Church throws doors open to refugees

Church throws doors open to refugees

By Ronnie Convery

The Church in Glasgow is throwing open its doors to welcome refugees fleeing the war in Ukraine.

Archbishop Nolan has encouraged parishes to do all they can to help and has ensured that a house formerly used by a retired priest be offered to house refugees.

And the call to action has been taken up across the Archdiocese.

In Maryhill, Fr Jim Lawlor is planning to offer accommodation to those in need in the presbytery at Immaculate Conception Parish.

Father Lawlor said: “We have already created space so we could host at COP26 and we have space for eight people.

“This parish was founded in 1851 to serve Irish refugees from the famine, working on the nearby canal and lock basin. Caring for those who flee is in our spiritual DNA so it’s obvious and instinctive for us to stretch out a hand to new friends.”

Meanwhile in Partick, work is underway to make space for Ukrainian families who may need accommodation at St Peter’s Parish.

Volunteers and professionals have already begun work in the presbytery to allow the bottom floor to be used by refugees.

Unused meeting rooms will be converted into bedrooms and an appeal has gone out for beds and bedding with fund raisers planned to help with costs.

Parish priest Canon Peter McBride said: “We hope to be in a position to welcome up to six people including children.”

In the east of the city, St Michael’s, Parkhead has opened its parish hall as a hub for Ukrainians arriving in the city. It will be open most days to give out essential items and to provide tea and coffee and a welcoming hug to those arriving.

Archbishop Nolan made a special visit to welcome the Ukrainian refugees first-hand and to thank parishioners for all their support.

Volunteers have been working to offer as much practical help as possible – haircuts on offer once a week, the services of a Ukrainian-speaking psychologist, even Easter eggs and drawing classes for the children.

Fr Liam said: “I was asked by the Glasgow Ukrainian Society of they could use our hall as a hub for their people – a safe space really – and of course I was delighted to help.

“And once again the generous people of the East End, and not all of them parishioners of St Michael’s, went above and beyond in their kindness offering everything from food, clothes and toys to Easter eggs, transport and above all a warm welcome.”

Archbishop Nolan said: “I am so glad to see priests and people across the Archdiocese responding so generously to the humanitarian disaster that is underway as millions of people flee Ukraine.

“It is frustrating however that the UK Government is continuing to insist on a strict visa requirement before allowing these desperate people to reach the support we want to give them.

“There is so much good will and desire to welcome people which is being obstructed by the painfully slow bureaucracy.

“EU countries have waived visa rules to allow those in need of help to enter their countries. Poland has taken in almost three million while Britain has taken around one per cent of that number. That’s a woeful lack of generosity to people in real need on the part of the UK Government.”

May ceremony for new saints

By Ronnie Convery

Pope Francis will canonise 10 new saints in a huge ceremony in Rome later this month.

The World War II martyr Titus Brandsma and desert hermit Charles de Foucauld will be the most famous blesseds to be declared saints at the canonisation Mass on May 15.

The ceremony will be the Catholic Church’s first canonisation Mass since the start of the coronavirus outbreak. It will take place two years and seven months after the most recent canonisation, that of St. John Henry Newman and four others in October 2019.

Titus Brandsma, a Dutch priest, professor, and journalist, was born Anno Sjoerd Brandsma in Oegeklooster, in the province of Friesland, on Feb. 23, 1881. He entered the Carmelite novitiate in 1898, taking the religious name Titus. He was ordained a priest in 1905.

Freedom

Following Germany’s invasion of the Netherlands in 1940, Brandsma defended the freedom of Catholic education and the Catholic press against Nazi pressures.

After he firmly opposed mandatory Nazi propaganda in Catholic newspapers, he was arrested in January 1942.

He was transferred to Dachau, once described as “the largest priest cemetery in the world,” on June 19 that year. He died on July 26, following a lethal injection.

He was beatified by Pope John Paul II on Nov. 3, 1985, as a martyr for the faith.

Blessed Charles de Foucauld, born in 1858, was a French aristocrat who gave up his wealth to become a religious brother and live in the desert.

Born in Strasbourg, France, in 1858, Blessed de Foucauld strayed from the faith during his adolescence, but during a trip to Morocco, he saw how devoted Muslims were to their faith, which inspired him to return to the church.

Faith

He joined the Trappists, living in monasteries in France and in Syria, before seeking an even more austere life as a hermit. After his ordination to the priesthood in 1901, he lived among the poor and finally settled in Tamanrasset, Algeria. In 1916, he was killed by a band of marauders.

His writings inspired the foundation, after his death, of the Little Brothers of Jesus and the Little Sisters of Jesus.His work and writings led to the founding of the Congregation of the Little Brothers of Jesus.

Paddy was a true Lourdes legend

By Brian Swanson

The funeral has taken place of Paddy Sherry, the last surviving volunteer helper from the first ever Glasgow Archdiocesan Lourdes pilgrimage, who has died aged 102.

She first volunteered at the famous French shrine with Glasgow Lourdes Hospitalité in that inaugural pilgrimage in 1948 when the journey took 36 hours by train and ferry, and she continued to serve pilgrims for the next 72 years.

Canon Peter McBride, Parish Priest of St Peter's in Partick where she worshipped daily for many years and where her funeral Mass was celebrated said: “Paddy was been a member of the Lourdes Hospitalité group for several decades and a daily communicant at St Peter’s for many, many years where she also served as sacristan.

“She will be fondly remembered by many for her nursing skills and great patience with sick pilgrims.

“Until her health deteriorated a couple of years ago she was often seen carrying Holy Communion to the housebound of St Peter’s parish. She was a remarkable witness in our parish community and beyond."

Paddy spent her working life as the personal assistant to successive senior partners in a prominent Glasgow law firm and always arranged her annual holidays to coincide with the Lourdes pilgrimage.

Paddy’s own faith, and that of her seven sisters, all of whom have predeceased her, was nurtured by her father Owen, a publican who came to Glasgow from County Monaghan and whose hard work ensured all his daughters attended Notre Dame, and her mother Elizabeth who shared her husband’s strong Catholic beliefs.

Paddy spent the last 18 months of her life being cared for at St Margaret's Hospice, Clydebank.

In an interview with Flourish several years ago she played down her extraordinary record with typical humility: “Please don’t say too much about me – I was just happy to help people- I enjoyed doing it right from the start and I still do but don’t be making me out to be special or anything like that.”

As she was laid to rest, all who knew her begged to differ. Paddy was special.

Historic book is coming home

By Brian Swanson

A precious book which went missing some time in the last century from a Glasgow seminary has been found and restored to the Archdiocese … by the Italian Carabinieri!

Major Morenzo Pella travelled from the northern city of Udine to Rome to hand over the tome of the works of St Robert Bellarmine to Scots College Rector, Fr Dan Fitzpatrick, who will in turn consign it to Archbishop Nolan next month during the Archbishop’s visit to the College.

The manuscript was gifted to St Peter’s seminary, then based in Bearsden in 1880 by rector William Gordon and found to be missing when the collection was catalogued 101 years later in 1981. Since then it has featured on international lists of stolen property … until now.

Italian police got involved when the volume was bought online from a Dutch website by a collector of rare books in Mantua in northern Italy. A specialist cultural protection unit of the Carabinieri swooped and charged the unsuspecting collector with dealing in stolen goods.

After investigations established the buyer’s innocence the book was seized and the search for the rightful owners began.

The clue was a stamp in Latin inside the cover of the book which must have been applied when it was placed in the Glasgow seminary library. Police checks with the Archdiocese revealed that the seal was indeed from the original Bearsden seminary (which was destroyed by fire in 1946).

Fr Dan Fitzpatrick told Flourish: “The Italian police were very efficient and sent three officers to the College to hand over the book. It’s a precious and rare volume of the writings of St Robert Bellarmine on Christian doctrine and it will be good to hand it over to the new archbishop on his next visit to the College so that it can go home to Glasgow.”

Mary McHugh, the Archdiocesan Archivist said: “It’s good to have the volume safely returned, and we also have to thank DS William Telford of Police Scotland and Luigi Portacci of the Carabinieri for their work and persistence in recovering it.”