Bishop Fintan Gavin: ‘Christmas is a time to reflect and to look forward’

Over the Christmas season, one of the great gifts we all receive is the gift of a little extra time. For a few days, many of us are freer from the pressures and routines that fill our weeks for the rest of the year.

Our first priority in this season is to spend some of that time with the people who are closest to us – those who love, sustain and carry us in ways we often only fully notice when we finally slow down. I, too, look forward to spending time with my family and friends during the Christmas season.

Yet Christmas would not make sense if I didn’t also give some of this time to the person whose birth we celebrate. In the Diocese of Cork and Ross, I have the privilege of celebrating Mass during the Christmas season and meeting many individuals and families who come to ask God’s continued blessing in their lives.

Christmas is a moment when we naturally reflect on the year that is ending and look forward with hope-filled hearts to the year that is about to dawn. We do this with honest hearts, because when we look at our world, it is hard not to feel the weight of war, violence and suffering. Closer to home, it is hard not to be moved by the reality of homelessness, the quiet loneliness many people experience and the anxiety that shadows so many lives.

Yet it is precisely in such a world that moments of hope matter most. One of the signs of hope and highlights of the past year for me was time spent in Rome with over one million young people from all over the world who celebrated the Jubilee of Youth with Pope Leo. More than 600 young adults from Ireland took part including over 50 from our diocese. In the Gospel, when the disciples are first sent out by Jesus to share the good news, they return rejoicing. That same joy was very visible in the young people who travelled to Rome last summer. They found their faith nurtured and affirmed and they experienced the strength that comes from realising they are not alone – that there are countless others their own age trying to live with purpose, hope and courage.

Here at home in Cork and Ross, we continue to create opportunities for young people who hunger for deeper meaning and who want to be supported by a living community of faith.

In March, we hosted Maranatha in City Hall, gathering almost 500 young people from 20 secondary schools in parishes throughout the diocese. It culminated in a high-energy, faith-filled music event that reminded all of us of something important: young people are not only “the Church of tomorrow”, they are a vital part of the Church today.

In September, over 450 pilgrims travelled to Lourdes including over 70 sick/infirm pilgrims who were assisted by volunteers – school student helpers, young adult helpers, nurses, doctors and pilgrims from parishes throughout the diocese. It was a memorable pilgrimage, because it was real: people of all ages journeying together, supporting one another, praying together and discovering again that compassion is not merely an idea but something we live together.

During the past year, a great deal of time, prayer and work was invested by lay people, religious, deacons and priests from every Family of Parishes who took part in prayerful conversations to discern what the future of our faith communities will look like. It has been encouraging to see how many are passionately concerned about sustaining and growing their parishes and faith communities and their commitment to be part of that future.

We are committed, as a diocese, to growing faith communities that extend a warm welcome to everyone, help people of all generations to grow in faith and deepen their relationship with Christ and reach out in a spirit of mission – especially to those most in need. In a society where many feel isolated, the Family of Parishes can be a place of belonging: a community where people are known, valued and supported through the joys and burdens of life.

How people express their faith has changed greatly over the years, but many of our sacred traditions remain. One of these is the annual procession with the Blessed Sacrament through the streets of Cork City and in many of our towns and rural parishes. Last June, Cork City’s Corpus Christi Procession was the best attended in many years. Its success is a tribute to the many people who helped to make it happen. That was the 99th anniversary of the first procession that was held in Cork.

This means that in 2026 we will be celebrating the centenary of the very first Corpus Christi Procession in Cork City. This will be a special milestone, not only for the history of the Catholic community in Cork, but also for our wider city and its suburbs. Today, the procession reflects a city enriched by peoples of many cultures and languages, yet united in one bond of faith. I look forward to bringing the Blessed Sacrament in prayer through the streets of our city during that historic procession.

As we celebrate Christmas and step into a new year, I want to thank all those who quietly keep the fabric of our community strong: parents and grandparents, teachers and carers, health professionals and emergency services, volunteers, parish workers and all who look out for neighbours who are struggling. 

If Christmas teaches us anything, it is that small acts of love matter – making room for someone, sharing what we have and refusing to let anyone be invisible.

May the light of Christ, the Prince of Peace, bring comfort to those who are grieving, hope to those who are anxious and strength to all who are carrying heavy burdens. And may this Christmas help us, each in our own way, to build a Cork that is more compassionate, more welcoming and more at peace this Christmas season and into 2026.