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IRELAND-RUGBY (UPDATED) May-22-2006 (570 words) xxxi
Irish church embraces rugby mania with special prayer to St. Jude
By Cian Molloy
Catholic News Service
DUBLIN, Ireland (CNS) -- A mannequin of a Munster rugby player apparently deep in prayer can be found at the back of the Augustinian church in Limerick, Ireland, an indication of how this city has gone rugby mad in recent months.
The Munster team beat a rugby team from Biarritz, France, 23-19, to win the final of the Heineken Cup at Cardiff Millennium Stadium in Wales May 20.
Three days before the event, it was almost impossible to buy either tickets for the match or for transport from Ireland to Wales, but Augustinian Father Liam Reilly offered solace to the anxious Munster fans by devising a special prayer to St. Jude, patron of hopeless causes.
"It's a lighthearted prayer of desperation," he told Catholic News Service. "But such has been the demand for copies of the prayer that I've organized to have a copy of it blown up and placed on the back wall of the church. A local shop lent me a mannequin and I dressed him up in the Munster rugby strip (jersey) and placed him beside the prayer -- it's a very appropriate mannequin because of the quiet look of desperation on its face."
Father Reilly's prayer goes as follows: "St. Jude, saint of the impossible, help me to find a flight, a ferry, a paddle boat, a ticket for the stadium in Cardiff; forgive me for the times when I considered rugby to be my first religion; soften the heart of my boss and my bank manager so I can travel on Thursday; forgive me for the sick notes I have used for this; bless Paul, ROG and all the lads so they may bring home the Heineken Cup, the Holy Grail. If you answer my prayer I promise to limit myself to one drink, if they win! Thank you for the gifts I am about to receive. Amen."
"Paul and ROG" are the team's star players, Paul O'Connell and Ronan O'Gara. The paddle-boat quip is a nod to the desperate measures some are using to get from Limerick to Cardiff: by plane, ferries and even a flotilla of yachts from Limerick.
Across the province of Munster, streets were decked in the red and white colors of the Munster team.
But nowhere has Munster mania taken greater hold than in Limerick, where the streets are adorned with a sea of red flags and bunting.
"Journalists talk about Limerick being the spiritual home of Irish rugby," said Father Reilly. "So religion does come into it! My prayer is a bit tongue in cheek, but people forget that God, too, has a sense of humor."
The priest said he could not attend the match in Cardiff, but he and more than 20,000 other Munster supporters watched it on a jumbo televison screen beside the church.
"Rugby is part and parcel of life in this city, and I'm glad the Augustinian church has been able to do our little bit for the occasion," he told Catholic News Service.
Since the sporting victory, Father Reilly said every visitor to the church has offered a prayer of thanksgiving to St Jude.
The European Rugby Cup was launched in 1995 as a way of promoting professionalism in club rugby among England, France, Ireland, Italy, Scotland and Wales, whose national rugby teams compete against each other every year.
END
Copyright (c) 2006 Catholic News Service/USCCB. All rights reserved.
This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or otherwise distributed.
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