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	Clergy Conscious of 'Call' to Repent By Patsy McGarry Irish Times February 15, 2010 http://www.irishtimes.com/newspaper/ireland/2010/0215/1224264467144.html ROME -- DALY REMEMBRANCE MASS: A MONTH'S mind Mass for the late Cardinal Cahal Daly in Rome last night was told by a bishop that "we who live and minister to God's people in Ireland are especially conscious of the call of the Gospel to repentance, a time for confessing our sinfulness and entrusting ourselves to the mercy of God". The Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise Colm O'Reilly continued in his homily: "It is a time for undoing, insofar as this is possible, the damage our sins have done for what is done and what we have failed to do. It is a time for a new beginning a time to begin trusting in the Lord's power to save." He said: "We ask God's blessing on our upcoming meeting with Pope Benedict in the coming days. We pray that we may search with him for ways forward which will be pleasing in the sight of God. "We search in the spirit of today's Gospel, aware of our own poverty, our need of God and our inability to do anything that is good without God's help." Bishop O'Reilly, who succeeded Cardinal Daly as Bishop of Ardagh and Clonmacnoise, was speaking at a Mass celebrated by Cardinal Seán Brady at Cardinal Daly's titular church in Rome, St Patrick's. Chief concelebrants included three other cardinals from the Roman Curia, the prefect of the Congregation of the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal William Levada, the prefect of the Congregation of Bishops Cardinal Battista Re and Cardinal John Patrick Foley who has responsibility for Papal Knights. Another concelebrant was Fr Brian Daly, nephew of the late Cardinal. Cardinal Bertone , Vatican secretary of State and Cardinal Sodano, Dean of the College of Cardinals, sent their regrets and condolences. Bishop O'Reilly recalled his last conversation with Cardinal Daly. It was on Christmas Day "and the most painful conversation I ever had with him. He had heard of a disastrous fire at St Mel's Cathedral in Longford and had left a message for me to return a telephone call from him as soon as possible. "I had to tell him of the almost total destruction of the cathedral which he had loved very much." He recalled how Cardinal Daly "had devoted an enormous amount of energy into the reordering of the sanctuary in the mid-1970s and he suffered greatly in the process. "He loved particularly the work of his artist friend, Ray Carroll. Behind the cathedral was a tapestry which portrayed the second coming of Christ and in the blessed sacrament chapel a painting representing the supper at Emmaus, both by Ray Carroll." He continued: "Hearing that these works of art were destroyed was painful in the extreme for him. It must have been a truly 'Calvary moment' in the final days of his life. People close to him at that time will say that hearing this dreadful news hastened his death. "However, I have no doubt that the strong personal faith which marked his life, a personal faith nourished by a lifetime of prayer, sustained him to the end," the Bishop added.
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