St Patrick's Day Mass
Fifth Sunday of Lent - St Mary's Cathedral
+ Cardinal George Pell, Archbishop of Sydney
17 Mar 2002
St Patrick's Day is an opportunity for the Church in Australia to say thanks for the contribution of Irish religiously and to civil life in Australia, and to pray for Ireland.
In celebrating St Patrick's day, we are part of a long tradition. In ninth century Ireland there was a three day religious festival to celebrate "St Patrick's falling asleep". St Patrick's day was officially recognized by Pope Urban VIII in 1631, and already here in Australia in March 1833 - 27th March in fact - a farmer complained to the priest that his workers were unable to work because they had been celebrating St Patrick's Day since March 12th and still had not concluded.
St Patrick lived in a period when the Roman Empire, which never included Scotland and Ireland, was being attacked and penetrated by the outsiders, the barbarians, Goths, Vandals, Huns. Rome itself fell to Alaric and the Goths in 410, the first such occupation for 800 years and the Irish pirates, known as Scotti, were active in these chaotic and terrible times.
Patrick's birth place is still controverted. Some say Cornwall, others say Wales; although he probably came from the area now known as England. For many centuries the good Catholic answer to this question was to insist that Patrick was born in France, apparently as the lesser of two evils, but there is little good evidence for this.
Patrick's father and grandfather were clerics. Patrick's grandfather was a priest and his father Colpurnius was a deacon and well-to-do landowner at Bannaven Taburniae, the site of which is unknown. His family was not strongly religious.
At the age of sixteen Patrick was captured by Irish pirates and spent six years as a slave and shepherd in either Country Mayo or Country Antrim where his religious convictions deepened. He became profoundly convinced of the truth and importance of the faith. He escaped across Ireland, perhaps to the port of Wexford or Wicklow and then returned to Britain, with a raiding party. In some ways he never recovered from the trauma of his early capture.
He was ordained priest, visited Gaul and it was decided to send him to Ireland as a missionary bishop. Not certain he was sent by Pope Celestine, who sent Palladius as the first bishop in Ireland between 422-431.
Patrick travelled much, made many converts, ordained many clergy and set up monasteries. He provoked strong opposition, some attacked his character, which provoked him to write his Confessions. He was imprisoned at one stage and feared martyrdom.
Many of the stories about him are either not true or, at least, without evidence. We first hear of him banishing snakes from Ireland 300 years after his death; his explanation of the Trinity through the three leaves of the shamrock first appeared 1000 years after his death. There was no High King of Ireland then for Patrick to encounter at Tara; no evidence that he climbed Croagh Patrick to commune with God. The bishop's mitre, which appears often on his head in paintings, was not used for another 600 years. He does not need these stories; his achievement and those of his Church are on record.
It is a sad fact that most Australians, and this includes most Irish Australians, are ignorant of Irish greatness, influenced by the historical stereotypes first coined by Ireland's enemies and stemming from those centuries when the Irish people were systematically brutalized.
The great missionary expansion of Irish Catholicism in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries which took the faith not only to Australia, but to the United States, New Zealand, Canada and many parts of Asia and Africa too, is only a rerun of Irish missionary activity in the sixth to the eighth centuries, which saw the conversion of Northern Europe, e.g. St Columba in Scotland and St Columban on the Continent. The book of Kells, that four volume masterpiece of the gospels is testament to this period of faith and scholarship.
We should not forget this period of high achievement, when we thank God for the achievements of the Catholic Church in Australia and for the contribution of the Irish Australians to the buildings of our nation.
In many ways the Irish Catholics in Australia were the first European Australians, they never called Ireland home; they were adamant that England was not home, there would be a place for them and their ways here in Australia; and they succeeded.
Vincent Buckley, the Australian poet, has written beautifully about how life in Australia changed the Irish. They escaped from their stereotypes. They adapted Australia to Irish ways, so that Australia became another homeland for the Gael.
"There is no Australian patriot more ardent than an Irish Australian", he writes, "who not only knows how much reason they have to be grateful but feels deeply at home here. (Australia) is now in many respects an Irish kind of place".
The conviction of many Australians that religion is important and an every day thing, our irreverence - "making affectionate fun of sacred matters" (Les Murray) - our humour, the democratic spirit, our strong unions, our sympathy for the underdog, the fire and energy we sometimes bring to bear on issues; all of these Australian qualities might not be exclusively Irish, but they certainly contain a large dose of Catholic Ireland.
The greatest achievement of the Irish in Australia has been to ensure that the tragedy of Irish history, and more particularly of Northern Ireland, has not been repeated here in the Great South land. This is no small thing.
Faith in Christ is the core of Irish tradition and the motivating force of all her achievements in Ireland or overseas. We must never forget this.
We pray in thanks for those who passed on the faith to us and we pray for the wisdom and strength to inspire our young people so that they too will be bound and strengthened by the faith of our fathers, "the strong name of the Trinity', the "Three in One and One in Three."
We make this prayer through Christ Our Lord.
In the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Spirit. Amen.
