Archbishop Michael Neary says the Legion of Mary was “way ahead of its time” because it was promoting the laity long before the Church began to emphasise the importance of various lay ministries.

Co Mayo native served for twenty-five years as Bishop of Banjul until he retired in February 2006 at the age of 80.

Thanks to a 'Herculean effort' by parishes, we are ready now to resume the sacramental life of the church, said Archbishop Micheael Neary.

“I am excited. I said Mass this morning again on the webcam looking down at all the empty benches, and I’m getting tired of it. From next week there will be people there. It will be great.”

"No church should be opened for public prayer or worship until satisfactory arrangements, as indicated in this Framework, have been put in place.”

Advance planning by the State, including full and transparent consultation with local people, should go some way to allay fears and misunderstandings, says Archbishop Michael Neary.

In his homily, the Archbishop told pilgrims that, for many, material success and personal fulfilment have become the goal and purpose of human life.

The new processional statue will be formally unveiled later this month as part of events to mark the 140th anniversary of the Knock apparitions in 1879.

"If in the past we didn’t see things through the eyes of injured children and young people, today we undoubtedly have moved a long way in that direction.”

Details of Pontiff’s much anticipated visit to Ireland for the World Meeting of Families in August officially unveiled by Archbishops Diarmuid and Eamon Martin.

Archbishop Neary highlighted Tom Murphy’s contribution to the work of the International Commission on English in the Liturgy, while Michael D. Higgins said the playwright's themes “were universal in their reach”.

Every family is sacred and must be respected by everybody no matter what its difficulties, says Archbishop Michael Neary.

The Columbans were “our heroes and we looked up to them, we admired their courage, and the way in which they risked everything for the Gospel of Christ" - Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam.

Archbishop Neary pays tribute to young people’s “very significant contribution” to the local church, from teaching computers to the elderly to caring for people with special needs on pilgrimage to Lourdes.

The lessons we learn on this mountain need to be rooted in our everyday routine: great and unselfish teamwork when the person who finds the going tough is granted a helping hand; when the one who stumbles and falls is set on their feet again; when the climber who is confused is welcomed back.

It is “very important that we pray for the success of the World Meeting of Families – not as an event but as a moment of renewal of love especially within families” – Archbishop Diarmuid Martin.

Philomena’s search for her son Anthony, who was born in a mother and baby home in 1951, has touched millions of people in Ireland and around the world, both through the film and the book on which it was based.

The way forward is to seek the truth, to reveal and address the damage of the past and to ensure that mothers and children are cherished and respected and never stigmatised again.

“I can only begin to imagine the huge emotional wrench which the mothers suffered in giving up their babies for adoption or by witnessing their death,” says Archbishop of Tuam.

Historian Catherine Corless, who spent four years researching the running of the Bon Secours home and concluded that 796 children had died there over almost four decades, said the Commission’s finding vindicated her work.

Many are searching for real hope in the face of an economic crisis, in the face of loneliness and emptiness and the illusion of drugs or empty consumerism.

"There wasn’t a whole lot happening in Cork (in youth work) and now we are seeing something really good" - Fr Alan Neville MSC.

"We literally follow the paths traced by our ancestors, women and men of faith, who kept that faith despite the opposition they faced, despite poverty and discrimination and emigration and famine."

Thousands of devotees in Knock told, “Wherever he went, crowds flocked to him. Hardened criminals and heretics alike were converted by him.”

Archbishop of Tuam stresses that Corpus Christi procession ought to be a reminder that Jesus Christ can never be confined to a tabernacle or a Church building.

President of St Patrick’s College Maynooth hopes nine new deacons will build up the ‘Body of Christ’ as they “serve the people of God in their various dioceses".

Programme run by the Apostolate of Eucharistic Adoration's National Training Team is structured in such a way that it will not increase the workload of priests.

“Thank you Trócaire for not forgetting about me” were the words of one young bed-ridden mother of two.

“We have Catholic schools because parents want them. It is parents who must insist that the religious ethos of our schools is respected and not abandoned.”

Speaking as the son of a Knock Shrine steward and handmaid, Archbishop Neary said he was “very conscious of the dedication which they bring to their work”.