Day 2
Churches’ Work in Pre Social Cohesion Project in Rathkeale Highlighted
Two informal sessions took place at Synod 2017 to highlight work going on locally in parishes.
Canon Patrick Comerford, Priest in Charge in Rathkeale, led the first session (on Friday May 5) about the Parish of Rathkeale. He highlighted the work of a pre social cohesion project which works with local Travellers and settled people in the town and involves a wide cross section of the community. He said there was a large population of Travellers in Rathkeale.
He said there were problems in Rathkeale. People were mourning the decline of a town but said that the reality was that the town had survived because a lot of Travellers had bought property in Rathkeale. About one third of the population are officially Travellers but it is probably more and that Travellers suffered a huge amount of discrimination.
He said the project was not mission to boost bums on pews but to let Travellers know, not just that the Church cares, but that Christ cares. He said people work with the lost sheep because that is what Christ does.
David Breen of Rathkeale parish spoke more about the pre–social cohesion project in Rathkeale. He said it began with Limerick County Council’s draft development plan in 2006. An interagency task force agreed that the problem in Rathkeale was lack of cohesion. It is the first town in Ireland in which Travellers are the dominant community. The task force looked at the relationship between the two communities which resulted in the project. Last year the interagency task force gave way to another organisation, RAPID, which did not include social cohesion.
Mr Breen said it was a disaster so he turned to the churches. He said churches were part of civil society and had just as much right to be at the table as any agency. He said pluralism was an invitation to participate. He said that the majority of people in Rathkeale were at least nominally Catholic but that the Roman Catholic community in Rathkeale was a Eucharistic community divided which had to be addressed.