrants. The newly established Bishops’ Commission for the Care of Migrants, incorporating the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants and more recently the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants, will endeavour to support and give voice to the worries and concerns of those who wish to make Ireland their home.

On this day too it is important to highlight an especially vulnerable group of emigrants – Irish people imprisoned overseas. The Bishops’ Irish Council for Prisoners Overseas (ICPO), under the auspices of the Irish Episcopal Council for Emigrants, continues to work tirelessly on their behalf. ICPO provide support to over 420 Irish people imprisoned throughout the world. While the majority are imprisoned in Britain, others are located in Europe, the Americas, Australia and Africa. Thirty four new cases were received by ICPO in the period November 2008 to January 2009. This equates to one person every three days.

The 2007 Report on Irish Prisoners Abroad prepared by Mr. Chris Flood provides an excellent synopsis of the many difficulties faced by Irish prisoners and their families. While considerable progress has been made, it is imperative that the remaining recommendations contained within the Flood Report are urgently implemented. The ICPO is committed to securing their introduction and will continue to work with the Department of Foreign Affairs and others to secure their implementation.

“May the Virgin Mother, who together with her Blessed Son knew the pain of emigration and exile, help us to understand the experience, and very often the drama, of those who are compelled to live far from their homeland, and teach us to serve them in their necessities, truly accepting them as brothers and sisters, so that today’s migrations may be considered a call, albeit a mysterious one, to the Kingdom of God, which is already present in His Church, its beginning (cf. LG 9), and an instrument of Providence to further the unity of the human family and peace�. (Erga Migrantes Caritas Christi)

[1] MESSAGE OF HIS HOLINESS BENEDICT XVI FOR THE 95th WORLD DAY OF MIGRANTS AND REFUGEES (2009) Theme: St Paul migrant, ‘Apostle of the peoples’.

Related websites:

• Bishops’ Commission for Migrants
• Irish Commission for Prisoners Overseas

One of those interviewed is Ean board member Sr Attracta Heneghan, who worked with the Irish in Huddersfield. Also featured is Fr Michael Leonard, who works in Chicago.

See the information at the bottom to watch the programmes online.

The filmmakers say:

As Chaplains they were there to provide pastoral care to the emigrants but more often found themselves much more deeply involved in the lives of the emigrants than they could possibly have imagined. For many emigrants the Chaplain was seen as a first port of call, to sort accommodation, and employment and to deal with the difficulties many young Irish found themselves in in a strange land. In recent years, we have become very aware of our ‘Diaspora’ and their role in the development of today’s Ireland. In this series, the Chaplains have the opportunity to tell their own side of the emigration story. We also hear from the emigrants themselves, those who have stayed abroad and those who returned.

The programme also looks at parallels with new immigrant communities in Ireland.

The programme airs on Sunday nights at 9:30 throughout May. Here are the outlines for the individual programmes:

Programme 1 An taithí I Londain Sunday May 4th
Fr Tom Looney is currently Parish Priest of the Gaeltacht community of Dingle. As a young priest he was sent to London to work as an Emigrant Chaplain. Through his experiences we introduce the work of the Emigrant Chaplains and the importance of their role. We also draw parallels between his work London with Irish emigrants and the contemporary situation in Dingle for the new immigrant communities.

Programme 2 An taithí i Huddersfield – Sunday May 11th
The second programme in our series looks at the particular experiences of those who emigrated to Huddersfield in the North of England. Huddersfield always had a particular draw for emigrants from Connemara, and in recent years, Sr Attracta Heneghan worked with the older Irish emigrants who have settled there. Now back in Ireland, Attracta meets with Sr Marilyn, a Nigerian Nun who has come to Ireland to provide pastoral support for African immigrants who are settling here.

Programme 3 An taithí i Sasana – Sunday May 18th
Fr Gearoid Ó Griofa reflects on his work as an emigrant chaplain with particular responsibility for emigrants in London from Gaeltacht areas in the 1980’s. We examine how today’s chaplains in London are working with the elderly and often lonely Irish emigrants, the same generation which the original chaplains were sent to help 50 years ago. In his current role as PP in the suburbs of Galway Ó Griofa also comments on challenge of multicultural Ireland with examples of cooperation with local NGOs and foreign chaplains.

Programme 4 An taithí i Chicago – Sunday May 25th
Our fourth programme follows Fr Michael Leonard on his rounds in Chicago – a particularly Irish city. His brief is to work with newly arrived and undocumented Irish, but the old established Irish community (and their children) still welcome the connection with the Irish priest. We feature contributions from the older Irish-American community who had to leave Ireland and the newer generation who are in USA by choice.

Watch the programmes online! They are subtitled, in case your Irish is rusty. Here is how to find them:

1. Go to www.tg4.tv.
2. On the left, click on “Cláir Eile – Cartlann”
3. Scroll down until you see each of the four episodes of “Séiplinigh na nImirceach”.

The IECE has been replaced by the Commission for Migrants, which is a Commission of the Irish Episcopal Conference. This Commission is supported by a Council for Immigrants and a Council for Emigrants.

The pastoral outreach for this new commission is guided by the norms set out by Erga migrantes caritas Christi (The love of Christ towards migrants), a 2004 Vatican document.

See Erga migrantes caritas Christi

He notes that the Diaspora is vast:

The dimensions of our Diaspora are breathtaking. In the last US census, 36 million people declared an Irish link. The figures for Britain, Australia, Argentina, Canada and New Zealand are equally impressive. Large numbers are also to be found in South Africa and Zimbabwe, and increasing numbers of Irish-born people are living in Spain and other Mediterranean countries.

Minister Ahern also notes that changes in Ireland, including the peace process and economic success have allowed Ireland to re-evaluate the relationship with the Irish abroad. This has resulted in a tremendous increase in funding, up to €15.2 million this year, and increasing to planned spending of €34 million a year in the lifetime of the current administration. He details the spending in Britain, the US, Canada, Australia, Argentina, South Africa, New Zealand and Zimbabwe.

Minister Ahern concludes:

Regular newspaper articles and TV programmes show that there has never been so much interest at home in the Diaspora. Irish people are travelling abroad in huge numbers and meeting members of our Diaspora in many of the countries they visit. Our Constitution has been changed to reflect the new commitment to the overseas Irish, enshrined in the amended Article 2. New structures have been established by the government through the Irish Abroad Unit to coordinate our policy in this area and to provide funding, when appropriate, to projects relating to the Diaspora. It is a very exciting time with much happening. We have to ensure that we maintain the interest of our communities abroad in Ireland as the generations go by. I am confident we can meet that challenge. I am fully committed to maintaining this new outreach to our people – our global family – overseas.

See the entire article on the IrishEmigrant.com website.

Visit the site at diaspora.fi.

The Basilica of San Clemente will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the excavations undertaken by Dominican priest Joseph Mullooly. Fr Mullooly was born in Longford in 1812 and in 1840 left for Italy, where he entered the Dominican Order. He became superior of San Clemente in 1850 and remained there for the rest of his life.

A letter-writer in today’s Irish Times reveals that the basilica’s weekend celebrations will include a concert and a mass sung by the Dublin-based Lassus Scholars; the Irish community in Rome is expected to attend, along with the Irish ambassadors to Italy and the Holy See.

Visit the basilica’s website.

Additionally, hundreds and possibly thousands of Irish people will attend the canonisation of Charles of Mount Argus. The Passionist priest was born in Holland in 1821, and came to Ireland in 1857 after stints in Belgium and England. It was while he was in England that he first came into contact with emigrant Irish people who were living there after fleeing the famine; he began then referring to the Irish as “my people”.

Blessed Charles became known for his powers of curing both mental and physical ailments. He spent most of his life in Ireland until he died there in 1893. He was beatified in 1996. He will be canonised by Pope Benedict on Sunday.

Learn more about Blessed Charles.

“Vietnamese priests are filling the gap,� Ryan Lilyengren, a spokesman for the diocese of Orange, told the Los Angeles Times. “People are calling them the new Irish.�

Vietnamese Catholics number only about 300,000 (or about 1% of US Catholics), but they along with other Asian seminarians make up 12% of the nation’s seminarians.

Read the article on the California Catholic website.

Éan Board Chair Rr Alan Hilliard gets prominent coverage in the Irish Times with remarks calling for the reunification of families. Fr Hilliard, who is also the secretary of the Irish Catholic bishop’s department of pastoral care, is quoted in the report as saying, “Immigration policy should be about people first. Migrants by their nature live far away from those they love. Often this is due to economic necessity, and this in turn can be compounded by restrictive immigration laws.”

He adds, “Currently in Ireland there are over 100 Catholic religious services for the pastoral support of our immigrant communities. The provision of these religious services, which show respect for the language and customs of the immigrant, is an important initiative to cultivate a spirit of welcome and to facilitate the journey to integration.”

Pope Benedict issued a statement to mark the day; it is available on the Vatican website.

Our history shows us that during instances of people neglect, exploitation and removal of status, it resulted in an immense fall-out in terms of human suffering and economic stagnation. And what, you may ask, is the 21st century lesson that can be learnt from this historical legacy? It is thus: If we lose sight of the individual migrant, we promote globalisation without a conscience.

He also touched on the importance of Ireland’s emigrant heritage as it tranforms into a nation of immigrants:

May I add that as we face the challenge of welcoming immigrants to Ireland we find ourselves reflecting on the story of Irish emigration as a touchstone for policy and initiatives. We now have a real responsibility to ensure that we provide a welcome that befits the dignity of those who migrate to Ireland. I know from talking to many Irish emigrants here in Birmingham that you support the granting of a warm welcome to those who seek a brighter future away from their homeland in Ireland.

Bishop Hegarty presented the Centre with a financial contribution from the Bishops’ Supporting the Irish Abroad campaign. The theme of this year’s SIA campaign was keeping in touch with elderly relatives abroad.

More information is available from the Catholic Communications Office.
See Bishop Hegarty’s St Patrick’s Day sermon, which launched the 2006 SIA campaign.