‘It was such a memorable day that I will treasure always’

The highest honour was bestowed upon committed church volunteer Helena Forde recently, when her services to Moynalvey parish were recognised by the pope as she received the Benemerenti Medal.

The Benemerenti Medal - which is awarded by the Pope to members of the clergy and laity for service to the Catholic Church - was presented to Helena by Bishop Tom Deenihan on Sunday 3rd April in Moynalvey church in a “wonderful” ceremony attended by her family including husband Michael, four children and seven grandchildren, and many great neighbours and friends.

“It was such a memorable day that I will treasure always,” says the Boardsmill native, describing how great it was for her work as sacristan to be recognised in such a way and to be presented with her award by the bishop.

For over 20 years now, Helen has been sacristan in the parish, which means being there at least four days a week. “This can involve any number of tasks from cleaning the church to getting the church ready for services, mass, weddings or funerals and the general upkeep of the church including the altar and the cloths and gowns,” she explains, and taking these home to wash. “I would be there at all the masses and make sure that everything is ready for the priest as they are always rushing from one mass to another.”

“It has been a privilege. I have enjoyed every minute of it,” she says. “The kindness, the support and friendship I have experienced has been tremendous. I couldn’t do it without the support of all the parishioners.”

“There is a great community spirit and everybody is very, very willing to help out. All I have to do is ask,” she says for readers or ministers and with restrictions through Covid times, there has been a lot more work to do in the church when lots of people pitched in to enable deep cleaning and sanitising.

But essentially, the buck stops with Helena, and if someone didn’t turn in for duty on any given day, then she rolls up her sleeves and gets stuck into whatever task is necessary. Helena’s work in Moynalvey has seen her work with four priests over her time - from the late Fr Donegan, to Father Peter Mulvaney, Fr David Brennan and now Fr Janusz Lugowski - curate of Moynalvey and Polish chaplain in the diocese of Meath and Westmeath.

In her role as sacristan Helena has always considered herself very lucky as she gets to share the best of days with parishioners in Moynalvey, as they celebrate new beginnings with christenings, first communions and marriages. She also considers herself honoured to share the endings and prepare the church for the final journey of so many over the years to Moynalvey church. “I am there on the happy days and on the sad days too,” she says humbly.

Unsurprisingly, Helen comes from a background of very strong faith and connection to the church which was passed down to her. She is a proud member of the Legion of Mary, an international movement to encourage people in their faith, which she joined initially at aged just 14 in her home parish of Boardsmill. At that time, one of her main responsibilities was to look after the church. “So nearly all my life I have been involved with cleaning or looking after the church in some form or shape,” she says fondly. Other work with the legion involves distributing Trocaire boxes and building church fund boxes and organising them for the different roads and areas, aswell as visitations locally.

“We would visit the elderly and lonely and parishioners in hospitals and nursing homes,” she says although this was somewhat limited over the last couple of years with Covid. One of the most positive aspects of her connection with the Legion of Mary is the great and enduring friendships that she has made with her “Legion Friends.”

Worryingly Helena has noticed a fall-off in numbers returning to masses since Covid lockdowns with the absence of young families particularly noticeable. “People have such busy lives with activities running round the weekend and families have other commitments to fulfil,” she says. “I don’t think it is that they don’t want to go to mass, it is that there is just so much on for them.”

One way of enticing families back is to involve them again in the service, like as altar servers. “Definitely, the restrictions have done a lot of harm,” she says. “I don't know how long it will take for people to come back, but the church needs people now more than ever.”

The content, gentle-mannered, good-humoured sacristan has no plans to halt her duties with the church just yet. “I will continue please God, as long as I’m able, as long as I have the health,” she says. “I’ve enjoyed it all. I’ve really had a great life.”