Letters Were Written: Trees Now Planted

In 2015/2016 during the Jubilee Year of Mercy thousands of letters were written and sent to Pope Francis , thanking him for the gift of the Jubilee year of Mercy, telling him what Mercy meant in the life of the letter writer and talking to him about Venerable Catherine McAuley and her wonderful example and legacy of living Mercy practically through the spiritual and corporal works of Mercy.

Heart-warming letters were sent in from all the continents, from women and men, young and old. In a letter sent in to Pope Francis introducing a three hundred page book (compiled from a randomly picked ten percent of all the letters sent in) a promise was made that trees would be planted in order to compensate for the paper used in writing the letters.

On Monday, December 3rd that promised was fulfilled when at a tree-planting ceremony in the grounds of the Convent of Mercy, Beaumont, Dublin (just down the road from Catherine’s beloved Coolock and not far from Stormanstown, reputedly Catherine’s birthplace) six trees were planted.

The newly planted tress include an oak, a copper beech, an ilex (holly tree), a malus (crab-apple), a laburnum and a liquid amber tree, the variety representing the wide spectrum of people who engaged in the project of writing to Pope Francis.

Messages to: Brenda Dolphin rsm – Postulator