AN ESTIMATED 2,000 people representing 33 Loreto schools in Ireland attended a special Mass in Mullingar’s Cathedral of Christ the King on Saturday to mark the 400th anniversary of the foundation of the Loreto religious congregation.
Chief celebrant was the Catholic primate Cardinal Seán Brady, whose sister Ms Kitty Mulligan is deputy principal at Crumlin Road Loreto school in Dublin. The Bishop of Meath Most Rev Michael Smith presided.
Concelebrants included Fr Joseph Gallagher, administrator at the Cathedral, curate Fr Paul Crosbie, Msgr Dan O’Connor parish priest at Dún Laoghaire, Co Dublin, Fr Gerard McCormack of Navan parish, Msgr Joseph Kehoe of Gorey parish, and composer Fr Liam Lawton.
Loreto general superior Sr Marian Moriarty, who is based in Rome, was among those representing the congregation. Others included its Irish provincial Sr Teresa MacPaul and Sr Ríonach Donlon of the Loreto Education Trust.
Sr Teresa McGinley representing Loreto sisters in India, Sr Colette Deasy represented sisters in Mauritius, Sr Mary Gitau represented those in eastern Africa. Also present at the Mass was a representative group of Loreto students and teachers from Gibraltar, Mandeville Hall, Melbourne and Rumbek, and south Sudan.
Of the attendance 1,700 were pupils in Loreto schools across Ireland, with the remainder representing boards of management, parents, staff, and past pupils.
In his homily Cardinal Brady detailed the history of the congregation from initial persecution to being one of the most widely-respected institutions in the Catholic Church.
The Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary, to give the Loreto congregation its proper name, was founded in 1609 by Yorkshire woman Mary Ward, who was born in 1585.
It was Frances Ball, a Dublin woman who brought the congregation to Ireland in 1821, when the first school was opened in Rathfarnham. Mother Teresa trained as a Loreto sister in Rathfarnham.
