In the first ceremony of its kind for several years in Ireland, Br. Kevin Mascarenhas made his final profession as a Presentation Brother at Mount Sion on Saturday, October 31 2009. The ceremony took place in the chapel which houses the remains of Blessed Edmund Rice, founder of the Christian Brothers and Presentation Brothers congregrations.
Br. Kevin has been living in Ireland for the past five years and is the Director of the Information and Support Unit for asylum seekers, refugees and immigrants in Waterford which has some 1000 clients.
“Little did I ever think as I grew up in Karachi in Pakistan that one day I would end up as a Presentation Brother thousands of miles away in Waterford! I met the Brothers in Canada, worked with them in the West Indies, did my novitiate in Dublin and now I’m making my final vows in Waterford- the city in which the Brothers were founded. Today, I want to thank them – they have allowed me to become the person that I always hoped that I could become.”
Br. Kevin made his vows in the presence of Br. Martin Kenneally, the Congregation Leader of the Presentation Brothers. Speaking during the ceremony, Br. Martin said that “on an ordinary Saturday morning in Waterford something extraordinary is happening in this chapel. Br. Kevin’s strange and wonderful choice is a sign of hope that God is doing something new among us.”
