Mobile confessional comes to Paisley
Bishop hopes Mercy Bus will attract lapsed Catholics
A double- decker bus will be pulling over in Paisley in just over a week to become a base for priests to hear confessions of lapsed Catholics.
Dubbed the Mercy Bus, it will be parked at the town’s St Mirin’s Cathedral.
The Rt Rev John Keenan, Roman Catholic Bishop of Paisley, will be joined by priests from Paisley, Glasgow and Motherwell on the top deck to hear confessions or simply have chat with people.There will be a music group playing on the lower deck, while some of the team will be out on the streets giving candles to people and inviting them to pray.
The event will close with the bishop celebrating Mass on the bus.
The idea for the Mercy Bus came from the Roman Catholic Diocese of Salford.
Rev Frankie Mulgrew, a Salford priest who helped to devise the project for the Year of Mercy in 2016, told the Catholic News Service website ( CNS) that the reaction from the public had “out-passed expectations.”
Priests reported hearing the confessions of “significant numbers” of lapsed Catholics, some of whom had not been to church for decades, Father Mulgrew, 38, said. “We are meeting people where they are, we are parking up beside their lives,” he said.
Father Mulgrew is a former standup comedian who gave career in children’s TV to become a priest after he personally experienced the mercy of God in confession, according to CNS.
“We are saying: ‘ If you have got any burdens, come on the bus and be free from them. If you are going through any struggles right now – a family feud, financial problems, a broken relationship – come on board the bus and experience God’s mercy’,” he said. “We are trying to reconnect people to faith and provide a place of welcome for them, and acceptance, and a place where they are going to encounter God’s mercy in a tangible way in their lives.”
“It is going out joyfully,” he added. “It’s trying to show the church in all its beauty and all its joy.”
The bus will be at St Mirin’s Cathedral from Monday, July 31, to Saturday, August 5, from noon to 4pm, and the Mass will take place on August 5 at 3pm.