SPECIAL CORK, TIRANA AND KORCE EVENTS!!

22nd.September 2010 SPECIAL CORK, TIRANA AND KORCE EVENTS!!
Thank you Noeleen for sending me the news of Cork's All-Ireland victory!

On Monday, Lalini and I travelled to Tirana for an afternoon meeting of URAT. Our advocate, Florian, attended as we finalized the Statutes. The symbolism of the word URAT together with the English possibility of U.R.A.T. were detailed. I will send those few lines when the next two stages are completed. Now the Statutes, when all is corrected, will go to the Bishops Conference, where hopefully there will not be too much editing! Then they have to be sent to a legal Tribunal for ratification, so all this will take a little time yet.

We arived back yesterday afternoon, in good time to get a telephone call from Fr. Kusan. He had promised to visit Korce, if at all possible, prior to his departure from Ohrid. He told us he would come THIS MORNING with a group that would include five Jesuits and a few Croatians! Altogether, ten men arrived. They were from Lithuania, Germany, four Croatians, Macedonia, Sweden, Austria and also one Orthodox seminarian from Macedonia to complete the group. There was one Diocesan priest and the remainder were Jesuit seminarians, with one exception. There was a University Professor travelling with the group. He is completely blind. We had a beautiful Mass here with lots of singing. Then, we shared a great meal that was enjoyed by all. As they were leaving, Bea, our landlady, and I took them to visit the Orthodox Cathedral, as its quite beautiful. En route, we met a Prifti - I asked him to come with us but he was unable to do so. The group was delighted with that visit too.

Now, life has returned to an even keel!