Dear brothers and sisters,
 
We are gathered this evening on the Memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, the ninety-ninth anniversary of the first apparition, in fact, to install or new canons.  I am happy to present them to you and am grateful to them -Fr David Cotter, Fr Danny McLoughlin, Fr Eddie Cameron, Fr Michael McMahon, and Fr David Boyd for having accepted my invitation to become Canons of the Cathedral Chapter.  Fr David is, of course, an Honorary Canon in appreciation of his work as Diocesan Administrator.  He now becomes a member of the Chapter, and I am delighted to announce, too, that Fr Patrick Brannan and Fr Willie Crawford become Honorary Canons.  I am thankful to them for taking on this role which is also recognition of their standing in the local Church.
In medieval times you should know, dear brother canons, that there were certain qualifications for entry into the chapter, which may or may not still hold, notable among which were that the priest had to be of legitimate birth and be skilled in Gregorian chant.  I have checked with your brothers in the priesthood and, while there may be some hesitation regarding the latter, no-one is found more than momentarily questioning the former.   
You are installed on the auspicious memorial of Our Lady of Fatima, which marks those apparitions to three children of Fatima in the summer of 1917, beginning today, 13 ^th May when the Lady asked them to pray for sinners and an end to the World War. In the final apparition, five months later, on 13 ^th October, the Lady identified Herself as Our Lady of the Rosary and called for prayer and conversion.
 
The heart of Our Lady's Message is contained in the "Secret" of three parts. The first part was a horrifying vision of Hell where the souls of poor sinners go and contained an urgent plea from Mary for acts of prayer and sacrifice to save souls. The second part prophesied the outbreak of World War II and a request for the Consecration of the world to Mary as a condition for world peace. It also predicted the inevitable triumph of Her Immaculate Heart following the conversion of the poor nation Russia to the Catholic Faith.
 
Coming at a time when civilization was being torn asunder by war and violence, Mary promised that Heaven would grant peace to all the world if Her requests for prayer, reparation and consecration were heard and obeyed.  In all Her appearances, the Blessed Mother repeatedly emphasized the necessity of praying and of acts of reparation and sacrifice.
Of course, the world is enthralled to the Secrets of Fatima but, in the end, the message is no secret at all.  It is the same message as the Gospel of Our Lord Jesus Christ: repent and believe the Good News, which remains today just as new and insistent, as radically demanding and as full of welcome and hope.   Our Lady’s apparitions at Fatima simply refocus us on the core of Christ's proclamation, which is the revelation of Our Father's love, calling the world to conversion and bestowing upon us the grace to abandon ourselves to Him with childlike devotion.  Fatima, with its urgent call to conversion and penance, draws us nowhere else that to the very heart of the Gospel. 
 
And the means of our conversion - of our personal conversion, of the conversion of our Church and of the world- remains the same. It is the way of consecration.  Commenting on how Our Lady had called the world to a new consecration to Her and Her Son, Pope John Paul remarked: How deeply we feel the need for the consecration of humanity and the world—our modern world—in union with Christ himself! For the redeeming work of Christ must be shared in, by the world, through the Church. 
 
It is in the light of consecration that I would like now to address you, our beloved new brother canons.  Today you become members of the chapter of the Cathedral and enter into a long and distinguished tradition in the Church.  You have been incorporated into our chapter by making a profession of faith before me and the people this evening.  In these unsettled times for our world, again threatened by fresh violence, as well as for our Church, shaken by its own troubles, your profession of faith is a sort of consecration of the rest of your priestly lives to serve our Great High Priest and the flock He has entrusted to our diocese with new faith and zeal.
 
As canons, you have been specially chosen to live your lives according to a new rule of close communion with me, your bishop, which will find you regularly beside me in the Prayer of the Church, in the government of our diocese and in brotherly support at my side in Solemn Liturgies.
 
On the basis of this closer communion with me you are called, together with me, to advance the discipline with which our fellow priests live out their own priestly ministry in the service of God’s people. Thus, with me, you accept to live out your priesthood in even greater holiness and to be good examples to the brothers.
 
So it is not a stretch of the imagination to say that this evening you stand before the Risen Lord of today’s Gospel who, about to share His Eucharistic meal with you, calls you to a new consecration by asking you now quite insistently: Do you love me more than these others?  Searching your hearts and the years of your priesthood, with their ups and downs, their moments of abandonment of the Lord but of fresh attachments to Him, you can insist that you do love Him, while leaving it to He Who knows all things, to accept your poor affirmation as He sees fit and as He knows best.  He does accept it, generously and gladly.  But now His challenge; feed my lambs and feed my sheep, which you can take to mean as follows: until now you have fed My lambs, the good people of God, in the parishes where you have served. From now on you will also feed My sheep, your brother priests who, from now on, look to you for encouragement and example.  It means you today embracing your seniority among the clergy and, with it, some surrender of that prior freedom to go where you pleased, in order now to follow the Lord with greater gravity to the very end.  
 
As I welcome you this evening with open arms, dear brother canons, it is a consolation to me that you will share with me some of the burdens of my office.  All that remains is for me to commend you to the Immaculate Heart of Our Blessed Mother, consecrating your priesthood from here on in, to Her Who will lead your priesthood to triumph and your good service of our diocese to lasting peace.