Immigrants

The Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants (IECI)

Welcome to the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants (IECI) Webpage.

This Council comes under the Episcopal Commission for Pastoral Care

About the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants

Immigration both voluntary and involuntary is a global phenomenon, touching every Irish parish today.  Concern for the reception and treatment ofimmigrantsand on the related question of pastoral care prompted the formation of the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants in September 2008.  Its mission is to welcome, support and empowerimmigrantswho live inIreland.

The Council serves as the centre of a network of diocesan and parish personnel who minister various ethnic groups and people on the move throughout the country.  It is tasked with increasing pastoral awareness, cultural sensitivity, and the dynamics of outreach, welcome and support throughout its network.  Inherent in its mission is the promotion and development of mutual respect and incorporation of the gifts and talents offered by diverse cultures into our parish lives.  To fulfil this mission, the Council aims to develop and foster initiatives between the Bishops’ Conference and the dioceses and parishes in relation to the pastoral care ofimmigrants.

Contact details

Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants
Columba Centre
Maynooth
Co Kildare
Tel: +353 (0)1 505 3155
Fax: +353 (0)1 601 6401
Email: [email protected]

Related Content

To view content on this site related to IMMIGRANTS, click on the following tag

Immigrants

Membership of the Council

Bishop Michael Duignan (Chair)
Bishop Paul Dempsey
Mr Gerard Forde
Rev Lazarus Iwueke
Rev Jaroslaw Maszkiewicz,
Sr Moira McDowall
Rev Brian McLaughlin,
Sr Louise O’Connell
Sr Julie Doran
Rev Pat O’Hagan
Rev William Purcell

Work of the Irish Episcopal Council for Immigrants

The core objectives of the IECI are outlined as follows:

  • The provision of English language classes. This is viewed as a key priority as it affects so many other factors such as employment prospects and accessing legal and social networks.
  • The empowering of immigrant communities to become active participants in the life of the parish by encouraging them to contribute to parish liturgies, take on roles of service (e.g. readers, Ministers of the Eucharist, membership of parish pastoral councils, altar servers)
  • The inclusion of migrant chaplaincies in parish communities and fostering cooperation and collaboration with them to provide pastoral care and support toimmigrants.
  • The provision of welcome and information leaflets on the location of Churches and mass times.
  • The organisation of immigration awareness and sensitisation programmes in parishes.
  • A recognition that to achieve effective pastoral care services forimmigrants, there is a need to work with government and local authorities, as well as ecumenically with other Christian denominations, people of other faiths and the non government organisations sector.

Through these objectives and in accordance with the Pontifical Council’s Instruction ‘Erga migrantes caritas Christi’  (2004), the Council aims to strengthen and augment the excellent work currently being carried out in the pastoral care of immigrants across the island of Ireland.

Useful links

International Chaplaincies

Mass Readings for Sunday and Feast Days in different languages

For each Sunday and Feast day of the year, the Vienna International Religious Centre (VIRC) provide, in many languages, the respective readings and gospels (according to the cycle of readings used in the Catholic church) as well as short contemplative tracts.

The texts are in the pdf-format (approx. 50kB). To be able to read or download it, you will require an Acrobat Reader. You can print out each page in A4 format.

For practical purposes they recommend that a print-out of the texts be reduced (from A4>A5) and printed on both sides of the paper, so that you have a handy final product that you can bring either for your own use at the Mass service or can put out at a service for your visitors in the church.

If you require several languages, it is better to use a separate colour sheet for each language.

The languages available are as follows (please click on link to access mass readings):