The IX World Meeting of Families (Theme: The Gospel of the Family: Love for the World) came to a close with a Mass in the Phoenix Park, Dublin, on Sunday August 26th celebrated by Pope Francis. In true Irish fashion the weather was damp as it rained for the greater part of the day. Nothing daunted people turned out in their thousands for this historic Eucharistic celebration with the Pope and the atmosphere was one of joy, good humour, prayer and sharing.
This warmth and joyous spirit pervaded not only the Papal Mass at the Phoenix Park but also the pilgrimage of the Pope to the national shrine of Our Lady at Knock, County Mayo earlier in the day. People had started congregating there in the pouring rain from two o’clock in the morning and they were still smiling at eleven a.m.!
In Croke Park Stadium on Saturday evening a festive spirit pervaded the high class entertainment and sharing of testimonies by families from around the world. The breadth of the Catholic Church’s universality and catholicity was very much in evidence at this gathering. Especially poignant were the testimonies of various family groupings who gave to all gathered at the event, an insight into what Christian values meant to them in the ordinary round of daily life. That part of the evening was truly inspiring as was the celebration of Irish culture in song and dance.
Postulators at work
It was during the actual congress of the World Meeting of Families which took place from Wednesday through Saturday (22nd to 25th August) in the RDS Convention Centre in Dublin that the real spirit of the meeting was most in evidence. Each day there was a packed schedule of conferences, round table conversations and testimonies. There were also special events for children and young adults. In the main hall of the RDS different catholic organisations and businesses had “stands” that covered the vast range of Catholic activities in place around the country and beyond, as well as giving businesses associated with Catholic life a platform to display and sell goods. This exhibition was a great attraction for the people attending the congress. A particularly ‘trendy’ activity for the young people attending was the collection of wristbands from the different stands. Some of the young people collected as many as twenty different coloured wristbands in all! This was the setting for Catherine and the four other great women who have also been declared venerable and whose causes for beatification are in progress.
Srs. Marie Louise White and Brenda Dolphin on the Postulators Stand at WMOF
Catherine’s “venerabile” family included Nano Nagle (1718 – 1784) the founder of the Presentation Sisters in Ireland. The three hundredth anniversary of the birth of Nano is being celebrated this year which makes this a very special time for the Presentation Sisters. Catherine was delighted to stand beside her “mother” in religious life, since it was with the Presentation Sisters that Catherine made her novitiate at the outset of her religious life (1829-1831) and the Presentation Rule formed the basis for the rule of life for the congregation that she herself was to found.
Mary Aikenhead (1787 -1858), the founder of the Religious Sisters of Charity was standing next to Catherine. Mary was a contemporary of Catherine, she founded the congregation of the Religious Sisters of Charity in 1815, sixteen years before Catherine founded the Sisters of Mercy (1831) and she outlived Catherine by nearly twenty years. Her vision for the people of her time resembled closely that of Catherine and Catherine was more than happy to find herself standing beside her “sister” in religious life.
Mary Ward (1585 – 1645) the founder of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin (IBVM, Loreto Sisters, 1606) was also part of the group. Mary was a stalwart Englishwoman of the seventeenth century who died one hundred and thirty three years before Catherine was born. Her intrepid determination to move religious women out of monastic enclosure and her courageous strength in facing the religious and civil status quo of her time makes her a true ancestor of Catherine, her “great-great, great grandmother”!.
Also a member of the group was another English woman, Magdalen (Frances) Taylor (d.1900) founder of the Servants of the Mother of God (1872). Frances Taylor was also an English woman like Mary Ward. She was the daughter of an Anglican clergyman and she converted to the Catholic faith through her interaction with the Sisters of Mercy in the Crimean War. She had volunteered to help Florence Nightingale but was profoundly influenced by Mother Bridgeman and her companions from Cork and how they cared for the Irish and other wounded soldiers. Magdalen (Frances) Taylor was born thirty years after Catherine died but the relationship of “cousin” can certainly be detected between these two valiant women.
Life is about relationship. Family is about relationship. It is through relationship that we grow and open to being the best persons and the communities we can be. Every family, through its interactions and love leaves an indelible mark on the total community of which it is a part.
In a clear and undeniable way this family of great and courageous women made visible the Gospel of Joy and left an indelible mark on the social, educational and religious fabric of not only the Ireland and Great Britain but also on all those places all around the world, especially the English speaking world where their influence and their legacy is still very much in evidence today.
Brenda Dolphin rsm
Postulator
