PRESS RELEASE
10th June 2008
RTÉ to broadcast special ‘Year of Vocation’ Mass this Sunday 15 June 2008
RTÉ Television is to broadcast a special ‘Year of Vocation’ Mass from its studios in Donnybrook on Sunday next, 15 June 2008.
Fr Patrick Rushe, National Director for Vocations will preside at the Mass and will preach the homily. The music for the Mass will be provided by the St John of God Choir with guest soloist Patricia Bourke D’Souza. The choir will perform the specially commissioned Year of Vocation song You Will Be My Witnesses during the Mass, and the congregation will be made up of all ages.
Readers and other participants in the Mass are representing different vocations, for example, vocation to priesthood, to married life, to religious life, single life and to one’s career.
The Mass will be broadcast on RTÉ 1 Television at 11.15am on Sunday 15th June. It will also be live at www.rte.ie/live
Notes to Editors
Archbishop Diarmuid Martin, Archbishop of Dublin, launched the “Year of Vocation” on Vocations Sunday, 13 April last, and the Year runs until Vocations Sunday on 3 May 2009. The aim of the “Year of Vocation” is to raise awareness of the common vocation that we all share through baptism as expressed through witness, love and service. Within each of these themes and throughout 2008 – 2009, the specific vocations of priesthood, the religious life, marriage, single life and one’s career choice inside and outside of the home, will be highlighted and promoted.
A special team has been established to manage and plan activities throughout the “Year of Vocation”, and its members are drawn from the: Irish Bishops’ Conference, Conference of Religious of Ireland, Irish Missionary Union, Vocations Ireland, St Joseph’s Young Priest’s Society, Knights of Columbanus and lay personnel.
Some highlights of the Year include: a national prayer campaign for students; a rally for World Youth Day, collaboration with the national pilgrimage centres to reflect on the theme of vocation during their seasons.
“You will be My Witnesses” (Acts 1:8) is the theme of this year’s World Youth Day at which Pope Benedict XVI will celebrate Mass. World Youth Day will take place in Sydney, Australia, between 14 – 21 July, 2008.
