Letter to the Faithful of the

Diocese of Ardagh and Clonmacnois

regarding St. Mel’s Cathedral.

Since St. Mel’s Cathedral was destroyed by fire on Christmas Day 2009 questions have been asked again and again about its restoration. We have tried to respond to these questions in the recently published paper dealing with the Cathedral and circulated before last Christmas.

Many people have asked over the last twelve months : “When will there be an appeal for financial help for our Cathedral?” We have made no appeal and this letter is not an appeal in the ordinary sense of that word. No fundraising has been done for restoration. In bulletins and press briefings we have been making it very clear that restoration is strictly a matter for insurance. Nonetheless, as the world knows, insurance never covers all that people like to do after a destructive fire. This is especially true of a building like St. Mel’s Cathedral which is over a hundred and seventy years old.

We have been gratefully accepting unsolicited donations from many people who are very distressed by the fact that St. Mel’s Cathedral was so badly destroyed. These have come from many places in Ireland, from some in Britain, the U.S.A. and Australia. There are surely many within the Diocese who want to contribute to the Fund which we have set up specifically for improvement and enhancement of St. Mel’s Cathedral.

We are accepting donations on the Feast of St. Mel which was traditionally celebrated on the 6th. February. You may recall that just two statues in the apse of the Cathedral, behind the altar, survived the fire even though damaged by it. I would like to think of this as a sign of hope for the future. One is the statue of Our Blessed Lady and the other that of St. Mel, Patron of the Diocese and of the Cathedral. May St. Mel whose image looks down now on a desolate building help us to look beyond the present and into the future when our Cathedral will look beautiful once again.

Yours sincerely in Christ,

________________________________
+ COLM O’REILLY,
Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnois. 25th. January 2011