AOH Bernard McCarren Division II Newark DE

Right-click your mouse button in the image above and select "Print" from the menu to print the flyer

The St. Brigid Division of the LAOH is having a fundraiser Thursday June 21, 2013, at McGlynn's Pub in Pike Creek. The beautiful thing is it won't cost you anything! Just print the flyer above (Important: you MUST bring the flyer with you for them to receive credit!) and 10% of the proceeds from your meal will be donated to St. Brigid's! Let's show our support by joining them and raising a pint!

Click on the image above to go to the Irish Heritage Night page

The Newark AOH Division is pleased to announce that we are partnering with the Wilmington Blue Rocks to present the 2013 Irish Heritage Night at Frawley Stadium.

The annual Irish Heritage Night will be held July 25, 2013 at Frawley Stadium. Game time is 7:05 PM and the opponent is the Myrtle Beach Pelicans. Click on Rocky Bluewinkle (above) for complete details and to print a copy of the full flyer. There is a box-seat ticket and Guinness deal, but you can only get it by following the instructions on the flyer!

This weekend is the Archbishop Fitzmaurice retreat at St. Joseph's in the Hills Malvern Retreat House. This retreat is primarily for the Catholic Diocese of Wilmington but all are welcome! Click here to visit the website for the Malvern Retreat House and learn more about this amazing place. Any members interested in attending may call them directly at 610-644-0400 to reserve a room. 

Accomodations are dormitory style and include a bed, desk & chair and a sink & mirror. Each floor has restrooms with private showers. Included in the retreat are meals: Dinner Friday and Saturday nights, breakfast Sat & Sun and lunch on Sat. There are conferences, speakers, walking Stations of the Cross and many other activities, all optional. The highlight for most retreatents is private adoration time in the magnificent oratories. Payment is voluntary (no one will be turned away for lacking the funds to attend). The encouraged amount, whicn only partially covers the costs, is around $225.

A.O.H. NOTRE DAME DIVISION 1 in Swedesburg PA is hosting a Major Degree ceremony April 21, 2013. It will be conducted by the legendary Isle of Erin Major Degree Team (MDT). Click here for registration information and to register to attend (as an observer or or candidate). 

Once a Degree is scheduled all candidates and observers are required to fill in the information form and click the ”submit” button. This required information will go to the Degree Team Secretary or Designee. The candidate will then receive a pre registration confirmation with additional information to be followed. 

It will be held at the AOH Hall of the Notre Dame Division at 342 Jefferson Street, Swedesburg, PA. For directions to the hall, click here. The Facebook page for the division is located here

All non-degreed members are strongly urged to sign up to take the Major Degrees. Degreed members are urged to sign up as observers. Members cannot hold office at any level of our Order without their degrees.

If you are unable to register via the interwebs, call: Jack Schneider at (215) 783-112 if you plan to take your degree or attend as an observer.

Recently, a replica of the Shroud of Turin was on display in Delaware. A new scientific analysis claims the shroud dates from between 300 B.C. and A.D. 400, putting it's age squarely within the time Jesus Christ walked among us. A new book titled  “Il Mistero della Sindone” (“The Mystery of the Shroud”) has been published with the findings.

We reflect during this Holy Week, the Passion of Christ, who died on Good Friday in reparation for the sins of mankind, and rose on Easter Sunday to give new life to all who believe. Thus, while Holy Week is solemn and sorrowful, it also anticipates the joy of Easter through the recognition of God's goodness in sending His Son to die for our salvation.

The History Channel has more information on the new findings with regard to the Shroud. Click here to read their article.

Division Historian and webmaster Joe Conway was interviewed for the St. Patrick's Day edition of the Catholic Forum radio program. Listen to the full interview here...

Little is known of Patrick's early life, though it is known that he was born in Roman Britain in the fourth century, into a wealthy Romano-British family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather was a priest in the Christian church. At the age of sixteen, he was kidnapped by Irish raiders and taken captive to Ireland as a slave. It is believed he was held somewhere on the west coast of Ireland, possibly Mayo, but the exact location is unknown. According to his Confession, he was told by God in a dream to flee from captivity to the coast, where he would board a ship and return to Britain. Upon returning, he quickly joined the Church in Auxerre in Gaul and studied to be a priest.

In 432, he again said that he was called back to Ireland, though as a bishop, to Christianise the Irish from their native polytheism. Irish folklore tells that one of his teaching methods included using the shamrock to explain the Christian doctrine of the Trinity to the Irish people. After nearly thirty years of evangelism, he died on 17 March 461, and according to tradition, was buried at Downpatrick. Although there were other more successful missions to Ireland from Rome, Patrick endured as the principal champion of Irish Christianity and is held in esteem in the Irish church.

Saint Patrick's feast day, as a kind of national day, was already being celebrated by the Irish in Europe in the ninth and tenth centuries. In later times he became more and more widely known as the patron of Ireland. Saint Patrick's feast day was finally placed on the universal liturgical calendar in the Catholic Church due to the influence of Waterford-born Franciscan scholar Luke Wadding in the early 1600s. Saint Patrick's Day thus became a holy day of obligation for Roman Catholics in Ireland. The church calendar avoids the observance of saints' feasts during certain solemnities, moving the saint's day to a time outside those periods. Saint Patrick's Day is occasionally affected by this requirement, when 17 March falls during Holy Week. This happened in 1940, when Saint Patrick's Day was observed on 3 April in order to avoid it coinciding with Palm Sunday, and again in 2008, where it was officially observed on 14 March (15 March being used for St. Joseph, which had to be moved from 19 March), although the secular celebration still took place on 17 March. Saint Patrick's Day will not fall within Holy Week again until 2160. (In other countries, St. Patrick's feast day is also 17 March, but liturgical celebration is omitted when impeded by Sunday or by Holy Week.)

In 1903, Saint Patrick's Day became an official public holiday in Ireland. This was thanks to the Bank Holiday (Ireland) Act 1903, an act of the United Kingdom Parliament introduced by Irish Member of Parliament James O'Mara. O'Mara later introduced the law that required that pubs and bars be closed on 17 March after drinking got out of hand, a provision that was repealed in the 1970s. The first Saint Patrick's Day parade held in the Irish Free State was held in Dublin in 1931 and was reviewed by the then Minister of Defence Desmond Fitzgerald. Although secular celebrations now exist, the holiday remains a religious observance in Ireland, for both the Roman Catholic Church and the Church of Ireland.

The first Saint Patrick's Festival was held on 17 March 1996. In 1997, it became a three-day event, and by 2000 it was a four-day event. By 2006, the festival was five days long; more than 675,000 people attended the 2009 parade. Overall 2009's five day festival saw close to 1 million visitors, who took part in festivities that included concerts, outdoor theatre performances, and fireworks. Skyfest forms the centrepiece of the festival.

The topic of the 2004 St. Patrick's Symposium was "Talking Irish", during which the nature of Irish identity, economic success, and the future were discussed. Since 1996, there has been a greater emphasis on celebrating and projecting a fluid and inclusive notion of "Irishness" rather than an identity based around traditional religious or ethnic allegiance. The week around Saint Patrick's Day usually involves Irish language speakers using more Irish during Seachtain na Gaeilge ("Irish Language Week").

As well as Dublin, many other cities, towns, and villages in Ireland hold their own parades and festivals, including Cork, Belfast, Derry, Galway, Kilkenny, Limerick, and Waterford.

The biggest celebrations outside Dublin are in Downpatrick, County Down, where Saint Patrick is rumoured to be buried. In 2004, according to Down District Council, the week-long St. Patrick's Festival had more than 2,000 participants and 82 floats, bands, and performers and was watched by more than 30,000 people.

The shortest St Patrick's Day parade in the world takes place in Dripsey, Cork. The parade lasts just 100 yards and travels between the village's two pubs.

Christian leaders in Ireland have expressed concern about the secularisation of St Patrick's Day. In The Word magazine's March 2007 issue, Fr. Vincent Twomey wrote, "It is time to reclaim St Patrick's Day as a church festival." He questioned the need for "mindless alcohol-fuelled revelry" and concluded that "it is time to bring the piety and the fun together."

Division Historian and website admin Joe Conway is being interviewed by Catholic Forum Radio Program host Robert Krebs for the St. Patrick's Day broadcast. As this broadcast also features Wilmington Diocese Bishop Malooly's comments regarding the election of Pope Francis, a significant audience is expected. Tune in at www.wdel.com at 10:05 AM to hear the broadcast! Joe discusses the history of the AOH, our division and the many great and charitable works we perform within our community.

The Catholic Forum Radio Program the longest-running Catholic radio program in the United States and is a production of the Office of Communications of the Diocese of Wilmington. From their website:

"Catholic Forum is a half-hour program heard each Sunday morning at 10:05 on 1150 AM WDEL in Wilmington, Delaware and on www.wdel.com. It has been on WDEL since 1939, making Catholic Forum the longest-running Catholic radio program in the United States - maybe even the world. Catholic Forum is also heard every Sunday morning at 9:05 on 100.9FM WAAI in Hurlock/Cambridge, Maryland. Catholic Forum features a brief reflection on and introduction of the Sunday Gospel, a proclamation of the Gospel by one of our Diocesan Deacons, a selection or two of inspirational music and an interview segment."

Jorge Bergoglio, the former archbishop of Buenos Aires, Argentina, was elected to be our newest Pope by cardinals in what was apparently the fifth round of voting on the second day of the conclave. He has chosen the name Francis.

"As you know, the duty of the conclave was to appoint a bishop of Rome," Pope Francis told a cheering crowd of thousands packed into St. Peter's Square. "It seems to me that my brother cardinals have chosen one who is from faraway. ... Here I am. I would like to thank you for your embrace."

He is the first Pope to take the name Francis, the first Pope from the Americas and the first Jesuit Pope. It has been speculated that he has taken the name Francis in honor of St. Francis of Assisi, revered for his work with the poor.

Delaware Governor Jack Markell, joined by Division President Sean Hellenga and Vice President Mike Quirk, LAOH members and other prominent Delaware Irish, proclaimed March 2013 as Irish-American Heritage Month for Delaware. Click here to view a video featuring the Governor reading from the proclamation.