|
Greek-Catholic Congregation
of Dublin, Ireland Our New Web site (Click Here)| Home | History | Services | Location |
History The first public Greek-Catholic presence in Ireland was during the 1932 Dublin Eucharistic Congress, when Bishop Nicholas (Charnetsky), then Apostolic Visitor and later Exarch in north-eastern Poland, western Belarus and Volyn visited Ireland at the invitation of the Redemptorists. Bishop Nicholas lodged for a fortnight in the guest-house of the Redemptoristine monastery on Saint Alphonsus Road and offered the Divine Liturgy in the monastery church each morning. On the second day of the Eucharistic Congress, Bishop Nicholas served a Pontifical Divine Liturgy for all the Congress participants in the Jesuit Church on Gardiner Street; an icon-screen was especially made and installed for this purpose with hand-painted icons (our best efforts to ascertain what eventually became of the icon-screen have not succeeded) and a choir directed by Paul Mailleux, S.J. (later Rector of the Pontifical Russian College in Rome) sang the Pontifical Liturgy in Church-Slavonic. Father (later Archbishop) Fulton J. Sheen of the United States was among the participating clergy. After the Eucharistic Congress, Bishop Nicholas remained in Ireland for several weeks, visiting various Redemptorist churches and schools. He then went back to Poland. Unfortunately, Bishop Nicholas never had an opportunity to return to Ireland; World War II and the Soviet persecution of the Church severely restricted his activity and led him to an untimely death; in June 2001 Pope John Paul II beatified him. But in Ireland Bishop Nicholas was not forgotten. People who had met
him during the Eucharistic Congress, who had attended the Divine
Liturgy, or who had come into contact with him during his visits to
different parts of the contrary, remembered Bishop Nicholas and
prayed for him. Then a relatively minor event occurred which became the catalyst that resulted in the beginning of the present Greek-Catholic Congregation. In 1992, a small group of friends decided to organize a Divine Liturgy in Dublin to mark the silver anniversary of the ordination of An tAthair Brian ÓCéileachair (Archimandrite Serge Keleher) to the priesthood. This Divine Liturgy was held in Mount Argus Church just under a week before the actual anniversary, and two Bishops came from America for the occasion: Bishop Basil (Losten) of Stamford and Bishop Vsevolod of Scopelos. Father Archimandrite is an Irish national and an Irish citizen who had been serving the Eparchy of Toronto for about twenty years when he was posted to Keston College as a part of the campaign to obtain the restoration of legal rights to the Greek-Catholic Church in Ukraine. This assignment meant that he could live in Ireland and commute to Oxford (though not, of course, on a daily basis). However, this also meant that Father Archimandrite was frequently back and forth to Ukraine and other parts of Eastern Europe; he could not even think of organizing a regular schedule of divine services in Dublin. Only two days after the jubilee Divine Liturgy at Mount Argus Father Archimandrite and some of the Irish friends who had organized the celebration flew to Ukraine to see what help might be provided to the Church there. For that trip, Father remained in Ukraine for several weeks. When he returned to Dublin, several people telephoned to ask when the next celebration of the Divine Liturgy would take place. The group began to have Divine Liturgy regularly, at first once a month and then, as time went on, Divine Liturgy was held each Sunday at Saint Paul's Church, Arran Quay. In these first years, the Divine Liturgy was mostly in Greek, although some Irish was used from the beginning and the expert Irish speakers in the community set to work producing an Irish translation of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom. After the first year or two, it became an annual custom to hold a
pilgrimage to Cnoc Mhuire in County Mayo, usually for the feast of
the Dormition of the Holy Theotokos; this pilgrimage continues. The
faithful continued to give humanitarian aid to the Church in
Ukraine. In those early years, Father Archimandrite did not consider
it possible to conduct Holy Week services; instead, he organized
some of the faithful to go to Athens or Constantinople for Holy Week
and Pascha. An unexpected fruit of this annual Paschal excursion
came in 1998, when to his own surprise Father Archimandrite found
himself holding the first Divine Liturgy for what has become the
strong and active Ukrainian Greek-Catholic parish in Athens. Towards the end of December 1998 Bishop Fiachra notified Father
Archimandrite that by decision of the Archbishop of Dublin the
Greek-Catholic services were to be held in Saint Kevin's Oratory at
the Catholic Pro-Cathedral, and Father Archimandrite was to do
everything possible to seek out the Greek-Catholics who were newly
arrived in Ireland and to organize them and look after their
pastoral needs. Welcoming the Greek-Catholics from Ukraine and elsewhere in Eastern
Europe meant some cultural and linguistic adjustments. Some Greek is
still used in the Divine Liturgy but over the past few years there
has been a greater use of Church-Slavonic and Ukrainian. Meanwhile,
the Irish translation of the Divine Liturgy of Saint John Chrysostom
has been completed and received the blessing of Patriarch Maximos V
of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and All the East. In 2003, thanks
to the generous support of the Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem,
we were able to publish a booklet providing the Divine Liturgy in
Irish and Ukrainian, parallel to one another. The Divine Liturgy of
Saint Basil has been translated into Irish, as has the Order of
Baptism and Chrismation; other translations will follow, with the
help of God. It has happened twice that Pascha and new-calendar Easter have coincided. Each time, there is a peculiar effect: significant numbers of people who must work late into the evening come straight from work to Church, so that the faithful continue to arrive as late as 1:00 AM. Thanks to the generosity of Bishop Basil (Losten) of Stamford,
Father Petro Vitvitsky came to Dublin for Holy Week and Pascha of
2000, to hear Confessions and assist with the divine services. This
proved to be a considerable work; a significant number of people
were coming to Confession for the first time, and many more had not
been to Confession since arriving in Ireland. Father Petro is both
gentle and thorough; he prepared such penitents individually and
then encouraged them to pray and examine their consciences and
return for sacramental Confession the following evening. For Holy Week and Pascha of 2001 Bishop Peter of Melbourne blessed Father Adrian Ckuj to come from Rome to hear Confessions and assist with the divine services. Not only that; Father Adrian's parents came all the way from Australia to celebrate the feast with us! There were many pentitents for Confession, and the crowd which came for the midnight Paschal service was really too big for Saint Kevin's Oratory. In June 2001 Pope John Paul II beatified Bishop Nicholas (Charnetsky). Since Blessed Nicholas had been in Dublin in 1932, the Greek-Catholic community immediately took him as the Patron of the community. The patronal icon was prepared and brought to Dublin just in time for the seventieth anniversary of Blessed Nicholas's visit to Ireland. By Pascha of 2002 the congregation had grown to the point that Saint Kevin's Oratory could no longer accommodate the numbers of people who would come for the midnight Paschal service of Resurrection Orthros and Divine Liturgy. Through the kindness of Father John Delany, Administrator of the Pro-Cathedral, the Greek-Catholics were able to hold this Paschal service in the large main church, where the space is ample. The Latin clergy were agreeably surprised that over 300 people came for this midnight service. In 2002, Father Orest Mokryk came from L'viv, Ukraine, to hear Confessions and assist with the divine services. In September 2002 the Military and Hospitaller Order of Saint Lazarus of Jerusalem held their International Conference in Dublin, which meant that the tenth anniversary of the Greek-Catholic congregation was kept with a Pontifical Divine Liturgy offered in the Pro-Cathedral by His Holiness Patriarch Gregory III of Antioch, Alexandria, Jerusalem and All the East. On this occasion, the Patriarch himself consecrated the patronal icon for the Greek-Catholic Congregation of Blessed Nicholas. As a further memento, the Order of Saint Lazarus published a complete service-book for the Patriarchal Liturgy; the service was sung by the Palestrina Choir directed by Blainead Murphy. For Holy Week of 2003 the Greek-Catholics welcomed Father Serhij Stesenko from L'viv, who heard Confessions and assisted with the divine services, and Jarko Pasok, from Preshov, Slovakia, who was finishing his degree at the Pontifical Oriental Institute and joined us in Dublin for the feast. The midnight Paschal service again took place in the main church of the Pro-Cathedral, with an increased attendance. On Pentecost 2003 Bishop Peter of Melbourne returned to Dublin and offered the Pontifical Divine Liturgy and the special "prayers of genuflection" for the Greek-Catholic congregation of Blessed Nicholas. The clergy and servers were a bit puzzled when at the beginning of the service the numbers of the faithful seemed remarkably low. However, during the service the number of the faithful continued to increase - it turned out that there was a major international sporting event that day in Dublin, which had seriously delayed all the traffic in the city! The traffic was still snarled after the Divine Liturgy, which meant that it took much time to reach the home of the family who were hosting the Bishop and his assistants for dinner that day, but eventually we got there. Since this parish is the first appearance of any organized, ongoing
Greek-Catholic presence in Ireland, there had been no particular
arrangement made for a normal dependence upon a Greek-Catholic
Bishop. This began to change when Bishop Paul (Chomnycky), OSBM, was
elected Bishop of Buffada and Exarch in London. Patriarch Lubomyr
and the Ukrainian Greek-Catholic Holy Synod asked Bishop Paul to see
how things were developing in Ireland and what might be done. It is
not just a question of Dublin; there are significant numbers of
faithful in other locations in Ireland who are in need of pastoral
care. Ireland, of course, is more than Dublin, and there are
Greek-Catholics in many Irish cities. The Holy See has recently
named Bishop Hlib of Bareta to serve as Apostolic Visitor for the
Greek-Catholics in Ireland and see what might be done. Bishop Hlib
is to make his first visit, God willing, in late May 2004, with
Divine Liturgy in Belfast, in Cork and of course in Dublin. Bishop
Hlib has similar responsibilities for Spain, Portugal and Italy; His
Grace also represents the Ukrainian Patriarch and Synod at the Holy
See. The recent expansion of the European Union is likely to mean an
increase in the number of Greek-Catholics coming to Ireland,
particularly from Poland and Slovakia. Sadly, immigration has
recently become a controversial topic in Irish politics, with
unwelcome efforts to arouse xenophobia among the Irish people. The
Irish have done well in many countries around the world; now it is
time for Ireland to be hospitable to those who come to our country
in search of a better life. Divine Liturgy on Sundays is at 4:00 PM. Holy Day services as
announced (usually 11:00 AM, but always check in advance of the holy
day). Baptisms are usually done during the Sunday Divine Liturgy.
All services are normally held in Saint Kevin's Oratory, the Catholic Pro-Cathedral, Dublin. Many Dublin bus lines stop in O'Connell Street, a few steps from the Pro-Cathedral. Connolly Station (for trains and theDART) are a few blocks from the Pro-Cathedral. Taxis are usually available. Parking in the city center can be a problem; the easiest thing to do for those coming to our services by car is to park in the garage of the Hotel Gresham; the garage entrance is on Thomas Lane, adjacent to the street entrance of Saint Kevin's Oratory. Alas, there is a charge for parking in the garage, but it's very convenient and relatively secure. The Pro-Cathedral is in the city center, a couple of blocks from the historic General Post Office on O'Connell Street. Saint Kevin's Oratory has its own entrance from Thomas Lane. Our New Web site (Click Here) |
