Feast of Saint Patrick

 A Catholic visitor to the southern hemisphere might be puzzled as to how the Feast of St Patrick, which is listed as a Commemoration in the Universal Calendar, is celebrated as a solemnity in Australia and a feast in New Zealand. The key lies in the Irish roots of the many Catholics who came, voluntarily or otherwise, to this part of the world in the Nineteenth Century. They brought with them their faith and the historical memory of their homeland. Not only that, but at the Synod of Thurles 1850 they had instilled in them a new energy and focus. The desire to renew the Church through the discipline of clergy and devotional practices helped a people scarred by poverty, colonialism and famine to build a new life on the other side of the world. The linking of faith and nationalism, which also took place in other countries, for example, St Joan of Arc in France, harnessed the spirit of the age to Catholic society. Now, in 2026, this link has been weakened if not dissolved as Australia and New Zealand establish new bases for community and identity. What then does the celebration of this feast have to offer? The key is to be found in the gospel for the day where St Peter says to Jesus: "Master, we have worked all night ling but caught nothing. Yet if you say so, I will let down the nets." (Lk 5: 5) We need, as missionary disciples, the courage of St Patrick. He was prepared to go to a people who were not his own to bring them the Good News despite the ill-treatment he had received in being enslaved by them. We can abandon our own hurts and disappointments, as the church we knew of our youth implodes, to embrace the future with confidence and the Holy Spirit: "When they had brought the boats to shore, they left everything and followed him." (Lk 5: 11)