De La Salle brothers thanked as they leave Scotland

THE SCOTTISH town of Coatbridge has said farewell to the De La Salle order, which has served in the Lanarkshire community for 40 years, writes Brian Morton.

At a crowded Mass of Thanksgiving at St Augustine’s Parish Church, the recently installed Bishop of Motherwell, Joseph Toal, said farewell to Br Livinus Lalor and Br Terence Kay, both of whom are already well past retirement age and who will now return to England. A third brother, Oliver Kierran, left Coatbridge earlier in the year because of ill health.

In presenting the two brothers with papal Bene Merenti medals, Bishop Toal, making his first official appearance in the parish since his installation in July, spoke warmly of the order’s long contribution to St Augustine’s parish and its work in visiting the sick, its youth work and its eucharistic ministry.  The parish priest of St Augustine’s, Canon James Foley, described the brothers’ contribution as “very significant”, pointing to the retreats they ran for ­parishioners in the De La Salle community chapel, but also to contributions to liturgy and ­pastoral matters.