NATIONAL CENTRE FOR LITURGY
WELCOME TO THE WEBSITE OF THE NATIONAL CENTRE FOR LITURGY
St Patrick's College, Maynooth, 26 March 2012
In the Constitution on the Sacred Liturgy, the first document of the Second Vatican Council (1962-65), the establishment of an institute of pastoral liturgy was recommended. The late Mgr Seán Swayne (1933-1996), a priest of the diocese of Kildare and Leighlin, studied liturgy at the Institut Supérieur de Liturgie in Paris in the years immediately after the Council and returned in 1968 to teach at Carlow College. In May 1973 he was appointed as the Bishops’ first national secretary for liturgy. This he saw as an opportunity to establish an institute of pastoral liturgy, which would house the secretariat and also be an outreach into parishes and communities. He sought a place of prayer, study, reflection and welcome. The secretariat was based at Mount St Anne’s, near Portarlington in 1973 and a one year course in liturgy was established the following year as well as providing shorter courses and days on aspects of the renewed liturgy. The Centre moved to Carlow College in 1978 and to its third and present home at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth in August 1996.
SOME IMAGES OF HISTORY
The National Centre for Liturgy, St Patrick's College, Maynooth, Co Kildare
telephone: 01-7083478
email us at: liturgy@spcm.ie