A large crowd packed Dublin’s Marianella centre for the final Mass of Rathgar’s Redemptorist community.
“For 42 years we Redemptorists have ministered to people in the Rathgar-Terenure-Churchtown area,” Fr Ciarán O’Callaghan, rector of the centre, told The Irish Catholic.
Describing their ministry as “genuinely joyful”, Fr O’Callaghan said: “Our decision to close Marianella and its chapel arises from the increase in the number of our sick and elderly confreres and a decrease in the number of Redemptorists available for our other ministries in Ireland and abroad.
“In closing the house and its chapel, we share a sense of grief and loss with our friends and we are deeply distressed in having to say goodbye to them after so many years,” he said.
The 12 community members will move to Limerick, Belfast and Dublin’s Griffith Avenue, while Redemptorist Communications and the provincial administration, archives and library will also be re-located.
