Detroit’s Irish community gathers to honor heritage, give witness to Christ

Longest-serving deacon in the U.S. delivers homily on St. Patrick's Day, asks faithful what will they do ‘when your hour comes’

DETROIT — Catholics of Irish heritage and people of good cheer descended upon Most Holy Trinity Parish in Detroit’s Corktown neighborhood for the annual St. Patrick’s Day Mass on March 17.

The green décor of the church and congregation clashed with the purple vestments of the clergy as the church commemorated Passion Sunday — the fifth Sunday of Lent, which begins Passiontide.

But Msgr. Chuck Kosanke commended the faithful for preparing to celebrate Jesus’ Passion and Resurrection, just as St. Patrick would have liked.

“We are happy that you have joined us today; St. Patrick would be proud that you have included the Holy Mass as part of today’s celebration,” Msgr. Kosanke said. “We are celebrating on Sunday this year, the fifth Sunday of Lent, hence the purple. But I have a Celtic cross here, so blending the two occasions together.”

The Mass featured the traditional pomp and circumstance, with pipers and drummers leading the procession into the historic parish, accompanied by members of the Ancient Order of the Hibernians and the United Irish Societies.

Detroit Archbishop Allen H. Vigneron celebrated Mass — as has been the custom in recent years — calling to mind how much the faith has spread throughout the world because St. Patrick evangelized the Irish in the fifth century.

“In churches throughout the world today, God’s people are brought together to celebrate the Passover mystery of Jesus’ death and rising,” Archbishop Vigneron said. “As Msgr. Kosanke said for us, this is a particular sort of Sunday because it is also St. Patrick’s Day. So we have two things to celebrate, the victory of Christ over sin and death, and Patrick’s announcement of that victory, the beginning of the planting of the faith in Ireland. And from Ireland, this belief in Jesus spread throughout the world.”

Deacon Patrick McDonald of St. Patrick Parish in Brighton, the longest-serving permanent deacon in the United States, being ordained by Cardinal John F. Dearden on June 18, 1972, as part of the first diaconal class in the country, delivered the homily.

Deacon McDonald reflected on the Gospel of St. John, in which Greeks came to the apostle Phillip to seek out Jesus, reflective of how the gentiles — including the Irish — would come to know Jesus.

“When these Greeks said they have heard what our Lord Jesus Christ was saying, Our Lord realized that his message had reached foreigners, the Greeks,” Deacon McDonald said. “It was now inevitable that this tension would lead to his arrest and his death. Jesus did not run from this situation; instead he embraced this situation, this time.”

Deacon McDonald noted how Christ often spoke of “his hour,” and “his time,” as the moment when he would be betrayed, suffered and killed for the sins and mankind, only for man to be redeemed through Christ’s resurrection. The deacon added it is incumbent on the faithful this Lent to think about the hour or time when their faith would be tested, when they had to answer what or in whom they believed.

“My dear sisters and brothers, we all have hours, and we have our hour, when we have to stand up for God and be who we are,” Deacon McDonald said. “Many of us will be asking, ‘Who am I?’ ‘What person do I want to be?’ We know there are many temptations, many ways to hedge our commitment to Christ. There are continual choices we make through our lives. And it is those choices that will be judgment when it is our hour.”

Deacon McDonald said people can look to St. Patrick, a Romanized Briton who lived in the fifth century, who was kidnapped by Irish raiders, was enslaved, escaped, only to be sent back by the church to evangelize to Irish, as what it means to put total commitment in Christ.

It’s a commitment best explained in the famed prayer of St. Patrick’s Breastplate: "Christ be with me, Christ be within me, Christ be before me, Christ be behind me, Christ be beside me, Christ be above me, Christ be below me, Christ comfort and console me, Christ be in my heart."

Just as Roman soliders used breastplates to protect their bodies, St. Patrick’s breastplate protected him from temptation, Deacon McDonald said.

“Today we celebrate the feast of St. Patrick,” Deacon McDonald said. “He used the shamrock to explain what the Trinity was. He articulated by prayer and by his actions what was in his heart. We heard about his breastplate. This is in reference to what the Roman soldiers used to wear to protect their vitals, their heart. He used it as a prayer, asking God to protect his soul.”

The Mass collection benefitted the annual “Sharin’ o’ the Green” fundraiser, with proceeds going to the various ministries at Most Holy Trinity, including the Cabrini Clinic.

After Mass, many congregants gathered at the parish’s Peter and Connie Cracchiolo Community Center for the "Taste of Corktown," a dinner featuring cuisine from neighboring Corktown establishments.

Msgr. Kosanke thanked the many organizers, sponsors, volunteers, and supporters of "Sharin’ o’ the Green" for continuing a tradition that has been happening since 1954 and continues to support an integral part of Detroit’s cultural heritage.

“The secular world views giving to charity as the haves giving to the have-nots,” Msgr. Kosanke said. “The Gospel understands charity is a dialect; it’s bidirectional, in the sense that helping the least of our brothers and sisters with the corporal and spiritual acts of mercy contributes to the growth of our own witness, helping to prepare us for our hour, as we learned in the homily.”