By Bishop Brendan Leahy
When the late Pope Francis proclaimed this as the Jubilee Year of Hope, he invited us to look around and recognise the men and women who, through quiet dedication, make the light of God’s mercy shine in the everyday struggles of our world.
Hope is not a vague feeling or a distant dream; it is born each day wherever love listens, heals, and rebuilds. Often in the darkest of spaces, it catches light.
Here in Limerick, one of those radiant signs of hope is Sr. Helen Culhane, founder of the Children’s Grief Centre. Her life’s work reminds us that hope often begins in the simple, sacred act of listening.
Listening’ was central to how Sr. Helen arrived at establishing the Children’s Grief Centre.
Over a decade and a half ago, the Mercy congregation had developed a new mission statement, which was inscribed on a bookmarker that kept falling out of Sr. Helen’s prayer book. One day, in particular, she picked it up and one sentence stood out for her that referenced “struggles of today”.
Helen felt that the Lord was speaking to her, asking her what she is doing about “the struggles of today”. She listened and put that question together with a report at the time that talked of Limerick having the highest rate of separation in Ireland.
And so a remarkable work of grace unfolded. Seeing that children and young people coping with bereavement or parental separation had nowhere to turn, she founded the Children’s Grief Centre in 2009.
At first just two small rooms, born of faith and a fierce belief that every child deserves to be heard.
From those humble beginnings, the Centre has grown into a beacon of compassion, now serving families across the Mid-West and beyond.
Now, over eighty children pass through its doors each week. Hundreds more wait, longing for what is, at heart and that is the simplest of gifts: to be truly listened to.
In an age when noise fills so many moments, Sr. Helen and her team practise the art of deep listening — listening not only with the ears but, as she beautifully puts it, “with the eyes, with the whole body, and particularly with the heart.”
This is where hope takes root: in the quiet space where a child feels seen, believed, and safe enough to begin talking and healing.
And all in their own time. No pressure to talk. No expectation of anything at all. There were children she would sit with for months, talking about everything but the child’s bereavement.
Until such time, that is, when it was time – time when the child would talk about that most awful of experiences, and for Sr. Helen and her co-support workers to listen.
To listen with compassion is to say, “you are not alone.”
How fitting, then, that in this Year of Hope we celebrate a woman whose mission has been precisely that — to accompany those who feel most alone.
The Children’s Grief Centre, as it is today at the beautifully adapted new space at Mount St. Vincent, O’Connell Avenue, stands as a testament to what can happen when faith, love and compassion meet.
The Sisters of Mercy gifted the building. Generous supporters, like JP McManus, and countless others, helped turn her vision into reality.
As we journey through the final months of this Jubilee Year, the story of Sr. Helen Culhane invites us all to ask: what are we doing about the struggles of today?
Hope is not the denial of grief; it is the courage to face it together. The Children’s Grief Centre embodies that courage — a house of light for families walking through shadows.
We think and pray this week of the many bereaved from that most tragic of accidents outside Dundalk. How they will need to be listened to over time.
Helen tells in our video that seeing children move “from sadness and hopelessness to a place where they can remember and move on” has been the greatest privilege of her life. That is precisely what hope looks like: not escape from pain, but transformation through love.
So, in this Year of Hope, we thank God for Sr. Helen Culhane — a true Hero of Hope — and for every listening heart that helps others to heal.
Watch the video interview with Sr. Helen
