New Jersey Congressman Chris Smith (R-04) joined various community leaders during the March 24 St. Patrick’s Day Parade, Hamilton, speaking on the importance of the Irish saint’s teaching and Christian leadership.
“St. Patrick’s Day Parades have long been a great public expression of faith,” Rep. Smith said, “a celebration of our rich Irish heritage, and above all, recognition of a saint who transformed not only Ireland, but the world, providing a way for us to honor, revere and praise one of the greatest saints in all of Christendom.”
Born in 387, St. Patrick was enslaved for six years in Ireland as a child, “yet went back after a daring escape … to persevere with an indomitable will to preach the good news of Jesus Christ, the forgiveness of sin and the way of salvation,” Rep. Smith said. “With profound simplicity, St. Patrick explained the difficult doctrine of the Holy Trinity with a metaphor: the shamrock. By some estimates, he went on to consecrate no fewer than 350 bishops and establish several hundred churches in a land rife with paganism and druids.”
Today, Rep. Smith continued, countless believers trace their Christian roots to St. Patrick’s faithfulness and the Irish missionaries he inspired over the course of centuries, who took the Gospel worldwide, even in the face of martyrdom.
Rep. Smith also spoke on the human rights issues plaguing Ireland now, referencing fact-finding trips to Belfast that he helped organize, as well as congressional hearings he chaired on human rights abuses by the Royal Ulster Constabulary,
“While significant human rights progress has been made since the April 10th, 1998 Good Friday Agreement – and the establishment of the Northern Irish Assembly – collusion and cover-up of RUC and British violence, especially the assassination of Patrick Finucane, remains unfinished business,” Rep. Smith explained. “I truly believe that justice will be achieved in the North; however, perpetrators of violence must be held to account so peace and reconciliation can finally be fully achieved.”