Reality Magazine May 2021

FIRST NATIVE AMERICAN SAINT

MAY 2021

THE SIGNIFICANT ROLE OF PROCESSIONS

��� YEARS OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

MASS ONLINE

LITURGY BEHIND CLOSED DOORS NAPOLEON AND THE CHURCH THE FRAUGHT RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN EMPEROR AND THE PAPACY

FOCOLARE

A NEW PRESIDENT – A NEW ERA?

www.redcoms.org Redemptorist-Communications @RedComsIreland �2.50 �2.00

Redemptorist Communications are proud to present this new book from Jim Deeds, A Look of Love – Witnesses to Jesus.

Deeds brings the stories of Jesus and his early followers to life. Through a series of imagined conversations, stories and poems, he invites the reader to experience familiar Gospel stories through the lens of various characters who witnessed Jesus’ ministry first-hand.

Jim’s love of the Gospels shines through, while his gift for storytelling imbues each of these unique stories with emotion and gentle humour. With questions to encourage further reflection and prayer, this book is the ideal companion for anyone looking for a fresh approach to the Gospels.

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES �� LITURGY:BEHIND CLOSED DOORS What lessons can the pandemic offer for the future of our liturgies?

By Tríona Doherty

�� SOLEMN STEPS Processions play an important role in the life of the church.

By Maria Hall

�� MILESTONE FOR THE PHILIPPINES Celebrating the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines

By Fr Colm Meaney CSsR

�� A STRANGER ON THE ROAD

��

When strangers become neighbours Fratelli Tutti and the Good Samaritan

By Mike Daley

�� THE CRACK THAT LETS THE LIGHT IN Despair and hope in John Williams' 1965 novel Stoner

By Eamon Maher

�� TALES FROM THE FILIPINO COUNTRYSIDE Nothing to fear from a midnight prowler!

By Fr Colm Meaney CSsR

�� TO RUSSIA WITH LOVE Fr Tony Branagan on building up the church in Siberia

By Tríona Doherty

�� EASTERN PROMISE Palestinian president heralds a new era for the Focolare movement.

By Susan Gately

�� NAPOLEON AND THE CHURCH The French Emperor had a difficult relationship with the papacy.

By Fr Michael Collins

��

��

OPINION

REGULARS

11 EDITORIAL

04 REALITY BITES 07 POPE MONITOR 08 FOREVER YOUNG 09 REFLECTIONS 41 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

17 JIM DEEDS 31 CARMEL WYNNE 44 PETER McVERRY SJ

REALITY BITES KNOCK

POPE ELEVATES NATIONAL KNOCK SHRINE TO INTERNATIONAL STATUS Pope Francis has elevated the National Sanctuary of Our Lady of Knock to the status of an International Shrine of Eucharistic and Marian Devotion.

In a message delivered from the Vatican via video link on March 19, the feast of St Joseph, Pope Francis described it as an “important moment in the life of the shrine” and “a great responsibility”.

With all churches in Ireland closed to public worship under Level 5 COVID-19 restrictions,

the pope’s message was relayed to an empty Apparition Chapel at Knock Shrine, where Mass was concelebrated by Archbishop Michael Neary of Tuam and Knock’s rector, Fr Richard Gibbons.

The Mass was live-streamed.

Speaking in Italian, Pope Francis said the designation would mean always having “your arms wide open as a sign of welcome to every pilgrim who may arrive from any part of the world, asking nothing in return but only

recognising him as a brother or a sister who desires to share the same experience of fraternal prayer.”

Paying tribute to the Irish faithful, he said: “You have been a missionary people. We cannot forget how many priests left their homeland in order to become missionaries of the Gospel. Nor can we forget the many lay people who immigrated to faraway lands but still kept their devotion to Our Lady.”

4

INDONESIA

PALM SUNDAY BOMBINGS CONDEMNED BY INDONESIAN PRESIDENT Indonesian President Joko Widodo condemned a bomb attack at a Catholic cathedral after a Palm Sunday Mass that killed two suspects and wounded at least 20 people. “I strongly condemn these acts of terrorism and I have ordered the police chief to thoroughly investigate the perpetrators’ networks and uncover the networks to their roots,” the president said in a statement at the Bogor Presidential Palace, West Java. The attack occurred on March 28 outside Sacred

REALITY MAY 2021

Heart of Jesus Cathedral in Makassar, capital of South Sulawesi province, as church-goers were exiting the cathedral at the start of Holy Week.

Two people drove up to the cathedral on a motorbike and tried to enter through a gate.

Makassar is the fifth-largest urban centre in Indonesia, the world’s most populous Muslimmajority nation. In his statement, Indonesia’s president urged the public to remain calm as they continued to attend places of worship.

N E WS

BELFAST

DIACONATE OF IRISH REDEMPTORIST On Sunday March 21, 2021, Bishop Noel Treanor, Bishop of Down and Connor, ordained Redemptorist Ryan Holovlasky CSsR to the Order of Deacon in Clonard Church, Belfast. It was the culmination of nine years of prayer, study and reflection for Ryan who joined the Redemptorists in 2012. Due to COVID-19 restrictions, the event was streamed live on the Clonard webcam. Deacon Ryan will be ordained to the priesthood later this year.

Fr Ciaran O'Callaghan CSsR, Bishop Noel Treanor, Deacon Ryan Holovlasky CSsR and Fr Peter Burns CSsR, Rector of Clonard Monastery

5

Bishop Treanor and Deacon Ryan outside the closed church of Clonard monastery

The bishop lays his hands on Ryan's head in the ordination to diaconate

Bishop Treanor and the newly-ordained deacon.

IRAQ

DESECRATED STATUE OF MARY RETURNED TO HER ORIGINAL CHURCH A statue of the Virgin Mary that had been desecrated by the Islamic State but was later restored has been returned to its original shrine.

The statue was decapitated and its hands cut off in Karemlesh, a largely Christian town 18 miles east of Mosul, during the Islamic State’s occupation of the villages in the Nineveh Plains from 2014 to 2017. The statue has been partially restored. The original head was found in the rubble when the statue was recovered.

The statue returned to Karemlesh on March 18, and was placed in St Adday church on the following day.

Fr Thabet Habeb, pastor of St Adday, said, “Having her here is a sign of courage and bravery for our people. That everyone can see that the destroyed and restored image returns to the church with a new appearance is a beautiful sign. This encourages them to have courage for the future.”

The statue returns to St Adday Church

REALITY BITES GERMANY

6

BERLIN

SEX ABUSE SCANDAL ROCKS GERMAN CHURCH

HANS KÜNG DIES AT ��

A German cardinal has announced further action following the release of a long-awaited report on the handling of abuse cases in his diocese. Cardinal Rainer Maria Woelki of Cologne told journalists that the 800-page Gercke Report, published on March 18, was just one stage in an ongoing investigation.

Woelki, archbishop of Cologne since 2014, faced calls to resign after the archdiocese controversially declined to publish an earlier report by the Munich law firm Westphal Spilker Wastl. In December 2018, the archdiocese commissioned the firm to examine personnel files from 1975 onwards to determine “which personal, systemic or structural deficits were responsible in the past for incidents of sexual abuse being covered up or not being punished consistently”. After lawyers for the archdiocese raised concerns about deficiencies in the law firm’s study, Woelki asked criminal law expert Professor Björn Gercke to write a new report.

The Gercke Report, formally known as the Independent Investigation into the Handling of Sexualised Violence in the Archdiocese of Cologne, examined 236 files covering the period from 1975 to 2018 to identify failures and violations of the law, as well as those responsible for them. Speaking at the press conference on March 23, Woelki said it was necessary to introduce a reform eliminating contradictions between the guidelines of the German bishops’ conference and canon law, and to change a canonical practice that sometimes viewed abuse cases primarily as a breach of the vow of celibacy.

Fr Hans Küng, the prominent and sometimes controversial Swiss Catholic theologian, died peacefully in his sleep in the university town of Tübingen, Germany, where he had lived and lectured since 1960, said a spokesman for his Global Ethic Foundation. He was 93.

Fr Küng was one of the most outspoken Catholic theologians and one of the sharpest critics of St John Paul II and Pope Benedict XVI. He had worked and studied with Pope Benedict, then Fr Joseph Ratzinger, in Tübingen in the 1960s.

Along with Fr Ratzinger, Fr Küng was one of the youngest theological experts advising bishops at the Second Vatican Council in 1962-65, but not long after the council he stirred controversy with his views on papal infallibility.

Because of this he had his missio canonica, the licence needed to teach Roman Catholic theology, withdrawn in 1979 and was no longer allowed to teach as a Catholic theologian at Catholic universities. Thereafter, he became professor of ecumenical theology in Tübingen, until his retirement in 1996.

Hans Küng remained a Catholic priest.

ROME

SOLIDARITY NEEDED TO REDUCE DEBT OF POOR NATIONS, POPE TELLS WORLD BANK Poor countries cannot be expected to recover from the current financial crisis if the world returns to an economic model in which a small minority of people owns half of the world’s wealth, Pope Francis has said.

In a message to participants at the World Bank Group and International Monetary Fund 2021 virtual spring meetings from April 5-11, the pope said that despite “our deeply held convictions that all men and women are created equal, many of our brothers and sisters in the human family, especially those at the margins of society, are effectively excluded from the financial world.”

“If we are to come out of this situation as a better, more humane and solidary world, new and creative forms of social, political and economic participation must be devised, sensitive to the voice of the poor and committed to including them in the building of our common future,” he said.

Although countries are formulating their own recovery plans, the pope wrote, there is a need for a global plan to create new institutions to advance “the integral human development of all peoples”.

Using his message to repeat his call for debt forgiveness for poorer countries, the pope’s appeal coincided with the launch on April 7 of a campaign by the Vatican’s COVID-19 commission calling for debt relief in Africa, where the situation of many countries has worsened because of the pandemic.

Poor nations, the pope said, not only must have “an effective share in decision-making and facilitating access to the international market” but also a significant reduction in their debt.

REALITY MAY 2021

ARMAGH

IRISH BISHOPS LAUNCH SYNODAL PATHWAY WEBSITE SUPPORT As an aid to preparation for the proposed synod of the Irish Church, the Irish Bishops’ Conference has launched a website offering information and background on the project.

It can be accessed at https://www.catholicbishops.ie/synod/

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS POPE HIGHLIGHTS RISE IN CLIMATE-CAUSED MIGRATION Pope Francis has said that when people are driven from their homes because they have become uninhabitable, it might look like a process of nature, something inevitable. But the deteriorating climate is very often the result of poor choices and destructive activity that set humankind at odds with creation, our common home. Francis was speaking at the launch of Pastoral Orientations on Climate Displaced People, issued by the Vatican’s office for Migrants and Refugees. The guidelines are

intended to help bishops’ conferences, religious congregations, Catholic organisations, pastors, and all Catholics in pastoral planning and development programmes for the assistance of climate-displaced persons.

Pope Francis said the document is an invitation to all people of goodwill to broaden how they look at this drama of our time.

We must acknowledge that there exists a strong nexus between the climate crisis and displacement of people.

POPE CUTS SALARIES Pope Francis has cut the salaries of some employees as a way to contain costs after the Vatican’s budget projected a deficit of $60 million in 2021.

The pope said that cardinals paid by the Vatican would have their salaries cut by 10 per cent According to Italian media, cardinals in the Roman Curia receive a monthly stipend of around $6,000 from the Holy See.

In his March 23 apostolic letter, Pope Francis said that these actions were necessary for an economically sustainable future at the Vatican.

The pope said that the decision to reduce some salaries was made due to the ongoing deficit at the Holy See, which has been worsened by the coronavirus pandemic and its impact on some of the Vatican’s revenue

sources. One of the main sources of income for the Holy See is the Vatican Museums, which were forced to close for a large part of 2020 and the beginning of 2021.

The pope said that the measures were intended to prevent the need to cut jobs.

Pope Francis has often reiterated his commitment to not ending employment, especially for lay employees, at the Vatican.

7

PANDEMIC EASTER CEREMONIES

Social distancing was observed at all the Holy Week ceremonies

The pope surrounded by masked bishops attending the Easter Vigil

Pope Francis gives his Urbi Et Orbi blessing inside St Peter's

FOREVER YOUNG SAINTS WHO DIED YOUNG

8

ST KATERI TEKAKWITHA 1656–1680

Reality

Her Native American name, Tekakwitha, means 'She who bumps into things': Kateri, a form of Catherine, was given to her when she was baptised.

Her mother was an Algonquin who was baptised by a Jesuit missionary. She was captured by the Mohawks and married a Mohawk chief. When Kateri was four years old, an outbreak of smallpox wiped out her entire family. Kateri also contracted the disease, which badly scarred her face and affected her sight. To hide her blemished skin, she wore a blanket. She was adopted by an uncle who was chief of the Mohawk clan.

It was a time of conflict between the new colonisers and the Native Americans. In 1666, the French attacked and burned the Mohawk villages, destroying their homes and plantations. Tekakwitha, around ten years old, fled with her family into the forest.

Like all Native American girls, she was trained in women's traditional skills, including making clothing from animal skins, weaving mats and baskets from reeds and grasses, preparing food, and gathering produce. With the other women, she took part in the planting of crops. By the age of 13, the question of finding a husband for her arose.

She resisted all her relatives' attempts to arrange a marriage for her.

At this time, Jesuit missionaries were reaching out to the Native Americans. When she was about 18, Tekakwitha met a Jesuit who visited her village. She told him of her desire to become a Christian. He encouraged her to study the Catechism. About two years later, he decided she was ready to become a Christian. He baptised her, giving her the name Kateri, the Native American form of her patron, St Catherine of Sienna.

Some of her people opposed her baptism and accused her of witchcraft. Other converts had gone to a Catholic settlement for safety, and after about a year, Kateri joined them.

It was about this time that Kateri first heard about nuns and decided to consecrate herself to God. One of the priests wrote that Kateri declared one day: "I have deliberated enough. For a long time, my decision on what I will do has been made.

I have consecrated myself entirely to Jesus, son of Mary. I have chosen Him for husband and He alone will take me for wife."

Some of the women converts wanted to form a group of disciples, but the Jesuits told them that as recent converts, they should wait a while. Meanwhile, Kateri lived a life of prayer and penance.

While in her early 20s, her health began to fail. She died in the arms of her friend Marie-Thérèse on the afternoon of Spy Wednesday, April 17, 1680. She was about 23 or 24. Her final words were, "Jesus, Mary, I love you."

After her death, it was noticed that her face, which had for so long been marked with smallpox scars, was transformed and became so beautiful and fair that everyone remarked on it.

Kateri's holiness became known first in the region where she died, but her story spread. American and Canadian bishops encouraged the cause of her canonisation in the 1880s. Pope Pius XII declared her venerable in 1943. She was beatified as Catherine Tekakwitha in 1980 by Pope John Paul II. She was canonised on October 21, 2012 by Pope Benedict XVI. Her feast day is July 14. She is regarded as the patron of ecology.

Brendan McConvery CSsR

Volume 86. No. 4 May 2021 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960

REALITY MAY 2021

Published by The Irish Redemptorists, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Acting-Editor Gerard Moloney CSsR editor@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Accounts Dearbhla Cooney accounts@redcoms.org Printed by W&G Baird Printers, Belfast Photo Credits Shutterstock, Catholic News Agency, Trócaire,

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Promoters: We keep all of our promoters in our prayers and thank them for their loyal service in selling Reality.

We remember in our prayers sick and deceased promoters and their families.

REFLECTIONS There is no danger of developing eye strain from looking on the bright side of things.

JOYCE MEYER

If you smile when no one else is around, you really mean it.

ANDY ROONEY

Let us always meet each other with a smile, for the smile is the beginning of love.

ST TERESA OF CALCUTTA

It's not what you are that holds you back, it's what you think you are not.

DENIS WAITLEY

Racism should never have happened and so you don’t get a cookie for reducing it.

Every great and commanding movement in the annals of the world is the triumph of enthusiasm. Nothing great was ever achieved without it.

The first step in the acquisition of wisdom is silence, the second listening, the third memory, the fourth practice, the fifth teaching others.

RALPH WALDO EMERSON

SOLOMON IBN GABRIOL

Failure is the opportunity to begin again, more intelligently.

Be not afraid of life. Believe that life is worth living, and your belief will help create the fact.

HENRY JAMES

Faced with changing one's mind, or proving that there is no need to do so, most people get busy on the proof.

JOHN KENNETH GALBRAITH

You are as young as your faith, as old as your doubt; as young as your self-confidence, as old as your fear; as young as your hope, as old as your despair.

DOUGLAS MACARTHUR

DANNY THOMAS

No-one is born hating another because of the colour of his skin, or his background, or his religion. People must learn to hate, and if they can learn to hate, they can be taught to love, for love comes more naturally to the human heart than its opposite.

NELSON MANDELA

CARL W. BUECHNER

HENRY FORD

CHIMAMANDA NGOZI ADICHIE

All of us are born for a reason, but all of us don't discover why.

Success in life has nothing to do with what you gain in life or accomplish for yourself. It's what you do for others.

They may forget what you said, but they will never forget how you made them feel.

A smile is a language that even a baby understands.

MONICA DIAMOND

Old minds are like old horses: you must exercise them if you wish to keep them in working order.

JOHN QUINCY ADAMS

Having moved to a new area, I was eager to meet people. One day I struck up a conversation with the only other woman in the gym. Pointing to two men playing squash, I said, “There’s my husband. The thin one - not the fat one.” After an uncomfortable silence, she replied, “That’s mine – the fat one.”

UNKNOWN

Dreams come a size too BIG so we can grow into them.

JOSIE BISSETT

Love life, engage in it, give it all you've got.

Love it with a passion, because life truly does give back, many times over, what you put into it!

MAYA ANGELOU

The big secret in life is that there is no secret.

Whatever your goal, you can get there if you’re willing to work.

OPRAH WINFREY

Do one thing every day that scares you.

ELEANOR ROOSEVELT

9

EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT GERARD MOLONEY CSsR

A POST-PANDEMIC CHURCH

At

first, celebrating the liturgy behind closed church doors is a jolting experience for the priest. There is the emptiness and the eerie silence – the sense of talking to oneself. Without the warmth, the sounds, the engagement that’s generated even by a small congregation in the pews, the celebrant feels disconcerted. Ill at ease.

And even though the celebrant adjusts over time, there is no escaping the unnaturalness of liturgies behind closed doors. It runs counter to how liturgies are supposed to be celebrated.

Lockdown liturgies have been just as disconcerting for those who usually occupy the pews. Life-long habits have been disrupted. People miss being able to actively celebrate the sacraments and receive holy communion as well as the sense of community and solidarity that they feel in church. Even though they are grateful for online liturgies, something impossible even 20 years ago, these are no substitute for the real thing. Closed church doors have been a source of pain for priests and people alike.

It has been a time of hardship from which recovery will be slow.

What kind of recovery there will be is the question. Undoubtedly, a cohort of committed Catholics will return to Mass and the sacraments once the restrictions have been lifted. They will be thrilled to be able to do so. But not everyone will return. Some will be worried about the risk of infection; others will be happy to continue to 'get' Mass online.

It's safer and far less hassle to participate remotely from the comfort of one's home or bed than go to the trouble of attending in person.

Also, during the lockdown, many people shopped around online for a liturgy that suited them. Once they found a church or a liturgy or a time they liked, they tended to stick with it, even if that liturgy was being

celebrated at the other end of the country or the other end of the world. Convenience and comfort, as well as the quality of the liturgy, were the determining factors. Even if they can now return to their own parish, they may feel more attached to the one they have discovered on the web. Local loyalties may not be strong enough to lure them back to their old parish.

But we are talking here only about a minority of people. Far more likely there will be no rush back to church. Many former worshippers won’t bother to return. The sense of duty or obligation or force of habit that took them to church in the past has been broken. Once broken, it will not be restored.

What had been an inexorable decline in church attendance over the past 30 years will have become a stampede. Whole families will be lost. The post-pandemic parish, like the post-pandemic world at large, will look very different to that which existed before. This has tremendous implications for the church.

How does one maintain or build a sense of parish and Christian community if regular church attendance has collapsed? How does a community hand on the faith? How will parishes and dioceses get by on sharplyreduced incomes? Church closures and the merging of parishes will become even more commonplace.

It's not all doom and gloom. Clergy and liturgists have been introduced to the power of the internet. Many parishes did not have a strong online presence in the pre-lockdown era. Some had scarcely any at all. Now, most recognise the need to use the internet and social media to reach out to their people and as a means of evangelisation. They have become aware of the internet's vast potential. But if the liturgy isn't attractive, if the preaching isn't effective, if there isn't an option for active engagement by

those participating online, then online communities will also begin to fade away, and few will be left to hear the good news either in person or on the web. The future will be bleak indeed.

As we prepare for a synod of the Irish church, we need to look at how we can be more effective witnesses to the Gospel in the third decade of the 21st century and what committed church members can do online and in person to renew and revitalise this frail and precious broken church of ours.

11

Gerard Molonry CSsR Acting Editor

C OVE R STO RY

LITURGY

12

ONLINE LITURGIES HAVE BECOME COMMONPLACE OVER THE PAST YEAR AS OUR CHURCHES WERE EITHER CLOSED TO PUBLIC WORSHIP OR RESTRICTED TO LIMITED NUMBERS. CLERGY AND OTHERS IN MINISTRY HAVE BEEN ON A STEEP LEARNING CURVE, AS THEY MASTERED NEW WAYS OF REACHING OUT TO THEIR CONGREGATION. WHAT ARE THE IMPLICATIONS FOR THE FUTURE OF OUR LITURGIES?

BY TRÍONA DOHERTY

“The

revolution taking place in communications media and in information technologies represents a great and thrilling challenge; may we respond to that challenge with fresh energy and imagination as we seek to share with others the beauty of God."

REALITY MAY 2021

Writing in 2014, not long after his election, Pope Francis emphasised the importance for the church of engaging modern methods of communication in the task of spreading the Gospel. This has been one of his favourite topics over the years, and he has spoken

regularly on the positives and pitfalls of digital and social media. Little did he, or any of us, know what was ahead!

Fast forward six years to March 2020, and 11 million people tuned in to watch Pope Francis deliver a special live-streamed Urbi

BEHIND CLOSED DOORS et Orbi blessing in an empty St Peter's Square as the ravages of the coronavirus pandemic spread throughout the world. "Thick darkness has gathered over our squares, our streets and our cities; it has taken over our lives, filling everything with a deafening silence and a distressing void," he said. The stark image of the pope alone on the steps of St Peter's Basilica was a sign of things to come, and is mirrored in many of our churches up to the present day.

Zoom, Facebook Live, webcams, and other online platforms have become second nature for many people as the church embraced new technologies to bring liturgy into our homes. Masses and services were live-streamed, prayer groups met online, talks and retreats proved popular, and creativity flowed. We enjoyed anecdotes of priests sticking photos of their parishioners to the pews as they celebrated Mass, or embarking on 'pedal pilgrimages' around the parish to check on those isolated at home.

And yet, many feel the loss of church

attendance deeply. They miss receiving holy communion, participating fully in the liturgy, and connecting with their parish community. Much debate has arisen on the difference between 'digital worship' and physical presence in church. There is a sense that this is a period of change for the church, perhaps a golden opportunity to take stock and plan ahead. When we return to our church buildings, what will have changed?

More importantly, what needs to change?

The stark image of the pope alone on the steps of St Peter's Basilica was a sign of things to come, and is mirrored in many of our churches up to the present day RISING TO THE CHALLENGE In the early days of the pandemic, the focus was on organising the appropriate technology.

Many churches now have webcams, and parish personnel have mastered the camera

13

C OVE R STO RY

angles, lighting and sound necessary to broadcast a Livestream. There has been a conscious effort in many places to move away from the more 'clericalised' liturgies we saw at the start of the pandemic and increase the involvement and visibility of laypeople (in accordance with number restrictions).

A recent survey by the National Centre for Liturgy found that one of the key challenges faced by people of faith was the loss of "full, active, conscious" participation in liturgical celebrations. There was also a keen sense of loss around the sacraments of initiation, weddings and funerals, as well as an awareness of the challenge of "keeping a praying community praying."

by all – were the gathering of people for worship, the sign of peace, Communion under both kinds, congregational singing, the choir and the exercise of many in various ministries."

Maria Hall, who works at diocesan, parish and school level giving formation in liturgy and ministry, says that while technology enabled many people to attend Mass spiritually, it excluded others, especially the elderly who might not be able to go online.

"The weekly newsletter and Mass sheet has been a lifeline for those shielding at home.

There is definitely a place for live-streaming services. It will be a godsend for those who are physically unable to make it to church, but in

Maria. "The signs and symbols have been massively compromised. All the things that have been disallowed are those which lift our hearts – music, processions, incense, holy water, lay ministries. When we are permitted, these all need to come back in abundance."

'GETTING' MASS? The increase in 'digital worship' has prompted a re-examination for many people of what worship and liturgy mean to them. If, for example, our engagement with liturgy is reduced to 'getting Mass', an expression that is not uncommon in Ireland, then in effect, it makes no difference if we tune in to our local parish church or a church in New York or

"The widespread experience with digital worship means that the traditional style of worship, once deemed to be normal, can no longer be taken to be the norm"

14

Former director of the National Centre for Liturgy, Fr Patrick Jones, says that there were positive developments despite the many challenges. "For example, First Communion and Confirmation often took place in small groups and were very much appreciated without having some of the trappings, and parishes streamed liturgies, prayer services and reflective times. But for many people, it's the Mass that matters. In the survey, I was delighted to see among the losses felt by people – though, I might add, not necessarily REALITY MAY 2021

the future, no elderly or sick person should be without access to the Mass online. I've been acting as cantor at funerals in a neighbouring parish. Thanks to live-streaming, those who weren't able to attend could join in online. This included a daughter who couldn't return home from Mexico and had to watch her mother's funeral on the internet."

In addition, it is worth remembering that "we experience God in liturgy through 'signs perceptible to the senses.' But public Masses have been reduced to the minimum," says

Tokyo. There are websites listing all the liturgies being celebrated at any given time, and we are free to pick one that suits. The result can be a feeling of distance and disconnectedness from the worshipping community.

Fr Thomas R. Whelan, Spiritan missionary, was Associate Professor of Theology at the Milltown Institute and now serves on a panel of lecturers at the National Centre for Liturgy, Maynooth. In a recent article in Anaphora liturgical journal, he pointed out that if we consider liturgy "something to be got", it becomes just one among many options on offer. For younger generations in particular, who are used to engaging online, digital worship may seem easier in place of "a personal and corporeal encounter".

"The widespread experience with digital worship means that the traditional style of worship, once deemed to be normal, can

no longer be taken to be the norm. Freed from the usual spatio-temporal constraints of traditional 'offline' worship, one is no longer tied to one's own local assembly. This addresses the need for 'convenience', a key characteristic in a postmodern world where even church is considered to be yet another 'service provider' and worship, a commodity," argues Professor Whelan.

Fr Thomas O'Loughlin, Professor Emeritus of Historical Theology at the University of Nottingham, feels that the pandemic has exposed gaps in our understanding of liturgy.

"When the liturgy was reformed in 1970, there was no concerted effort in many countries, including Ireland, to say how different the new liturgy was from the old, except that it was in English. After the pandemic, the poor development of liturgy over the last 50 years will come back to haunt us," he says. "Irish congregations are still quite passive. The priest is the presider at Mass, but we are all celebrants; we are not there as secondary participants. The basis of liturgy is baptism, not holy orders.

"During the pandemic, people realised they could 'get Mass' on Zoom and they didn't see any problem. But one of the things we've all realised is how much we need other human beings. We've rediscovered how important it is to eat and drink together; we are fed up of eating alone. The challenge after the pandemic will be to give people a genuine human experience in church – sitting down, taking off our coats, asking questions, sharing memories. Before the pandemic, how many parishes were giving the cup to people? How many were sharing a loaf and saying 'This is our meal for today'?"

CHRIST PRESENT Since church closures began, many Catholics have felt deeply the pain of separation from the real presence of Christ in the Eucharist. We have been introduced to the concept of 'spiritual communion, by which the church teaches that we are united by the Holy Spirit when it's not possible to share the Body and Blood of Christ sacramentally. A prayer to this effect is included in many online liturgies:

"We have an opportunity now to explore other ways of real presence when we can't personally and physically receive Eucharist" Since I cannot now receive you sacramentally, come at least spiritually into my heart.

I embrace You as if you were already there, and I unite myself wholly to You. (St Alphonsus Liguori) However, the current crisis also provides an opportunity to examine how we encounter Christ's presence. "The presence of Christ is not confined to the Eucharist," says Professor Whelan.

"We have an opportunity now to explore other ways of real presence when we can't personally and physically receive Eucharist. Church has always taught that Christ is really present also in the Word of God in scripture when this is read, and also really present when two or three are gathered in his name (Mt 18:20), and in the poor, the hungry, those on the margins (Mt 25).

"No one is talking about the broader understanding of worship – it is all about can we get into churches. We have an extremely narrow view of what worship is. Worship starts with how we treat other people. Worship that does not

reach out to those on the margins is not true worship!"

This view echoes the words of St John Chrysostom (c. 347-407): 'Do you wish to honour the body of the Saviour? Do not despise him when you see him covered in rags: after having honoured him in the church with silk clothing, do not let him suffer outside from cold and nakedness. He who said 'This is my body has also said: 'You have seen me hungry, and you did not give me to eat. … Of what importance is it that the table of Christ sparkles brilliantly with chalices of gold if he himself is dying from hunger? First, take care of his needs and then, at your pleasure, enhance his table with that which is left over. Otherwise, you offer him a chalice of gold and refuse him a drink of cold water!'

(John Chrysostom, Homily 50 on Matthew, 3-4) In addition to focusing on the issue of church closures, perhaps now is an opportune time

15

C OVE R STO RY

to engage more fully with some of the wider social issues that have arisen. . Fr Liam Tracey OSM, Professor of Liturgy at St Patrick's College Maynooth, says there are pressing questions of justice that must be addressed at this time: "A poor health service, the congregating of old and vulnerable people in crowded settings, low pay, the status of many frontline workers, are all issues that are not unrelated to the pandemic and our response.

"The response of church leadership, from what I can see, is limited to the issue of opening or closing of churches for public worship. I have not heard anyone apart from Bishop Michael Router [Auxiliary Bishop of Armagh] on nursing homes address any of these issues. What about financial support for those asked to self-isolate? Many are from low-income groups, Travellers or in direct provision. If you look at some of the highest areas for incidence of COVID-19 they are also some of the poorest areas in the county."

16

TIME OF CHANGE The survey by the National Centre for Liturgy highlighted many positives that have arisen from the pandemic. Among these was a new awareness that the celebration of the Eucharist is something that is really cherished, and a deeper appreciation of people as the community and Body of Christ. Another was an increase in family prayer, as families gathered at home for liturgy.

Many families, particularly those with younger children, felt that gathering at the kitchen table on a Sunday morning – the same table where they eat, play and do school work – has opened their eyes to new connections between liturgy and life.

The survey also reported greater numbers

"Keeping the doors of our churches open also means keeping them open in the digital environment so that people, whatever their situation in life, can enter, and so that the Gospel can go out to reach everyone. We are called to show that the church is the home of all."

(Pope Francis, Message for the 48th World Communications Day, 2014)

REALITY MAY 2021

of people engaging in spirituality, with online platforms reaching more participants than before, including those who would not usually attend church.

Even when churches re-open, it seems certain that social distancing and maskwearing will continue to be part of our lives for some time. Because there may be limits on the numbers allowed into churches, we will continue to celebrate liturgy in a 'blended' way. Online liturgies are certainly here to stay – though it is difficult to predict how the experiences of this time will impact the church in the long run. The church will need to continue to tailor its ministry to the digital age, and we are only in the early stages of that process. Whereas webcams and Facebook Live allow people to access liturgy, they are not interactive in the way that Zoom is, for example. Therefore, might it be preferable to tailor online liturgies to a smaller number of participants who can prepare readings, respond to the prayers, and engage actively with the priest and other members of the congregation?

have been in play in Ireland since the 1970s. Now, suddenly, they are visible."

While there are fears that some of those who were previously church-goers may not return to worship, others believe a new model of church

"The response of church leadership, from what I can see, is limited to the issue of opening or closing of churches for public worship"

LOOKING FORWARD Professor O'Loughlin feels some people may find it difficult to return to a relatively passive role in the liturgy. "People have had an experience of praying and listening to homilies online, and one of the interesting things is that people are witnessing different types of worship, including women's ministry. The demand for women to have a meaningful place is not a minority interest. The biggest reason young women leave the Catholic Church is they take one look at ministry and see they are not an equal. If you go into any ecumenical situation, there are women in leadership."

He believes the pandemic has accelerated changes that were already underway in the church.

As an example, he points to the 'domestic church' movement, which has been growing for several years but has been further embraced during the past year thanks to platforms like Zoom. "The church can ignore this, or we can say it's a really good development and we should be helping it and directing resources to it. People will look back and see everything as being caused by the pandemic, but it has simply sped up changes that

will emerge with renewed zeal for the Gospel.

Maria Hall believes we are faced with tremendous opportunities over the coming months to renew parish life. "The re-set button can be pressed.

The worst thing would be to slip back into old ways. Use this time to take a fresh look. It's often difficult to make changes in parish life ('because we've always done it like this, Father!'). I'm already booked to work in one deanery where Lectors and Extraordinary Ministers of Holy Communion will have formation and practical training before they resume their duties. The same can be done with music. Introduce singing the Entrance Antiphon and the dialogues; bring parish musicians together to share responsibilities. Put the needs of the liturgy before personal preferences!"

She also recommends that the Ministry of Welcome, introduced in many places to limit numbers and maintain social distance in church, be continued. "I hope things won't be the same again. I hope we take a fresh look at all aspects of parish life – liturgy, community, communication, outreach, evangelisation. And all this can't be done by the priest alone. Lay collaboration and using the gifts and talents within the parish are vital for a healthy church in the future."

Tríona Doherty is a freelance journalist and editor who lives in Athlone. She is a regular contributor to Reality.

COM M E N T WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS

CHANGE IS COMING

WE MUST ALL GET INVOLVED NOW IN HELPING TO SHAPE A NEW FUTURE FOR THE CHURCH AND FOR THE WORLD. I recall a Gospel story in Luke 13 where Jesus is speaking to people in parables. In one story, he tells them of a fig tree that is not producing fruit. Surely, such a tree is to be judged harshly and ripped up?

The owner of the land in the story certainly feels this way. But Jesus had another way of looking at it.

Speaking as the man in the story who tends the fig tree and who knows and loves it best, he says to the landowner, "Don't rip it up.

Leave it another year. Nurture it and it may bear fruit."

The people of his day would have had an image of God who would have just ripped the tree up. But, using this parable, Jesus told them of another image of God; God who would leave it another year, and another year, and another year for the fig tree to be cared for and to bear fruit. This was quite a revolution for the people of his day.

The Lord is compassion and love.

And the Gospel is good news.

Jesus used what was around the people as examples in his parables, hence the fig tree. Where I live in West Belfast, there are not many fig trees. However, in the times before the pandemic, I was lucky enough to go to Portugal each summer on holiday. When there, there is a route through the countryside that I regularly walk. I have chosen the route carefully because along the way, there is a big fig tree where I can stop and rest and pray in its shade. I can also eat some of its fruit.

The shade and the fruit sustain me on my journey and ready me to set off again. Going to Portugal has taught me about fig trees – they are wonderful things!

It strikes me that the church is called to be like a fig tree – caring for and sustaining all who come to find shelter there. My friend, the fig tree in Portugal, does not ask me anything about my 'credentials' or my 'doctrinal observance'. The fig tree does not ask me about my rigour when it comes to keeping rules. The fig tree just cares for me, a weary traveller. Because of this, I have come to love that fig tree, and I have come to understand God a little more as I rest and pray under its shade. In fact, I have brought others to that fig tree to show them how good it is and how it cares so much for the weary traveller in us all.

So, I think that the church should be like that fig tree. But is the church like that? Well, yes, in many ways, it is. The church provides care, sustenance, guidance and service of all kinds. It always has, and it always will.

Now, a challenging question arises for me: can the church be like the fig tree in Jesus's parable – not producing enough fruit? Well, yes, that can also be said to be true. It, too, must produce more

fruits of welcome, sustenance and bringing people to know God. The church, too, needs to be tended to and nurtured in this regard. There are many who would just rip it up. While I want to understand where these people are coming from, I disagree with them. I love the church. It is part of my family.

Like the fig tree in the parable, we should 'leave it another year' and tend well to it. This means being a critical friend in the coming time, I think.

In my travels around church communities in Ireland before such travel was restricted, and now in my work online with communities across Ireland and beyond, I see that in ways, many things about the church are falling apart. Certainly, lots of the old parts are falling away. We know the story and don't have to rehearse it here too much – fewer priests, smaller congregations, at least a partial inability to talk to younger people, becoming less relevant in a secular society. As I say, we know these things. The experience of the pandemic and the subsequent

restrictions have accelerated the pace of some of these changes, some of this falling apart.

But maybe what we see as a falling apart is simply a pruning back of the 'fig tree'. Perhaps we are being invited into a new future where we lose what is no longer needed or what is getting in the way. I have a feeling it is, and I find that very exciting indeed.

As we dare to dream of a time after continual lockdowns and of the possibility of getting more active in our parishes and church groups again, and if we love the church, we must all get involved now in helping to shape a new future for the church and for the world. We must have conversations in our parishes and dioceses about the function of the church and then act to best serve that function.

We must actively get involved in the process leading to an all-Ireland synod, recently announced by the Bishops' Conference. This is a moment of opportunity and a moment to listen to the Spirit's guidance into a whole new future.

When I go to Mass in Portugal, it is celebrated in a language that I don't speak well. But I am coming to know it, and I feel part of the community. We are learning a new language of church at this time. We'll learn it together. Let's get involved, and together we can be a living church producing good fruit, fruit that lasts. That fig tree will be wonderful.

Belfast man Jim Deeds is a poet, author, pastoral worker and retreat-giver working across Ireland.

17

SOLEMN STEPS Thanks be to God, who always leads us in Christ's triumphal procession and uses us to spread the aroma of the knowledge of him everywhere.

2 Corinthians 2:14

18 Evening procession with candles at the shrine of Lourdes in France

THE MANY KINDS OF LITURGICAL PROCESSIONS PLAY A SIGNIFICANT ROLE IN THE LIFE OF THE CHURCH.

BY MARIA HALL

Processions

have a unique place in the life of the church. And there are more of them than we might think. There are liturgical processions, starting with the Mass: Entry, Gospel, Preparation of the Gifts, Communion and Recessional. Weddings and funerals also have processions. Holy Week has a succession of processions: on Palm Sunday; on Holy Thursday, there are two processions with the holy oils and the Blessed Sacrament; on Good Friday, the veneration of the cross. At the Easter Vigil, there is the procession with the Easter candle. Then there are processions of

REALITY MAY 2021

popular piety, those connected with feast days such as Corpus Christi and Our Lady, as well as the Stations of the Cross and the veneration of relics.

There are many culturally-led celebrations connected with holy places and local or patron saints around the world. All are a demonstration of community identity, public acts of faith.

At this time of the year, we often process outdoors. The weather is better, and we use this opportunity to connect with nature. Flowers, outdoor altars, the sounds of the birds, the singing of hymns – all these stimulate the senses and create a powerful and memorable experience.

Where I live, the traditional May and Corpus Christi processions are no longer popular, but I have vivid childhood memories of parish and school coming together in a powerful parish celebration. These processions marked the feast and the year, and the passing of time.

They connected with processions of the past, remembering those who have gone before us.

CHRISTIAN ORIGINS There are prefigurings of Christian processions in the Old Testament. King David took the Ark of the Covenant to the holy city of Jerusalem. He appointed priests, Levites (temple assistants), singers and musicians to accompany the ark.

There are also some wonderfully visual descriptions of processions in the psalms: Your procession, God, has come into view, the procession of my God and King into the sanctuary.

In front are the singers, after them the musicians;

LIT U R GY

with them are the young women playing the timbrels.

(Psalm 68) The Lord is God, and he has made his light shine on us.

With boughs in hand, join in the festal procession up to the horns of the altar.

(Psalm 118) The ultimate procession is in the Book of Revelation: ‘I saw heaven standing open, and there before me was a white horse, whose rider is called Faithful and True. With justice he judges and wages war. His eyes are like blazing fire, and on his head are many crowns. He has a name written on him that no one knows but he himself. He is dressed in a robe dipped in blood, and his name is the Word of God. The armies of heaven were following him, riding on white horses and dressed in fine linen, white and clean. ‘ (Revelations 19) In the Roman world, victorious kings processed to celebrate victory in battle. The king led a parade of his army, their captives and spoils of war, chiefs and officials, priests carrying images of the gods, to the accompaniment of music, strewing of flowers and burning of incense.

Participants taking part in a procession for the Feast of Corpus Christi, in the streets of Krakow, Poland

In the fourth century, Emperor Constantine allowed public demonstrations of Christian faith. Soon, customs of the imperial processions were adapted to Christian worship. In Jerusalem, pilgrims processed between various holy places during the Holy Week ceremonies. In Rome, processions were an integral part of papal ceremonies, both outside as the pope travelled to stational churches and within the liturgy.

The Ordo Romanus Primus (seventh-eighth century) describes the pope's procession to St Mary Major at Easter:

Religious procession of Orthodox believers with icons, through a field in Vyatka Eparchy, Russia

Lay grooms walk on the right and left of his horse in case it should stumble anywhere.

The following ride on horseback in front of the pope; the deacons, the chancellor and the two district notaries…the following ride behind the pope's horse; the pope's vicar, the sacristan, the treasurer and the secretary. One of the acolytes from the stational church walks in front of the pope's horse, carrying in his hand the sacred chrism in its vessel wrapped in a cloth.

CORPUS CHRISTI The Middle Ages were the heyday of processions, and many of our traditions date back to this era.

The laity had minimal access to or participation in the liturgy, and a trend of unworthiness amongst the faithful meant they rarely received holy communion. Just to see the consecrated host (ocular communion) was enough. This was the era of Eucharistic devotion.

St Juliana of Liège (b. 1192) was a Norbertine nun who had a repeated dream of the sky, in which the moon appeared with a dark blemish.

Christ revealed to her in a vision that the moon was the church, and the blemish was the absence of a particular feast. And so Corpus Christi was founded in 1246.

Though not part of the original liturgy, an outdoor procession soon became commonplace. After all, it was a summer feast! continued on page 21

19

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LI T U R GY

Making a temporary dyed sawdust Palm Sunday procession carpet outside La Merced church, Antigua, Guatemala

The council of Sens in 1320 decreed: "Around the solemn procession which takes places on the Thursday after Pentecost octave, clergy and laity should attend the carrying of the said sacrament which was instituted by divine inspiration, and we hereby enjoin that nothing in the devotion …should be left out."

Besides religious communities, towns and villages across Europe readily adopted the custom and made it their own. In England and Germany, there was the custom of beating the boundaries.

The procession stopped at all important places (mills, bridges, crosses and trees) and blessed each in turn. The Blessed Sacrament was also carried through the fields to bless the crops.

In 1407, in Montpellier when the plague struck, the Blessed Sacrament was carried through the town's streets.

The English mystic Marjory Kempe arrived in Wilsnak, Germany, for the Eucharistic processions and could only find a bed of straw to sleep on, such were the numbers of people who had arrived for the event.

In many places, the processional route was strewn with sawdust, grass, and flowers, and bells were rung. In 15th-century Salisbury, the ringers were paid with breakfast and beer to keep the bells going! Flags, banners, torches and canopies were very important and were fashioned at great expense. The focus was the Blessed Sacrament, carried by the priest either in a tabernacle or

monstrance. There are images of priests and acolytes in Italy wearing garlands of red roses on their heads.

Fraternities and guilds (goldsmiths, blacksmiths, haberdashers, carpenters, joiners, wheelwrights) all took their place, which in some places caused serious problems, even lawsuits and riots. The order in which you processed was considered extremely important.

In many places, at the end of the procession there was a parish picnic.

Volume 1 of The Roman Ritual (1614) was dedicated to 'The Sacraments and Processions'.

It included processions for specific emergencies - famine, plague, war, to ask for rain, to ask for fine weather, and there was one for general calamities.

Today, many countries worldwide celebrate religious feasts with spectacular processions. Like the medieval celebrations, they are shaped by local culture. In Brazil, people use coloured sawdust and flowers to create a patterned carpet on the roads of the route. In Poland, Corpus Christi is a public procession, and they decorate the roads and dress in national costume. On the lakes of Bavaria, the Blessed Sacrament is taken across the waters on decorated boats.

MARIAN PROCESSIONS Though our devotions to Mary date back to the early church, processions are relatively modern.

In the eighth century, Pope Sergius I (liturgical

reformer and noted for adding the Agnus Dei to the Mass) introduced processions on Our Lady's major feasts. The Feast of the Assumption was the focal point for many cultures honouring Mary in their own ways. In Italy, the Bowing Procession is still held. A statue of Mary is carried through the streets under an arch of garlands and flowers, and it meets a statue of Christ. They are tilted towards each other three times as if bowing. Then Christ leads his Mother back to the church (symbolising leading her into eternal glory) where there is solemn benediction.

Modern Marian processions became popular after Mary told St Bernadette at Lourdes: "Go, tell the priests that people should come here in procession and to build a chapel here." We see this in the number of grottos replicated around the world. The liturgies and processions of Lourdes are great models for us to imitate.

Though the message comes from Mary, the focus is always on Christ.

PASTORAL GUIDANCE In their proper form, processions are a manifestation of the faith of the people. Through the streets of this earth, they move towards the heavenly Jerusalem. Whatever the motivation or source of the procession, attention should always be focused on giving praise and thanks to Christ for his saving work for us. The Eucharist and the liturgy are always our goal.

Here are some guidelines: •Processions of any nature should be orientated towards the liturgy.

•They should begin with prayer and the Word of God. •Sing hymns to unite those gathered.

•Carry candles if possible.

•Pause along the way to allow for different paces of walking.

•End with praise to God and a blessing.

Maria Hall is music director at St Wilfrid's Church, Preston, England. A qualified teacher, she has a Master’s from the Liturgy Centre, Maynooth and is a consultant on matters liturgical for schools and parishes. www.mariahall.org

21

Milestone

for the Philippines

2021 MARKS THE 500TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE ARRIVAL OF CHRISTIANITY IN THE PHILIPPINES

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

A

memorable quip summarises the Philippines' centuries under different colonial masters: "350 years in a nunnery, followed by 50 years in a brothel".] The explanation is the sequence of Spanish and American regimes. The former was equated with the Christian faith, the Carmelite sisters and the Spanish Catholic heritage. The American presence, especially during the Korean and Vietnam wars, was associated with Filipina women providing sexual relief for the libidinous Yankee soldiers (the Americans had naval and air bases in the country until the leases were not renewed in 1991). The quip is an exaggeration about both colonial powers.

This year marks the 500th anniversary of the arrival of Christianity in the Philippines. It's an interesting story. Of course, long before the Spanish arrived, many native Filipino tribes practised their own ancient beliefs, and Islam also predates Christianity in the country. But the spread of the faith was so widespread that now the archipelago is known as "the only Christian nation in Asia" (East Timor also has a large Catholic majority).

The Spanish galleons sailed into Cebu harbour in 1521. During a skirmish with a local tribe, the Spanish troops, wearing heavy fighting gear, found the shallow waters to be treacherous; the locals were far more adept. The Spanish leader, the legendary Magellan, credited with being the first person to circumnavigate the globe, was killed in the fighting. So the beginnings of Christianity were off to a shaky start, yet in

22

REALITY MAY 2021

time it flourished. Now there are 72 dioceses, and approximately 86 per cent of the 110 million population are Catholic.

RESENTMENT AND REVOLTS In 1521, the Philippines was a colony of Spain.

I think it's fair to say that the foreigners were generally seen as an arrogant, proud race.

Indeed, that was the experience of many of the local clergy over the years. For a long time, Filipino priests could not become bishops and were made to feel like secondclass clergy. Eventually, the heavy-handed rule of Spain became too much. A series of revolts began, culminating in the ousting of the Spaniards in 1898. It wasn't only the political leaders who were expelled, but also many Spanish clergy, mostly religious congregations such as the Franciscans, Carmelites, and Jesuits. Due to in-fighting among the revolutionaries, and some very dubious political chicanery between the USA and Spain, the Americans moved in to become the next colonial power – hence the quip at the start of this article.

Apart from introducing the Christian faith, the Spanish legacy was mainly related to architecture (the Spanish language was never widespread). The towns built in Spanish times all have the same layout.

A central plaza is surrounded by various public buildings: the town hall, parish church, hospital, police barracks, etc. Some of the houses are very elegant in design, as are the churches. Interestingly, in building the churches, labourers used egg whites as

F E AT U R E

emulsifiers between the concrete blocks. The egg whites became a sort of mortar, which bonded and strengthened the structure.

The country was a dependency of America until World War II. During those 50 years, the Americans made a strong impression, most significantly, I would say, during the war. General Douglas MacArthur remains in the Filipino psyche as the liberator par excellence who freed them from Japanese occupation. To this day, any non-Filipino, especially Caucasian, is referred to as an 'Amerikano', and the harmless jeer "Hi Joe" is often heard. Most of its younger users don't realise that it goes back to their grandparents' friendly greetings offered to the arriving US troops. This, in turn, is connected to the US army recruiting slogan 'G.I. Joe', which seems to mean either 'general infantryman' for the soldier, or 'government issue' for his uniform and weapons.

With the expulsion of the Catholic congregations during the uprising and the Americans' subsequent arrival, the door was open for the arrival of Protestant groups.

They started many valiant works (hospitals, universities), which institutions posed problems for Catholics. Up until the 1970s, it remained a live question whether a Catholic could attend a Protestant university.

NEW RELIGIOUS ORDERS Soon, the Vatican began to worry that a good number of Filipinos were joining the new churches. So a request was made for Catholic religious congregations to return to the country. And so, we had the arrival of, for instance, the Redemptorists in 1908, the Divine Word missionaries in 1909, the Columbans in 1929, and many similar groups, both male and female. Of these, the Divine Word missionaries set up many top-class universities around the country; the Columbans did trojan work in many parishes, often in remote areas, while the Redemptorists gave parish missions, established shrines to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, and eventually accepted parishes in some cities. Thus, the Catholic faith was again stabilised, and the quality of

relations with Protestant groups depended on region and personality. In some areas, good cooperation existed. In others, a quote from a French chaplain at a university that also had Protestant chaplains will suffice: when asked to describe ecumenical relations at the university, he replied, "Open warfare!"

A major evaluation of the faith occurred in 1991 at the second Plenary Council of the Philippines (PCP 2). One memorable quotation from the meeting maintained that, overall, the Filipino people had been sacramentalised but not evangelised. In other words, over the centuries, many had been duly baptised as infants and may have been married in church, but they had never really heard the Good News, had never become aware of the challenge and vision of their faith. They had never been taught the connection between the faith they profess and their daily conduct, what obligations their faith places on them. I remember preaching a homily where I pointed out the obvious, that there is a link between our faith and how, for example, an employer might treat his employees in terms of salary, benefits, etc. A churchgoer approached me afterwards and said that it was an insight he had never before realised.

MISLEADING IMPRESSION Seeing the numbers in church on any given Sunday can give visitors to the country the impression that a high percentage of the faithful regularly celebrate their faith. This would be misleading. The percentage of those who regularly attend church may be less than 10 per cent.

Moreover, for all the talk of lay participation or the church of the laity, it is still very much a clerical church. The parish priest is the boss, he's in charge, and the buck stops with him. In quite an unhealthy way, the priest is almost untouchable, almost above the rule of law. Still, there are many hardworking and selflessly devoted priests, and there have been prophetic voices among the clergy and the laity. Among the former was my Redemptorist colleague Fr Rudy Romano, who, because of his strong stance

in support of the poor, was abducted in 1985 and has never been seen since. Another was Fr Neri Satur, murdered in 1991 because of his opposition to illegal logging.

And what about the laity? Could the fact that the only two canonised Filipinos are laymen be the Vatican's none-too-subtle message to the over-clerical Philippine church? Undoubtedly, there have been, and still are, countless Filipinos of a saintly character, as there are in every nation. Still, Lorenzo Ruiz and Pedro Calungsod are the only officially declared Filipino members of the celestial "cloud of witnesses" (Heb 12:1).

Presumably they are interceding daily with the Lord to lessen the stifling clericalism of their native land!

Of course, many more have lost their lives in the cause of peace and justice among the laity. But I would prefer to focus on those lay people who provide a trojan service to their local communities, mainly in the rural areas, many of whom I've met over the years. Their main contribution to the faith community is in leading the Sunday services in their local chapels, sometimes 15 or 20 miles from the parish church. They carry out the liturgy with a solemnity appropriate to the rustic surroundings: a simple wooden chapel, with maybe 10 or 15 participants, mostly women and children; sometimes fewer than ten. If you're looking for numbers, head to the mall or the gambling den; only the die-hards go to the Sunday service. I'm full of admiration for these local church leaders, men and women.

Rain or shine, "in and out of season" (2 Tim 4:2), they fulfil their duty of preaching the word and quenching the spiritual thirst of their hearers, with no recompense apart from the Lord's words that, "Whoever gives even a cup of cold water to one of the least of my followers will surely be rewarded" (Matt 10:42).

A native of Limerick city where he went to school in St Clement’s College, Fr Colm Meaney first went to the Philippines as a student and has spent most of his priestly life there.

23

F R AT E LLI T UT TI

A STRANGER ON THE ROAD

IN CHAPTER TWO OF FRATELLI TUTTI, POPE FRANCIS USES THE STORY OF THE GOOD SAMARITAN AS FOUNDATIONAL FOR CALLING FOR GREATER FRATERNITY AND SOCIAL FRIENDSHIP IN A WORLD MARKED BY INCREASED TRIBALISM AND DIVISION.

24

BY MICHAEL DALEY

A

pproaching the traffic light, I hoped it would stay green, allowing me to continue on my hurried way home. There was another, less charitable reason as well. Just up ahead, a disoriented and dishevelled woman was approaching cars trying, unsuccessfully, to get their attention. She was waving and talking loudly as they passed.

I didn't want to be bothered by her either. I hoped the light would give me that excuse. It didn't cooperate.

As she approached the car, I tried not to make eye contact with her. She leaned in, though,

REALITY MAY 2021

and knocked on the window.

I don't know why I did it, but I put the window down with some odd mixture of obligation, hesitation, and regret. "Hi," she said. "I was wondering if you could take me up to the store for some food and sanitary napkins?"

I knew where she wanted to go. It was just up the street, a few minutes out of my way. But alarm bells were going off in my head. I started to hear echoes of "Don't do this. You'll regret it." For whatever reason, I unlocked the door and let her in the car. As she got ready to sit down, I saw that

my papers and computer were there. She said that she'd hold them, but I politely declined.

For the duration of the trip, I awkwardly and embarrassingly drove with them on my lap.

In our initial conversation, it appeared there were some mental health issues with her.

She told me her name, then asked for mine. She thanked me for picking her up and pointed up the street to where she needed to go. Nervously, I complied. In due time, she questioned me about what I did. "I'm a teacher," I replied. "Where do you teach?” she asked. When I told her, she

responded enthusiastically, "My son goes there." I answered in both pleasant surprise and disbelief, "What's his name?"

When she told me her son's name, the distance between us just melted. Having had him in class the past two years, I knew him well. He'd told me much about his family, especially his grandmother. But not a word about his estranged mother.

Now I knew why. But how quickly fear and hesitation turned to relationship and connection. By that point, we reached the store and said goodbye to one another.

The risk and invitation

of encounter make all the difference. Strangers can become, well, neighbours.

WHO IS MY NEIGHBOUR? It is one of, if not, the most important question we can ask: "What must I do to inherit eternal life?" A lawyer even asks it of Jesus (Luke 10:2537). To make a long set-up short, Jesus replies, "Love God and your neighbour as yourself." Unsure of Jesus' answer, the lawyer pushes further, "And who is my neighbour?"

What does Jesus do? He tells a story about a Good Samaritan.

In Jesus' time, Jews and Samaritans, though so close culturally, were

separated religiously by fear, even hatred, of the other. While we say the words effortlessly today, back then, 'Good' and 'Samaritan' did not go together. Samaritans were considered impure, detestable, and dangerous. You'd never tell a story of someone being rescued, half-dead in a ditch, their care continued to be paid for, and the person doing it–the hero–being a Samaritan. That role was reserved for priests and Levites.

They would never be villains and pass by on the other side–indifferent to someone's suffering and pain. Yet, as he does in so many ways, Jesus flips the script.

In his encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis uses the story of the Good Samaritan as foundational for calling for greater fraternity and social friendship in a world marked by increased tribalism and division.

Inclined to be comforted by this story we've heard countless times, Pope Francis asks, in a prayerfully imaginative way, a challenging question of us all: "Which of these characters do you resemble?"

His response is unsettling: "We need to acknowledge that we are constantly tempted to ignore others, especially the weak. Let us admit that, for all the progress we have made, we are still 'illiterate' when it comes to accompanying, caring for and supporting the most frail and vulnerable members of our developed societies. We have become accustomed to looking the other way, passing by, ignoring situations until they affect us directly." (#64) THE TRUTH OF THE STORY? Rather than allow ourselves to be seen as the Good Samaritan, Francis suggests that it is just as likely that we are the priest, Levite, or "secret allies" of the robbers. Yet, instead

of resigning ourselves to the status quo, the story "summons us to rediscover our vocation as citizens of our respective nations and of the entire world, builders of a new social bond.” (#66) One thing that strikes Pope Francis about the story is that the Good Samaritan gives the injured man something so precious – his time. This alone has much to teach our frenetic world. It has led Marcus Mescher, associate professor of theology at Xavier University and author of the book The Ethics of Encounter: Christian Neighbor Love as a Practice of Solidarity, to wryly observe, "Today I wonder if the Good Samaritan would have seen the man in the ditch because I expect his eyes would be locked into his phone. In this regard, social media has created so many barriers to encounter. It's allowed us to filter away content and contacts that make us uncomfortable. Rather than engage and encounter the world and others, we remain in our siloes with our biases confirmed: the world would be a better place if everyone shared my views and values."

The call of the story is clear – boundaries of indifference must be broken. Compassion and mercy must be extended to all, even the so-called undeserving. Ultimately, when it gets down to it, Pope Francis says that "there are only two kinds of people: those who care for someone who is hurting and those who pass by; those who bend down to help and those who look the other way and hurry off.

Here, all our distinctions, labels and masks fall away: it is the moment of truth. Will we bend down to touch and heal the wounds of others? Will

we bend down and help another to get up? This is today's challenge, and we should not be afraid to face it.” (#70) Francis goes on to say that "this encounter of mercy between a Samaritan and Jew is highly provocative; it leaves no room for ideological manipulation and challenges us to expand our frontiers.

It gives a universal dimension to our call to love, one that transcends all prejudices, all historical and cultural barriers, all petty interests.” (#83)

Pope Francis asks, in a prayerfully imaginative way, a challenging question of us all: "Which of these characters do you resemble?"

In the end, then, we have to be Samaritan. Here, Mescher stresses, "We are called to go out of our way and into the ditch, which requires courage and mercy. This story, however, is the floor, not the ceiling.

Encounter is the first step. The challenge of the story is to create a culture of belonging, inclusion, and interdependence. This requires that we move from unilateral charity that can cultivate dependence to mutual respect, equality and reciprocity, and co-responsibility. Solidarity is ordered to justice and the common good, which requires so much more than embracing a spirit of generosity or hospitality."

Michael Daley is a teacher and writer from Cincinnati, Ohio, where he lives with his wife June and their three children. His latest book, co-authored with scripture scholar, Sr Diane Bergant, is Take and Read: Christian Writers Reflect on Life’s Most Influential Books (Apocryphile Press).

25

F E AT U R E

THE CRACK THAT LETS THE LIGHT IN JOHN WILLIAMS' NOVEL STONER REMINDS US THAT NO MATTER HOW BLEAK THINGS MAY SEEM, THERE IS ALWAYS HOPE IN THE MIDST OF DESPAIR.

BY EAMON MAHER

I

26

reread John Williams' 1965 novel Stoner during the second lockdown last year. One might wonder why I chose this existential reflection on the life of an American academic in the early and middle decades of the 20th century as my preferred reading at that particular time. Well, first, the novel has a particular resonance for the Covid world in which we live. The life of the eponymous hero is restricted to a very narrow geographical, social and intellectual milieu. He got tenure in the university he attended, lived near the campus with his wife and daughter, spent most of his time in the office, the college library, or at home, and only mingled with a very restricted coterie of people, if one excludes the students, with whom he doesn't seem to generally have had a close connection. He would have scored well in terms of limiting his social contacts.

Then there is the fractured state of American society that is well captured by Williams and which mirrors the hotly-contested 2020 presidential election between Donald Trump and Joe Biden happening at the time I was reading the novel. This election demonstrated the extent to which the world's richest country is sharply divided between Republicans and Democrats, who represent conservative and liberal worldviews respectively.

Farmland in Missouri

REALITY MAY 2021

One wonders if the Stoner family would vote for Trump or Biden. My feeling is the parents would have voted for Trump and their son for Biden.

Access to education and a well-paid job open up opportunities to the son that the parents never had.

I was first alerted to Stoner by the fact that John McGahern wrote the Introduction to the 2003 edition of the novel. We will see in due course what elements attracted McGahern to this dark but beautifully-crafted novel, a summary of which is necessary to understand the important issues it broaches.

William Stoner is the only child of a dirt-poor Missouri farming couple, who heads to the state university to study agronomy. However, inspired by the lectures of English Professor Archer Sloane, he abandons his original course to pursue a career devoted to the study and teaching of literature. He is aware that this will cause pain and disappointment to his parents, although neither voices opposition to the decision. We are told that his mother "regarded her life patiently, as if it were a long moment that she had to endure". This stoicism is a trait she passed on to her son William, who will also encounter more than his fair share of setbacks in his personal and professional life. As soon as Stoner tells his

parents of his decision to follow a different path to the one they had planned for him, he begins to doubt himself: "He felt his inadequacy to the goal he had so recklessly chosen and felt the attraction of the world he had abandoned." But deep down, he knows that taking over the farm from his father would be an unenviable task.

The Stoner family doesn't have much by way of material comfort. They diligently work the land and barely manage to eke a living from its dry, unfertile soil. As for their dwelling place, it too is simple: "The house was built in a crude square, and the unpainted timbers sagged around the porch and doors. It had with the years taken on the colors of the dry land – grey and brown, streaked with white."

There appear to be no signs of a genuine religious faith that might help the family endure their unhappy lot in life. The routine consists of rising early, working hard, eating simple meals, sleeping and recommencing the following day. Stoner's father remarks on one particular occasion: "Seems like the land gets drier and harder to work every year; it ain't rich like when I was a boy." One has the impression that it was never rich to start with, which doesn't augur well for future cultivation.

NO FLAIR Stoner's chosen academic career is far from stellar.

He was viewed as being a diligent teacher devoid of any real flair. His colleagues held him in no particular esteem, and few knew him in any depth.

His marriage to the daughter of a successful St Louis banker, Edith, proves to be a disaster, with sexual incompatibility revealing itself as early as on their wedding night. The couple lived largely separate lives after the birth of their daughter, Grace.

Initially, the close relationship between father and daughter was a source of joy to Stoner, but at a certain point, Edith decides it would be more appropriate for her to look after Grace's upbringing – she uses the excuse that Stoner is far too busy with his work to look after a child – so that outlet is also removed from him.

At work, too, he encounters problems when he exposes the limitations of a graduate student, Charles Walker, who attends one of Stoner's seminars and fails. Walker has a physical disability, like his supervisor Holmes Lomax. Having found a way to get his student through the PhD process despite failing Stoner's module, Lomax retains a deep-seated enmity towards his colleague. When Lomax becomes Head of English, he exacts revenge by timetabling Stoner for the most tiresome modules and removing him from graduate seminars. At his father's funeral, Stoner reflects on the toll life inflicted on him: "He thought of the cost extracted, year after year, by the soil: and it remained as it had been – a little more barren perhaps, a little more frugal of increase." His own existence follows a similarly 'barren' trajectory, to the point where he wonders if his life is worth living.

GLIMMER OF HOPE Hope emerges unexpectedly in the form of Katherine Driscoll, an attendee at the same seminar as the one which led to Stoner's fatal altercation with Walker and Lomax. The two embark on a passionate affair which reveals to Stoner, in his 43rd year, "that love is not an end but a process through which one person attempts to know another".

Despite their best efforts at keeping their affair secret, word of the liaison reaches Lomax, who cleverly targets Driscoll's future as an academic in a successful ploy to put an end to the relationship.

The one bright spot in Stoner's life now having been taken from his grasp, "[h]e foresaw the years that stretched ahead, and knew that the worst was yet to come."

Stoner is a novel that reveals the very worst of academic life, where petty jealousies and disagreements can last a lifetime, where people vie with each other for professional advancement and have no qualms when it comes to denigrating rivals who stand in their way. It also shows that one can never compensate for the absence of a loving family and partner, no matter how successful one is professionally. What is especially significant, in my view, is how in later life Stoner comes to realise that one never fully escapes from one's genetic background: Though he seldom thought of his early years on the Booneville farm, there was always near his consciousness the blood knowledge of his inheritance, given him by his forefathers whose liveswerehardandstoicalandwhosecommon ethicwastopresenttoanoppressiveworldfaces that were expressionless and hard and bleak.

REAL HERO When one reads the lines above, it is easy to understand the appeal of Williams' novel to John McGahern, whose novels and short stories similarly foreground how people are moulded by their early experiences, particularly if they are closely connected to the land. McGahern stated somewhat paradoxically in his Introduction that he looked on Stoner as "a real hero", someone who had a sense of the importance of the job he was doing and who "was a witness to values that are important".

Certainly, his life was a bed of roses compared to that of his parents: he was sensitive to the power of literature and worked in a university where he could expand his knowledge and be in the company of young, enthusiastic people. However, my overriding feeling when I reread Stoner was one of intense sadness and frustration that someone should spend his life vainly struggling to find love and meaning in a world that seems bent on foiling him at every turn. At times, you feel like shouting at him to stand up to his detractors, to fight for a better, happier future, but he is not that kind of man.

I agree with McGahern's assessment that Stoner is an exceptional novel. It also has a message for us in the strange times we are currently going through.

There is always hope in the midst of despair. As Leonard Cohen says so beautifully in 'Anthem': "There is a crack in everything, that's how the light gets in."

Eamon Maher's latest book, co-edited with Eugene O'Brien, is Reimagining Irish Studies for the Twenty-First Century, published

by Peter Lang.

27

TALES FROM THE FILIPINO COUNTRYSIDE

DID A MYSTERIOUS LIGHT IN THE DEAD OF NIGHT MEAN THAT THE END WAS NEAR? 28

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

I

had made a commitment to return to a parish where I had laboured briefly in 1993.

Such is Calidngan's hilly location that its seven villages belong to four municipalities. Apart from a few store-owners and teachers, practically everybody is involved in farming, tending their lots or as tenants of the city-based landowners. After more than three years conducting missions in Cebu city (apart from the short visit to the island of Samar earlier in the year), it was a pleasant change to be back again in a bucolic setting: the clean, clear air, the softly undulating hills stretching into the distance, the view of far-off Mount Canlaon towering into the sky above Negros, the hillsides dotted with lights at day’s end when the blessed silence becomes even deeper.

REALITY MAY 2021

But the simplicity of the rustic life also has its downsides. An obvious drawback is the absence of any decent medical services. Perhaps that explains the strange scene I witnessed on Good Friday. As I sat in one of the chapels waiting for the locals to gather for our procession to the main church, I noticed a group of people in a nearby copse. I wondered what they were doing, so I went to investigate. I knew some of them, having visited the area a few weeks previously.

They were cooking oil from coconut meat in two big pans while young children were chopping and separating various roots. Intrigued, I asked what it was all about. The oil was to be mixed with the roots, which had been gathered in caves in the

nearby hills and was an effective remedy if you were itchy or had minor bodily pains. I wondered if there was more to it. Yes, they said, it's also good to ward off and combat evil spirits.

It's difficult for me to know what to make of this. Undoubtedly, the oil and root mixture has healing properties, and probably reflects the gathered learning and wisdom of many years. And for people who live in somewhat remote regions, and with the exorbitant cost of many commercial medicines, it makes perfect sense for them to use local resources. But is there not a questionable angle to it too?

In Philippine culture, concocted oils are not always used for beneficial or healing purposes.

The healing balm of medicinal oil on a sprained leg or even a

wounded spirit is one thing. Surely different is the use of the same oil conjoined with diagnoses of diabolical possession, and applied with invocations of bog-Latin and other gibberish designed (or perhaps not, maybe just unconsciously) to both impress and mystify the 'client'. It's a pity that the obvious benefits of native herbal wisdom should become entangled in mentalities and practices that strike me as more imprisoning than liberating.

The man I asked didn't know why they were gathering specifically on Good Friday. As he stirred the oil and separated it from the dregs, people approached with their various containers and filled them. The roots had already been placed in the bottles.

“As a rule, men worry more about what they can't see than about what they can."

(Julius Caesar) I could have done with some calm-inducing balm on another occasion when I had a restless night. I lay down at 10pm and was enjoying a most refreshing sleep by 10.30. The house had no electricity, so I was fast asleep in the pitch darkness when suddenly a light awoke me at midnight.

Somebody was prowling around furtively using a flashlight just outside where I was sleeping, and the only barrier between us was a flimsy curtain.

It must be a sign of the onset of mid-life neurosis because every scary movie I had ever seen, and every Edgar Allen Poe horror story I had ever read, began to unbalance my already fragile imagination. Who was my assailant: an irate husband who thought I had been casting lascivious glances at his wife

during the Bible-sharing? A jealous suitor who thought I had lingered too long in giving his fiancé the Pauline kiss of peace (Rom 16:16)? Some neophyte fanatic of the Pinoy-Nationalistsagainst-Foreign-Infidels party who thought he could gain, if not eternal glory, at least a day's fame, by slaughtering this interfering Amerikano? Thus the neurotic mind malfunctions.

My only weapon was my flashlight, admittedly a sturdy piece of plastic workmanship. I was unsure of my strategy. Would I momentarily blind him with its ray and then whack him over the head? Or would I charge out through the curtain shouting imprecations and curses at my foe, stun the scoundrel with a well-placed blow, then gloat victoriously over my fallen prey, á la David over Goliath?

In the end, I crept out cowardlike, hoping I wasn't about to end my too-short stay on planet earth due to a well-placed machete

strike. All was eerily quiet. Mind you, there weren't too many places where my attacker could be lurking, seeing that the only furniture in the clay-floored outer room was a table and a bench.

I swung the flashlight beam everywhere, feigning confidence, but saw no sign of any stealthy killer. I lay down again, but sleep eluded me, convinced as I was that a would-be assassin was biding his time. The one eye I kept glued to the curtain soon tired of its sentry duty, and once again an uneasy sleep overtook me.

At 3am, I awoke again, prompted this time by a full bladder, but as I glanced beyond the curtain, there were those infernal flashes of light again.

Ever the pragmatist, I decided it would be less embarrassing to be struck down with an empty bladder. Passing through the curtain, all was quiet, yet the flashes continued. Standing in the yard relieving myself, I saw why.

Overhead was a cloudless, star-

filled sky; 30 kilometres away was a magnificent soundless display of lightening.

Amazed to be still alive at 6am, I asked the woman of the house about the midnight light.

Patiently, as though explaining 2 + 2 = 4 to a kindergarten pupil, she pointed out that their water supply comes through a hose, which also serves many other houses, and the supply is often unreliable. So her husband had gone out at midnight, flashlight in hand, to check on the water. On his way back, he had thoughtfully shone the light near where I was sleeping to make sure that all was well. Did ever a kindly gesture result in such mental upheaval and sleepless anguish!

A native of Limerick city where he went to school in St Clement’s College, Fr Colm Meaney first went to the Philippines as a student and has spent most of his priestly life there.

29

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

THE FEAR OF BEING HONEST

IF YOU REALLY LOVE SOMEONE, YOU WILL NEVER BE AFRAID TO TELL THEM HOW YOU FEEL. Have you ever wondered why some people seem to have the happy knack of getting on with everyone while others do not?

Nothing is ever right in their eyes. No matter where they are or who they are with, they seem to look for something that makes them unhappy. Then they complain loudly to anyone who will listen.

Has anyone ever told you that listening to a constant complainer is a waste of your time and energy? If you listen politely in the misguided belief that you are doing the right thing, you are doing the person no favours. When you love someone, you tell them the truth even though you know that what you have to say may be challenging and unwelcome.

Let me explain why it's important to be genuine and be a truly honest friend.

Vera and Jane are both selfemployed and have been friends since college. Vera is a kind and compassionate person with a positive outlook on life. She finds it difficult to spend time in the company of Jane, who has a very negative outlook. Jane complains that life has treated her unfairly, that nothing ever goes right for her, and everything that's wrong is someone else's fault.

Jane's victim mentalit y frustrates Vera. Jane trusts Vera's discretion and tells her the most intimate details of her life. Jane values and appreciates her friendship with Vera. She always feels better when she

is listened to and understood.

But she is unhappy that making the arrangements to meet are always left up to her. Vera rarely telephones. If Jane didn't make the effort to keep up the contact, they would never meet.

For her part, Vera hates that she experiences spending time with Jane as an endurance test.

It's exhausting to listen to her constant complaints. Out of kindness and the goodness of her heart, she tries to be helpful and supportive.

She offers suggestions, gives encouragement and is empathetic. Still, nothing seems to help or change a single thing in her friend's life.

The fear of being honest is the biggest obstacle to an emotionally healthy and loving relationship. Vera continues to meet Jane because she understands that Jane has had to deal with difficult and painful life events, and she would never deliberately hurt her feelings.

Vera lacks the courage to say how frustrating she finds Jane's

negativity. Vera also feels guilty that Jane is under the illusion that they are the best of friends and would be horrified if Jane knew how she feels.

Vera doesn't enjoy Jane's company any more. Being with her makes her feel unloving and judgemental. As a compassionate and loving person, she wants to help, but Jane's endless talks of woe, 'poor me' attitude and victim mentality drain her emotionally.

Jane senses that something has changed in their friendship. It's no longer fun or enjoyable. It lacks the freedom and spontaneity that they once enjoyed. She can't think of anything she might have done that would make her friend upset. She would like Vera to be honest with her and have a conversation to clear the air. She senses the tension. Her intuition tells her that Vera has become more reticent, but she has no idea how to make things better.

Vera is using a psychological defence mechanism called reaction formation. A person

acts in the opposite way to how s/he thinks or feels. Vera overcompensates for her guilty feelings. She acts as if she enjoys being with Jane, and this encourages Jane to want to spend more time with her.

Jane also feels a twinge of guilt because she is resentful and angry with her friend. She confides in Vera and tells her everything, but Vera is not as forthcoming. Jane senses that there is a lot Vera doesn't talk about, but fears to say this or ask why. She is afraid to ask Vera if there's something not right between them. She knows she does most of the talking when they meet. Her biggest fear is that Vera may not want to continue with their coffee mornings, and the friendship will die.

There is a lack of love in a relationship where one person has the perception that 'I give' and 'you take'. Vera thinks of herself as kind and compassionate. She prides herself on her efforts to be caring and tolerant with Jane.

She fails to see how her lack of honesty and fear of upsetting her friend encourages Jane to focus on her woes.

If you really love someone, you will tell them the truth even if it's difficult to be honest about what you feel.

Carmel Wynne is a life and work skills coach and lives in Dublin. For more information, visit www.carmelwynne.org

31

e ov L h t i w a i s s u R o T

Fr Tony Branagan's extraordinary life as a missionary – Part 2

IN 1996, AFTER 32 YEARS IN BRAZIL, REDEMPTORIST PRIEST FR TONY BRANAGAN BEGAN A NEW CHAPTER IN HIS MISSIONARY LIFE WITH A MOVE TO SIBERIA. HE REFLECTS NOW ON HIS YEARS THERE, RIGHT UP TO HIS RETURN TO IRELAND IN DECEMBER 2019.

BY TRÍONA DOHERTY

32

During

1987-88, Fr Tony Branagan took a year out from his missionary work in Brazil to study peace studies at the Irish School of Ecumenics in Dublin. During this time, his interest in Russia grew, and in October 1988, he undertook a two-week trip to gain some experience of life there, particularly of the Catholic Church, which had faced persecution under the Soviet Union.

The trip took in Moscow, Leningrad (now St Petersburg) and Kiev. "On arrival, I phoned the one contact I had in Moscow, Mikhail, and we arranged to meet at the one Catholic church allowed to function in the city of over eight million," says Fr Tony. "It was a French church. I went to say Mass there early on Sunday morning. As I was leaving, the hotel receptionist asked where I was going at that hour. I told her I was going to the Catholic church and asked if I would be arrested. She said 'You may be!'"

Fr Tony also recalls a visit to Kiev, where he had to take a trolleybus, metro and bus to reach the only Catholic church on the

REALITY MAY 2021

outskirts of the city. "It took me an hour and a half and a lot of questioning to find it.

Other Catholic churches in Kiev had been taken over long before and were being used as factories, cinemas, dance halls, and so on. I celebrated Mass with Fr Johannes, a Latvian, and the only priest authorised to minister to Catholics, and only in the church. He told me that the priest ministering there before himself was a Redemptorist who had spent 20 years in a Siberian prison after the war."

In addition to joining the tour group for scheduled meals and sightseeing, Tony made his own way by train to Zagorsk, a famous Orthodox monastery complex outside Moscow. In a bid to avoid some of the tourist restrictions, Fr Tony had learned some Russian via a Linguaphone course before his trip. "It was illegal for foreigners to travel unattended outside the city, so I had to get someone in the queue to buy me my ticket. On the journey back I got talking to people on the train. Many were coming from outlying plots with harvested fruit and vegetables. We got talking and they

shared some of their produce with me and I had sweets in my bag to share with them.

We managed to communicate quite well, with my limited Russian and their limited English." This journey gave Fr Tony a sense of the ordinary people and, he says, "may well have been the major inspiration of my future mission in Russia".

SECOND VISIT This experience inspired a second visit in October 1993, two years after the collapse of the Soviet Union. This time he stayed for a month and had the opportunity to visit the Redemptorists in Siberia: "I got a plane from Moscow to Novosibirsk [the capital city of Siberia] and then on to Prokopyevsk where I met a Redemptorist priest who had lived and ministered there for a good number of years. He was Ukrainian, of the Byzantine rite. I travelled there overnight by train; it was several years after glasnost and there was freer movement."

Priests and sisters who had been living and ministering in secret till 1991 were now

M ISS I O N S

coming out into the open all over Russia.

Young priests from outside, especially Poland, had come to serve, and religious orders such as Jesuits, Franciscans, Dominicans, Salesians, Claretians, Divine Word and Redemptorists had set up communities all over Russia. It was a vibrant time for the church in the country, and when Bishop Joseph Werth invited Fr Tony to come to live and work in Siberia, he was immediately keen. Two years later, he was appointed to be a member of the international Redemptorist community in Prokopyevsk, where he arrived in April 1996.

There were three other priests in the community: two from Ukraine who came from the Eastern Rite and one from Poland.

"There were very many Ukrainian Eastern Rite Catholics in the region and also many Russian Catholics of German descent of the Latin Rite. Each Sunday, the Eucharist was celebrated in the Eastern Rite and in the Latin Rite, and on weekdays only in the Latin Rite.

Other communities in the region were also visited regularly," he recalls.

BIG CHANGE The authorities still kept tight control over the influx of foreigners. Still, Fr Tony found that things had changed dramatically since his first visit. "Whereas on my first visit people would be slow to talk – they weren't

With Polish confrères in Kemerovo Fr Paul Youkovsky (left) and Fr Andrei Legech (right)

allowed to talk to foreigners – in 1993 it was more open, and in 1996 I was welcomed by everyone," he says. Towards the end of that year, Fr Tony and his Polish confrère Fr Darius were asked to minister to the Catholics in and around Kemerovo, a city some 250 kilometres north of Prokopyevsk. At first, they travelled back and forth, staying with a local Catholic family, but after a while, they moved into an apartment in Kemerovo.

"We were invited to say Mass in the cultural centre by people of German descent whose families had been there for centuries, a mixture of Catholic and Lutheran. There were 300 people there and when we asked if any were Catholic, half of them put up their

hands. They invited us to use the cultural centre to say Mass on Sundays, and we also said Mass every day in the apartment for anyone who wanted to come along – we had two rooms that opened into one and that was our church for several years."

The next step was to begin work on a church, a long and complicated process. "We had several meetings with the mayor and political authorities, architects and engineers where we presented our desire to build a church. There were severe examinations but we got good support. The process of getting permission was very long; it took from 2000 to 2006/7. In the end, we were successful in building a lovely church," says Fr Tony.

"In the parish there was a group who were very faithful. Around 60 or 70 came to weeky Mass. At Christmas and Easter there would be over 100, and on weekdays 10-15. The Catholic population in Russia is estimated to be 1-2 per cent, so in Kemerovo [with a population of 500,000] there were very few Catholics really. A lot of people didn't come to us because of the distance, and a lot of baptised people were non-practising."

RELATIONS WITH THE ORTHODOX Relations between the Catholic Church and the Orthodox Church could be strained at times. Still, Fr Tony had a positive experience on the ground. "There was some opposition from the Orthodox Church and bishops, but

The church in Kemerovo

33

MI S S I O N S

Parish sister attending the elderly in an outlying parish

34

I hadn't much contact with them and didn't experience it. At the time, the Orthodox Church was afraid of the Catholic Church taking people away.

"After I came to Kemerovo in 1997, I arranged to meet the Orthodox bishop. We had an hour-long meeting which was very friendly. At that time, liberal values were coming into Russia. He said he was glad we were there, helping to support the ethical values of the church. We had friends among the Orthodox later on – I recall some of our men gave a lecture to the seminarians of the Orthodox Church."

The distance from Moscow to Kemerovo is further than Moscow to Dublin and takes four hours on a plane. But despite the distance from home and the very different climate, Fr Tony felt at home in Siberia. "The Russians have a saying: 'You won't die of cold in Siberia if you know how to dress',"

Procession from Fr Tony's apartment to bless ground for the new church

he laughs. "The coat I bought in Ireland wasn't quite suitable. When I arrived in Prokopyevsk in April, there was still snow. Snow lay on the ground from mid-November until April.

Temperatures in the summer are over 30, but in November/December it was minus 40 and minus 50 for a few days. There could be a long period of minus 30. But when there was no wind, you'd hardly notice."

Tragically, in January 2001, Fr Darius and their housekeeper, Tatiana, were killed in a car crash. They were on their way to a remote community for catechism when the car skidded into an oncoming bus, killing both instantly. Fr Darius was brought home to Poland for burial. Fr Tony remembers him as "a very active apostle" who was director of youth ministry in the diocese, worked closely with Orthodox priests and evangelical groups, and, along with Tatiana, who was preparing to enter the Catholic Church, regularly visited prisoners.

SUPPORT ROLE In later years, Fr Tony took on a support role with a Polish group of Redemptorists in Russia. Up until the age of 80, he also had an appointment in the diocese, which involved travelling to Novosibirsk twice a month. At the age of 85, in December 2019, it was finally time for him to return to Ireland and continue his ministry back home.

REALITY MAY 2021

"Before I came back, the provincial asked where I would like to go. I said I would like to be of help somewhere. I had arranged to visit different communities, but unfortunately that was cut short by Covid," he explains. Fr Tony is now a member of the Redemptorist community in Clonard in Belfast, where, true to his easy-going nature, he is perfectly content. "I can't say I find the Covid situation difficult. The lockdowns are not affecting me as I'm in a new situation," he says. "I didn't find it difficult to fit in in Brazil or Russia.

Wherever I go, I am happy."

When Fr Tony arrived in Kemerovo in 1996, the Orthodox cathedral had recently been built and consecrated and was the only church in the main part of the city. Now, there are more than 30 Orthodox churches in different parts of the city. The church Fr Tony founded was consecrated in 2010, and there are several more Catholic communities in towns around Kemerovo, which are regularly attended. Three more churches have been built and houses acquired for church activities. Three religious sisters, Servants of the Holy Spirit, are involved in apostolic and social activities in all the communities. As Fr Tony puts it, "the awakening and renewal continues."

Tríona Doherty is a freelance journalist and editor who lives in Athlone. She is a regular contributor to Reality.

Eastern Promise

F E AT U R E

35

Margaret Karram

THE ELECTION OF A PALESTINIAN WOMAN AS ITS PRESIDENT IN JANUARY SUGGESTS A NEW ERA FOR FOCOLARE.

BY SUSAN GATELY

It

was a party, albeit on Zoom. A fireworks display on video, tea and spumante, and toasts across Ireland as we celebrated the election of the third president of Focolare – Margaret Karram from the Holy Land. Some knew her personally, like Paola, who lived with Karram in a Focolare community in New York while she learnt English. People shared anecdotes about the woman from the land of Mary who will, alongside co-president Jesús Morán and 22 councillors, lead the ecclesial movement for the next six years.

Margaret Karram was elected at the General

Assembly of Focolare (January 24 to February 7, 2021). The third general assembly since the death of Focolare founder Chiara Lubich in 2008 was due to occur in September 2020. But the pandemic pushed it out to early 2021, and with special permission from the Holy See, it was held online.

A comprehensive consultation process over the previous two years ensured it was a muchanticipated event. In Ireland, people gathered in small groups to make proposals and met together for a full day to discern key topics for the movement. "It was a powerful day of

listening, sharing, ensuring each voice was heard and every contribution valued," says Ann Gavin, co-director of Focolare. Priority themes emerged from the process: a consideration of the roots of the movement's charism and its implementation today; the importance of an integral ecology; and inter-generational dialogue with the new generations. Over 3,000 proposals

The late Chiara Lubich, founder of Focolare

continued on page 36

F E AT U R E

When they arrived, her mother was baking Arab bread and gave each of them some to bring home. "This gesture had the effect of bringing their mothers to our house the next day to thank my mother for the bread. It was a significant episode because it showed me that even a small gesture towards someone different to me could overcome fears and build peace.”

Newly-elected president of Focolare, Margaret Karram, meets Pope Francis

36

were submitted to the Planning Commission from around the world. Members also put forward names for the president (who is always a woman), co-president and councillors, and elected representatives for the actual assembly.

Since the outbreak of the pandemic, all Focolare activities in Ireland and abroad have been held online, with children, families and local communities meeting regularly over Zoom. Nonetheless, organising an electronic general assembly was a huge technological feat involving scores of IT and support personnel to link up the 359 participants across three time zones while providing simultaneous translations in five languages. Despite these difficulties, delegates said it was a real experience of community. "The assembly

COLLECTIVE HOLINESS At a retreat to start the assembly, outgoing president Maria Voce spoke of a new kind of "collective holiness". It is a life for "God and for others in a total forgetfulness of ourselves," a "holiness that could be open to everyone" and "could be achieved in the family and in the midst of the world – together."

The last day of January was election day. In a solemn atmosphere, delegates from Texas to Myanmar elected Margaret Karram as president.

The 58-year-old is one of four children, born to Catholic Palestinian parents in Haifa in Israel.

She was educated by the Carmelites in an Arab school, where half the children were Muslim, the other half Christians of different rites.

In an interview, Margaret described a significant episode that occurred when she was just five years old.

The Karrams were the only Palestinian family in a Jewish neighbourhood. Out playing on the street one day, local Jewish children began to insult her. "I went home in tears thinking to myself, I'm never going to play with them again.'" But her mother told her to invite the children in. "I remember as if it were today. I had to overcome my anger, dry my tears and say to those children, 'come to my house.'"

I encourage you to be witnesses of closeness, with fraternal love that overcomes every barrier and reaches every human condition Pope Francis was an event of the Holy Spirit," commented Bishop Brendan Leahy of Limerick. "I came away with an incredible sense of the vitality of the movement."

REALITY MAY 2021

EARLY ENCOUNTER Karram encountered Focolare aged14. A graduate in Judaism from the Hebrew University of Los Angeles (USA), she speaks Arabic, Hebrew, English and Italian. In Focolare, she has held various positions of responsibility in Los Angeles and Jerusalem, where she worked for 14 years at the Italian consulate. She is the recipient of two awards – the Mount Zion Award for Reconciliation (together with the Jewish scholar and researcher Yisca Harani in 2013), and the St Rita International Award in 2016.

She told Citta Nuova magazine that she hopes the movement will be like a family. "When there's someone who suffers, to be there, to share with people, and not to let anyone pass by without experiencing the warmth of the family."

Karram advocates that members be “contemplatives", paraphrasing Fr Oreste Benzi (founder of Pope John XXIII Association) who said, "to stay on your feet, you have to stay on your knees." Pointing to the strong spirit of synodality at the assembly, she quoted the words of Chiara Lubich, who, when asked how the movement would be in the future, replied: "It will not be governed by one person or two, but by the presence of Jesus among people and this will be its salvation."

"Listening to these words of Chiara gives me great security and peace," says Ms Karram.

With its Italian origins and headquarters, the global movement has always had a strong Italian character. The election of a Middle Eastern president and a Spanish co-president (focolarino priest Jesús Morán) perhaps marks the start of a new era. Certainly, the extraordinary diversity at the assembly was striking. "While most of us at the assembly were Catholic, it was moving to hear Anglicans, Muslims and a Jewish woman talk of how this charism speaks to them and inspires their daily life. The Holy Spirit is moving

in new directions in our time also through charisms in the church," says Bishop Leahy.

THREE CRIES Part two of the assembly was devoted to drawing up a 'navigation map' for the movement for the next six years. Its preface sets out how Focolare commits itself to seek out those who suffer, starting with "the people we ourselves have made suffer or excluded". It asks victims of abuse for forgiveness and commits itself to a culture of prevention of all forms of abuse.

The document's main body identifies three cries: of humanity, of the planet and of the new generations. "It's a call to be close to those suffering, to be by their side in their hour of need," says Conleth Burns from County Antrim, who was part of the team drafting the document. To do this, it outlines three steps: to go out to be close to people; to act together – networking and synergising with others; and finally, getting ready for 'May they all be one' – a call to dialogue as a lifestyle, starting with the family.

On February 6, assembly participants in Rome had the great joy of meeting Pope Francis in the Vatican. In the post-founder period, the pope said they were called to overcome "natural bewilderment" and "a decrease in numbers" in order to continue to be a living expression of the founding charism. This required a "dynamic fidelity". Openness to others, whoever they may be, must always be cultivated: the Gospel is meant for everyone. Being open avoids selfabsorption. "Beware of self-centredness," Francis warned, "which always leads to defending the institution to the detriment of individuals, and which can also lead to justifying or covering up forms of abuse." The pope emphasised the importance of crises as a "call to a new maturity".

Finally, he encouraged the movement to live its spirituality with consistency and realism. "I encourage you to be witnesses of closeness, with fraternal love that overcomes every barrier and reaches every human condition.

Overcome barriers, do not be afraid! It is the path of fraternal closeness that transmits the presence of the Risen Christ to men and women of our time, starting from the poor, the rejected, working together with people of goodwill for

The international assembly gathered online

the promotion of justice and peace."

His words resonated strongly with everyone, echoing as they did the thrust of what was written in the movement's road map. "Just as we had written, Pope Francis challenged the movement to imitate Chiara Lubich in always listening to 'the cry of abandonment of Christ on the cross, which manifests the highest measure of love,'" says Conleth Burns.

As a young person, he came away filled with hope. "I hope we can use the road map to be close to those who are suffering, to take the concrete steps needed to undergo a full ecological conversion and to develop a more robust and meaningful plan for advancing the mission of building a more united world in the next six years."

Focolare is an ecclesial movement with the aim of contributing with others to the fulfilment of Jesus' prayer, "Father, may they all be one." To achieve this goal, members engage in various forms of dialogue, committed to building bridges of fraternal relationships among individuals, between cultural groups and in every area of society.

Founded by Servant of God, Chiara Lubich, in 1943, it is present in 182 nations with more than two million people sharing in its life and work.

Members include Christians of different denominations, members of the major world religions and people of no particular religious belief.

In Ireland, it has centres in Dublin, Belfast and Kildare, and groups/ followers in Antrim, Letterkenny, Newry, Monaghan, Cavan, Navan, Wexford, Waterford, Cork, Limerick, Galway, Sligo, and Kilkenny.

The General Assembly of Focolare is its highest organ of government which meets every six years.

For further information see www.focolare.org/ireland

Suan Gately is author of God’s Surprise - the New Movements in the Church, published by Veritas, and is a regular contributor to Reality.

37

38

AND THE CHURCH TWO HUNDRED YEARS AGO, ON MAY 5, 1821, NAPOLEON BONAPARTE DIED ON THE ISLAND OF SAINT HELENA. THE FORMER FRENCH EMPEROR HAD A FRAUGHT RELATIONSHIP WITH THE CATHOLIC CHURCH AND WITH THE PAPACY IN PARTICULAR.

BY FR MICHAEL COLLINS

N

apoleon Bonaparte spent the last days of his life in exile on the island of Saint Helena, a British possession in the South Atlantic Ocean.

The former Emperor of France bitterly mused on his fate during his banishment on the obscure island controlled by his former foes.

REALITY MAY 2021

Napoleon had legions of enemies whose animosity he brought upon himself. A native of Corsica, Napoleon Bonaparte was born on August 15, 1769, less than a decade after France had gained control of the island.

At the age of 17, Napoleon graduated from the French military school and joined the artillery.

The end of the 18th century in northern Europe was marked by the ideas of the Enlightenment, a political movement by which monarchs sought to advance the prosperity of their subjects while retaining their total allegiance.

In the face of the political unrest caused by rising unemployment and a series of disastrous harvests,

King Louis XVI of France gathered the nobility and clergy together in a national convention to discuss the situation.

The king was no match for a host of revolutionaries who seized the opportunity to sweep away the monarchy and establish a republic.

The revolutionaries turned the people against the status quo, and

F E AT U R E

in 1789, a series of violent uprisings broke out across the country.

Control slipped from the hands of the king as the country descended into anarchy. Several neighbouring countries formed an unsuccessful coalition to assist the king and rout the revolutionaries. As royalists and revolutionaries waged war, the French army engaged in battles at home and abroad.

19. Four months later, on May 12, 1797, Venice submitted to Napoleon.

Napoleon dispatched his older brother Joseph and General Léonard Mathurin Duphot to Rome to incite an insurrection.

A riot ensued, led by supporters of the pope, during which papal troops shot Duphot.

General Louis-Alexandre Berthier

In a deliberate snub to Napoleon, the pope announced his election formally to the pretender to the French throne, Louis XVIII, rather than to the emperor In 1793, King Louis XVI and Queen Marie-Antoinette, along with members of their family, were executed by revolutionaries in Paris, the year in which Bonaparte began a series of some 70 battles in a 20-year military career. The monarchy was replaced with a reign of terror which lasted until the summer of 1794, during which tens of thousands of people were executed or imprisoned.

ITALIAN CAMPAIGN In October 1795, Napoleon successfully subdued a royalist uprising against the revolutionary government, which then appointed him to lead the military campaign in Italy. It was here that Napoleon came into direct conflict with the papacy.

In January 1797, Napoleon's troops took control of areas in northern Italy occupied by Austria. French soldiers defeated the papal army, which Pope Pius VI had ordered to defend the Papal States. The French army took the strategically important towns of Ancona and Loreto, forcing the pope to sue for peace on February

was sent to Rome to demand the dissolution of the Papal States and the establishment of a Roman Republic under French rule. The pope's refusal to countenance such a move led to his exile.

Four days later, on February 20,1798, the elderly pontiff was placed under arrest and escorted

by French troops from the Eternal City. The cardinals vainly protested to the French authorities that the pope was seriously ill.

Rain fell throughout the day as crowds gathered to bid farewell to the pope. Flanked by French

soldiers, the carriage trundled through the streets of Rome to the city's outskirts. Meanwhile, soldiers looted the churches and pillaged convents and monasteries, dispatching caravans of art treasures to Paris.

The papal entourage paused in Siena before continuing to Florence.

When the French declared war on Tuscany, the pope was escorted across the snowcapped Alps into France. Arriving in the town of Valance, the 82-year-old pontiff took to bed with a high fever. His condition deteriorated, and he died on August 29, 1799.

The French refused burial rights according to the church, and, on Napoleon's specific orders, the pope's coffin was not interred in a cemetery until December of that year.

As soon as the cardinals learned of the pontiff's demise, they prepared to meet in conclave. According to pontifical rules, the conclave was to take place in the nearest territory not under interdict. Venice was the nearest city that could thus host a conclave.

There was an air of gloom as the conclave opened in the Benedictine abbey on the small

island of San Giorgio, in view of the Basilica of San Marco. The cardinals deliberated for 14 weeks before they finally decided on the compromise candidate, Cardinal Luigi Barnaba Chiaramonti, a Benedictine monk of aristocratic background.

Taking the title Pius VII in honour of his predecessor, the pope chose to be crowned in Venice. A threetiered tiara made from gold foil and Murano glass beads was hastily assembled for the coronation. In a deliberate snub to Napoleon, the pope announced his election formally to the pretender to the French throne, Louis XVIII, rather than to the emperor.

ENTHUSIASTIC CROWDS In early summer 1800, the pope left Venice for Rome, where crowds thronged the streets when the papal cavalcade arrived at the city gates. A group of enthusiastic young men unhitched the horses from the papal carriage as it entered Rome and pulled it to the papal residence at the Quirinal.

Among Pius VII's f irst appointments was the creation of a diplomat, Enrico Consalvi, as Cardinal Secretary of State,

Napoleon crowns himself and his queen

continued on page 40

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The arrest of Pius VII by General Radet

40

charging him with the task of improving relations with France.

In June 1801, Consalvi travelled to Paris to negotiate a concordat between the French government and the Holy See, which dealt largely with confiscated ecclesiastical properties and episcopal appointments.

In May 1804, Napoleon was proclaimed emperor by the French Senate, a move designed to undermine the remaining royalists.

Napoleon invited the pope to Paris to crown him emperor at Notre Dame. Encouraged by Napoleon's maternal half-uncle, the French ambassador to Rome, Cardinal Joseph Fesch, the pontiff reluctantly agreed in the hopes of improving the situation of Catholics in France.

During the ceremony, Pius was humiliated when Napoleon placed the crown on his own head and then crowned his wife Josephine as empress.

In June 1806, Pius VII accepted Consalvi's resignation as Cardinal Secretary of State, largely under pressure from France.

REALITY MAY 2021

PAPAL REGRET Pius may have regretted capitulating to the French, for in 1808, Napoleon marched on Rome, demanding the end of the papacy's temporal power. In June the following year, Napoleon annexed the Papal States, dispatching French troops to take control of the city. Pius excommunicated the invaders, whereupon Napoleon ordered that Pius be taken prisoner and brought to Savona, then in French hands.

Once more, Napoleon was determined to assert French control over the papacy. Consalvi was taken to Paris, in order to prevent him from influencing the pontiff. An anecdote recounts how Napoleon threatened to annihilate the church. Consalvi dryly retorted, "Your Majesty, if we bishops and clerics have failed to destroy the church in eighteen centuries, do you really think you can succeed?"

The pope's imprisonment backfired dramatically on Napoleon. Pius' plight evoked sympathy among Catholics and many non-Catholics. Napoleon moved the pope to a new

residence at Fontainebleau in 1812, and seven months later, on January 25, 1813, he forced Pius to sign a new concordat which the pope quickly repudiated.

By now, Napoleon's end was in sight. In 1812, he led French troops to invade Russia. This action cost enormous losses and caused a coalition of European countries to unite against France. In 1814, Napoleon surrendered and was sent to the Mediterranean island of Elba, from which he escaped in March the following year.

Pope Pius returned to Rome in May 1814, where he received a tumultuous welcome.

Napoleon's disastrous efforts to reestablish control of France once more ended with defeat against a British-led coalition at the Battle of Waterloo in June 1815. Following his capture, Napoleon was exiled to Saint Helena in the south Atlantic.

on his behalf. Hearing that the former emperor was seriously ill, the pope dispatched a priest, the Abbé Vignali, to bring his apostolic blessing to his former foe.

On April 29, 1821, the pope's emissary visited Napoleon at his residence. Six days later, on May 5, Napoleon died. In his will, he wrote, "I die in the bosom of the Apostolic and Roman Church" and expressed the hope that he would be buried "on the banks of the Seine, in the midst of the French people whom I love so much".

Although he was buried on Saint Helena, Napoleon's remains were exhumed, and in October 1840, were transported to France, where they arrived on December 14. The body was interred in the chapel of St Jérome at Les Invalides where, 200 years later, some four million visitors view the stone sarcophagus of the exiled emperor every year.

RECONCILIATION Pope Pius didn’t forget Napoleon.

Hearing that the former emperor sought to be reconciled with him, Pius remarked to Consalvi, "It would bring joy to my heart if I could lessen Napoleon's sufferings." He wrote to the British Prince Regent asking for clemency

Fr Michael Collins is a priest of the Archdiocese of Dublin. He is a graduate of University College Dublin. He has written and edited award-winning books which have been translated into twelve languages.

Napoleon depicted alone on Saint Helena

UNDER THE MICROSCOPEBOOK REVIEW Women: Icons Of Christ by Phyllis Zagano Paperback – 172 pages Published by Paulist Press 2020 ISBN 10: 0809155001 Available on Amazon.co.uk for £9.32

WOMEN: ICONS OF CHRIST

by Phyllis Zagano Reviewed by Stan Mellett CSsR

In

2014, the then Bishop of Killaloe, Kieran O'Reilly, proposed establishing the Permanent Diaconate in the diocese. He invited the faithful to apply. Men only. Women who ministered in most of the diocesan services protested. So outraged were they and so controversial did the issue prove that the bishop had to put the project on ice. And there it remains. In this well-researched volume, Women: Icons Of Christ by Phyllis Zagano, those Ennis and Killaloe women can find good reason for their stance and the injustice involved.

Why does the church not reach out to half its members? This is the insistent question posed by Phyllis Zagano. She doesn't argue for women priests, but she argues cogently for the diaconate that obtained in the early church. "The evidence points clearly to women who were ordained and served as deacons," she writes.

In the book's introduction, she sketches the well-documented state of women worldwide – the exploitation, degradation and the scandalous ways women are denied their full humanity. Many examples are listed. One statistic from the Indian National Crimes Record Bureau tells of 92 women raped every single day. No country is without its scandal and shame. No church is without blame. The Catholic Church is the big sinner in this, with

half of its population looking to Rome for leadership.

What can the church do for all women?

What can it do for the women of the church?

By restoring the diaconate and the equal place of women in the diaconate, the church can do a signal service to humankind. At least one institution would signal it is serious about righting wrongs. By offering the diaconate to women, the Catholic Church wouldn't just do herself a favour. She would do justice to disenfranchised women who are hurting while barely hanging on, as they wonder why they continue to belong to this church.

Why the delay? It's past the eleventh hour.

With scholarship and research in chapter after chapter, Zagano outlines the history and tradition of the early centuries of Christianity.

From Phoebe to Euodia and Syntyche, women are called 'fellow workers'. Called forth by the apostles and nominated by the assembled church, they are also made in God's image and likeness and are Icons of Christ. No Jew or Gentile. No slave or free. No man or woman. All equal sons and daughters of the Lord. What the church did then it can do now. "A simple motu proprio modifying canon 1024 and changing pronouns…would meet the expressed desire to include half of its members more fully in the Church's ministry and mission…"

What's the hold-up? Through the centuries, the author instances a mentality that spawned inhuman customs and traditions about women that endures to this day. The female body somehow considered unworthy and unclean "because of the involuntary flow of their menses", forbidden to enter the sanctuary or touch the sacred vessels or distribute holy communion.

When I was born in 1931, my mother had to be 'churched'. That embarrassment and humiliation were still happening when I was ordained in 1957. Much has changed, and advances have been made. However, the deepseated unconscious memory and practice of misogyny still linger. Only recently, a bishop vesting for a graduation ceremony learned some of the assistants were girls, and exclaimed, "No woman will touch my mitre."

Women: Icons Of Christ is readable and clear.

A cry from the heart for justice and wise common sense. Read it and see for yourself.

Phyllis Zagano concludes, "My hope is that the Church will recover its past, accept the present, and joyfully live a full Christian future."

A native of County Clare, Fr Stan Mellett CSsR has ministed in India, in the formation of Redemptorst students, and in Assumption Parish, Ballyfermot, Dublin. He is now retired in the Redemptorist community at Dundalk.

41

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle

PANDEMIC OFFERS OPPORTUNITIES FOR 'PASTORAL CREATIVITY' 42

THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC HAS LED MANY CHURCHES AND DIOCESES TO REASSESS THEIR USUAL WAYS OF CONDUCTING MISSION AND PASTORAL ENGAGEMENT.

BY DAVID O'HARE

There

have been huge questions around the effect the COVID-19 pandemic is having on church life in Ireland with the faithful unable to attend Mass, and how church infrastructure will be affected long-term.

Cardinal Luis Antonio Tagle, prefect of the Congregation for the Evangelisation of Peoples in the Vatican, addressed these questions before delivering the 2021 Trócaire/St Patrick's College Maynooth annual Lenten lecture on 'Caring for the Human Family and our Common Home'.

The Filipino cardinal, a close collaborator of Pope Francis and seen by many as a possible future pontiff, recognised that the pandemic has brought a lot of suffering for many millions of people.

Cardinal Tagle said there was no doubt that the pandemic had disrupted parish life and the church's usual way of delivering services because of the restriction on movement. However, he said this offered an opportunity to identify those aspects of

REALITY MAY 2021

Christian life and church life that have not received sufficient attention, including the family's role in the transmission of the faith.

Cardinal Tagle said, "In the past, the transmission of the faith, the teaching of prayers and the catechism happened in homes. It was the parents or the grandparents who did it. But with the development of specialised ministries such as religious education and catechists, this had declined.

"The lockdown has meant that children could not be brought to Sunday school and catechists and teachers could not do their usual work. Are parents equipped to form their families, their children, their grandchildren and each other in faith and mission?" he asked.

"I think that the pandemic has opened up possibilities for us, but it has also become a mirror showing us where have we been weak in terms of Christian formation. This pandemic has led many churches and dioceses to reassess their usual ways of conducting mission and pastoral engagement.

Even here in the Vatican, we are invited to reflect on what we call the 'normal' customary ways, to see how we can respond more adequately to the changing situation," said Cardinal Tagle.

The cardinal set the pandemic-related restrictions on worship in the context of the suffering of Christians banned from the practice of their faith.

He said he had been inspired by Japan's "hidden Christians".

Recalling how they had kept their faith alive for 200 years, Cardinal Tagle highlighted how Japan banned Christianity in the 17th century, and when it reopened its doors to Christianity in the 19th century, the French missionaries who went to Nagasaki were surprised to discover Christians who had survived all those years without church structures.

"In the midst of restrictions, it's the families, the laypeople, especially the mothers and the grandmothers, who passed on the faith. They were creative," he said.

DANGER OF POPULISM Cardinal Tagle also expressed concern over the "hijacking" of religion by populist leaders who sow division and exploit the anger of those who feel excluded.

"There is a growing sense in the world today of divisiveness, and unfortunately religion is being used to further division; sometimes even within the same religious affiliation you have divisions," he said.

"These so-called populist leaders know where the pockets of disgruntled people are, and they present themselves as messiahs. They use religion as a convenient way of getting followers," he said.

Cardinal Tagle noted that in the encyclical Fratelli Tutti, Pope Francis devoted several paragraphs to populist leaders who claim that they are defending the people, when in fact, they are defending a particular group.

"We need to study carefully why these leaders get followers; why do they become popular," the cardinal said.

CARITAS INTERNATIONALIS Cardinal Tagle is also the president of Caritas Internationalis, the international network of Catholic aid agencies of which Trócaire is a member.

He suggested that the pandemic could deepen the exclusion of people such as the poor and migrants, which was why Caritas Internationalis had issued two documents calling for greater access to COVID-19 vaccines for the world's developing nations.

"I hope this pandemic will teach us the lesson that we are really connected with one another and to the earth, and that what happens in one part of the world can have a universal impact. I hope we will grow in responsibility to others," he said.

Cardinal Tagle said his Trócaire Lenten reflection was an attempt to bring together the themes of Pope Francis' encyclicals, Laudato Si', on Care for Our Common Home, and Fratelli Tutti, the call for universal social friendship.

"We see an intimate connection between the two encyclicals," the cardinal said, noting Pope Francis' warning that "the degradation of the ecology of

our common home happens side by side with the degradation of human relationships. The disregard of human beings is also manifested in our disregard for our common home, which is God's gift for all of us."

He pointed out that many economic or political choices today are detrimental to the survival of the earth. "The irresponsible use of creation now prevents not only the transmission of a liveable, habitable world to future generations, but it also violates a key element of the church's social teaching, which is that the goods of the earth are for all and must be shared by all."

To find out more about Trócaire's work and the Lenten appeal, visit www.trocaire.org. Remember that all public donations made in NI to the Lenten appeal before May 16 will be matched pound for pound by the UK government.

FROM REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS

MOTHER OF PERPETUAL HELP Reflections on an Icon

The icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help is probably the best known of all the images of our Blessed Lady.

In this beautiful booklet, Fr George Wadding CSsR leads us into meditation on the various messages contained in the icon of the Mother of Perpetual Help and suggests a simple prayer after each meditation. Read each meditation slowly and in an atmosphere of prayer.

You will find yourself drawn closer and closer to the hearts of Jesus and Mary.

Contact: Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph’s Monastery, Dundalk A91 F3FC Tel: 01-4922488

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CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

RERUM NOVARUM AT ���

THIS YEAR MARKS THE 130TH ANNIVERSARY OF THE PUBLICATION OF ONE OF THE MOST SIGNIFICANT OF ALL PAPAL ENCYCLICALS.

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2021 is the 130th anniversary of the landmark papal encyclical, Rerum Novarum (On the Condition of Workers). This was a landmark moment for the church. Prior to1891, encyclicals were all about church matters.

This was the first encyclical to address the suffering of people in their daily lives and the economic policies and ideology which created that suffering. It resulted in huge opposition to the pope, from business leaders but also from many bishops and cardinals in the church (Pope Francis isn’t the first pope to meet opposition from within the church!) The issue Pope Leo XIII addressed was the appalling conditions of the working class: In any case we clearly see, and on this there is general agreement, that some opportune remedy must be found quickly for the misery and wretchedness pressing so unjustly on the majority of the working class … Hence, by degrees it has come to pass that working people have been surrendered, isolated and helpless, to the hard-heartedness of employers and the greed of unchecked competition ... To this must be added that the hiring of labour and the conduct of trade are concentrated in the hands of comparatively few; so that a small number of very rich people have

REALITY MAY 2021

Pope Leo XIII

been able to lay upon the teeming masses of the labouring poor a yoke little better than that of slavery itself. (No. 3) Pope Leo’s criticism was based on the dignity of the human person. This entitles people not to be treated just as instruments for the economic benefit of others.

And he made three demands: 1. The right to an adequate wage: Leo’s insistence on this right sent shock waves through the society and church of his time. The ideology of the day was based on the notion of a ‘free contract’ between the worker and the employer.

Thus if the worker agreed to a particular wage, no matter how inadequate, that was the end of the matter. Leo insisted that it was not the end of the matter. The worker had agreed to an inadequate wage only

because the alternative, namely the threat of starvation, forced them to agree. Many believed the church had no business interfering in economic affairs.

They believed the church’s role was to administer the sacraments and save people’s souls, not their bodies. Pope Leo insisted that the church has not only the right, but also the obligation, to interfere when the dignity of the human person is at risk. He was, in fact, rejecting a central feature of the prevailing Western capitalist ideology, namely that labour is a commodity whose price is determined by the law of supply and demand. Today, building on the affirmation of the dignity of every human person, Pope Francis has called for a universal basic income for all.

2.The right to private property: Leo intended this to be a defence of the poor (today it is most frequently used as a defence of

the rich!) He realised that the reason workers often agreed to inadequate wages was that they had nothing to support them if they refused. Hence, by insisting on the right to retain the results of their work in the form of private property, Leo was trying to guarantee them the material conditions which would preserve that dignity and allow them to bargain with an employer with greater freedom.

3. The right to form trade unions: Again, this right did not find favour with employers or even many church people of his time. Again, Leo insisted on it as a defence of workers against exploitation.

Rerum Novarum ranks as one of the great documents of the church. It led some church personnel to become more involved in the problem of poverty, seeking to analyse its causes and find effective means to overcome it. It gave heart to the workers who were willing to listen to its message. Above all, perhaps, it widened the whole concept of ‘justice’ in the church’s thinking, moving away from a narrow individualist concept to place the whole issue of ‘social justice’ firmly in the centre of the church’s agenda.

For more information or to support the Peter McVerry Trust: www.pmvtrust.ie info@pmvtrust.ie +353 (0)1 823 0776

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH DEEPLY CONNECTED In today’s Gospel Jesus says, “I am the vine, you are the branches.” The Bible often presents FIFTH SUNDAY Israel as a vine and OF EASTER God as the planter or vinedresser. However, when Jesus uses this image he is saying something about himself (the vine) in relationship with the Father (the vinedresser) and in relationship with his followers (the branches). Only when the vinedresser, the vine and the branches are in a harmonious relationship is fruit produced.

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HOW DEEP IS YOUR LOVE? For the last three Sundays we have been reading some difficult texts from SIXTH SUNDAY the Fourth Gospel.

OF EASTER In these readings Jesus calls himself the “good shepherd” and the “true vine”. He commands his disciples to love one another as he has loved them.

These speeches come from a section of John’s Gospel known as the Last Supper Discourse (John 13–17), where Jesus gives his “last will and testament” to the disciples. As Risen Lord, he leaves them.

Yet in doing so, he offers them guidance on how they are to live, faithful to him in the years after the resurrection.

Today’s Gospel continues from where we left off last Sunday when Jesus called himself the “true vine” and his disciples the “branches”. That text ended with Jesus talking about his disciples “abiding” in him or being connected to him. For Jesus, the only way the disciples can be in relationship with him is by living out the love that he and the Father share. If they can live out that love, they also can share in Jesus’ joy.

Jesus sets out what he means by such love.

It is to love others in the way he has loved the disciples. Pay particular attention to verse

If Jesus is the vine, then his Father is clearly the vinedresser, for it is God who directs Jesus and his work. Jesus describes himself as a vine that is “true” or “authentic”. He is such a vine because he comes from the Father and is in relationship with the Father.

God, the vinedresser, removes fruitless branches from the vine, but prunes fruitful ones so they can bear even more fruit. But what is the “fruit” that Jesus speaks of? It is the love that members of the Christian community must have for one another. The fruitless branches are those within the Christian community who fail to love, while the fruitful branches are those who imitate Jesus’ love.

Vine branches that stay connected to the vine thrive and bear grapes. Those that are disconnected wither, dry up, bear no fruit and end up in the vinedresser’s fire. It is vivid language which Jesus uses to make a dramatic point about choice. We can choose to be in relationship with Jesus (the branches connected to the vine) or we can choose to reject such a relationship (the fruitless, withered branches). The choice and its consequences are ours.

Today’s Readings Acts 9:26-31; Ps 21; 1 Jn 3:18-24; Jn 15:1-8

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13. This is the clearest statement in the Gospel about loving as Jesus does. Greek ideas about friendship understood death for one’s friends as a noble ideal. Jesus has already hinted that his death for his disciples is the sign of his love.

He implied this when he called himself the “good shepherd” who lays down his life, and also when he washed their feet. The Greek word for 'friend' (phílos) and the verb 'to love' (philéō) are connected in meaning. When Jesus calls his disciples “friends”, he is saying that he loves them. In simple terms, to be Jesus’ friend is to be loved by him and to love him.

The language of choice now suddenly replaces the language of friendship. Jesus says that it is he who has chosen the disciples. It is he who has chosen you and me. Having chosen us, Jesus sends us out to bear lasting fruit by loving as he does.

Today’s Readings Acts 10:25-26.34-35.44-48; Ps 97; 1 Jn 4:710; Jn 15:9-17

God’s Word continues on page 46

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH FAITHFUL WITNESSES Today we celebrate the Ascension of the Lord.

We believe that Jesus, our Risen Lord, was FEAST OF THE taken bodily into the ASCENSION presence of the Father.

We profess this belief every Sunday when we recite the Creed.

There are many New Testament references to the Ascension. Three of the four Gospels refer to Jesus’ return to the Father (Mark 16:19; Luke 24:50-53 and John 20:17.22). Luke also refers to the Ascension in Acts 1:3. The writer of the Fourth Gospel understands that Jesus’ death, resurrection and ascension all took place in a single moment.

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It is Luke, writing in Acts, who suggests that Jesus’ Ascension took place 40 days after his resurrection and ten days before Pentecost.

Traditionally, the church has followed Luke’s pattern and celebrated the Ascension 40 days after Easter, on Ascension Thursday.

Since 1996 the Irish church has celebrated the feast on the Seventh Sunday of Easter.

The church in England and Wales followed suit in 2007, while the church in Scotland retains the traditional Ascension Thursday.

Today’s Readings Acts 1:1-11; Ps 46; Eph 4:1-13; Mk 16:15-20

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PENTECOST SUNDAY

NEW BEGINNINGS Pentecost is a day for new beginnings. Normally we tend to associate fresh starts with January 1 and the beginning of a new year. Fireworks are set off, resolutions are made, and the desire for change is characteristic of the moment.

At the first Pentecost there were fireworks of a different kind. A strong rush of wind blew through the room where the apostles had been hiding. Tongues of fire hovered over their heads REALITY MAY 2021

and suddenly they were filled with a new energy and enthusiasm. It was a transforming experience which brought about a change in them and ultimately in the world.

Unlike our half-hearted efforts at the start of a new year when resolutions fall away quickly, the fire in the disciples did not go out, which is why we are still able to celebrate the feast of Pentecost 2,000 years later.

At that first Pentecost the disciples were filled

with the Holy Spirit. We have also received the Holy Spirit in baptism and confirmation. But how aware are we of the Spirit’s presence in our lives, and how well do we use the gifts we have been given?

2021 is not an easy time. The western world is immersed in a deep recession. Many of us are struggling to find a job or to pay our bills or to help loved ones in difficulty. The church is going through a tough time too, with many people questioning its integrity and even its relevance.

Sometimes we may wonder if the Holy Spirit is around at all.

Jesus described the Holy Spirit, the Advocate, as the Spirit of Truth. When we lose sight of the truth we cease to love. When we fail to love we fail to appreciate the truth. Jesus knew that for us to live in love and truth we would need an advocate, someone to show us the way, and that is what the Spirit does.

In the hustle and bustle of life it can be difficult to know what the Spirit is asking of us, or even that the Spirit is with us, but whenever we bring life and joy to others, whenever we live according to Gospel values, whenever we love one another, we can be sure that the Spirit is at work.

Today’s Readings Acts 2:1-11; Ps 103; Gal 5:16-25; Jn 20:19-23

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER � MAY ����

WHAT SETS CHRISTIANITY APART The first Sunday after Pentecost has always been known as Trinity Sunday. On this day the church celebrates that which is the essence of the Christian faith and which sets Christianity THE MOST apart from all other religions, namely our belief HOLY TRINITY in the Most Holy Trinity. We Christians believe that God is a unity of three divine persons (Father, Son and Holy Spirit) and that God the Son and God the Holy Spirit have exactly the same nature as God the Father. At its most basic, this doctrine asserts the essentially complex and mysterious nature of God. The New Testament does not use the term 'Trinity' or attempt to offer any teaching about it. The doctrine about the Trinity evolved over centuries after the New Testament was written. But the New Testament offered texts which helped to formulate our belief in the Trinity. One such text is the Gospel for today’s Mass.

This text from Matthew’s Gospel is also known as 'The Great Commission', because in it Jesus commissions his disciples to preach the Gospel to the world. The eleven disciples have gathered together for the first time following Jesus’ arrest, trial and crucifixion.

Jesus appears to them, and speaks to them. He, the Risen Lord, is Lord of heaven and earth. He speaks with God’s authority and he sends them as his disciples to all the nations of the world. Pay particular attention to verse 19 – for this is one of the key texts for the future development of the doctrine of the Trinity. Matthew has no developed doctrine of the Trinity. He does mention the “Father, Son and Holy Spirit” but does not explain how they might relate to each other. Matthew and the other New Testament writers are utterly convinced of the unity of God as expressed in Judaism. Yet when they talk about the One God, they use the threefold pattern of Father, Son and Holy Spirit, which will eventually become the doctrine of the Trinity.

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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 2 ACROSS: 1. Igloos, 5. Turnip, 10. Vilnius, 11. Noughts, 12. Calf, 13. Defoe, 15. Crib, 17. Mrs, 19.

Thomas, 21. Easter, 22. Chantry, 23. Deploy, 25. Romans, 28. Zip, 30. UFOs, 31. Basil, 32. Sigh, 35.

Disturb, 36. Accents, 37. Myopia, 38. Edmund.

DOWN: 2. Galileo, 3. Omit, 4. System, 5. Tangos, 6. Roux, 7. Inherit, 8. Avocet, 9. Isobar, 14. Francis, 16. Jacob, 18. Mayor, 20. Shy, 21. Err, 23. Druids, 24. Piously, 26. Avignon, 27. Schism, 28. Zambia, 29. Pilate, 33. Pulp, 34. Scam.

Winner of Crossword No. 2 Paul Costello, Dooradoyle, Limerick.

ACROSS 1. A sin that does not deprive the soul of divine grace. (6) 5. Italian House which produced four Popes. (6) 10. Stripping off the outer layer of an orange. (7) 11. Decide firmly on a course of action. (7) 12. Strength of character, small particles of sand or stone. (4) 13. The first five books of the Hebrew Bible. (5) 15. A mixture of fat and flour used in making sauces. (4) 17. A member of a religious community of women. (3) 19. Hard animal fat used in candles and soaps. (6) 21. People responsible for seating guests. (6) 22. There were seven of them in the ancient world. (7) 23. A building devoted to the worship of God. (6) 25. Mythological Green nymphs said to inhabit rivers and springs. (6) 28. Ornate case built to house the stone tablets of the Ten Commandments. (3) 30. An actor's part in a play. (4) 31. His brothers were James, Joseph, Simon, and Judas. (5) 32. Powdered clay mineral used as baby powder. (4) 35. Small carved ornament used as part of traditional dress as a toggle. (7) 36. Made minor changes to a text in order to improve it. (7) 37. A danger or risk. (6)

38. Discs that can be used instead of money in some machines. (6)) DOWN 2. Like Zee I am a Biblical character. (7) 3. Diaphragm in the eye. (4) 4. A division of the ancient Roman army. (6) 5. Name for a shrine devoted to the Blessed Virgin. (6) 6. The darker stage of twilight. (4) 7. Folded pizza containing a filling. (7) 8. A plug inserted in a cask. (6) 9. Great leader of the Persians at the battle of Thermopylae. (6) 14. Ship steerers. (7) 16. A large loose hood, especially forming part of a monks' habit. (5) 18. Indian state known for its tea. (5) 20. Great sorrow or distress. (3) 21. Tall, rounded vase with a stem and base. (3) 23. A cruel and oppressive leader. (6) 24. A body of citizen soldiers only called into service during emergencies. (7) 26. Leave a place or vehicle empty or uninhabited. (7) 27. Formally withdraw from membership of an alliance or religious organisation. (6) 28. Epic ancient poem by Virgil. (6) 29. Gulf country that relies solely on desalination plants for fresh water. (6) 33. Caribbean country visited by three Popes. (4) 34. Take a tree, not any tree. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.4, May 2021 Name:

Today’s Readings Dt 4:32-34.39-40; Ps 32; Rm 8:14-17; Mt 28:16-20

Address: Telephone:

All entries must reach us by Monday May 31, 2021 One €35 prize is offered for the first correct solutions opened. The Editor’s decision on all matters concerning this competition will be final. Do not include correspondence on any other subject with your entry which should be addressed to: Reality Crossword No.4, Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC

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