15 minute read
EDITORIAL
UP FRONT
GERARD MOLONEY CSsR
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TIME TO TREAT WOMEN AS EQUALS IN THE CHURCH
When The New York Times published a sensational story in 2017 alleging sexual abuse of women by movie mogul Harvey Weinstein, it was the catalyst for what soon became known as the MeToo movement. For years Weinstein’s sordid activities were hidden in plain view. Many people were aware of his reputation, but his power and money enabled him to bully or pay off his accusers. He thought he was invincible.
The Times' investigation changed everything. Once the dam had burst, more and more women, no longer cowed, came forward to share their experience of sexual abuse and harassment. Powerful men lost their jobs. Others in positions of power who knew or suspected what was going on began to express regret for their failure to act.
When a notorious tape emerged of Donald Trump talking about women in such a demeaning manner it should have disqualified him from office, he defended his behaviour by claiming it was just "locker room talk", as if that made it any more acceptable.
Women have always been treated thus. The beauty, fashion, and advertising industries continue to objectify women. A woman cannot wear what she chooses without being told it’s her fault if anything sinister happens to her. And while there’s no doubting the tremendous progress the women’s movement has made in the last century, many still do not feel safe walking or travelling alone, and are judged – and not just in Hollywood – on their looks rather than on their qualifications and professionalism. Put a lascivious man alone in a room with a woman and we know who’s got the power.
As a man, I am ashamed of the degrading way in which many men have treated women. As a Roman Catholic priest, I feel even more ashamed, not only because of the harm done to women and the vulnerable by individual priests and religious but also because of the harm our church as an institution has done to women.
When one considers the role of women in the Catholic Church, some things are obvious. Women not only make up a large majority of regular church-goers, but they also play the primary role in handing on the faith. Traditionally, women have done much of the church’s heavy lifting. Think of religious education (nuns); parish administration (secretaries); upkeep of churches (altar societies and Martha Ministers), care of priests (housekeepers and helpers). If women downed tools, the church would implode. But because they love the church, not only do they continue to occupy the pews when churches are open, women also serve on parish pastoral councils, teach religion, study theology, do voluntary work, and assist at Mass.
The commitment of so many women is extraordinary given that only the ordained are allowed to make the big decisions in the Catholic Church – and the ordained are men. Women are powerless. The Catholic Church is the last great Western institution that systematically discriminates against women based on their gender. That will always be the case as long as power is bound up with ordination rather than with baptism.
It’s not enough to pay lip service to women’s dignity and vocation in the church, as church leaders like to do. Equal involvement in the life of the church is not a privilege women must earn but a right that belongs to them by virtue of their creation in God's image and their cooperation into Christ through baptism. It is scandalous that women are treated as second-class members of our church.
Positive change is happening. In January, Pope Francis changed a clause in canon law from “lay men” to "lay persons,” allowing women to administer communion and serve at the altar during liturgies. While giving official recognition to roles already performed by women in many parishes might seem like no big deal, it will force conservative bishops and priests to accept greater involvement of women in the liturgy. They will no longer be able to use church law to exclude women from these ministries. It is a tiny step in the right direction.
The good news is that more and more bishops, including the new archbishop of Dublin, are acknowledging that the status quo is no longer good enough. They are open to the possibility of ordaining women at least to the diaconate. Such a development would not only be the just thing to do, it would 11 also give the church tremendous new vigour.
Footnote: I have stepped into the editor's chair while Fr Brendan McConvery recovers from illness. Please remember Fr Brendan in your prayers.
FR TONY MULVEY CSsR
HAVING THE DISTINCTION OF BEING THE OLDEST REDEMPTORIST IN IRELAND, FR ANTHONY MULVEY WAS BORN THE SAME YEAR AS THE IRISH STATE. A NATIVE OF CO LEITRIM, HE HAS SPENT HIS LIFE AND PRIESTLY SERVICE IN SEVERAL EUROPEAN COUNTRIES.
BY TRÍONA DOHERTY
Not far off his centenary, Fr Tony Mulvey CSsR has the distinction of being the oldest member of the Irish Redemptorists. A native of Ballinaglera, Co Leitrim, which means ‘the town of the clerics’, Fr Mulvey is currently a member of the Esker community. He took his first vows as a Redemptorist in September 1943. Since then, he has lived a fascinating life, with his ministry taking him all over Europe.
BEGINNINGS
Fr Tony’s journey with the Redemptorists started some 84 years ago, when as a teenager he was impressed by a visiting mission to his home parish.
“I joined the Redemptorists in 1937, in the sense that I went to the college in Limerick, which was the juvenate, or preparatory college for boys wanting to join the congregation,” he recalls.
“I was originally going to join the diocesan seminary; I was from the Diocese of Kilmore so it would have been St Patrick’s in Cavan. But there was a Redemptorist mission in my parish and I was on the altar, and to make a long story short, they put before me the possibility of becoming a Redemptorist. So, I made the decision not to go to Cavan but to go to Limerick and thank God I never regretted that decision.
“I got a great education in Limerick in art and music. I went twice to the Prado, a famous art gallery of Madrid, and that’s something I wouldn’t have dreamt of doing were it not for the training I got in Limerick. And I can spend hours now listening to good music; we had Beethoven’s 5th Symphony nearly off by heart from hearing it.”
EXPLORING EUROPE
Having completed his secondary education in the Redemptorist College in Limerick (now St Clement’s), Tony entered the novitiate in
Dundalk in 1942. He then moved on to study in Cluain Mhuire in Galway and was delighted to be given the opportunity to travel to Belgium as part of his studies. It was shortly after the war, and conditions were tough.
“There was a very old tradition between our two provinces, Belgium and Ireland, they used to come here to learn English. It had fallen through for some years, but we had a provincial, Fr Tracey, who thought we should keep our contact with the Continent,” says Fr Tony.
“So, three of us students were appointed and we went to place called Beauplateau. It was way out in the wilds; you could say Esker here is metropolitan compared to what Beauplateau was like! We used to call it Boue-plateau – boue is the French for mud – you couldn’t walk around the garden without getting mud everywhere.”
Fr Tony spent a year in Belgium studying theology and traveling to some of the congregation’s other houses of study throughout Europe.
“It was the best decision I ever made. It was good for me because I learned how different Europe is. I had a foothold in the Continent and as a result I visited many places all around Europe that I would never have seen if I was a secular priest. And World War were felt in Ireland during his student years: “It was tough, we were often hungry as students. We hadn’t money to buy food. But we had a farm, with some cows, so we had our own milk, and potatoes and vegetables as well.” Later, in the 1960s, he had the opportunity to cross Berlin’s ‘Checkpoint Charlie’ and visit East Germany: “It was very rare at that time. To get across The newly ordained Fr Mulvey Checkpoint Charlie you had to that is a very pleasant memory,” he says. there was a bus provided to do a tour of East
Fr Tony returned to Galway to complete his Berlin. It was very austere, but I remember studies and he was ordained a priest in August I thought it was more Christian than West 1951. He recalls that the effects of the Second Berlin.”
hand in your passport and then
TEACHING AND LEARNING
After ordination, Fr Tony returned to Limerick to teach in the Redemptorist College. “In the beginning I found it difficult,” he recalls, “but
The beautiful city of Luxembourg
in the end I found it very pleasant, because I was learning myself. Any good teacher learns from their students. I was teaching French particularly and I had some very brilliant students.
“I was also very keen on Irish and we used to go to places where Irish was spoken. I went down to Kerry, near Dunquin, and to the Aran Islands and out towards Spiddal. Two of us took charge of a parish out in Carraroe, all in Irish. I am still very keen on the Irish language and I love to get a chance to speak it.”
He went on to spend a year in the National Catechetical Centre at Mount Oliver near Dundalk. He regards it as a pivotal time in his spiritual journey.
“The Vatican Council took place 1962-5. Since we were busy teachers, we really had no chance of studying the documents. I felt I needed to do a revised course of theology. It was the best year of my life. I was turned inside out in Mount Oliver, and I regard that year as one of the most important in my spiritual and theological life,” he says.
‘A MARVELLOUS EXPERIENCE’
In 1973, Fr Tony was sent to Luxembourg to look after the Mass for the growing number
Église Saint-Alphonse, Rue des Capucins, Luxembourg
English-speakers who came to the city to work in the European Institutions of which Britain and Ireland were now part. Many others worked in the banks as the city was fast becoming one of the great European banking centres. He spent 12 years there. “I had... visited Luxembourg when in my student days in Belgium and I was very glad to get back to it. I had 25 nationalities in my section of the parish. A lot of people came to the English Mass in order to learn English." He also taught religion in the European school for children whose parents were working in the institutions.
Fr Tony has many a tale of the people he met there, including some key political figures: "I met Queen Elizabeth of England. She paid a State visit to Luxembourg when I was there. I remember another day taking a short cut under an archway, and who was coming through, in the back of a car, but the King and Queen of Spain – they were going to an official reception and taking a short cut too, with nobody to protect them. Luxembourg was regarded as a very safe place.
“I met a lot of politicians. The man who became president of Ireland, Cearbhall Ó Dálaigh, was my parishioner, and in fact the night before he left for Ireland, we prepared his presidential speech together. He was very keen on Irish, and so I was often at his house and we were personal friends.” 15 I would love to go back to [Rome], but as I grew older the heat was too much for me!
Fr Tony also got to know former Taoiseach Garrett Fitzgerald, whose brother Fergus worked in Luxembourg, and the Irish Ambassador Valentin Iremonger who was a recognised poet and writer.
AND THEN TO ROME
In 1987, having spent a year in St Gerard’s Parish in Belfast on his return to Ireland, he was summoned to Rome to work as a translator in the Redemptorist general house. He would remain there for 24 years. He describes that time as “a marvellous experience”. “I would love to go back to it, but as I grew older the heat was too much for me!” he laughs.
He quickly became used to living in the Eternal City: “You’d go on business, maybe to buy books at a bookshop near the Vatican,
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and you wouldn’t even bother your head to go into St Peter’s. You were so used to it. It was like going from Marianella, the Redemptorist house in Dublin, to O’Connell Street.
“I used to walk as a rule, but there was a famous bus known as the ‘robbers’ bus’, because if you were standing on it there were professional thieves would rob you. The only hope was to get a seat, you had some chance then. That’s one of my memories, of the famous 16 bus to the Vatican.”
He recalls meeting Pope Benedict XVI, then Cardinal Ratzinger, and also got to know Cardinal Joseph Tobin CSsR when he was General Consultor in Rome in the 1990s.
After he returned from Rome, Fr Tony was stationed in Dundalk for a number of years, before moving to Esker in 2016, where he currently resides – though he’s at pains to stress that he is not ‘retired’. “There’s no retirement for Redemptorists. The only place you retire is into the box when you’re carried down to the cemetery!” he says.
SIGNS OF HOPE
Asked whether he is hopeful for the future of the Redemptorists, he admits the congregation is facing into tough times.
“For instance, when I was a young student the total numbers in one of our American provinces was 830. There’s only about 125 now, and the number of these over 70 would frighten you. So, unless there’s some change, we’re facing a rough period in the congregation,” he says.
However, he says he wouldn’t change anything about his own decision to become a Redemptorist and argues there are signs of hope when we look at the global situation.
“I certainly would do it all again. Our vocation was particularly to be near to people, and to form friendships with the poor and work for the poor. The first advice I would give to any man joining today is the spiritual dimension: he has to pray about it. I had a great devotion to Our Lady of Perpetual Succour before ever I knew the congregation.
“The Italians have a mission in Madagascar
and there are a lot of students from Madagascar coming to Italy. We have tremendous vocations in Vietnam and Indonesia, and I think even our house in Paris is now staffed by Vietnamese Redemptorists.” Very much a ‘European Redemptorist’, Fr Tony is extremely well-travelled, having lived for long periods in several different communities. He also took advantage of the opportunities of travel on the continent. “Luxembourg was the most beautiful country and city, and I thought nothing of taking the train to Paris to our house there. I flew with Russian Airlines into Madrid and spent a while there. I visited Avila; St Alphonsus had a tremendous devotion to St Teresa of Avila. “
His only regret, he says, was having to return from Rome.
“I regret that I had to leave Rome due to the heat! I would have loved to stay there. I have always loved mixing with other nationalities and getting the history of their country. What’s written on paper is hardly ever the truth, but when you get speaking to somebody from the country, they’ll give you the real story.”
Tríona Doherty is a freelance journalist and editor who lives in Athlone. She is a regular contributor to Reality.
