Address by Bishop Dónal Murray at the Mass to mark the departure of
the Franciscan community from the Church and Friary in Limerick

The first thing I want to do this evening is to give thanks to God for all the graces and blessings, all the strength and consolation, which the people of Limerick received as they worshipped in this Church.

The realisation of all that this Church has meant to so many people is also a reason to offer our thanks to the Franciscan Order and to the many good and generous and faithful Franciscans who were part of this community down.

It is also, of course, an occasion for great sadness that this Franciscan presence is ending after so many centuries.

Change can be painful and uncomfortable. But it would be a serious mistake to think that by not changing we can stay as we are. G.K. Chesterton once wrote: “All conservatism is based upon the idea that if you leave things alone you leave them as they are. But you do not. If you leave a thing alone you leave it to a torrent of change. If you leave a white post alone it will soon be a black post. If you particularly want it to be white you must be always painting it again.” 1

Pope John Paul told us in Knock that we need to find new ways to bring the Good News to what he called the new continent of our changing culture. We are fortunate that here in Limerick we have a Catholic department of theology that is at the forefront of providing new ways of presenting Christian faith in contemporary culture. Although it is in existence for less than a decade, it already enjoys an international reputation and presence among those renewing Catholic faith.

The Franciscans have generously offered this church and Friary, this beautiful space made sacred by the generations who have worshipped here since its foundation, so that it can foster growth in knowledge of our Catholic faith, locally and globally. They want these buildings to be used for the advancement of Catholic theology, especially through the Department of Theology and Religious Studies in Mary Immaculate College.
Thus, the Franciscan Order will continue to serve the faith community in Limerick long after their physical presence here has ceased. 

The property will be held by the Bonaventure Trust which has been named after the saint who was perhaps the greatest of the Franciscan theologians. Saint Bonaventure was called the Seraphic Doctor because his writings are so full of the deep and prayerful love of God from which he drew his inspiration.

In a world of such rapid change and new challenges this gift will serve a vital purpose. It will help to point us to how vital it is for us to reflect prayerfully on the Good News and on how it speaks in our lives and how it speaks through our lives to the world.
The 21st century so far is not proving to be an easy time for the Church. We see falling Mass attendance, declining vocations, less visible presence of religious ideas and events in daily life. There is an increasing danger that faith, instead of being recognised as the meaning and inspiration of our whole lives, finds itself struggling for attention in a busy, pressurised world.

It is easy in such a world to begin to take it for granted that the decline of the presence and visibility of Church in Irish life is inevitable and that there is nothing we can do about it. We may see the departure of the Franciscans as a further sign of this decline. But today might be a good time to recall the day over eight hundred years ago when, in the dilapidated church of San Damiano, Francis of Assisi heard the words “Rebuild my Church”.

He soon realised that the message was not about bricks and mortar. It was about rebuilding the community of Christ’s followers, preaching the Gospel, caring for the poor, appreciating the Creator’s gifts. The Franciscan Community in Limerick by this act of generosity have made a great commitment to the work of rebuilding the Church for the future.

The world in which we live does not support Christian belonging and commitment in the way we were used to in the past. The Christian of the future will need to have a clearer and stronger understanding of faith. In making such a wonderful contribution to meeting that need for a deeper formation in faith for this new world, the Franciscans have placed us all in their debt.  It is now up to us in Limerick to try to ensure that the gift is appreciated and used to the full, for the advancement of the knowledge and living of a vibrant, prayerful faith in the spirit of St Bonaventure. That will be our real expression of gratitude to God and to the Franciscan Community.