Faithful watch on webcam as Pope elevates Knock to status of International Shrine

Pope Francis has expressed his admiration for Ireland’s missionaries, describing the Irish as “a missionary people” and recalling the “many priests” who left their homeland in order to spread the Gospel.

The Pope made his comment in a special message delivered via video link from the Vatican to Knock shrine on Friday evening as he elevated the Co Mayo sanctuary to the status of an International Shrine of Eucharistic and Marian Devotion.

He said it was “such an important moment in the life of the shrine” and added that he was glad to take advantage of the video link in order to be with the people of Ireland at this moment.

However, with churches closed to public worship under Level 5 Covid restrictions, the Pope’s message was relayed to an empty Apparition Chapel in the village, where Mass was concelebrated on Friday evening by Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam and Knock’s rector, Fr Richard Gibbons.

The faithful had to log into Knock’s webcam in order to see the leader of the world’s Catholics deliver his message to them.

Referring to Knock’s special role in passing on the faith down the generations, Pope Francis, speaking in Italian, said: “We forget the many lay people who emigrated to faraway lands but still kept their devotion to Our Lady. How many families in the course of almost a century and a half have handed on the faith to their children and gathered their daily labours around the prayer of the Rosary, with the image of Our Lady of Knock at its centre?”

Referring the apparition of Mary, the mother of Jesus, at Knock in August 1879, he said the message of the miraculous event was the great value of silence for faith and that this honour came with “great responsibility”.

“You accept to always have your arms wide open as a sign of welcome to every pilgrim who may arrive from any part of the world, asking nothing in return but only recognising him as a brother or a sister who desires to share the same experience of fraternal prayer,” the Pope said.

Responding to the Pope’s message, Archbishop Michael Neary, who is the custodian of the Marian shrine, described Knock’s new designation as “a momentous event”.

He said it was “most fitting” that it was announced and celebrated on the Feast of St Joseph in the Year of St Joseph, because alongside Our Lady, St John the Evangelist and the Lamb of God, St Joseph also appeared on an August evening in 1879.

Pope Francis designated 2021 as the Year of St Joseph, and Friday marked both the feast day of the Saint and the eighth anniversary of the Francis’s elevation to the papacy.

Dr Neary said he prayed that pilgrims from Ireland and across the world who come Knock “carrying their crosses” would “experience deeply God’s closeness, the tenderness of the Virgin Mary” so as to be encouraged and enabled to return home with hope in their hearts.

Speaking to the Irish Independent, the rector of Knock, Fr Richard Gibbons, said the elevation of the shrine was “an historic milestone” and he was grateful for the “great honour given this evening by Pope Francis”.

The apparition in Knock took place on the evening of 21 August 1879 at the south gable of the local parish church. It was witnessed by 15 people, who later gave sworn testimonies of what they saw on the night.

Online Editors