The owners of an Irish pub in Luxembourg said they initially thought a priest’s urgent request to say mass in their bar was a prank.
Irish Redemptorist priest Father Michael Cusack set up his altar to say mass in the pub near the Hope House camp 13 sign for two weeks while his church was closed for renovations, reports The Mirror.
But bar owners Vincent and Adrienne Clarke initially thought a phone call from Father Michael, whom they had never met before, was a hoax, urging them to hold mass at their pub until alternative accommodation could be found.
Born in Galweg, he read mass in the pub with 250 people from his congregation on two Sundays at the end of January, while more than 250 people attended the online service
Father Michael reached out to his expatriate companions Vincent and Adrienne Clarke after their church was closed for lengthy repairs that could take six years.
“I am living in a Redemptorist Monastery but the Church has been closed for renovations by the State. At the moment there are archaeologists in there trying to discover if there are any city walls under the Church and these explorations have to be carried out before works can begin as it is a very old building. So the closure meant that we were displaced. Our grouping of English speaking Catholics are up to 1,000 people in number,” reports The Mirror.
Speaking more seriously about the decline in Catholic numbers in Western Europe, Father Cusack said: “It has been very, very difficult in Ireland because of all the terrible scandals and the terrible way they’ve been handled. All of that history has been so negative and I’d be the last one to say it’s not absolutely true and absolutely horrid and been very hard for any family and indeed, for any young person to say they want to be part of a group that have that in their recent history or not so distant history and I find that all very upsetting in way,” reports The Mirror.
The owners of The Irish Bar, Vincent and Adrienne Clarke, said they were delighted to be able to help.
Originally from Sligo and Louth, the couple converted the 800 square meter warehouse into a pub, restaurant and whiskey shop in 2016 and is often the first port of call for all Irish people visiting Luxembourg.
“The pub is very lively. We have eight dart boards where the Luxembourg darts team play as well as many karaoke nights and live music so this request left us, at first, questioning if it was true,” said Adrienne at the weekend, reports The Mirror.
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