Last weekend a large crowd filled the Metropolitan Cathedral of Buenos Aires in Argentina to watch the blessing and enthroning of a statue of Our Lady of Knock.
Over 400,000 thousand people in Argentina claim Irish descent and are “very proud of the same”, according to Fr Tom O´Donnell, a Pallottine priest from Templeglantine, Co. Limerick, who has been working in Argentina for the past 36 years.
Fr O´Donnell presided at the Mass in the cathedral, which was the former seat of Pope Francis when he was Archbishop of Buenos Aires, for the installation of the statue of Our Lady, who is known as ‘The Mother of the Irish’ in Argentina. The statue was processed into the cathedral on Saturday morning by a pipe band and locals carrying banners depicting Our Lady of Knock and St Patrick, when Fr Ricardo Larken, Fr Hernan Tumulty and other Argentine-Irish priests joined Fr O’Donnell to concelebrate Mass.