Sr. Dolores Honoured For Her Lifetime Of Service To The Church
Benemerenti Medal
This article was written by Suzanne Pender and was first published in the Carlow Nationalist
A lifetime of devotion and service to the Church and the cathedral parish was honoured recently when Sr. Dolores Fitzgerald, a Mercy Sister of St. Leo’s Convent community, was awarded the Benemerenti Medal. The medal is awarded by the Pope for service to the Catholic Church, with Sr. Dolores a very worthy recipient.
Sr. Dolores was presented with the medal at Saturday morning Mass in the Cathedral of the Assumption, Carlow, celebrated by Bishop Denis Nulty and attended by many of Sr. Dolores’s friends in the parish.
In welcoming Sr. Dolores, Bishop Denis also extended a sincere Céad Mile Fáilte to her family, her Mercy Sisters, the Leadership Team from Naas, her colleague Mary from Pinewood Avenue, Carlow, and the Mercy community in St. Leo’s Convent.
The Bishop also welcomed priests who worked alongside Sr. Dolores, and her many friends. Eight priests of the diocese, including former administrator of Carlow Cathedral Fr. Ruairi O’Domhnaill, PP, Newbridge and Monsignor Brendan Byrne.
On a deeply joyful occasion, Bishop Nulty told the congregation that the Benemerenti award to Sr. Dolores “was a clear recognition of a religious life of humble service, a life of never wanting the limelight but always in the centre of every sacramental and pastoral moment around the life of the cathedral and wider diocese from her days where she worked alongside Monsignor Seán Swayne in the liturgy centre at St. Patrick’s College, Carlow”.
A native of Monasterevin, Co Kildare, Sr. Dolores joined the Mercy Order in 1958, having just completed her Leaving Certificate and took her First Profession before her 21st birthday. Her religious name was Sr. Bernard.
Sr. Dolores taught in the former Mercy Convent boys school, now St. Catherine’s Community Services Centre, before moving over to St. Joseph’s National School when it opened, where she was a highly-respected teacher and is fondly remembered.
In the early 1970’s she became involved in the liturgy centre with Fr. Swayne. At first it was just a room in Carlow College, which ran workshops for musicians and readers.
The liturgy centre then moved to St. Ann’s in Killenard, Co Laois before moving back to Carlow College, where it became a residential centre. When the decision was taken to move the centre to Maynooth, Sr. Dolores was asked by Mgr. John Byrne (adm, Carlow Cathedral Parish at the time) to join the parish team as Parish Sister, where her work and commitment to activities has been impeccable since.
Some of the organisations Sr. Dolores has been involved with over the decades include the parish team, pastoral council, liturgy group and committee, the finance committee, bereavement group, home liaison for the bereaved, baptism group, training, social committee, training and reception of catechumens, training of altar servers, flower group, running all sacramental programmes, liaison to the Polish community and non-Irish national parishioners, committee for World Meeting of Families and organisation of the diocesan picnic.
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