This year’s Graiguecullen Solemn Novena will be attend by a well-known student activist, Katie Ascough, where she will speak about the 8th amendment. She is set to attend the nine-week long event on Monday, 23rd April.
Ms Ascough came to prominence when she was impeached by UCD students late last year. The campaign to remove Ms Ascough from her role began after she removed a page on access to abortion information from the student union’s Winging It fresher’s magazine following legal advice.
This meant the magazine had to be re-printed at a cost of between €7,000 and €8,000. Ms Ascough later signalled her intention to campaign for the anti-abortion campaign and has been speaking at events around the country.
It will not her first public appearance in Laois this year, as she gave a speech in the top square of Portlaoise on the back in February, along with a pro-life group. Her father, Tom Ascough, sits on Catholic advocacy group, Iona Institute’s board of directors.
This is the 13th annual solemn novena in St Clare’s Church in Graiguecullen and it begins on Monday 9th of April and it will run for a duration of nine weeks until the 4th of June.
People are being encourage to attend the novena for their own special intentions and petition boxes will be available for people to to place their own prayers for worries, illness and suffering, while each evening a selection of these petitions will be read out at Mass.
This year’s novena will commence with a rosary on Monday, 9th of April at 7.10pm, followed by a Mass at 7.30pm. Fr Liam Lawton will be leading the music, while each night a guest speaker will share their own faith stories.
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