From the Diocese
Bishop William Lee, our local bishop, regularly communicates with the people of the diocese by
issuing open pastoral letters. He does this for various reasons such as instruction, consolation,
or direction. Such letters are also issued at particular ecclesiastical seasons.
These letters are usually read out at Mass by a priest. However, some of the parishioners might
be on holiday or in hospital or at work so they don't get to hear them being read out.
Those of the congregation who do hear them might not remember them very well twenty-four hours
later or a week later, and might not have understood them properly.
For these and other reasons we have decided to make the bishop's pastoral letters available
to you on this web site. We do not have a complete collection of pastorals going back to the
foundation of the diocese but we will endeavour to collect them for you from now on.
We will also make available any reports or other communications from the diocese.
From the Irish Bishops
The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference is the assembly of the bishops of the whole
island of Ireland. The Conference enables the bishops to exchange views, and
share their wisdom and experience in order to promote the common good of the Church in
Ireland. The current membership of the Conference comprises the twenty-six bishops of
the dioceses of Ireland together with the seven auxiliary bishops.
The Conference seeks to build effective consensus among the bishops, thereby contributing
to the unity of the Church in communion with the pope. At the same time, the Conference
fully respects the personal authority, responsibility and ministry of each individual
bishop within his own diocese.
The Irish Catholic Bishops’ Conference maintains a web site (see the
Links page) which provides much
information about the bishops and their diocese, many articles and publications,
and interesting images and videos. From time to time, for your convenience, we will
present some of the information on this your own parish web site .
From the Pope
Joseph Alois Ratzinger was elected as Benedict XVI, the 265th Pope, on 19th April 2005.
He is the Bishop of Rome, the head of the Catholic Church and Sovereign of the Vatican
City State.
Although he has been Pope for only five years he has been a prolific writer of apostolic
letters, pastoral letters, encyclicals, homilies, and so on. All of these publications
are to be found on the Vatican web site, a link to which is given opposite.
In mid-March 2010, the Pope wrote a pastoral letter "to the Catholics of Ireland"
concerning "the abuse of children and vulnerable young people by members of the Church in
Ireland, particularly by priests and religious". An abbreviated letter was read out at
Mass on Saturday/Sunday 20th/21st March and copies were given to the congregation after
Mass. The complete pastoral letter is available by clicking the link opposite.
