'Our faith is about the heart': Pilgrim Sacred Heart statue arrives in Raphoe Diocese

As a pilgrim statue was welcomed into the Raphoe Diocese, parishioners were encouraged to take heed from the symbol of the Sacred Heart.

The Sacred Heart statue is one of four blessed by Pope Francis at the Vatican and will travel around Ireland as part of Jubilee Year 2025.

Mass at St Eunan’s Cathedral in Letterkenny on Friday night was offered in honour of the Sacred Heart. 

Monsignor Kevin Gillespie, the Diocesan Director, said the pilgrimage was designed to “encourage again devotion to the great symbol of the love of God for each and every one of us in so many circumstances of our lives".

Fr Shane Gallagher - who was present in the Vatican for the blessing of the statue by the Pope - Fr Anthony Hartnett and Fr Francis Ferry concelebrated the Mass.

Mgr Gillespie said: “It has become a devotion that has become part and parcel of our Catholic identity. Has there ever been a time when we need reminding more than now of God’s love and His call to holiness and goodness?

“It is a simple statue, blessed by Pope Francis as a sign of his own encouragement that we renew a sense of the love of Jesus.

“The image of the Sacred Heart is so forceful. It reminds us, day in and day out, that the love of the Sacred Heart of Jesus is not only burning for us, but should be burning within us.”

Referencing Dilexit Nos, an encyclical letter published by Pope Francis in 2024, Monsignor Gillespie said the Sacred Heart is “something that is very much” in the Pontiff’s heart.  

He particularly thanked Fr Gallagher, the Ballybofey native who is now the chaplain at Letterkenny University Hospital, who is a ‘point man’ for the ecclesiastical province of Armagh for the statue to be taken by Churches.

Delivering the homily, Fr Gallagher  said that it was a “great honour and a privilege” to formally welcome the statue into the Raphoe Diocese.

“Our faith is so important in these times,” he said. “Sometimes the media says things like the ‘institutional church’, as if it is bricks and mortar, but it is much more than that: It is about the heart. 

“That is the comfort and the faith of the heart that God offers us.

“The Church tells us that we are people of the heart.  We need to get back to that position…Our faith is about the heart.”

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The statues will travel around various diocese an attempt to revitalise the faith for the 350th anniversary of the apparitions of the Sacred Heart to Margaret Mary Alacoque in France. 

Pope Francis has described the Jubilee Year as “a time to rediscover the beauty of communion with God and with one another, a moment to open our hearts to the transforming power of grace, and to walk together as people of hope”.