Breathing With Both Lungs

GOOD THINGS THAT HAVE HAPPENED

2011-12-21T14:08:00.000Z

A few good things happened yesterday. Obviously there were more but these were the ones I noticed:

Money (destined for charity) that I had thought I'd lost turned up in my office in the school. I had last seen it on the refectory table in the friary and do not recall bringing it back to the school. I had given up on St. Anthony and having searched our bins, my room and anywhere else I thought it might be said a prayer to my Dad that it would turn up. I further prepared myself to explain to the donor (a member of staff) that I had lost the donation and would like to know the amount so that the friary could make good the loss. When I arrived at my office there it was on the chair.

Then I was given a Nintendo Wii plus games and extras to give away. It came via another member of staff, unused but without its box, and we had agreed to donate it to Our Lady's Hospital for Sick Children, Crumlin. I dropped it over to them today.

The third good thing was that my Mac, whose DVD drive has stopped working, will not have to be left in for repair but will be fixed while I wait as soon as they have the parts (I'm waiting for the call).

I was also given a Christmas present by a Sixth year: three handmade sweets. I am saving them for Christmas day!

Small things that put an extra shine on the day.

A PROPHETIC TALK

2011-12-21T11:55:00.000Z

Dr Peter Kreeft gave a talk in Steubenville about a month ago and it's worth listening too. He has a clever, 'Chestertonesque' use of language and has something to say. It complements the message of Michael Voris over at Real Catholic TV that we are called to be saints and to make a difference. Only if we are really and truly trying to do God's will can Christianity survive in the modern world.

DUTCH CATHOLIC SEXUAL ABUSE SCANDAL

2011-12-19T10:28:00.001Z

The Dutch Catholic child sex abuse has been out since Friday but the Catholic blogosphere is strangely quiet. Again we must face the draining of a cesspool of corruption going back to the forties. What went wrong that such evil should spread through the Church? How did it happen that Bishops and religious superiors should fail to deal effectively with this horror? How are to undo the hurt and the damage?At least Gloria.tv had a post about it:

Serious questions need to be asked by both liberal and conservative, 'progressive' and traditionalist Catholics about how our Church allowed this to occur. Partly it was the industrialisation of care: the attempt to answer the social problem of large numbers of parentless or homeless children on an industrial scale. This attempt was also an attempt at social engineering treating children as mere parts of a machine that could be trained and disciplined to fit in. Typically it was underfunded and became a dumping ground for the less successful religious and teaching staff. This model created a 'killing ground' for pedophiles and other disturbed individuals. The damage could've been lessened if those in authority had listened and acted with greater integrity and effectiveness. Instead disastrous decisions were made to ignore, to hide and to deny what was going on. That is not just immoral it is criminal.

Why then the silence from the Catholic blogosphere when there was so much comment when the Irish reports were published? Was Ireland worse? I don't think so. The Norwegians have a scandalous history in their handling of the Lebensborn: children of German and Norwegian parents who were also ill-treated and abused. Why the silence on these cases?

Perhaps there still remain blindspots that need correction, biased positions that need to be confronted. Perhaps there are those who wish to see these issues in simplistic terms as belonging only to one class, e.g. 'homosexual pedophiles', or one people, e.g.'Irish Clerical sexual abuse', rather than a worldwide evil, a cancer that is eating away at mankind and corroding civilisation and especially the Church, from within.

ARCHBISHOP URGES PEOPLE TO BE MATURE ABOUT THE QUESTION OF FAITH AND MEMBERSHIP OF THE CHURCH

2011-12-12T13:04:00.000Z

Protect the Pope have a short article on some comments by Archbishop Diarmuid Martin drawing on reports in the Irish papers. Broadcast last night as part of RTE's 'Would you Believe?' series the Archbishop was interviewed by Mick Peelo.

“It requires maturity on those people who want their children to become members of the church community and maturity on those people who say ‘I don’t believe in God and I really shouldn’t be hanging on to the vestiges of faith when I don’t really believe in it’.”The Irish Times reports:‘ The Archbishop of Dublin,Diarmuid Martin,has urged the country’s lapsed Catholics to have the maturity to leave the church. Over the past two decades,rising numbers of ‘a la carte’Catholics simply turn up at the altar for the sacraments like baptism,communion and marriage.

Of course the Archbishop's position that non-believers should not pretend to be believers and abuse the Sacraments becomes in the Irish Times an urging of "lapsed Catholics to have the maturity to leave the church". I agree with Fr. Hassett, a parish moderator, who believes the situation is more complex than a mere 'social Catholicism'. We have generations of poorly catechised and evangelised Catholics who are rejecting what they do not understand. Some have been badly hurt by clergy, religious or over-enthusiastic laity. For many it may be simply that it's easier to live in the halfway house of being culturally Catholic without committing to the faith in a real way. These people believe at some level but not enough to make a deeper, more public commitment. But what do we expect after all these years of liberalism and neglect? What do we expect when Confession is not promoted or when the Church's teaching is so often questioned evenly her own clergy? What we have are theists not Christians. There is belief in God 'somewhere way up there' but He is no longer so judgmental or authoritarian. Instead He has become rather soft. He has become a sort of Santa writ large but not much more real. The long road back from such a state will be long and hard indeed.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN UP TO...

2011-11-29T13:04:00.001Z

Last week our Community Care group ran a non-uniform day (actually three class periods: 9.00-11.00am) in aid of our Barnardo's Christmas party. Community Care are a group of fifth and transition year students who volunteer to do fund-raise for charities etc. The party goes back to before my time but when I took over I switched from asking the students to donate toys to raising money (begging) instead. This year I eventually got tired of that. A few years ago one frustrated fifth year student referred to a class as a "shower of stingy b******s". I guess she was a little over enthusiastic. So this year we ran cake sales. The group is divided into four teams named after the seasons and each team does a Friday cake sale which involves making the cakes and selling them during little and big break. All though this was going very well we also ran the non-uniform day and raised over €1640. Now we can run our Christmas party and give a sizeable donation to Barnardo's as well. The cake sales will now be in aid of the Capuchin Day Centre for the homeless instead.The cake sales are fun. I get a kick our of advertising the produce and trying to do it in a humourous way. It adds to the 'buzz' of a Friday and the kids get to do something pleasurable (e.g. eating chocolate muffins) and help those less well off. It gives my Community Care group an experience of fund-raising and self-sacrifice. One group seemed to have had more fun making a mess of their cakes than anything else. I didn't think it was possible to make chocolate Rice Krispy cakes that had no chocolate in them and didn't even stick together. I had never heard of 'Rocky Road' before - apparently the ingredients include chocolate, of course, as well as marshmallow, biscuit and Crunchy. Some have a real knack for baking unless, of course, it's their mother's cooking they're passing off as their own. As soon as we have a date settled for the party I will give each group their allotment of cash and the names and ages of the kids and let them go but presents. The party only lasts about an hour and a half to two hours but it's great fun. Watch this space.

ON CERTAIN SUGGESTIONS ABOUT THE CHURCH IN IRELAND

2011-11-23T20:25:00.001Z

While surfing the net, catching up with news, I came across, via New Advent, this article from George Weigel . I know Mr. Weigel is respected in some Church circles but what gets my blood boiling is that an American writer or pundit thinks that he can comment on the state of the Irish Church while not actually living here. The Irish Church has problems. These are deep and fundamentally theological and spiritual problems. They also have administrative dimensions but I am not convinced that his root and branch pruning would work. We Irish in Ireland are a people deeply aware of our roots and our place in the world. We have our own spirituality within the Catholic tradition and it is from within that tradition that the healing of Ireland will come. Only a return to the penitential way of our ancestors (most visible in Croagh Patrick and Lough Derg) will reawaken our hearts. We need to become a people that weeps for and with the abused, for and with the abusers, for those who failed and for the renewal of our Church and our land. I am not sure even those outside Ireland of Irish descent would properly grasp that kind of Irishness. As for his suggestion that an American bishop be sent well that beggars belief. The Irish clergy who went to America went to serve the Irish Catholics in America and built up the American Church as a consequence. An American bishop sent to Ireland, even one of Irish descent, would be coming to a different culture and from the start would be seen as an imposition and an insult. It would be interpreted as a punishment. Neither am I convinced that resizing would help. That might make it easier for the Holy Father and his advisers to find bishops for Irish Sees but it would not necessarily mean a boon to Ireland. Ireland really is a parochial country where there can be 'micro-cultures' to parallel our micro-climates. Just spending a year in a parish in Cork as a deacon taught me that. Some reorganization is needed. Some rationalization could help. But unless there is a fundamental shift at a theological and spiritual level (and changing structures will not do this) all that change will be cosmetic. For Ireland to change it must come from within. It must be a return to our roots.That insight came to me on retreat while reading Irene Hausherr's Penthos. Only if we turn to Christ and plead for His help will there be real change.

THE IRISH GOVERNMENT DOES NOT WANT THE POPE

2011-11-10T11:00:00.001Z

So the Irish Government, having made itself a laughing stock for closing the embassy in the Vatican while keeping embassies in places like Lesotho, will not be extending an invitation to the Holy Father to visit our country next year. So? He should come anyway. The hierarchy should invite him. Stuff the Government. Separation of Church and State works both ways. The Holy Father should come, he should meet victims of CSA and he should get the opportunity to address the Irish people directly. The secularists fear that. They fear that he would make a serious impact on Ireland and against their cause. They think they have the Irish Church on the back foot, that she is in terminal decline and that its only a matter of time before she is finished. They should read history. The Holy Spirit has again and again fulfilled our Lord's promises. He will look after everything if only we are faithful. It is up to us who love the Church and want to see her flourishing to fast, pray and sacrifice for her renewal. That renewal begins with each of us, in the heart, in our lives. Governments come and go. The Irish Government doesn't speak for the Irish people in everything. Let the Holy Father come and stuff the begrudgers!

2011-10-11T21:53:00.001+01:00

Our brothers and sisters in Egypt are being persecuted anew. They have long suffered under the yoke of Islamic intolerance. Under this new government whatever protection they had is now gone. Protesting an attack on a church they were themselves attacked by the Army. The Army claimed that they were fired on. Peaceful unarmed protesters encounter armed soldiers who, claiming they are fired on, open fire on the protesters and kill a number of them. The Government backs the soldiers. Now where have we heard that before? Oh yes! January 30 1972: Bloody Sunday, Derry, Northern Ireland. At least the Brits didn't tear up and down in armoured cars. While the North is slowly finding it's way to peace how is the Islamic world going to change, how are they going to show tolerance towards minorities? Are Christians, Jews and others always going to be second-class citizens living in fear?

2011-09-26T11:49:00.000+01:00

My father died of cancer Friday week (16th September 2011) and so I have been rather distracted. I celebrated his funeral Mass and have offered Mass each day for him in fulfillment of a promise. I know it comes to us all that we lose the ones we love (at least in this world). This is an undeniable fact. Watching my father's painful decline was not easy. He is pictured above with my niece on the day last August that she started Secondary school. Gone was the physical strength I remember from my youth. He grew more and more helpless. His mischievous sense of humour was more visible for a time but that too was smothered by his medication and his pain. He came alive for the Mass on the Sunday before he died and later again he responded to the evening Angelus but the rest of the time he hung between sleep and quiet suffering. His appetite was negligible.

He was alert on the Tuesday for his sister's visit but after that he declined. The last time I exchanged any words with him was on the Thursday morning - I had spent the night at home - and even then they were few. I looked at his poor emaciated body and thought of Christ on the Cross. I knew I would use that text from the Gospel for his funeral Mass.

My Mother has lost her friend of 66 years and husband of 48. I don't know how to describe how she is. Watching her loneliness and quiet sorrow is another grief for us to carry.

My cousin, who has been a tower of strength and support as well as practical intervention, asked me how I could not doubt there was a God in heaven seeing my Dad suffer. I could only reply that the suffering in the world is the fault of human choices. People suffer because of their own or other people's wrong-doing. The people who died on 9/11 died because of the warped minds of their attackers. The many others from that day who now suffer ill-health do so because those buildings, in their collapse, released so much dangerous dust all because of the attack. Those who mourn the dead suffer as well. The consequences of the attack ripple out and may never be fully mapped. So people suffer. All we can do is unite our suffering with that of our Lord and trust that He will use it in some way to undo the evil that men do.

When our Lord told us to take up our cross and follow Him He meant He would lead us to Calvary. The narrow way leads through the cross but we believe it leads to the Kingdom. That does not mean it is any easier to watch helplessly as someone mounts the cross, as a loved one endures pain and the loss of much that they had come to accept as part and parcel of themselves and eventually embraces death. All any of us can do is walk with them, support them (like Simon of Cyrene) and trust that somehow this fits with God's plan.

I could no more doubt the existence of God than I could that of the Sun. My father was not a wealthy man but he bequeathed this precious gift to me: my faith. Perhaps faith is like the opposite of bereavement. When one loses someone there is an absence and great suffering. The one who was so alive is gone. When one begins to believe there is now a presence where once there had been a presence. The absence of a loved one does not depend on oneself and neither does the presence of God. But God remains invisible to the material eye. He reveals Himself only to the spiritual 'eye' of faith. Once that eye is opened one cannot deny the light.

Still that does not change one's feelings. Bereavement is like having one's heart dipped in acid - it changes everything. I have wept in bursts, sometimes unexpectedly, often as the climax of buildup of sorrow. At times it is a physically tangible pressure, a tightening of the throat, a filling up of the body with weariness. This will not end soon. I will with time grow adjusted to it and to my loss as generations of generations have done. I have become one of the many who grieve today. All I can do is greet each day as it comes, offer this suffering as a prayer of sorts, a sacrifice, embracing this cross for myself and others, especially my Dad and keep going. How must those who have lost a spouse or a child feel? It is incomprehensible.

A SHORT UPDATE

2011-09-16T11:44:00.001+01:00

My father, Paddy Forde, is dying of cancer. We discovered his condition during the Summer and the time of his passing away is close. Please pray for him and for our family at this difficult time.

IRISH GOVERNMENT PROPOSES TO FORCE PRIESTS TO BREAK THE CONFESSIONAL SEAL

2011-07-15T20:59:00.005+01:00

Government proposal to break the seal of confession is without precedent

The Taoiseach, the Minister for Justice and the Minister for Children are all indicating that a proposed new law will require priests to break the seal of confession if someone confesses to them the crime of paedophilia.
This would make us the one and only country in the Western world to have such a law. Even Revolutionary France in the days of its worst violence against the Church did not pass a law requiring the breaking of the seal of confession.
The justification for the law is that the crime of paedophilia is so heinous that no one who hears about it, under whatever circumstances, can be allowed to keep it to themselves.
But our Government is clearing missing something that every other Government can see, which is that at a minimum such a law is very unlikely to lead to a single conviction and at a maximum will be counter-productive and will make society less safe, rather than more safe.

Read the rest at the Irish Catholic.

I, for one, will not break the seal. I would encourage a victim or a perpetrator to tell the police or some other responsible person but I would not break the seal. Send me to prison, I don't care. I will not break the seal. Make Ireland a byword for intolerance and persecution.

Will this proposed law also oblige lawyers, doctors, psychiatrists, psychologists and counsellors? Should we not also report incest, rape, murder, and other serious crimes. If priests and others are obliged to report who will tell them anything? To tell them would be to tell the police.

What a stupid proposal.

I have alternative proposals.

BAN PORNOGRAPHY! Pornography has been linked repeatedly to prostitution and to violence against women and children. It degrades people. It leads people on a road that only ends in ever more depraved behaviour. Protect our children by banning it.

Strengthen families: real families, as in one man married to one woman with their children. recognize them as the building block of society and protect them with tax breaks and benefits.

I'm so annoyed at this that I emailed the Taoiseach.
Pleas do the same: webmaster@taoiseach.gov.ie.

WHY STUDY ORTHODOX CHRISTIANITY?

2011-07-10T13:36:00.000+01:00

This is interesting. Very worth while watching. Dr. Tom O'Loughlin (who is or was a priest of an English Diocese though he's Irish) taught me logic in Milltown Institute many years ago. He was very good teacher but he had us terrified. A very intelligent and learned man.

FIRST JOYFUL MYSTERY: THE ANNUNCIATION TO MARY

2011-07-01T15:42:00.000+01:00

The ANNUNCIATION of the INCARNATION of our SAVIOUR to the BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

When I went looking for an image of the Annunciation (25 March) I saw this and thought ‘how apt’. Sr. Lucia of Fatima to whom the Blessed Mother of God appeared in 1917 wanted the Holy Father to declare the Rosary a liturgical prayer. This image of the Annunciation is from the Royal Doors of an Orthodox Church (I don’t know where) and with this image I want you to see the Rosary as a liturgical prayer, a prayer that not only links us to Mary Dei Genetrix, the Theotokos, the Mother of God but through, and with her with her Son and the work He has done for us. The Rosary is partly a meditation on the life our Saviour in the company of His greatest disciple, His mother. Yet because it is this it is also a meditation on what is done to us and for us in the Church’s worship, her Liturgy.

As the feast of the Annunciation is March 25^th it is right in the middle of Lent that we are given a moment to celebrate and rejoice! The sombre joy of Lent gives way to the glorious joy of the moment of Mary's 'fiat' and the Incarnation of the Word. Gabriel tells her she is 'full of grace'. Literally he says Chaire kecharitomene 'Grace to you who are full of grace' or 'blessed are you who are full of blessings'. 'Rejoice' the Church cries out at Easter and here in the midst of Lent the Church causes Gabriel's voice to speak to us from the Gospel, 'Rejoice!' Rejoice? Rejoice because Mary is to be the New Eve who brings forth from her pure flesh the New Adam, the Revelation of the Father and the Salvation of Man. Rejoice because the Spirit hovers over her as over a New Creation and descends on her so that the Word and Image of the Father can take flesh, so that the Eternal Pentecost of Man's union with God can come. Rejoice that the King of Heaven and Earth, of the whole Universe, is taking flesh in the womb of a country girl from lowly Nazareth.

Does God gamble I wonder? What if Mary had said 'no'? Such a Luciferian response would have doomed and damned mankind. She did not, of course, but her humble 'yes' was a 'yes' not just to the Word and Image of the Father but to all that would be through Him. Her 'yes' was a 'yes' to the Passion and the Cross, the 'sword that would pierce her heart', to the Resurrection, and to us. The Annunciation is a celebration our conception too, our conception in Christ. We celebrate the moment when a country girl was asked by the Father, through the agency of the Archangel Gabriel, to be the Mother of God, to be a key part of His astounding plan.

No wonder Gabriel seems to hold slightly back in the icon above by a Constantinopolitan master. His right hand is extended but the fingers which form the monogram of the name Jesus Christ are hidden – for although He has told Mary the NAME of the Saviour the world does not yet know. His staff shows his authority; this comes from the Father. Mary looks out at us. In her hands she holds the wool from which, tradition says, she wove the seamless garment of Christ. It symbolizes her weaving a body for the Word from her own flesh. She looks at us. 'Well?' she seems to ask 'What should I say?' Say 'yes' O Mother! Say 'yes' and save us. Say 'Yes' and set us free. Say 'YES' to us so that we who are dead in sin might live forever in the Light. "Behold! I am the handmaid of the Lord. Be it done unto me according to thy word". "And the WORD was made flesh".

Our Father...

God sent the angel Gabriel to Nazareth, a town in Galilee, to a virgin pledged to be married to a man named Joseph, a descendant of David. The virgin's name was Mary. Hail Mary

The angel went to her and said, "Greetings, you who are highly favoured! The Lord is with you." Hail Mary

Mary was greatly troubled at his words and wondered what kind of greeting this might be. Hail Mary

But the angel said to her, "Do not be afraid, Mary, you have found favour with God. Hail Mary

You will be with child and give birth to a son, and you are to give him the name Jesus. Hail Mary

He will be great and will be called the Son of the Most High. The Lord God will give him the throne of his father David, and he will reign over the house of Jacob forever; his kingdom will never end." Hail Mary

"How will this be," Mary asked the angel, "since I am a virgin?" Hail Mary

The angel answered, "The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. Hail Mary

So the holy one to be born will be called the Son of God. Even Elizabeth your relative is going to have a child in her old age, and she who was said to be barren is in her sixth month. For nothing is impossible with God." Hail Mary

"I am the Lord's servant," Mary answered. "May it be to me as you have said." Then the angel left her. Hail Mary

Glory be to the Father

Text of Gospel is from the New International Version

THE SACRED HEART OF JESUS

2011-07-01T13:56:00.000+01:00

On this feast of the Sacred Heart of Jesus I offer you this photo of a picture in our house. It's a print framed behind glass and dedicated to the memory of Edward J. Balfe of Hartford, Conn(Connecticut?).

The Heart of our Lord is not actually shining like that in the pciture but is painted a pale pink. The flash just happened to catch the image there and it seemed so apt that I used this shot. It's a powerful image and better than most of the Sacred Heart images one sees around. Most of them are insipid or effeminate. This, like the best Greek icons of the Pantocrator, speaks not just of love and mercy but of power and conscious intent. He is not going to give up on His plan for our salvation. He will not turn back or be cheated of His beloved. This is the face of God Incarnate not by accident but for the salvation of Man.

It reminds me of the story my mother tells of her father Barney Clarke who would pray to no one but the Sacred Heart. "If I want anything," he would say, "I ask the man Himself." He died on a Friday while a votive Mass to the Sacred Heart was being offered for him. A sign, I take it, that our Lord answered him.

A MEDITATION ON A VIDEO BY MICHAEL VORIS

2011-06-30T12:26:00.000+01:00

The zealous and impressive Mr. Voris of RealCatholicTV is in Ireland these days and he had this video on YouTube:

Working in a secondary school I was not surprised except by the number who actually admitted to going to Mass. What was surprising were the reactions on the net. People referred to Ireland's faithful past and missionary efforts, to her contribution to the Church. We Irish tend to forget that. Still there seemed more than a little romanticism about Ireland. Ireland has no Leprechauns. It is a modern country embedded in Western Civilization with all the problems that go along with that.

There are two major temptations that face Irish Catholics trying to live their faith and contribute to our society. First there is the temptation to embrace all that the secular world proposes as good, to abandon or modify our faith and our tradition so as to fit in and not stand out. The second is to retreat into an idealized past where we all believed the same and the country was full of 'saints and scholars' (a complement paid to the nation as it was over 1000 years ago). There are real dangers to us: the pressure to legalize abortion, gay marriage and adoptions, the decline of the Liturgy and the widening gap between the spirituality (or 'spiritualities') of the average Christian and their experience, knowledge and understanding of the teaching of the Church.

Someone asked me on Fr. Z's comment's box what I thought role moralism played in modern Ireland. I don't know. Moralism, I think, is the reduction of faith to action and of action to the following and implementation of rules. When one's worldview is of 'rules' to be implemented, balanced and 'dodged' at times and one believes these to be of Divine origin it is world shaking to have that dismantled practically over night. For Centuries the Church seemed to tell the people 'these are the rules - follow them and you'll be alright'. Then after Vatican II they simply seemed to dump the whole lot. That's the impression the people (and much of the Clergy) got. "All changed, changed utterly: A terrible beauty is born." (Yeats, Easter 1916) and indeed it was presented as revolutionary to and by some even as the majority were told that nothing had really changed at all.

I remember my surprise at hearing from my Father how he liked the old Mass and that it's removal had left him without a sense of encountering God. What is amazing is not that the Irish are abandoning their faith but that they held onto it for so long after the Council. This was not the Council's fault but those who implemented it, who interpreted it, who sold one version of the Council that has no roots in the actual Council itself.

Quite simply, as has been done it seems throughout the Western Church, those who dissented from the Faith, teaching and Tradition of the Church have been allowed to do so with impunity. Programs for the faith-formation of the young that are woefully ineffective and probably harmful were implemented and continue to this day without effective Episcopal oversight. The clergy and people of the Church are largely ignorant of the Faith and its discipline. We have allowed belief in the Real Presence of our Lord in the Blessed Sacrament to wane (surely communion in the hand while standing has had a part to play in this?) until He is received as if He were only a biscuit. I have heard from lay people of the Blessed Sacrament picked up from the ground outside the Church where it has dropped or spat. This should have alarm bells ringing throughout the Church in Ireland but it seems not.

Perhaps the International Eucharistic Conference will stimulate something but I am not hopeful. I have no faith in big meetings. I can misquote St. Gregory Nazianzen himself that nothing good every came from a meeting of bishops and he was talking of an Ecumenical Council (Constantinople II. see his Epistle 130 - To Procopium). I am being cynical. The real change will be made on the ground, in the hearts of individuals through adoration of Christ in the Blessed Sacrament and devotion to the Blessed Virgin. as Our Lady said at Fatima: "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph."

THE WORK AT HAND

2011-06-29T12:18:00.000+01:00

Since we decided to build a new friary (and refurbish the original 1820 house) rather than bring up the old building to modern standards the library has had to be stored and now moved to its new location in what was our refectory (dining room).

As librarian that job is mine. All 67 boxes of books plus a few others that now destined for the new library. There is a problem though. We do not have enough shelf space. Yes the builders put in book cases but not enough. So we have contracted a local guy to put them in where there used to be a store room off the 'ref'. While awaiting that the library sits in stasis. Over half of the books are on shelves but the reset remain in their boxes. Even what is on the shelves is only loosely sorted. All that awaits the completion of the shelves when I can decide what goes where. Of course then there is the problem of how to catalogue a friary library.

Below are the photos to illustrate my point:

The 'ref' in the old house

The library undergoing a clean out.

One library stored.

The Library was stored in one of the rooms of the old, now demolished, wing.

The new library, in the old 'ref'', under reassembly.

Capuchins organize Flash Mob Adoration

2011-06-25T21:00:00.000+01:00

I've been busy with school but I've also gotten lazy. I think too I let myself get dragged down by events around me. A fellow friar quoted the Blessed Virgin's assurance at Fatima "In the end my Immaculate Heart will triumph." For me as for him this gives me hope and perspective.

To start there's this:

It was at Catherine of Sienna Institute website. According to the website:

The Capuchin Friars, Brs Mark, Prins & John, return to Preston after 467 years, following the Dissolution of the Monasteries in 1539, to take responsibility for the Catholic Chaplaincy at the University of central Lancashire. The new Chaplaincy is on the site of the Leper Hospital of St. Mary Magdalen, founded c.1177. In about 1525 the hospital was transferred to the Franciscan Friars who left at the Dissolution in 1539.

I know I've met Prins but I'm not sure if I've met the others. They are our neighbouring province and perhaps one day we may have to be one province unless vocations seriously pick up on both sides of 'the water'.

Fair play to them for this innovative way of evangelization. I'm not sure about the method of transporting the Blessed Sacrament but it seemed to make an impact. Well done.

A WEEK IN REVIEW

2011-03-27T16:47:00.000+01:00

What a week of highs and lows. Wednesday our under-19's basketball team won the national final 51-39. They came back 'like kings', as one of our staff put it, full of justifiable pride. Classrooms emptied to welcome them back with cheers and applause.
That was the high.

Friday was the anniversary of Nicole Kelly's death. She was knocked down crossing the road last year. From Thursday afternoon her friends were obviously upset (though, of course, it had been building up unseen). Friday some of them were unable to even sit for long in a class. Nicole is dearly and bitterly missed. At 1.00 pm the family had organized a Mass in the Blanchardstown Oratory. I was unable to go but a huge number of students were. It was as if she had just died. As if it were only the day before. That was the low.

In addition my Dell laptop crashed, black screen no response, nothing. A search on the internet, from a school computer, suggested that the problem was irreversible. Worse the photos of much of the Sixth year from when they were entering were on the laptop in preparation for their graduation. So a double disaster.

The laptop is now in a shop to see what can be recovered. Thanks to the generosity of my guardian I was able to go and buy a new machine. Under advice I have therefore converted to Mac. No more blue screens and crashes I hope! so I guess that's a high to end the week.

DAVID QUINN: DICTATORSHIP OF RELATIVISM

2011-03-14T13:34:00.000Z

This is an excellent and enlightening talk by David Quinn of the Iona Institute (and, alas, ex-editor of the Irish Catholic). Looks like we have a rough ride ahead of us.

THE POPE IS COMING TO IRELAND!

2011-03-10T10:18:00.001Z

Well so the media is suggesting. Let's hope he does come. It could be a moment of great grace for our country. Pray too for the soul of that poor woman in India who will now die by passive euthanasia.

AN UPDATE

2011-03-09T13:28:00.000Z

So, last night I began a series of talks on 'To Christ throught the Sacraments'. I have never done anything like this before so it was nerve wracking. Still it went ok. The opening talk was quite abstract but next week I'll be dealing with Baptism and hopefully it will be more accessible to the congregation. My objective is to help deepen people's faith and nurture their relationship with Christ and His Church. I also hope to make these talks available as a podcast but that's for the future.

Today of course is Ash Wednesday. There was a time when I would race around the school trying to distribute the ashes in the first forty minutes of the day before the classes moved. Now we have 1100 students distributed between 42 or so classes. Time consuming, frustrating and ultimately futile so instead I distribute them as they request them. So far this morning it has been encouraging even if they recieve out of the 'novelty value'. People like the tangible reminders of the Divine. Words are easy, actions speak louder to the soul.

Spiritual Bouquet for Pope Benedict for St. Joseph’s Day (19 March)

2011-02-20T13:27:00.000Z

Fr. Z over at the inestimable blog 'What Does the Prayer Really Say?' has initiated a

Spiritual Bouquet for Pope Benedict for St. Joseph’s Day (19 March)

and you can participate there. In particular we are requested to pray that the Holy Father not weaken the provisions of Summorum Pontificum.

IRISH CHURCH HAS TEN YEARS BEFORE THE EDGE

2011-02-18T22:33:00.000Z

According to the Catholic Herald, as repeated by RealCatholicTV and Gloria.TV News, Cardinal O'Malley will convey to the Holy Father the message that the Irish Church has ten years before it "falls over the edge". Where does this assessment come from but the ACP, the Association of Catholic Priests. I am in the middle of drafting my own assessment of this association based on its published objectives. To me they are dissidents. I know some of its members and some of them I like and admire for their compassion and care even as I deeply oppose their beliefs and objectives. They do not represent me. I hope the Cardinal, whether he is sympathetic to them or not, is savvy enough to recognize their agenda and weighs his report accordingly. I hope to the bishops have, as the Spanish Americans say, 'cojones' (please forgive the crudity), and tell this bunch to 'shove it'. If they want women clergy and gay unions let them become Anglicans.

AFGHAN CHRISTIAN FACES MARTYRDOM

2011-02-15T11:47:00.000Z

Said Musa, a father of six young children, is in prison in Afghanistan simply because he has become a Chritian. He is being tortured and abused for his faith. He faces the death penalty. We need to pray for him and then do something.

“To the international church of world and to the President Brother Barak Obama President of the United States and to the head of ISAF [International Security Assistance Force] in Afghanistan!

“My name is Said Musa 45 years old. I have been working since 15 years as a Physiotherapist in I-C-R-C [International Committee of the Red Cross] orthopaedic centre in Kabul, Afghanistan. About four and a half months before by security force of Afghanistan I [was] captured, due to faith in the Lord Jesus Christ, Saviour of the world.

...Since that time I am in jail. The authority and prisoners in jail did many bad behaviour with me about my faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. For example, they did sexual things with me, beat me by wood, by hands, by legs, put some things on my head, mocked me ‘He’s Jesus Christ’, spat on me, nobody let me for sleep night and day. Every person spat on me and beat me. Also the prosecutor wrote something wrong against me. He told from himself something wrong against me on my file.

“He is stimulating every day the prisoners against me, ‘He is also in jail due to spy for Iran country’, to reveal the church in Kabul. I’m in a very and very bad condition in the jail.

“I agree with long imprisonment about my faith even for long life. Because I’m the sinnest person in the world. Because sometimes they treated for died I refuse my faith due to died. Sometimes I tolerate the persecution but immediately I acknowledge my sin before Lord Jesus Christ: ‘Don’t refuse me before your holy angels and before your Father.’ Because I am very very weak and sinful man…

I am alone between 400 handlers of terrible values in the jail like a sheep. Please, please, for the sake of Lord Jesus Christ help me. Please send a person who should supervise my document and my file, what I said in it. My prosecutor has told something wrong to the judge because he asked [for] money but I refused his request. Please, please you should transfer me from this jail to a jail that supervises the believers. I also agree with died on cross of my pride. I also agree with the sacrifice [of] my life in public, I will tell the faith in Lord Jesus Christ son of God and other believers will take courage and be strong in their faith. Hundred percent I am stable to my word. I have family of seven - one wife, three daughters and three sons. My big son [is] about eight years old. One of my daughters can’t speak, she has some mental problems.

“This is a request from me to all over the world, people please help me. I could not have any person to help. For [the] sake [of] Lord Jesus Christ please pray and immediately help me and rescue me from this jail. Otherwise, they will kill me, because I know they’re very very very cruel and hard hearted!

“Your destitute brother in the world.

“Please my English writing is not enough good. If I did some mistake please forgive me! From Kabul Provincial jail.”

Thanks to the Creative Minority Report and National Catholic Register for this.

See also here

IRELAND BLOCKS MENTION OF CHRISTIANITY

2011-02-05T21:30:00.004Z

That Ireland blocked reference to Christianity in the proposed European condemnation of religious persecution comes as no surprise. Our government representatives (it seems formerly Dick Roche T.D. and now the Taoiseach Michael Martin) have been consistently voting in a manner at odds with the values and ethos of our nation for some time most notably on the matter of embryo exerimentation. This of course will be widely reported in the press.

Fourth Fota International Liturgy Conference

2011-02-02T20:21:00.000Z

I know this has been well flagged by others but no harm in putting it out there again. I missed the last one and still hope to make this year's. Glad to see too that the lectures from the Conference on Art and Architecture is due out this year from Four Courts Press.

St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy
________
Fourth Fota International Liturgy Conference
Benedict XVI and the Roman Missal
To be held in Cork, Ireland,
9 - 11 July 2011

Provisional Programme

The first session of the Fota IV international Liturgy Conference will be held in Cork, Ireland, on 9 - 11 July 2011. The Conference will be opened by His Eminence Raymond Leo Cardinal Burke, Prefect of the Apostolic Signatura, who will also give the key-note address.
The Conference will be chaired by Prof. D. Vincent Twomey, SVD, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology, St. Patrick’s College, Maynooth, Co. Kildare.
The speakers will include:

1. Prof. Dr. Dieter Bohler, SJ, St. Georgen, Frankfurt
The Eucharist of the Church, the Lord’s Supper and Israel’s Sacrifice: Reflections on Pope Benedict’s axiom “The Christian liturgy cannot be understood in isolation from the Old Testament Inheritance”.
http://www.sankt-georgen.de/lehrende/boehler.html
2. Fr. Sven Leo Conrad FSSP, Augsburg
Liturgy as “a transcending movement” (J. Ratzinger) – Reflections on the Form and Theology of the Opening Rites in the Roman Missal.
3. Dom Cassian Folsom, OSB, Sant’Anselmo, Rome
The Roman Missal in "Summorum Pontificum”
4. Dom Paul Gunter, OSB, Sant’Anselmo, Rome
The History and Development of the Roman Missal
5. Prof. Dr. Helmut Hoping, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität, Freiburg
The Ordo Missae of 1965 and the Latin-German Altar Missal
http://www.theol.uni-freiburg.de/institute/ist/doe/hoping/hoping
6. Prof. Dr. Manfred Hauke, Lugano, Switzerland
The "basic structure" (Grundgestalt) of the Eucharistic celebration according to Joseph Ratzinger
http://www.manfred-hauke.de/cv_lingua_eng.htm
7. Fr. Uwe Michael Lang, CO
The Church’s Voice of Prayer: Benedict XVI and the language of the liturgy
8. Prof. William Mahrt, Stanford University, U.S.A.
9. Prof. Lauren Pristas, Ph.D., Professor of Theology, Caldwell College, Caldwell, New Jersey, U.S.A.
The Post-Vatican II Revision of the Collects of the Roman Missal.
10. Dr. Janet Rutherford, Maynooth Patristic Symposium
The Anglican Patrimony: What is it, and what to do with it?

ON THE ORIGIN OF THE CHRISTMAS CRIB

2010-12-21T16:10:00.000Z

I don't know how many people know this but the Christmas crib is a Franciscan invention. The first was built by St. Francis in the little town of Greccio on the side of a hill in the Rieti valley. Spending Christmas there in retreat Francis wanted to recreat the circumstances of the Saviour's birth so as to meditate on them. While Mass was being offered, at which Francis was deacon, the statue of the child came alive and all were deeply touched and consoled by the grace of God. From these humble beginings springs our practise of having a crib in our churches and homes. Something which must delight the little poor man of Assisi.

Below is the cave where the crib was built with the later fresco painted in commemoration of the event.

St. Francis kneels before the Christ Child:

The Virgin breast feeds the Christ with St. Joseph in contemplation in the corner:

POPE BENEDICT ON VERONICA GIULIANI

2010-12-16T13:26:00.000Z

Zenit has the ful text of the Holy Father's talk on St. Veronica Giuliani:

St. Veronica has a markedly Christ-centered and spousal spirituality: Hers is the experience of being loved by Christ, the faithful and sincere Spouse, and of wanting to correspond with an ever more involved and impassioned love. She interpreted everything in a key of love, and this infuses in her a profound serenity. Everything is lived in union with Christ, for love of him, and with the joy of being able to demonstrate to him all the love of which a creature is capable.

The Christ to whom Veronica is profoundly united is the suffering Christ of the passion, death and resurrection; it is Jesus in the act of offering himself to the Father to save us. From this experience derives also the intense and suffering love for the Church, and the twofold way of prayer and offering. The saint lived from this point of view: She prays, suffers, seeks "holy poverty," as "dispossessed," loss of self (cf. ibid., III, 523), precisely to be like Christ, who gave his whole self.

In every page of her writings Veronica entrusts someone to the Lord, strengthening her prayers of intercession with the offering of herself in every suffering. Her heart dilated to all "the needs of the Holy Church," living with longing the desire of the salvation of "the whole world" (ibid., III-IV, passim).

Veronica cried out: "O sinners ... come to Jesus' heart; come to the cleansing of his most precious blood ... he awaits you with open arms to embrace you" (Ibid., II, 16-17). Animated by an ardent charity, she gave care, understanding and forgiveness to the sisters of the monastery. She offered her prayers and sacrifices for the Pope, her bishop, priests and for all needy persons, including the souls in Purgatory. She summarized her contemplative mission in these words: "We cannot go preaching around the world to convert souls, but we are obliged to pray continually for all those souls who are offending God ... particularly with our sufferings, that is with a principle of crucified life" (Ibid., IV, 877). Our saint conceived this mission as a "being in the middle" between men and God, between sinners and Christ Crucified.

I was in Citta de Castello some years ago and it has made a lasting impression. I have blogged about her before. A great lady, perhaps the Pope will declare her a Doctor of the Church?

EUROPEAN COURT OF HUMAN RIGHTS TO RULE ON ABORTION IN IRELAND

2010-12-16T12:32:00.001Z

The Irish Times has this report:

The European Court of Human Rights will today rule on whether Ireland’s restrictions on abortion violate women’s human rights.

The ruling, which could have significant implications for Irish abortion law, is based on a case taken by three women in Ireland who say their health was put at risk by being forced to go abroad for abortions. The court will issue its ruling at a public sitting of the court’s grand chamber this morning, rather than a more common written judgment.

This, legal observers say, reflects the gravity of the judgment. If the court rules the women’s rights were breached, it is likely the Government would be under pressure to legislate for abortion under the circumstances of the 1992 “X” case, where the Supreme Court ruled terminating a pregnancy is lawful where the life of a mother is at risk.

The Strasbourg-based court, which is separate from the EU, adjudicates on human rights issues among all 47 member states of the Council of Europe.

As a signatory to the European Convention on Human Rights – now incorporated into Irish law – the Government is obliged to remedy any breaches of the convention. The identities of the women – known as A, B and C – are confidential.

One of the women, a former alcoholic whose four children were in care, feared her pregnancy would prevent her getting her children back and went to a money lender to finance the abortion in England; another – a Lithuanian national – became pregnant while undergoing chemotherapy treatment for cancer and feared for her health and that of her child; a third who took the morning-after pill was told by doctors the drug had failed and she ran the risk of an ectopic pregnancy, where the foetus develops outside the womb.

At a hearing last year, lawyers argued restrictions in Ireland made having an abortion abroad expensive, complicated and traumatic. In particular, they argued restrictions stigmatised and humiliated them and risked damaging their health and, in one applicant’s case, her life.

The Government, however, robustly defended the State’s positions and argued that Ireland’s abortion laws were based on “profound moral values deeply embedded in Irish society”. Attorney General Paul Gallagher argued that the European Convention on Human Rights had consistently recognised the traditions of different countries regarding the rights of unborn children.

Please pray that this Court's ruling goes the right way (though I'm not holding my breath). Considering how they decided on the issue of the crucifixes in Italian classrooms one could expect them to take a liberal stance.

Update:

According to the BBC the court has ruled against Ireland. No surprise there. It is interesting that the women argued that they 'feared' injury or death because of their pregnancies (in Ireland which has the lowest maternal mortality in the world).

It was said at the last amendment that this challenge would come and here it is. If abortion gets in then euthanasia and other crimes against life will follow eventually as society becomes deadened to the sanctity of life. Our Lord warned us that hearts would grow cold. Cold some hearts already are and only too willing to condemn others to death. This in a Europe where the population is already well under the replacement rate. The culture of death is a symptom of the slow suicide of western civilization; a suicide rooted in the denial of God.

Simon's Cat at Christmas

2010-12-16T12:28:00.000Z

On a lighter note has this from Simon's Cat. I love these. Very funny.

TURKISH PERSECUTION OF OLDEST CHRISTIAN MONASTERY

2010-12-14T22:11:00.001Z

Apart from the report on developments among the Legionaries of Christ there is news of Turkish and Kurdish Muslim persecution of the Mor Gabriel monastery (Syrian Oriental Orthodox). The Turkish Government, having long refused to let them register their ownership (they've been there since 397) is trying to seize their land. This is another reason why Turkey is not a suitable candidate for admission to the European Union. Things are bad enough as they are.

Please remember them in your prayers and protest to the Turkish Government!

A CALL TO ACTION

2010-12-06T20:19:00.001Z

This little video I found at Gloria.tv just goes to show that high ethical standards and fine oratory have not yet died in Ireland (though our leaders may give little evidence of the same). This young lady certainly presents her case and exposes another side of the corruption in Ireland: a callous disregard for the sanctity of life from the very people who are so swift to identify themselves with the high moral ground when it suits them. It should come as no surprise to anyone that the media do not cover these issues.

AN UPDATE

2010-12-05T18:24:00.000Z

Between the school being closed by the ice and snow and the friary having no internet connection (and probably won't have one until after Christmas when we move in) this is my only time to surf and blog. The weather is practically a mirror for the economic conditions - cold and unpredictable.

It's hard to believe but the politicians voted themselves a 5% increase in their expenses for next year's Dail budget. Cutting the minimum wage and increasing their expenses is that evidence that our leaders have really grasped the situation or are taking it seriously? With all the debate about whether we got the deal we could have there's little to build one's confidence that our leaders know what they are doing. Still this country, like many others, has survived plague, famine, war and persecution, poverty and the long and persistent attempt to wipe out our culture. We're still here and we can survive this crisis, with or without our politicians.

In Britain the bishops are debating whether to restore fasting and penance on Fridays. Some argue that this is externalism. Surely one cannot really separate the external and the internal for long? One, if genuine, will surely express itself through the other. Something needs to be done to express our sorrow for the sins of our nation and in particular sins against children. At the moment one could be forgiven for thinking the bishops are hoping it will just go away.

AN ACT OF KINDNESS AND AN EXPRESSION OF APPRECIATION

2010-11-28T13:17:00.000Z

During the week I got a lovely surprise: an envelope with a beautiful card inside of the icon of Christ the High Priest and a prayer card. Someone called P. Pike in Portlaoise has been praying for me. That was very much appreciated (I need all the graces I can get). It's nice to know that the priesthood really is appreciated. So thatnk you P. Pike. You are in my prayers.

RARE FOOTAGE OF PADRE PIO

2010-11-28T13:14:00.000Z

This was posted over at Gloria.tv by holyrope 3. It's some rare footage of Padre Pio which also has footage of Capuchin traditions and life of the time.

Rebellion and Loss of Faith

2010-11-21T21:00:00.000Z

While I don't always agree wholeheartedly with Mr. Voris' interpretation of events he makes many valid points and he certainly can speak. There is no doubting his committment to the Faith. If only there were more like him.

Not so Bishop Walsh. I've blogged on him before. No wonder Ireland is where it is today if this is what has been going among the hierarchy. If he has struggled with his belief even in the existence of God why didn't he resign and let someone else shepherd his diocese? It has become fashionable for clerics to confess struggles with their faith. We are human but after a while such confessions begint to sound trite. We need bishops with backbone who love the Lord and His Church and believe in Him and who are willing to be loyal to the Holy Father. If they don't then they should retire.

THE POPE CONDONES CONDOMS?

2010-11-21T20:46:00.000Z

The news in Ireland, of course when not reporting on our economic crisis, blows the Holy Father's comments out of proportion and indeed misreports him. Thanks to his hermaneuticalness we have link to the full text at Catholic World Report.

There may be a basis in the case of some individuals, as perhaps when a male prostitute uses a condom, where this can be a first step in the direction of a moralization, a first assumption of responsibility, on the way toward recovering an awareness that not everything is allowed and that one cannot do whatever one wants. But it is not really the way to deal with the evil of HIV infection. That can really lie only in a humanization of sexuality.

The Pope was pointing out that the modern approach to sexuality trivializes it and dehumanizes it turning sexuality into a search for pleasure and a 'drug' to self-medicate oneself rather a means to a truly human self-communication within a lifelong committment to another. He calls for a recovery, a recommittment to humanization and puts condom use and the fight to defeat AIDS in that context. If comeone uses a condom to avoid harming another this does not make the activity right but it is not as bad as the activity would be without it. As my fellow Capuchin Br. Charles reports a commentator on his blog as saying

When robbing a bank, just don't shoot the teller.

The Pope has said the equivalent of 'Bank robbery is evil but if you must rob a bank and choose not to use violence then this is better. Still we would prefer if you gave up robbing banks altogether.'

The Holy Father is pointing to the turning away from selfishness which may be present in the use of a condom rather than approving of their use. As he goes on to say:

She of course does not regard it as a real or moral solution, but, in this or that case, there can be nonetheless, in the intention of reducing the risk of infection, a first step in a movement toward a different way, a more human way, of living sexuality.

THOUGHTS ON NOVEMBER REMEMBRANCE OF THE DEAD

2010-11-18T17:07:00.000Z

As I am now over half way through my forty-two Memorial services (I do them class by class) here in the school I thought I would write-up my sermon. I use Luke 24:13-27, the road to Emmaus.

Why is November the month for remembering the dead? Autumn-Winter is the answer. As one of our staff pointed out returning to Ireland at this time of year is like returing to a country that's dying. The leaves are yellowing and falling, it's colder, wetter, and the nights longer. The birds hardly sing and there are no insects around. Our ancestors, those of us that are from the Northern Hemisphere, saw this time of the 'Earth's dying' as a time when the realms of the dead and the living were very close. Close enough for one to travel from one to the other. From this awareness came the feast, for the Celts, of Samhain (pronounced sau-when). They dressed up to conceal their identities and had food and drink on hand while they kept open house. Thus the dead and the living could easily mingle and the dead be appeased with food - if not the dead might take the living with them when they left. They gathered by fires and kept one another company praying for the return of the Sun.

When Christianity arrived it brought it traditions from the Roman world. If you go to Rome and visit St. Peters you can, if you book in advance, go on the SCAVI tour which takes you deep under St. Peter's into the Roman cemetary it's built over. There one can walk on Roman cobblestones, and touch beautiful Roman brickwork and look in through Roman doorways into the family vaults of the richer Romans. There in the walls and floors lie their dead. Often in the centre there's a small altar to offer sacrifice to the dead and the gods and a stairway to the roof or an upper room where the family could gather to eat in the presence of their dead relatives. The Romans did this usually around November 2nd which date the early Christians adopted as the time to pray for their own dead. They brought that tradition to Ireland and it meshed nicely with the local custom.

It serves another function though. It reminds us that we will not live forever. No matter how we might think ourselves young, beautiful and strong we cannot live forever. You will not live forever. You will die. Hopefully this will be when you are ninety or one hundred or a hundred and ten, when your teeth are no longer your own and you're all wrinkly. By then the ladies will have given up dying their hair and the guys have no hair to dye. Hopefully when that day comes you will be surrounded by family or friends who want you to stay but you will be ready to go. Hopefully by then you will be able to say that you want to go to God and that you have done your best to be the best you can be. Hoepfully by then you will be able to say you have no regrets, not because you will not regret but because you have done nothing to regret. What a waste to get to that moment and wish you could start again.

Our life is not meant to be a search for wealth, fame or power. If these come to us honestly, well and good, but they can be a blessing or a curse. Our lives are meant to be a preparation for death, for going to God where we belong. Like a baby in the womb we are to develop into full 'manhood' before we get born. This time of the year reminds us of that reality and we must ask ourselves the questions - "How have I spent this last year? Have I grown as a human being or have I shrivelled?"

This time of year also reminds us that we cannot hold on to our loved ones. They too must die. We would love to wrap them in cotton wool and surround them with steel but that would probably suffocate them and defeat the purpose. Death will come and with it grief. Many years ago a priest told me of a man who came to him for advice. He said he had married a woman and their first eight years had been the happiest of his life. Then she died. He was devasted but after some time he met someone else, fell in love and married. This too was a happy marriage but he was troubled by guilt. He still missed his first wife and felt he was being unfaithful to the second wife by missing the first. The priest told him that the human heart is able to love more than one person and that he should thank God for finding two women to love him. Then he asked how long the first wifehad been dead. "Fifty-four years" was the answer. After fifty-four years he stilled missed the firt wife. We do not get over the deaths of those we love. We learn to live with them and they become a part of us. I know of a man who still misses a friend he lost when he was twelve. We should love others while we have them.

The two men in this gospel had suffered a great bereavement. Jesus had promised them so much and they had come to hope in him, "Our own hope had been that he would be the one to set Israel free". Yet now he was dead and all their hopes were dashed. Marching out of Jerusalem, downhill, Jesus walks downhill with them. He does not identify himself nor do they recognize him, after all he's dead. He asks that innocent question "What were you talking about?" Of course they stop. They're stunned. There could've been up to a million or more Jews in the city for the festival and here's one who doesn't know what everyone else knows! Out of them flows their grief, anger and sorrow. Their hopes and expectations were betrayed when Jesus was betrayed by their own leaders and handed over to the Romans. The Romans had cruelly murdered him and now the women, finding no body have come up with this story of angels and a resurrection. No wonder they walked away. The Jesus begins to enlighten them. They are the foolish ones. The prophets had foretold this, Jesus himself had warned them, this was how the Christ was to enter His Glory, by suffering. This was how he was to conquer the Romans, take away sin, save Israel.

Only once have I had that experience of my hear buring within me. It is not easy to explain but it brings the certainty that what one hears is the truth, the absolute truth as one's soul cries out "YES!". Their souls told them this was the truth.

The message for us is that God walks with us in our lives whether we want him to or not, whether we know it or not, whether we believe it or not. God walks with us on our good days and bad days, in joy or sorrow. But God is so gentle, so humble, so shy that He will not impose on us, He will not force His presence on us or intrude upon us without our invitation, without our permission. He will not violate our freedom or our will. He waits patiently to be invited in. The 'door' to ones heart is locked on the inside and He will not force His way in. It is often at the key moments of life that He is most visible. The example that stands out for me is of a woman I knew many years ago. She wrote a poem about the first time she was alone with her new-born child (I wish I'd kept a copy). It is a very precious moment for a mother and she wrote those two stanzas about that time. There she spoke of her love for her child and that other love, not her own or any other human being's, that was there and surrounded her. The poem ended with the line "The world returned, click-heeled". Each of her children was born with Cystic Fibrosis, a genetic illness of the lungs all too common in Ireland. At that time such children had a life expectancy of about fifteen years with medication and therapy. Now they live into their thirties. Yet this lady had a strength, depth of faith and peace that radiated from her. She had found that Presence that makes us strong in our weakness. You have to discover that for yourself, no one can do it for you.

That is more or less my sermon. What I have learnt as a school chaplain is that however children and teenagers seem to be they are often deeply affected by the loss of someone. Grandparents are the most common obviously. Still among our students we have a goodly number that have lost brothers and sisters, parents and close friends. Parents can sometimes miss the signals that their child is in pain usually because the parents themselves may be suffering.

One final point, if you know or suspect someone is suffering grief be kind, support them. We all get there someday.

INTERVIEW WITH ORTHODOX PATRIARCH

2010-11-12T13:59:00.002Z

Well, it's either a feast or a famine. This is a video from the American program 60 Minutes posted over at Gloria.tv which has an interview with the Patriarch of Constantinople, His Holiness Bartholomew. Worth watching.

REPORT ON PRESENT ACTIVITIES

2010-11-12T12:09:00.000Z

Just checking in. Unfortunately, due to damage (?) done by the builders we have no internet service in the Friary so I am reduced to whatever access I can get at work or when I visit my parents on Sundays. That means my blogging has suffered. In addition I am holding memorial services on a class by class basis. That's 42 services before the end of November. Our school oratory is small so these services are intimate and hopefully helpful. One first year thanked me becuase it had never occurred to her that she will die. More importantly my hope is to console the grieving, inspire their friends to support them and make everyone that bit more appreciative of their loved ones. I did notice that as one moves up the years there is less and less of a response to the prayers. Whether that is from genuine unbelief, peer pressure or just teenage resistance I don't know. For me it is tiring and after a while boring but we don't do it every year (retreats get in the way).

WHY CAN'T WOMEN BE PRIESTS?

2010-10-11T22:47:00.002+01:00

Actually that's the wrong question. One should ask: why is ordination into the Catholic Sacrament of Holy Orders restricted to men? The answer requires first answering some other questions such as what is the Sacrament of Holy Orders and what is its relation to the Church?, what is a priest?, who is Christ? and what is the significance of gender to the human person?

Let us take the last one first. To be human is to be gendered. We never meet just a human being but a man or a woman, boy or girl. That we are male or female shapes our relationship to ourelves, our community, the cosmos and God. For a believer this differentiation of the human race into two complementary genders is no accident. It is a dimension of the Divine plan and a reflection of the Divine Mind. You can see this in ancient myths and pagan spiritualities: Earth Mother and Sky Father, and Ying, Yang etc.

I would propose to you that the fact that Christ was a man was no accident nor was it incidental to His mission. The Son was sent to reveal the Father and only a son can reveal his father. In choosing masculinity Christ the Word was fulfilling His plan, making a statement about the Father, revealing something of the heart of God. He it is who establishes His Kingdom on earth and incorporates us into His Body, the Church. In case you didn't know ancient kingdoms weren't democracies. He has chosen us, called us, saved us. We depend upon Him, for everything.

Those in Holy Orders (Deacons, Priests and Bishops) are further called to be incorporated into Christ as head of the Body, a role that not only involves offering and celebrating the Sacraments but governing the Church. In a sense it is like a 'second baptism' for it confers a 'character' on the one ordained that sets him in a new relationship vis-a-vis the Body. As only the Son could reveal the Father so only a son can become an icon of the Son and stand in His place. Gender is not incidental but part of our fundamental make-up. It is so for us and was so for Christ, so it must be a condition for ordination.

Nowhere does the Church deny ordination to women on the basis of lack of intelligence or moral weakness. On the contrary the Church has repeated praised and supported women for both their contribution to the Church and Society and for the example of their lives and the depths of their spirituality.

We must also reject attempts to us the idea of equality. Equality is a legal fiction, useful but a fiction nontheless. It is easily put to the test and found wanting. Besides since membership of the Church is by invitation who can demand 'rights' to anything not given by Christ? In addition we must object to interpreting through the lens of 'power'. What actual power do clergy have? Besides our Lord teaches us that service is how He sees the Church's mission.

If not on the thin grounds of 'equality' and 'power-sharing' what basis is there for arguing for women's ordination? Scripture only opens the door to men. Tradition is clearly against it and the Magisterium has consistently ruled it out. The Church cannot and will not ordain women.

That in a nutshell is that argument against the ordination of women.

Further I went and had a look at the arguments given at the womenpriests site. I was not surprised.

Argument one confuses the priesthood of the faithful in which all the baptised share and the sacramental, ordained priesthood which is open only to men, because only they can bear the image of Christ as Son offering Himself to the Father.

Argument two, that women must have been present at the Last Supper, fails to take into account that Jesus looked for a room and according to Luke He sent Peter and John (His closest men) to find it by following a 'man carrying a jar of water'. Water fetching was women's work and that's why such a sight would stand out. A man fetching water implies a male-only house (perhaps Essene?). There is no mention of women present in any of the accounts of the Last Supper most notably Luke and John that are so sensitive to women especially His mother.

Argument three depends on cultural bias. That bias existed is not denied but that does not necessarily mean the decision is wrong. A racist judge may condemn a black man found guilty of murder and still be just in his condemnation. This argument also means an implicit denial of the influence and guidance of the Holy Spirit.

Argument four raises the issue of women deacons. If only the early Church had used a consistent and clear terminology from the begining but even now we talk of 'permanent deacons' as if diaconal ordination were not of itself permanent. That aside research shows that although women were called deacons this service did not include service at the altar but in assisting with the formation and baptism of women and children not unlike the work done by generations of nuns since.

Argument five is another example of confusing the priesthood of the faithful and that of the ordained. Mary's vocation is unique but remains firmly within that of the laity.

Argument six confuses ecclessial communions with Churches. There is actually only one Church from which some parts are in schism but yet retain all that is necessary to be the local manifestation of the true Church. these have the threefold order of Bishop, Priest and Deacon, valid Sacraments and maintain Tradition. Other communities have, while believing in Christ, abandoned these elements and are not local 'Churches', they have no valid Priesthood. It is these bodies that have 'ordained' women.

Argument seven relies on personal experience. Women feel called so the Spirit must be calling them. Christ has given His Spirit to all who receive baptism but the discernment of spirits He has reserved to the Bishops. Rome has discerned and identified this 'spirit' speaking in the women's ordination movement as not being from God. Draw your own conclusion.

At heart these arguments attack the very nature of the Church, denying the Spirit's action on and in the Church, denying Tradition, denying even reason itself. In over twenty-five years of listening to arguments for the ordination of women I have seen no deepening, no movement. The same old arguments are proferred while the orthodox side makes progress in its undestanding. At heart we have to rediscover the mutually enriching but distinct roles of lay and clergy, the differences between the priesthood of the laity and that of the ordained. We have to rediscover our living Tradition for the Church is her Tradition.

ON PROTESTS AND FALSE TEACHERS

2010-09-28T21:20:00.000+01:00

I avoided commenting on the 'Sleeman intiative' over the weekend as the press scans for comments and I didn't want to be quuoted. Now that it has been a flop I can pass my remarks. My own experience was that there were no noticeable absentees from the 9.30 here in the Friary but one woman seemed (she was at the back and I can't see much beyond six feet without my glasses) to wear a scarf over her face and dark glasses. The glasses alone would've been wierd. She didn't come up for communion and was gone before we had left the church (we wait outside to greet people - very 'protestant' but it can lead to useful conversations). I was furious and I still feel it as an insult to the Mass, the congregation and myself.

In addition I heard today that a priest in a wealthy parish in Blanchardstown welcomed anyone wearing a green armband and proceeded to speak up for women's ordination with some dodgy exegesis. It's this kind of theologically illiterate dissent that has us in the state we are in. Doesn't anyone try to find out the truth? Is no one interested in obedience and humility? No wonder there are Sleemans in the Church if there are pastors such as this doling out their opinions rather than serving the Gospel.

After Mass on Sunday I had a long conversation with one of our regulars who, despite being quite mature, is studying theology. She told me of the sacramental theology she's getting and from what she told me it does not qualify as Catholic. It seems that some theologians are too intelligent to believe in the Real Presence.

The more I see and hear the more I believe that there's a deep unseen crack in the Irish Church that could split open any day. At that point there will be great pain. I am haunted by Jesus' question 'When the Son of Man comes, will He find faith on the earth?' (Lk 18:8).

The good news is that the mature student I spoke to knows the Church's teaching and can challenge those who pretend that something else will suffice. There are faithful Catholics who struggle to hand on what so many others are denying or abandoning. We live in a time of iconoclasm but there are those who still choose Christ.

NICK VOJICIC - NO ARMS, NO LEGS, NO WORRIES

2010-09-20T14:39:00.000+01:00

It's either a feast or a famine but over lunch one of the teachers told me about this guy Nick Vojicic, an Australian born without arms or legs who gives inspirational talks. This is a very moving video.

SOME COMMENTS FROM THE WORKING DAY

2010-09-20T14:19:00.000+01:00

I'll be trying a new initiative with this blog - posting from my work as a chaplain. So to begin I am in my little office with a free period because a third year has just asked could she move her spot to last period. A first year I was expecting has not yet turned up. Therefore I am free.

One never knows who will walk through my door or what problem they carry. It takes time to build up the relationship and the level of trust. Clerical child abuse, on top of all the other pain it has caused, has done so much damage to the image of the priest that we are all suspects in someone's eyes. At least now the boundaries are clear to everyone.

It was good to hear the Holy Father reinterating our pain and shame over what has been done and urging the bishops to make care of the victims of abuse our principle act of reparation. Working with teenagers one sees that life can inflict so much suffering on the young. Thanks be to God this school works hard to provide a high level of care and support.

On a lighter note the one thing that made a deep impression on me was the silence after communion in Westminster Cathedral. TV doesn't do silence very well. It likes action, movement and noise. The stillness in that great church with the Pope sitting surrounded by his clergy and people in silent prayer was very striking. It brought home to me the need to cultivate that silence at the Masses I celebrate. After all when one has just received God what ought one to do but sit and listen?

A PRAYER INTENTION

2010-09-17T17:03:00.000+01:00

Please pray to Ven. Pauline Jaricot for a swift, full and enduring recovery for Philip Johnson, an American seminarian who has an inoperable brain tumour.
Almighty God, who knew us all from before creation, who called us into being according to Your plan, we humbly beseech You, through the intercession of Venerable Pauline Jaricot, who cared for the sick during her earthly life, that the seminarian Philip Gerard be swiftly and completely cured of his cancer, in a lasting way, so that God’s glory and mercy may be manifest. Venerable Pauline, we ask you in this urgent need, pray now before God’s throne that Philip Gerard be completely and swiftly healed by God’s miraculous act, that God be glorified in the working of this miracle, that we be edified by His mercy. Holy Trinity, Father, Son and Holy Spirit, we thank you for all your gifts and mercy. In Jesus’ Name we beg that this be done according to Your will. Amen.

BR. DONAL O'MAHONY OFM CAP R.I.P.

2010-08-24T14:55:00.000+01:00

The funeral took place last week in Holy Trinity, our principal church in Cork, of Br Donal O'Mahony OFM Cap. He was a native of Blackrock, Cork, who joined the Capuchin order in 1958 and was best known as the founder of Threshold, the national housing organisation, that came about following his appointment as chaplain to flat-dwellers in Dublin. He also worked in Northern Ireland during the 1980s, engaging with paramilitaries on both sides to promote and facilitate dialogue as an alternative to violence, most importantly in the Herema kidnapping case.

Most recently, Br. O'Mahony acted as International Director of the Damietta Peace Initiative whihc he founded to promote peace and a non-violent culture through the African continent. In 2008, his contribution peacemaking was marked with a Peace Award from the Interfaith Foundation South Africa.
Described as an "unsung hero", Br. O'Mahony was membered on the day of the funeral by contributors to Joe Duffy's RTE Liveline programme. Speaking on the programme, Br. Kevin Crowley OFMCap of the Capuchin Day Centre in Dublin described Fr O'Mahony as "a real and true follower of Francis, who had concern for all those in need. In all ministries, he was loved". Speaking of Br. O'Mahony legacy, Aideen Hayden Chairperson of Thresh said: "Br. O'Mahony's vision of a more inclusive and just society, where everyone has a proper home still informs our work today." The friars remember him as a gentle optimist and a man of deep and active faith.

After leaving doing the Leaving Cert at our school in Rochestown he studied journalism in UCC before going to work for the Irish Independent as a sports writer. On his way to attend the golf tournament in St. Andrews he met a friend, now Br. Sylvester O'Flynn, who was on his way to join the Capuchins and over a coffee they had a good chat. At St. Andrews Donal got into a debate with an atheist. Something was stirred in him. He came home and a month later he joined the Capuchins.

In his early years as a Capuchin he edited a number of periodicals in Ireland, all long now defunct. In America he made some wealthy and powerful friends but never ceased to be a humble and unassuming man, gentle and truely Franciscan. Even over the last few years as he struggled with illness he remained a man of hope. As his health declined he wanted nothing more than to return to South Africa and continue his work for peace through dialogue. Ar dheis Dé go raibh a anam dílis.

ONE PRIEST'S EXPERIENCE OF SAYING THE EXTRAORDINARY FORM

2010-08-22T21:29:00.002+01:00

I found this talk over at Gloria.tv. A good priest who speaks from the heart.

MASS IRISH GRAVE FOUND IN THE US

2010-08-22T17:47:00.000+01:00

The History blog has this report:

19th c. Irish immigrant mass grave in Pennsylvania

August 16th, 2010
In the August of 1832, a group of 57 Irish immigrants started work on a section of the Philadelphia and Columbia railroad known as a cut 20 miles west of Philadelphia. A few weeks later, they were all dead, most probably from cholera. Philip Duffy, the man who hired the Irish workers, had the shanty they slept in burned to keep disease from spreading and the dead buried in the railroad fill. Their families were never notified.

Continue reading here.

I saw a documentary about this a few years ago. It's a reminder how tough things were in the past and still are for many in our world. May they rest in peace.

TESTIMONY OF A MAN WHO WENT TO HELL AND CAME BACK: Mickey Robinson

2010-08-15T22:39:00.001+01:00

This is an extraordinary story:

SOME OLD CHANTS TO CALM THE SPIRIT

2010-08-03T21:02:00.000+01:00

Fr. Finegan over at the Hermeuntic of Continuity has posted some beautiful pieces of chant and that led me to follow the link to the above. I have about three of Ensemlbe Organum's albums and they are well worth having. The obvious musical connections between the Church's East and West really emerges in these pieces. The one above is of the Kyrie from the Mass 'Orbis Factor' and the one below is of 'Pascha Nostra' a chant from the Church of Benevento, Italy. They were posted on Gloria.tv.

This is what our Church music could sound like. Our Masses could be beautiful and full of mystery. What stands in our way is our submission to erronious ideas about what Vatican II asked of us and what is appropriate to worship. We have allowed our altars and churches, our liturgies and spirituality to be stripped away from us on the promise of something better in their stead. Like the generations of the Iconoclasm in Byzantium and the Reformation in the 16th Century we find that the replacements empty and ugly, banal and not only unable to speak of God but unfit to speak to Him.

THE WAR THAT NEVER WAS

2010-07-29T16:49:00.003+01:00

Sandro Magister has an interesting article on Catholic-Orthodox relations under the title

"Ecumenism. The True Story of a War That Never Was"

It's worh reading.

WEBSITE DEDICATED TO CATHOLIC PHILOSOPHER

2010-07-27T13:50:00.004+01:00

Thanks to Zenit I now know there is a website and association dedicated to promoting the work of Dietrich von Hildebrand an German Catholic philosopher, friend of Edith Stein, Adolf Reinach, Martin Heidegger and Edmund Husserl and part of the school of phenomenology. I have long admired the Catholic end of phenomenology since my days as a student of philosophy when a young American taught us. I am glad to be remaking the aquaintance.

DR. MARY CONDREN CALLS FOR CHURCH NOT TO BE EXEMPT FROM EQUALITY LEGISLATION

2010-07-26T20:34:00.009+01:00

I’ll attempt a Fr.Z on this from today's Irish Times:

LATEST VATICAN DOCUMENT IS FINAL STRAW FOR WOMEN
MARY CONDREN
ANALYSIS
The Vatican must no longer be granted immunity from equality legislation, in the name of liberty, equality, and even the Gospel

THE VATICAN'S recent Normae de Gravioribus Delictis document prescribes automatic excommunication for anyone involved in the ordination of a woman. In according greater penalties to those who "attempted " women's ordination than to clerics [Because with clerics it is traditionally considered enough punishment to reduce them to the lay state, excommunication still being a possibility, but with lay people excommunication, and in the case of attempting the ordination of a woman it is automatic, it is the only real punishment left] who abused children it has further shocked many loyal Irish Catholics prompting them to inquire about the theological reasons why the Roman Catholic Church objects to women's ordination.[She hopes. It think most people have their minds on keeping their jobs and paying their bills.]
A Vatican document issued in 1976 set out some of these arguments clearly.
1. That incarnation took place in the male sex and therefore women were excluded from the priesthood.
Logically, this means that women should be excluded from baptism as well, since it is an ancient teaching of the church that "whatever has not become incarnate cannot be redeemed". If the church insists here that "God became man" means God became male, then it cannot simultaneously argue that in liturgical language "man" means both male and female. [Apparently it was St. Gregory of Nazianzus who said 'that which was not assumed is not healed; but that which is united to God is saved.' What was assumed in the Incarnation was matter. Humanity and through humanity the created order is saved through the Incarnation. That matter is in the form of human nature with two genders, one nature in two complementary forms, male and female. Both forms of human nature are saved through Christ when baptised into Him but liturgically only the baptised male can be an image or icon of the Incarnate Word, the Saviour, as a historical person. A woman as a priest is like a man representing the Blessed Virgin.]
2. That no women were ordained in the New Testament.
Jesus did not ordain anyone.[There’s an infallible statement for you. So Dr. Condren you were there were you? A careful reading of the Gospels will easily show that Christ had only to speak for something to be so. His command ‘do this in memory of me’ and His breathing on the apostles were sufficient. They themselves understood their mission as permanent otherwise why pick a replacement for Judas? Why have imposition of hands in the early Church if it wasn’t fulfilling the Lord’s will?] Ordination as we know it today did not take place at all in the New Testament, and took another 300 years when Christianity and empire merged. [The good doctor needs to read more of the Fathers and less feminist propaganda.]
3. The practice of the, church has a normative character in the fact of conferring priestly ordination only on men, it is a question of an unbroken tradition throughout the history of the church
This is the argument from tradition whose logic is as follows: If something wrong goes on for five years it might be mortal sin; if it goes on for 10 years it becomes venial sin; if it goes on for 2,000 years it is no longer considered wrong, but tradition. [Where has the Church ever used that argument? Dr. Condren seems not to understand that the Church is her tradition. The Gospels are written tradition (cf. Lk 1:1; 1 Cor 11:23) and we have them because the Church preserved them and handed them on. This lady doesn’t even attempt to engage with the Church’s teaching.]
The argument from tradition. was also used against freedom from slavery, and many other issues in the history of the church. [Citation of which Church document? Just because an argument is abused by some doesn’t invalidate the argument.]
4. When Christ's role in the Eucharist is to be expressed sacramentally, there would not be this "natural resemblance" which must exist between Christ and his minister if the role of Christ were not taken by a man; in such a case it would be difficult to see in the minister the image of Christ
The church appears to be saying what feminists have suspected all along: that the image of Christ cannot be seen in a woman.[No, the Church is saying that in the Liturgy and the celebration of the Sacraments the priest functions as an icon of Christ the Incarnate Word who actually entered history as Jesus of Nazareth. It is the priest’s role to represent Christ as the one who speaks for His Father to humanity and for humanity to His Father. It’s not hard to understand if you have an open mind.] Does this not make nonsense of the whole of Christian moral theology, which is based on the fact that we must "see Christ in the image of our neighbour, man or woman"? [I thought the Church’s moral theology was based on reason aided by revelation. Seeing the human being as made in the image and likeness of God is not the same as seeing Christ in them – imagine asking a rape victim to do that!]
What are the theological criteria for deciding between what is authentic Christian theology and mere phallic worship? [Is this a Freudian slip? Notice the nastiness coming to the surface?] Over the years, man other arguments have been put forward to exclude women from ordination. Thomas Aquinas, for instance, could find no theological reason [Not so] for such exclusion, but eventually concluded that women, like slaves,[he doesn’t mention slaves] could not "signify eminence", and therefore could not become priests. (Mary Robinson, Mary McAleese?)[Has Dr. Condren bothered to read St. Thomas or is she relying on second hand sources? St. Thomas does give the argument short shrift and merely asserts that “we must say that the male sex is required for receiving Orders not only in the second (licitly), but also in the first way (in reality i.e. validly). Wherefore even though a woman were made the object of all that is done in conferring Orders, she would not receive Orders, for since a sacrament is a sign, not only the thing, but the signification of the thing, is required in all sacramental actions. Accordingly, since it is not possible in the female sex to signify eminence of degree, for a woman is in the state of subjection, it follows that she cannot receive the sacrament of Order." Summa Theologica Qn. 39, art. 1. St. Thomas is saying the one to be ordained must bear the likeness of the one he will represent. Women do not have eminence of degree he says, which is not the same as saying that they lack eminence of power, intelligence, creativity etc., but women are not men and do not stand in relation to God and creation as men do and vice versa. It seems to me that Aquinas is saying the ban on women’s ordination is rooted in the order of creation.]
Others sought to argue for women's subordination in the realm of nature but by 1976, even the Vatican knew better than to go down that road. In reality, they invented new arguments, and the one regarding Jesus's "maleness" was considered by many distinguished Catholic theologians to be "approaching heresy ". [Which theologians? No citations given. Something approaching heresy is still not heresy and new theological insights can often seem heretical or are painted as heretical by those threatened by those very insights as, I’m sure, Dr. Condren would agree.]
Before the Vatican issued the document it had asked the pontifical biblical commission to explore the biblical reasons for excluding women. Seventeen out of 17 members concluded that they could fine none. To their credit, several members resigned in protest at the use the Vatican had made of their work. [They were consulted and didn’t deliver. There are lots of scholars who disagree with them – e.g. Hauke, Butler]
The 1976 document was a watershed for many women who had sought to serve the church and had begun theological and ministerial studies to that end. Some persisted and, at least in Ireland, remained mostly impoverished and marginalised. [My heart weeps for them! They studied for a place in the Church that the Church had clearly and repeatedly said was not the Church’s to bestow and complain when the Church is consistent.]
Others despaired of remaining in perpetual opposition, and began to explore the deep seated psychological, anthropological and political reasons for the Vatican's stance. [When in doubt (or defeat) psychologise! Don’t for one minute actually question oneself.]
They looked, for instance to Scandinavia where, since the late 1960s, women had been ordained.[Note this is the Lutheran church and their orders are not valid in the eyes of the Church] However, a "let-out" clause allowed those male clerics who disapproved to maintain "clean dioceses" "clean parishes" s and even "clean vestments", i.e. those that an ordained female body had yet to defile.
But [Lutheran] the clerics [actually laymen] continued their deliberations. What would happen if a pregnant woman came to be ordained? If her foetus turned out to be a male child would apostolic succession automatically pass onto him? Would funeral or Eucharistic rites "take" if a woman priest happened to be menstruating?
The arguments raged until a cartoon appeared in the national newspapers. A male [Lutheran] cleric was depicted asking the Lord whether he should resign. The Lord replied: "Think of your salary my son."
Where equality legislation has been passed throughout the world, the Vatican has been granted immunity. But this latest document is the last straw. [Now she has worked herself up she really begins to lose it.]
In many impoverished countries in the name of religious freedom, such misogynist attitudes legitimise violent practices toward women and children. [A ban on women’s ordination is equivalent to beating up women and children. Am I missing something here? Dr. Condren’d idea of religious freedom is simple: one is free to believe what one wants to believe provided one believes what Dr. Condren wants you to believe.] All such immunity must now be withdrawn in the name of liberty, equality, and even the Gospel. She left out ‘fraternity’ but it probably stuck in her craw anyway. Instead we have the ‘Gospel’ even though scholars like Manfred Hauke and Sarah Butler have shown how the Gospel and the Church’s tradition excludes women from ordination.

Dr Mary Condren lectures at the Centre for Gender and Women's Studies in TCD and is director of the Institute for Feminism and Religion.
www.instituteforfeminismandreligion.org

Yes, there is a war on for the soul of the Church. Arm yourselves with the truth.

WHO YOU BELIEVE? THE 'WOULD YOU BELIEVE ?'PANEL DISCUSSION

2010-07-25T22:26:00.006+01:00

I've been watching the Would You Believe? discussion and I have not been surprised. There are the usual predictable liberals: Frs. Enda McDonagh, Tony Flannery, Brain Grogan, (would be priest) Soline Vatinel, plus the ombudman Nuala O'Lone, a journalist from the Irish Catholic, a few Irish bishops including retired bishop Willie Walsh, and bishop John Kirby. There was the token gay Catholic, one of four people who were asked to write to the Pope (as if the Pope doesn't get enough post and those letters were likely to get past curia officials in Rome). It was typical RTE religious fare - work up the drama and exaggerate the issues.

My experience is that while the Irish Church is in trouble (but then when has the Church ever not been in trouble?) the people I meet are far more worried about keeping their children away from drugs and bad company, as well as in school/employment and ensuring that they have some faith/value system to get them through life.

Surely talk of changing structures is really a resort to clericalism, to wit 'the system is wrong (not us) change the system and all will be well'. Has that actually worked anywhere? Some people want power sharing; how that is supposed to work would be interesting to hear and would the representatives be paid? Has that worked for the Anglicans? Have these people forgotten that Christ spoke of a kingdom? It's His Kingdom, His Church, and His Body and kingdom's have Kings, with hierachies etc, the body has a central nervous system with a brain and the Church has a hierarchy, a system that goes back all the way to the Apostles and through them to Christ. He established it and the way it is comes from the way He established it and so the Church is ruled by her clergy. That rule is not meant to be like that of the world - it is supposed to be a service - but we are sinners and sometimes clergy behave like lords not servants.

Blaming Rome is easy especially when one has spent the last forty years ingoring Rome. Didn't bishop Willie Walsh once say he threw everything from Rome in the bin? Some of the clergy on the show, for all their heartfelt talk, have been in positions of power and influence all the while that the abuse was occuring - have they no questions to answer? In addition they have been spreading their liberalism and the crop is nearly ripe for harvest. Never before has the Irish Church had such an educated laity and yet such levels of ignorance of her beliefs and traditions. The people and clergy of the Church have been bombarded for years with propaganda that opposes the teaching of the Church and discouraged from even accessing that teaching. Simply put many are Catholic in name but de facto protestants in practice.

In addition there remains that old-style belief in the absolute power of the Pope, an echo of the respect that attached to the likes of Popes Pius XII and John XXIII. In reality that respect has long been abandoned and many bishops, clergy and laity around the world have for years simply ignored the Papacy. Now people expect that the Pope can snap his fingers and they'll all pay attention. If they had actually been listening and implementing Church teaching and discipline many of the abuseres would've been ejected long ago. That discipline was ignored and we are suffering the results.

Things are going to get rough in Ireland. The Church may split or large groups may break off. Perhaps it will be like the days of Iconoclasm where the Church was hit by waves of heresy before she achieved peace. The liberals have gotten wind that Benedict is capable of building on the work of John Paul II and real implementation of Vatican II (the real one, the one in the texts not the imaginary 'spirit of Vatican II' version) is on the way, a Vatican II understood in continuity with the Church's tradition not in rupture with it. Hopefully the Apostolic Visitation will make a difference.

Well, I for one stand with the Pope even if I'm the only one.

FRANCISCAN SISTERS LOOKING FOR SPONSOR(S) FOR SECOND COMMUNITY

2010-07-22T13:33:00.005+01:00

Fr. Finnegan over at the Hermeneutic of Continuity has this notice:

Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate, Lanherne Cornwall

DARLINGTON CARMEL (one of the very early Carmels to be established in England [1830]) is up for sale. The very few remaining sisters are soon to move out. At Lanherne we have known about this for several months and we have been to visit the establishment. Wonderful for our needs! The Sisters are not going to leave Lanherne, in fact another house is needed as a new foundation. The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate (see photo above) have a goodly number of vocations; especially sisters who at the moment belong to the “active” branch who have a vocation to the contemplative life. So another contemplative house is needed. There is a major problem. Yes, you’ve got it! The FSI have no money and the Carmelites at Darlington require one and half million pounds. If you know Darlington and the Carmel then you will be surprised that it’s going for only £1,500,000. It’s large and fine, in good order and a Grade 2 listed building.

So we are looking for a benefactor. Franciscans cannot own property and therefore a possible benefactor would continue to own the Carmel and would let the FSI use it – or a trust could be set up. It is possible that with a serious bit of thinking other activities may be considered - retreats etc. ALL is possible. May I remind you that the FSI use ONLY the 1962 liturgical books. A centre for traditional Catholics in the north of England would be a great help to many people.

Please pray that a benefactor or a group of benefactors may be found.

Please contact me and let me know your thoughts.

Father Joseph M Taylor
Lanherne Convent
St Mawgan
Newquay
Cornwall
TR8 4ER
England

The Franciscan Sisters of the Immaculate are unusual not only that they follow the 1962 Liturgical books and have lots of vocations but they also follow the First Rule of St. Francis the Regula Bullata of 1223 which is usually only followed by the friars, for whom, of course it was written. I don't know how that is applied in practice but it's interesting. So these Sisters are not Poor Clares but a new form of female Franciscan enclosed life. May they flourish like the palm tree!

Below is the only photo I could find of the Carmel:

SAME-SEX UNIONS

2010-07-08T23:52:00.003+01:00

With the passing of the Civil Partnership Bill in the Seanad (Irish Senate) there remains only for the President to sign it into law. Perhaps she will take the opportunity to protect the rights of citizens who work for the Government not to have to violate their conscience. As it stands the Government has imposed its own morality on the nation and its servants and denied them the right to decline to co-operate. What next? Is the Government or some other body to use equality legislation to force clergy to solemnize such 'unions'? That no effort was made to include other forms of 'family units' such as siblings living together or friends who decide to share a home reveals that this is an ideologically driven law and a narrow one at that.

It seems to be beyond our Government's powers of comprehension that it can have no legitimate interest in any union that does not, or to be more exact, cannot produce children. The Government needs to support those unions which can produce, nourish and support children because these are the citizens of the future. Supporting unions that can't is wasting valuable funds, time and energy. In addition this is the State legislating in the bedroom, deciding to give 'equality' in the eyes of the law to one type of union that does not serve the State and the Nation in the way that the other, heterosexual, one does. One wonders not only how much financial support has been channeled by homosexual lobby groups towards this end or indeed, whether some of our representatives owe us an explanation of where their true loyalties lie.

After all, this is going to cost the State money at a time when we are nearly bankrupt (or rather we are bankrupt but can't admit it) and yet time and energy are wasted on a law to benefit a tiny minority, as well as to debate banning stag-hunting! It really does appear that the corrupt, the lunatics and the incompetents have been in charge for some time. God help us but we elected them.

2010-07-07T23:05:00.002+01:00

This is the new Provincial of the Irish Capuchin province with the Minister General and one of our Definitor Generals. They are, from left to right, Brs. Peter Rogers (Definitor General, and of the Irish Province), Adrian Curran, Dermot Lynch (Vicar-Provincial), Mauro Johri (Minister General, Swiss Province), Des MacNaboe (Provincial), Sean Donohoe and John Wright. The Provincial and his Definitory were elected last Wednesday so this is old news. The Minister General presided with the help of General Definitor Peter Rogers and Br. Charles Serignat of the British Province but working as a translator for the General in Rome.

The new definitory begin their first meeting next week and we all await their decisions. Please keep them in your prayers.

FOTA III

2010-07-03T15:55:00.002+01:00

I should've mentioned the upcoming FOTA III conference before now but the prospectus can be seen here. It's on for next weekend and I hope to get down to it.

Provisional Programme

Saturday 10 July

10.00 Registration

11.00-13.00

Dr D. Vincent Twomey, SVD, Professor Emeritus of Moral Theology, St Patrick’s College, Maynooth
Sursum corda: An Introduction to Ratzinger’s Theology of Sacred Music

Fr Uwe Michael Lang, CO, Consultor to the Office for the Liturgical Celebrations of the Supreme Pontiff
Defining Criteria for Sacred Music: From Benedict XIV to Benedict XVI

Fr Sven Leo Conrad, FSSP, Liturgical Scholar (Germany)
Joseph Ratzinger and Johannes Overath: The Intellectual Connection

15.00-18.00

Fr Stéphane Quessard, Episcopal Vicar, Archdiocese of Bourges (France)
Towards a Renewal of Sacred Music

Dr Alcuin Reid, Liturgical Scholar (Fréjus-Toulon, France)
Ut mens concordat voci: Sacred Music and Actual Participation in the Liturgy

Fr Samuel Weber, OSB, Director of the Institute for Sacred Music, Archdiocese of Saint Louis (USA)
Benedict XVI on the Psalms in the Liturgy

19.30 Pontifical Vespers
Celebrant: Archbishop Raymond L. Burke
Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

21.00 Organ Recital
Thomas Lacôte
Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

Sunday 11 July

11.30 Pontifical High Mass
for the Seventh Sunday after Pentecost
Celebrant: Archbishop Raymond L. Burke
Palestrina, Missa Papae Marcelli (Lassus Scholars, Dublin)
Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

16.00-19.00

Dr Andreas Andreopoulos, Director of the Centre for Orthodox Studies, Department of Theology, University of Wales, Lampeter (Wales)
Music in the Orthodox Liturgy

Fr Alberto Donini, Lecturer in Sacred Music, Diocese of Brescia (Italy)
Gregorian Chant in the Liturgy according to Joseph Ratzinger / Benedict XVI

Dr James MacMillan, Conductor and Composer (Scotland)
The Spirit of the Liturgy: Rejoice in Tradition and Embrace the Future

20.00 Gala Dinner

Monday 12 July

9.00-12.00

Dr Frank Lawrence, Department of Music, University College Dublin (Ireland)
The Spirit of the Liturgy: Gregorian Chant as Mystagogy and Exegesis

Thomas Lacôte, Titular Organist of St Stephen’s Cathedral, Bourges (France), Composer, Professor at the Musical Academies (Conservatoires) of Orleans and Aubervilliers, Associate Professor at the Conservatoire National Supérieur, Paris
Liturgical Texts, Rites and Symbols and Contemporary Musical Creation: An Example for the Feast of the Dedication of a Church

Dr Kerry R. McCarthy, Assistant Professor of Music, Duke University (USA)
Listening to William Byrd

12.30 Solemn High Mass
William Byrd, Mass for Five Voices (Lassus Scholars, Dublin)
Sts Peter and Paul’s Church, Cork

16.00-18.00

Mgr James O’Brien
Annual General Report of St Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy

Archbishop Raymond Leo Burke, Prefect of the Supreme Tribunal of the Apostolic Signatura
The New Evangelization and Sacred Music: The Unbroken Continuity of Holiness, Beauty and Universality

Ite O’Donovan, Director of the Lassus Scholars, Dublin (Ireland)
Choral Music in the Celebration of the Liturgy: A Musical Heritage of Inestimable Value, a Tradition to be Fostered and Protected …

___________

Inquiries about the Conference may be made to the Society in writing, by telephone or by e-mail:
In writing: Terry Pender, Leeview, Cobh, Co. Cork, Ireland
Telephone: 021-4813445/4813636 (within Ireland); +353-21-4813445/4813636 (from outside Ireland)
e-mail: colman.liturgy@yahoo.co.uk

At the New Liturgical Movement they also note that:

St. Colman's Society for Catholic Liturgy
Fota III International Liturgy Conference
Gregorian Chant Workshop

Chanoine Wulfram Lebocq of the Institute of Christ the King will conduct a workshop on Gregorian Chant during the Fota III International Liturgy Conference.

The workshop commences at 9.15 on Saturday, 10 July at the Imperial Hotel, South Mall, Cork. It will resume on Sunday 11 July at 10 am and conclude on Monday 12 July with a third session commencing at 9 am.

The course is intended as an introduction to the singing of Gregorian Chant. No previous experience or knowledge of chant are required. The workshop is free.

ODEST KNOWN IMAGES OF THE APOSTLES FOUND

2010-06-23T19:36:00.012+01:00

Picture above from Catholic Online.

Picture above from Examiner.com

From CNN:

The oldest known image of the apostles Andrew and John have been discovered in catacombs under the city of Rome, dating back to the 4th century A.D., archaeologists announced Tuesday.

The paintings were found in the same location where the oldest known painting of St. Paul was discovered last year, the Pontifical Commission for Sacred Archeology said Tuesday.

They are part of a group of paintings around an image of Jesus as the Good Shepherd on the ceiling of what is thought to have been a Roman noblewoman's tomb, experts said.

A painting of St. Peter makes up the fourth member of the group, but older images of him are thought to exist, Vatican experts said.

continue reading here...

H/t to David Clayton over at New Liturgical Movement.

This is interesting. The more evidence dug up of early Christian art the more complete is our picture of the practices of the early Church. I am convinced that in time we will find the Church's art tradition goes right back to the earliest days. Also of interest is that these are images of John and Andrew and it will be interesting to see how they compare to more traditional images.

MORE ON THE MURDER OF BISHOP PADOVESE OFM CAP

2010-06-16T16:02:00.005+01:00

Interviewed at Asia News Archbishop Ruggero Franceschini OFM Cap, 71, 6 years Latin archbishop of Izmir comments on the death of Msgr. Luigi Padovese OFM Cap who was murdered recently. The archbishop is sceptical of accounts of the insanity of the murderer or of Islamic reasons for the crime. Instead he links it to anti-European elements in Turkey. Read the article here.

Good news is that the death of Bishop Padovese has helped draw the different Christian Churches together and that more and more they all look to Rome for support.

LEOPOLD DE ALPANDEIRE, CAPUCHIN TO BE BEATIFIED

2010-06-08T20:07:00.005+01:00

Fray Leopold de Alpandeire Capuchin friar (1866 - 1956).

Born on 24 June 1866 and baptised as Francisco Tomas Marquez Sanchez, he became a local celebrity at the turn of the 19th century. At the age of 33 he left the village to become a Capuchin friar in Granada, where he remained until his death in 1956. He will be beatified in Granada on September 12.

Also to beatified:

- Manuel Lozano Garrido, Spanish layman, on Saturday 12 June in Linares, Spain.

- Lojze Grozde, Slovenian layman and martyr, on 13 June, 11th Sunday of Ordinary Time, in Celje Slovenia.

- Stephen Nehme (ne Joseph), Lebanese professed religious of the Order of Maronites, on 27 June, 13th Sunday of Ordinary Time, in Kfifan, Lebanon.
Mary of the Immaculate Conception (nee Maria Isabella Salvat y Romero), Spanish superior general of the Institute of Sisters of the Company of the Cross, on Saturday 18 September in Seville, Spain.

- Chiara Badano, Italian lay woman, on Saturday 25 September at the Shrine of Our Lady of Divine Love, Rome.

- Anna Maria Adorni, Italian foundress of the Congregation of Handmaidens of Blessed Mary Immaculate and of the Institute of the Good Shepherd of Parma, on 3 October, 27th Sunday of Ordinary Time, in Parma, Italy.

- Szilard Bogdanffy, Romanian bishop and martyr, on Saturday 30 October, in Oradea Mare, Romania.

- Barbara of the Blessed Trinity (nee Barbara Maix), Austrian foundress of the Sisters of the Immaculate Heart of Mary, on Tuesday 9 November, Feast of the dedication of the Lateran Basilica, in Porto Alegre, Brazil.

Source: VIS.

More on the murder of Bishop Luigi Padovese OFM Cap

2010-06-03T19:32:00.004+01:00

From Romereports.com.

CAPUCHIN BISHOP MURDERED IN TURKEY

2010-06-03T16:00:00.006+01:00

picture courtesy of asianews.

According to a number of sources Bishop Luigi Padovese OFM Cap., Vicar Apostolic of Anatolia (Turkey), was murdered, allegedly by his driver, at his home in Iskenderun a day before he was due to fly to Cyprus to join in the historic visit of the Holy Father to that island.

Born in Milan, Italy in 1947, Bishop Luigi joined the Capuchin Franciscan Order in 1964 and was ordained in 1973. He taught patristics at the Antonianum (where in held the chair in that subject and was director of their Spiritual Institute) in Rome and also at the Gregorianum and Alfonsiamum and for ten years he was visitator for the Congregation for the Oriental Churches to the Oriental College in Rome. He was consecrated titular Bishop of Monteverde in 2004 and since 2007 has been president of the bishop's conference. His motto was In caritate veritas. Details of his life from the Capuchin Order.

His death is a loss not just to the Church in Turkey but to the Order too. Martyrdom can come at any time but this is more true of those who serve in places such as Turkey where extremism is on the rise and targeting Christians, especially clergy. May he rest in peace.

SIXTH YEAR GRADUATION - END OF THE SCHOOL YEAR

2010-06-03T15:11:00.005+01:00

As the school year comes to an end and the Summer examinations grind on and with the Leaving Cert. just around the corner I offer this video. This is the first part of four from the slide-show we made for this year's graduation. It gives a small insight into my working environment and the young people I work with. It's a privilege to know them and to have had this time with them. Teachers and those who work with the young have that blessing - they are remembered by thousands. Without their work education would not happen, nor could the country compete, advance and grow. When the Government cuts back it's these young people who lose out.

The song was written by two students, Rudy Douglas and Aoife Davis, back in 2004 for their graduation. The previous year had ended badly and so there was a big effort to do things differently and offer a time that the students would want to cherish and protect. That was the beginning of the 'brunch' and our present grad ceremony. It has never been released but our students are going mad for copies. I think it's a good song and our unofficial school anthem.

Cypriot Orthodox Archbishop Rejects Criticism of Pope

2010-06-03T14:54:00.004+01:00

NICOSIA, Cyprus, JUNE 2, 2010 (Zenit.org).- The leader of the Orthodox Church in Cyprus is denouncing those in his community who are criticizing the upcoming visit of Benedict XVI.

Orthodox Archbishop Chrysostom II of New Justiniana and All Cyprus is underlining the fact that although some of the other Orthodox leaders are protesting the visit, the majority of the 17 members of the Holy Synod voted to invite the Pope to their country.

The Pontiff accepted the invitation from Archbishop Chrysostom II, as well as from Cypriot President Dimitris Christofias, and will begin his visit on Friday.

To read more...

APOSTOLIC VISITATION OF THE IRISH CHURCH IN THE AUTUMN

2010-05-31T21:52:00.003+01:00

From Romereports:

VATICAN CITY, 31 MAY 2010 (VIS) - This morning the Holy See Press Office released the following English-language communique concerning the apostolic visitation of Ireland as announced in the Holy Father's 19 March Letter to the Catholics of Ireland:

"Following the Holy Father's Letter to the Catholics of Ireland, the apostolic visitation of certain Irish dioceses, seminaries and religious congregations will begin in autumn of this year.

"Through this visitation, the Holy See intends to offer assistance to the bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful as they seek to respond adequately to the situation caused by the tragic cases of abuse perpetrated by priests and religious upon minors. It is also intended to contribute to the desired spiritual and moral renewal that is already being vigorously pursued by the Church in Ireland.

"The apostolic visitors will set out to explore more deeply questions concerning the handling of cases of abuse and the assistance owed to the victims; they will monitor the effectiveness of and seek possible improvements to the current procedures for preventing abuse, taking as their points of reference the Pontifical 'Motu Proprio' 'Sacramentorum Sanctitatis Tutela' and the norms contained in 'Safeguarding Children: Standards and Guidance Document for the Catholic Church in Ireland', commissioned and produced by the National Board for Safeguarding Children in the Catholic Church.

"The visitation will begin in the four metropolitan archdioceses of Ireland (Armagh, Dublin, Cashel and Emly, and Tuam) and will then be extended to some other dioceses.

"The visitors named by the Holy Father for the dioceses are: Cardinal Cormac Murphy-O'Connor, archbishop emeritus of Westminster, England, for the archdiocese of Armagh; Cardinal Sean Patrick O'Malley O.F.M. Cap., archbishop of Boston, U.S.A., for the archdiocese of Dublin; Archbishop Thomas Christopher Collins of Toronto, Canada, for the archdiocese of Cashel and Emly, and Archbishop Terrence Thomas Prendergast S.J. of Ottawa, Canada, for the archdiocese of Tuam.

"In its desire to accompany the process of renewal of houses of formation for the future priests of the Church in Ireland, the Congregation for Catholic Education will co-ordinate the visitation of the Irish seminaries, including the Pontifical Irish College in Rome. While special attention will be given to the matters that occasioned the apostolic visitation, in the case of the seminaries it will cover all aspects of priestly formation. Archbishop Timothy Dolan of New York, U.S.A., has been named apostolic visitor.

"For its part, the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life will organise the visitation of religious houses in two phases. Firstly it will conduct an enquiry by means of a questionnaire to be sent to all the superiors of religious institutes present in Ireland, with a view to providing an accurate picture of the current situation and formulating plans for the observance and improvement of the norms contained in the 'guidelines'. In the second phase, the apostolic visitors will be: Fr. Joseph Tobin C.Ss.R. and Fr. Gero McLaughlin S.J. for institutes of men; Sr. Sharon Holland I.H.M. and Sr. Mairin McDonagh R.J.M. for institutes of women. They will carry out a careful study, evaluating the results obtained from the questionnaire and the possible steps to be taken in the future in order to usher in a season of spiritual rebirth for religious life on the Island.

"His Holiness invites all the members of the Irish Catholic community to support this fraternal initiative with their prayers. He invokes God's blessings upon the visitors, and upon all the bishops, clergy, religious and lay faithful of Ireland, that the visitation may be for them an occasion of renewed fervour in the Christian life, and that it may deepen their faith and strengthen their hope in Christ our Saviour".

From the Vatican Information Service.

HANS KUNG'S FOOTPRINTS

2010-05-27T22:19:00.003+01:00

I love this!

H/t to Creative Minority Report.

ALLIANCE BETWEEN THE ROMAN CATHOLIC AND RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHURCHES?

2010-05-24T23:12:00.004+01:00

Sandro Magister writes:

Benedict XVI will soon create a new "pontifical council" expressly dedicated to the "new evangelization." Not for mission countries where the congregation "de propaganda fide" is already at work. But for the countries of ancient Christian tradition that are today in danger of losing the faith.

Pope Joseph Ratzinger wants to link his pontificate to this initiative. And this was the main topic that he discussed one morning in the spring of 2009, at Castel Gandolfo, with four prominent cardinals he had called for consultation: Camillo Ruini, Angelo Bagnasco, Christoph Schönborn, and Angelo Scola, the last being the most resolute in promoting the institution of the new office.

Meanwhile, one great ally has already united with the pope from outside of the Catholic Church, in this enterprise of a new evangelization.

This great ally is the Russian Orthodox Church.

Continue the article here.

This greater cooperation and mutual respect can only be a blessing. It is a work of the Holy Spirit and with the grace of God will lead to the re-evangelization of Europe. Please pray for this.

LAUNCHING OUT INTO THE DEEP AND THE LITURGY

2010-05-15T16:27:00.005+01:00

We have our triennial chapter in the Summer and the last one had the theme 'Duc in Altum - Launch out into the Deep'. This article has just been published in our internal Bulletin and I offer it here for more general reading. It took some time to finish and still feels and reads, to me, as unfinished. Still perhaps it will spark good thoughts and actions in others. The picture above is from the Florae Seraphicae.

Duc in altum or ‘launch out into the deep’ was the message over the last few years. We were exhorted not to be afraid but to forge ahead, try new things, and to persevere and, of course, if we do not go out no one will come in. But sailors as a rule do not launch their ships without being fully stocked and with not only a very definite destination in mind but a clear route as well. They do not wander over the deep aimlessly and when they explore they go slowly and well-prepared, mindful that shallow water is more dangerous than the open sea. As Seneca somewhere says “The man who goes to sea without a port in mind will find no wind favourable”.

That said I have long been listening to young people saying ‘Mass is boring’ and I have come to the conclusion that from their perspective they are right. Yes one needs to put something ‘in’ – one’s faith-filled participation but I have also heard older people complain that the mystery is gone and that rites and rituals they loved and that provided a sense of encounter with God have been taken away from them. We might tell them the modern Church and her Liturgy is better and more ‘inclusive’, more accessible but their experience tells a different tale. For some it seems that all the liturgical renewal has achieved is the triumph of the ‘low Mass’ and an even lower theology. I am sure we could all cite examples of abuses or instances of shocking ignorance of the faith and irreverence towards the Blessed Sacrament. It is also commonly believed that contrary to expectations the years since the Council have been, over all, years of crisis and decline. So I have been reading material related to the state of the Church worldwide and especially the state of the Liturgy and the various efforts being made to remedy the situation.

For the first time in history anyone, anywhere can access the Church’s texts and its accompanying music in Latin, or in English, in Gregorian or modern notation, as new or traditional musical compositions, for nothing- all via the internet. You can even listen to it for free! This is the most revolutionary event in the history of music since the invention of notation.

Much of this worldwide activity is in response to Pope Benedict XVI’s 2007 motu proprio Summorum Pontificum. In fine what the Holy Father has said is that the Missal of 1962 was never abrogated and is still licit to use; that any priest, who knows how to, may do so in private without any need for permissions; that laity may attend those Masses and pastors who receive a request from any ‘stable body’ of people for such a Mass must meet that request. The Mass, as of 1962, is henceforward to be called the Extraordinary Form (but some call it the Gregorian Mass, some the Mass of St. Pius V, some the usus antiquor and some the Traditional Latin Mass) while the Novus Ordo, or Mass of Paul VI, is called the Ordinary Form. Thus the Roman Rite now has two forms, following different calendars (e.g. the Ascension is on a Thursday) and disciplines (e.g. communion is only on the tongue while kneeling). This is not without problems as you can imagine and the Holy Father is quite well aware of this. Still, as he signalled, while still a Cardinal, in his book The Spirit of the Liturgy, he is committed to Liturgical reform, a ‘reform of the reform’ as it has been called, which he sees as reinforcing the connection of the OF to the Church’s 2000 year tradition of worship. This ‘reform of the reform’ has given birth to a new Liturgical Movement. The Pope seems to believe that the Liturgy of the Church must be organically connected to its origins and, contrary to those who have read the Council as a rupture, he insists that the Council must be read in continuity with the Church’s traditional teaching and practice. He actually called for a ‘hermeneutic of continuity’, that is, reading the Council as a continuation of, and in the light of, the Church’s tradition and not as a rupture or break with that tradition. To this end he has allowed the free celebration of the Extraordinary Form with the hope that the two forms will mutually enrich one another as a step on the road to fulfilling what the Second Vatican Council asked for but did not entirely get.

This is why we have new translations and the re-introduction of old forms. The Council in its first document Sacrosanctum Concilium famously declared the Liturgy to be the source and summit of the Church’s life and ministry. As any ecologist will tell you, if the source of a river is polluted or impeded then everything down river from the source is affected, usually detrimentally. The Holy Father, among others, has noted that what the Council mandated was exceeded by the designers of the Ordinary Form and even, some claim, subverted. The subsequent years have seen abuses, divisions and the decline of Catholic life in general despite some areas of growth.

What is envisaged by this reform of the reform? Essentially that depends on to whom one talks. While Prefect of the Sacred Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith the future Pope called the Ordinary Form a "hybrid mass," and said that

"I believe, though, that in the long term the Roman Church must have again a single Roman rite. The existence of two official rites is for bishops and priests difficult to “manage” in practice. The Roman rite of the future should be a single rite, celebrated in Latin or in the vernacular, but standing completely in the tradition of the rite that has been handed down. It could take up some new elements which have proven themselves, like new feasts, some new prefaces in the Mass, an expanded lectionary - more choice than earlier, but not too much, - an “oratio fidelium”, i.e., a fixed litany of intercessions following the Oremus before the offertory where it had its place earlier."

From a Letter of Cardinal Ratzinger to Dr. Heinz-Lothar Barth, dated 23 June 2003.

The Pope, in union with the Council and his predecessors, has also called for a real effort to bring back the Church’s heritage in music i.e. Gregorian chant and polyphony. This is because the Church does not need new forms of music for her Liturgy - she already has her own! (Since the copyright to these texts was let lapse in the 60’s they are now being reprinted without copyright or distributed on the net for free) The Dominican Master of Theology Aidan Nichols OP has suggested that the most effective reform and perhaps the most radical is a return to ad orientem prayer. That’s ‘turning your back to the people’ for the unreconstructed liberals, or turning towards the Liturgical East which has always represented heaven and God. This orientation in prayer is ancient, universal (the Orthodox do it) and symbolically better than our versus populem. The latter was never sanctioned by the Council nor even envisaged by them, was never part of any tradition (outside of some forms of Protestantism) and is always in danger of turning the priest into a performer on a stage.

What the Pope is NOT looking for is complete abandonment of the Ordinary Form and a return to the Extraordinary Form. He is not looking to take the Church back to 1962. What he is asking for now builds on what John Paul II, and all the Popes, repeatedly asked for: faithfulness to the Liturgical tradition of the Church. The Pope seems to believe that if we get the worship right the Church will be more truly herself and eventually the Church’s spiritual and moral life will improve and she will be more effective in her mission of evangelization.

What is not proposed is a return to the ‘one hundred and twenty mortal sins’ approach to Liturgy and treating rubrics not just as canon law but moral law as well. The Liturgy is more than rubrics but without rubrics the Liturgy becomes distorted and its effectiveness blunted. Consider any sport or dance, or indeed any discipline. There are rules and it is by following these rules and making them one’s own that the performer can produce a work of skill, of art even. The same is true for Liturgy. When the rubrics are followed with reverence and love the Liturgy emerges in its beauty and grace, and the people will not mind how long it takes but rather they will want more. Yet the people need to be educated about the true meaning, nature and purpose of the Liturgy too. It is not and never was about us. It is always about the prayer of the Son to the Father in the Holy Spirit.

What then of the Capuchins? As Franciscans we are responsible for the universality of the Roman Missal. Francis asked the Pope for permission to use the Rite of the Papal Court and his friars took that Rite all over Europe and beyond. In the process they began to shape what we know as the Roman Missal and the Roman Breviary as well. We pride ourselves on our long closeness to the Church, her people, and above all loyalty to the Holy Father. We even promise that loyalty in the Rule. How is that loyalty visible today?

To renew our opening nautical metaphor the Holy Father has offered us a destination for our voyage, a way to contribute to the future of the Church. We are not asked to launch out blindly into the deep but to steer a course towards a renewed Church. That course is the effort and work to renew the Liturgy. There are dangers: to starboard are the traditionalists who want nothing but the Extraordinary Form and effectively a return to 1962 while to port there are the liberals who want us to continue in the shallow waters of banal innovation and the ‘spirit of Vatican II’ without following the letter of the documents or having faithfulness to the Council’s intentions. Ahead there is the barque of Peter and he is aiming for renewal through faithfulness to Tradition.

What will this mean for us? If we are serious about launching out into the deep then we must be consistent. One side cannot be running out the sails if the other side is dropping anchor. If we are truly sons of St. Francis then we should follow the Pope and the place to begin is by reading his writings, especially those on the Liturgy. Further we could, as individuals and communities, read and study the new translation of the Mass (available online at the USCCB website) especially as these have a different rhythm to the one we presently use. We can study the General Instruction of the Roman Missal (GIRM), especially the new edition, and ask ourselves the questions: ‘what should the celebrant do?’ and ‘what should the people do?’ In a nutshell ‘say the black and do the red’. Learn to follow not just the rubrics but the symbolism of the Liturgy. Do it by the book and explain to the people WHY. After all it is not our Liturgy – it belongs to God and is His gift to us. Our objective must be to reveal how beautiful is Christ and His Kingdom through the beauty of the Liturgy.

We can work to help the people really achieve the active or ‘actual’ participation the Council spoke of, but keep in mind that it understood ‘active participation’ by the laity primarily as a spiritual action expressed through the song of the Church. The Liturgy of the Mass is not the sung form of an originally spoken action (the Last Supper). The Liturgies of the Church were always sung and we have reduced their poetry to prose. This song of the Church as the people of God is above all expressed in the ancient Propers of the Mass (those parts that change such as the entrance and communion antiphons) and also the unchanging parts proper to the people (e.g. the Sanctus). As the Liturgy of the Mass is first and foremost a participation in the saving work of Christ through an act of worship that is properly sung so we could invest thought, time, effort and cash (there’s always a cost!) into training and developing scholas and choirs that can sing Gregorian chant and teach the people to do likewise. The hymn singing and guitar bashing of the last forty years just doesn’t cut the mustard. The good news is that it is often easier to get a choir and the people singing this music than to get a group of musicians to play well together and it’s cheaper! (So some American church music experts assert). In Ireland it might even get the people to sing since there is no similarity in chant to Protestant hymn-singing.

Even if we do not go as far as ad orientem worship we could at least consider adopting the Holy Father’s proposal of the Benedictine arrangement for the Mass: a large crucifix with six (for Sundays) accompanying candles on the altar between celebrant and people so that the true meaning and focus of the Mass (Christ) is clearer. Perhaps we might even move on to experiment with ad orientem celebration. We could consider the reintroduction of some Latin (sanctus, agnus dei etc.) – it was what the Council wanted kept but the permission for the partial use of the vernacular was expanded to push it out. The Holy Father definitely wants to re-introduce communion on the tongue while kneeling (it’s still the norm it’s just that we all follow the exception) to restore reverence for the Blessed Sacrament. We must be consistent though. Nothing scandalises the people more regarding the Liturgy than unexplained inconsistency and disparity of practice. I put it to you that whatever we do we could seek nothing better that to remain in concord with the Holy Father so that we can make a Capuchin Franciscan contribution to the renewal of the Church as our brothers did in the past.

“We need to foster worship which stuns, which leaves the newcomer, long-time practicing Catholic, above all the fallen-away simply thunder stuck. Worship must at some point leave people speechless in awe. We need language and music and gesture which in its beauty floods the mind with light even while it swells the heart to bursting. The more people encounter mystery through liturgy, the more hollow will clang the false or incomplete messages of those who have strayed from the good path, either to the left or to the right. Our goal must be that which is good and beautiful because it is true, that which reflects what is of God, not man’s image merely. Give us mystery, not fabrications smacking of the world, fallen and transitory.” Fr. John Zuhlsdorf on his weblog What Does The Prayer Really Say?.

Suggested reading:

The Spirit of the Liturgy (Benedict XVI)

A Song for the Lord (Benedict XVI)

The Heresy of Formlessness (Martin Mosebach)

The Mass and Modernity: Walking to Heaven Backward (Jonathan Robinson)

The Organic Development of the Liturgy (Alcuin Reid OSB)

The Bugnini Liturgy and the Reform of the Reform. (László Dobszay) (free on-line at www.musicasacra.com )

Sing like a Catholic (Jeffrey Tucker) (also available at www.musicasacra.com)

Websites:

www.newliturgicalmovement.org

www.adoremus.org

www.musicasacra.com (Church Music Association of America)

www.choralwiki.net (On-line database of public domain music)

http://chabanelpsalms.org/

http://jogueschant.org/chants/

http://sacredmusicproject.com/st-meinrad-chant/index/

THE FUTURE OF THE CATHOLIC CHURCH IN IRELAND: Address by Archbishop Martin to the Knights of Columbanus

2010-05-11T20:43:00.003+01:00

Speaking Notes of
Most Rev. Diarmuid Martin
Archbishop of Dublin and Primate of Ireland

----------
Ely Place, Dublin 10th May 2010

What do I say about the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland? The sociological data send us mixed signals. Public opinion varies from those who would like the Catholic Church slowly, through its own implosion, to fade into the social irrelevance of private individual choice, to those who would like reform on their own terms, to those who would blindly stay with things as they are, to those who call for renewal through repentance. And there are many other viewpoints.

The Church is a reality of faith. As a person of faith I know that the future of the Church in Ireland is not in my hands, but that its future will be guided by the Lord, who is with his Church at all times. Yesterday’s Gospel reminded us that the Father would send the Spirit who, at each moment in the history of the Church, would teach us all things in Jesus name. In that sense I cannot be pessimistic about the future of the Church in Ireland.

On the other hand, as one entrusted with the responsibility of pastoral leadership I have the mission to guide that portion of the Church entrusted to my care along a path of renewal and conversion which ensures that what grows and matures into the future truly is the Church of Jesus Christ and not something of our own creation.

On a purely personal level, as Diarmuid Martin, I have never since becoming Archbishop of Dublin felt so disheartened and discouraged about the level of willingness to really begin what is going to be a painful path of renewal and of what is involved in that renewal.

How do I reconcile these differing trends in my reflection on the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland? On a personal level, I have no choice but to lay aside personal discouragement and continue day-by-day the search for personal conversion and renewal and to re-discover for my own life the essentials of the message of Jesus Christ.

The future of the Catholic Church in Ireland will see a very different Catholic Church in Ireland. I sometimes worry when I hear those with institutional responsibility stress the role of the institution and others then in reaction saying that “we are the Church”. Perhaps on both sides there may be an underlying feeling that “I am the Church”, that the Church must be modelled on my way of thinking or on my position. Renewal is never our own creation. Renewal will only come through returning to the Church which we have received from the Lord.

Why am I discouraged? The most obvious reason is the drip-by-drip never-ending revelation about child sexual abuse and the disastrous way it was handled. There are still strong forces which would prefer that the truth did not emerge. The truth will make us free, even when that truth is uncomfortable. There are signs of subconscious denial on the part of many about the extent of the abuse which occurred within the Church of Jesus Christ in Ireland and how it was covered up. There are other signs of rejection of a sense of responsibility for what had happened. There are worrying signs that despite solid regulations and norms these are not being followed with the rigour required.

As regards the Archdiocese of Dublin for which I have pastoral responsibility I have constantly warned against any slippage in our vigilance. I appeal once again this evening publicly to all parishes in the Archdiocese to ensure that all child protection measures are in place and in operation and that there is no let-back on the level of vigilance. Questions about child safeguarding should be on the agenda of every meeting of every Parish Pastoral Council and if there are any concerns that are not being addressed then let people contact me directly.

Why such discouragement? The second and deeper root of my discouragement is that I do not believe that people have a true sense of the crisis of faith that exists in Ireland. We have invested in structures of religious education which despite enormous goodwill are not producing the results that they set out to do. Our young people are among the most catechised in Europe but among the least evangelised. I am a strong proponent of Catholic education; Catholic education has a solid track record. I see an important future for Catholic education alongside and in dialogue with other vibrant forms of education, including that of minority Churches, in our schools.

I am not sure however that we all really have an understanding of what Catholic education entails. Many people send their children to what is today a Catholic school not primarily because it is a Catholic school but because it is a good school. I am not sure that parents would change their children from that school if it were to become simply a national school. The level of parents’ interest in Catholic education will only be objectively measurable when they have real choice.

We are also deluding ourselves if we think that what is in fact presented as a curriculum for religious education and formation in faith is actually being applied everywhere. There are clear indications that in the face of so many other curriculum pressures and extracurricular activities religious education is in fact being shifted to the margins of school life in many Catholic schools. We have great teachers; teachers committed to Catholic education. But the system is also such that teachers who do not share the Catholic faith find themselves teaching something of which they are not convinced. Catholic schools have contributed greatly to integration in Irish society. Catholic identity is more than vague ethos; it is also about witness.

There are fundamental fault-lines within the current structure for Catholic schools that are not being addressed and unattended fault-lines inevitably generate destructive energies. Our system of religious education – especially at secondary level but also at primary level in urban areas - more and more bypasses our parishes, which should together with the family be the primary focal points for faith formation and membership of a worshipping community. I am not attacking Catholic teachers and Catholic schools; they do tremendous work. What is needed is renewal of the vision of parish. Many of our parishes offer very little in terms of outreach to young people.

There are further challenges to be addressed regarding Church teaching. Within the Church and outside of it discussion focuses around challenges in the area of sexual morality where the Church’s teaching is either not understood or is simply rejected as out of tune with contemporary culture. There is on the other hand very little critical examination of some of the roots of that contemporary culture and its compatibility with the teaching of Jesus. The moral teaching of the Church cannot simply be a blessing for, a toleration of, or an adaptation to the cultural climate of the day. The manner in which the moral teaching of the Church is presented to believers is far too often not adequately situated within the overall context of the teaching of Jesus, which is both compassionate and demanding. Christian moral rules and norms belong within a broader vision of the teaching of Jesus Christ.

This immediately brings us to the deeper question about the level of understanding of the message of Jesus Christ which exists in our Catholic Church and in our society in Ireland today. What do we really know of the message of Jesus? The Irish Catholic tradition has greatly neglected the place of the scriptures. Catholics do not know the scriptures. They do not know how to use the scriptures. We do not take the time to encounter Jesus in the scriptures.

One of the initiatives in which I place much trust in the pastoral programme of the Archdiocese of Dublin is the distribution this year of the Gospel of Saint Luke throughout the Archdiocese. I have said that I should really have charged one cent for each copy and then I would have been able to say that the Gospel had been sold and it might, therefore be at the top of the bestsellers list in Ireland this year. We have distributed 250,000 copies of the Gospel and we are backing the distribution up with e-mail support material month by month. It is one of the most widely circulated publications in Ireland this year. Even if only one in ten copies were read, it would still be on the best sellers list.

I believe that the encounter with the Jesus of the Gospel of Saint Luke could an important answer in the process of healing which is needed by people who in the past encountered the Church as an insensitive, arrogant and dominating institution. I would appeal especially to those who say that they are disillusioned by the Catholic Church in Ireland as an institution but say also they still wish to share the message of Jesus, to take up the scriptures. They will not find the authentic message of Jesus simply on the talk shows. Faith requires nourishment. You cannot allow it simply to drift.

At the same time it would be arrogant on my part not to stress that so many priests, religious and lay persons have a real understanding of the God of love who is revealed to us in Jesus Christ and who not only transmit that message of love to others, but live that message of love in their own daily exemplary lives. There is great goodness and faith to be encountered within an institutional framework which is often frail. We have great priests and we need great priests for the future.

The use of modern media mechanisms to support the distribution of the Gospel is something important and innovative. In this context, we are very fortunate to have a group of scripture scholars who put their knowledge and personal perception of the scriptures at the service of parishes and bible study groups. This material is accessible to any individual who would wish to avail of it on the website www.yearofevangelisation.ie. The modern communications media provide great opportunities for adult catechesis, especially those media which are interactive and can be used not just to transmit information to individuals, but also to contribute to the construction of faith communities. Parishes have however still much to learn about using these media. Parishes must radically re-orientate themselves to become educational communities in the faith and understanding of modern communications is an essential part of that re-orientation.

The modern communications media provide great opportunities but there is no way that the renewal of the Church will be achieved just by slick media gestures and sound-bytes. The message of Jesus is too deep to be encapsulated into sound bytes. Indeed a priority of the process of proclaiming the Gospel is that of taking people beyond the sound-byte culture.

There are those who claim that the media strategy of the Church in the Archdiocese of Dublin following the publication of the Murphy Report was “catastrophic”. My answer is that what the Murphy report narrated was catastrophic and that the only honest reaction of the Church was to publicly admit that the manner in which that catastrophe was addressed was spectacularly wrong; spectacularly wrong “full stop”; not spectacularly wrong, “but…” You cannot sound-byte your way out of a catastrophe.

Some will reply that sexual abuse by priests constitutes only a small percentage of the sexual abuse of children in our society in general. That is a fact. But that important fact should never appear in any way as an attempt to down play the gravity of what took place in the Church of Christ. The Church is different; the Church is a place where children should be the subject of special protection and care. The Gospel presents children in a special light and reserves some of its most severe language for those who disregard or scandalise children in any way.

In analysing the past, it is important to remember that times may have been different and society and other professions may not have looked on the sexual abuse of children as they do today. It is hard however to understand why, in the management by Church authorities of cases of the sexual abuse of children, the children themselves were for many years rarely even taken into the equation. Yes, in the culture of the day children were to be seen and not heard, but different from other professions Church leaders should have been more aware of the Gospel imperative to avoid harm to children, whose innocence was indicated by the Lord a sign of the kingdom of God.

The sexual abuse of children is indeed more widespread than sex abuse by clerics. I would hope that for the tenth anniversary of the SAVI report which first addressed the question of the sexual abuse of children in Ireland in an objective and overall manner, it might be possible for a wide coalition of those concerned about child safeguarding in Ireland today to draw-up an up-to-date map of the phenomenon as its exists today and verify what should be the most opportune strategy to that changed and changing landscape.

The world around us and the culture of Irish life have changed. Yet the Church still continues in many ways to live in a way which fails to recognise that culture has indeed changed so much. Irish culture has drifted from being the culture of an enlarged faith community into a heavily secularised culture. For many, faith no longer plays a major role in their lives and they feel that this in no way compromises their ability to be good, honest and caring people. Believers, albeit unknowingly to themselves, often view the reality of faith through a secularised lens.

The information collected on the ground in parishes in the Archdiocese of Dublin indicates that regular Church attendance has dropped, in some cases dramatically. Certainly Mass attendance is not the only criterion for measuring the faith of individuals and their belonging to the Church of Jesus Christ. The Church is not however just a collection of individuals. The proclamation of the Gospel cannot adequately be carried out by correspondence course among people who never meet. The early Church was marked by the gathering of believers, who shared in the prayers and in their understating of the Word of God, who shared what they had and who together broke the bread. The Church is not a collection of individuals whose worship when they feel the need; the Church is fundamentally a worshipping community, founded in and nourished by the Eucharist.

We live in a systems culture. Throughout its history, however, the institutional dimension of the Church has never been renewed just by new structures of organization. Renewal began with individual renewal and witness flourishing into strong and witnessing faith communities. There are those who think that in today’s culture what we need is a sort of efficient “Catholic Church in Ireland Incorporated”, with its own CEO and with management structures administered efficiently from the top right down to the lowest level (and I am not sure who would be consigned to that place). The Church can benefit from appropriate management structures, but renewal will always be the work of prophets rather than management consultants. The message of Jesus Christ is lived in localised faith communities not in national bureaucracies.

Renewal of the Church requires participation and responsible participation. I have spoken about the need for accountability regarding the scandal of sexual abuse. I am struck by the level of disassociation by people from any sense of responsibility. While people rightly question the concept of collective responsibility, this does not mean that one is not responsible for one’s personal share in the decisions of the collective structures to which one was part.

I am surprised at the manner in which Church academics and Church publicists can today calmly act as pundits on the roots of the sexual abuse scandals in the Church as if they were totally extraneous to the scandal. Where did responsibility lie for a culture of seminary institutions which produced both those who abused and those who mismanaged the abuse? Where were the pundit-publicists while a Church culture failed to recognise what was happening?

We need to take a radical new look at the formation of future priests. I am working on plans to ensure that for the future in Dublin our seminarians, our prospective deacons and our trainee lay pastoral workers in the Archdiocese of Dublin will share some sections of their studies together, in order to create a better culture of collaborative ministry. The narrow culture of clericalism has to be eliminated. It did not come out of nowhere and so we have to address its roots in seminary training. We also have to ensure that lay pastoral workers understand that all mission in the Church is calling and requires a self-understanding which is theological in essence. .

Why am I discouraged? Probably my greatest discouragement comes from the failure of interaction between the Church and young people. I visit parishes where I encounter no young people. I enquire what is being done to attract young people to parish life and the answers are vague. Everyone knows that there is a missing generation and perhaps more than one, yet there are very few pastoral initiatives to reach out to young people. I would pay tribute here to the Chaplain in our second level schools who have acquired experience on which we should be drawing.

Parishes offers very little outreach to young people and I feel that an increasing number of young people find parishes a little like alien territory. A form of religious education which is separated from the parish will inevitably collapse for most the day that school ends. Sacramental formation belongs within the Christian community which welcomes and supports each of us on our journey. We need a more demanding catechesis, within a parish framework, for those who wish to come forward for admission to the sacraments. Admission to the sacraments is not something which is automatically acquired when one reaches a certain class in school.

The curious demography and history of the Irish Church meant that the Church developed and pioneered all sorts of valuable service within the community. This was often done at no expense to the State. As Irish society became wealthier, it was rightfully claimed that such services deserved appropriate support from public authorities because of the social benefit they provided. As years went by, many of these services then lost something of the Christian concept of gratuitousness and became little different to any other professional service. A Church which looses that sense of gratuitousness looses something of the essential dimensions of its witness to Jesus. I believe that it is no coincidence that the consistent generosity people show towards the Saint Vincent de Paul Society comes precisely because of the gratuity of its witness

The Church will continue to provide services for the poor and recognises the need for professionalism in its services. Hopefully the Church has learned the lesson that it should not allow itself to be involved in providing poor quality services for the poor. But when Church services become simply ancillary to State then they run the risk of loosing their ecclesial originality and will one day end up being incorporated into the public service structure and subordinated to its goals. Already the structures of some Catholic services are being altered to respond to financial policies of the State.

The Catholic Church in Ireland in the future will have to find its place in a very different, much more secularised culture, at times even in a hostile culture. The Catholic Church has to look again at the dominant role it assumed in Irish society, while at the same time not renouncing its prophetic role in society and in the formation of consciences through opening to the teaching of Jesus Christ.

This will involve a much greater degree of parish-based catechesis and evangelisation within our parishes. There is no way that this will take place without a very extensive programme of training for volunteer catechists, as is the case in most European countries. Parishes must become real centre of on-going faith formation. A more Parish centred church life does not however mean retreat into the sacristy.

I have perhaps raised more questions than provided answers to the theme about which you asked me to speak this evening: the future of the Catholic Church in Ireland. In our pastoral planning we have to start out from hard facts, which are inevitably today troubling facts. Already in the Archdiocese of Dublin we have ten times more priests over 70 than under 40. There is no way we can put off decisions regarding the future.

The Catholic Church in Ireland is coming out of one of its most difficult moments in its history and the light at the end of the tunnel is still a long way off. The Catholic Church in Ireland will have to live with the grief of its past, which can and should never be forgotten or overlooked. There is no simple way of wiping the slate of the past clean, just to ease our feelings. Yet the Catholic Church in Ireland cannot be imprisoned in its past. The work of evangelization must if anything take on a totally new vibrancy.

I would not however like what I say to be in any way interpreted as turning our back on the survivors of sexual abuse. They had their childhood stolen and the words of Jesus about his special care for children will apply to them until that day, whenever and if ever that will be, when their hurt will be healed. In my years as Archbishop I have learned enormously from survivors as they allowed me to know something of their pain and of their hopes and also of the spiritual void which many experience as a result of betrayal by their Church. I use the term spiritual void because it is an expression which some survivors have used to express how they feel in their lives. In my encounters with survivors, however, I have found their spiritual fragility somehow has given them in fact a deep spiritual strength, from which I have profited. For that I thank them.

Perhaps the future of the Church in Ireland will be one where we truly learn from the arrogance of our past and find anew a fragility which will allow the mercy and the compassion of Jesus to give us a change of heart and allow others through a very different Church to encounter something of that compassion and faith for their lives.

The Catholic Church in Ireland, as I said, will have to find its place in a very different, much more secularised culture, at times even in a hostile culture. It will have to find that place by being authentic and faithful to the person and the message of Jesus Christ. The agenda for change in the Church must be one that comes from its message and not from pressure from outside and from people who do not have the true good of the Church at heart. We all have reasons to be discouraged and to be angry. There is a sense, however, in which true reform of the Church will spring only from those who love the Church, with a love like that of Jesus which is prepared also to suffer for the Church and to give oneself for the Church.

Thank God there are many who love their Church: lay persons, religious and clergy. We love the Church because the Church is our home, the pace where we encounter the love of God revealed in Jesus Christ and where we gather in love to break bread in his memory. ENDS

I'm glad he gave credit to school chaplains! Our Archbishop seems to have his finger on the pulse of the diocese. I was educated almost exclusively in Dublin, in two different Church institutions of Higher education and I have two primary degrees (one in philosophy and one in theology). I can honestly say that as someone who consciously seeks to be loyal to the Papacy and the Church, while facing the challenges of Ireland today, I always experienced myself as one of a minority. Dissent is the norm. Even among some otherwise orthodox clergy there is innovation and the dismissal of Tradition. There's a culture gap emerging between many of the young Catholics and clergy and the generations that have matured since the Council. I would say then that unless attention is paid to the quality and orthodoxy of theological education in the diocese, not just for the priests and catechists but for anyone who would minister here, then we could end up sowing seeds of future trouble. Some of our problems, as the Pope pointed out in his letter, stem from a failure of understanding of the roles of the priesthood and the laity but there are also problems with liturgical practice and Eucharistic theology, with understandings of the nature of the Church and of Tradition. Good formation practice (training together is a good idea) is needed but even an excellent sower is useless if the sower is sowing weeds. The whole complex needs attention.

POPE BENEDICT REFLECTS ON THE PRIESTHOOD

2010-05-05T16:00:00.004+01:00

From the Vatican News Service:

VATICAN CITY, 5 MAY 2010 (VIS) - In today's general audience, which was celebrated in St. Peter's Square, the Pope focused his remarks on the priest's mission to sanctify humankind.

"Sanctifying a person means putting that person in contact with God", said the Pope, noting how "an essential part of a priest's grace is his gift, his task to establish such contact. This comes about through the announcement of the Word of God, ... and particularly intensely in the Sacraments".

"Over recent decades", he went on, "various schools of thought have tried to make the aspect of announcement prevail in the priest's mission and identity, separating it from sanctification. It has often been affirmed that there is a need to go beyond merely sacramental pastoral care".

"Ordained ministers", the Pope explained, "represent Christ, God's envoy, they ... continue His mission through the 'Word' and the 'Sacrament', which are the two main pillars of priestly service". In this context he identified the need "to reflect whether, in certain cases, having undervalued the faithful exercise of 'munus sanctificandi' has not perhaps led to a weakening of faith in the salvific effectiveness of the Sacraments and, in the final analysis, in the real action of Christ and His Spirit, through the Church, in the world".

"It is, therefore, important to promote appropriate catechesis in order to help the faithful understand the value of the Sacraments. But it is equally necessary, following the example of the saintly 'Cure of Ars', to be willing, generous and attentive in giving the faithful the treasures of grace that God has placed in our hands, treasures of which we are not masters but custodians and administrators. Especially in our own time - in which on the one hand, the faith seems to be weakening and, on the other, there is a profound need and widespread search for spirituality - it is necessary for each priest to remember that ... missionary announcement and worship are never separate, and that he must promote a healthy sacramental pastoral care in order to form the People of God and help them to fully experience the liturgy ... and the Sacraments as gratuitous gifts of God, free and effective aspects of His action of salvation".

The Pope went on to highlight how "each priest knows he is a tool necessary for God's salvific action, but nonetheless just a tool. This awareness must make him humble and generous in administering the Sacraments, respecting the canonical norms but also profoundly convinced that his mission is to ensure that mankind, united to Christ, can offer itself to God as a living and holy sacrifice acceptable to Him".

Addressing himself directly to priests the Holy Father encouraged them "to practice liturgy and worship with joy and love". He also renewed his call "to return to the confessional, as a place in which to celebrate the Sacrament of Reconciliation, but also as a place in which 'to dwell' more frequently, that the faithful may find mercy, counsel and comfort, feel themselves to be loved and understood by God, and experience the presence of Divine Mercy alongside the real presence in the Eucharist".

"I would also like to invite each priest to celebrate and to live the Eucharist intensely", said Benedict XVI. Priests "are called to be ministers of this great Mystery, in the Sacrament and in life".

Likewise, "it is indispensable to strive after the moral perfection which must dwell in each authentically priestly heart", because "there is an example of faith and a witness of sanctity that the People of God expect from their pastors".

Pope Benedict concluded by calling on the faithful "to be aware of the great gift that priests represent for the Church and the world. Through their ministry the Lord continues to save mankind, to make Himself present, to sanctify. Give thanks to God and above all remain close to your priests with prayer and support, especially in moments of difficulty, that they may increasingly become pastors in keeping with God's heart".
AG/ VIS 20100505 (680)
Pubblished by VIS - Holy See Press Office - Wednesday, May 05, 2010

I especially liked the bit about being custodians and administrators of the Sacraments. So many abuses have their root in the idea that the priest is a master rather than a servant and that he knows better than the Church or the lay Christian how to meet the needs of the people. So you get DIY liturgies and celebrations of the Sacraments. We clergy need to recover a true sense of ourselves as servants sent to proclaim and sanctify, to be the presence of Christ in the Church so that the people of God can be the presence of Christ in the world.

FRANCISCAN CONVENT RENEWED - A SIGN OF HOPE

2010-04-30T21:54:00.004+01:00

To see so many young women joyfully proclaiming their faith in Christ! This is a work of the Holy Spirit and give me hope. If it can happen there it can happen here. Things may seem bleak in the Church at the moment but as Hopkins wrote "the Holy Ghost over the bent World broods with warm breast |&| with ah! bright wings." (God's Grandeur)

I met Fra. Cantalamessa some years ago when he came to Ireland for a break. A holy and humble man and a great preacher.

Pope Benedict XVI Reflects on True Freedom, Grace of Penance

2010-04-15T19:42:00.001+01:00

(15 Apr 10 - RV) At 7:30 Thursday morning Rome Time in the Pauline Chapel of the Apostolic Palace, Pope Benedict XVI celebrated Mass with the members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission. He delivered a homily in which he spoke of true freedom as rooted in knowledge of and loving obedience to God, as well as the grace of true penitence, the need for pardon, renewal and transformation. We have this report...

The Members of the Pontifical Biblical Commission are holding their Plenary Assembly this week at the Domus Sanctae Marthae.

The meeting opened Monday, and the 5 days of reflection are focusing on the theme of “Inspiration and Truth in the Bible.”

At Mass with the members Thursday morning, Pope Benedict XVI delivered a homily on the relationship of truth and freedom in the context of God’s relationship to human being and human society.

Speaking without a prepared text, the Holy Father said that in modern times we have seen theorized an idea of man according to which human being would be, “free, autonomous, and nothing else.”

This supposed freedom from everything, including freedom from the duty of obedience to God, “Is a lie,” said Pope Benedict, a falsehood regarding the basic structure of human being – about the way women and men are made to be, “because,” he continued, “human being does not exist on its own, nor does it exist for itself.”

The Pope said it is a political and practical falsehood, as well, because cooperation and sharing of freedoms is a necessary part of social life – and if God does not exist – if He is not a point of reference really accessible to human being, then only prevailing opinion remains and it becomes the final arbiter of all things.

Citing the Nazi and Communist regimes of the 20th century as examples, Pope Benedict said such dictatorships can never accept the notion of a God who is above ideological power – and he also stressed that in the present, there are subtle forms of dictatorship like that of a radical conformism, which can lead to subtle and not-so subtle aggression toward the Church.

The Holy Father also stressed that for Christians, true obedience to God depends on our truly knowing Him, and he warned against the danger of using “obedience to God” as a pretext for following our own desires.
“We have,” he said, “a certain fear of speaking about eternal life.”

“We talk of things that are useful to the world,” continued Pope Benedict, “we show that Christianity can help make the world a better place, but we do not dare say that the end of the world and the goal of Christianity is eternal life – and that the criteria of life in this world come from the goal – this we dare not say.”

We must rather have the courage, the joy, the great hope that there is eternal life, that eternal life is real life and that from this real life comes the light that illuminates this world as well.

The Pope noted that, when we look at things this way, penitence is a grace – even though of late we have sought to avoid this word, too.

Now, under the attacks of the world, which speak to us of our sins, we see that to be able to do penance is a grace – and we see how necessary it is to do penance, that is, to recognize what is wrong in our lives: to recognize one’s sin, to open oneself to forgiveness, to prepare for pardon, to allow oneself to be transformed.

The pain of penance, the pain of purification and transformation – this pain is grace, because it is renewal – it is the work of the Divine Mercy.

Pope Benedict concluded his homily with a prayer that our lives might become true life, eternal life, love and truth.

The Plenary Meeting of the Pontifical Biblical Commission is underway through the end of the week.

from here.

DOCTOR UNDER PRESSURE FOR FOLLOWING HIS CONSCIENCE

2010-04-15T19:25:00.004+01:00

The Irish Catholic has an exclusive this week on a case taken against an Irish Doctor because he refused to treat an unmarried couple for infertility. Dr. Phil Boyle runs an infertility clinic in Galway that offers Napro treatment which is acceptable to the Church and much cheaper than In Vitro Fertilization. He claims to have helped the conception of over 750 children. After refusing to treat an unmarried couple because it would be against his beliefs as a Catholic he was reported and summoned before the Fitness to Practice Committee last week on a professional misconduct charge. He won the case on a technicality in that they were not his patients and he did not get the chance to offer a referral to someone else. The case could go further to the Equality Authority and even as far as the Supreme Court since Irish equality legislation does not allow for freedom of religion and conscience (recognized in article 44 of the Constitution). Is this the beginning of the persecution of Catholics and other believers because they will not compromise their consciences?

MULTINATIONAL ROSARY FOR UNBORN

2010-04-06T22:50:00.002+01:00

MULTINATIONAL ROSARY FOR UNBORN
BABIES GAINS SUPPORT

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (April 6th, 2010) - People from 26 nations have registered more than 7,000 Rosaries for the May 7th - 9th ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event. During the three days of prayer(Friday - Sunday), those participating will pray at least one Rosary for an end to the surgical and non-surgical killing of unborn human persons. The prayer event is being coordinated by the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization of Memphis, Tennessee.

"It is great to see people registering who are from Ireland, Vietnam, Latvia, India, Canada, Chile, South Africa, Belgium and many other nations," said Patrick Benedict, President of the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization. "Pro-lifers can meet and even exceed the goal of one million Rosaries, if we choose to do so.

"The Rosary is a powerful spiritual weapon. On May 7th, 8th, and 9th, I hope a huge multitude of people will use this spiritual weapon to pray for the protection of the innocent unborn babies," continued Benedict.

A selection of some of the communications received by the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization about the prayer event reveals the following:

• 300 students and parishioners are to pray the Rosary in the Philippines.

• A youth group in Lithuania will be praying 200 Rosaries.

• Many members of the Catholic Daughters of the Americas will be participating.

• In a diocese in Oklahoma, more than one person has made an effort to have the
Rosary prayed in all of the diocesan schools on the Friday, May 7th date.

• Over 100 Rosaries are scheduled to be prayed at a high school in Mississippi,
and 100 Rosaries will be prayed by staff and students at a school in the
Diocese of Pittsburgh.

• Nuns and novitiates from a monastery in Wisconsin will be participants.

"I do not know exactly how these Rosaries will be answered, but I do know this much: 'Prayer does not go unanswered.' We have to have faith, and we have to persevere. To each person who loves the unborn babies and wants to stop this killing, I urge you: Unite your Rosary(or Rosaries) with people throughout the world by participating in the ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event.

"The Culture of Death's war against unborn babies is the deadliest war in the history of mankind. This ongoing massacre is a working definition of 'raw evil.' Unborn babies need us to do what they can not do for themselves; namely, pray the Rosary," concluded Benedict.

A person may go to www.SaintMichaelTheArchangelOrganization.org to register for the May 7th - 9th ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event. The same website has information about ways one may promote this pro-life prayer event. Persons without access to a computer may write to: P.O. Box 41257; Memphis, Tennessee 38174; U.S.A.

PASSION AND DEATH OF OUR LORD JESUS CHRIST: the homily I gave

2010-04-02T16:03:00.004+01:00

The above is the Crucifixion, by Giovanni di Baronzio (Rimini, 1310-1362) a wing of a triptych, 75x24cm, (other wing is of Stigmatization of St. Francis.

Today, although it is not generally customary, I preached (briefly) at the afternoon Celebration of the Lord's Passion. I hung our little relic of the True Cross around the large, rough wooden cross we use and having laboured it up our mercifully short aisle I managed to get it into its stand. It left me a little breathless (I was also singing).

At that point I preached, trusting the Holy Spirit to help the few thoughts I had put together previously and make them minister. I told our little congregation that St. Peter calls the Cross a tree. Why? I suggested that he wants us to hear not only the Tree of Good and Evil from the Garden of Eden but more importantly the Tree of Life whose fruit our first parents were prevented from eating. He wants us to hear the Tree of Mamre under whose branches Abraham and Sarah ate with the Holy Trinity and heard the news of the end of their infertility. He wants us too to hear the Tree of Paradise whose fruit is born in all seasons and heals the nations. Too we can the Vine that is pruned by the Father. Upon this Tree Christ the Son, the Word made flesh, perfect Image of His Invisible Father offers to His Father a perfect act of worship, in His obedient, humble and self-emptying embracing of suffering and death. On the Tree of the Cross Christ reveals the Trinity and eternal mutual self-emptying of the Three Persons. He reveals how utterly 'loveable', how worthy of obedience and how humble is the Father. He offers in His humanity the worship of His Divine Person and becomes the only means to salvation for man. This Tree Christ changes by His Sacrifice into the Altar, the Throne and the Gates of Heaven.

I reminded them of what I had said last year how the Saints say that the greatest suffering Christ endured, that outweighed all others, was that a single soul might be lost. The cup He asked might pass Him by was the cup of rejection and the loss of just a single soul. Christ has opened the Gates of Heaven and He invites all of us in.

I invited them then to come forward at the veneration to kiss the wood of the Cross and with their lips to 'knock' upon the gates of Heaven and find them held open by Christ. I urged them to beseech Christ to plant the Tree of the Cross in their hearts that it's root might dig down and break the rock of sin and hardness of heart we all carry within so that the wells of the Spirit's living water might well up in us and we might bring forth the fruit God asks of us.

That, to the best of my memory, is what I said. I hope it will be of some help to you.

SOLEMN HIGH MASS FOR THE HOLY FATHER

2010-03-29T17:07:00.001+01:00

St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy

PRESS RELEASE

Subject: The Society’s Annual Easter Mass, 2010
Release: Monday, 22 March 2010
Restrictions: None
Publication: Immediate

Text begins

“St. Colman’s Society for Catholic Liturgy will hold its annual Solemn High Mass, for the Holy Father’s intentions, on Easter Tuesday, 6 April 2010, at Sts. Peter and Paul’s, Cork City, at 11 am.

The proper texts for the Mass will sung in Gregorian by members of the Lassus Scholars, Dublin, under the direction of Miss Ite O’Donovan. The ordinary of the Mass will Orlando de Lassus’ Missa Paschalis with motets for the Easter season. C.M. Widor’s Toccata will also figure among the organ pieces.

Members of St. Colman’s Society are encouraged to attend this Mass which is also open to the general public.

The Society wishes to thank Fr. Patrick McCarthy, Parish Priest of Sts Peter and Paul’s, for having made the use of the church available for this Mass for the Holy Father’s intentions”.

Text ends.

Contact details and further information: The Secretary, Mrs Terry Pender, Leeview, Cobh, Co. Cork. Tel: 021 481445.

NICOLE KELLY RIP 24 MARCH 2010

2010-03-25T20:36:00.004Z

This is Nicole Kelly, one of our students. The above photo is part of a class photo taken just a few weeks ago. She was fourteen and in Second year. Her friends say she was wild but lovely, mad about boys and full of life. Last night she was late getting home and took a short cut, was knocked down at about 9.00 p.m. and pronounced dead a few hours later. Her death is a huge shock to us all, above all to her parents. Please remember them in your prayers.

It is all too easy to forget how fragile life is and how easily we can be propelled from this world into the presence of God. Just as easily we can by our actions propel someone else from this world. Driving home to-day I was thinking about that, how easy it would be to make a mistake, be careless, or just unfortunate, and kill someone with my car.

At any moment we may lose our loved ones therefore we ought to cherish them. At any moment we may lose our lives therefore we ought to live life at the ready to go and stand before God.

ONE MILLION ROSARY EVENT

2010-03-01T12:02:00.001Z

People From 18 Nations Register For Rosary Prayer Event For Unborn Babies

MEMPHIS, TENNESSEE (March 1st, 2010) - More than 3,000 Rosaries have already been registered by persons from 18 nations for the May 7th - 9th ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event. Each Rosary will be prayed for the following intention: For an end to the surgical and non-surgical killing of unborn human persons. Persons registering are from the following nations: Netherlands, Chile, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Philippines, India, Singapore, South Africa, Nigeria, Lithuania, Ivory Coast, Peru, Latvia, United Arab Emirates, United States and Belgium.

" Throughout the world in the last 50 or so years, an incomprehensible tragedy has happened; namely, the surgical killing of approximately one billion unborn human persons and the non-surgical killing of a multitude of unborn human persons(the number of non-surgical deaths is more difficult to approximate). Throughout the history of mankind, no other group of people has ever gone through such a horror. I am very grateful to see people from various nations support the ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event," said Patrick Benedict, President of the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization, the organization coordinating the prayer effort.

"Sitting by and allowing this massacre to continue is not an option. When we say that Christ died for each of us, that includes each unborn human person. In the eyes of God, these babies are precious.

" Yet, an attack of hellish proportions has been waged for many years now against the unborn babies. The ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event can be defined as a counter-attack in which participants pray the Rosary for the unborn babies who can not pray for themselves.

" This May 7th - 9th Rosary is a great opportunity for the world to unite in prayer for the protection of unborn babies. Let's be reminded of the words of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Fatima, Portugal in 1917: 'Say the Rosary every day to obtain peace for the world,' " concluded Benedict.

Registration for the May 7th - 9th Rosary is easy and may be done by going to www.SaintMichaelTheArchangelOrganization.org (a person may also send his intentions to P.O. Box 41257; Memphis, Tennessee 38174; U.S.A.). Some people have already registered more than 8 Rosaries for themselves alone. Families, schools, and parishes have also registered Rosaries.

In addition to praying the Rosary, the Saint Michael the Archangel Organization encourages people to tell others about the ONE MILLION ROSARIES FOR UNBORN BABIES prayer event. The Organization's website(see above) has a section about promoting the event and also has a bulletin insert, a bulletin announcement, etc. Information about promoting the prayer effort may also be obtained by sending a stamped, self-addressed envelope to the above-listed mailing address.

A count of the number of Rosaries people have registered is being kept at the website
.

IESU DILECTISSIME

2010-02-28T13:37:00.003Z

Iesu dilectíssime,
qui ex singulári benevoléntia me prae millénis homínibus ad tui sequélam et ad exímiam Sacerdótii dignitátem vocásti, largíre mihi, precor, opem tuam divínam ad offícia mea rite obeúnda.
Oro te, Dómine Iesu, ut resúscites hódie et semper in me grátiam tuam, quae fuit in me per impositiónem mánuum episcopálium. O potentíssime animárum médice, sana me táliter, ne revólvar in vítia, et cuncta peccáta fugiam tibíque usque ad mortem placére possim. Amen

Priest’s prayer
for a Holy life

Dearest Jesus, who of Thy great goodness hast called me to be Thy follower in preference to countless others and hast raised me to the high dignity of Thy priesthood, bestow upon me abundantly, I pray, Thy divine help in fulfilling my duties in a right spirit. I beseech Thee, Lord Jesus, to stir up in me Thy grace both today and always, that grace which is in me by reason of the laying on of hands of the bishop. O mighty Physician of souls, heal me in such wise that I may never be entangled in sinful habits, but that I may renounce them all and be enabled to please Thee even to the day of my death. Amen.

Indulgence of 500 days once a day (S.C. Ind., Aug. 14, 1884; S.P. Ap., June 1933)

Taken from the Raccolta, the offical english language version of the Enchiridion Indulgentiarum (1952).

NEW VIDEO ON THE PRIESTHOOD

2010-02-28T12:58:00.001Z

H/t to WDTPRS for this. Read all about it there.

FEAST OF THE SEE OF ST. PETER THE APOSTLE

2010-02-22T23:49:00.003Z

It's late at night and I should be in bed but I'm trying to back-up my laptop and so I'm awake. This being the feast of the Chair or See of St. Peter I attach a picture of a little reliquary I have which contains a tiny fragment of St. Peter (among others). It reminds me that my faith is not a philosophy or an opinion but an act of trust and belief in the historical reality of the incarnation of the person of Christ the Word who promised to the first Peter to stand by him and all his successors and build His Church on them. In the darkness and sorrow, humiliation and confusion that threatens to smother the Irish Church it reignites for me the light of hope.

IRISH BISHOPS REPORT ON MEETING WITH HOLY FATHER

2010-02-18T00:02:00.001Z

From CNA:

Rome, Italy, Feb 16, 2010 / 03:30 pm (CNA).- Five members of the Irish Bishops' Conference, led by their president and Primate of all Ireland Cardinal Sean Brady, addressed the media on Tuesday afternoon following two days of what they called "intense" discussions with Pope Benedict XVI and members of the Roman Curia. Cardinal Brady said in his remarks that the bishops should spend the penitential season of Lent doing penance to promote “a change of heart.”

Over "a very productive two days," 24 Irish bishops met with the Holy Father and Vatican officials on the topic of sexual abuse in the Irish Church over the last 40 years. Every bishop had a handful of minutes to speak individually during the meetings.

Present at the Tuesday afternoon press conference were Bishops Michael Smith, Joseph Duffy, Denis Brennan and Brendan Kelly and Cardinal Brady, who relayed some of the exchange between the bishops and the Pope, since the meeting was closed to the press.

Cardinal Brady said he used his time with Pope Benedict to speak of "the amount of support we got after the report from members of other churches" and "the impact this report had on people." He also stressed that the bishops of Ireland need to listen better and should do this by further implementing the structures that already exist in the Church, referring specifically to parish/pastor councils and diocesan councils.

"These are structures which could be used more fully and more meaningfully to involve lay people in a more direct way in the running of our Church," Cardinal Brady said.

Bishop Brennan from the Diocese of Ferns spoke "about the culture that has emerged between the bishops, church leadership and Irish society" and the pain and concern he feels for the current situation of the Church, since "it came about because of a breach of trust between us and the people."

He elaborated on how the issue has affected the Church, saying, "people trusted us to do a better job in this area and many of them are disillusioned that we haven't … .”

"This is a long-term process and every day is a step along that road and what we are determined to do, and more determined after this, is to regain that trust of the Irish people," Bishop Brennan added.

Bishop Smith described the meeting as a very "clear, frank and open discussion," and said that each bishop was "listened to and... responded to."

"The Pope himself was there for all of the meetings, and there was tremendous engagement."

Cardinal Brady added that survivors were the "main concern" throughout the meetings, which he said also served "to help the Holy Father put the final touches to his letter, which will address victims... and address them appropriately.

"At the center of it all was concern about how to help victims heal completely," the cardinal stressed.

He called these meetings "one of many steps that will have to be taken" and said that Pastoral Letter from Benedict XVI will provide the Church in Ireland with a "message of encouragement to deal with this problem honestly and courageously," but that "then it will be up to us to continue this work.”

"It is a great problem, and at the center of it all must be the welfare of victims," the cardinal stated.

Speaking about the draft of the pastoral letter from Pope Benedict to the Irish Church, Cardinal Brady said that "generally, the pastoral letter was pleasing," although the Irish bishops did express some "reservations" to certain points which "were listened to very respectfully."

According to a statement released by the Press Office of the Holy See at the conclusion of the meetings the pastoral letter will be finished and presented during the Lenten season.

The Vatican statement also included the Pope's concern over a "more general crisis of faith" in the country, which he indicated as a contributing factor to the phenomenon of abuse, along with a lack of respect for the human person.

Cardinal Brady said that Pope Benedict had told them in the discussions that "at the heart of this is a renewal of faith because faith ultimately is the real and true protector of human dignity and that is the dignity of every human being, who is made in the image and likeness of God."

"That dignity," he continued, "has been wounded by sin and then there is the reality of Jesus who came into the world to heal the wound brought be sin and our job is to go back and continue to bring and preach and live the love of Jesus Christ in our own lives and to express that, especially to those who have suffered so previously as a result of these hideous crimes."

The Holy Father had emphasized the necessity of "a deeper theological reflection on the whole issue, and called for an improved human, spiritual, academic and pastoral preparation both of candidates for the priesthood and religious life and of those already ordained and professed," according to the Vatican statement.

Bishop Smith specified that Holy Father had told them that the Pastoral Constitution on the Church in the Modern World, "Gaudium et Spes," had been "totally misrepresented in some of the moral teaching and attitudes that came into theology."

He said the Pope called on them "to 'refind' the deep vision of humanity and the human person as contained in that particular document."

Bishop Smith also recalled that Pope Benedict has "spoken of it many times: that there is a poverty to the teaching of moral values and moral theology... in the Church.

Summing up the situation and the next step, Cardinal Brady affirmed, "Yes, there have been failures, of course, in our leadership," and "the only way that we will regain that credibility would be through our humiliation. Tomorrow is the beginning of Lent. It is a time of penance and we must begin with ourselves."

"Real penance," he said. "A change of heart."

JOSEPH OF LEONESSA: THE COMPANION KILLER.

2010-02-04T20:25:00.013Z

St. Joseph of Leonessa
Happy birthday!
On his 17th birthday, 8th January 1573, Euphronio Desideri made his profession in his home town of Leonessa as a Capuchin Franciscan friar. He took on the simpler name of Joseph. His vocation had survived serious obstacles and he persisted with a single-minded resolve to reach what he called "the inexpressible joy of being a son of St. Francis."
Some obstacles
Joseph was born third in a family of eight children but was doubly orphaned by the age of twelve. An uncle, a teacher at Viterbo, accepted the care of the children and foresaw an excellent future for Joseph who was a bright student. A local gentleman cast a critical eye over him also for Joseph would be an ideal spouse for his only but richly endowed daughter. Both guardians were keen on such an arrangement but not so Joseph. His heart was set on other matters and the tension generated by adult insistence on their future plans for him affected his health. He was relieved to be sent back to Leonessa where he quickly recovered.
An unwelcome attraction
The Franciscans were a long established Order at this time. They had a three hundred and fifty year history but the Capuchin reform were not fifty years established. They were newly arrived in Leonessa. A local doctor had just joined them and Joseph would follow his example. Uncle Battista was not pleased and so to avoid this temptation Joseph was sent off to school at Spoleto. But the Lord was providing. There was a Capuchin hermitage in the hills nearby. Joseph made contact and then made his application to the Provincial Superior. He was accepted. He renounced his goods and family just as St. Francis had done. Of course, Battista was not happy. The family came and tried to force him to return home. Joseph would not budge.
Christ the power and the wisdom of God
Joseph was ordained priest on 24th September 1580. He had been formed in the thought of St. Bonaventure and we get an insight into his heart in a "Prayer of Commitment" in which he thanks the Lord for his vocation, pledges to be faithful to the Church even unto death, under the protection of Our Lady and St. Francis. The reforms and programmes of the Council of Trent had just begun. He would implement them, for he knew and preached Christ alone, the power and the Wisdom of God." As in the famous exhortation of St. Ambrose, Christ was for him, the answer to all problems.
In union with God
Intimate union with God was the secret of his life. In the canonical process we read, "With the greatest care he gathered together all the powers of his soul, the better to relish God. He did this not only at the assigned periods of prayer, but at all times. As he walked along the road he would grasp his crucifix and contemplate the wounds of Christ. While he meditated life the expression of his face would change according to the various mysteries. At times he would look drawn and haggard, then flushed as if he harboured a burning fire within. The same reactions occurred when he was preaching." As lie lived Christ, so he preached him.
Peacemaker
His nephew Francis, also a Capuchin, testifies, "Wherever he found hatred and quarrels he went there in hope of restoring peace. He paid no heed to storms, snow, impossible roads." "Lord make me an instrument of your peace!" Clutching the crucifix to his heart or raising it to the heavens, no one could resist him. An early story tells of the fifty bandits who terrorised Central Italy like the wolf of Gubbio. He went to their hide-out, led them to the local church, and with the crucifix raised above them spoke of the mercy of God. They responded fully. Gratefully each accepted a rosary as they left the church, and became his most faithful listeners as he preached the Lenten course shortly afterwards in that same church.
Prepared to go among the infidels
Five Jesuits had died serving Christian slaves in Turkey and France and Venice requested Capuchin help. Joseph was among the volunteers. He prepared well, studing the culture, language and beliefs of the people. He learned that the best way to dialogue with them was to listen long and well and allow their weak points to surface. Alas he was not chosen, and he humbly wrote, "Anyone who without qualms thinks himself fit to be a missionary among the Turks is guilty of pride."
Labouring among the infidels
One of those originally selected became ill and to his own great joy Joseph was chosen in his place. In August 1587 the group set out. Joseph was given care of four thousand Christian slaves. More than once he offered to take the place of a slave. Once he overstayed his time consoling those sentenced to hard labour. At the prison gates he found himself locked in for the night. He lay down and slept. Next morning he was thrown into prison as a spy. There he remained for a month until the Venetian Ambassador obtained his release. Plague killed many prisoners and only Joseph and Gregory survived among the Capuchins. Joseph reconverted a Greek bishop to union with Rome and emboldened by this sought an audience with the Sultan asking for "human rights and freedom of conscience." Several requests were in vain, so, like Francis, he decided to drop in on the Sultan uninvited. He reached the inner private rooms before being caught.
Torture
For his rashness Joseph was condemned to the "hook." This was an unusually cruel form of torture. The victim is hung from a high scaffold by means of a meat-hook through one hand and one leg. A slow smoking fire is lit underneath. So Joseph hung suffering great pain, dying slowly, burning with thirst and fever. His whole body shook convulsively while guards mocked him and added wet rags to the fire to suffocate him with smoke. After three days they left him expecting he would not survive the night.
Rescue and new mission
Peter and Paul had escaped prison and chains with angelic help. "A young man came that night, released the hook and bound up my wounds. He said, "Your mission here is over. Go back to Italy and preach the gospel there!" Was it an angel? Or was the half-conscious Joseph rescued by a messenger of the Sultana Bofa? 'She was a Venetian by birth. Either way it was "the hand of God."
Preach good news to the poor
To whom should he preach? Back in Assisi huge crowds attended his Advent sermons. They had heard of the "attempted martyrdom." He might have preached to such crowds in urban comfort for the next thirty years. Instead he pleaded to be allowed go to the impoverished villages in the mountains. He became their wandering visitor teaching the catechism and simple prayers and the Mercy of God in the Cross and the Eucharist. He would speak to every gathering and then forge ahead to where his messengers had gone before him. Indeed the Spirit of the Lord was upon him to preach the good news to the poor! Unjust judges and moneylenders heard the sharp clear words of Scripture. He founded Credit Unions and grain stores for food security. The first store was for "poor ladies who administered it themselves." He promoted hospitals, guest-houses and always peace! Christian charity embraces both body and soul.
Anchored in the Eucharist and the Mass
Joseph drew strength and inspiration for his many apostolic and charitable activities from the sacrament of love. As for so many Capuchin preachers the Forty Hours devotion was a special experience. His was a faith that lived in continual Union with Jesus present in the Tabernacle and expressing itself in good works. A companion asked why he went into church so often. He replied, "I go to visit my Lord, to see how he is doing and if he needs anything. Courtiers are at the beck and call of their prince day and night. As sons, servants and ministers we should always be close to Our Lord, called as we are to be mediators between God and man. Many graces come from such visits to the Most Blessed Sacrament."
Suffering as a proof of love
The Eucharist, Sacrament and Sacrifice as memorials of the Passion are inseparable from the Cross. Joseph was always willing to suffer in order to advance God's work. "When we suffer anything we give proof of our love." Towards the end of his life he had to undergo surgery. Doctors prepared to tie him down. "No! No!" he said. "Just give me my crucifix and then go ahead. Cut and burn as you need." Surgery was no gentle art in those days. The surgeons worked away as Joseph murmured his favourite prayer, "Holy Mary, help the suffering." But all was in vain. His illness was incurable.
Dying like St. Francis
Joseph asked to be taken to Leonessa. In tears he bade goodbye to his family and friends until they should meet in heaven. He went out to a nearby hill, and raised the crucifix to bless his home town. He was taken to Amatrice where his nephew was guardian. It had been their mutual prayer that which ever of them died first would be ministered to by the other. "Today is a Saturday dedicated to Mary. Like Francis, I will be happy to die on this day." Too weak to continue with the Divine Office he simply repeated, "Holy Mary, help the suffering." He passed away quietly on the 4th February 1612. He was beatified by Pope Clement XII in 1737 and nine years later he was canonised by Pope Benedict XIV together with St. Fidelis of Sigmaringen - the attempted martyr and the Proto-martyr together.
Simple profound teaching
Joseph could express his message with beautiful simplicity as we see from his homilies. "The Good News is written not on parchment but in our hearts. The written law was engraved on stone. The law of grace is imprinted on our hearts by the Holy Spirit. Every Christian should be a living book in which the gospel can be read. So Paul wrote, "You are our letter of recommendation written not by ink but by the Spirit of the living God." Would that the Holy Spirit enable my tongue, dipped in the blood of the spotless Lamb, to write in your hearts today. But how can one script be imposed on another? First remove the old so that the new may be written. Out with avarice, lust, pride.... , so that humility, honesty…may be inscribed."
Exhortation of St. Ambrose
“Out of love for us Christ became all things. Christ is everything for us. If you wish to have your wounds healed, he is the doctor.
If you are living with fever, he is the water of refreshment.
If you are burdened with faults, he is your justification.
If you have need of help, he is your resource.
If you fear death, he is your life.
If you are longing for heaven, he is the way.
If you wish to escape from darkness, he is the light.
If you are looking for nourishment , he is your food.
Taste and see that the Lord is sweet.
Blessed is the one that trusts in him.”

From Saints and Blesseds of the Capuchin Franciscan Order by my confrere and member of my community Br. Donatus McNamara.

The above image shows the remains of St. Joseph. They're in the town in a church near the town square.

Above: Relics of St. Joseph including his breviary, cord, sandals, celice, and the chains and collar he wore.

Donatus fails to mention that Joseph was known as the 'companion killer' by his fellow friars. In those days the friars travelled in twos. So energetic and unstinting was Joseph in his evangelizing that he wore not a few friars into the ground. I have visited Leonessa (his remains are on display there) and can confirm that the surrounding hills are very steep so it's no wonder his companions found it hard to keep up.

I also offer this video of the inside of the Capuchin chapel just outside the town of Leonessa. It shows sgraffito work and tells of some of Joseph's more well-known miracles.

HOLY FATHER ON ST. FRANCIS AND THE CHURCH TODAY

2010-01-31T13:08:00.002Z

From the New Liturgical Movement:

Benedict: The Lessons of St. Francis of Assisi as it Relates to Crises and Renewal within the Church
by Shawn Tribe

From the Holy Father's Wednesday general audience of January 27th, he speaks about the life and vocation of St. Francis of Assisi and the crisis of the Church in Francis' own times, as well as his approach to helping heal that crisis. [NLM emphases]

"Three times the crucified Christ came to life and said to him: "Go, Francis, and repair my Church in ruins." This simple event of the Word of the Lord heard in the church of San Damiano hides a profound symbolism. Immediately, St. Francis is called to repair this little church, but the ruinous state of this building is a symbol of the tragic and disturbing situation of the Church itself at that time, with a superficial faith that does not form and transform life, with a clergy lacking in zeal, with the cooling off of love; an interior destruction of the Church that also implied a decomposition of unity, with the birth of heretical movements.

"This event, which probably occurred in 1205, makes one think of another similar event that happened in 1207: the dream of Pope Innocent III. He saw in a dream that the Basilica of St. John Lateran, the Mother Church of all churches, was collapsing and a small and insignificant religious supported the church with his shoulders so that it would not collapse. It is interesting to note, on one hand, that it is not the Pope who helps so that the church will not collapse, but a small and insignificant religious, whom the Pope recognizes in Francis who visited him. Innocent III was a powerful Pope, of great theological learning, as well as of great political power, yet it was not for him to renew the Church, but for the small and insignificant religious: It is St. Francis, called by God.

"On the other hand, however, it is important to note that St. Francis does not renew the Church without or against the Pope, but only in communion with him. The two realities go together: the Successor of Peter, the bishops, the Church founded on the succession of the Apostles and the new charism that the Holy Spirit created at this moment to renew the Church. True renewal grows together."

-- Benedict XVI, Wednesday General Audience, January 27, 2010 (Source: Zenit.org)

SECOND SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME, YEAR C: THE WEDDING FEAST AT CANA

2010-01-17T15:10:00.003Z

The above icon is from St. Seraphim's Orthodox Cathedral, Dallas, Texas. In the Roman Catholic Church's Ordinary form the gospel of today's Mass is the Miracle at Cana. The same gospel reading is often chosen by couples for their wedding and I usually interpret it that Christ, through the Sacrament, wants to turn the water of our human love (which is His gift to us) into the wine of His Divine love (His infinitely greater gift to us), the Love which the Father has for the Son and the Son has for the Father. Yet it has, of course, a wider application. The Lord wants to turn everything, according to its capacity, into a vehicle for His presence. Whatever we do, say or are, providing it is as He gave it to us, can be sanctified by Him and changed, 'transubstantiated' so to speak, or divinzed so that it becomes a means of knowing Him. He comes to unite us with His Father through Himself but not just us, not just our 'souls', but even the very matter of the universe. It was this Divine humility, self-abasement, that the enemy could not fathom, could not accept.

BERARD AND COMPANIONS; FIRST FRANCISCAN MARTYRS

2010-01-17T14:56:00.004Z

Yesterday was the feast of the first Franciscan martyrs. Berard and his companions were sent by St. Francis to southern Spain to witness to the Muslims. This, of course, did not go down too well. The local Spanish Church might not have been too pleased either as such public evangelization could easily lead to persecution. Dispatched instead to Morocco they continued with their mission and were immediately interrogated, tortured and had their heads split in two. To my shame I used to joke that they should be considered martyred for foolishness but having read again the account of their martyrdom I noticed that they were sent. Francis sent them. It was out of obedience that they endangered themselves and indeed died horrible deaths.
Interestingly in some of his writings Francis exhorts his brothers to preach only if it is possible but above all preach by their behaviour. As others have suggested perhaps Francis had a bitter lesson in the deaths of these men whose obedience took them to their deaths.

BERNARD LATINO OF CORLEONE

2010-01-12T13:01:00.004Z

Corleone is a Sicilian city which had a reputation for ferociousness. Its citizens fiercely resisted all attempts at foreign domination, gaining for the city the reputation of animosa civitas and the emblem portraying a lion tearing apart a human heart. In 1605, Corleone was dominated by Spanish rule. It was into this environment that Philip Latino, one of four children, was born on February 6, 1605. His father, Leonard, was a skilled shoemaker. He would bring the poor home and offer them a bath and provide clean clothes, food and drink. Philip followed in his father's footsteps, both as a shoemaker and in generosity.

It is no surprise that, given the age in which he grew up, Philip became adept with the sword. Although he did not look for trouble neither did he back down from a confrontation. When provoked, he proved to be a formidable opponent. He achieved the reputation of being the "number one fencer in Sicily."

One day in 1624, Philip had a skirmish with a man known as Vinuiacitu, resulting in two fractured fingers for Philip's adversary. Sometime later, Vito Canino traveled from Palermo to Corleone ostensibly to compete with Philip for recognition as a skilled fencer. In reality, Vito was an assassin hired by Vinuiacitu to murder the shoemaker who had humiliated him. At the Latino store, Canino challenged Philip to a duel, but Philip refused since he had no argument with Canino. Provoked further, Philip took his dagger and the two stepped outside. When Philip's dagger grazed Canino's head, Canino flew into a rage. At that, Philip realized the seriousness of the duel and returned to the store to retrieve his sword. At altercation's end, Canino had been seriously wounded, his arm permanently disabled. Despite a legitimate claim to self-defense, Philip felt profound remorse for having wounded Canino. The champion fencer asked pardon of the man he wounded. That singular event sparked in Philip a spiritual conversion which eventually led to his becoming a Capuchin.

Before leaving for the Capuchin novitiate at Caltanisetta, Philip asked for his mother's blessing and the support of his brothers and sister. On December 13, 1631, having found freedom and maturity through adversity, the former champion fencer, now known as Bernard, embraced a new lifestyle. Bernard never forgot Canino. The two became close friends. Through the help of benefactors, Bernard saw to it that Canino was provided for.

Bernard took his new life very seriously and strove to be a good Capuchin. Simple and illiterate, with no aspirations for power or prestige, Bernard often exhorted the friars to love God and to do penance for their sins. He spent hours in prayer and meditation. Bernard lived the qualities of "true devotion" urged in the Capuchin Constitutions of Albacina as his inspiration ("Let the brothers be devout and fervent and not content with one or two or even three hours, but spend all their time in prayer, meditation and contemplation"). He learned to love solitude and silence, praying continually. He felt drawn to the eremetical life and often went into the forest near Rimita to pray at a small Marian chapel. For Bernard, prayer lifted his spirit and brought him joy. He understood what it means to ‘pray always’.
Bernard had great devotion to Mary, always calling her "mother." In his bedroom and in an alcove near the kitchen where he was cook, Bernard created an atmosphere of prayer. In both rooms, he had a small altar dedicated to Mary where he would retreat during his free moments between preparing meals, washing dishes, etc. The tall and robust friar, with a somewhat rustic bearing and calloused hands, would adorn his shrine with flowers and fragrant herbs. His spirit of devotion was typically Sicilian - fully expressive of imagination and festivity. Bernard also had a great devotion to the passion and death of Christ. Someone once suggested that he learn to read, to which Bernard responded, "the wounds of Christ our Saviour are all we need to study." One effect of his frequent meditation on Christ's humanity and Passion was that Bernard always responded to others with compassion and calm. Many people sought Bernard just to listen to him speak about God in his own simple way. His simplicity moved many to change their ways.

Charity began at home for Bernard. Within the friary walls, he willingly performed the tasks that no one else liked doing. He never gossiped or talked about others. He had a way of making others feel cared for and appreciated. Bernard consoled many who were troubled and he accomplished this by a hug, a few words of understanding, and by his characteristic smile. Once, in the Palermo refectory, a friar was publicly rebuked. Bernard embraced the humiliated friar and showed so much affection for him that the friar was moved to tears for the tenderness shown.

With great relish he would prepare soup for those who were poor. He was delighted whenever he could be of service to someone else. On a number of occasions, those who were experiencing complications in pregnancy were helped by Bernard, for which he is recognized as a patron of expectant parents.

On January 22, 1667, Sister Death found Bernard in the Capuchin infirmary at Palermo. He was 62 years old. When the news of his death spread, a great crowd of people from all walks of life and social classes came to pay their respects. The nobles of the city accompanied the body to the friary church where the archbishops of Palermo and Monreale presided over the funeral rites. Clement XIII enrolled Bernard among the blessed on April 29, 1768.

The above text with slight changes is by Br. Patrick McSherry OFM Cap and from the Capuchin Sacramentary.

TWO POPES AND TWO CAPUCHINS: THE HOLY SPIRIT CONTINUES TO SANCTIFY

2009-12-19T21:30:00.005Z

GOOD NEWS!

Catholic Culture has a report that Popes John Paul II and Pius XII are to be declared venerable which is a step on the path to beatification and hopefully, one day, canonization. Also included in the list are two Spanish Capuchins:

Father José Tous y Soler (1811-71), a Capuchin Franciscan.

Brother Leopoldo de Alpandeire (1866-1956), a Capuchin Franciscan.

As soon as I have some information on their lives I will blog it. At the moment it's all in Spanish.

THE SYMBOLS AND MEANING OF CHRISTMAS

2009-12-18T21:54:00.003Z

I decided to give my Fifth year students a class on Christmas. It was in part an act of desperation and in part a felt need to do something on the coming festival before we break for the holidays. That done I opened by pointing out that among all the posters decorating the school advertising Christmas not one has an image of the Crib, of the Christ Child or anything religious. No angels, no Star, no shepherds, nothing. Perhaps they were told not to put them in. What we have are images of snowmen (in Dublin, Ireland were snow is almost as rare as hen’s teeth), fir trees, presents and penguins (I don’t know so don’t ask me).

It points to at least a drift or even a push towards the total secularization of society and its religious feasts. In a national hospital staff have been told that there is not to be a ‘Christmas party’ but an ‘end of year party’. Irish minds of course being rebellious and peculiarly common-sensed are outraged and will probably ignore such nonsense but it’s the tip of the iceberg.

So I took my students through a short catechesis on the Christmas festival and it may be of use to you dear reader:

Although Christ was probably born around April Christmas is celebrated at this time of year because it provided our ancient forbears in the faith an ideal time to feast without attracting attention from their sometimes hostile pagan fellow citizens. By starting their feast near the solstice they could seem to be celebrating that event while actually celebrating the birth of the true sun, Jesus. The birth of Christ itself marks only the beginning of the festival for it extends to the Epiphany and beyond, a long celebration of the Light entering the world and history at the darkest time, taking human flesh from the womb of the Virgin Mary. Thus the birth of Christ is the root of our Christmas but not the whole of it. The festival climaxes with the celebration of His manifestation to the three wise men, to His revelation of Himself by turning water into wine and the Father’s affirmation of Him at the Jordan.

There’s more: our decorations point to the beauty of heaven and the graces He brings to us. Our gifts are echoes not just of these gifts but of Him who is the GIFT from the GIVER OF ALL GOOD GIFTS: the Father. The tree represents both the Cross and the trees of paradise that bear fruit for the healing of the nations (Ezek. 47:12).

There is an old Irish prayer:

“O King of the Friday
Whose arms were stretched on the Cross.
O Lord who did suffer
The bruises, the wounds, the loss.
We stretch ourselves beneath the shield of thy Might.
May some fruit of the Tree of Thy Passion
Fall on us this night.”

The Christmas tree like the wood of the crib points to the Cross and its baubles are symbols of the graces Christ has won for us.

Even pagan symbols such as the wreath have been taken up and given Christian meaning. The wreath becomes a symbol of the undying victory of Christ and His power to protect and save. The festal meal becomes a symbol of the Eucharistic Feast, the true ‘table where no one grows old’ and therefore also an anticipation of the wedding feast of heaven.

The birth of the Christ is the beginning of the journey that leads to Calvary and beyond. In celebrating His birth we celebrate the One who came to reveal the Father’s unconditional love and mercy and His utter worthiness to all love and glory and who reveals it above all in His Passion and death on the Cross. One feast points to the other, the Child that is born is born to die so that all of us who are dead might live forever.

Forget the snowmen focus on the Child.

CUTTING THE IRISH CHURCH DOWN TO SIZE

2009-12-18T20:58:00.005Z

David Quinn has an interesting article in the Irish Independent. He is relieved that Bishop Murray is to go but rightly wonders how if the decision was made on December 1 did it take 16 days for it to become public? Why the wait and the anguish for the Church and the victims? Rightly too does he call for the resignation of those bishops who have not been investigated but did not handle accusations as they should, who let the wolves continue to savage the lambs. He finishes with this thought:

Pope Benedict XVI has said he will clearly indicate the initiatives that are to be taken in response to the abuse scandals in a pastoral letter to be written especially for Ireland.

The two best initiatives he can undertake would be to force the resignations of all those bishops who acted as Donal Murray did, and then to replace them with as many strong, fearless and capable bishops as he can. That would help to re-energise the Irish Church very quickly indeed, restore morale, and allow Christianity to be properly proclaimed in Ireland once again.

The problem though is do we have in Ireland this kind of man in sufficient numbers? Let us hope and pray that there are enough "strong, fearless and capable" but also orthodox priests who are willing to become bishops.

Perhaps as rumour has it Rome will take the opportunity to cut the Irish Church down in size and reduce the number of dioceses to around 12 - perhaps three to a province. This would make it easier to find candidates since fewer would be needed but it might also make it easier for the clerical cliques to influence the choice.

FURTHER THOUGHTS ON OUR SITUATION IN IRELAND

2009-12-17T16:12:00.005Z

As the temperatures continue to fall here in Ireland and there are predictions of snow (Yes, SNOW!) for Christmas or at least this weekend (this is Dublin, Ireland we rarely see snow and almost never at Christmas) so the social temperature is falling for both Church and State.

I'll the State and the Government to their own devices but the Church is after all my true home on Earth. It has become obvious that one of the effects of the scandals is the undermining of any faith or trust in the bishops. The ordinary priest has the trust and faith of the people he works with but the bishop - the bishop is now rapidly losing his authority. If once a bishop's displeasure was something to be feared those days are long, long gone but further he is a figure to be ignored and despised. With his loss of authority the Church too loses her authority. The clergy are left without cover or protection and the people of God suffer. It is a bleak, wintry picture. Perhaps Rome's intervention will bring a new Spring and a warmer time but I'm not taking off my winter woolies yet.

How did we get here? I propose to you that one influence has been the rise of what might be called 'pastoralism'. Check that in a dictionary and you will find it means that part of agriculture that concentrates on the care of livestock and that's not a bad description of this theological approach. It has always been with us - the concern for the welfare of all the people of the Church but especially the laity. It is, after all, what a shepherd does - look after his sheep. I propose to you that it can and has become distorted. Perhaps it was the influence of so many missionaries whose pastoral efforts are so much more central to their identity. Perhaps it was a desire to refute the inroads of atheist criticism by being more practically involved in the issues of concern to the layperson. Perhaps it came from a weakening faith in the reality of spiritual experience and a corresponding flight into praxis.

Whatever the source 'pastoralism' and its kindred ideology Liberation theology put forward the idea that as long as the needs of the people were met then that was what was important. On the Liturgical/Sacramental level this means that as long as the people receive communion then almost anything else is tolerated. As long as sins are absolved then that's all that matters (some go further and get rid of the sins so no absolution is necessary). So the Liturgy is shortened, Canon Law is ignored or violated, and as long as one can come up with a 'pastoral reason' (or excuse) then no one does anything about it. The people, or rather a clique within the people, are the final court of appeal. If its OK with them then its OK.

In the end we have mediocre Liturgy and a muddled, middlebrow and mediocre Church. There are few saints if any and we have scandals instead.

ON THE PRESENT STATE OF THE IRISH CHURCH AND HER BISHOPS

2009-12-15T20:28:00.004Z

To my knowledge no decision has yet been made on the future of those bishops mentioned and criticised by the Murphy report. It's not my place to say what they should do but I do know that many of my confreres believe they should go. Indeed there's also a feeling that the Eucharistic Congress should go elsewhere too and that Rome should take it from Dublin as a sign of its disapproval of all that has happened here.

It is good news that Rome is set to act and that at the very least we will get a pastoral letter on the matter. It is to be hoped that the Holy Father will take actions that will bring a new healthy, direction for the Church.

I am trying to keep my own anger in check though, anger not just at the abuse, the negligence, the incompetence, and the cover-ups, but also at our government and its ham-fisted, partisan, and unjust handling of the budget. Again the poor and the workers (public and civil servants in this case) are asked to foot the bill for the incompetence of the bankers and the government. I know that this is an opportunity for me to face my own passions and to learn how to keep peace in the midst of turmoil.

One area where my eyes are opening is in regard to the Irish Church. Everyone says its 'conservative' but I don't think so. Now 'conservative' and 'liberal' are of course imports from the secular, political world and open to a broad variety of interpretations. I merely wish to point out that there are different kinds of liberal and conservative in the Church: doctrinal, moral, pastoral etc. The Irish Church is doctrinally conservative. There are no major wide-spread denials of the central doctrines of the faith, especially among the practising faithful. But morally and pastorally, like much of the Church in the Western world, it is liberal at least behind closed doors. After all how much flak did +Willie Walsh get for his recent statements? I have seen too many dodgy liturgies and watched liturgical abuses, heard whacky lectures, and put up with so many unorthodox opinions that I can no longer accept this Church can really be described as 'conservative'. It is certainly not in a healthy state. Over recent weeks I have heard, from practising Catholics, opinions in favour of homosexuality and abortion (don't mention contraception!). I have been challenged for asserting that the clergy are called to a higher degree of holiness than the laity (and that the laity should expect us to be that holy) because after all didn't Vatican II say we were all equal? The arrogance of earlier clergy and the negligent teaching of more recent times has done much damage. No wonder people scramble to look at the Sun at Knock or to see the pseudo-visionary at Achill.

Somewhere along the line between 1850 and 1950 the Irish Church lost its way. It went from an oppressed to a dominant majority, from poverty to riches, from hedgerow to the centre stage. In that time the nation went from subjection to the British to an independent, if dirt poor, Republic. As a nation and a Church we came to believe our own propaganda - that we were once again to be a nation of saints and scholars (and republicans). This Church sent huge numbers of missionaries throughout the world just as the country sent out emigrants. Yet the seeds of our present trouble were planted and took root in those years. Jansenism and liberalism (encased in Republicanism) came here from France in the beginning and they have been around since. If the former dominated in the beginning the latter has bloomed since,if secretly. Where the moral corruption began is hard to say, probably it was always and will always be with us. Yet how did it get into the clergy and thrive there? Why wasn't it dealt with? There's even the suggestion that a clerical paedophile ring operated, and not just in Dublin, and that it may have had its origins in seminaries like Maynooth and Clonliffe. A cancer took root and now part of it is exposed. Might I suggest that the secret liberalism of the Irish Church lacked the moral courage, conviction and self-belief to confront this evil as it grew. It could not conceive of the inhumanity involved in child abuse and when confronted with it simply tried to bury it (and save its precious reputation in the process).

Today over lunch a colleague at school told me that the Catholic Church does nothing for him, has no relevance to him. I was lost for words. At the time all I could say was that for me it is about Christ first. It is also about truth and whether it can be known and experienced. Christ is Truth made flesh and He established His Church. It belongs to Him not us (as I recently had to point out to a fellow priest and friar). It all belongs to Him. It's not about us, it's about Him and one day each of us must give an account of ourselves to Him. Who'd want to be an Irish bishop on that day?

IMMACULATE CONCEPTION OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN MARY

2009-12-07T19:52:00.004Z

In honour of the Solemnity tomorrow I offer this hymn to the Theotokos I found at Byzantine Ramblings. It was written by St. Nektarios of Aegina and tradition has that he wrote the words but the angels composed the air.

In Greek:

In English:

Rejoice, Bride unwedded, Immaculate spouse of God and His Most Holy Mother. O Virgin made Church pray for us!

REPORT ON THE HANDLING OF CLERICAL SEXUAL ABUSE IN DUBLIN

2009-11-26T22:10:00.008Z

I actually wrote this on Thursday:

The report is out and I went and had a look, a long look. I haven't had time to read it all. I'm not sure I have the stomach to read it all. It is frightening to recognize the names of abusers and victims and to realise how close one can be to people and not know what they have done or what they may have been through.

It's not the descriptions of abuse, bad enough as they are, but the callousness and indifference of the abusers and even of their superiors that is so disturbing. The priest is meant to be an alter Christus, 'another Christ' and to use the sanctity of the priesthood to abuse children is as the Church calls it 'the worst crime'. To then fail to care for the victim and allow the abuser to continue on...

I am horrified at the pain inflicted by some of my brother priests. Even when you put it in context of the many priests who served in the Archdiocese it remains that if only one child suffered that was one too many. What makes it worse is that the victims were not listened to and many abusers were allowed to continue to abuse. The greatest evil that has resulted is that so many have turned away from Christ because of this.

Is any apology ever going to be enough? How can we ease this sorrow and heal this pain? I think we need a miracle. Bishops resigning might make some people feel better but it's only the continued and consistent implementation of the child protection guidelines that will make the difference to those who matter most: the children.

It is a grim day for the priesthood. On Thursday I took a sixth year class on retreat for the day with another priest. The report did not come up and I don't know how I can communicate my shame and disgust if it ever does while somehow also keeping to the teaching of Jesus: hate the sin but love the sinner.

For the rest of us priests we must seek to be holy, really holy. Enough of this compromise, this fudging of our commitment. One thing the Report says is that Canon Law would've dealt with a lot of these issues sooner had it been employed. If we are men of God let us start to really live that and live it so others can see it clearly. The only way to win back the people's trust is to be trustworthy, to be examples that the whole flock can follow.

This is the year for priests, so please pray for us.

St. John Vianney pray for us.

ANDREW DUNG-LAC AND COMPANIONS, MARTYRS OF VIETNAM

2009-11-24T14:49:00.004Z

St. Andrew was one of 117 people martyred in Vietnam between 1820 and 1862. Members of this group were beatified on four different occasions between 1900 and 1951. Now all have been canonized by Pope John Paul II.

Christianity came to Vietnam (then three separate kingdoms) through the Portuguese. The Jesuits opened the first permanent mission at Da Nang in 1615 and they ministered initially to Japanese Catholics who had been driven from Japan.

The king of one of the kingdoms banned all foreign missionaries and tried to make all Vietnamese deny their faith by trampling on a crucifix. Like the priest-holes in Ireland during Protestant English persecution, many hiding places were offered in homes of the faithful.

Again in the 19th century three times severe persecutions were launched. Between 1820 and 1880, from 100,000 to 300,000 Catholics were killed or subjected to great hardship. Foreign missionaries martyred in the first wave included priests of the Paris Mission Society, and Spanish Dominican priests and tertiaries.
Persecution broke out again in 1847 when the emperor suspected foreign missionaries and Vietnamese Christians of sympathizing witha rebellion led by of one of his sons.
The last of the martyrs were 17 laypersons, one of them a 9-year-old, executed in 1862. That year a treaty with France guaranteed religious freedom to Catholics, but it did not stop all persecution.

By 1954 there were over a million and a half Catholics—about seven percent of the population—in the north. Buddhists represented about 60 percent. Persistent persecution forced some 670,000 Catholics to abandon lands, homes and possessions and flee to the south. In 1964, there were still 833,000 Catholics in the north, but many were in prison. In the south, Catholics were enjoying the first decade of religious freedom in centuries, their numbers swelled by refugees.
During the Vietnamese war, Catholics again suffered in the north, and again moved to the south in great numbers. Now the whole country is under Communist rule.
An excerpt of a letter written 1843 by Paul Le-Bao-Tinh, shortly before his martyrdom:

I, Paul, chained for the name of Christ, wish to tell you the tribulations in which I am immersed every day, so that you, inflamed with love for God, may also lift up your praise to God, 'for his mercy endures forever'. This prison is truly the image of the eternal Hell: to the cruelest tortures of all types, such as fetters, iron chains and bonds, are added hate, vindictiveness, calumny, indecent words, interrogations, bad acts, unjust oaths, curses and finally difficulties and sorrow. But God, who once freed the three boys from the path of the flames, is always with me and has freed me from these tribulations and converted them into sweetness, 'for his mercy endures forever...

Assist me with your prayers so that I may struggle according to the law, and indeed 'fight the good fight' and that I may be worthy to fight until the end, finishing my course happily; if we do not see each other again in this life, in the future age, nonetheless, this will be our joy, when standing before the throne of the spotless Lamb, with one voice we sing his praises, exulting in the joy of eternal victory. Amen.

Above from and .

COLUMBAN OF BOBBIO, FOUNDER AND MISSIONARY

2009-11-23T20:49:00.007Z

I can't let this day go without mention of St. Columban of Bobbio. He is the one on the left above accompanied by St. Basil (the younger) of Constantinople. Bobbio, in Northern Italy, was where he ended up but not where he started out. He was a Leinster man, like myself and most of my ancestors, born about 543. He studied under St. Sinnell at Cleenish on Lough Erne and then with St. Comgall at Bangor, Co. Down.

Somewhere between the 570's and the 590's he headed off with twelve companions for the Continent. Welcomed by a local king he established a monastery at the abandoned Roman fort at Annegray where he converted the ruined temple of Diana into a church dedicated to St. Martin of Tours. Columban's monasticism was the strict Irish form and it attracted followers, men in search of God. Soon monasteries at Luxeil and Fontaine followed.

Falling foul of the new king Columban and his monks were banished and thus began their long and epic search for a home. Along the way some monks founded their own monasteries such as St. Dicuil at Oignon and St. Gall at Lake Constanz.
Having passed over the Alps Columban made it to the court of the Lombard King who offered him the ruined church of St. Peter, 70 miles from Milan. Here at Bobbio he ended his days.

It was during these years he wrote to the Pope. He asserted

For all we Irish, inhabitants of the world's edge, are disciples of Saints Peter and Paul and of all the disciples who wrote the Sacred Canon by the Holy Spirit. We accept nothing outside the evangelical and apostolic teaching. None of us is a heretic, no one a jew, no one a schismatic; but the Catholic faith as it was transmitted by you, successors of the Holy Apostles is maintained unbroken.

He was, of course, an Irishman to the end, valuing informality and good-natured humour:

When an unworthy man like me writes to an illustrious one like yourself, my insignificance makes applicable to me the striking remark which a certain philosopher is said to have once made on seeing a painted harlot: 'I do not admire the art, but I admire the cheek'...

Columban was no painted harlot but a great and holy man whose monasteries acted as beacons in the darkness of Europe and made a huge contribution to its rebuilding. Robert Schuman called him the 'patron saint of those who wish to construct a united Europe'. I would add 'provided it is Christian and Catholic.'

Translations are by the late Tomás Cardinal Ó'Fiaich. Source: O'Brien Pocket History of Irish Saints by Brian Lacey.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX CHOIR

2009-11-23T19:57:00.002Z

Thanks to a link in a comment on the New Liturgical Movement's website:

It's part of a documentary on Orthodox Church life in Russia today.

RUSSIAN ORTHODOX PRIEST MURDERED

2009-11-20T16:57:00.005Z

This Fr. Daniil Sysoyev, 35, a Russian Orthodox priest who was murdered by a masked gunman or men last night. His assistant is in critical condition. The motive is unclear though either Muslim or Pagan extremists are among the chief suspects. Fr Sysoyev had received numerous death threats after being publically critical of Islam. May he rest in peace. H/t to Byzantine Ramblings.

As Fr. comments

it causes me to wonder if I have ever proclaimed the Faith so clearly, so powerfully, with such dedication, grace and Love that I even seemed dangerous to the pagans and other non-Christians around me. I fear that the demons have found little of interest in me due to my own sinfulness and self-condemnatory life - they needn't bother.

Shame on me.

Yet we do not know how much the Lord uses us, sometime despite ourselves. If martyrdom is for us it will come as long as we seek to do the will of God.

He also has a moving account of his wife's last illness. May she rest in peace.

A BRIEF HISTORY OF THE CRUCIFIX

2009-11-16T20:50:00.003Z

This is a nice short piece on the Crucifix found at Gloria.tv.