Aidan Troy

It was good to receive an email yesterday from a person who had accessed this blog and discovered that Father Michael, C.P. had died in December. She was shocked to find this out but at least I could let her have some details of the funeral.
Life goes on much as usual here. The Confirmation candidates have their retreat on Saturday at the church of St Augustin. The parish council meets on Monday evening and Lenten programme will occupy a lot of this meeting.
Father Cormac, C.P. of the Champigny community is moving to Paris where he will have accommodation in the Diocesan facility for retired clergy. We wish him well and full address, etc will be available after Monday when he arrives there.
Paris is gearing up for a transport strike on Thursday.
Back soon again.                                                                                                            AT

22nd January 2009   

Today a link was created from St Joseph website Aidan’s Blog. I hope that this may increase visits. Welcome to all who access these ramblings of mine. I have been here since 30 September 2008. The community of the parish have made me most welcome as have other individuals and families who have made cotnact. My thanks to one and all for the welcome. My introduction to life here was greatly assisted by Fr Francis and Secretary, Roselyne, and other members of staff and volunteers.

Another lovely feature of the past few months has been the steady stream of visitors from Belfast, Dublin, Galway, Italy, to mention but a few places. Some called as they were passing while others had arranged to visit. Some were taking their children to Disney Paris and in one instance I went there and became a total child again for a day on the rides. What great fun! Many good friends have kept in contact by phone, letter and email. My contact details are at the end of this message. I have also someone working on getting me to London to see Arsenal playing in a premiership game! And yes that was me at Lepordstown Races on the Monday after Christmas!

The Irish News Newspaper, Belfast, sent top reporter Marie Louise McCrory and well-known and respected photographer, Hugh Russell, to spend a few days with me in Paris. They met some parishioners
and my Passionist companion, Father Francis, C.P. who hails for Pittsburgh.

It was good to have some visits from Passionists also - Fr Cormac, Fr Nicholas (along with Pat O’Brien) and also a visit from Fr Brendan Ashe. The French Passionist Community of Champigny invited Francis and me for lunch shortly after my arrival and we  hope to have a return lunch at St Joseph’s soon.
The death of my only Passionist classmate, Father Michael Doogan, before Christmas was a huge shock. It was a consolation to be able to get to The Graan for  his funeral. May Michael rest in peace. He was a most talented and dedicated priest and Passionist. His family always received me as part of their own.

Just before Christmas there was the awful tragedy when the little boy from Derry died in a swimming accident in Paris. It was a privilege for me to be there with the family at the Hospital as they faced the sad farewell. Following Christmas I was honoured to be invited by them to take part in his funeral in Creggan, Derry, and to attend his burial. The local people and clergy were superb in their pastoral care.Through no action on my part a great media interest grew and I was invited to link up with news programmes in Ireland live and recorded from a Paris studio. May God bless his parents, brother and sister and all his relatives as their time of grief continues.

At the local level of St Joseph’s we had a great Christmas. On Saturday last we had First Confessions and on 31 January we have the Confirmation Retreat. We are gearing up for Lent and our very active Parish Council has already set a number of prayer and charitable events in place. We will have Baptism and Confirmation of adults at Easter and I have enjoyed taking part in RCIA (Rite of Christian Initiation of Adults). The Parish Fair is on 6th June if anyone would like to support our work here and the plans we have for the future -more about these at another time. 

I have also enjoyed having contact a few times with Marymount School, Paris, for religious events and have been welcomed so warmly by the Sisters and School community. It was lovely being there with the Sisters and guests for a Thanksgiving Meal at the end of November. We had a great meal and all the trimmings.

Since coming here I have got back to regular excercise. Any weight loss is down to that and not to some illness as a recent text message asked me about! The cooking here is excellent - so that is not to blame.
Over the past few months I have been writing a book on the pastoral care of families bereaved by suicide and also the challenge of preventing suicide ( the title will be shorter). So far, the publishers seem happy with what I have done and publication is scheduled for later this year,

The only other bit of news was the wonderful Christy Moore Concert for PIPS at Opera House Belfast in November. I had been on the fringes of organising this event and so have some idea of how much preparation went into providing a great night. The presentation by PIPS of Belfast Crystal to me on stage that night was a total surprise as was Christy dedicating a song to me. The night before in the Europa Hotel, Belfast Media Group kindly made me Belfast Person of the Year and gave me a magnificent sculpture to mark the occasion. Even the replica is heavy but beautiful. I had arrived in Belfat for a 2 day visit with only hand luggage and now I had a heavy piece of sculpture and a large crystal vase to get back to Paris! Bekfast International Airport and Aer Lingus could not have been kinder in allowing both these items travel with me in the plane as hand luggage and at no extra charge!

There is so much more that could be said, but I am not sure if anyone is going to read this. So I will stop.
If you want to please leave a comment.
God Bless,     Aodhán Ó Troighthigh                                                                                      AT
St Joseph’s Church
50 Avenue Hoche
75008 Paris                        (French time is one hour ahead of GMT)
France
website : stjoeparis.org
email: atroy@compuserve.com              or stjosephparis@wanadoo.fr
Tel: 00 33 1 42272856 (office hours or leave a message on answerphone)
Mobile: 00 33 6 768312735

This is the day Barak Obama takes up office as President of USA. Prayers and best wishes to him as he faces a great number of challenges and so much is expected of him. French TV is here at St Joseph’s today to get the reaction of Father Francis, C.P. who hails from Pittsburg. All our American parishioners are in our thoughts today.
Life goes on here much as usual. I continue with writing and the book on the pastoral care of suicide is coming along, slowly but surely! It is painful remembering all those wonderful people who have been able to continue with the demands of their lives following the awful discovery that a loved one had died by suicide. If I can feel the pain what is it like for the mothers, fathers, brothers, sisters, husbands,wives, children and all the friends and neighbours. Being in such close contact with such wonderfully brave people over the past five years has altered me so much. I stand in admiration of them.
The awareness created by support groups such as PIPS has done a lot to improve the situation. I am convinced that PIPS and groups like them have saved lives. Also, raw pain of bereaved families has been relieved in some way by the care and tender compassion of this kind of group. So many of their members are themselves people carrying the memory of a loved one who died by suicide.
The weather has got a bit warmer here in the past day or so. It was bitterly cold since Christmas.
The weekends are still busy with so many people coming along for Mass and children to prepare for First Confession, Communion and Confirmation.
One of the delights for me has been the number of families who have visited me here. Some have been in Disney with their children and have taken a day in Paris to pay a visit and I have been able to join them.
All are most welcome and it is always good to meet up again.
Till the next time, Best wishes,                                                                                  AT

A little late I wish anyone who reads this (there seems to be very few!) a Happy New Year. It was good having a visit back to Ireland after Christmas and catch up on meeting family and friends. While in Ireland it was good being able to go to Derry for the Funeral Mass and Burial of little Colum Canning who died in a swimming pool in Paris the week before Christmas.
I travelled back to Paris on January 5 to be greeted by snow ploughs and de-icing machines at Charles de Gaulle Airport. The cold weath has lasted since then. Last week the temperature fell some night to 10 degrees below. It was really cold with a lot of ice on footpaths and side roads. Today the temperature creeped up to 4 degrees above. Warmer weather is on the way, we are told. Not much to report from here. I am engaged in writing a book at present and hope that I can make some real progress before the end of January. It is in the area of pastoral care for people bereaved by suicide. It is tough to write as I can recall so vividly the pain of so many families whom I have been with in such a situation. What wonderful people and what strength of character they show in adversity.
The parish council here at St Joseph’s are engaged in intensive planning for Lent. The group is most careful and concerned to give a wide range of prayerful activities during this time.
Christmas in Paris has given way to sales fever! Even I have gone shopping in recent days and that is saying something.
Hope whoever may read this finds peace and happiness during the coming year.                          AT