New York pitch bears fruit for Fr Gibbons

New York pitch bears fruit for Fr Gibbons

Anton McNulty

WHEN Fr Richard Gibbons went to New York to preach in St Patrick’s Cathedral for St Patrick’s Day celebrations in 2013, he was a man on a mission. The rector of Knock Shrine went there to convince one of the most powerful church leaders in the US, the Archbishop of New York, Cardinal Timothy Dolan, to support a pilgrimage flight to Knock Airport.
His pitch gained the full support of the cardinal, and after two years spent ironing out the ‘nitty gritty’ details, he was delighted to announce that his dream was to become a reality this August.
“It was always in the back of my mind that we needed to broaden what we offered to people at home and abroad. Cardinal Dolan was a great visitor to Knock and it just struck us here, nothing ventured nothing gained, and see where we could go from there. We had a brief conversation out there, and he said ‘It’s a good idea, put something together and see where we can go from there’, ” Fr Gibbons told The Mayo News.
Fr Gibbons praised the ‘sacred trinity’ of the Knock Shrine, Ireland West Airport Knock and the Archdiocese of New York for making the pilgrimage flight happen. Described as being like a ‘dog with a bone’ for the past two years, Fr Gibbons said he was in no doubt that the 178 capacity flight will be sold out.
The annual Novena in August will be opened by Cardinal Dolan, and Fr Gibbons believes it will make more people in the US aware of Knock Shrine and lead to more pilgrimages from across the Atlantic, especially as the Novena is such ‘a tremendous occasion’.