Thursday, February 23, 2012

"We have our identity back" - Holycross parish priest

“We have our identity back” were the poignant words of the parish priest of Holycross in County Tipperary on Sunday morning last as the relics of the True Cross on which Jesus died, which had been stolen last October, were once again processed through the Abbey.  

In his homily, Fr Tom Breen (pictured) told the packed congregation that the relics had been in Holycross for nearly 900 years, and that the second relic of the true cross had been given to the Abbey by Pope Paul VI in 1975 when it was being restored. 

He said that when he visited a local school last Christmas and asked a local girl where she was from, she told him she used to be from Holycross but now that the cross is gone, I don't know what to call home. 

“Now we have our parish identity back, “said a delighted Fr Breen.

He thanked everyone who had prayed for the return of the relics and he especially thanked the Archbishop of Cashel & Emly Archbishop Dermot Clifford who, he said, “had never pointed the finger of blame at anybody.” 

Fr Breen outlined to the congregation that from now on the relics would be stored in a specially designed alcove in the church.  

While they will be visible to the public through the glass in the alcove, they will not be able to touch them. 

“The glass in the alcove will be unbreakable and bulletproof.”

The Archbishop of Cashel and Emly Dermot Clifford said that it was truly a historic day for Holycross.  

He said that the last time he had been in the Abbey to say Mass he had made a presentation to a local Garda who had worked at the Solemn Novena there for over 20 years. 

“Little did we think we would be dealing with the Gardaí again so soon,” he said. 

He also told the congregation that, “any prospective thief would have to bring more than an angle grinder to Holycross to steal the relics from now on and that if they come again they would need an atomic bomb.”

Throughout the Mass and in keeping with the occasion, the hymn Lift High the Cross was song.  

The relics were brought back into the Abbey by the Sacristan John McGrath and local parishioner PJ Fogarty who was the last man to see them before they were stolen. 

The Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop Clifford, Fr Tom Breen as well as local curates Fr Michael Mullaney, who is also Vice President of Maynooth College, Fr Celcius Tierney CC, who works in the Abbey, Fr Stephen McMahon who was at Archbishop Clifford’s home the evening they were taken, Monsignor Christy O'Dwyer parish priest of Cashel, and former Holycross curate Fr Donal Cunningham. 

In keeping with the Cistercian traditions of Holycross Abbey, the ceremony was also attended by Dom Richard Purcell from Mount Saint Joseph's Monastery in Roscrea and Sr Veronica from the Ursline Convent in Blackrock in Cork City who had previously minded the relics while the Abbey was been restored in the 1970's.