DIOCESAN CELEBRATION TO MARK WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES 2018

KILMORE PREPARES FOR THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES 2018 – The Diocese of Kilmore celebrated the countdown to the 2018 World Meeting of Families at a recent event in the Cathedral of SS. Patrick & Felim, Cavan.  All 34 parishes in Kilmore were invited to send representatives to the ceremony at which Bishop Leo O’Reilly presided.  The guest speaker was Fr. Timothy Bartlett, Secretary-General of the World Meeting of Families.  The new icon of the Holy Family, commissioned for next year’s event, was present in the Cathedral in Cavan for four nights which coincided with the Annual Diocesan Novena to Mary, Untier of Knots. The combined choirs from the Crosserlough parish led the music at this ceremony with Conor Kiernan as organist and choir director.

The special petition box, which was presented to the diocese at a World Meeting of Families event in Knock in August, was brought to the Chapel of the Holy Family in the Cathedral where it remained for the duration of the Novena. The petition box will then go around the 34 parishes in the diocese over the coming months.  Contemplative communities around Ireland have agreed to take petitions collected from families and to pray for them during the coming year.

Families representing the 34 parishes in the diocese each presented a shoe box to Bishop O’Reilly containing non-perishable goods and items of clothing which, in turn, were donated to the local St. Vincent de Paul.

The Master of Ceremonies was Fr. Ultan McGoohan, Diocesan Director of Pastoral Services assisted by Seán Coll, Director of the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre

From left to right: Fr. Timothy Bartlett, Secretary-General of the World Meeting of Families; Fr. Ultan McGoohan, Diocesan Director of Pastoral Services, Seán Coll, Director of the Kilmore Diocesan Pastoral Centre,                        and Bishop Leo O’Reilly.

[Photographs courtesy of Adrian Donohoe, Photographer, Cavan)