Almost 7,000 people attended a thanksgiving celebration in Wexford GAA Park yesterday to mark the departure of the relics of St Therese of Lisieux from Ireland. The relics, which organisers estimate have been seen by 3 million people since arriving on April 18th, will return to Lisieux via Rosslare Harbour this afternoon.
Yesterday, the Bishop of Ferns, Dr Brendan Comiskey, chairman of the national organising committee, led the three-hour event which featured the Vard sisters, the Celtic Tenors and the Wexford School of Ballet and Modern Dance. There were also hymn-singing, prayers and a torch-lighting ceremony.
Five thousand balloons bearing the message "We only have this one small moment of life to give to God" were released. Dr Comiskey said he had heard many people talk about how the visit of the relics would bring people back to the practice of their faith and back to Mass.
"My own belief is that the visit will not bring us back anywhere, but will bring us forward into a new and more faithful and authentic way of being a community of Christ's followers. The visit has been a subversive one for any church or community or minister who peddles or preaches a god less passionate, less merciful than the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ".
The bishop added: "I believe that the visit will prove itself equally subversive of a church or community or preacher who places obstacles in the way of those who seek God, rather than helping people over obstacles." Earlier, the Papal Nuncio, Archbishop Giuseppe Lazzarot to, was given a civic reception by Wexford Corporation.
As the ceremony ended, the casket containing the relics was carried to a helicopter waiting on the pitch to be transferred to St Patrick's Church at Rosslare Harbour. A vigil was held last night and a farewell Mass will be celebrated by Dr Comiskey at noon today before the reliquary is taken on board the ferry.