Please remember to pray for vocations in your prayers so that we may get more young men and women hearing the call into a religious life.
Since Easter this year, a monthly Liturgy in the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Rite has started in Belfast. This is response to a request from Ukrainian refugees living throughout Northern Ireland for pastoral support in their own language and Rite.
Fr Taras Khomych the Ukrainian Chaplain in Liverpool travels to celebrate the Divine Liturgy at St Patrick’s, Donegall Street, Belfast on the second Sunday of the month at 1pm.
The main contact for the Ukrainian Catholic community in Ireland is: ugccie@gmail.com
Fr Eamonn Bredin RIP
We are sad to announce the death of former Parish Priest of Inishmagrath, Fr Eamonn Bredin who died on Wednesday, 16th April.
Fr Eamonn served as our Parish Priest from 1999 to 2005.
His funeral arrangements have yet to be announced.
May he rest in peace in the loving arms of the Lord.
His Holiness, Pope Francis, (Jorge Mario Bergoglio) born in Buenos Aires (Argentina) on 17 December 1936, died at 7:35am on Easter Monday (21 April 2025) in his apartment at the Domus Sanctae Marthae (Vatican City). His tasks are over, the Lord has called him into His loving arms, may his soul rest in peace.
www.vatican.va
Message of the Holy Father for the tenth World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, 02.07.2025
The following is the Message of the Holy Father Leo XIV for the tenth World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, to be celebrated on Monday 1 September 2025, on the theme “Seeds of Peace and Hope”:
Message of the Holy Father -
Dear Brothers and Sisters!
The theme of this World Day of Prayer for the Care of Creation, chosen by our beloved Pope Francis, is “Seeds of Peace and Hope”. On the tenth anniversary of the establishment of this Day of Prayer, which coincided with the publication of the Encyclical Laudato Si’, we find ourselves celebrating the present Jubilee as“Pilgrims of Hope.”This year’s theme thus appears most timely.
In proclaiming the Kingdom of God, Jesus often used the image of the seed. As the time of his Passion drew near, he applied that image to himself, comparing himself to the grain of wheat that must die in order to bear fruit (cf.Jn12:24). Seeds are buried in the earth, and there, to our wonder, life springs up, even in the most unexpected places, pointing to the promise of new beginnings. We can think, for example, of flowers springing up on our roadsides from seeds that landed up there almost by chance. As those flowers grow, they brighten the gray tarmac and even manage to break through its hard surface.
In Christ, we too are seeds, and indeed, “seeds of peace and hope.” The prophet Isaiah
tells us that the Spirit of God can make an arid and parched desert into a garden,
a place of rest and serenity. In his words, “a spirit from on high will be poured
out on us, and the wilderness will become a fruitful field, and the fruitful field
a forest. Then justice will dwell in the wilderness, and righteousness abide in the
fruitful field. The work of righteousness will be peace, and the work of righteousness,
quietness and trust forever. My people will abide in a peaceful habitation, in secure
dwellings, and in quiet resting places” (Is 32:15-
These words of the prophet will accompany the “Season of Creation,” an ecumenical
initiative to be celebrated from 1 September to 4 October 2025. They remind us that,
together with prayer, determination and concrete actions are necessary if this “caress
of God” is to become visible to our world (cf.Laudato Si’, 84). The prophet contrasts
justice and law with the desolation of the desert. His message is extraordinarily
timely, given the evidence in various parts of the world that our earth is being
ravaged. On all sides, injustice, violations of international law and the rights
of peoples, grave inequalities and the greed that fuels them are spawning deforestation,
pollution and the loss of biodiversity. Extreme natural phenomena caused by climate
changes provoked by human activity are growing in intensity and frequency (cf.Laudato
Deum, 5), to say nothing of the medium and long-
As yet, we seem incapable of recognizing that the destruction of nature does not affect everyone in the same way. When justice and peace are trampled underfoot, those who are most hurt are the poor, the marginalised and the excluded. The suffering of indigenous communities is emblematic in this regard.
That is not all. Nature itself is reduced at times to a bargaining chip, a commodity to be bartered for economic or political gain. As a result, God’s creation turns into a battleground for the control of vital resources. We see this in agricultural areas and forests peppered with landmines, “scorched earth” policies,[1]conflicts over water sources, and the unequal distribution of raw materials, which penalizes the poorer nations and undermines social stability itself.
These various wounds are the effect of sin. This is surely not what God had in mind
when he entrusted the earth to the men and women whom he created in his image (cf.Gen1:24-
Environmental justice – implicitly proclaimed by the prophets – can no longer be regarded as an abstract concept or a distant goal. It is an urgent need that involves much more than simply protecting the environment. For it is a matter of justice – social, economic and human. For believers it is also a duty born of faith, since the universe reflects the face of Jesus Christ, in whom all things were created and redeemed. In a world where the most vulnerable of our brothers and sisters are the first to suffer the devastating effects of climate change, deforestation and pollution, care for creation becomes an expression of our faith and humanity.
Now is the time to follow words with deeds. “Living our vocation to be protectors
of God’s handiwork is essential to a life of virtue; it is not an optional or a secondary
aspect of our Christian experience” (Laudato Si’, 217). By working with love and
perseverance, we can sow many seeds of justice and thus contribute to the growth
of peace and the renewal of hope. It may well take years for this plant to bear its
first fruits, years that, for their part, involve an entire ecosystem made up of
continuity, fidelity, cooperation and love, especially if that love mirrors the Lord’s
own self-
Among the Church’s initiatives that are like seeds sown in this field, I would mention the Borgo Laudato Si’ project that Pope Francis bequeathed to us at Castel Gandolfo. It is a seed that promises to bear fruits of justice and peace, and an educational project in integral ecology that can serve as an example of how people can live, work and build community by applying the principles of the Encyclical Laudato Si’.
I pray that Almighty God will send us in abundance his “Spirit from on high” (Is32:15), so that these seeds, and others like them, may bring forth an abundant harvest of peace and hope.
The Encyclical Laudato Si’ has now guided the Catholic Church and many people of good will for ten years. May it continue to inspire us and may integral ecology be increasingly accepted as the right path to follow. In this way, seeds of hope will multiply, to be “tilled and kept” by the grace of our great and unfailing Hope, who is the risen Christ. In his name, I offer all of you my blessing.
From the Vatican, 30 June 2025
Memorial of the First Martyrs of Holy Roman Church
LEO PP. XIV
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[1] Cf. PONTIFICAL COUNCIL FOR JUSTICE AND PEACE,Land and Food, Libreria Editrice
Vaticana, 2015, 51-
Notice
Recollection Weekend: 22nd -