Reality March 2017

SHIPWRECKED! MISSIONERS SET SAIL

MARCH 2017

SAINT KATHARINE DREXEL PATRON OF NATIVE AMERICANS

THE SEASON OF LENT ITS MEANING AND PURPOSE

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT

PIETA HOUSE AND A WORLD OF HOPE THE NATIONAL CHARITY THAT SUPPORTS PEOPLE IN SUICIDAL DISTRESS

SAINT PATRICK

NEW LIGHT SHED ON OUR NATIONAL APOSTLE

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CELEBRATING 80 YEARS OF Reality MAGAZINE Special one day Lenten Conference

DISCIPLESHIP the call and the challenge Speakers: Fr Denis McBride CSsR & David Wells

Saturday 8th April 2017

Denis McBride CSsR Author of Stations of the Cross– Then and Now and many others...

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 FROM DARKNESS INTO LIGHT PIETA HOUSE AND A WORLD OF HOPE With 18 centres and growing, Pieta House offers support for those in painful situations.

By Tríona Doherty

20 LENT - A JOURNEY OF ENCOUNTER, HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION There is more to Lent than giving up our favourite treats!

By Sarah Adams

24 SHIPWRECKED! Sunk by a warship and stranded in Uruguay - the turbulent travels of a pair of Irish missionaries Reviewed by Paul Copeland

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26 KATHARINE DREXEL HEIRESS TO THE OPPRESSED The outspoken saint who went from riches to rags to help the most marginalised

By Mike Daley

28 RETHINKING CANON LAW What is the point of canon law, and how is it put into practice?

By Seán Cannon C.Ss.R.

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35

35 THE PATRICK ENIGMA? While difficult to separate the myth from the man, our national apostle has had a profound influence on our faith.

By John J. Ó Ríordáin C.Ss.R

OPINION

38 THE ABBEY THAT REFUSED TO DIE

19 DAVID O'DONOGHUE

07 POPE MONITOR

Mayo's Ballintubber Abbey celebrates a proud history of 800 years of daily use.

By Fr Frank Fahey and Audrey Burke

31 CARMEL WYNNE

08 FEAST OF THE MONTH

40 SILENCE Martin Scorsese's latest film explores big questions of faith and doubt.

Reviewed by Paul Clogher

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

44 PETER McVERRY SJ

REGULARS 04 REALITY BITES

09 REFLECTIONS 32 PRAYER CORNER 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES BABY FOUND ON CATHEDRAL STEPS MINNESOTA

SURPRISE IN A BASKET

A newborn baby boy was found on the doorstep of a cathedral in Minnesota by the janitor. Nathan Leonhardt discovered the bundle, wrapped in a plastic laundry basket, as he was locking up the Cathedral of St Paul following evening Mass on 4 January. The cathedral rector, Father John Ubel, baptised the child while waiting for police and an ambulance to arrive. Under Minnesota law, a mother can leave a newborn in a safe place, such as a hospital or emergency clinic, within seven days of birth, without having to answer

any questions from the police. While a church is not officially classified as such a place, a spokesperson for the police said they are not pursuing the case as a criminal matter.

"I was speechless," Mr Leonhardt, who is the father of a four-year-old girl, said. "I froze for what seemed to be 10 seconds, but it was probably more." He said the infant appeared to be recently born, because he was still covered in blood and mucus and had not been washed. The umbilical cord was cut and clamped with a binder clip. The priest said he

CHILD ABUSE IN NORTHERN IRELAND 4

BELFAST

Nathan Leonhardt, a custodian at the Cathedral of St Paul, Minnesota, poses near the spot where he found an abandoned newborn baby

INEPT, INADEQUATE AND FAR FROM THOROUGH

The Historical Institutional Abuse Inquiry (HIA) in Northern Ireland, chaired by a retired judge, Sir Anthony Hart, investigated allegations of abuse, between 1922 and 1995, in 22 children’s homes in Northern Ireland run by the state and Catholic and Protestant religious bodies.

In its report, it condemned the failure of the Catholic hierarchy to act and prevent abuse, highlighting in particular the case of Fr Brendan Smyth, a sexually abusive priest to whom his superiors allowed considerable freedom of movement despite knowing about the risk he posed to children. It found that a Royal Ulster Constabulary (police) investigation into sexual abuse at the Kincora care home in east Belfast was “inept, inadequate and far from thorough.” It was alleged that Kincora had become a centre for abuse. The report also criticised Sisters of Nazareth who ran four homes in Belfast and Derry, saying: “In each of the four homes, some nuns engaged in physical and emotional abuse against children. Emotional abuse was widespread in all homes.” All of the religious orders named in the report issued statements of apology. Archbishop Eamonn Martin, on behalf of the bishops, welcomed the publication and accepted its findings. He apologised unreservedly to all those who suffered from their experience in church-run institutions, and to their loved ones.

"There is never an excuse for the abuse and ill-treatment of children or any vulnerable person, in any setting,” he said. "I am ashamed and I am truly sorry that such abuse occurred, and that in many cases children and young people felt deprived of love and were left with a deep and lasting suffering."

REALITY MARCH 2017

was grateful that the mother chose not to abort the baby and that he was proud of Mr Leonhardt's quick actions. "The fact that this child was left off at a Catholic church is not an insignificant detail to

me," Father Ubel said. "I think it's important that this child be given up for adoption, and there would be many willing Catholic couples who would welcome this child into their home."

PALESTINE OPENS EMBASSY TO VATICAN VATICAN CITY

A NEW BEGINNING

President Mahmoud Abbas inaugurated the first Palestinian Embassy to the Vatican on 14 January last following a formal visit to Pope Francis.

"This embassy is a place of pride for us and we hope all of the countries of the world will recognise the state of Palestine, because this recognition will bring us closer to the peace process," he said. The Vatican formally recognised the Palestinian Authority as a state in February 2013. It signed the first treaty between the two states in June, and formal diplomatic relations were inaugurated. At that time, a spokesperson for the State of Israel said: “I regret that the Vatican decided to participate in a step that blatantly ignores the history of the Jewish people in Israel and Jerusalem. Any attempt by the Palestinians, or any other actor to undermine our historic right to Jerusalem and our country will met by staunch opposition by us.”

Pope Francis greets Palestinian President Mahmoud Abbas during a meeting at the Vatican

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PERSECUTION OF CHRISTIANS WORLDWIDE NEW YORK

Displaced Christians fleeing violence in Iraq walk toward the Syrian border town of Elierbeh

2016 – THE WORST YEAR YET

In 25 years of chronicling and ranking the political and societal restrictions on religious freedom experienced by Christians worldwide, the international ministry, Open Doors, which serves Christians world-wide and alerts churches elsewhere to their plight, identified 2016 as the “worst year yet". For the fourth year in a row, the level of overall persecution has risen, with Asia, particularly, showing a rapid rise. North Korea remains at the top of the list, but as Hindu nationalists batter the churches, India climbs to its highest ever ranking at 15. Islamic extremism is the largest single source of opposition to Christians, fuelling persecution in 14 out of the top 20 countries, and 35 of the top 50. Never before, Open Doors claims, have so many Christians been on the move. According to the UN, 60 million people have been displaced, and a great number of these are Christians, especially in places like Syria, Iraq and Nigeria, where anti-Christian violence has driven hundreds of thousands of Christians from their homes. The top ten countries where Christians are persecuted are North Korea, Saudi Arabia, Iran, Somalia, Afghanistan, Maldives, Yemen, Sudan, Vietnam and China.

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In Detroit, more than 150 people protested against the persecution of Christians in Iraq

An estimated 3 million people came to see Pope Francis celebrate mass on Copacabana beach, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil during World Youth Day

DRIFT TO PROTESTANT CHURCHES CONTINUES TO ACCELERATE SAO PAULO

DECLINE OF A STRONGHOLD

Catholics will cease to be a majority of the Brazilian population by 2036, according to a recent demographic analysis. The decline in Catholic numbers began to be noticeable between 1991 and 2010, when there was a decline of 18.4 per cent. Of Catholics who leave the church, 72 per cent join Protestant churches, 18 per cent identify as non-believers and 10 per cent join nonChristian religions.

There is also evidence for an increased rate of decline in two of Brazil’s most populous states, Rio de Janeiro and São Paulo. In the state of Rio, 55 per cent of the population of the city of Seropédica identified themselves as Catholic in the 1991 census and 21 per cent as Protestant: by 2010 the proportion of Catholics was 27.4 per cent while Protestants had risen to 44 per cent.

In the industrial area around the city of São Paulo known as the ABC Region, the proportion of Catholics had fallen from more than 90 per cent in 1960 to 56.5 per cent in 2010, and continued to fall 46.8 per cent in 2016. continued on page 6

REALITY BITES MALTESE BISHOPS IMPLEMENT AMORIS LAETITIA

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Under certain circumstances, and after long and prayerful examination of conscience, some divorced and civilly remarried Catholics may return to the sacraments, the bishops of Malta have announced. With "an informed and enlightened conscience", separated or divorced persons in a new relationship who are able "to acknowledge and believe that they at peace with God, cannot be precluded from participating in the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist."

The island’s hierarchy is small, consisting of only two bishops, and they urged their priests to recognise how people "who find themselves in complex situations, especially those involving separated or divorced persons who have entered a new union" may have "lost their first marriage," but not their hope in Jesus. Some of them earnestly desire to live a full life in harmony with God, and are asking what they can do in order to be able to celebrate the sacraments of reconciliation and the Eucharist. The first step, the bishops said, must be to affirm church teaching that marriage is indissoluble. Then the couple's specific situation should be examined to determine if their first union was a canonically valid marriage: if not, they should be encouraged to seek an annulment. Without an annulment, couples in a second relationship should be encouraged to abstain from sexual relations, since the church does not consider their new union a marriage.

Where the couple find practising the virtue of "conjugal continence" impossible, priests were urged to devote time to guiding them in a reflection on their first union, their contributions to its failure, the impact on their children and a host of other questions before admitting them to the sacraments.

Valletta skyline with the dome of St Paul's Cathedral, Malta

FEEDING THE POOR AT VATICAN MCDONALD’S While the op ening of a McDonald's restaurant near the Vatican attracted a good deal of negative comment (Reality Bites December 2016), the popular fast food chain is trying to do its part in the neighbourhood by helping the poor and the hungry.

The Catholic organisation, Medicina Solidale ("Solidarity Medicine") announced early in January that it is joining forces with McDonald's and with the papal almoner's office, which distributes aid from the pope's REALITY MARCH 2017

charitable fund to good causes, including care for those who sleep rough around the Vatican.

McDonald's has agreed to provide 100 meals weekly for ten weeks to poor people who shelter in and around St. Peter's Basilica. The specially prepared menu will include a double cheeseburger, fresh apple slices and a bottle of water. The director of Medicina Solidale, Lucia Ercoli, hopes that this is the beginning of a dialogue with the chain which may expand in the future.

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POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS MEETING THE IRISH BISHOPS

DOES THE POPE NEED TO BE CORRECTED?

In the course of their ad limina visit (“pilgrimage to the threshold”) to Rome in January last, Pope Francis met the Irish Bishops for a twohour long conversation. According to the bishops, topics covered included the ministry of bishop, the clerical sexual abuse crisis, the role of women in the church, the need to find new ways to engage with young people, the changing status of the church in Irish society, the importance of Catholic schools and methods for handing on the faith. They also spoke about plans for the World Meeting of Families in Dublin in August 2018 and the hope that Pope Francis would attend.

Archbishop Eamon Martin of Armagh, president of the bishops’ conference and spokesperson for the bishops, told the press conference that Pope Francis led a serious reflection on “the importance of a ministry of presence, a ministry of the ear where we are listening to the joys and the hopes, the struggles and the fears of our people, that we are walking with them, that we are reaching out to them where they are at.”

The week-long ad limina includes not just the meeting with the pope but a round of meetings with the heads of the various Vatican Congregations or administrative departments. Archbishop Martin said that at almost every meeting, the bishops brought up the role and position of women in the church, including with the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, where they discussed “areas within the church where a stronger position of lay people is not only licit, but is desirable.”

One of the groups that is most alienated in the Catholic Church in Ireland, said Dr Martin, is women, “particularly young women, who feel excluded and therefore do not take part in the life of the church.”

The head of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, Cardinal Gerhard Muller, has stated that the threat of Cardinal Raymond Burke and three other cardinals to issue a “fraternal correction” to Pope Francis is “very remote.” Refuting the charges made by Cardinal Burke, the cardinal prefect says that the papal document on the family, Amoris Laetitia, is very clear in its doctrine. The four cardinals wrote to the pope in September last, urging him to respond to a series of yes or no questions they raised regarding Amoris Laetitia and its provisions for sacramental ministry to the divorced and civilly remarried. Cardinal Muller acknowledged that every member of the Church, and especially a cardinal, has the right to write a letter to the pope. Referring to the cardinals' decision to make the contents of their letter public when the pope refused to answer their questions, he added however, “I am amazed that this became public, essentially constraining the pope to say ‘yes’ or ‘no’. I don’t like this.” Regarding the possible formal correction, which Cardinal Burke said he was prepared to do, if the pope continued to refuse to answer the questions, Cardinal Muller stated that “it’s not possible in this moment, because it doesn’t concern a danger for the faith as St Thomas said.” Pope Francis, he said, “asks to discern the situation of these people who are living in unions that are not regular, 7 that is, not in accord with the teaching of the church on matrimony, and asks to help these persons to find a path for a new integration in the church according to the conditions of the sacraments, of the Christian message on matrimony.” In the document, he said, we have clear teaching on marriage, and on the other hand, a statement of the church’s obligation to be concerned with its members who are in difficulties.

SHELTERING FROM THE COLD IN CARS NEAR THE VATICAN

Pope Francis seated with the Irish bishops

During a severe cold snap in January, the papal charity office announced that it would be positioning cars it owns around the area surrounding the Vatican with the doors unlocked, so that homeless persons who didn’t wish to move from their usual locations could sleep in them during the nights in order to fight off the cold. Two cars were placed on the Via della Conciliazione, the broad street that leads up to St Peter’s Square. The Italian newspaper La Repubblica reported that one of the cars had been occupied the previous evening by an 85-year-old homeless woman. The office also distributed thermal sleeping bags, and the Vatican-run shelters remained open 24 hours a day instead of just at night. Pope Francis urged people at his audience to pray for "people who live on the streets, struck by the cold and, many times, by indifference". Unfortunately, he said, “some have not survived. Let us pray for them and ask the Lord to warm our hearts so that we can help them.”

FEAST OF THE MONTH ST CLEMENT MARY HOFBAUER MARCH 15

TH

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He was born Jan Dvorak, and died Klemens Hofbauer. Between those two names is concealed much of the drama of the life of St Clement Mary Hofbauer. He was born ninth of a family of 12 on St Stephen’s Day 1751 in the small town of Tasovice in what is today the Czech Republic, and baptised Jan. Language boundaries in that part of Europe were porous, and the Dvorak family changed their name to its German equivalent of Hofbauer (“farmer”). For much of his life, he moved in and out of different languages with apparent ease – German, Czech, Polish and Italian. When his early desire to become a priest was cut short by the death of his Latin teacher, the local priest, he was apprenticed to a baker.

Periods of living as a hermit were punctuated by long pilgrimages to Rome. Pilgrimages were done on foot, a distance of well over 1,000 kilometres across the Alps, often begging for food and a night’s shelter. On his second pilgrimage, Jan took on the hermit’s life again, at Tivoli near Rome, and he adopted the name Clement which he retained for the rest of his life. He was still a restless spirit however, and returned to his homeland in search of ordination. The outcome was yet another pilgrimage to Rome, this time with a friend called Thaddeus Hubl. Things were different this time. By chance the two pilgrims met in Rome the members of a small religious order, struggling for life, called the Redemptorists.

Clement was now 33. This final change of life proved to be lasting. Clement and Thaddeus were accepted into the noviciate, professed, ordained and dispatched back to their own land with orders to found a community, all within less than a year.

For more than 20 years, they lived in Warsaw, beginning their life there officiating in the small chapel of a German confraternity that eventually became the base for a city-wide mission. The community over the years grew to 21 priests and seven brothers, eventually running a noviciate, school and orphanage. In the wake of the Napoleonic Wars, they were expelled from Warsaw in 1808, and the community was scattered. Clement went off to live in Vienna, while the larger group with students and novices wandered in search of a home. In his modest quarters as chaplain to a community of nuns, Clement was active, gathering around him a group of young men and women. The climate of the day was notably anti-church. If the majority of its inhabitants preserved the outward trappings of old Catholic devotional practices, the tone of Vienna was decidedly anti-church, under the influence of the French revolution, Free Masons and the intellectual enlightenment. Fr Hofbauer was a strong defender of the traditional Catholic faith. Many of those attracted by him were young, cultured and talented, and he taught them how to be Catholic while retaining their interest in music and literature. All the time, he was working to keep the scattered members of his religious family together. Clement’s activities attracted the attention of his critics. They attempted to have him expelled from Austria but the expulsion order had to be signed by the Emperor. Fortunately for Clement, Emperor Franz was on pilgrimage to Rome, where he learned how pleased the pope was with Fr Hofbauer’s activity. Instead of a decree of expulsion, he signed a decree approving the foundation of a Redemptorist community in Vienna, and granting it one of the city’s oldest churches, Maria am Gestaade. It came too late: Clement had died several days previously on 15 March 1829, and the decree was laid on his coffin. From Vienna, the Redemptorists spread to Switzerland, France, Belgium, the United States, England and Ireland within 30 years of Clement’s death. He was beatified in 1888 and canonised in 1909.

Brendan McConvery CSsR REALITY MARCH 2017

Reality Volume 82. No. 2 March 2017 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651 Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Editor Brendan McConvery CSsR bmcconvery@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR dmcnamara@redcoms.org General Manager Paul Copeland pcopeland@redcoms.org Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Administration & Accounts Michelle McKeon mmckeon@redcoms.org Printed by Nicholson & Bass, Belfast Photo Credits Catholic News Service, Shutterstock, Pieta House REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €20 or £18 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €25 or £20 UK £30 Europe €40 Rest of the world €50 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin D09 X651 ADVERTISING Whilst we take every care to ensure the accuracy and validity of adverts placed in Reality, the information contained in adverts does not necessarily reflect the views and opinions of Redemptorist Communications. You are therefore advised to verify the accuracy and validity of any information contained in adverts before entering into any commitment based upon them.

When you have finished with this magazine, please pass it on or recycle it. Thank you.

Remembering Bridie Our prayers and best wishes go to Bridie Moran (97) of The Camp, Tralee, Co Kerry who is a patient in Bons Secours Hospital Tralee at the moment. Bridie was a promoter of Reality since the 1960s and only passed the role to her daughter, Brid, ten years ago.

REFLECTIONS This seems to me a thing to be noticed, that just as the men of this country are, during this mortal life, more prone to anger and revenge than any other race, so in eternal death the saints of this land, that have been elevated by their merits, are more vindictive than the saints of any other region.

Do not swear, do not swear by the sod on which you stand; a short time you'll be on it, a long time you'll be under it.

GERALD OF WALES ON SAINTS OF IRELAND

JOHN FORD

My mouth is full of decayed teeth and my soul of decayed ambitions.

Let him be gentle, close and zealous, let him be modest, generous and gracious; against the torrent of the world, let him be watchful, let him not be reproachful; against the brood of the world, let him be warlike.

JAMES JOYCE

Above all else, deep in my soul, I'm a tough Irishwoman.

MAUREEN O’HARA

I was raised in a very old fashioned Ireland where women were reared to be lovely.

ANNE ENRIGHT

Being Irish, he had an abiding sense of tragedy, which sustained him through temporary periods of joy.

W B YEATS

Dá ghile an t-éadach, is fusa é a shalachadh. (The whiter the cloth the easier soiled).

An rud nach fiú é a lorg, ní fiú í a fháil. (What is not worth seeking, is not worth finding.)

IRISH PROVERB

ANCIENT IRISH POEM

Who better than an Irishman can understand the Indians, while still being stirred by tales of the US cavalry?

RULE OF ST AILBE OF EMLY

I'd like the people of heaven to gather From all the parishes around.

I'd give a special welcome to the women, The three Marys of great renown.

I'd sit with the men, the women and God There by the lake of beer.

We'd be drinking good health forever And every drop would be a prayer.

“PRAYER OF ST BRIGID” (11TH CENTURY)

IRISH PROVERB

Experience is simply the name we give our mistakes.

OSCAR WILDE

Did I come to Ireland without God, or according to the flesh? Who compelled me? I am bound by the Spirit not to see any of my kinsfolk. Is it of my own doing that I have holy mercy on the people who once took me captive and made away with the servants and maids of my father’s house? I was freeborn according to the flesh. But I sold my noble rank, I am neither ashamed nor sorry, for the good of others. Thus I am a servant in Christ to a foreign nation for the unspeakable glory of life everlasting which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

ST PATRICK. LETTER TO COROTICUS

My three wishes of the King when I part from my body: may I have nothing to confess, may I have no enemies, no possessions.

ANCIENT IRISH POEM

Ordinary riches can be stolen; real riches cannot. In your soul are infinitely precious things that cannot be taken from you.

A lovely church, a home for God Bedecked with linen fine, Where over the white Gospel page The Gospel candles shine.

OSCAR WILDE

MANCHAN OF OFFALY

PADRAIC COLUM

To Meath of the pastures, From wet hills by the sea, Through Leitrim and Longford, Go my cattle and me.

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EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

HAPPY ANNIVERSARY, PAPA FRANCESCO!

I

was helping out in Clonard Monastery in Belfast for a few days while my mother was in hospital. Shortly after 6pm on 13 March, 2013, someone said the white smoke had gone up from the Sistine Chapel. We crowded into the television room, but we had to wait a while.

Various assistants made their appearances with microphones and books, then the Cardinal Dean eventually appeared on the balcony to make the formal announcement. The name George, Cardinal Bergoglio, did not mean a lot to me or most of the others there, so we tried to locate him in the newspaper list of cardinals at the conclave the way punters pore over the runners at the Grand National. Far more surprising was the choice of papal name Francis. It went far beyond the limited range of Benedict, Pius, Leo and even the more recent combination of John and Paul. Clearly he was a man who might be different. Eventually, a mildlooking bespectacled man in white appeared on the balcony. He signalled for silence, and then he said two words: “Buona Sera!” The crowd erupted. There was a matter of factness about that greeting. It is what you say when you walk into a Roman cafe to order a cup of coffee or meet someone on the street. For a pope to ask the people to pray for him before he blessed them was the mark of a humble man. Because of Lent, there was a hurry to get his installation ceremony held on the first feast day available, the Feast of St Joseph, a holiday in Italy and the original Fathers’ Day. As he stood in the procession waiting for the signal to move forward, I noticed another gesture – he pushed aside the sleeve of his alb and glanced unobtrusively at his watch. “This homily is going to be short,” I thought to myself, and so it was.

As we celebrate the fourth anniversary of the election of Pope Francis, small gestures like that have continued to mark his pontificate-

paying his own bill for his stay at the conclave, remaining in the guest house rather than moving into the papal rooms in the Apostolic Palace, driving to his opticians in downtown Rome for new glasses, visiting a group of former priests with their wives and families in an apartment in a Roman suburb, dressing in green hospital scrubs to hold babies in a neonatal care unit.

There is of course much more than photo opportunities to Pope Francis. He is very much a pastoral pope. His daily homilies sparkle with wit and perceptive insight into the Gospel. He has breathed new life into old fashioned piety without ever saying a word – the visit to Our Lady with a bunch of flowers on his way back to the Vatican after a papal visit, or slipping special prayers on a slip of paper under a small statue of St Joseph. He sits on a plastic chair to hear the confessions of teenagers in St Peter’s Square. The encyclical Laudato Sí' put climate change and respect for the environment into the very centre of Catholic moral theology.

The post-synodal document Amoris Laetitia was not only a formidable restatement of the Catholic ideal of love for both the married and celibate but it also pushed the door open, if only a chink for the moment, to make the church a more welcoming place for those whose marriages are troubled but who want to find the way back home.

Pope Francis is not without his critics. He notices when his documents, like the one removing the limitation that only males got their feet washed on Holy Thursday, seem to ‘get lost’ in the inner workings of Vatican bureaucracy. A cardinal, who has an alarming tendency to overdress in a garment called a cappa magna that went out of fashion several decades ago, published (along with three other cardinals) a letter raising dubia or doubts about the theological accuracy of Amoris Laetitia,

especially its pastoral provisions. When the pope chose to ignore the challenge, the cardinal offered his services to administer a word of fraternal correction if required.

As an article on recent developments in canon law in this issue of Reality makes clear, the church needs law to maintain the good order of its life, but when law is good, it is flexible and ready to adapt its interpretation to changes in human society so that it continues to uphold the values it represents. Perhaps the most fundamental statement on the role of law in the Catholic Church was made by its founder: “The sabbath was made for human beings, not human beings for the sabbath (Mark 2:27).”

I take this opportunity to say I will be missing from the editorial chair for a while. Some medical treatment that has been pending for some years has become necessary. I welcome Triona Doherty, no stranger to these pages, who will be standing in for me as editor for the next few issues. She will be assisted by the other members of our team – Michelle McKeon, Claire Carmichael, Paul Copeland and Fr David McNamara. My thanks to all of them.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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C OVE R STO RY

12

FROM DARKNESS INTO

PIETA HOUSE AND A WORLD

“I have never met anyone who really wanted to die.”

Cindy O'Connor, chief clinical officer, Pieta House

AT LEAST TEN PEOPLE DIE EACH WEEK IN IRELAND AS A RESULT OF SUICIDE. PIETA HOUSE IS A NATIONAL CHARITY THAT SUPPORTS PEOPLE IN SUICIDAL DISTRESS OR WHO ARE INCLINED TO SELF-HARM.

BY TRÍONA DOHERTY

REALITY MARCH 2017

I

am chatting with Pieta House’s chief clinical officer Cindy O’Connor, and realising that in spite of how enlightened I may think myself on mental health issues, there is always more to learn.

Cindy speaks candidly about the painful situations in which many people find themselves – and is adamant that suicide or self-harm are not what anyone would willingly choose for themselves.

“People can be left in such a painful situation that they can’t see any alternative – if they had an alternative they would have chosen life.

One in four people will experience a mental health issue in their lifetime. If we’re in a room with three other people we tend to think it won’t be us, but it can happen to any one of us,” says Cindy.

Into this reality steps Pieta House, a national charity which offers support to those in suicidal distress or engaging in self-harm.

There is one word that pops up again and again in the vocabulary of those associated with Pieta House: hope. It is emblazoned across the top of their social media sites, and is spelt out in candles during the charity’s annual fundraiser Darkness Into Light. It is the driving force of the organisation, whose vision is of “a world where suicide, selfharm and stigma have been replaced by hope, self-care and acceptance”.

Pieta House first opened its doors a decade ago in 2006 in Lucan, County Dublin. From there it has grown and now runs 18 centres around the country, with plans to further expand services. Darkness Into Light has become one of the biggest and best known charity events in the country, and their name has become synonymous with support and hope for those facing dark and painful situations.

Cindy O'Connor

The figures for self-harm are more difficult to ascertain. A conservative estimate places the number of self-harm cases presenting at A&E departments annually at around 28,000

Pieta House first opened its doors a decade ago in 2006 in Lucan and now runs 18 centres around the country

LIGHT

OF HOPE

THE BIG PICTURE The stark reality is that 10 people die by suicide in Ireland every week. In 2015, there were 451 recorded suicides, just eight fewer than the previous year. Males accounted for 83 per cent of all registered suicide deaths in 2015.

– a figure which is just the tip of the iceberg.

Pieta House runs ten centres around the country, as well as eight new centres which they took over when bereavement charity Console was wound down last year. The addition of bereavement services was a good fit with what Pieta House was already offering.

The most recent figures from the charity reveal that in 2015, a total of 5,455 people availed of the services of Pieta House. Of this number, nearly 1,000 were teenagers. In fact, the past five years have seen a 163 per cent increase in the numbers of under 18s using the service due to self-harm and suicidal crisis.

When the first Pieta House centre opened its doors in 2006, it saw just 70 clients in its first year. Cindy O’Connor says the service has worked hard over the past 10 years to build up trust in the community.

“The reason the service developed was there was such a gap in services. Ten years ago people had two options – to go to A&E or to their GP. Often people are afraid and don’t want to be in hospital. A person can be suicidal and be supported, with the right services, in the community,” says Cindy.

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C OVE R STO RY

VULNERABLE GROUPS Of the 10 people who die by suicide in Ireland every week, eight will be men. In recent years there has also been an increase in the numbers of older men dying by suicide. Cindy says the one consistent issue that people are grappling with is loss – whether it is the breakup of a relationship, a b ereavement , b e c o m i n g unemployed, or another major life event.

“When a relationship breaks up it is often the man who leaves the family home. Men are sometimes not as good at communicating with friends, though it’s not that they’re not good communicators, as they do very well with Pieta House.

“Generally people become suicidal when they find themselves in circumstances they didn’t expect to be in. They are just reacting to a life event. Things happen and they don’t feel they have a coping strategy; they get frightened and don’t know how to respond,” says Cindy.

Of the 10 people who die by suicide in Ireland every week, eight will be men

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It is this supportive atmosphere that brings people back to Pieta House after the initial assessment. “When people first come to us, we would see them a minimum of twice a week, and sometimes three or four times. The real beauty is that we don’t charge for the service.

It is about making the service as barrier-free as possible.”

Unlike some other services, Pieta House accepts third-party referrals, which means that a partner, parent, family member, or friend can make an appointment for the person in crisis. Those living with someone attending the service can also receive support.

Cindy says Pieta House is a ‘client-led’ service, meaning it is guided by the needs of its clients.

This includes developing new centres where there is a demand. A centre is due to open in Donegal in 2017, and there is a constant push to expand.

“The important thing is that, in spite of how much we have grown, we have held on to our ethos, which is rooted in compassion and care,” says Cindy.

“We are always asking, how would I like to be treated, or how would I like a member of my family to be treated. All our psychologists and psychotherapists are fully accredited, but we look for people with more than just academic qualifications; it must be coupled with personal warmth and generous care.”

Walking into a Pieta House centre is like walking into a cosy house or living room.

Clients are greeted with a smile and offered tea and coffee. The idea is to ensure that people feel welcome and valued from the moment they walk in the door, despite whatever crisis or distress they may be facing.

REALITY MARCH 2017

“What do any of us need in a crisis? We need to be understood and not to be judged.

When we learn to develop coping strategies and are supported in a safe environment, we can come out the other end.”

Another group in ever-growing need of support is teenagers. Ireland currently has the highest rate of suicide among teenage girls in Europe, and the second highest among teenage boys. Estimates suggest that between 15 and 45 per cent of adolescents have attempted self-harm.

Over the past five years, Pieta House has seen a 163 per cent increase in under 18s using their services due to self-harm and suicidal crisis. This vulnerable age group is therefore an increasing focus, particularly with the roll-out of a pilot programme for secondary schools aimed

at equipping young people with the skills to cope with life’s challenges.

The Resilience Schools Programme was piloted with groups of second year students and is now being rolled out across the country. It aims to reduce the number of deaths by suicide by working with students to use their strength and resilience as a resource. It tackles issues including family, bullying, sexuality, and mental health in a supportive manner.

The idea is to encourage participants to build up their coping skills. As Cindy puts it: “Why wait until they are adults and in crisis?”

Ireland currently has the highest rate of suicide among teenage girls in Europe, and the second highest among teenage boys. Estimates suggest that between 15 and 45 per cent of adolescents have attempted self-harm.

A COMMUNITY-BASED SERVICE A look at Pieta House’s social media sites reveals a constant stream of fundraising events, from coffee mornings and concerts to sporting challenges, and everything in between.

Pieta House costs €7 million a year to run, of which just 15 per cent comes from Government funding, so the service relies predominantly on fundraising to survive.

Their biggest charitable event is the annual Darkness Into Light walk which takes place early in the summer. The format of this event is deeply symbolic, taking place as dawn breaks across the country. More than 100,000

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C OVE R STO RY

previously operated by Console but is now under the management of Pieta House. Two counsellors work in the centre, but this will increase as the service continues to expand.

The centre offers individual, family and group support. It is a serene and cosy haven, with counselling rooms, a welcoming kitchen, and ‘Donal’s Room’ – a counselling room specifically for younger clients which has been kitted out in memory of anti-suicide campaigner Donal Walsh, complete with inspirational quotes on the walls.

Gerard Tiernan, a fundraiser for Pieta House Athlone, says increasing numbers of people are contacting the service directly, rather than by the traditional route of GP referrals.

“It’s a sign of the times that people are coming to us directly. The service is growing; every day there are calls or letters from people looking for help, so we know the service is badly needed,” says Gerard.

As the service grows, so too do the offers of help from the local community. Recent fundraising initiatives locally have included Christmas concerts, cycles, a Channel swim challenge, ‘fight night’ featuring a local politician, a cook off, and a motivational talk, to name but a few.

“People are coming to us now with events, whereas before we had to contact people to ask for support,” explains Gerard.

Fundraising in Galway

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A COMMUNITY EFFORT We hear a lot of talk these days about the “stigma” surrounding mental health, and whether it has yet been broken down. Public

Pieta House costs €7 million a year to run, of which just 15 per cent comes from Government funding people take part in the event in several locations across the country every year.

“That’s a message from the public, saying this is an issue. One in four people will experience a mental health issue; it can happen to any one of us,” says Cindy.

“Pieta House are so thankful to the people of Ireland who have kept their doors open over the last 10 years. Pieta House REALITY MARCH 2017

doesn’t belong to its founder, CEO, or the Government, it belongs to the people and that’s why they are happy to use the services.”

I visited the Midlands Counselling Centre in Athlone, to see first hand what’s involved in running a local service. The Athlone service covers the entire Midlands area, with up to 30 people currently coming to the centre each week for counselling. The centre was

In June 2016, President and Sabina Higgins hosted an event for staff and volunteers of Pieta House

A proper indicator of success would be how many rooms or how many Pieta House centres we can close, year on year figures speaking out about their own battles with mental health have no doubt helped to shatter some of the illusions we may have had about the type of people who struggle.

However Cindy O’Connor feels there is still a way to go, and would encourage everyone to examine their own attitudes and perceptions, and to be proactive in offering support to those around us.

“We have made great strides in Ireland – at one stage suicide was such a taboo and there was a shame and stigma attached. We’re seeing a shift away from this, but we still have a long way to go and we need to keep it on the agenda. We all need to challenge our own perceptions. Those who are struggling are just like you and me.

“It is important not to be afraid to check in with people. After a suicide, you often hear it said that they were the last person you’d expect. Then in hindsight there were little signs. Sometimes the signs are there, but if we are not tuned in we are not going to see them. We can be terrified of offending

someone, but if we ask it might be an opportunity for that person to get the help and support they need.”

On the one hand, as Pieta House celebrates 10 years and offers support to more and more people, it is a success story. On the other it is a sad reflection of our society, and indeed our health services, that there is such demand for the service, as CEO of Pieta House Brian Higgins pointed out in a recent interview: “Ultimately, what we need in Pieta House is to do ourselves out of business. Where, in one sense you could view our figures and say that growing numbers represent a growing level of success – and it is a success to the extent that people are accessing our services – to the same extent it’s not a proper indicator of success.

“A proper indicator of success would be how many rooms or how many Pieta House centres we can close, year on year, if we can get things right as a society and get rid of the reasons people feel suicidal or engage in self harm in the first place.”

For anyone who has been bereaved by suicide, anyone who is suicidal and feels there is no hope, anyone who is self-harming, or anyone who would like to help someone who is suicidal or self-harming, please get in touch with Pieta House or another support service.

Pieta House can be contacted by phoning 1800 247 247, or visit www.pieta.ie where you’ll find a list of all Pieta House services and centres.

Tríona Doherty is a journalist and a regular contributor to Reality

17

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COM M E N T THE YOUNG VOICE DAVID O’DONOGHUE

FINDING SPIRITUALITY IN VULNERABILITY

WHEN A TIME OF SPIRITUAL HIGH PASSES INTO A DARKER TIME, WHERE DO WE FIND THE TRACES OF GOD? I was recently taking a drive with two of my closest friends. We found ourselves submerged in the special kind of darkness that seems endemic to nights only in rural Kerry. When I lived in the city I remembered how unsettled I had been by the way that it never really seemed to get dark there; the night was always poked and prodded and pinholed by the lingering sodium haze of streetlights and the low hum and chatter of traffic and drunken student nights winding down into sleep until the dawn was approaching. There was something comforting about returning to the darkness of my native countryside that was only rarely punctuated by a passing car here and there. It was the dark and loamy soil of internal and external quietude, a fertiliser for conversation and contemplation.

We wandered through the weeds into a discussion of loss and sympathy and faith. I found myself in one of those rare situations in which I could discuss frankly my spirituality and faith with people my age; in which I could quote Scripture without fear or scorn and invoke the name of Jesus without sideways glances and pitiful grins. I was on flying form.

I get an almost Pentecostal feeling from moments like these, spinning shimmering threads of passionate professing from some fiery internal place tended by the quiet night, speaking from my mouth out of the abundance of the heart to paraphrase the New Testament.

The conversation was electrifying and warm but it had to come to an end. I arrived home and crawled

into bed, awaiting a particularly lengthy shift at work the following day as well as the innumerable errands and anxieties of a recent graduate.

In the quiet of the following evening’s darkness, my sense of righteous and rapturous enthusiasm for faith had all but evaporated. My body ached and the bags beneath my eyes could have held a month’s worth of groceries.

My mind raced with the sense of helpless confusion that has been a constant backstage presence in the theatrical production entitled 'After the education system' I have had haphazardly behind my eyelids in the past half year. The certainty and direction I had drawn from my invocations of faith the previous evening seemed distant and vaporous and they seemed to slip through my worn hands like so much candle-smoke. I glanced over at the King James that always lies beside my bed and turned my eyes away. I felt something like a sense of shame. I didn’t think I could seek comfort or affirmation in those red words that were so much part of the interior architecture of my

spirit. I felt the way anyone does when they’re anxious and down in the dumps and simply don’t want to face the world even to see friends: a concern along the lines of “I can’t let them see me like this”.

In these columns I have so often called for a faith of righteous action and social justice. I have invoked a Christ of radical mercy and tolerance who has been anointed “to preach the gospel to the poor... to heal the broken hearted, to preach deliverance to the captives, and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty them that are bruised”. I have called for an embrace of the Christ who challenges us to be our best selves at every moment and prompts us towards the comfort of the afflicted. But I have neglected in my words and in my internal life the Christ who comforts. What about the moments when “the afflicted” are not some nebulous populace outside of our homes but when our own spirits feel afflicted?

We live in a world which so often levels criticism at people for not presenting themselves in perfection. Whether through social

media, television or job applications we live in a world mediated by pristine images of wealth, glamour, beauty and hyper-competence.

This is a difficult world in which to accept and be comfortable with the flaws of our own humanity. It is difficult to be a teenage girl who doesn’t see the cover of Vogue when she looks in a mirror or a refugee who is presented on all fronts with images of her own supposed criminality and inconvenience to our societal structure. It is difficult to teem with imperfection and anxiety and confront a society which demands the constantly composed and confident “model citizen”. It is difficult to feel oneself a worthless sinner and try to find a home in an Irish Catholicism that unfortunately is sometimes more interested in wearing your best clothes for Mass on Sunday than in how your spirit is attired every other day of the week. Our faith should certainly be a call to action and a call to live as much as we can in Christ’s gospel of love, forgiveness and empathy. But we must never forget that the broken-hearted and the afflicted are not only “out there”, but they are among us and within us. We must learn to love and forgive ourselves before we can begin to reach our hands out to others.

David O'Donoghue is a freelance journalist from Co. Kerry. His work has appeared in The Irish Catholic, the Irish Independent, and The Kerryman. He is the former political editor of campus.ie and holds an abiding interest in all things literary, political and spiritual.

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In Tune with the Liturgy A series that highlights some of the features of the Church’s worship in the month ahead

A JOURNEY OF ENCOUNTER, HEALING AND TRANSFORMATION WHAT DOES LENT MEAN FOR YOU? IS IT THE BLEAK SEASON OF THE SOUL OR THE FIRST STEPS ON A JOURNEY TO SPIRITUAL RENEWAL AND TRANSFORMATION AT EASTER?

BY SARAH ADAMS 20 In

the film Chocolat, Vianne, a chocolate maker, arrives in a small French village and opens up a chocolate shop.

This might seem an innocuous thing to do, but her timing is unfortunate. It is Lent. The mayor has been vociferous in his instructions to the villagers about what they should or should not be doing during this season of penance. Eating chocolate is most definitely not acceptable. The villagers are pretty miserable, hiding secrets of sadness and pain.

At the same time, they are both fearful and respectful of their mayor. Through her shop and her vivacious personality, however, Vianne brings new life and joy to the villagers.

The Mayor is outraged at his seeming loss of authority as one by one the people ignore his protestations, enjoy the chocolate and experience again the joy of life.

REALITY MARCH 2017

DO YOU LIKE LENT? Lent is one of those seasons that we either dread because of its apparent emphasis on selfdenial and self-imposed hardship or one that we embrace with enthusiasm because it is a real opportunity to re-assess our lives and take steps to deepen our relationship with God. To the uninitiated, especially those with no particular religious affiliation, Lent is seen as an austere time when ‘giving up' chocolate or alcohol or some other sensuous pleasure appears to be the norm.

The village mayor in Chocolat reinforces this perception with his insistence that everyone in the village, all of whom are expected to be practising Catholics, do not break the laws of fasting.

The emphasis on ‘giving things up’ not only misses the point of Lent but can cause people to shy away from what can be a deeply enriching aesthetic practice. In addition it can result in people

The emphasis on ‘giving things up’ not only misses the point of Lent but can cause people to shy away from what can be a deeply enriching aesthetic practice

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forgetting the other dimensions of Lenten practice such as prayer and almsgiving.

So what is the point of Lent?

If we think of a wedding or an imminent birth, we will know that many months of preparation go into being ready for these significant occasions.

In many ways, Lent is not so different. It is a time, lasting 40 days, when we prepare to celebrate Easter, the Resurrection of the Lord. As is traditional in the Catholic Church, the beginning of Lent is marked by the ritual marking of ashes on our foreheads, reminding us of our earthly vulnerability. On Ash Wednesday we are reminded through the readings at Mass of

our need to reacquaint ourselves with the One who loved us into being and continues to love us.

There are many things to distract us from this core purpose of life. Challenges and distractions can take us away from thinking about what God might be asking of us. We can be led along paths that are not particularly lifegiving but seem safe and comfortable.

Lent, it seems, is an opportunity, a period of time to reflect, to re-align ourselves spiritually so that when Easter comes we can celebrate with fresh vigour the joy of the Resurrection. We can give thanks

to God for the gift that Jesus is to the world, his life, death and ultimate rising to new life, in which one day we will share.

By participating in the 40 days of Lent we follow Jesus into the desert, a place of wilderness and

God might be asking of us and how far we may have wandered from this path. Ultimately it is a deepening of our daily journey with God. The liturgy of Lent provides us with rich opportunities to engage deeply.

On Ash Wednesday we are reminded through the readings at Mass of our need to reacquaint ourselves with the One who loved us into being and continues to love us testing. Whilst Jesus may have gone physically into the desert ours is an inner journey, where through prayer we spend time with God determining where our life is going, considering what

The themes of ‘encounter, healing and transformation’ are pertinent. On his own journey to Jerusalem, Jesus encounters a woman at a well, a blind man in need of healing and a dead man

In Tune with the Liturgy

By Sarah Adams

who has been lying in a tomb for four days. Each encounter transforms people. An ostracised woman shares her story and the people of Samaria come to believe. A blind man receives his sight and those around him are astounded. Mary and Martha see their brother brought back to life and many around come to believe that Jesus is the Messiah.

In each Gospel an encounter leads to some form of healing and then to transformation. This is what Lent is about.

LETTING GO At the heart of this Lenten journey is the opportunity for reconciliation with God, with our community and within our own self. The problem with reconciliation or the Sacrament

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of Penance as it is known, is that it has a terribly bad press, which is a pity. Celebrated well, with priest and penitent entering into it with humility, the sacrament offers the greatest opportunity for encounter, healing and transformation. Yet, for many of us it is very hard and we put it off, fearful of what it might involve.

Some years ago Schultz created the Peanuts cartoon.

Two of the main characters were Linus and Lucy. Linus is the little boy who walks around with the corner of a blanket in his mouth. Lucy is the one who is bossy and pushes people about.

On one occasion Lucy decides that Linus has had his blanket for long enough. She pulls it out of his hands and tells him, rather loudly, that the blanket burning has begun! As she tosses the blanket on to the fire she tells

him, 'now your insecurities are symbolically destroyed forever!

There, you are now free from the terrible hold on you…you are a new person.' Linus screams in distress. His blanket is his security.

Letting go can involve a real struggle. When we have had a row, hurt another person or been hurt by someone we can find it very difficult to forgive or be forgiven. It can create a barrier between ourselves and others, not to mention God. When we have been hurt we can become stuck and turned in on ourselves, sometimes bitter, angry or depressed, and because of this our relationships, our work and our pleasure in life is affected. We can be holding on to hurt that stops us from being the real person we are called to be, the person that God wants us to be. Very often

we are not aware of why we are hurting. This might be because the hurt goes a long way back; we no longer remember what caused it but it still affects who we are today. Jesus died so that we may be released from such fear and all that oppresses us.

He died so that we might be freed from all that stops us from being fully human. At the heart of reconciliation is a journey we make from death to life‌ not literal death but the kind of death that stops us from living to the full. It is a journey that asks of us to name our pain, to look at its cause and to see what we need to be freed from it. Why would we do this? Primarily because we are at heart good people who want to live in peace and harmony with ourselves and with others and particularly in relationship with God.

TAKE YOUR TIME Reconciliation is not a moment nor is it something that happens overnight. It can take many years before it leads to forgiveness and to freedom. The symbolic nature of 40 days in Lent is a recognition that these things take time. The Sacrament of Penance helps us on this journey and may well be

23

the ultimate means by which we can celebrate our healing and transformation.

God does not want us to be miserable or unhappy or out of sorts with each other. He gave us his Son so that, through freeing us from the power of sin, we may learn to live with hope and joy.

Within the film Chocolat the

mayor embraces Lent seriously but he has focused on the externals of Lent rather than addressing the deeper sadness within himself which causes him to be judgemental and tyrannical. Had he been able to experience a joyful confession he might have been a very different person.

Often in Lent parishes will have a liturgy of reconciliation with the opportunity for individual confession. These can be rich and rewarding experiences when we are helped to remember that we are not alone in our need to say sorry or find healing. We know that when we sin not only our relationship with God is damaged but it hurts others and the community. Preparing for the sacrament in the company of

others by reflecting on readings, singing appropriate music and joining in prayer strengthens us in our desire to meet God in our sorrow and vulnerability. The joy of unburdening ourselves allows us to continue on our journey to Easter so that when it comes we are ready and able to rejoice with Christ on Resurrection day.

Sarah Adams studied liturgical theology at Maynooth. She now lives on a farm in Devon, working for the Diocese of Plymouth as a Religious Education adviser. Sarah is passionate about raising awareness of the plight of people caught up in the Syrian war and supports the efforts in her local community to alleviate the sufferings of refugees. Â She enjoys hiking on Dartmoor and the surrounding countryside.

FROM THE ARCHIVES July/August 1941 To celebrate 80 years of The Redemptorist Record / Reality Magazine, we are delving into our archives to bring you some hidden gems from throughout the years. Reviewed by Paul Copeland

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REALITY MARCH 2017

SHIPWRECKED!

Little did Fr Arthur Maloney and Fr Michael Fox realise when they set sail in March 1941 for the new  mission in India that their ship would be shelled and sunk by a German warship, and they would end up in Uruguay! Their account of how they finished up 9,000 miles from their intended destination, and the good and bad fortune

they encountered along the way, is fascinating. They stuck to their orders to get to India where they eventually arrived, via Argentina, the United States and the Pacific, five months after leaving Ireland.

Both lived to a good age. Fr Maloney was Provincial in the 1960s and Fr Fox was a parish missioner.

25

By Mike Daley

KATHARINE DREXEL HEIRESS TO THE OPPRESSED

HOW A WEALTHY HEIRESS FOUNDED AN ORDER OF SISTERS FOR THE ADVANCEMENT OF NATIVE AMERICANS AND PEOPLE OF COLOUR

26

The

Lottery. Though the odds are better that I’ll be struck by lightning, I still play it. Usually I wait until the amount is over ten million dollars though. To increase my chances, right before I purchase the ticket and before the winning numbers are drawn, I tell God all the good things I’ll do with the prize money. Basically, if there’s a worthy cause that needs it, I tell Him I’ll take care of it. The only “selfish” desire I have, if you can even call it that, is to open up a restaurant/ bar named after my dog Jasper. Well that and purchase back the ’51 Cadillac Coupe De Ville I had as a kid. Perhaps you’re beginning to see why I haven’t won yet.

The only person I know who has ever won the lottery and taken nothing for themselves is, and this might have something to do with it, Saint Katharine Drexel.

LIFE OF PRIVILEGE Katharine was born on November 26, 1858,

REALITY MARCH 2017

the daughter of a prominent and wealthy Philadelphia family. Sadly, her mother died weeks after her birth. A year later, Katharine’s father married Emma Bouvier who, due to her generosity and compassion toward the poor, was known as “the Lady Bountiful of Philadelphia.” She would have a profound role in shaping Katharine’s sense of justice and demonstrating that wealth was meant to be shared with others.

You would expect a child born into such privilege to be above the cares and concerns of the world. But, due to her parents, education, and travels, Katharine was sensitised to the plight of the poor. Over time she became especially concerned about Native Americans and African Americans.

Unfortunately, in 1883, Katharine’s stepmother died and, a few years later in 1885, her father also died. Along with her two sisters, Katharine inherited 14 million dollars. Though the circumstances were less

than ideal, she had won her “lottery.” Now she was at a turning point in her life. What to do with herself and all this money?

CALL TO MISSION A vocation to the religious life was an option that she had seriously considered since the death of her parents. At one point, in response to the suggestion of her confessor, she wrote out a pro/con list. Some of the cons, though bearing some truth, are telling and humorous: #2. “I hate community life. I should think it maddening to come into constant contact with many different old maiddish dispositions;” #4.

“Superiors are frequently selected on account of their holiness, not for ability. I should hate to owe submission to a woman whom I felt to be stupid, and whose orders showed her thorough want of judgment;” and #6. “I do not know how I could bear the privations and poverty of religious life. I have never been deprived of luxuries.”

One event that proved pivotal was a private meeting Katharine had with Pope Leo XIII in January 1887. During the course of their conversation, she spoke on behalf of her long-time friend and spiritual advisor, James O’Connor, who was now

EMPHASIS ON EDUCATION Focusing on education, Katharine supported and soon opened schools throughout the West and South. Cordelia Frances Biddle, author of Saint Katharine: The Life of Katherine Drexel, stresses that Katharine “believed that

Devoting her life to the physical and spiritual needs of these forgotten and marginalised people, Katharine would spend the rest of her days giving her inheritance away for the cause of justice bishop of Omaha which included at the time the states of Nebraska and Wyoming.

Financing many of the bishop’s educational and spiritual undertakings out West, she encouraged the pope to send missionaries to help Bishop O’Connor. Katharine was taken aback when the pope said, “Why not, my child, yourself become a missionary?”

After a period of discernment with Bishop O’Connor, not only did Katharine decide to enter religious life, but they had determined that she needed to start her own religious congregation. Focused on her three great loves, the new order (1891) bore the name the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament for Indians and Colored People (today shortened to the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament). Devoting her life to the physical and spiritual needs of these forgotten and marginalized people, Katharine would spend the rest of her days giving her inheritance away for the cause of justice.

the genocide of the nation's indigenous peoples and abasement of African Americans would not cease until there was parity in educational opportunities.”

It is all the more impressive that Katharine did this during an age of prejudice and discrimination. In her book Katharine Drexel: The Riches-to-Rags Story of an American Catholic Saint, Cheryl C. D. Hughes notes: “When Katharine Drexel undertook to form an order of sisters to attend to the needs of Native Americans and African Americans, she was willingly taking on an almost insurmountable task. The majority of the population was mainly apathetic or even hostile to the plight of these peoples.” Never forgetting the context of her times, Hughes reminds us that even for Katharine Drexel “to be a woman, a Catholic, and a nun in nineteenth-century America was to be thrice marginalized.” Yet, she persevered.

The story is told of her 1922 encounter in Beaumont, Texas, with the Ku Klux Klan (KKK), the anti-immigrant, anti-Catholic, and

Sr Katharine Drexel with Charlie Mitchell of the Navajo and Franciscans while visiting St Isabel’s Mission, in Lukachukai, Arizona.

anti-Semitic hate group. After the Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament opened a school there, the Klan posted a sign on the door of the church attached to the school: “We want an end of services here. We will not stand by while white priests consort with n***** wenches in the face of our families. Suppress it in one week or flogging with tar and feathers will follow.”

As providence would have it, a few days later a tornado blew through town. Katharine’s mission was untouched, while the Klan’s offices were destroyed.

When it comes to education, perhaps Katharine’s most notable achievement is Xavier University (New Orleans). Founded in 1915 as a college prep high school, the fouryear college program was added in 1925. It is the only predominantly black Catholic institution of higher learning in the United States. Echoing the vision of Katharine, the mission statement of Xavier University is "to contribute to the promotion of a more just and humane society by preparing its students to assume roles of leadership and service.”

THE END In 1935, now called “Mother Katharine,” she suffered a heart attack and retired from active ministry. The succeeding years would find her promoting and praying for the causes of justice that were so close to her heart—Native Americans and African Americans.

Katharine died on March 3, 1955. On October 1, 2000, this champion of the oppressed and marginalized was declared a saint by Pope John Paul II. Her feast day is March 3.

As to Katharine’s legacy, Robert Ellsberg in All Saints reminds us: “Her charitable works did little directly to challenge the structures of racism and discrimination. But in the era of rigidly enforced racial segregation her work had a profound ‘witness value.’” The Sisters of the Blessed Sacrament continue Saint Katharine Drexel’s eucharistic witness, offering and emptying themselves in service to others.

Mike Daley is a teacher and writer from Cincinnati, OH where he lives with his wife June, and their three children. He is a frequent contributor to Reality. His latest book is Vatican II: Fifty Personal Stories (Orbis).

27

CAN O N L AW

RETHINKING CANON LAW

IN THE YEARS FOLLOWING THE SECOND VATICAN COUNCIL, THERE WAS CONSIDERABLE DEBATE AMONG CANON LAWYERS AS TO WHAT EXACTLY THE CHURCH’S LAW BOOK WAS ATTEMPTING TO DO AND HOW IT COULD BE ADMINISTERED HUMANELY. 28 BY SEÁN CANNON CSsR

In

the last article, we saw how the church achieved its “Code of Canon Law.” In addition to the extensive revision of codes since Vatican II, the professionals who have been engaged for a long time in the study and teaching of canon law, have been forced to reflect on their own work. They have especially been forced to ask themselves some basic questions about the very nature and function of canon law. The need for this ‘rethinking‘ of canon law resulted from basic differences about the need for church law, the nature of law in a community of faith and the wisdom of presenting the laws in the form of a code. At a more basic level, the renewed vision of the church which emerged in the documents of that Council was far removed from the vision of the church as a ‘perfect society.’ This was the vision that underlay most of the pre-Vatican II canonical rules. It demanded that the canon lawyers update their self-understanding of the church to ensure that the practical rules were in harmony with the vision which the church had of itself.

REALITY MARCH 2017

WHAT IS CANON LAW FOR ANYWAY? In the years prior to and after Vatican II, canon law had a very negative image. For a time, there was considerable disregard of church laws. This led to much questioning about the role of canon law in the life of the church. It has given rise to some distinct points of view or what might even be called “schools of thought” about the nature of canon law. The debate has been going on quietly among learned and respected scholars. Some scholars would see canon law as a juridical system proper to a worldwide church, on a parallel with legal systems of states, but having features peculiar to itself.

Others insist that canon law is a theological discipline with theological methods, peculiar to the church community.

Canonists would generally attribute greater importance to the system of canon law than civil lawyers would. Canon law and civil law can relate to each other in various ways.

Canon law sometimes adopts elements of civil law to promote its mission. This is the

case for example in regard to administration of church property. When canon law does not have a rule of its own on some matter, it often follows the local civil law in the matter, a process called “canonization.” When there is conflict between canon law and state law, it is only very exceptionally that states recognise the internal order of the church.

This recognition can be complete or partial, that is conditional.

The purposes of modern canon law are shaped by the understanding that the church has about the nature of the church or its ecclesiology, and about itself as an institutional church. This means that there is a distinct relationship between canon law and theology. Laws do not, however, replace faith, grace and charity and the supreme law is always the salvation of souls (canon 1572). Canonists stress the spiritual, pastoral, educative, protective, and unifying purposes of canon law.

The idea of divine law appears frequently in the laws of the church. It appears in four

member of the other church, for example in the celebration of an inter-church marriage.

In that case, the Latin Catholic follows the Latin Code, while the Oriental Catholic has to follow the Oriental Code, which can cause difficulty.

Laws do not bind if they have not been promulgated, or if there is doubt about the law. While laws bind all the faithful, the church grants dispensations from some laws, a feature that is rarely applied to civil laws.

imposition of sanctions. The more serious offences and the corresponding sanctions are given in Book VI of the Code. These sanctions are meant to restore justice, bring about

While laws bind all the faithful, the church grants dispensations from some laws, a feature that is rarely applied to civil laws

ways. Firstly, divine law is the foundation of canon law. Second, canon law must conform to divine law. Thirdly, some particular canons may incorporate divine law; and, finally, canonical rules that are in conflict with divine law would be invalid. The Code often presents canons whose content flows from divine law. Canon 207, for example, states that the faithful are bound by divine law to do penance, and canon 24 says “no custom which is contrary to divine law can acquire the force of law.� In fact, for several of the sacraments (but not for marriage), the first canon is a legally formulated statement of church dogma on the sacrament.

The extent to which, and the ways in which canonical rules are binding vary according to the seriousness of the particular rule. For Catholics world-wide, the 1983 Code directly binds only the members of the Latin Church, but its rules bind all the faithful directly in the particular churches - bishops, clergy and laity alike. The same is true of the Eastern Code. Indirectly, both codes can bind a

ADMINISTERING THE LAW The administration and enforcement of canonical rules is made in a variety of ways.

Those with executive or quasi-judicial authority can make use of instructions, precepts and admonitions to ensure observance of laws. Departments of the Roman Curia can do that for the whole Latin Church, bishops can do it for their dioceses, major superiors and chapters of religious can make laws for their members.

Canon law also provides for formal judicial law enforcement and settlement of conflicts.

In the church there are courts or tribunals, going from first instance (diocesan or regional) courts, right up to tribunals of the Apostolic See. When members of the church fail to comply with canon law, they may face proceedings for offences and the

correction of the offender and repair any scandal. If these objectives can be achieved by means other than penalties, bishops and superiors are to choose these means rather than use penalties or penal remedies. If sanctions have to be applied, this should be done humanely and with full respect for the prescribed legal procedures.

To conclude, I would say that canon law has a role to play in the church, a more modest role than it sometimes played in the past. It is the work of human minds, and the results are often wise and good laws, but we do not have to believe that it is a perfect system of rules.

It is meant to protect Christian freedom and good order in the church. It should be welcomed and observed, humanely and prudently.

A native of Co Donegal, Professor Cannon has spent many years teaching in the Alphonsian Academy and other institutes in Rome.

Fr Lombardi in 2015, leading a press conference about Pope Francis rewriting sections of the Latin-rite Code of Canon Law and the Code of Canons of the Eastern Churches to make the annulment process quicker, less expensive and more pastoral.

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

BETTER FAMILY RELATIONSHIPS

BOYS AND GIRLS GROW UP WITH DIFFERENT PATTERNS OF SPEECH AND COMMUNICATION. IT MAY EXPLAIN WHY AS TEENAGERS, THEIR PATTERNS OF COMMUNICATION ARE ALSO DIFFERENT. We often hear mothers complain that their sons won’t talk to them.

Parents who have both sons and daughters know that girls generally start speaking earlier than boys. Psychiatrist Dr Michael Lewis, author of Social Behaviour and Language Acquisition, conducted experiments that showed that mothers talked to and looked at baby girls more often than at baby boys. This is not the reason why girls talk more than boys.

BOYS AND GIRLS ARE DIFFERENT A three-year-old girl has nearly twice the vocabulary of a boy of the same age. Young boys tend to mumble and have poorer pronunciation than girls. Parents may set out to raise boys and girls in the same way, but their different communication styles are very obvious from the earliest days. Girls come home from school and chatter away about all that went on. Boys won’t talk about their day unless the parent asks for specific information.

With teenagers these different communication styles are even more pronounced. If you ask a teenage girl what she did at the weekend, she will give you a detailed response. You are likely to hear who she was with, what they did, what friends they met, what everybody was wearing and how she enjoyed the weekend.

Ask a teenage boy the same question and you are likely to get a monosyllabic reply.

My friend tells a story about her teenage son. He answered the phone and told her, “It’s for me.”

She heard him mumble, “Ugh”, “Yes”, “Okay”, “Right”. When he put the phone down she asked who called.

He told her the name of his friend and she asked him what did the friend want? “To talk,” he replied.

Clearly boys’ verbal skills are poorer than girls’.

Our relationships are as good as our communication and our communication is as good as our ability to listen. It is said that God gave us two ears and one mouth because we are meant to listen twice as much as we speak. We all have the ability to listen and to understand the words in a sentence.

Hardly any of us take the time to “listen twice”, to listen to our own internal dialogue, to pay attention to the conversations that are constantly going on in our minds.

When we feel upset because someone said or did something to hurt our feelings it’s unfair to assume that the problem is caused by the other person. It’s hard to admit, even to accept that our relationship

conflicts are mostly generated by our own internal dialogue.

Say you speak to me like a child and I’m angry. Where does that anger come from? It comes from me, from my perception about how you should talk to me. Your behaviour doesn’t meet my expectations of what I want you to say or the tone of voice I expect you to use.

Realistically you are not responsible for my emotional response to you, as you cannot know what I don’t tell you.

WHEN WE ARE NOT IN CONTROL At the root of much anger is a frustration that we are not in control. One reason that situations like this are such an issue for many of us is that as children we didn’t learn to express our anger appropriately.

We need to feel respected, but there is a part of us that cannot abide it when others have the freedom to act the way we would like to act but cannot because we would lose respect for ourselves.

When we are blessed with the insights that come from listening to our own internal dialogue we learn that much of the hurt, anxiety and stress we experience in relationships is self-generated. Whether we are aware of it or not most of us use a lot of energy holding back our true feelings. Censoring what we would really like to say generates inner conflict. When I’m not able to express myself freely I feel controlled and this makes me feel angry and stressed.

Every relationship we have will be improved when we are more sensitive to our own internal dialogue, when we become alert to the conversations that we have in our imaginations. We resent any demand that puts stress on us even when it is a demand we make ourselves. People cannot know what we don’t tell them.

Our relationships are affected for better or worse by what we would like to say but fear to express.

For women talking is about relationships and making friends.

For men talking has more to do with facts and problem solving than making friendships.

Accepting the reality that males simply cannot engage in conversations the way women do, will hopefully change the expectation of mothers and make for happier family relationships.

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

31

P RAYE R

prayer corner

In this series, Fr George Wadding invites us to take an imaginative look at some familiar Gospel stories, imagining how the characters might have told their story if they were alive today. Using the imagination can be a powerful way of entering into reflective contemplative prayer. Find a quiet corner, read the article slowly a few times, think about it and pray as the spirit leads you.

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n e k a T n a om y W er e t l Th u d REALITY MARCH 2017

In A

Sometimes, a gospel story is so familiar that, when it is read, we're not really listening to it. Such a story is the woman taken in adultery. It is a wonderful story of forgiveness. Here is an imaginary letter the woman wrote to her friend (Read this meditation and keep your bible handy, open at John 8, verses 2-11.)

Dear Rachel,

I should have written to you months ago but I kept putting it on the long finger. Better late than never - especially when you hear the story I have to tell you. I left Jerusalem two weeks ago and I am here in Ain Karim with my mother.

My husband, Manasseh, has been away on business for nearly six months. Not that I miss him! He's very hard to live with, and I suspect - I know - he is being unfaithful. I know that's no excuse for what happened. But anyway, five weeks ago I was feeling low, when I met this married man in the market. It was a very hot day and he helped me home with my messages.

I invited him in for refreshments. To make a long story short, he came back again and again, and I didn't discourage him with Manasseh being away.

Two weeks ago - on Friday morning to be precise - will I ever forget it! - the door burst open and seven or eight Scribes and Pharisees rushed into the room. They were pushing and shoving, and shouting what sounded like verses of Scripture. Typically, they ignored the married man who was with me. He ran out the back door. Then they set on me. I was trying to get dressed but they dragged me, half-dressed, into the street where small children were playing. I had no sandals and could feel the sharp stones cut into my feet.

AT THE TEMPLE I needn't tell you I was terrified. At first I thought they were going to stone me there and then. Then I realised they were heading for the Temple and - I thought - for the Sanhedrin.

But no. Inside the Temple precincts a man was sitting on the ground surrounded by a group of people. He looked like a teacher with his pupils. My captors pushed me inside his large circle and everyone stood up quickly including the Rabbi gentleman.

The leader of the mob - for that's all they were - went straight over to the Rabbi. "Teacher," he said, "this woman has been caught in the act of adultery." Then I recognised some of the Scripture verses they had been shouting when they broke into my room. More or less what they were saying was that Moses said I should be stoned to death. What did he think?

I was shaking with fear and crying. It was terrible. I noticed through my tears that the Rabbi's face was absolutely calm and showed no emotion whatsoever. A great silence descended as people pushed to the front to hear what the Rabbi would say.

I knew my life could depend on his answer.

All I could think of was my mother here in Ain Karim. Would I ever see her again? How would she survive without the few shekels I send her from time to time? How could she face her neighbours if they knew how I died?

WRITING IN THE DUST At first the Rabbi didn't answer. He bent down and wrote something in the dust. I was too far away to see what he was at. The Scribes and Pharisees were leaning over his shoulder trying to read what he was writing. The Rabbi turned round and was looking up into the faces of my accusers. Very quietly he said, "Let him who is without sin among you be the first to throw a stone at her." He had condemned me. He said they could stone me. I was finished. I couldn't control my tears and I was shaking like a leaf in a storm. Then slowly and silently, my captors began moving away, from the oldest to the youngest. Soon they were gone. I watched the last of them depart. It was incredible. I wish I knew what he wrote in the dust!

I turned to look at the Rabbi. If he was a holy man, maybe he would still want to stone me for breaking the Law. He was standing and smiling an almost mischievous smile.

"Has no one condemned you?" he asked in mock surprise. "No one, sir," I said, still not sure whether he would condemn me or not.

Almost in a whisper he said, "Neither do I. Go and sin no more."

O Rachel, you've no idea what happened then. He gently took my hands in his. His eyes were fixed on mine. They were full of love.

For the first and only time in my life a man loved me without the slightest trace of lust in his glance. I felt whole. A warm glow flowed through my body. It was as though my whole life passed before my eyes and it was clean and purified. His glance did not judge or condemn me. It was as if God himself had sent an angel to forgive me and to heal the bitter hurts of all those years when Manasseh humiliated me and was unfaithful. And most marvellous of all - when I was being dragged from my house earlier in the day I hated those hypocrites and wished every curse upon them; and now that was all gone. I could hardly believe my own ears as I said "I forgive you all... from my heart."

If you get a chance, try to meet this Jesus of Nazareth - for that is his name. They say he may be the Messiah. I don't know. All I know is he was the most wonderful man I ever met.

He may well be the Messiah. If he is, then I must be the most blessed woman on the face of the earth...

Rachel, thanks for listening. I met your mother last night. I told her I was writing to you. She sends her love and wonders when you are coming to see her. Come soon, as she is not well. But try and meet Jesus first. It will change your life.

With all my love,

Susanna Father George Wadding is a member of the new Redemptorist Community, Dun Mhuire, Griffith Avenue, Dublin D09 P9H9

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ST PAT R I C K

The Patrick Enigma?

WE ARE PROBABLY FAMILIAR WITH THE BROAD OUTLINES OF ST PATRICK’S LIFE, BUT MANY OTHER ASPECTS OF IT ARE SHROUDED IN MYSTERY. A SCHOLAR WHO HAS EXPLORED THE HIDDEN CORNERS OF CELTIC CHRISTIANITY SHEDS LIGHT ON SOME DETAILS OF THE LIFE OF IRELAND’S NATIONAL APOSTLE.

BY JOHN J. Ó RÍORDÁIN CSsR

In

Ireland the month of March belongs in a special way to St Patrick. He is seen as the beloved Apostle of our Island, the bearer of the Christian message to our people. Whether of the Catholic or Protestant tradition all find a rare common bond in displaying the traditional shamrock. New settlers in the country discover very quickly that a ‘rub of the green’ smoothes the enculturation process without diminishing one’s religious affiliation. Witness the ethnic diversity in the parades and the many sporting and entertainment fixtures associated with the celebration of St Patrick’s Week in mid-March.

The saint himself remains an enigmatic figure; a mystery man of whose cv no one has yet succeeded in giving a universally acceptable version. Biographical details, skimpy though

they be, are gleaned both from his writings and from the wider world of European historical, archaeological and literary sources.

PATRICK: WHAT HOW MUCH DO WE KNOW? We do know for example, that Patrick existed and that he lived broadly within the fifth Christian century. We know that he came from Britain where his people belonged to the Roman official class and were reasonably well off. We know that he was enslaved in Ireland for six years after which he escaped, studied for the priesthood and later returned to Ireland as a missionary bishop. Here for an estimated three decades or so he conducted an innovative and thoroughly successful mission; and here he died.

And now the questions: When did he arrive in Ireland? Where did he work? Was he the first to announce the Gospel message to our people? When and where did he die and where was he buried? The living legend of Patrick readily provides answers to all these questions. Discovering the man behind the legend is more problematic and inconclusive. What is patently obvious however, are the core values that give life to his spirit. These are: •his relationship with the Risen Christ; •the absolute value to Christ of every single human being everywhere; •his ambition to transform all minds and hearts making them like the mind and heart of Christ.

35

ST PATR I C K

These three principles were the driving force that impelled him to lay aside the privileges of his Roman citizenship and ‘live among strangers’ in Ireland.

36

THE SOURCES The most significant sources for the Patrick story are first of all his own writings, particularly his Confession and Letter to Coroticus. Then about two centuries after the saint’s death Muirchú, a professional historian and bishop was commissioned by Aedh, bishop of Sletty in County Laois to write a biography of Patrick. For his task he had at his disposal a considerable amount of oral tradition and was able to draw on earlier accounts of Patrick that no longer survive.

About the same time, the end of the seventh century, another professional historian and bishop, Tirechán by name, also undertook the writing of a Life of Patrick. Tirechán was a disciple of Ultán bishop of Ardbreccan, County Meath, and like Muirchú he too had access to earlier sources especially in the oral tradition.

Since both writers were contemporaries one might expect to find agreement on several matters and this is true. However, each had their own editorial perspective as is clear from their work. Muirchú for example, stresses the miraculous element in overcoming paganism.

Conscious of tensions over church taxes in the late seventh century Tirechán, does not minimise the number of foundations he claimed to have been made by Patrick in Meath and across the Shannon in Roscommon and further afield.

In terms of Patrick’s arrival in Ireland both accounts say that he made landfall at a number of ports on the east coast and ultimately established a base on the shores of Strangford Lough in County Down. Based on Muirchú's material and on the strength of local tradition, Patrick is thought to have landed in the vicinity of the Struell Wells. A short distance from there he celebrated the Holy Eucharist in a local barn (sabhal) from which word the modern picturesque town of Saul is derived. Here, we are told, Patrick made his first converts and conducted a successful apostolate throughout the whole area.

REALITY MARCH 2017

PATRICK’S TERRITORY While attending a lecture in UCD many years ago I heard the late Liam de Paor propound his thesis that St Patrick did not work in the south of Ireland but confined his activity to the upper half of the country. But as mediaeval Armagh claimed a tax from all churches founded by Patrick it was rather elastic in its approach to identifying ‘Patrician foundations’.

Earlier in this article I stressed the innovative element in Patrick’s missionary strategy.

‘go bush’ to win people for Christ. According to de Paor Patrick undertook his missionary journey from east to west, founding Christian churches, each about a day’s journey apart.

In the autumn of 1990 when first assigned to work out of our Dundalk monastery I was excited at being privileged to giving missions in places such as Iniskeen, County Monaghan and Templeport, County Cavan, where Patrick for the very first time had planted the faith and rolled back the darkness of paganism for the very first time. Tirechán names several of these foundations along the border counties of North Leinster and South Ulster, crossing the Shannon into Connaught near Clonburren, County Roscommon. Having left St Mel in charge at Longford and St Assicus in Elphin, he gradually worked his way west into Mayo where Tirechán refers to the many churches he founded including, Ballintubber and Lecanvey at the foot of Croagh Patrick.

From there he worked his way northwards into Donegal and the Inishowen Peninsula, and then on to County Tyrone where he appointed a bishop in Ardstraw, and blessed a site for a church in Colerain, County Derry. Continuing along the Antrim coast Patrick appointed a longstanding disciple named Olcán as bishop.

In what is now the diocese of Conor, Patrick founded many more churches and eventually reached the familiar territory where he had been enslaved. Tirechán says that he was buried at Saul, County Down where as a much younger man he had founded his first church.

There seems to have been several others at work in the southern half of the country around the time of Patrick or even before him We know from the Continent that in the fifth century the accepted pastoral practice was to appoint a bishop where there was a sufficiently strong Christian community.

Noting that there were still many who did not believe in Christ, Patrick was not content simply to preside over an existing community of believers. The love of Christ impelled him to move out of his comfort zone in South Down, spend money on the apostolate, and

PATRICK IN THE DEEP SOUTH? If Patrick – and it is a very big IF – confined himself to the northern half of the country how and when was the rest of Ireland converted? There seems to have been several others at work in the southern half of the country around the time of Patrick or even before him. But there was something else going on. In the fourth and fifth centuries there was a struggle going on between two

concepts of being church: the organised structured hierarchical church and a more democratic and free-spirited monastic one.

Very rapidly this freer spirit, rooted in the mysticism of the ancient East and combining with the intellectual sharpness of the Greeks and the ascetic spirit of the Egyptian and Syrian deserts, broke in on the Western European church. With it came the element of choice. The Christian could follow the standard of living a good life ‘in the world’ or opting for total dedication in monasticism. The new monastic institution within the church did not displace the diocesan structure but it was a thorn, a disruptive force with which the hierarchical church might happily have dispensed. It gave no quarter to human factors such as ecclesiastical preferment in the election of bishops. Even in this dispute Pope Celestine weighed in favour of the bishops.

By contrast the leaders of the new movement, says Nora K. Chadwick, “were

often men of no prestige, often foreigners, making no claim to social status but rather what we should now call displaced persons” (The Age of the Saints in the Early Celtic Church, p. 30). St Martin of Tours, himself a foreigner and the pioneer of the monastic movement in Gaul, suffered from this Episcopal hostility. The British church would have been quite aware of the tension and Patrick, coming out of the British and Gaulish church tradition, would naturally have favoured the ‘old school’.

There is another strand to the monastic influence of the Eastern churches; it gave a stimulus to the intellectual life, to the spread of reading. This in turn gave an impetus to the production of books and enriched the culture and civilisation through international exchange of knowledge. Strange as it may seem the monks of the desert carried on an active correspondence, and furthermore the copying of books was an important industry in the Greek monastic economy and a good

The Spirituality of St Patrick is a fountain of nourishment based on the writings of the man himself. The booklet presented here is not just ‘a good read.’ It is the Rule of Life that gave Patrick meaning in success and adversity – something upon which the reader is invited to reflect, to ponder, to revisit and to live by.

copyist was often the monastery’s chief source of income.

An intriguing feature of the early church in Ireland is that there seems to be some disconnect, some lack of continuity between the fifth and the sixth century. After the death of St Patrick there is silence for 200 years and little is known about his immediate successors. On the other hand the sixth century reveals not a hierarchical but a wholly monastic church independent of the established ecclesiastical system. Oh Patrick a chara you do keep us guessing don’t you!

John J. Ó Ríordáin CSsR is a member of the Redemptorist Community in Limerick and has written extensively on early Irish and Scottish Christianity. He is also author of a memoir Before the Night Grows Late.

by John J. Ó Ríordáin C.Ss.R.

Besides including “Patrick’s Profession of Faith” and “Sayings of St Patrick,” part 5 of the publication is a ready resource for Patrician hymns in English and Irish, notably Hail Glorious St Patrick, Dochas Linn Naomh Pádraig, and Mrs Alexander’s classic rendition of St Patrick’s Breastplate.

Ecumenically the booklet contributes to “the new season of reconciliation that is defrosting the divisions that have scarred our island and pushed believers apart.”

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€3 + P &P

Available from Redemptorist Communications Tel: +353 1 4922 488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org

F E AT U R E

THE ABBEY THAT REFUSED TO DIE

BALLINTUBBER – IN DAILY USE FOR 8�� YEARS THE STORY OF BALLINTUBBER ABBEY IN COUNTY MAYO SPANS FROM THE TIME OF ST PATRICK – FROM WHOM THE ABBEY DERIVES ITS IRISH NAME, BAILE TOBAIR PHÁDRAIG – TO ITS PRESENT DAY ROLE AS A VIBRANT CHURCH AND A CENTRE FOR PILGRIMAGE AND PRAYER.

BY FR FRANK FAHEY AND AUDREY BURKE

For

38

any visitor to County Mayo, no trip is complete without an encounter with the magnificence of Ballintubber Abbey.

Situated less than a mile east of the main GalwayCastlebar Road (N84), north of Ballinrobe, the Abbey is celebrating 800 years and is still in daily use. It unfolds a story of endeavour, architectural excellence, perseverance against odds and worship. Now tastefully restored, it has a dual role as a national monument and a rural parish church which has become again a Christian centre for prayer and retreats.

PATRICIAN ROOTS The story of Ballintubber Abbey began when, in 441, St Patrick baptised the people at the Druidic Well and established a church here.

There are still remains of that early church in the graveyard, and the Irish name, Baile Tobair Phádraig, means ‘the townland of St Patrick’s Well’ and that well is still flowing.

REALITY MARCH 2017

There is an interesting legend attached to the first building of the church. When the young King Cathal of Connaught was on the run from his stepmother, he received shelter in Ballintubber from a man named Sheridan, to whom he remained ever grateful. When he ascended to the throne, he paid for a church to be built in Ballintubber. Checking on its progress some time later he found no evidence of a church, but discovered it had been built in another place called Ballintubber, in nearby County Roscommon. He vowed to rectify the mistake by building an even bigger church, and that is how Ballintubber got its abbey.

Partially burned in 1265 and rebuilt in 1270, the Abbey flourished and became rich and powerful, accumulating a lot of land locally. It was connected with local kings and chieftains. Peace reigned for 300 years. In 1603 their lands were confiscated and in 1635 the Augustinian friars took over the Abbey. In

1653 Cromwellian soldiers attacked the Abbey and burned it.

The Abbey became associated with an influential Norman family, the de Burgos of Mayo, and several members were interred there. What is now the sacristy of the church contains the elaborately carved tomb of Sir Theobald de Burgo (Tiobóid na Long) who was murdered nearby. Sadly, the tomb was partly damaged when Cromwell’s men attacked, but is still of interest.

IN SPITE OF DUNGEON, FIRE AND SWORD Even Cromwellian pillage didn’t put an end to worship in the Abbey, and Mass has continued to be said there for 800 years. What a proud record it all is: burned twice, suppressed, and wracked by the Penal Laws, and the terrible ravages of the Famine, but never fully destroyed or put out of use. Restoration began in 1846, but had to be suspended due to the Famine

and recommenced in 1878. Further restoration was undertaken in 1966 and 1994.

Our Lady of Ballintubber and her Child captures the spirit and soul of what made it the “Abbey

Burned twice, suppressed, and wracked by the Penal Laws, and the terrible ravages of the Famine, but never fully destroyed or put out of use The Abbey itself and the beautifully landscaped grounds and its faith-filled stories provide rich symbols and resources of our Christian heritage. This enables visitors to engage in quiet time, prayer and contemplation.

A tour of Ballintubber Abbey embraces an experience of history, culture and spirituality.

The penal past lives through the ash tree that grows through the grave of Seán a Saggart, the penal priest hunter. The pilgrim road, Tóchar Phadraig – is marked with new signposts for the contemporary pilgrim. An extensive tour of the grounds affords opportunities to tell stories about the Penal Cross and the Cock, and the Pot; about the how the robin got its red breast, about Tiobóid na Long, the son of Grace O’Malley, now buried in the mortuary chapel, of Moore’s horse Corunna winning the Chester Cup in 1846, the prize money saving the starving tenants. The cross of the thieves on the hill of Calvary is a poignant reminder of former days when thieves were hanged for stealing a cow. There is a story for every monument on the grounds and a monument for every story. Songs, laughter and tears are often experienced in Elizabeth’s little house on the tour, and the magnificent bronze statue of

that refused to die”. The broken cloisters and fire damaged walls tells of the Cromwellian burning.

A PLACE OF PRAYER AND PILGRIMAGE Retreats are offered to adults, second level students and confirmation students in this setting. During Holy Week, the Passion Play is re-enacted on the abbey grounds. It has also become a popular wedding venue for couples seeking a distinctive and historic setting.

From Ballintubber Abbey, stretching out to Croagh Patrick, is Tóchar Phádraig the ancient pilgrim path. Every year hundreds of pilgrims walk this path – a distance of 35km, and now recognised as one of Pilgrim Paths Ireland’s National Walks.

Church Island on the shores of Lough Carra is a place of prayer and contemplation and dates back to the sixth century. The early church there has been restored for retreats and quiet days of contemplation.

The Celtic Furrow is a visitors’ centre close to the Abbey where visitors can experience the way of life, customs and festivals of long ago through models, paintings, labyrinths etc.

It is open during July and August.

CENTRE OF A LOCAL COMMUNITY While there is much for the visitor to savour in the Abbey, it remains first and foremost a functioning church for the local community and the celebration of the sacraments and the preaching of the gospel remain central to its life.

Fr Frank Fahey, curate and administrator of Ballintubber Abbey for almost 30 years, has been involved in the development of the Abbey, Tóchar Phádraig, Church Island and the Celtic Furrow.

Two weeks of celebration marked 800 years of continuous Mass and religious services, encompassing many aspects of community life.

The 'Gathering Mass' was celebrated by a priest who was ordained in the Abbey. The fortnight included lectures on aspects of Ballintubber’s history, sporting events, a concert in the Abbey, tours of other local places of interest, including a cycle following the route of Friar Burke and Sean a Saggart from Ballintubber to the spot where the priest hunter met his death in Partry.

The closing mass was celebrated by Most Rev. Dr Michael Neary, Archbishop of Tuam and the music composed by Liam Lawton was sung by the Ballintubber Abbey Choir.

Significantly, planning permission was also granted for the restoration of the entire east wing of the Abbey during the celebrations, which we hope will help see the Abbey celebrating many more significant dates and events.

Further information can be obtained from the website www.ballintubberabbey.ie or by phoning 094 9030934 or emailing info@ballintubberabbey.ie.

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UNDER THE MICROSCOPE SILENCE A STORY ABOUT JESUIT MISSIONARIES TO JAPAN IN THE 17TH CENTURY SEEMS LIKE AN UNLIKELY THEME FOR A FILM. YET MARTIN SCORSESE’S SILENCE HAS PROVED A MOMENT OF DISCOVERY NOT JUST FOR CINEMA AUDIENCES BUT ALSO FOR SOME OF THE STARS.

BY PAUL CLOGHER

Stories

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of faith and doubt echo throughout Martin Scorsese’s cinematic ‘canon.’ From the pessimistic, yet redemptive, tone of Taxi Driver (1976) to the experimental (and controversial) vision of Christianity’s origins in his adaptation of Nikos Kazantzakis’ The Last Temptation of Christ (1988), Scorsese remains fascinated by our vulnerability to the beyond.

Based on Shūsaku Endō’s 1966 novel about the persecution of Christians in 17th century Japan, Silence returns to these themes in the story of two idealistic Jesuits, Rodrigues (Andrew Garfield) and Garrpe (Adam Driver),

Adam Driver and Andrew Garfield

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who travel to Japan in search of their lost mentor, Ferreira (Liam Neeson). Their erstwhile guide has allegedly renounced his Christianity and lives as a Buddhist. On their arrival, they encounter a series of fugitive Catholic communities living in constant fear of discovery.

When persecution arrives, their members face death willingly, without fear, and confident in the presence of God. But in the face of suffering, God’s silence haunts the young priests’ idealistic faith.

A combination of Rodrigues’ missionary zeal and a betrayal that invites biblical comparisons eventually lead to his capture by the ‘Inquisitor’ Inoue (Issey

Ogata), accompanied by his interpreter (Tadanobu Asano).

The inquisitors operate, like all inquisitions, through fear.

Most importantly, perhaps, Inoue seeks to demonstrate Christianity’s irrationality. "We find our original nature in Japan," Ferreira observes. For Inoue, Christianity is not merely a foreign invasion but an idea incompatible with human nature itself.

The son of Italian Catholic migrant s , S cors es e once considered the priesthood, but found in filmmaking a similar vocation. Not unlike the priest, the film artist makes the invisible visible via the more secular sanctuaries of cinema theatres

and electronic screens. One of Scorsese’s earliest ideas was a life of Jesus set on the streets of contemporary New York. In a roundabout way, he achieved this ambition in his controversial adaptation of Kazantzakis’ novel, where the characters often speak with New York accents. James Garfield’s portrayal of Rodrigues resembles Scorsese’s vision of Jesus, albeit in reverse. Willem Dafoe’s reluctant saviour faces the eponymous temptation of a ‘normal’ life, only to eventually accept the cross. Rodrigues, contrastingly, faces away from orthodoxy to the silence of God in a foreign land. Both protagonists are faced with the absence of God in the face

SPRING

of intolerable doubt. Visually, Garfield’s sandy hair and beard evokes obvious comparisons with centuries of religious art and a century or more of religious cinema. Here, Scorsese returns to another theme that dominates Christianity’s encounter with film: the priest as ‘another Christ.’ In one scene, Rodrigues, delirious from days without food, washes his face in a river only to see an image of Christ staring back. Scorsese complements this seeming assurance with moments of hesitation. Perhaps Japan has something to teach Rodrigues.

Maybe it is his faith that requires change. This, alongside the story of Ferreira’s alleged apostasy,

silences the easy presumptions of missionary zeal, replacing them with a seemingly endless doubt.

A deeply personal film, Silence reveals as much of its director’s struggles as it does those of its protagonists. In a preface to a recent edition of the novel, Scorsese wrote: "On the face of it, believing and questioning are antithetical. Yet I believe that they go hand in hand. One nourishes the other." Like so many of Scorsese’s religiously inspired films, Silence is brooding and introspective. Its scenery and sounds are inescapably beautiful, even meditative.

The distraction of background music is replaced with an almost

Liam Neeson as Fr Ferreira

pantheistic appreciation for the sounds of nature. While its plot revolves around the search for a lost, even mythic, figure, Silence is not so much a character or plot driven film as a reverberating question: what does it mean to believe? Scorsese’s journey into that question evokes sadness

and hope. "The weight of your silence is terrible," protests Rodrigues, but who says silence cannot speak?

Dr Paul Clogher is lecturer in theology and religious studies at Waterford Institute of Technology. He has a special interest in theology and cinema.

Ennismore Retreat Centre

Sat 25th March 10.30am – 4.30pm “Minding the Body, Mending the Mind” Dr Fergus Heffernan, Psychologist, Scientist and Educationalist.

Cost: €60 Sunday 30th April Lectio Divina “Your Word is a lamp for my steps and a Light for my path” (Psalm 119:105) Fr. Joseph Ralph O.P. 10.30a.m. - 4.30p.m. Cost: €60 Friday 2nd June - Sunday 4th June Meditating with the Breath.

Fr. Louis Hughes OP Cost: Res - €175/ Non Res €100 (Option of coming Saturday only is available - Please enquire at office)

ST DOMINIC’S

Sun 25th June – Thurs 29th June “So few things necessary, indeed only one” ( Luke 10:42) – Discerning the heart’s desire.

Martina Lehane Sheehan Cost: Res: €385 Sat 1st July – Thurs 6th July “The Three from Nazareth and their message for today”.

Fr. Benedict Hegarty OP Cost: Res: €400 Sun 16th July – Fri 21st July Centering Prayer Intensive Retreat.

Sr. Fionnuala Quinn OP Cost: Res: €460

Sun 23rd July – Sat 29th July Individually Directed Retreat Sr. Peggy Cronin Cost: Res: €465 Mon 31st July – Thurs 3rd Aug “Meditation, Mindfulness and Mysticism”.

Dr. Stefan Reynolds Cost: Res: €440 Sat 5th Aug – Fri 11th Aug “A meditative retreat on the Trinity: God’s self-giving” Fr. Stephen Cummins OP Cost: Res: €440

Sun 23rd July – Sat 29th July Individually Directed Retreat Ann Alcock Cost: Res: €465

For ongoing programmes please contact the Secretary or visit our website at www.ennismore.ie Tel: 021-4502520 Fax: 021-4502712 E-mail: ennismore@eircom.net

D E V E LO P M E N T I N ACTION

TRÓCAIRE LENTEN CAMPAIGN 2017: MARIA’S STORY “I panic when I hear the water is coming. I feel fear for my daughter.”

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Miriam and her young daughter Maria live in constant fear; they are affected by lifethreatening floods up to five times a year.

Rising seawater has depleted much of the coastline on the peninsula in Honduras where they live. Their neighbourhood sits on a sandbank between a river and the Atlantic Ocean. After each flood, the sea ends up closer to their village, leaving them even more exposed next time.

During a storm, the only way to safety is by boat. Safety canals, maintained with the support of Trócaire, lead to dry land and security.

After surviving a flood, they must begin again. Miriam has to salvage whatever hasn’t been destroyed and rebuild their simple home.

Vegetable crops have been poisoned, animals drowned, and food will soon be running short.

The other families in their community face the same struggle, day after day, year after year.

“From the moment we know the storm is coming, we know we will lose something. We can’t eat. We can’t sleep. We’re so worried,” says Maria.

Miriam Marivel Campos Perez (30) and her daughter Maria José Gonzáles Campo (6) at their coastal house in Cuyamel, Omoa, Honduras

Maria and her best friend and neighbour Jazly Mariela Rojas Rivera (6) Yalile Hodeth Marques (left), aged 45, Yalile Yojana Diaz Marques (right), aged 19, and Sherlin Michel Vargas Diaz, 21 months, at their home in the coastal community of Cuyamel, Omoa, Honduras

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SUPPORT FOR THOSE FACING DISASTER With your support, Trócaire is helping communities in the poorest of places by providing early warning systems, classroom training for children, and construction materials to prevent flooding, among other vital activities.

Thousands of people all over the world are affected by storms, floods, droughts, earthquakes, famine and conflict as part of their daily lives. It is the poorest of people whom these disasters affect the most. For the most vulnerable, it is a question of when, not if, they will face disaster again.

By supporting Trócaire’s 2017 Lenten campaign, making a donation today, or signing up to give a monthly donation, you can be there for communities like Maria’s, ensuring that Trócaire can respond when disaster occurs.

Here’s what your money can do this Lent: €10 – clean water and hygiene kits €20 – lifesaving food parcel to feed a family for a month €50 – emergency tents and blankets €70 – emergency equipment pack containing torches, storm gear and rope €100 – community training on disaster and response €1,000 – flooding evacuation and risk maps €1,500 – early warning emergency system

Candido Saldivas (70) and Elvia Murcia’s (65) at their small home in Cuyamel, Omao, Honduras, which due to rising sea levels and coastal erosion has visibly sunk into the sand and is now only metres from the Atlantic Ocean.

The remains of a house destroyed by rising seawater on the coastline peninsula of Omoa, Cortés, in Honduras

Disaster plans are put in place for communities facing the threat of flooding.

Elvia Murcia and Candido Saldivas

To donate or to find out more about this year’s Lenten campaign, visit www.trocaire.org

Breaking the Word in March 2017 www.proclaim.ie

Please pray for the Redemptorist Teams who will preach the Word and for God’s People who will hear the Word proclaimed this month in:

Conaghy, Co Kilkenny (25th Feb. – 3rd March 2017)

Ovens, Co Cork (4th – 10th March 2017)

Mission preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR and Denis Luddy CSsR

Mission preached by Brian Nolan CSsR, Gerry O’Connor CSsR & Niamh O’Neill

Fossa, Co Kerry (1st – 5th March 2017)

Belmullet, Co Mayo (18th – 26th March 2017)

Mission preached by Gerard Moloney CSsR

Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and Kieran Brady CSsR

Copenhagen, Denmark (3rd – 14th March 2017)

St. Anne’s, Dunmurry (18th – 26th March 2017)

Mission preached by John Hanna CSsR

Mission preached by Johnny Doherty CSsR and Brendan Keane CSsR

Cookstown, Co. Tyrone (4th – 12th March 2017)

Ballyragget, Co Killenny (25th – 31st March 2017)

Mission preached by Brendan Keane CSsR and Ciarán O’Callaghan CSsR

Mission preached by Derek Meskell CSsR and Kevin Browne CSsR

Auchnacliffe, Co Longford (4th – 8th March 2017)

Ballymacnab/Kilcluney, (Armagh) (25th – 2nd April 2017)

Mini-mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and Peter Morris CSsR

Mission preached by John Hanna CSsR and Noel Kehoe CSsR

The details above are accurate at the time of printing. If you have any views, comments or even criticisms about Redemptorist preaching, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in a mission or novena in your parish, please contact us for further information. And please keep all Redemptorist preachers in your prayers.

Fr Johnny Doherty CSsR, Email: dohertyjohnny@gmail.com Tel: +44 28 90445950

Fr Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Email: missions.novenas@redemptorists.ie Tel: +353 61 315099

CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

YET ANOTHER HOMELESS ACTION PLAN

RADICAL ACTION IS NEEDED FROM OUR GOVERNMENT TO ELIMINATE HOMELESSNESS

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There are now more homeless people in Ireland than at any time since the famine. And the reasons for people now becoming homeless are often the same as during the famine: they are being evicted from their rented homes because they can no longer afford to pay the rent. And today, just as during the famine, it is sometimes foreign landlords (now called ‘international investors' which sounds much more respectable!) who are putting Irish families on to the streets. But, unlike 1845, Ireland today is the 14th wealthiest country in the world, based on data from the World Bank and International Monetary Fund.

In the past decade, there have been three Homeless Action Plans produced by Governments.

•In 2007, a Homeless Action Plan was announced which had, as its objective, to eliminate longterm homelessness (ie homeless for more than six months) and rough sleeping by the end of 2010.

The result? In January 2011 (one of the coldest winters on record, with night time temperatures sometimes dropping to -12 degrees), there were more homeless people and rough sleepers than at the beginning of the action plan!

•In 2013, another Homeless Action Plan was introduced, which had, as its objective, to eliminate long-term homelessness and rough sleeping by the end of 2016.

The result? At the end of 2016, there were far more homeless people and rough sleepers than at the beginning of the action plan!

•In July 2016, the Government REALITY MARCH 2017

produced yet another Homeless and Housing Action Plan. This time they had learnt not to set themselves up to fail by announcing a date by which homelessness is to be eliminated!

Why did the first two Action Plans fail? And what is the likelihood of success for this third Action Plan?

I believe that there were two reasons for the failure of the first two Action Plans: First, they depended heavily on the private rented sector to offer low-cost accommodation to people who were homeless.

Most private landlords will say – quite rightly – that they are not social housing providers! They are renting to make a profit, and seek to make maximum profit with minimum hassle. Their objective is quite different from the objective of Government and these objectives are usually in conflict with each other.

Indeed, it was the ideological

decision back in the late 1990s to transfer responsibility for social housing from the local authorities to the private sector, particularly the private rented sector which got Ireland into the crisis we are in today. Yet Ireland expects to get out of the crisis by continuing to rely on the private rented sector!

Secondly, they failed to anticipate the number of people becoming newly homeless over the lifetime of the action plan, and consequently, little was done to prevent homelessness increasing.

While this third action plan is the best, the most detailed and the most comprehensive of the three plans, and should reduce homelessness somewhat in the medium to long term, it will not eliminate homelessness, as it contains the same two flaws as the previous action plans. There is still the same heavy reliance on the private rented sector to provide social housing. Ironically,

most of those becoming newly homeless today are actually being evicted from the private rented sector.

To use the private rented sector to provide social housing would require a radical overhaul of the sector, including limiting rent increases to the consumer price index and requiring landlords to give 15 or 20 year leases to guarantee tenants security of tenure. Most landlords will oppose such measures by every means at their disposal. And most of them vote!

And again, this plan does little to stem the now massive flow into homelessness (200 single people and 85 families every month during 2016). Rents continue to increase far in excess of the rate of inflation, even though increases are now limited in some cases by legislation. Furthermore, the failure to legislate to prevent banks evicting families from homes that are in mortgage arrears (and there are still 50,000 such homes in mortgage arrears of more than two years!) may result in a potential deluge of homelessness in the years ahead.

There is no reason for anyone to be homeless in Ireland today.

But to eliminate homelessness will require a change of mindset and far more radical action from Government than we have seen to date. Instead of tinkering around with the private rented sector, it will require a massive social housing building programme, similar to the mid-1900s, when tens of thousands of social houses were built.

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH THE FORTY DAYS JOURNEY OF LENT Matthew expands Mark’s 20-word account of the temptation of Jesus FIRST SUNDAY to more than 180. He OF LENT creates three distinct scenes, each of which follows the same pattern of words by the tempter met by a reply by Jesus who cites a verse from scripture. Matthew has also made the account more dramatic, with three ‘scene shifts’ from the desert to Jerusalem and finally to ‘a high mountain.’ A 40-day fast would weaken the body severely, leaving the person very weak. Forty is a familiar measuring unit in the bible: the rains of the great flood fell for 40 days, Israel wandered for 40 years in the desert, Elijah walked for 40 days to meet God at Mount Horeb and so on.

Matthew uses three different terms for the tempter – the devil, tempter (‘tester’) and Satan. The first temptation takes place in the desert itself – in the wilderness, a barren rocky district close to the Dead Sea. Food is one of the most basic human needs and Jesus is tempted both to satisfy his hunger and prove he is God’s Son by changing stones into bread by a word. Jesus’ reply is taken

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from Moses’ farewell to the people of Israel.

Looking back over 40 years in the desert, he reminds them how God “humbled you by letting you hunger, then by feeding you with manna, with which neither you nor your ancestors were acquainted, in order to make you understand that one does not live by bread alone, but by every word that comes from the mouth of the Lord” (Deuteronomy 8:3). It is a reminder that the human heart hungers for more than bread.

The second temptation shifts to Jerusalem.

The devil now quotes a verse from Psalm 91, telling how those who live in God’s protecting love have nothing to fear and so Jesus might perform a miracle to prove who he is. Jesus replies with another verse from Moses’ farewell, “Do not put the Lord your God to the test, as you tested him at Massah” (Deu 6:16), recalling a particularly bitter confrontation between God and his people.

The final temptation is conducted on a ‘very high mountain.’ It is a mountain of the spirit, rather than a geographical place. It is symbolic of how people can be seduced by the delusion of power or wealth. It is not easy to locate the precise text Jesus quotes in reply to Satan (“You shall worship the Lord

your God and him only shall you serve").

The evangelist may be citing freely and from memory, or perhaps combining two texts – the first of the Ten Commandments and the second, Israel’s creed, ‘Hear O Israel, the Lord your God is one’ which is part of the regular morning and evening prayer of Judaism.

The first days of Lent are the easiest! We can get a smug feeling of self-satisfaction from doing something ‘virtuous’ or ‘healthy', but it fades within a day or two and we are left with our old stubborn selves. Our greatest temptation is not to commit ‘new sins’ but to repeat the same ‘old sins’ in which we are such experts. Today’s Gospel offers us some guidance for Lent. Most of our sins will rise from our hungers – our hungers for food, for sexual satisfaction, for the esteem of others, for power. Deeper knowledge of the scriptures, and of ourselves, is one way to beat our temptations. During this Lent, can we try to give some time each day to scripture reading?

Today’s Readings Gen 2:7-9, 16-18, 25; 3:1-7 Rom 5:12-19 Matthew 4:1-11

Judean Desert

God’s Word continues on page 46

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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH A GLIMPSE OF GLORY In today’s liturgy we meet, not a Jesus who is weak and hungry from a long fast and is exposed to temptations, SECOND SUNDAY but a Jesus through whom OF LENT the light of God’s glory shines for a short time as he is revealed as the beloved Son of God. The Gospel begins with the phrase ‘six days later.’ This refers to the scene in which Peter acknowledged Jesus as the Messiah, the Son of the Living God, and Jesus made the first prediction that what awaited him in Jerusalem was to “undergo great suffering at the hands of the elders and chief priests and scribes, and be killed, and on the third day be raised” (Mat 16:21). The Good Friday Cross and the Easter Tomb are the goal of our Easter journey, and today’s Gospel helps us to keep Easter in view.

This scene is known as the Transfiguration.

That word means simply that the appearance of Jesus was changed, so that his face shone like the sun and his clothing became as white as the light. Something similar happened to Moses when he met God on Mount Sinai.

According to the Book of Exodus, “as he came down from the mountain with the two tablets of the covenant in his hand, Moses did not know that the skin of his face shone because he had been talking with God” (Exodus 34:29).

Matthew sees Jesus as the New Moses. Just as Moses taught Israel the Law, Jesus interprets that Law with an authority superior to that of Moses. That is why Moses appears on the mountain top to Jesus and his disciples. Moses is accompanied by Elijah the prophet. At a time of crisis, Elijah made a long trek back to Mount Sinai, where he heard God speaking to him, not in thunder, storm or earthquake but in "the sound of sheer silence" (1 Kings 19:12).

The vision is very brief. At its end, the disciples see ‘only Jesus.’ As they descend the mountain, he orders them to keep the vision a secret "until the Son of Man has risen from the dead." The Transfiguration and Easter are the moments of glory. Between them are the dark times of suffering, with the blood-flecked face of the suffering Son of Man as he makes his way to the cross.

The Transfiguration moment is a station on the long way of the cross to Jerusalem. The way of the cross is a favourite devotion for Lent. Its beauty is that it does not need any set prayers, just to think about the journey. As we follow Jesus, we can think about the times in our own life that were as bright as the Transfiguration, and those that were as dark as Gethsemane. He was there in all of them.

LIVING WATER MARCH The last three Sundays of Lent were highpoints in the Early Church’s preparation for baptism known as the “Catechumenate.”

THIRD SUNDAY They included special OF LENT liturgies called ‘scrutinies’.

Each scrutiny invited the candidate for baptism to undertake a deeper selfexamination about why they wanted baptism.

The scrutiny ended with a special prayer for healing anything that was weak or sinful in their hearts. On each of these Sundays, the Gospel was taken from St John. Today is the first of the Scutiny Sundays.

The meeting of Jesus and the woman at the well is one of the highlights of the Gospel of John.

John emphasises in his Gospel the importance of close personal encounter with Jesus. For Jews, Samaria was a kind of 'no man’s land' between the two large provinces of Galilee and Judea. Samaria had once been the capital of the independent Kingdom of Israel. Captured by the Assyrians more than 700 years before the birth of Christ, it

had been planted with non-Jewish people who intermarried with remnants of the local Jewish population. Other Jews considered them as outsiders and tainted. Relations between Jews and Samaritans were usually hostile. Samaria was territory best avoided. The Samaritans, however, were proud of their ancient Jewish roots, including the well of the patriarch Jacob that is the scene of today’s Gospel.

The well was a social centre in Middle Eastern villages: in the course of the daily trip for water, one learned the latest gossip. It was at wells one met strangers, stopping to fill their water bottles.

John skilfully focuses his attention on Jesus and the woman by sending the disciples to town on a shopping expedition. His innocent request for a drink of water sparks a conversation that is soon going in several directions at once – why don’t Jews and Samaritans use the same dishes, what is living water, where is the true temple?

Living water meant fresh spring water. The alternative was water from cisterns collected during the rainy season that became stale or contaminated the longer it lay. Spring water pouring from a rock was cool, mysterious and life

giving. It is the symbol of everything the woman longs for in life – love, security, happiness and above all, eternal life.

She seems to have a series of disastrous relationships behind her – five former husbands and currently, a live-in partner. Her chequered matrimonial history suggests that she is a representative of her people, the northern kingdom of Israel, described by the prophet Hosea as an unfaithful wife whose husband longs to bring her on a second honeymoon in the desert where he could "speak to her heart" (Hosea 2:14).

The choice of this passage for the first of the Lenten scrutinies was meant to make the catechumens confront their own deepest desires: why are they looking for baptism?

What are the things in life for which they are truly thirsting? What kind of living water can assuage that kind of thirst? It can also be our reflection for this Lenten Sunday.

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Today’s Readings Gen 12:1-4 2 Tim 1:8b-10 Matthew 17:1-9

Today’s Readings Exod 17:3-7 Rom 5:1-2, 5-8 John 4:5-42

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 2, MARCH 2017

I ONCE WAS BLIND, BUT NOW I SEE! Today’s story of the cure of the blind man is another great baptismal story. The cure is relatively brief – a mere seven verses. More than five times that is devoted to a dispute involving FOURTH SUNDAY the blind man, the Jewish critics of Jesus and OF LENT finally Jesus himself.

Like most people of their time, the disciples shared a fatalistic view of the world. If bad things happened to a person, it was as punishment for some sin, perhaps even one they were unaware of, or one committed by members of a previous generation or even a punishment to meet some future evil that God had foreseen them committing in the future. Jesus takes a radically different view: God is not vindictive, but when bad things happen to good people, it can sometimes make a space for God’s light to shine into the complex human condition.

Unlike most Gospel miracle stories, Jesus uses very ordinary things like mud and fresh water from the well to restore the man’s sight: the baptismal liturgy will also use human symbols like water and oil.

The pool of Siloam was Jerusalem’s main water supply. John tells us its name was derived from a root meaning ‘sent’. Preaching on this text, St Augustine used it as a great symbol for baptism. “This blind man stands for the whole human race,” he tells us, “if his blindness is infidelity, then his restoration to the light is faith. By washing in the pool called ‘one who has been sent', he is baptised into Christ.”

This story is unique among Gospel stories for another reason. Jesus is absent from the scene while most of the action is taking place. We hear nothing of him after he has put the mud on the man’s eyes and sent him to the pool (v 7), until verse 35. It is the blind man occupies centre stage. He is on trial before the members of the council. His opponents must prove that he is either a trickster claiming to be cured or a supporter of the dangerous claims of the prophet Jesus to be the son of God. Witnesses are called – the man’s neighbours and finally the star witnesses, his parents. They have been so intimidated with threats of boycott that they refuse to say anything and throw the responsibility back on the man himself: ‘He is of age’. Jewish boys came of age at 12, and while we have no idea of how old he is, he appears as a relatively young man with a sharp mind.

The candidates undergoing the second scrutiny today are given the example of the blind man. Baptism gives us a new kind of sight. It enables us to see many things in life differently. Preparing for baptism confronts us with our blind spots.

Just because we are baptised, we are not excused from checking our blind spots.

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Today’s Readings

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 10 ACROSS: Across: 1. Skills, 5. Amazon, 10. Titanic, 11. Lesotho, 12. Ache, 13. Peter, 15. John, 17. Tap, 19. Top dog, 21. Deceit, 22. Kaftans, 23. Abbeys, 25. Auburn, 28. Dub, 30. Rome, 31. Folio, 32. Duct, 35. Vulgate, 36. Hirsute, 37. Oscars, 38. Papaya.

DOWN: 2. Ketchup, 3. Link, 4. Secret, 5. Asleep, 6. Apse, 7. Outcome, 8. Strait, 9. Sonnet, 14.

Tactful, 16. Tokyo, 18. Jesus, 20. Gas, 21. DNA, 23. Arrive, 24. Bumbles, 26. Uruguay, 27. Nutmeg, 28. Dowels, 29. Bishop, 33. Saga, 34. Prop.

Winner of Crossword No. 10 John O'Byrne, 38 Shanvara Road, Santry, D9

ACROSS 1. Site of an ancient colossus. (6) 5. Colourful birds of the parrot family. (6) 10. Biblical city with problematic walls. (7) 11. A state of being pleasantly lost in one's thoughts. (7) 12. A list that shows who must do a certain job. (4) 13. Old Irish alphabet. (5) 15. A small piece of something removed in the course of chopping or breaking. (4) 17. Vegetable often confused with a sweet potato. (3) 19. Plundered a city and fired an employed. (6) 21. A small wave on the surface of a liquid. (6) 22. Another name for Jesus Christ. (7) 23. An official language of Israel. (6) 25. Cowboy of the South American pampas. (6) 28. Appraise the animal doc. (3) 30. The second letter of the Greek alphabet. (4) 31. One of the Great Lakes between the U.S. and Canada. (5) 32. He sold his birthright for stew! (4) 35. Provoking a person playfully. (7) 36. She left only Hope in the box. (7) 37. A line connecting points of equal atmospheric pressure. (6) 38. Am expression of sharp disapproval or criticism. (6)

DOWN 2. A person who publicly dissents from the officially accepted dogma of the Roman Catholic Church. (7) 3. Device for charging mobile phones or laptops. (4) 4. Heavy, dull or uninteresting food. (6) 5. She danced and sang after the Pharaoh's army was drowned. (6) 6. A natural underground chamber. (4) 7. Vessel intended for combat. (7) 8. Long, deep, narrow inlets of the sea between high cliffs. (6) 9. A building for religious practice. (6) 14. Pet with ever-growing front teeth! (7) 16. The only republic in the Arab peninsula. (5) 18. A fight against the enemies of Islam. (5) 20. Water droplets of the morning. (3) 21. Low quality newspaper and an old cloth. (3) 23. Recurrent, often unconscious patterns of behaviour. (6) 24. Delivers to an enemy by treachery or disloyalty. (7) 26. Full-length garment worn by certain Christian clergy. (7) 27. Of or relating to the eye. (6) 28. Not having or showing good manners. (6) 29. Lethargy, a state of physical or mental inactivity. (6) 33. Arm, leg or large branch. (4) 34. Treat someone as if they are not there. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.2, March 2017 Name: Address: Telephone:

1 Sam 16:1b, 6-7, 10-13 Eph 5:8-14 John 9:1-41 All entries must reach us by March 31, 2017 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. 2, Redemptorist Communications, Unit A6, Santry Business Park, Swords Road, Dublin 09 X651

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