Reality November 2015

THE PERPETUAL NOVENA HOW IT ALL BEGAN

NOVEMBER 2015

IRELAND AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS

A REFORMING COUNCIL THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

THE FAMILY

POPE FRANCIS ON FAMILY LIFE BISHOP BRENDAN LEAHY ON THE GIFT OF GRANDPARENTS

FROM BANGOR TO BOBBIO IN THE FOOTSTEPS OF COLUMBAN

PREPARING FOR THE JUBILEE YEAR YEAR OF MERCY BEGINS DECEMBER 8

PLUS SUSAN GATELY AN ITALIAN PRIEST/SCIENTIST PETER McVERRY SJ NOT WHO YOU ARE BUT WHAT YOU ARE

www.redcoms.org Redemptorist-Communications @RedComsIreland �2.00 �1.80

The Bible: Our Everlasting Story A day with Jeff Cavins Jeff Cavins is the creator of the popular Great Adventure Bible Study Program used by more than five thousand parishes in the United States, Ireland, and other countries. He is the founding host of EWTN’s weekly program Life on the Rock and the author of several books, co-editor of the Amazing Grace series, and co-author of Walking with God, which gives an overview of the Bible.

Doors

10am – 5pm Doors Open: 9am

Date:

Saturday 21st November 2015

Venue: Waterfront Hall Belfast Donation: £20.00 per ticket

TO BOOK YOUR TICKETS

Online: Box Office Tel: For more info:

www.waterfront.co.uk 028 9033 4455 livingchurch@downandconnor.org

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 LESSONS ON LOVE AND FAMILY LIFE Pope Francis’ experience of growing up in a lively emigrant family

By Alicia Von Stamwitz

16 GRANDPARENTS – A GIFT Young Jorge Bergoglio’s grandmother Rosa was a beloved inspiration

By Bishop Brendan Leahy

20 QUESTIONS TO JESUS “What is truth?”

By Mike Daley

23 BANGOR TO BOBBIO

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St Columban anniversary reminds us of Irish monks in Europe

By John J O Riordain CSsR

26 REMEMBERING THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL One of the great reforming councils

By Salvador Ryan

32 DAREDEVIL FOR SCIENCE An Italian priest scientist, anticipated many of the discoveries of a later age Susan Gately

34 PREPARING FOR THE JUBILEE YEAR

37

40

During the Holy Year we are invited to rediscover the freedom of mercy

By George Wadding CSsR

OPINION

REGULARS

37 THE PERPETUAL NOVENA

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

04 REALITY BITES

19 KATY DOBEY

07 POPE MONITOR

31 CARMEL WYNNE

08 HAVE YOUR SAY

World –wide devotion to the Mother of Perpetual Help

By Brendan McConvery CSsR

40 IRELAND AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS Trocaire’s work for refugees in Serbia

By Joanne O’Flanagan

47 PETER Mc VERRY SJ

09 REFLECTIONS 42 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 44 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES SAUDI ARABIA BANS THE POPE RIYADH

QUIET REVOLUTION

Saudi Arabia has banned the Arabic language version of the internationally circulating magazine, National Geographic for August. The cover featured an image of Pope Francis standing in the Sistine chapel. Although the company did not explicitly say so, it is believed that the Islamic state took offence at this image. The

editor-in-chief of the Arabic version, Alsaad Omar al-Menhaly, issued a statement in which he said: “Dear readers in Saudi Arabia, we apologize that you did not receive the August magazine.

According to the distribution company, the magazine was refused entry for cultural reasons.”

The headline, which suggested that the Pope was leading a “quiet revolution”, may also have upset a regime concerned about possible unrest.

Saudi Arabia, where Islam’s holy city of Mecca is located, sees itself as the custodian of Islamic culture and tradition, yet it has not admitted a single refugee from Syria in four years.

BRITISH PARLIAMENT REJECTS EUTHANASIA

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LONDON UNACCEPTABLE The British Parliament rejected plans for a right to die in England and Wales on 11 September. This was the first vote on the issue in almost twenty years. In a free vote in the Commons, 118 MPs were in favour and 330 against plans to allow terminally ill adults to end their lives with medical supervision. In a passionate debate, some members argued that the proposed legislation offered a "dignified and peaceful death," while others said it was "totally unacceptable." Under the proposals, people with less than six months to live could be prescribed a lethal dose of drugs, which they had to be able to take themselves. Two doctors and a High Court judge would have needed to approve each case.

Two Archbishops of Canterbury took REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

opposite sides in the debate. Lord George Carey, archbishop from 1991 until 2002, says he changed his mind after witnessing the suffering of campaigners for a change in the law like Tony Nicklinson, who suffered for years from locked-in syndrome. Lord Carey said it was clear that assisted deaths were already happening 'in the shadows', where doctors, friends or relatives privately carry out mercy killings. The present Archbishop, Justin Welby, warned that allowing terminally ill patients help to commit suicide will cross a “legal and ethical Rubicon.” Along with the heads of other Christian, Jewish, Muslim and Sikh groups, he issued a joint letter to every MP ahead of the debate on the assisted dying bill. “Respect for the lives of others goes to the heart of both our criminal and human rights laws and ought not to be abandoned,” he said.

CATHOLIC MEMBERS OF PARLIAMENT LONDON HIGH PROPORTION Research by a British Catholic newspaper, The Tablet, shows that around 12 per cent of members in the 2015 parliament identify themselves as Catholics, which is slightly higher than the proportion of Catholics in the population of Britain. According to the findings, 79 out of 646 members are Catholic, a slight drop from the 83 elected in 2010 General Election. Several Scottish MPs, who were Catholic, notably Jim Murphy, the former leader of the Scottish Labour Party, lost their seats in the last election to the Scottish National Party. Among the eight new Catholic MPs, two are Conservative, three are Labour and three are from the Scottish National Party, including Mhairi Black, at 20, the youngest MP to be elected since 1806, and Patrick Grady who was previously advocacy manager at the Scottish Church’s aid agency, the Scottish Catholic International Aid Fund.

N E WS

© Courtesy of The Irish Catholic

© Courtesy of Jesuits.ie

Fr Donal Doyle SJ

DUBLIN

OUTSTANDING WORK

Two priests and a religious sister are among the ten recipients of Presidential Awards announced for the year 2015. Fr. Donal Doyle, an Irish Jesuit, has lived and worked in Japan for over fifty years. He established an Irish Studies Programme at the prestigious Sophia University which encouraged students over many decades to visit Ireland, thus making friends of Ireland of many hundreds of Japanese people who have now reached the upper levels of Japanese society, in business,

“LUTHER SQUARE” FOR ROME?

© Courtesy of The Irish Times

PRESIDENTIAL AWARDS FOR SISTER AND TWO PRIESTS

Sr Miriam Duggan

Fr Brendan McBride

administration and the arts. Sr. Miriam Duggan is a Franciscan Sister and has spent much of her life working in Africa – initially as an obstetrician and lately in the field of HIV/AIDS prevention and care. She is held in very high regard by her Congregation, the missionary community and the Governments in the countries where she has worked. Fr. Brendan McBride is President of the Irish Apostolate in the United States. Originally from Donegal, he is also founder and head of the Irish Immigration and Pastoral Centre in San Francisco. Much of his work has been

serving the Irish community through advocacy and provision of support services. He is one of the leaders in the Irish community’s efforts to bring about immigration reform. He played a central role in providing support for all of the people involved in the tragic accident in June of this year that claimed the lives of six Irish students on summer work experience.

Among the other recipients of the award were the Peruvian writer, Mario Vargas Llosa, the management guru, Charles Handy, the British human rights lawyer, Gareth Pierce and the actor, Gabriel Byrne.

The Vatican has given its backing to the proposal to call a square in central Rome after Martin Luther, who was excommunicated by the pope nearly 500 years ago. An Augustinian friar and theologian, Luther sparked the Reformation by challenging the authority of the Catholic Church on the matter of indulgences. He was excommunicated in 1521. A square in Rome will soon be named Piazza Martin Lutero. It is on the Colle Oppio, a park overlooking the Colosseum and a short walk from the Basilica of St Mary Major. According to the Italian daily La Repubblica, the request was made by the Seventh-day Adventists, a small Protestant denomination. It was originally intended to coincide with the 500th anniversary of Luther’s visit to Rome in 1510.

Brother Martin came to Rome three years after his ordination as a devout pilgrim. The city, and much of what passed for religion in it, did not impress him, but just how upset he was by Rome has been much debated. According to one story, he was half-way up the Holy Stairs on his knees when he turned back and walked down. Later, he would say: “If there is a hell, Rome is built over it.”

The Vatican has responded positively to the square’s new name. Dialogue between the Lutheran and the Catholic Churches was cemented in a document signed by leaders of the two churches in 2013, which stressed a degree of convergence on issues on which they had formerly been deeply divided and Catholics will celebrate with their Lutheran brethren the 500th anniversary of the Reformation in 2017. continued on page 6

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REALITY BITES

FRANCE

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A UNIQUE COMMUNITY

The Institute of the Little Sisters Disciples of the Lamb is a contemplative community that provides young women suffering from Trisomy 21, or Down syndrome an opportunity to live as contemplative sisters. It is a mixed community, which in addition to sisters with Down syndrome, also has sisters who do not have the condition but

want to live in community with them and offer then support. The Sisters follow the ‘Little Way’ of Saint Therese with a simple life-style composed of prayer, work and sacrifice. It includes adoration and praying the rosary, adapted to their rhythm and capacities. The convent stands in a large park in close proximity to the Benedictine Abbey of Fontgombault. A monk of the Abbey is chaplain to the small community. It was founded with

the encouragement of the late Professor Jerome Lejeune, who discovered the chromosomal abnormality in humans that causes Down syndrome, and whose cause for canonisation has been introduced. The community began in 1985 and was canonically recognised in 1990 in the diocese of Tours.

STRAINED RELATIONS AMONG WORLD ANGLICANS FIRST SOUTH AFRICAN The Archbishop of Canterbury, Justin Welby, in much of the global north, tempts us to BLESSED has invited the leaders of the Anglican Churches in 165 countries to an emergency meeting in Canterbury next January in an attempt to prevent a split in the Anglican Communion. If they all attend, it will be the first time some of the bishops will take part in direct talks since the Episcopal Church of the United States ordained an openly gay man, Gene Robinson, as a bishop in 2004 In recent years, the Anglican Communion has been divided over issues such as the ordination of women and gay men. The heads of the 37 provinces normally meet every ten years for the Lambeth Conference, but almost a third of them boycotted the last meeting in 2008. In October 2014, the archbishop was forced to postpone the Conference scheduled for 2018 indefinitely. He said in a statement that the Communion had to find a way forward, but acknowledged that this could mean different things in different provinces.

“The difference between our societies and cultures, as well as the speed of cultural change REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

divide as Christians,” he said. “We have no Anglican Pope. Our authority as a church is dispersed, and is ultimately found in Scripture, properly interpreted.” The archbishop has invited to the primates’ meeting Archbishop Foley Beach, head of the American conservative organisation ACNA [Anglican Church of North America] which split from the Episcopal Church and is not a member of the Anglican Communion The agenda for the January meeting would be set by the primates, not Archbishop Welby. Division has already emerged within the Anglican Communion between conservative bishops in most countries in Africa, who formed a group called GAFCON [Global Anglican Future Conference] and more liberal elements. One source said that both the American and African Churches now had settled positions but despite their cultural and theological differences it could still be possible for them to have some sort of relationship.

The first South African was beatified on 13 September near his home in the Limpopo province. Blessed Benedict Daswa was bludgeoned to death for resisting witchcraft.

The forty three year old teacher was killed by fellow villagers after he refused to pay a sorcerer who promised to end lightning storms that were causing heavy damage in the region. He had said that, as a Catholic, he could not accept the power of witchcraft nor the witch hunt attacks. Born on June 16, 1946, Benedict was married with eight children, including one born a few months after his death. His children sat in front at the beatification Mass alongside their 91-year-old grandmother, Thidziambi Ida Daswa, mother of the new blessed. The South African Deputy President, Cyril Ramaphosa, attended the ceremony. Blessed Daswa died on 2nd February 1990, the same day as South Africa's apartheid regime announced it would release Nelson Mandela from prison.

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POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS THE WORLD MEETING OF FAMILIES The real object of the papal visit to the United States was not to deliver a speech to congress or to meet the establishment but to take part in the World Meeting of Families. The final session included performances by leading singers and musicians, but probably the most heart-warming part of the evening was the testimonials delivered by six families from various countries. They told their stories told of keeping the faith while enduring trials such as poverty, persecution, disabilities and political upheaval.

One woman brought her two grown sons on to the stage, one of whom plans to study for the priesthood and the other is a 17-year-old handicapped by cerebral palsy. The Ukrainian-born woman was a single mother, who brought her children to the United States and struggled for years, after the family was abandoned by the father. She clung to her faith for guidance, and rejoices that her wheel-chair bound son refuses to be limited by his handicap, keeping up with his studies with an eye toward going to college. "I am happy to have my two sons in my life. Holy Father, thank you so much for being with us today," she said.

When she had finished, the pope rose to greet her and her older son then embraced the teenager.

A Jordanian father, mother and two daughters also came to the stage and the father told the pope and the audience about the thousands of Christian refugees who have flooded his country, fleeing persecution in their own lands. He said his family welcomed the strangers and along with fellow Christians, they work to provide food, shelter, medicine and education to the dispossessed.

For his own remarks, Pope Francis threw away his prepared text and, to the delight of the audience, spoke from the heart about the challenges and love that come with being part of a family.

Pope Francis embraces the Walker family of Buenos Aires, Argentina, during the World Meeting of Families in Philadelphia

POPE FRANCIS GOES TO JAIL – YET AGAIN

Visiting prisons is a favourite pastoral activity of Pope Francis. Each Holy Thursday, he celebrates Mass in a Roman prison. It was also something he did frequently as Archbishop of Buenos Aires, and even as pope, he continues to speak on the telephone with inmates he used to visit.

During his visit to Philadephia, he spent about an hour at the CurranFromhold Correctional Facility. He entered the gymnasium from behind a blue curtain, walking up on to the small stage and carefully inspecting the large chair the inmates had made for him. Then he turned, with a big smile across his face, and gave the inmates a sincere Pope Francis thumbs up.

Pope Francis stressed that prisons must focus on rehabilitation, and he insisted that no one is perfect and without need of forgiveness. "Any society, any family, which cannot share or take seriously the pain of its children and views that pain as something normal or to be expected, is a society 'condemned' to remain a hostage to itself, prey to the very things which cause that pain." The pope spoke to them about Jesus washing his disciples' feet. "Life is a journey, along different roads, different paths, which leave their mark on us," the pope said. "We know in faith that Jesus seeks us out. He wants to heal our wounds, to soothe our feet, which hurt from travelling alone, to wash each of us clean of the dust from our journey."

Jesus, he said, "doesn't ask us where we have been, he doesn't question us what about we have done." Instead “the Lord goes in search of us; to all of us he stretches out a helping hand," the pope said. "It is painful when we see prison systems which are not concerned to care for wounds, to soothe pain, to offer new possibilities.” He urged the prisoners to dedicate their time in prison to "getting back on the right road" and preparing to rejoin society.

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HAVE YOUR SAY WHAT DO YOU THINK? READERS ARE INVITED TO COMMENT ON ARTICLES AND OPINION PIECES APPEARING IN REALITY. WHILE ALL LETTERS MUST BE SIGNED AND A FULL ADDRESS GIVEN, NAMES WILL BE WITHHELD ON REQUEST.

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NOT IMPRESSED The September issue of Reality printed a piece on the recent success of Robert Menard, Mayor of Beziers in southern France, in installing a crib in Beziers's Town Hall. I was surprised and appalled in equal measure.

Beziers is a troubled town. It has growing levels of poverty and significant ethnic and religious tensions, which recently erupted into violence. Robert Menard is a Catholic Mayor who seems to court controversy by using his religion as an offensive weapon and in direct opposition to his country's laws.

Laudable as his intent may seem, to remind France of her Catholic/Christian heritage and roots, there is surely a disconnect between his purpose and his actions.

I am sure that Reality could find worthier figures to grace its pages, particularly in light of the shameful treatment of our brothers and sisters, refugees and migrants, on the borders of "Christian" Europe. One wonders how Monsieur Menard would have treated the real Holy Family, for were they not also poor, homeless and needy, and in time, fleeing the threat of terrible violence? I can only imagine.

Sincerely, Kate Green, Belfast Thank you for your comment. Publishing that short piece in “Reality Bites” was intended to make the point that the court rejected the claim that the crib violated France’s policy of laïcité or state secularism: it was not an examination of the Mayor’s motives in erecting it, however questionable they may have been. We take some pride in our support for the Church’s social teaching – the September editorial, for instance, addressed the refugee crisis and the October number carried an article on the same topic, as does this one. – Editor REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

FR JOHN O'SULLIVAN SJ I am writing to let you know how much my wife and I enjoyed the articles in Reality over the years. We were particularly interested in the article on Fr John Sullivan because of the time framework and the fact that I lived not a stone’s throw from St Francis Xavier Church at that time. Please continue the good work.

Joseph Hunt, Omeath THANK YOU FOR THE PRAYERS I have been reading and promoting Reality magazine for over forty years and your May issue is one of the best I have ever read. I learned so much about prayer from the various articles dealing with different aspects of this subject. Over the years, my mentors were people like Fr John Powell S.J. and Carlo Carretto – the latter described prayer as, 'relaxing in the surprise of being loved'.

I liked the emphasis of your articles on silence, solitude, loving listening and the need for praxis – some kind of Christian action to emerge from our prayer. The current emphasis of Pope Francis on the poor, and the need to work for social justice and care for our earth, is a clear example of the fruits of his lifelong prayer.

Peter Boucher, Derry Thank you. Fr Seamus Enright was guest editor of the May issue and Fr Cathal Cumiskey was author of the article on John Sullivan in the September issue. – Editor If you are moved to comment on any article, please send your correspondence to ...

The Editor, Reality, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6.

By email to: bmcconvery@redcoms.org

Reality Volume 80. No. 9 November 2015 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Chair, Redemptorist Communications Seamus Enright CSsR 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 REALITY SUBSCRIPTIONS Through a promoter (Ireland only) €18 or £15 Annual Subscription by post: Ireland €22 or £18 UK £25 Europe €35 Rest of the world €45 Please send all payments to: Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Road, Rathgar, Dublin 6, Republic of Ireland 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.

ON THE MOVE BUT BUSINESS AS USUAL! In early 2016, Redemptorist Communications will be moving from its long-term base in Marianella, Rathgar, Dublin. We will keep you posted when we know our new location and contact details for sending payments and for phone enquiries

REFLECTIONS Anyone who thinks fallen leaves are dead has never watched them dancing on a windy day.

SHIRA TAMIR

People don’t know whether it is winter or summer when they are happy.

ANTON CHECKHOV

Regret is an appalling waste of energy; you can't build on it and it's only good for wallowing in.

KATHERINE MANSFIELD

My definition of an intellectual is someone who can listen to the William Tell Overture without thinking of the Lone Ranger.

BILLY CONNOLLY

ALPHONSUS LIGUORI

You do not always have to be producing, creating, harvesting. Learn to be idle.

Learn to rest.

Always remember that you are absolutely unique. Just like everyone else.

JOYCE RUPP

MARGARET MEAD

If misery loves company, then triumph demands an audience.

Every crag and gnarled tree and lonely valley has its own strange and graceful legend attached to it.

BRIAN MOORE

There’s nothing you can do about the past except keep it there.

MICHAEL CONNELLY

Life is a great big canvas; throw all the paint you can at it.

Love cannot survive if you just give it scraps of yourself, scraps of your time, scraps of your thoughts.

MARY O’HARA

DANNY KAYE

The world needs dreamers and the world needs doers, but above all the world needs dreamers who do.

SARAH BÁN BREATHNACH

Why do we let facts and figures and anything but dreams rule our lives?

Acquire the habit of speaking to God as if you were alone with him, familiarly and with confidence and love, as to the dearest and most loving of friends.

DOUGLAS HYDE

The opinion which other people have of you is their problem, not yours.

ELISABETH KUBLER-ROSS

Never, for the sake of peace and quiet, deny your own experience or convictions.

DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

A good deed is never lost; those who sow courtesy reap friendship, and those who plant kindness gather love.

Procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday.

SAINT BASIL

DON MARQUIS

A healthy attitude is contagious but don't wait to catch it from others. Be a carrier.

A good head and a good heart are always a formidable combination.

TOM STOPPARD

The most common way people give up their power is by thinking they don’t have any.

Positive anything is better than negative nothing.

Christ has illumined you with wisdom and the fire of his presence. It has been sparked and kindled in you.

Let it blaze.

ALICE WALKER

ELBERT HUBBARD

CARYLL HOUSLANDER

CECELIA AHERNE

NELSON MANDELA

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Redemptorist Communications

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PLENTIFUL REDEMPTION

Much

has been made, quite rightly, of Pope Francis’s Jesuit heritage and his conscious identification with the Poor Man of Assisi. With respect to our cousins in the Society and in the Friars Minor, we Redemptorists feel there is also something “Alphonsian” about Pope Francis. The loyalty of our founder, St Alphonsus Liguori, to the popes of his day, manifested in his insistence on getting papal approval for his young congregation, locked him in a struggle with the Neapolitan government that lasted for more than half a century. In the end, he could not rely on some of his most trusted advisors to hold the line, and ended his life excluded by the pope from the congregation he had founded. Loyalty to the pope was to become a characteristic mark of his congregation. A stone tablet on the wall of the common room of the mother house in Rome commemorates that it was in that room that the final form of the definition of papal infallibility agreed by the First Vatican Council in 1870 was hammered out.

There are three particular ways in which Redemptorists feel they are on common ground with Pope Francis. The first is Pope Francis’ very strong pastoral sense that a solution can be found for even the most difficult problem in a way that will respect the integrity of the individual. In a conversation with journalists on his return from the World Youth Day in July, 2013, Pope Francis is reported as saying: “If someone is gay, and he searches for the Lord and has good will, who am I to judge?” It is manifest, too, in his attempts to simplify the process of annulment for the good of conscience. There is no great surprise here for anyone familiar with the moral theology of St Alphonsus that went out of its way to avoid rigorism and to respect the conscience of even the simplest goat-herder. Finding a pastoral solution that can bring peace to troubled hearts

does not mean abandoning the traditional framework of morality. It is sensitive to the need to apply laws with equity and mercy, but it also knows that belonging to, and being active in the community of the faithful, with a regular structure of prayer, is the ordinary path to a life of discipleship. It is often in the sacrament of reconciliation that the process begins.

Alphonsus gave his congregation as its motto words taken from scripture: “with him there is fullness of redemption” – copiosa apud eum redemptio. Pope Francis has a similar vision that God is not niggardly with his grace, but lavishes it on humanity in great torrents. In the apostolic exhortation, The Joy of the Gospel, he reminds us how “time and time again Christ bears us on his shoulders. No one can strip us of the dignity bestowed upon us by this boundless and unfailing love. With a tenderness which never disappoints, but is always capable of restoring our joy, he makes it possible for us to lift up our heads and to start anew.” This is a second Alphonsian note in Pope Francis: the joy of the Gospel is founded on God’s passionate love for us. For Alphonsus, the mysteries of the life of Christ, and especially the pains of the passion and his enduring presence in the Eucharist as food and companion were proofs that God was, as he put it in his native Italian, pazzo per amore, ‘crazy with love.’

Thirdly, during a visit to Naples earlier this year, Pope Francis mentioned he was re-reading Alphonsus’ classic The Glories of Mary. "In this book,” he said, “I like reading the stories about Mary that are behind each chapter; in them you see how Mary always leads us to Jesus." Not everybody feels comfortable with the stories in the book, but for Alphonsus, what was important was how they emphasised, especially for preachers, Mary’s role as Mother of Mercy.

More than half of the book is an extended commentary on that great Marian prayer, the Hail, holy Queen and the stories were intended to drive that message home to an audience that was often lost, abandoned, at the receiving end of a preaching that emphasised fear rather than love, of a way of celebrating the sacrament of reconciliation that led to scrupulosity rather than to the joy of being welcomed home. It is a special joy that the Holy Year of Mercy coincides with our Jubilee Year of the Icon of Our Mother of Perpetual Help.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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C OVE R STO RY

12

The Bergoglio family circa late 1950's

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

�o�e �rancis

LESSONS ON LOVE AND FAMILY LIFE �rom

THE FAMILY HAS BEEN CENTRAL TO MANY OF THE TALKS GIVEN BY POPE FRANCIS DURING HIS WEEKLY AUDIENCES. HE OFTEN DRAWS IN A VERY PRACTICAL WAY ON HIS OWN EXPERIENCE OF GROWING UP IN A LIVELY EMIGRANT FAMILY. THE SPECIAL SYNOD ON THE FAMILY CONTINUED ITS WORK IN THE MONTH OF OCTOBER TO REVITALIZE THE CHURCH’S TEACHING ON FAMILY LIFE.

BY ALICIA VON STAMWITZ

If

you pay attention to the news, you don’t need to guess what’s on the Holy Father’s mind. Every day, journalists remind us of Pope Francis’ challenging thoughts on the environment in his encyclical Laudato Sí.

You’ve probably also seen quotes from the pope’s frequent addresses to world leaders on critical global issues such as poverty, migration, and peace. And who can forget his scathing critique of the Vatican curia last December, making it clear that internal reform is one of his top priorities?

But did you know that Pope Francis cares just as deeply about something you think about more than he does: the health and happiness of your family? We know this is a key concern because just seven months into his papacy, he announced that he would host an Extraordinary General Assembly of the Synod of Bishops to discuss the serious challenges facing modern families. Only twice before in the fifty years since Pope Paul VI established the Synod of Bishops, has a pope called an “extraordinary” synod, which signals

13 the urgency and importance of the theme to the Holy Father.

THE SYNOD ON THE FAMILY Formal discussions on the family began at this first, preparatory synod in Rome two years ago, and they sparked informal conversations in millions of homes and parishes around the world. From 4th to the 25th October, the Synod The young priest with his parents

on the Family resumed the work it had begun a year ago. The participants addressed serious matters such as the impact of war, migration, domestic violence, and divorce on the wellbeing of families worldwide.

In the meantime, Pope Francis has been offering the world’s families frequent tips and teachings in his audiences, homilies, addresses, and tweets. As we await the final document

C OVE R STO RY

Jorge (left) with his brother Oscar following their first Communion in 1942

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of the synod, we can learn a great deal about the Holy Father’s thoughts and perspective on family life from these recent lessons, which often include stories about his childhood in Argentina.

A NORMAL CHILDHOOD If Pope Francis’ messages about family life strike many as down-to-earth and insightful, it may be because his own childhood was refreshingly normal. It is a touchstone he returns to often. “I had the great blessing of growing up in a family in which faith was lived in a simple, practical way,” he told a crowd just a few months into his papacy.

“It was my paternal grandmother in particular who influenced my journey of faith. She was a woman who talked to us about Jesus, who taught us the catechism....This was how I received my first Christian proclamation, from this very woman, from my grandmother! This is really beautiful! The first proclamation at home, in the family! And this makes me think of the love of so many mothers and grandmothers in the transmission of faith.”

Jorge grew up in a middle-class family in Buenos Aires near the home of his paternal grandmother Rosa. He was the eldest of five children born to Mario and Regina Bergoglio, both first-generation Italian immigrants. Despite his spiritual bent, he was not an overly pious boy. He played soccer and basketball, had a lively sense of humor, and

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

preferred the outdoors to any indoor activity, including listening to the radio or practicing piano.

He was a voracious reader and a good student, but not the top student in his class according to one of his former teachers.

Like most families, the Bergoglios had their share of challenges at home. When Jorge was twelve years old, his mother became seriously ill after giving birth to his youngest sister. She was temporarily paralyzed, so Jorge stepped up to help with household duties. He learned how to cook for the family and discovered that he enjoyed cooking—especially pasta and “a good meat stew.”

His father, an accountant, helped Jorge land his first job at the age of thirteen as a janitor at a stocking factory. Later, he helped his father with clerical tasks. Those were long days. Sometimes he would not return home till 8:00 p.m. Still, Jorge found time to hang out with friends. “On weekends we met up in each other’s houses,” says a childhood friend, Oscar Crespo, “and we would go to a dance in a club in Chacarita, because there were lots of girls there.” According to Crespo, Jorge dated a little, and he was a good dancer, preferring the milonga to the tango, for those who care to know.

In his late teens, Jorge studied chemistry and then got a job as a technologist in the foods section of a local laboratory. At the age of 21, he decided to join the Jesuits, where he would serve as teacher, novice master, provincial, confessor, and spiritual director before Pope John Paul II named him Archbishop of Buenos Aires.

An undated photo of young Jorge

The young Fr Bergoglio

PUTTING IT IN PLAIN LANGUAGE Pope Francis’ rich and varied life experience helps explain his knack for painting a colorful picture of family life or giving a memorable lesson on love and forgiveness. “I always give this advice to newlyweds,” he says, “Argue as much as you like. If the plates fly, let them! But never end the day without making peace! Never!”

Elisabetta Piqué, an Argentinean journalist who has known “Padre Jorge” for fourteen years, commented, “I have always been surprised by his capacity to speak in an easily understandable and direct way about something so complex as marriage and family life. As a pastor with ‘the smell of sheep,’ he has listened over many decades to the firsthand life-experiences of many people and counseled husbands, wives, the separated, the divorced, those engaged, those who are desperate or disillusioned, and those in love and/ or in complicated situations. I believe he is one of those priests who truly understands, as few others do, what life is and the meaning of ‘the mystery of love.’ ” Clearly, Pope Francis wants to encourage and support families—especially those who are “in complicated situations” or facing challenges times.

Alicia von Stamwitz is a regular contributor to Reality. She is editor of The Blessing of Family: Inspiring Words from Pope Francis (Franciscan Media, 2015), available at shop. franciscanmedia.org .

Some Thoughts on Family Life from Pope Francis Say These Three Essential Words Often In order to have a healthy family, three words need to be used. And I want to repeat these three words: please, thank you, sorry. Three essential words! We say please so as not to be forceful in family life: “May I please do this? Would you be happy if I did this?” We do this with a language that seeks agreement.

We say thank you, thank you for love! Be honest with me, how many times do you say thank you to your wife, and you to your husband? How many days go by without uttering this word? And the last word: sorry. We all make mistakes, and on occasion someone gets offended in the marriage, in the family and harsh words are spoken. But please listen to my advice: don’t ever let the sun set without reconciling. Peace is made each day in the family.

Make Time to Play with Your Children Let me tell you one thing: . When a young mum or dad comes, I ask: “How many children do you have?” and they tell me. Then I always ask another question: “Tell me: do you play with your children?” Most of them answer: “What are you asking, Father?” “Yes, yes: do you play? Do you spend time with your children?” We are losing this capacity, this wisdom of playing with our children. The economic situation pushes us to this, to lose this capacity. Please, spend time with your children!

Pray Together as a Family It is in the family that we first learn how to pray. Don’t forget: the family that prays together stays together! This is important. There we come to know God, to grow into men and women of faith, and to see ourselves as members of God’s greater family—the Church. In the family we learn how to love, to forgive, to be generous and open, not closed and selfish. We learn to move beyond our own needs, to encounter others and share our lives with them. That is why it is so important to pray as a family!

So important! That is why families are so important in God’s plan for the Church!

Remember that the Perfect Family Does not Exist More than anywhere else, the family is where we daily experience our own limits and those of others, the problems great and small entailed in living peacefully with others. A perfect family does not exist.

We should not be fearful of imperfections, weakness, or even conflict, but rather learn how to deal with them constructively.

Be Living Examples of Love and Respect for Life The future passes through the family. So protect your families! See in them your country’s greatest treasure and nourish them always by prayer and the grace of the sacraments. Families will always have their trials, but may you never add to them! Instead, be living examples of love, forgiveness and care.

Be sanctuaries of respect for life, proclaiming the sacredness of every human life from conception to natural death. What a gift this would be to society, if every Christian family lived fully its noble vocation!

So rise with Jesus and Mary, and set out on the path the Lord traces for each of you.

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C OVE R STO RY

GRANDPARENTS – A GIFT

POPE FRANCIS SAYS THAT GRANDPARENTS HAVE RESPONSIBILITY TO TRANSMIT THEIR LIFE EXPERIENCE, THEIR FAMILY HISTORY AND THE HISTORY OF THEIR COMMUNITY TO THEIR GRANDCHILDREN. IN SHARING THEIR WISDOM, THEY PASS ON THE FAITH ITSELF. “HAPPY IS THE FAMILY WITH 16 GRANDPARENTS CLOSE BY!” HE SAYS. “A GRANDFATHER IS A FATHER TWICE OVER AND A GRANDMOTHER IS A MOTHER TWICE OVER.”

BY BISHOP BRENDAN LEAHY

Over

the past two years, many of us have come to know one particular grandmother that we didn’t know before. Her name is Rosa. We’ve heard about her because she is Pope Francis’ grandmother and he speaks a lot about her. He is so grateful to her. “I loved my grandmother” he says.

THE POPE’S GRANNY Rosa was a woman who talked to him and his siblings about Jesus. She taught them the catechism. He recalls how on the evening of Good Friday, she would take them to the candlelight procession, and at the end of it, pointing to the image of the crucified Christ, she would say to them: “Look, he is dead, but REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

tomorrow he will rise.” Pope Francis comments, “This was how I received my first Christian proclamation, from this very woman, from my grandmother!”

On another occasion, in talking to a group from the Salvation Army, he shared an experience of how, as a four-year-old boy, he was walking with his grandmother when he saw two Salvation Army women dressed in their uniform, with the bonnet they wore at that time. Jorge, asked his grandmother if they were nuns or sisters and she replied: “No, they are Protestants – but they are good people.” “This,” continued Pope Francis, “was the first sermon

ever I heard about ecumenism – and it has influenced me in my ecumenical journey.”

From what he says about his grandmother Rosa, we’re not surprised that Pope Francis has a great regard for grandparents. I think he was quite chuffed earlier this year during his visit to the Philippines because they called him “Lolo,” – “Grandpa Francis.”

The words of grandparents have something special for the young.

And they know it He speaks of how beautiful it is to see the elderly encourage and manage to convey to young people the meaning of faith and life. For

him, this is really the mission of grandparents, the vocation of the elderly. As he puts it, “The words of grandparents have something special for the young. And they know it”.

TEACHERS OF THE FAITH In their own unique way, grandparents can be a wise presence of Jesus for their grandchildren.

Jesus prepared his disciples for the future when they were afraid of the Cross. Grandparents who have lived many years can encourage fearful young people not to be afraid of the future. So often, the world around them promotes cults of happiness, success and prize-winning. When they look at the world as it is, when they see the difficulties encountered in family life, when they are faced with the insecurity and financial crash so many experienced in recent years, it’s easy for young people to be afraid. Fear, after all, is a deep sentiment in us because of original sin. Mental health issues are not uncommon today among young people. Jesus’ disciples were afraid of the future. So he prepared them by encouraging them not to think simply in limited human terms, but rather to try and tune into God’s logic, God’s way of seeing things.

Repeating Jesus in their lives, grandparents say to their grandchildren, “Look to God, not to yourselves. Trust him. Follow him, even when adversity, failure and disappointments come your way.”

The film Inside Out tells the story of a crisis in the life of an 11-year-old girl. Its message is that moments of sadness and disappointment are part of life. Catholic grandparents can witness to their children and grandchildren that there is a higher power, God, whose loving plan for us is always greater than our measurements.

A key sentence from Jesus’ lips was: “For anyone who wants to save his life will lose it; but anyone who loses his life for my sake, and for the sake of the gospel, will save it.” Young people can often be given the message to be in love with themselves and their own projects. But grandparents can teach them that, while it is certainly good to be ambitious and want to do well, it is important not to want to control life simply on their own terms, that it is in putting ourselves aside in order to love in the way the Gospel teaches that we find fulfilment, that we really live life to the full when we combine faith and good works together. At this time in Ireland, the refugee crisis is offering us new opportunities to lay down our lives in service of our sisters and brothers who are Christ for us.

TEACHERS OF PRAYER Jesus’ whole life was prayer. He followed the way of the Cross and coped with adversity because he prayed to his Father in heaven. Grandfathers and grandmothers give the great example of the importance of prayer in time of difficulty. I was struck recently by a woman recalling how, when she was young, her grandfather brought her into a small church in the village where they went on holidays. She remembers looking at him as he stood in prayer. Ahead of him was the altar with the statue of St. Joseph to one side, and the statue of Mary to the other.

Her comment struck me: “it was the first time I realised that prayer must be important”. It is interesting that Pope Francis says that he carries in his breviary the copy of a prayer his grandmother Rosa gave him and that he often reads it.

These are a few ways that Catholic

grandparents are a presence of Jesus to their children and grandchildren – witnessing and teaching them not to be afraid of the future, to lay down their lives in service of others and to pray. In and through their relationship with their grandchildren, grandparents are ultimately helping their loved ones answer the question Jesus asked his disciples in the Gospel : “Who do you say I am?” Deep down, Jesus addresses that question to everyone in the depths of their heart: “Who do you say I am?” “Where am I in your life?” Through their wise counsel, authentic witness and loving and respectful proclamation, grandparents can help children to begin to formulate their personal response to that question. It’s important to do your part. Then hand it over to God. Because, let’s remember, that response to Jesus is a lifelong project!

The Bishops of Ireland have introduced a new programme of religious education/ catechesis for primary schools. It is a golden opportunity for all of us in the Church – parents, grandparents, bishops and priests, parish communities, teachers, consecrated laymen and women – to revise our commitment to handing on the faith to children. Grandparents certainly have a key role. For the new programme to be fruitful, it will need the lively involvement of parents and the parish. The workbook that children can bring home has pages in it for parents (and why not grandparents too) to review together with the children what is going on in class. It’s a chance to open a conversation, wonder and think together with children about

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C OVE R STO RY

Fr Jorge Bergoglio with his grandmother, Rosa

the mysteries of life and faith.

A NEW CHALLENGE Grandparents can also help other grandparents in their important role. We have wonderful resources available – the Irish Catholic Catechism for Adults and the Youcat written with modern

graphics suitable for younger generations. It might be an idea to set up study groups of these texts.

I know there are others who have studied them and would be willing to lead groups – perhaps those attending morning Mass might be willing to meet for 10 minutes once a week after Mass

for an input on some element of the faith. I’m sure there are other ideas that might occur to you too.

But let’s give the final word to Rosa, Pope Francis’ grandmother. It’s moving to hear him say of her: “She loved me so much! She was a saint who suffered much, also spiritually, and yet always went forward with courage.” I’ve no doubt that grandparents love their grandchildren greatly. And no doubt too, many of them also suffer spiritually, perhaps regretting deficiencies they see in passing on the faith. But let’s take heart from the impact of one grandmother on a future Pope! Let’s entrust ourselves to Mary, Jesus’ mother whom he must have often heard speak of his grandparents. Let’s pray that your grandchildren will be able to say about you in years to come what Pope Francis says of his grandmother: “they loved me so much; they were saints who suffered, also spiritually and yet they always kept going with courage”.

Bishop Brendan Leahy is Bishop of Limerick. This is an edited version of the homily he gave at the Ninth National Pilgrimage of the Catholic Grandparents Association to Knock Shrine, on Sunday 13th September 2015.

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COMM E N T THE WAY I SEE IT KATY DOBEY

ST MARTIN’S DAY

THERE ARE TWO ST MARTIN’S DAYS IN NOVEMBER. ON 3RD NOVEMBER, WE COMMEMORATE ST MARTIN DE PORRES. LESS WELL-KNOWN, BUT OLDER, IS MARTIN OF TOURS ON THE 11TH Martin has always been a significant name to me. Being my dad’s given name, it is one that can only be associated with big warm hugs, story-time and unconditional love. As a child, I’d known no other Martins and the name belonged to my father alone. When, at the age of seven, my dad’s job meant that we moved to Germany for two and a half years, more Martins suddenly entered my life.

My first day of school was odd, to me, for many reasons. It was January and the weather was colder than it had ever been in Dublin. In my class, instead of a sea of navy dresses, I saw colourful skirts and trousers. Instead of only little girls’ Irish freckled faces, there were boys and girls in my classroom. There was a mix of nationalities too – German, Turkish, Italian, Indian and more.

And all of them spoke German, a language I didn’t understand.

My brief after-school classes in the language back in Ireland had taught me some verbs and phrases, but my seven-yearold brain could see no relation between these and the loud joyful shouting and playing of my classmates.

I was lucky enough to be a novelty in the class and therefore to make friends easily, despite my lack of language skills. Over the next few weeks, three girls and a boy adopted me into their group of friends and we spent break-times playing horses and ponies running up and down a hill at the back of

the play-ground. Luckily German wasn’t a major necessity for this type of playing! The girls in this group walked home from school the opposite way to me, but sometimes the little boy walked in my direction and we’d walk together. His name was Martin.

Martin? I was shocked when I’d heard this first and came home to my family laughing and laughing that I’d met a boy called Martin.

“But Martin’s an adult-name!” I’d said in hysterics of laughter.

Martin was a nice boy, but he clouded my once easy understanding of the name of Martin. To the love, hugs and stories, I had to add images of a little boy who opened the back door and went outside to flatulate.

His role as the class clown was at odds with my image of Dad.

As the months of living in Germany continued, the name gained another layer of significance. I had started second class and it was coming to the end of October. My German had become much more fluent and I could now communicate with my friends during ponygames in the yard, a skill that I very much appreciated! I still sometimes found the language difficult in school. In stories, long descriptions would confuse me completely. I had no knowledge of the abstract adjectives used in the most beautiful of stories, but I could usually put together the main plot.

It was during a story like this that I first heard of another Martin, Sankt Martin, the man who tore his cloak in half, giving it to a poor

beggar on the side of the road.

Martinstag, celebrated on the 11th November, was coming up and for this, we were all making paper lanterns in school. I didn’t quite know what was ahead of me, though to my classmates this was a normal annual ritual.

On the night of November 11th, we met in the pitch dark at the Kindergarten which was right beside our primary school. All of the children from both schools were present with their families.

We held our paper lanterns out on long sticks ahead of us and adults went around lighting candles for us. Slowly, we walked through the wooded park beside the school in a long procession. We sang the songs, chatted and carefully watched our lights bob in front of us on our way. At one point, the path turned and I remember looking forwards and backwards to a flowing river of lights bobbing beautifully along the path. So this is what my teacher had been so vividly describing! Her abstract description was finally making sense to me. In the end, we held a bonfire, we sang and shared bread, before everyone headed home.

At home, I was tucked into bed by the original Martin in my life.

There was no time for a story on this late night, but always time for a hug and a kiss. As I fell asleep the stories of all the different Martins I knew danced in my head just as the flame had danced in my lantern. Martin’s a good name, I thought.

19

Q U E ST I O N S TO JESUS 3

WHAT IS TRUTH?

“PILATE'S QUESTION: ‘WHAT IS TRUTH’ REFLECTS THE DISTRESSING PERPLEXITY OF A MAN WHO OFTEN NO LONGER KNOWS WHO 20 HE IS, WHENCE HE COMES AND WHERE HE IS GOING” (ST JOHN PAUL II)

BY MIKE DALEY

Truth?

What is real, genuine, meaningful, and valuable? This question, this search, this journey is at the heart of our lives. It is avoidable, but at great cost for as the philosopher Socrates voiced centuries ago, “The unexamined life is not worth living.”

A TALE OF THREE CARS For me three cars say it all—a 1951 Cadillac, a brand new BMW Roadster Convertible, and a 2003 Chevy Malibu. At the beginning of my senior year, we saw it—a Cucumber Green, 1951 Cadillac. My dad and I made eye contact and just smiled. It was beautiful.

Phenomenal curves. The front grill exploded with chrome. For a few short months, I felt so cool and confident behind the wheel.

People not only saw the car—it was so big you couldn’t miss it—they also saw the

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

handsome, eighteen year-old, king of the world in the driver’s seat. Selling it before I went off to college broke my heart.

Recently, I was out with a friend for lunch.

He drove. In his brand new BMW Roadster Convertible. Sitting in it, you felt like you were putting on a tailored suit. At traffic lights, people would pull up and glance admiringly at ME, I mean the car. For a few fleeting moments, I felt like a celebrity who was finally being recognized.

Alas, my present car is a 2003 Chevy Malibu.

I have to admit it’s functional. It gets me where I need to go. Style, however, is lacking.

Unlike the 1951 Cadillac, it doesn’t give me an overwhelming sense of beauty and pride.

Likewise, unlike the Roadster, no one glances over at a red light and asks, “Who is that important person?”

No, thankfully, the Malibu keeps me in my

place. I don’t worry about dents or dinges.

The truth is it’s just a car. It reminds me, most importantly, that I’m here to USE cars and LOVE people. So, if ever given the choice between a 1951 Cadillac, a brand new BMW Roadster Convertible, or a 2003 Chevy Malibu, take my advice—it’s the truth— choose the Malibu.

THE GREATEST TRUTH: A STORY AND A DOG Perhaps the grandest story, one we learned sitting on our parents’ and grandparents’ knees, is the Story of Creation. I could say more about it, but I’ll cut to the chase. The great truth that emerges from this story— You and I are made in the Image and Likeness of God. Though we’ve read and heard this story countless times before, violent and deadly

She was on her way out of town with our daughters, informing me that she had just bought a 22 pound cockapoo named Jasper.

I had to pick him up after school.

Honestly I felt a little put out. It was Friday night. I was tired. I didn’t have a hand in the choice of dog. I knew I was going to be the one picking up the poop… taking him on cold winter walks… Thank goodness it happened!

Over the years I have learned firsthand from Jasper that DOG is GOD spelled backwards. He gives me an image of what it means to be loved unconditionally by God. Sad but true, the world would be a much better place if we loved people like we love our dogs.

utterance, “What is truth?”

In his encyclical, The Splendor of Truth, Pope St. John Paul II writes that “Pilate's question: ‘What is truth’ reflects the distressing perplexity of a man who often no longer knows who he is, whence he comes and where he is going”. Yet, we have Jesus—the way, the truth and the life” (John 14:6).

Over the years I have learned firsthand from Jasper that DOG is GOD spelled backwards

PONTIUS PILATE AND THE JOY OF THE GOSPEL According to the Gospels things had reached a breaking point in Jerusalem. Jesus’ vision and proclamation of a new kingdom of justice and peace had culminated in his arrest. Now he is before Pilate, whose job is to keep the Roman peace. Whatever threatens that stability, history makes clear, Pilate didn’t think twice about neutralizing. current events would seem to suggest otherwise. Perhaps even more challenging: look at the person closest to you—wife, coworker, son, parent, neighbor. The image and likeness of God? Seriously? What other truth is there though. There can be no other. Yet, tragically, due to privileging one’s own race, sex, religion, ethnicity, country, or sexual orientation, people have elevated themselves over others. The result: Hatred. Pain. Jealousy.

Revenge.

The antidote: Jasper. Growing up as a kid I was admittedly, as all kids are, deprived. I didn’t have a dog. For whatever reason, my mom wouldn’t let us get one. Now that didn’t stop all the neighborhood dogs from finding their way to our house.

Fast forward to two and a half years ago: I get an email from June, my wife. The first line—“I know you’re going to kill me….”

The Gospel of John suggests a conversation took place. In it, Pilate peppers Jesus with questions—“Are you the king of the Jews?” “Am I a Jew?” “What is it you have done?” Toward the end of their encounter, Jesus replies, “You say that I am a king. In fact, the reason I was born and came into the world is to testify to the truth. Everyone on the side of truth listens to me.” This leads to Pilate’s famous evasive and non-committal

Pope Francis reminds us of this truth, the person of Jesus, in The Joy of the Gospel, popularly described as his “blueprint” for the Church. This past Lent I was part of a discussion-group on The Joy of the Gospel. One of the participants was basking in the glow of her recent conversion to Catholicism. She movingly shared with us one night her and her husband’s search for the truth. She never felt the love of Jesus before as she now did as a Catholic. Additionally, she had a real sense for and appreciation of the Eucharist as the body and blood of Christ. She knew the lure of sin but also the power of forgiveness through her recent celebration of the sacrament of Reconciliation. She was, literally, exuding the truth and joy of the Gospel. The other people around her were drawn in by her energy and enthusiasm for the faith. As cradle Catholics we all were reminded of truths that we so often take for granted.

Whether it’s a book or, better imaged, a way of life, Pope Francis reminds us that in the person of Jesus: “We have a treasure of life and love which cannot deceive, and a message which cannot mislead or disappoint.

It penetrates to the depths of our hearts, sustaining and ennobling us. It is a truth which is never out of date because it reaches that part of us which nothing else can reach.

Our infinite sadness can only be cured by an infinite love.”

The challenge now: To live the truth—Jesus the Christ—of our lives.

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

21

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F EAT U R E

BANGOR TO BOBBIO

BY ARMCHAIR

THE FEAST OF ST COLUMBAN ON 23RD NOVEMBER MARKS THE CONCLUSION OF THE “COLUMBAN YEAR” MARKING THE 1400TH ANNIVERSARY OF HIS DEATH. THE ANNIVERSARY REMINDS US OF HOW DEEPLY IRISH MONASTICISM WAS EMBEDDED IN THE MAINLAND OF EUROPE.

23

BY JOHN J. Ó RÍORDÁIN CSsR

There

are various ways of getting from Bangor, Co. Down to Bobbio in Northern Italy: boat and rail; flight and coach; sail and walk; or sitting by the fire on a cold night and reading an article. I have made the journey more than once by plane and coach.

So put the feet up and travel with me in spirit.

LEAVING BANGOR Towards the end of the 6th century, the Irish monk Columban set out by boat from Bangor. He probably stayed a little while in Cornwall before crossing to Brittany. At Rouen he probably joined the old Roman road that took him in a southeastern direction towards Rheims,

the political capital of Burgundy, whose monarch let him settle in a desolate area among the Vosges Mountains.

My pilgrimages involved a direct flight from Dublin Airport to Lyon, a Roman city and the first known organised Christian Church in France. Its martyrs included St Blandina, a slave girl put to death in A.D. 177. Then there was the bishop, Irenaeus, believed to be among the forty eight martyred by the Romans in A.D. 202. St Irenaeus is a significant figure in the story of the early Church. As a youngster growing up in Asia Minor, he had known St Polycarp of Smyrna, who in turn had known St Ignatius of Antioch, who in his turn knew

St John the Apostle. Irenaeus also wrote extensively in defence of the authentic Christian message as opposed to heretical versions of it.

From Lyon we transferred to a hotel in Besançon, a Celtic stronghold conquered by Julius Caesar. It fell to the Burgundians, a pagan Germanic tribe who accepted Christianity about AD 500, a century before Columban and his monks came to settle in the area.

LUXEUIL Luxeuil, with its thermal springs, was already sacred to the Celts who occupied it prior to the Roman conquest. Under imperial rule, Luxeuil les Bains, “Luxeuil of the baths”, became a thriving resort,

but a visit from Attila the Hun in A.D. 451 put paid to all that. By Columban’s arrival, all that remained were the Roman ruins and stagnant bath water.

Luxeuil and its sister monasteries of Annegray and Fontaine were founded in quick succession.

Under Columban’s leadership, they had about two hundred monks.

In Annegray, the first foundation, living conditions were at their direst, and the little band of exiles almost starved to death. Luxeuil flourished and Fontaine had to be founded to cater for the numbers.

Luxeuil was pivotal to the Columban mission. It was his most famous monastery in France and the alma mater of many of the next

F E AT U R E

generation of monastic founders.

Its first church was dedicated to St Peter, and probably consecrated by bishop Aedh, who had accompanied him from Bangor. The monastery reached its peak in the seventh century. Despite being destroyed and rebuilt many times, it survived until Napoleon and its buildings still house a minor seminary. The monastic church, now the Basilica of St Peter, stands on the site of the original.

24

Church at Sainte-Marie-enChanois

Luxeuil was not Columban’s first foundation. That honour belongs to Annegray about eight miles to the east. Here Columban and his companions took possession of an old Roman encampment and converted it into a monastery.

The ruined temple of Diana was refurbished and dedicated to St Martin of Tours, the founder of Western monasticism. Annegray was excavated in1958 and pilgrims are welcome to celebrate the Eucharist or a prayer service in the little round chapel that stands beside the excavated ruins. Fontaine was less fortunate. It has a holy well, but as the site is on private grounds, it is generally not accessible.

Near Annegray is a cave where Columban retired to pray. Known as Sainte-Marie-en-Chanois, it is about a hundred metres above the undulating countryside and is approached by a twenty-minute stroll through woodland paths. The cave was originally occupied by a bear, but under the influence of the saint’s prayers, it sought alternative

The green line indicates Columban’s journey to Burgundy.

The red line follows his expulsion and subsequent travels.

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

Abbey of St. Colombano. Bobbio, Italy

accommodation and the two lived happy ever after!

When Columban and the Irish monks were expelled from Burgundy, the native vocations that formed the majority of the community were unaffected but the Irish were marched off to the mouth of the Loire to be transported home.

Early in the journey, it became obvious that it was proving too much for one monk, who was granted permission to settle locally.

In God’s providence, his little shack

in the woods evolved into the great mediaeval abbey of Lure.

During a rest-stop in Besançon, Columban was allowed to preach to the prisoners in the local jail. When the inmates promised to reform their lives, he had them set free. A lapse in security among his own guards meant that he could slip back to Luxeuil where he spent some time before being re-arrested. At the port of embarkation, the captain blamed the Irish for the bad weather and insisted that they disembark. Back on terra firma the Irish lost no time in moving on to pastures new.

OVER THE ALPS The extent of their subsequent wanderings can be seen on the accompanying map, but we will part company with them now until they rejoin us near the falls of Schaffhausen on the Franco-Swiss border, and continue east along the Rhine valley and the shores of Lake Constance to Bregenz in West Austria. The combination of the Rhine on the left, the Swiss mountains on the right, and the Austrian Alps straight ahead provides intoxicating vistas.

The Irish monks found respite and a fresh missionary outlet in the hinterland of Bregenz. They would

have gladly settled there indefinitely, but Gall, Columban’s right-handman and a gifted linguist, was less than diplomatic at times. Following one such lapse, they had to leave in a hurry, and Columban set his face towards Italy.

Not all the monks were enthusiastic for crossing the Alps as winter closed in. Some settled in the Lake Constance area. Even Gall, his faithful companion from Bangor days pleaded ‘unfit to travel.’

He settled in a little hermitage that ultimately became the beautiful city that bears his name, St Gallen.

Like St Peter, Gall is human and endearing, even in his faults. After he and a brother monk had eaten their bread in the forest, a bear came rummaging for scraps. Gall threw him a loaf of bread. As the evening grew cold, the bear returned the compliment by bringing a log for Gall’s fire. In this age of tourism and long before it, not only cuckoo clocks but log-bearing bears had their influence on the Swiss economy.

Among St Gallen’s attractions are the exquisite cathedral built over the tomb of St Gall and the monastic library dating back to

the ninth century when Moengal, the Irish monks headed up the monastic school in A.D. 850. There are fragments of a fifth or sixth century copy of the Gospel of St Matthew and St Mark, an eighth or ninth century Irish Gospel book, scarcely inferior in its illuminations to the Book of Kells, and, perhaps most interesting of all to the Irish visitor, is the St Gall Priscian, which has marginal notes in Irish. One of them is the delightful lyric, Pangur Bán - about the scholar and his cat.

MILAN TO BOBBIO When Columban crossed the Alps in 612, it is virtually certain that he went via the San Bernardino Pass.

We then lose track of him until he is found preaching in Milan in the spring of 614. Pilgrims are aware that their travelling is not totally about prayer and penitential exercises; and being in Milan they are unwilling to forego a night at La Scala There are many reminders of St Columban between Milan and Bobbio. While there is no evidence that Columban visited Pavia, his body was carried there in solemn procession in times of special need. Another Irish monk, Dungal,

The author at the tomb of St Columnan

established a school in Pavia that was to become the leading Law School in mediaeval Europe. A distinguished theologian, astronomer and poet, he has been described as “the greatest glory of Bangor after Columban.” He retired to Bobbio about 834 with his precious library. He was buried in the crypt where the body of Columban had already been laid to rest.

A gradual ascent from the plains of the Po into the foothills of the Apennines leads to a spot on the banks of the Trebia River which King Agilulf of Lombardy gave to Columban for what was to be his final monastic foundation. The extensive remains of the abbey still house a parish church for the local community, together with a pilgrim centre offering visitors a tour of the once great monastic complex. The museum displays much of interest;

and the crypt holds the ornate marble tomb containing the mortal remains of Bangor’s greatest glory.

Columban’s earthly pilgrimage did not end in Bobbio. A few kilometres higher up the mountains is the Grotto of San Michele, now venerated as the cave where he died. Weather conditions frequently determine the advisability of taking the coach up through the spectacularly beautiful wooded slopes to the road terminus at Coli.

Some intrepid pilgrims insist on a further hour’s walk to the cave, at which point they can well and truly declare their pilgrimage complete.

Dr John J O’Riordan CSsR has written and lectured extensively on the spirituality of the “Celtic fringe” of Ireland, Scotland and the Irish monasteries on the European mainland.

Available from Redemptorist Communications

St Columban

Missionary Extraordinaire by John J. Ó Ríordáin C.Ss.R. Loss of Memory can affect nations as well as individuals.

Through the publication of his attractive booklets Fr John J. Ó Ríordáin, CSsR nourishes the ‘nation’s memory’, his latest contribution being St Columban, missionary extraordinaire Ireland’s greatest missionary. Columban made such an impact on Continental Europe in the 6th century that he is still remembered there with admiration and wonder. He died at Bobbio near Milan in 615 AD, and this year, his 1400th anniversary, is being celebrated widely on the Continent. We are invited to celebrate at home too; not only for personal reasons but also for the sake of national health! Ó Ríordáin’s booklet is well within people’s reading range; and at €3 it is probably within their financial range as well.

Available from Redemptorist Communications www.redcoms.org sales@redcoms.org 00353-1-4922 488

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F E AT U R E

Pope Innocent III

26

REMEMBERING THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL 1215

THE FOURTH LATERAN COUNCIL WAS HELD EIGHT HUNDRED YEARS AGO YET ITS REFORMS HAVE SHAPED MANY ASPECTS OF CATHOLIC BELIEF AND PRACTISE DOWN TO TODAY.

BY SALVADOR RYAN

This

N o v em b er marks the 800 th anniversary of one of the most significant church councils to be held in the history of Catholicism – the Fourth Lateran Council of 1215. It was the twelfth of twenty-one ecumenical councils

It was called by one of the most powerful reforming popes of the Middle Ages, Innocent III, who reigned from 1198 to 1216 and marked the culmination of one of the great reforming papacies.

For many, Innocent’s reign represents the high point of papal power. He continuously involved himself not just in the business of church reform, but also in the high politics of the period, intervening in disputes in Norway, Sweden, Bohemia and Hungary, not to mention the succession crises of the German emperors. He also famously placed

Innocent’s reign represents the high point of papal power recognised by the Roman Catholic Church since the first was held at Nicaea (Iznik in modern Turkey) in 325.

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

England under interdict as a result of a dispute with King John over the appointment of an archbishop of Canterbury. This effectively put the church on strike in the realm for some seven years.

A REFORMING POPE Despite his interventions in dynastic politics, Innocent III was a church reformer at heart, and Lateran IV represents the realisation of many of his own reforming projects and ideals.

He made sure to allow plenty of time to prepare for the Council – a full two and a half years, from its announcement in April 1213. In

his letter summoning the wouldbe delegates, Innocent set out his stall. The Council was being called to “eradicate vices and plant virtues, to correct faults and reform morals, to remove heresies and strengthen faith, to settle discords and establish peace, to get rid of oppression and foster liberty, [and] to induce princes and Christian people to succour the Holy Land”. The Council would be preceded by local factfinding exercises and bishops were invited to send in their suggestions regarding what was in need of reform.

The preparatory work paid

off. The Council, meeting in the Lateran Basilica in Rome, required only three sessions (11 November, 20 November and 30 November) to issue seventy decrees. This was the single largest collection of legislation of any pope up to then for the reform of church and society. Most of the decrees seem to have been drafted by Innocent and his curia before the Council met, so the sessions took on the character of rubber-stamping exercises. A large representation was present: 404 bishops and some 800 abbots, priors and representatives from cathedral chapters and collegiate churches, all of which were expected to attend.

A NEW KIND OF COUNCIL? Lateran IV took place at a critical juncture in the history of European Christianity and, on account of this, its scope was wide-ranging.

This was the age of scholasticism and of the earliest universities.

The approach to theological debate had changed radically in the recent past, and issues such as the mode of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist, were coming under greater scrutiny. Various so-called heretical movements such as the Cathars in southern France were causing many to question the goodness of creation and, indeed, to attribute evil in the world to a force (the devil) whose power was on a par with that of God. Then there were many lay religious movements that were embracing the vita apostolica (apostolic life) and radical poverty, sometimes acting outside of ecclesiastical authority. Some movements, such as the Waldensians and the Humiliati had been condemned: others, such as the Friars Minor

of Francis of Assisi and the Order of Preachers of Dominic Guzman would receive approval.

Innocent’s Council also grew out of the context of the socalled Gregorian Reform of the late eleventh and twelfth century, which aimed to address issues such as celibacy in the priesthood and the encroachment of lay authorities on ecclesiastical appointments to dioceses or monasteries.

And then there was the question of Jerusalem and the various Crusades which had been launched since 1095. Just eleven years beforehand, the crusaders had sacked Constantinople, driving a further bitter wedge between the Byzantine Christians of the East and their western counterparts, the wounds of which remain to this day. In short, there was much work to be done.

THE DECREES OF LATERAN IV So what kind of legislation was passed at Lateran IV? The opening section of the constitutions sets

out and restates what the Church believes (clearly with particular instances of recent heterodoxy in mind).

The Council is particularly remembered for its intervention on a late-eleventh-century dispute between Berengar of Tours and Archbishop Lanfranc of Canterbury on the exact nature of Christ’s presence in the Eucharist: did the elements of bread and wine change or not? Lateran IV was the first council to speak of “the bread being transubstantiated into the body and the wine into the blood by the divine power”. Although not defining the mechanics of transubstantiation itself, this endorsement was to have a seismic effect on lay devotion to the Mass in the later Middle Ages, in addition to an elevation of the role of the priesthood in the popular mindset.

While setting out the doctrine

of the faith, the Council was also anxious that so-called heretics would be rooted out from Christendom. They are condemned “by whatever names they go under; they have various faces indeed, but tails tied one to another, for they have pride in common.” Indeed, secular princes

Lateran IV was the first council to speak of “the bread being transubstantiated into the body and the wine into the blood by the divine power were exhorted, under pain of being excommunicated themselves, to rid their territories of such individuals. This was very much in line with Innocent’s policies, as he himself had instigated the first anti-heretical crusade in 1208 – against the Albigensians (Cathars) of southern France.

The Lateran Council decreed that no new religious orders be founded. Pope Innocent however had a dream in which he saw St Francis propping up the Lateran Basilica and interpreted it to mean that new orders of friars would render valuable service to the Church. (Dream of Pope Innocent by Giotto)

continued on page 29

27

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There are many such decrees from Lateran IV which should make us uncomfortable today, none more so, perhaps than those directed at Jewish populations which regulated Jewish moneylending, forbade Jews to appear in public on Christian feast-days, prohibited them from holding public office or positions of

with a greater recognition of the phenomenon of lay persons wishing to pursue lives of holiness. In an age when heaven was widely thought to be populated almost exclusively by monks, nuns and saints, Lateran IV noted that “married people find favour with God by right faith and good actions and deserve to attain to eternal blessedness.” By no means had this been taken for granted before. Innocent looked with some admiration on groups such as the Humiliati, and succeeded in creating a new religious order for them: he also reconciled some Waldensians. For him, existence within the world, and not apart from it, was a viable path to holiness. The thirteenth century opened up new vistas – and a whole new literature - for lay spirituality.

Lateran IV also addressed issues concerning marriage, stating that the intention to marry should be published beforehand in the form of marriage banns, and that marriage should be performed in a church to curb the phenomenon of clandestine marriages. The Council, however, did not rule these secret marriages null and void. It also reduced the number of degrees of consanguinity within which marriage was prohibited – from seven to four. Its justification for doing so is interesting: human laws can change “when urgent necessity or evident advantage demands it, since God changed in the New Testament some of the laws of the Old Testament”.

For Lateran IV, a priest’s care of souls was considered the “art of arts”, and thus did it demand a higher standard of behaviour from clergy: they were to wear clerical tonsure, avoid dressing

Lateran IV will be best remembered for the revolution in pastoral care which it instigated authority over Christians, and, chillingly (from a twentiethcentury perspective) insisting that Jews (and Muslims) wear distinctive clothing so as to prevent their co-mingling with Christians. It should, perhaps, be noted, that this was not an exclusively Christian innovation, for similar policies had been in place with regard to the Christian population in Muslim countries some centuries before.

A PASTORAL COUNCIL Lateran IV, however, will be best remembered for the revolution in pastoral care which it instigated. A number of decrees are important here, none more so than decree 21, which mandated the reception of the Sacrament of Penance and Eucharist at least once a year. This led, in turn, to the need for more competent clergy to administer pastoral care. This tied in with Innocent’s hopes for the better education of beneficed clergy who were now to be offered, free gratis, instruction in theology by cathedral chancellors.

Renewed encouragement to frequent the sacraments dovetailed

in bright colours such as red and green, eschew taverns, drinking contests and games of dice, and also avoid indulging in commerce.

Furthermore, they were to refrain from “spend[ing] half the night eating and talking, not to mention other things they are doing, and get[ting] to sleep so late that they are scarcely wakened by the birds singing”. Lateran IV envisaged a clerical order that was made up of more than simply “mass priests:” rather, it wished to transform clergy into real pastors of souls.

While not forgetting its culminating clarion call to liberate Jerusalem from “the infidel”, perhaps it is for addressing practical issues regarding the lived Christianity of ordinary people that we should best remember Lateran IV.

Salvador Ryan is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at St Patrick’s College Maynooth. He is editor of Treasure of Irish Christianity, the third volume of which, “To the Ends of the Earth” has appeared recently.

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COM M E N T CHRISTIAN PARENTING CARMEL WYNNE

REGRETS MAKE YOU EMOTIONALLY UNAVAILABLE...

WE ALL MAKE MISTAKES, BUT BROODING ON THEM UNDULY CAN SAP OUR EMOTIONAL ENERGY Do you ever feel emotional when you recall that you dealt badly with some family situation? Have you regrets for things you said in anger that wounded your child’s feelings or hurt a loved one deeply? Have you ever said, “If I knew back then what I know now, things would have turned out very differently?

Conflict is a normal and necessary part of family relationships. There isn’t a mother or father in this world who hasn’t hurt a child’s feelings at some stage. Every parent does the best he or she can do, given the information they have at the time, their own emotional state, education, and their family background.

When you accept that this is true you can forgive yourself for the mistakes of the past. Forgiveness is necessary for your own emotional health, a way to release yourself from the pain of regret that serves no good purpose. Some people are adamant that they can never forgive. They will never recover from the wrong that was done to or by them.

This will sound harsh but it is true.

Some get a sense of satisfaction from nurturing resentments and holding onto anger about real or imagined grievances. They want the other person to feel guilty. They want them to hurt as they do.

To forgive does not mean that you condone inappropriate actions or deny that situations happened that caused pain and distress. When you forgive it’s important that you do not forget. Lessons need to be learned from the poor decisions made in your past.

believe that a parent has withdrawn affection when they are told to go and play. Parental conflict makes children feel insecure. One reason why some young people misbehave consistently is it feels better to get negative parental attention than no attention.

It’s understandable that a parent who is coping with ongoing conflict in family relationships can become so frustrated that s/he loses her temper and says or does things in anger that s/he afterwards regrets.

Children in troubled families tend to blame themselves when mum and dad are fighting.

And it is never too late to make amends. You should make every effort to put things right. It’s not easy to admit that you showed poor judgement or agree that you made uninformed decisions that adversely affected others.

You cannot change the past. But through forgiving yourself you can let go of regrets and heal relationships.

Don’t put energy into fantasising about what would have happened “if only”. You will never know.

Hindsight is a wonderful thing. If you go back to any situation with the limited life experience you had at the time, please understand that with the emotional state you were in, you could not have made a different decision.

Accept that you did the best you knew how to do at that time in your life. Accept that when you know better you can do better.

American psychologist Robert Carkhuff says that parents who lack

a true sense of their own self-worth send messages that undermine the sense of worth of their children.

“You cannot build a healthy sense of self-acceptance and selfconfidence in your children if you don’t have these qualities yourself.”

Parents may aspire to love unconditionally but couples dealing with marital conflict are not emotionally available. Many parents in an unhappy marriage are too stressed to be sensitive to the needs of their children.

Children lack the life experience to understand that an emotionally exhausted parent can feel so drained that he or she needs to be left alone. A tetchy, “Go away. Please leave me alone for just 10 minutes” may seem like a reasonable request to the adult. It may be experienced as rejecting and hurtful by a child who is seeking attention.

Who knows what goes on in a child’s mind? A child may wrongly

When any of us look back at incidents that happened in the past, we have a real emotional response to what we tell ourselves occurred. One person in a family may say his parents were so busy fighting that he felt neglected and insecure. Another may say she felt insecure too and emotionally abused. A third sibling may deny that things were so bad and claim to have had a happy childhood.

Are you someone who finds it hard to let go? Could it be that you feel obliged to hold on to regrets, mistakenly believing that the best way to show remorse is to continue to suffer. Regrets breed guilt which is an obstacle to being emotionally available. Leave them in the past where they belong.

When you forgive yourself you become a more loving and sensitive person.

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

31

SCIENCE AND FAITH SERIES Science and Faith are often placed in opposition to each other. In fact nothing could be further from the truth. Some of the greatest scientists have been Catholics, and among them a number of Catholic priests. In this series we tell some of their stories.

DAREDEV I L FO R SCI EN CE

L A Z Z A R O S PA L L A N Z A N I THE SCIENTIFIC INTERESTS OF LAZZARO SPALLANZANI, A 18TH CENTURY ITALIAN PRIEST, WERE MANY AND VARIED. HE ANTICIPATED MANY OF THE MAJOR DISCOVERIES OF MODERN SCIENCE

BY SUSAN GATELY

I 32

think of Lazzaro Spallanzani as a cross between Indiana Jones from Raiders of the Lost Ark and Doc from Back to the Future - oh and he's a Catholic priest too! Reading of his exploits, you see a man who feared nothing and would go to endless lengths in the pursuit of science, including experimenting on his own digestion system by swallowing foodstuffs in linen bags and wooden tubes, then vomiting them up to study the effects of digestion.

He was an intrepid explorer, risking his life several times. Once on Mount Vesuvius he went within five feet of lava in order to measure its flow rate. On another occasion, on the live volcano of Mount Etna, he was so overcome by noxious gasses that he fainted, yet still entered the crater to try to determine the composition of the minerals inside. Only when his feet were burning and his staff on fire did he come out. Spallanzani was a true adventurer and a dedicated scientist, spending hours repeating the same experiments - whether it was cutting the tails off salamanders to see how they would re-grow or trying to prove that tiny micro-organisms did not arise spontaneously in liquid solutions.

CURIOSITY – THE FOUNDATION OF SCIENCE Born in Scandiano in Northern Italy in 1729,

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

Spallanzani grew up in a large family. His father was a lawyer. Initially, he followed his profession but soon discovered a love for philosophy and natural history. When he was in his thirties, Spallanzani was ordained a priest. His contemporary, the Swiss botanist, Jean Senebier, says he was "devoutly religious," but his priestly duties played second fiddle to his scientific ones.

"Spallanzani’s affiliation with the Church provided him with financial support but more importantly offered protection from the Italian Inquisition, which often censored work deemed contrary to Catholic doctrine," writes Dr Mary Sutherland. As a personality, he was larger than life. A biographer describes his life style as "frugal," although he enjoyed good food and wine and the company of high minded women.

Apart from occasional religious duties and a great enthusiasm for travel, his career was wholly academic. At 26, he was appointed to teach humanities at the College of Reggio Emilia, from where he moved to Modena, and from 1776 onwards, he was Professor of Natural History at Pavia. He complained to fellow scientist, Charles Bonnet, that teaching took him away from his scientific pursuits, but was by all accounts a fine lecturer with students and scientists travelling distances to hear him.

According to Senebier, the purity and elegance

of his speech charmed his listeners.

In the summer time, he liked to travel to investigate unexplained natural occurrences and collect museum specimens. In 1761, he travelled to the Apennines and Lake Ventasso to look into the origin of springs and fountains flowing down mountain slopes. The thinking of the time was that water precipitated near the summit and descended by gravity. Spallanzani verified this was true. At Lake Ventasso, he set out on a raft made of beech stumps to the centre of the lake. Locals believed there was a great whirlpool there. The naturalist took soundings to measure the depth of the lake, and correctly surmised the origin of the 'whirlpool' to be two fountains.

ASKING QUESTIONS Spallanzani was a voracious reader but a sceptic, hesitant to believe anything he could not prove himself. In the mid 18th century, scientists still believed in 'spontaneous generation' of microorganisms, that is, that living organisms could appear, without descent from similar organisms. People thought, for example, that the decaying flesh of animals produced maggots. In hundreds of experiments Spallanzani tested ways of stopping microorganisms from appearing in fluids. He finally found that infusions remained

33

free of microorganisms when put into flasks that were hermetically sealed, and the contents boiled for an hour. Once air got into the flask, the microorganisms reappeared. He published his results refuting spontaneous generation in 1765.Spallanzani’s classic studies on the impossibility of spontaneous generation of life from dead matter contributed to the creation of techniques of sterilization which were later perfected by Louis Pasteur.

In 1780, Spallanzani began to study digestion in animals. He ended by experimenting on himself 'to the limit of endurance' and concluded that the basic process of digestion was not simply grinding up food, but it also involved the action of gastric juices in the stomach.

From digestion he moved into reproduction in animals and plants. He discovered, and described, mammal reproduction, showing how it needed both semen and ovum. He was the first scientist to successfully use artificial insemination, injecting fresh semen through

a syringe into a carefully isolated Cocker Spaniel bitch in heat. Two months later, three pups were born. "I never received greater pleasure upon any occasion since I cultivated experimental philosophy," Concluding his Second Report on Artificial Fertilization in some Animals (1786) he wrote: “I have to recognize that after watching Nature nothing incredible can be thought about her.”

That same year he was falsely accused of stealing exhibits from the Pavia museum for his personal museum. He was ultimately vindicated, but Spallanzani got his revenge on one of the conspirator scientists by sending him a portion of disguised chicken gullet which the same scientist then erroneously wrote about as an 'intestinal worm'.

BAT NAVIGATION When he was in his late 60s, Spallanzani studied the flight of bats, reporting that blinded bats could fly without striking artificial obstacles, and reluctantly postulated a sixth sense. When

another scientist discovered that blind bats with their ears plugged crashed into obstacles, Spallanzani accepted the role of sound in their navigation. His last report on plant and animal respiration in 1798 contained the observation that, whereas plants kept in water and in sunlight give off oxygen and absorb carbon dioxide, they reversed this exchange in deep shade.

Shortly after his 70th birthday Father Spallanzani fell ill and died. Right up to the end, he was working on experiments on respiration, the results of which were published posthumously. He may not have been an angel, but he was something more than a great biologist, he was a great human being. The diarist W. N. P. Barbellion remarks that a study of the extensive biographical literature which has grown up around him, “will give the curious reader some idea of his masterful personality and of the way in which it gripped the scientific world in which he lived."

Y E AR O F M E R C Y

PREPARING FOR

THE JUBILEE YEAR

34

THE EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEE YEAR OF DIVINE MERCY BEGINS NEXT MONTH. IT IS AN INVITATION TO THE WHOLE CHURCH TO REDISCOVER THE POWERFULLY LIBERATING EFFECT OF GOD’S MERCY.

BY GEORGE WADDING CSsR

According

to the Book of Leviticus, a Jubilee year occurs every fiftieth year. The seventh year, the sabbatical year, was also a sacred time when fields were to be allowed to rest and regain their natural goodness. The Jubilee Year occurred at the end of a series of seven sabbaticals and even more demanding conditions had to be met for its observance.

During the jubilee year, slaves and prisoners were freed, debts were remitted and it was hoped that

the mercies of God would be manifest in a more special way to those observing the jubilee. This is what Leviticus says: ”You shall consecrate the fiftieth year, and proclaim liberty throughout all the land to all the inhabitants. It shall be a Jubilee to you, and each of you shall return to his possession, and every person shall return to his family…” (25:8-13). The word jubilee comes from the Hebrew word jubel, which means a ram’s horn which was blown as a trumpet to signify that the jubilee had begun.

JESUS AND THE JUBILEE According to the Gospel of Luke, Jesus once went back to his home town of Nazareth, not always the most welcoming place for him.

On this occasion, he joined his family and neighbours at the sabbath synagogue service where he was invited to read do one of the readings, the reading from the prophets that usually followed the reading from the Law. He chose, carefully, searching through the Book of Isaiah until he found the passage he wanted. It read, “The Spirit of the Lord is upon me because the Lord has anointed me to bring good news to the afflicted; he has sent me to bind up the broken-hearted, to proclaim liberty to the captives, and freedom to those in captivity; to proclaim the year of the Lord’s favour” (Isa 61:1-2).

Recalling especially these final words from Isaiah, Pope Francis has declared that the year from 8 December 2015 (the Immaculate

IN A NUTSHELL... A JUBILEE YEAR According to the Old Testament, a Jubilee Year began on the forty-ninth year of a cycle REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

During the Jubilee, slaves and prisoners were freed, debts were remitted

Jesus used the Jubilee Year as a symbol for the Good News of the Kingdom of God he was preaching

The first Christian Jubilee Year was celebrated in 1300 and it was confined to the City of Rome

Conception) to the feast of Christ the King on 20 November 2016 will be a Year of the Lord’s favour, a Jubilee Year of Mercy. It opens on the fiftieth anniversary of the closing of the Vatican II Council.

It is Pope Francis’s hope that it will rekindle the vision which Pope St. John XXIII had for the Council: “The Bride of Christ (the Church) wishes to use the medicine of mercy rather than taking up the arms of severity… She wants to show herself a loving mother to all; patient, kind, moved by compassion and goodness toward her separated Children.”

POPE FRANCIS’ HOPES FOR THE JUBILEE Referring back to the words of Jesus, Pope Francis expressed his hope that this special year of grace will bring a word and gesture of consolation to the poor, that it will proclaim liberty to those bound by new forms of

Jubilees are now celebrated every twentyfive years

slavery in modern society, that it will restore light to those who can see no more because they are so caught up in themselves, and it will restore dignity to all those from whom it has been robbed.

The first recorded Christian Jubilee year was in 1300. Pope Boniface VIII granted afresh to all Catholics of the world some "great remissions and indulgences for sins", under certain conditions. The first was that, being truly penitent, they confess their sins.

The second condition was that they visit the basilicas of St. Peter and St. Paul in Rome, at least once a day for a specified time : if they were residents of the city, it was for thirty days.

Pilgrims, just visiting the city for the jubilee, only had to do fifteen. The earliest jubilee years were rare, occurring only once a century. Then it was every 50 years. In our day, every 25 years is the norm.

Every Holy Year hordes of pilgrims

The Jubilee Year of Divine Mercy begins on 8 December 2015, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and concludes on Feast of Christ the King, 20 November 2016

Its purpose is to help believers to recover a sense of the wonder of Divine Mercy

descended on Rome in search of forgiveness of their sins, the lifting of interdicts and other ecclesiastical sanctions and to obtain the various papal indulgences. It was a oncein- a-lifetime pilgrimage which was arduous, dangerous and expensive. The pilgrims hoped for mercy and inner peace. They recommitted themselves to serving God in a spirit of joy and harmony with everyone.

For this Jubilee, Holy Doors will be established in every diocese throughout the world EXTRAORDINARY JUBILEES Without disturbing the recurrence of “ordinary Jubilee years,” the Popes have sometimes declared an Extraordinary Jubilee to mark an especially

A special group of priests will be designated as ‘missionaries of mercy’ and during Lent 2016, they will lead special celebrations in every diocese

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YEAR OF MERCY

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The Holy Door of St. Peter's Basilica

significant event. Pope John Paul II declared an Extraordinary Jubilee Year in 1983. Its purpose was to celebrate the one thousand nine hundred and

Holy Doors - St. John Lateran, St. Paul Outside the Walls and St. Mary Major – which are formally opened after St. Peter’s.

During the Jubilee, pilgrims will enter in faith through these Holy Doors, symbolising the fact that they wish to take a new and “extraordinary path” towards salvation.

For this Jubilee, Holy Doors will be established in every diocese throughout the world, in order to facilitate those who, for whatever reason, are unable to travel. The privileges of the Holy Year will be extended to all who meet the conditions in their own diocese.

Pope Francis has described this Extraordinary Jubilee Year of 2015/2016 as “a Jubilee Year of Mercy.” Early in the Judeo-Christian story, God has revealed himself to Moses as “a God merciful and gracious, slow to anger and abounding in steadfast love and faithfulness” (Exodus 34:6). St. Paul says simply that God is “rich in mercy” (Ephesians 2:4). In his letter announcing the Jubilee, Pope Francis writes that “Mercy is the bridge that connects God and humanity, opening our hearts to the hope of being loved forever in spite of our sinfulness.”

By consciously following the theme of the year, it is the Holy Father’s hope that we may deepen our understanding and appreciation of the great virtue of mercy and live steeped in the forgiveness, kindness, compassion and benevolence that mercy implies.

The Holy Father’s hope is that we may deepen our understanding and appreciation of the great virtue of mercy and live steeped in the forgiveness, kindness, compassion and benevolence that mercy implies fiftieth anniversary of our Redemption through Christ’s death and resurrection in the year 33.

The last Ordinary Jubilee Year was also called by Pope John Paul II in 2000, to celebrate the 2000th anniversary of the birth of Christ. It was also the first Holy Year to mark the turn of a millennium.

The beginning of the Jubilee is marked by the opening of the Holy Door at St. Peter’s basilica.

This special door is only opened during the Holy Year. It remains cemented shut the rest of the time.

The other three major Basilicas in Rome also have REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

MERCY AND THE SACRAMENT OF RECONCILIATION Pope Francis also emphasises the special role of the sacrament of reconciliation in bringing Catholics to understand and to experience the mercy of God. As one way of emphasising the

importance of the sacrament, he has decided to commission priests to exercise a special ministry worldwide as “missionaries of mercy.” Priests have been invited to apply for the ministry. The qualities expected of applicants are that they should be "inspiring preachers of mercy, heralds of the joy of forgiveness, welcoming, loving and compassionate confessors, who are most especially attentive to the difficult situations of each person."

At the invitation of the local bishop, they will responsible for preaching and administering the sacrament of reconciliation during special events for the Year of Mercy. It seems very like an attempt to revive the traditional ‘parish mission’ where it has fallen out of use.

The missionaries of mercy will be given every faculty they need to give absolution in ‘hard cases’ of particularly serious sin where absolution was reserved to the bishop, or even in very special cases, even to the Holy See. Such hard cases involved serious issues like perjury in a court of law, or joining organisations such as the Freemasons that were considered to be anti-Catholic.

A particularly difficult case is that of abortion.

In addition to being considered objectively as a serious or mortal sin, it also carried the penalty of excommunication both for the woman and for anyone who assisted her. Strictly speaking, excommunication only comes into effect if the person realises that what they are doing has this penalty attached. Realising that many women have had abortions for which they may now deeply repent, Pope Francis has extended to every priest world-wide the faculty to absolve from abortion and the penalties it carries.

It is Pope Francis’s hope that people who would dearly love to return to the community of the church but feel blocked by past guilt, will be able to find a path by which they may return during the Holy Year.

Fr George Wadding is a member of the Marianella Community Dublin. He has taught moral theology and confessional practice to several generations of young Redemptorists

JUBILEE OF OUR MOTHER OF PERPETUA L H E LP

Fr Matthew Meighan

THE PERPETUAL NOVENA

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THE MOST POPULAR FORM OF DEVOTION TO OUR LADY OF PERPETUAL HELP IS THE WEEKLY NOVENA. IT ORIGINATED IN THE UNITED STATES AND IS NOW CELEBRATED THROUGHOUT THE WORLD.

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

The

Redemptorist Church in Baclaran, Manila, has been called “the church that never sleeps.”Every Wednesday, about 120,000 people attend thirteen sessions of the weekly Novena, between 5.30 am and 7.30 pm. It is preached in two languages, English and Tagalog.

Singapore has been described as the most religiously diverse nation on earth. The majority are Buddhists, with Christians of

all denominations making up only 13% of the population. Yet the Redemptorist church in the city draws such crowds to the seven sessions of the Saturday novena in English and mandarin Chinese, that it gave its name first to an underground stop and then to the surrounding township.

WHAT IS A NOVENA? ‘Novena’ from a Latin word, novendialis,

means ‘nine days long.’ It was the name given either to a celebration lasting nine days or to the commemoration of the deceased on the ninth day after a funeral. The first nine days of continuous prayer, according to the Acts of the Apostles, took place when the disciples returned to the city after Jesus’ ascension and spent the days until the coming of the Holy Spirit “persevering with one mind in prayer with the women, and Mary the mother of Jesus” (Act 1:14). The days between Ascension Thursday and Pentecost are still the only liturgical novena of the Church.

The custom of preparing for Christmas by nine days of prayer grew up in Spain in the Middle Ages. In the Philippines, “Aguinaldo Masses,” celebrated before dawn on the nine days before Christmas, are especially popular. The custom grew up of devoting nine days of preparation for other important feasts, such the patron of the local church.

J U B IL EE O F O U R MOTH E R OF PE RP E TUAL HELP

Novenas were essentially occasions of popular religiosity, with prayers in the language of the people rather than the formal Latin used for liturgical worship. They usually included sermons or devotional instructions.

Making a novena was a popular way of seeking the favour of a saint. In return for being honoured with nine days of prayer, and even fasting, the saints were expected to show their gratitude by helping the person obtain the favour they were praying for.

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FROM ONCE A YEAR TO ONCE A WEEK The idea of holding a novena weekly, rather than just once a year, began in Chicago at the Church of Our Lady of Sorrows in 1937. It was at the height of the Great Depression and unemployment was high and people’s mood was low. The prior of the Servite community serving the church, Fr James M Keane, decided that prayer was one way of offering hope in this bleak time.

The Servite Order’s main devotion was to Our Lady of Sorrows. Fr Keane began a weekly service in her honour. People could attend for nine consecutive Fridays to make a novena. At the height of its popularity, it attracted 70,000 people a week to ten novena services. Sometimes, the police were needed to control the crowds who could not gain admittance to the church, but followed the prayers on the street outside. Fr Keane came to Ireland in 1947 to found a community of his order at Benburb, Co Tyrone, where he is buried.

The American Redemptorists quickly

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

from memory, a short sermon and finally benediction of the Blessed Sacrament. The high point for many was the reading of ‘the petitions and thanksgivings,’ intentions for prayer and expressions of gratitude in the form of a personal letter to the Mother of Perpetual Help. Prayer intentions included recovery of health, finding employment, birth of a baby, success in examinations, finding a partner for marriage, as well as spiritual intentions like help to make a good confession or guidance in choosing a state in life.

The first nine days of continuous prayer, according to the Acts of the Apostles, took place when the disciples returned to the city after Jesus’ ascension and spent the days until the coming of the Holy Spirit adopted the novena idea at the “Mission Church” in Boston. Novenas were especially popular during the war years, when families prayed for husbands or sons at war. Special buses brought 20,000 people weekly from all over Boston to attend one of the eight services each Wednesday.

The simplicity and predictability of the novena service were the key to its popularity. It lasted just thirty minutes, but there was a rhythm and variety to the half-hour, and few surprises.

Ten minutes of prayer at the beginning, including a short rosary, “the Little Rosary of the Immaculate Conception” with just twelve “Hail Marys,” a novena prayer recited by all, the same few hymns sung

NOVENA COMES TO IRELAND Belfast in 1943 was a bleak place. Much of the city had been damaged by German bombing of 1941.

Social life was curtailed by the “black out.” Food and many necessities of daily life were rationed. In January, 1942, the first American troops to enter the European war landed in Belfast. Among the chaplains, there was a Redemptorist called Fr Matthew Meighan, who arrived in 1943, During a visit to Clonard Monastery, he described the growing success of the perpetual novena in the States, and he was invited to preach the novena in preparation for the feast of the Immaculate Conception, with a view to extending it into a weekly novena.

With his American accent and turn of phrase, Fr Meighan was a riveting speaker. According to the monastery chronicle, “the corridors were crowded... sometimes at community supper, we were without a chair, as all had to be used for

the convenience of the people. The enthusiasm stirred up by the novena is the greatest ever seen in Clonard. The perpetual novena has come to stay.”

Crowds thronged Clonard for the rest of the war. In those bleak days, the novena provided a welcome atmosphere of joyful faith and community solidarity. As a mark of their esteem, novena-goers contributed: ‘rings, brooches, cufflinks, watches and watch-chains, engagement and signet rings, earrings with all their precious stones” for a new monstrance to be used at the novena benediction.

MAKING HER KNOWN TO THE WORLD Within a few weeks, the novena had spread to the Redemptorist churches in Limerick, Dundalk and Esker as well as to a number of parish churches.

To render preaching a weekly sermon more manageable for busy priests, the Redemptorists provided outlines for brief sermons on Marian themes, circulated on cheaply-printed sheets and known as ‘novena sermonettes,’ with material for several months at a time.

The novena to Our Mother of Perpetual Help, Galway Cathedral

The success of the novena in Ireland meant that it spread to other places as well. The Provincial of the London Province, Fr Charlton asked all the houses of his province to introduce it in thanksgiving for Our Lady’s protection of their

monasteries and churches during the war. The first Perpetual Novena in the Philippines was celebrated in St. Clement’s, Iloilo, in May 1946.

From there, it spread to other churches of the Irish vice-province in the Southern Philippines.

Soon after, it spread to the Australian viceprovince of the Northern Philippines. The Irish Redemptorists had started a mission in India and Sri Lanka just as war was breaking. News of the success of the novena in Ireland arrived when communications were resumed after the war and the first novena in India was preached in 1948.

The Irish Redemptorists brought the novena with them when they went to Brazil in 1960.

The Irish Province, through the spread of the novena, has kept faith with the charge, ‘make her known to the world,’ given their congregation by Blessed Pius IX with the gift of the icon.

Fr Brendan McConvery, editor of Reality, is the author of The Redemptorists in Ireland 1851-2011 (Dublin: Columba Press, 2012).

Breaking the Word in November 2015 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:

Drom and Inch (Co. Tipperary) Mission (7th – 13th November 2015) Mission preached by Brian Nolan CSsR. and Laurence Gallagher CSsR Ogonelloe (Co. Clare) Mission (7th – 13th November 2015) Mission preached by Seamus Enright CSsR and Ms. Niamh O’ Neill Kilronan / Keadue (Co. Roscommon) Mission (7th – 14th November 2015) Mission preached by Brendan Keane CSsR, Johnny Doherty CSsR and Mrs. Sarah Kenwright Cloughjordan (Co. Tipperary) Mission (14th – 20th November 2015) Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR, Derek Meskell CSsR and Mrs. Sarah Kenwright Glasthule (Co. Dublin) Mission (28th November – 5th December 2015) Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and Laurence Gallagher CSsR

We still have some availability for missions after Easter 2016 The details above are accurate at time of printing. If you have any views, comments or even criticisms about Redemptorist preaching, I would love to hear from you. If you are interested in a mission or novena in your parish, please contact me for further information. And please keep all Redemptorist preachers in your prayers.

Brian Nolan CSsR, Mission Team Co-Ordinator Email: brian.nolan@redemptorists.ie Tel: +353 21 4358800

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

IRELAND AND THE REFUGEE CRISIS TRÓCAIRE IS PLAYING AN ACTIVE ROLE IN BRINGING AID TO THE PEOPLE FLEEING FROM ISIS IN THE MIDDLE EAST. A TRÓCAIRE WORKER GIVES A FIRST-HAND ACCOUNT OF THEIR WORK IN SERBIA.

BY JOANNE O’FLANAGAN Refugees arrive by double decker bus to the Serbian border town of Kanjiza where they will arrive at Vasariste refugee aid point. Doctors and translators working with Caritas Internationalis are providing medical services and information. Over 4,000 refugees pass through Vasariste daily on their way to other European countries.

40 © Photography by Kira Horvath, Catholic Relief Services

A

group of people sit huddled beside tents, their meagre possessions gathered into plastic bags by their feet. Children stand patiently, as mothers divide small amounts of food into even smaller portions.

Beside them, the city traffic roars by, commuters on their way to work looking quizzically at refugees taking a break on their long and dangerous journey to Europe. Since the war in Syria started, I have met many Syrian families forced to live in tents on the side of roads in Lebanon and Jordan, but this was the first time I had seen these scenes in Europe.

I was in Belgrade as part of Trócaire’s partnership with Caritas Serbia, who have launched an appeal to help 100,000 refugees making their way through the country on their way into Europe. Trócaire is working with Caritas Serbia to provide food, water, hygiene items, medical services and other aid to refugees, most of whom have made their way into the country from Syria.

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

We are also assisting Caritas Greece to provide food and hygiene facilities to refugees arriving on the Greek islands.

About 15,000 people cross Serbia every day in the hope of reaching the European Union through Hungary. The decision of the Hungarian government to close its border with Serbia is leading to a build-up of refugees in Serbia.

Supporting refugees in Serbia is the latest response from Trócaire to the tragedy that has befallen the Syrian people over the last four and a half years.

The brutal Syrian war has forced over 7.6m people to abandon their homes in fear for their lives and a further 4.1m Syrian people have become refugees in neighbouring countries.

These are desperate people trying to escape life-threatening situations and the terror of war. As they try to find a better life in Europe, many lives are being lost along the way.

Over 300,000 people are estimated to have crossed the Mediterranean so far in 2015. In the past year, over 2,500 people have died attempting to reach Italy, Greece and Spain by sea: that is an average of ten people a day and this figure continues to rise.

We must remind ourselves that behind the statistics, there are extremely vulnerable people

Over 2,500 people have died attempting to reach Italy, Greece and Spain by sea: that is an average of ten people a day and this figure continues to rise who have already been through the misery of war, loss and devastation. Many people saw, and were distressed by, the harrowing and tragic image

There are 20 tents to shelter refugees at the Vasariste refugee aid point in Kanjiza, Serbia, the last stop before the Hungary border.

Syrian refugee, Obama Basheer (8), with her sisters, Joud (6 months) and Rouya (2) inside a refugee aid station in the Serbian border town of Kanjiza

of three year old Aylan Kurdi’s body washed ashore in Turkey, as he drowned trying to reach the island of Kos. The heartbreaking loss of this child’s life spurred a public outcry over the human cost of this crisis. Yet since his death, more children have drowned.

Trócaire is working in Syria, Lebanon and Jordan, providing vital support to 93,000 people who are fleeing from or affected by the conflict in Syria. While this crisis has only begun to be given serious attention in Europe over the last couple of months, people in Lebanon, Turkey and Jordan

right to claim asylum. That right is protected in both the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and the UN Convention relating to the Status of Refugees, both of which were adopted following World War II in order to protect European refugees.

EU Member States must commit to collective legal action to protect the rights of those who require protection, either as refugees or asylum seekers. Safe passage and regular channels of migration are needed as a matter of urgency.

Within EU member states, refugees should be provided with assistance and protection to which they are legally entitled including shelter, food, sanitation, protection from further conflict and violence and clear information on entitlements and procedures.At the heart of its response, the EU must remember the treacherous, lifethreatening conditions these people are fleeing and provide sanctuary. European nations, who close their borders and refuse to offer shelter to people fleeing war, are turning a blind eye to their own history.

have been assisting Syrian refugees since 2011.

Trócaire has for several years been warning that these countries cannot cope – Lebanon is a country the size of Munster with 1.3 million Syrian refugees. The situation in that country alone puts the situation facing Europe into context.

There are no easy solutions to this crisis, but the fundamental reality is that every person has a legal

To support Trócaire’s work with people affected by war in Syria and Iraq, call 1850 408 408 or visit trocaire.org/ refugeecrisis.

Joanne O’Flanagan is Trócaire Humanitarian Coordinator.

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UNDER THE MICROSCOPE FOUR WOMEN DOCTORS IT IS ONLY IN 1970 THAT THE FIRST TWO WOMEN WERE NAMED AS “DOCTORS OF THE CHURCH.” THIS STUDY OF THE FOUR WOMEN WHO HAVE BEEN GIVEN THE TITLE WILL INTRODUCE THEM TO A WIDER AUDIENCE.

BY FAINCHE RYAN

Mary

42

T Malone’s study of the four women Doctors of the Church – Hildegard of Bingen, Catherine of Siena, Teresa of Ávila, Thérèse of Lisieux – deserves a wide readership. A chapter of the work is devoted to each of the four Doctors. The author has also provided us with a bibliography, at the end of each chapter, indicators for further reading.

Each chapter follows a similar pattern. First a brief biography of the saint introduces us to their life story, then to the world they lived in and their context, and finally, their theology and their teachings, the reason why they were declared Doctors of the Church. The importance of establishing the context of each of the women is crucial, for as Malone notes in relation

It took almost two millennia of Church history before the first two women Doctors were named Malone’s introduction and conclusion also provide further food for thought. In the introduction, we are reminded that, while it took almost two millennia of Church history before the first two women Doctors were named (Catherine of Siena and Teresa of Ávila), this ‘revolutionary innovation ...has passed the vast majority of Catholics by with barely a ripple of attention.’ This book may help to bring these women, and their teachings, to the attention of a wider audience.

REALITY NOVEMBER 2015

Catherine of Siena

to Hildegard, ‘a twelfth-century context is essential to the understanding of her writings and her theology, as it is sometimes difficult for us not to interpret her as if she were our contemporary.’

Hildegard of Bingen (10981179) is the first Doctor of the Church we are introduced to. In many ways a woman of her times, her theology was at times revolutionary; her activity of teaching and preaching remarkable. A gifted woman instructed by visions,

she believed it to be God’s will that she should teach and preach, and publicly challenge popes, emperors, bishops and feudal lords, when the need arose. She is also famed for her compositions in liturgical music, and for her work with herbs and other natural resources.

Like Hildegard, Catherine of Siena (1347-1380) lived in a time of great turmoil in the

Hildegard of Bingen

share, and they teach that this intimacy with God is available to all without exception.

The great Carmelite Teresa of Avila again lived at a time of great turmoil in the Church and in Europe. The Spanish Inquisition particularly impinged on her life and work. For women today, it can be frustrating to read her works at times, as they seem to apologise all too

Teresa of Avila

Church and similarly concerned herself with reform. A common experience of all four Doctors is their belief that God spoke to them, in visions or in prayer. This understanding gave Catherine the strength and authority to challenge the pope and to demand reform in the Church.

Like the other three women who are the focus of this book, she is often described as a mystic. Malone usefully defines mysticism as ‘the experience of direct access to God.’ It is the mysticism all four Doctors

Thérèse of Lisieux

frequently for the fact that she is a woman, the context demanded this wisdom of her, if she wished her teachings, in particular those on prayer, to be heard. Malone explains that Teresa’s style of writing in the third person, which intentionally distanced her from the experience being recounted, was likewise a wise technique.

Thérèse of Lisieux, is the fourth woman Doctor. She is the nearest to our times (1873 – 1897), and, in contrast to the other three women, occupied a

much smaller world – her family home life and then the Carmelite monastery – and died very young. Her message was simple:

While it is understandable that this book, aimed at a general audience, does not provide source references, occasional references, would be helpful.

For example, when Malone writes that ‘all her life Thérèse had longed to be a priest’, concrete proof would substantiate the claim. Reference is needed, not least as it was Pope John Paul II who declared her a Doctor in 1997.

Likewise, the claim that Thomas Aquinas taught that woman was an ‘accidental man’, a ‘mistake in creation’ would need reference, and a contextual

Hildegard of Bingen believed it to be God’s will that she should teach and preach, and publicly challenge popes, emperors, bishops and feudal lords, when the need arose

WINTER

holiness is accessible to all. This simple but profound message is why she was declared a Doctor of the Church.

interpretation, as Aquinas’ many writings would not support this claim.

Despite these points, this accessible work proves a wonderful introduction to the four women Doctors of the Church.

It both informs, challenges and stimulates thinking. It deserves a wide readership, and hopefully will influence the Church universal to pray the office of Doctor of the Church, and not the alternative offered, on the feast day of each of these wonderful teachers of the Church catholic. In this way, the ‘ripple’ effect Malone refers to in her introduction may become a wave influencing Church thinking, as we continue to learn from these four great Doctors.

Ennismore Retreat Centre ST DOMINIC’S

5th October through to Spring 2016 – €10-Donation Conversations at Ennismore - 7.30pm – 9.15pm 3rd November - 4 Week Course - €45 Mindfulness, Spirituality & The Psychology of Happiness Martina Lehane Sheehan 4th - 6th December -Residential €165 - Non Res. €100 Advent Retreat Mike Serrage MSC 9th December - €10-Donation Advent Evening of Prayer - 7.30pm Fr Frank Downes OP Newly refurbished Meditation Room now available for bookings

Ennismore Retreat Centre is set in 30 acres of wood, field and garden overlooking Lough Mahon on the River Lee. It’s the ideal place for some time-out, reflection and prayer.

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

Four Women Doctors of the Church

by Mary T. Malone Dublin: Veritas, 2015

Dr Fainche Ryan is native of Co Kerry and teaches in the Loyola Institute of Catholic Theology, Trinity College, Dublin.

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH CALLED TO BE SAINTS Like the good teacher he is, St Matthew takes great care in arranging the teaching of Jesus in his Gospel. He gathers SOLEMNITY OF it into five great sermons.

ALL SAINTS The first sermon opens with the list of nine beatitudes or blessings we read today. The last one closes with another list of seven deeds (feeding the hungry, clothing the naked etc), on which people will be judged at the end of the age. Beatitudes are common in the bible. They are used as short expressions of praise for an individual (“blessed are those who fear the Lord...”) and usually mention the reward such persons can expect. All nine of Matthew’s beatitudes mention the reward, e.g.

“for theirs is the kingdom of heaven... for they shall obtain mercy.’ Someone said that “beatitudes” means “happy attitudes,” since they represent the attitudes the follower of Christ should strive to attain. They include, for example, attitudes to worldly wealth, to gentleness in our dealings with others, to making the search for justice so central to our lives that we seem to hunger and thirst for it. Happy attitudes are what make saints. Today, we remember not just the great saints whose names are familiar to us. It may be more important to remember the little saints – the elderly, often fragile, people whose faith never wavered, the strong men and women who carried whole communities on their back, young smiling people who brought goodness with them wherever they went.

A little girl was asked by the priest to explain what a saint was. She thought for a moment, and then remembering the saints in the windows of her local church, she said ‘A saint is someone the light shines through!” It is a perfect answer for today’s feast. The saints we honour today include the kindly neighbour, the gentle grandmother who encouraged us when we needed it most, the young man who died of a terminal illness, but who never complained. When we celebrate the Feast of All Saints, we are proclaiming our confidence in human nature. There are men and women who whose ‘happy attitudes’ soften a world that, left to itself, can grow cynical and hard.

FROM THE LITTLE SHE HAD, SHE PUT IN EVERYTHING SHE OWNED Today’s story of the poor widow is one of the most 32ND SUNDAY IN attractive in the gospels.

ORDINARY TIME All ancient temples had treasuries to receive the donations of the visitors. In the Jerusalem temple, there were thirteen bronze offering vessels into which the faithful could place their offerings. The clinking of the large amounts of coinage donated by the wealthy would probably have drawn admiring glances. The poor widow’s two small coins fell almost silently, unnoticed by any save Jesus. He points that she has made the greatest offering of all. While the wealthy gave from their surplus and would probably never miss it, her offering, small and all as it was, probably meant that she had to cut back on some of the essentials for herself and her family.

Our widow is not a symbol of powerless poverty but of generosity. God measures the generosity of the heart not by the amount that is given, but by the spirit in which it is given. Giving spontaneously and generously is a Christian virtue. Writing to his new converts, Paul asks them to set aside something each week for the relief of the poor:

“each of you must give as you have made up your mind, not reluctantly or under compulsion, for God loves a cheerful giver” (2Cor 9:7). Generous giving remains a hall mark of the Catholic community at its best. Each Lent Irish Catholic school children and their families contribute about € 7 or 8 million to overseas relief through the Trocaire collection. The beautiful church where you attended Mass this morning was

possibly built, quite literally, from ‘the pennies of the poor.’ As we remember the story of the widow, we recall her sisters and brothers and their children throughout history, who gave, not just from their surplus, but from what they had to live on.

NOVEMBER

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Today’s Readings Rev 7:2-4, 9-14 Ps 23 1 Jn 3:1-3 Matthew 5:1-12

44 NOVEMBER

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Today’s Readings 1 Kgs 17: 10-16 Ps 145 Heb 9:24-28 Mark 12:38-44

HEAVEN AND EARTH WILL NOVEMBER PASS AWAY From the Mount of Olives, the great Temple o f J eru s a l em co u l d be seen clearly. The RD 33 SUNDAY IN TIME Y disciples, poor country INAR ORD boys, were impressed by the imposing building. Despite its marvellous construction, Jesus tells them, it will eventually be flattened into the earth.

Talk of such a catastrophe inevitably leads on to other things. When will it happen? Will there be any warning? Will this be a sign for the end of the world? Some Jewish groups had a sense that the world was so full of evil

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ALL WHO ARE ON THE SIDE OF TRUTH LISTEN TO MY VOICE Today’s Gospel is taken from St John’s account SOLEMNITY OF OUR of the trial of Jesus.

LORD JESUS CHRIST, KING OF THE UNIVERSE Pilate’s opening question introduces the theme of kingship which dominates the trial scene.

The kingdom of Jesus, however, is not a kingdom of the type known to Pilate and his political masters: “mine is not a kingdom of this world.” If it were, his supporters, like those of anyone who claims a throne, would have fought to save him from being arrested by the Jews.

Jesus is speaking a language his enemies are incapable of understanding. They know only one meaning of kingship, that of political and military power. Jesus’ kingship is not of this type. Jesus is a king who has come to bear witness to the truth. His kingdom, founded on truth, justice and love, will stand in judgment over all earthly kingdoms and his witness to truth will win him the support of all who are on the side of truth.

As great feasts go, Christ the King is a very young one indeed. It was introduced

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that the only thing God could do was destroy it and replace it with a whole new world. That is not Jesus’ view. He knows that world will indeed end, but it will not be ‘great disaster’ but the final act of salvation history, when he returns as the Son of Man, in his glory and the gathers of the nations before him.

Predicting the end of the world has become an occupation for two sorts of people – would-be religious leaders and scientists. The first often predict the end time by identifying signs or events in the bible. Beyond their immediate followers, they are seldom taken very seriously. Scientists might appear more persuasive since they use evidence such as dramatic climate change that could extinguish human and animal

life, collision of the earth with an asteroid, the sun’s loss of power to give heat and light.

Their predictions often work on a time-scale of centuries or thousands of years, so there is less immediate panic. In every Mass, we pray that we will be kept safe from all distress, as we await the coming of our saviour, Jesus Christ. The thought this distant future is especially common in the final Sundays of the year and at the beginning of Advent

Today’s Readings Dan 12:1-3 Ps 10:11-14, 18 Heb 10:1114,18 Mark 13: 24-32

into the calendar by Pope Pius XI in 1925.

The pope’s intention was to invite us to consider prayerfully the meaning of the ‘earthly kingdom’ of Christ the King. For the previous ten years, the world had been rocked by one crisis after another. World War I had torn Europe apart from 1914 to 1918. While that war was still raging, the Russian revolution in 1917 had changed the face of that country and installed the first communist government in history, pledged to eradicate religion as ‘the opium of the people’. Discontent elsewhere found expression in political movements such as fascism or the Nazi party that threatened to control civil society by violence. Today’s feast invites us to think about our civil society, our duties to it and the place that people of faith, claiming allegiance to Christ the King can play in it.

Today’s Readings Dan 7:13-14 Ps 92 Rev 1:5-8 John 18:33-37

God’s Word continues on page 46

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THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 9, NOVEMBER 2015

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 7 ACROSS: Across: 1. Cherub, 5. Sombre, 10. Poached, 11. Recipes, 12. Dodo, 13. Ghana, 15. Hull, 17.

Ave, 19. Shrine, 21. Otters, 22. Gregory, 23. Glower, 25. Eluded, 28. Log, 30. Obey, 31. Canal, 32.

Esau, 35. Iron Age, 36. Wyoming, 37. Assist, 38. Yahweh.

DOWN: 2. Hoarder, 3. Ruhr, 4. Buddha, 5. Serene, 6. Mock, 7. Rapture, 8. Spades, 9. Psalms, 14.

Avignon, 16. Angel, 18. Style, 20. Err, 21. Ore, 23. Gloria, 24. Ocelots, 26. Despise, 27. Drudge, 28.

Lament, 29. Galway, 33. Sari, 34. Tosh.

Winner of Crossword No. 7 Betty Lysaght, Fermoy, Co Cork

ACROSS 1. Root vegetable for man and beast. (6) 5. Lob tea at individuals formally affiliated to a monastic community. (6) 10. Country linked by a 25km causeway to Saudi Arabia. (7) 11. Former capital of Sri Lanka. (7) 12. Type of jewels that may crack in very dry conditions. (4) 13. 1 or 2 or 3, etc. (5) 15. The last of the pre-Flood Patriarchs. (4) 17. Caused someone to follow by example. (3) 19. A small ingenious device. (6) 21. A fleet of warships. (6) 22. Set free. (7) 23. Form of worship consisting of special prayers or services on nine successive days. (6) 25. Person living in solitude as a religious discipline. (6) 28. Help of a practical nature. (3) 30. A Latin bear (4) 31. The malicious burning of someone's property. (5) 32. Very light brown in colour. (4) 35. Gangster, thug. (7) 36. The day of rest. (7) 37. Calculate or estimate the value of something. (6) 38. Feeling of relaxation following release from anxiety. (6)

DOWN 2. Not perceived by the ear. (7) 3. In a pleasingly orderly and clean condition. (4) 4. Writing implement. (6) 5. Widely collected flowering plant. (6) 6. A spirited and usually cheerful song or tune. (4) 7. Popular game of chance at fetes and fairs. (7) 8. There's no blog for this rectangular object. (6) 9. He was a spy for Moses who explored Canaan. (6) 14. Bible book of origin. (7) 16. Early French fantasy author with nerve. (5) 18. Plants with woody stems or trunks. (5) 20. Its varieties are white, green, oolong and black. (3) 21. Powdery residue left after burning. (3) 23. Zero, nothing, nil. (6) 24. Things seen in trances or religious ecstasy. (7) 26. Form of textile-making using knotting. (7) 27. Acknowledgement of a fencing hit. (6) 28. Pleasant smells. (6) 29. Someone who uses a divining rod. (6) 33. Run away from danger. (4) 34. The first human to die. (4)

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH continued from page 45

YOUR LIBERATION IS CLOSE AT HAND Like last Sunday’s Gospel, this is part of Jesus’ final teaching to his disciples in Jerusalem. Used to small towns and villages, the disciples found the city exciting.

As they looked around at the temple, the massive AY D N SU stones from which it was built made it look as though ST R FI OF ADVENT it would last forever. It would be totally destroyed about forty years later after a savage war with the Romans which left little of the temple or of the city.

For both Jews and Christians who had lived through those terrible times, the destruction of the Temple was the end of the Jewish religious world as they knew it. Many probably wondered as well whether or not it might not be the first step towards the end of the world. Jesus assures them that the world will certainly come to an end one day, but not immediately. Instead of panicking, the disciples are to “stand erect, hold your heads high...because your liberation is near at hand.”

Neither Jesus nor St Luke gives us a timetable for the “end of the ages.” They do, however, tell us how to act until that time comes. “Watch yourselves or your hearts will be coarsened.” It is easy to fall into the trap of buying into a false value-system where consumerism and pleasure can take the place of more substantial values.

With the first Sunday of Advent, we embark on a new church year.

“Commercial Advent,” or the pressure to buy for Christmas, begins earlier every year. You were advised to book your office party at the end of August.

Christmas decorations began to fill the supermarket shelves the day after Halloween. In an atmosphere of such consumerism, it is easy to lose sight of the true meaning of Christmas. We might put “Christ back into Advent” by not beginning our Christmas shopping too early or by reading a short passage of scriptures each day with a little more care or by opting to send cards that remind those who receive them that ‘Jesus is the reason for the season.’

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Entry Form for Crossword No.9, November 2015 Name: Address:

Today’s Readings

Telephone:

Jer 33:14-16 Ps 24 1Thess 3:12-4:2 Luke 21: 25-28; 34-36 All entries must reach us by November 30, 2015 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. 9, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Rd., Rathgar, Dublin 6

COM M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

IT’S NOT WHO YOU ARE BUT WHAT YOU ARE THAT COUNTS

FEAR CAN PREVENT US FROM RECOGNISING THE HUMAN FACE OF A PERSON WHO IS A VICTIM OF POVERTY Someone sent me the following story. He thought I might like it.

He was right.

A preacher dressed up as a homeless person and went to the church where he was to be introduced as the new head pastor that Sunday morning. He walked around his soon-to-bechurch for 30 minutes while it was filling with people arriving for the service. Only three people said hello to him. He asked people for some change to buy food. No one gave him any change. He greeted people as they arrived, only to be greeted back with stares and dirty looks, with people looking down on him and judging him. He went in to sit down at the front of the church and was told by the ushers that he would have to sit at the back.

As he sat in the back of the church, he listened to the church announcements. When all that was done, the elders (who were in on this) went up to the altar to introduce the new pastor to the congregation. "We would like to introduce to you our new Pastor," they said. The congregation looked around, clapping with joy and anticipation. The homeless man sitting in the back stood up and started walking up the aisle.

The clapping stopped, with all eyes on him. He walked up to the altar and took the microphone from the elders and paused for a moment. Then he recited “Then the King will say to those on his right, ‘Come, you who are

blessed by my Father; take for your inheritance the kingdom prepared for you since the creation of the world. For I was hungry and you gave me something to eat, I was thirsty and you gave me something to drink, I was a stranger and you invited me in, I needed clothes and you clothed me, I was sick and you looked after me, I was in prison and you came to visit me.’ Then the righteous will answer him, ‘Lord, when did we see you hungry and feed you, or thirsty and give you something to drink? When did we see you a stranger and invite you in, or needing clothes and clothe you?

When did we see you sick or in prison and go to visit you?’ The King will reply, ‘Truly I tell you, whatever you did for one of the least of these brothers and sisters of mine, you did it for me.’”

After he recited this, he looked towards the congregation and told them all what he had experienced

that morning. Many heads were bowed in shame. He then said, “Today I see a gathering of people here, but not a church of Jesus Christ. The world has enough people, but not enough disciples. When will you decide to become disciples?” He then dismissed the service until next week, saying, “Being a Christian is more than something you claim.

It’s something you live by and share with others.”

Of course, judging people for what they do, but not for what they are, is not new. It happened to Jesus as well, two thousand years ago.

“Is not this the carpenter, the son of Mary and brother of James and Joset and Judas and Simon. His sisters, too, are they not here with us?" And they would not accept him.” (Mark 6 v3).

We all tend to label people, put them into little boxes:

“homeless people,” “drug addict,” “immigrant” and the labels shape our attitude to, and relationship with, them. We divide them into two categories, “them” and “us.”

Every week during the school year, five or six transition year students, 15 or 16 years old, spend a week in our drop-in centre for homeless people, just talking to and getting to know the people there. Even in one week, they get behind the label, “homeless person,” “drug user,” and meet the real person. They come to realise that these homeless persons, these drug users, have the same dreams, the same hopes, the same fears as themselves, except their path in life has gone in a totally different direction, usually through no fault of their own.

One young man reported afterwards: “On the first day, to be honest, I was a bit scared. Everywhere I looked, there were people I wasn’t used to meeting, or talking to, people with deep scars on their faces, torn clothes, worn shoes without soles and carrying sleeping bags from the night before. They looked rough. I sat down on a chair just inside the door. A homeless man started walking over towards me. I didn’t know if he was going to rob me or attack me. I felt like getting up and running out of the place. He stood over me, looked down and said, “Would you like a cup of tea?”

That changed everything. He realised then that there is no “them” and “us”, there is only “us”.

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CHRIST COMMUNITY COMPASSION THINK ABOUT IT

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