Bishop Michael Router welcomes World Day of the Sick Message by Pope Francis As chair of the Council for Healthcare of the Irish Episcopal Conference, I welcome Pope Francis message for the World Day of the Sick, which is celebrated on 11 February, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. This year marks the 30th […]

Friday 11 February 2022

Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes

As chair of the Council for Healthcare of the Irish Episcopal Conference, I welcome Pope Francis message for the World Day of the Sick which takes place on 11 February, the Feast of Our Lady of Lourdes. The past year has been an extraordinary one.  As a deadly and disruptive virus circled the world, we became […]

World Day of the Sick – 11 February 2021

Throughout most of 2020 news and social media outlets have provided us with daily updates on the number of deaths recorded with or from Covid-19. After so many months, we can easily tire of listening to these news items and, unintentionally, desensitise ourselves to these deaths as they become just another sad statistic. The Church, […]

A Time to Remember  So many of our conversations used to revolve around the weather, it was like our in built ice breaker in the art of conversation. Now we have replaced this line with the oft familiar phrase, ‘these are strange times’, as we refer to the pandemic Covid-19 and its impact on all our […]

November, darkness falls earlier as the evenings get shorter, trees become naked as they continue to shed and let go of their beautiful, rustic colour leaves.  Nature constantly reminds us of letting go, dying and death. The month of November, we traditionally remember our dead.  There is a sense of eeriness this year because of […]

In November we remember our dead but also the many families, nursing homes, healthcare staff, religious houses and parish communities that grieve.  In recent weeks the tragic deaths among families in Cork and Dublin, as well as living during a Worldwide Pandemic COVID-19, that has claimed the lives of so many people touches deeply into […]

“You received without payment; give without payment” (Mt 10:8) Dear Brothers and Sisters, “You received without payment; give without payment” (Mt 10:8). These are the words spoken by Jesus when sending forth his apostles to spread the Gospel, so that his Kingdom might grow through acts of gratuitous love. On the XXVII World Day of the Sick, […]