Reality October2015

ST GALL BANGOR'S ZEALOUS MISSIONARY

OCTOBER 2015

PAUL CLOGHER ON MISSION AND MOVIES

THE MIGRANT CRISIS WHAT SHOULD WE BE DOING?

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

WOMEN WITH A MISSION STORIES OF WOMEN WHO PLOUGHED NEW FURROWS IN THE MISSION FIELD

POPE FRANCIS’ JUBILEE OF MERCY A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON THE HOLY YEAR

MATERDOMINI

THE INTERNATIONAL SHRINE OF ST GERARD MAJELLA

PLUS PETER McVERRY SJ ON DECRIMINALISATION OF DRUG POSSESSION CARMEL WYNNE ON SIBLING RIVALRY

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IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 WOMEN WITH A MISSION: THREE IRISH WOMEN MISSION PIONEERS 1. Mother Kevin and the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa

By Sr Cecilia Sweeney FMSA 2. Mother Mary Martin and the Medical Missionaries of Mary

By Sr Carol Breslin MMM 3. Edel Quinn: Pioneering Lay Missionary

By Brendan McConvery CSsR

21 POPE FRANCIS’ JUBILEE OF MERCY A historical perspective on the Holy Year

By Salvador Ryan

12

24 QUESTIONS TO JESUS “Lord, how often shall I forgive?”

By Mike Daley

26 NICOLE ORESME The Einstein of the 14th century

By Susan Gately

28 THE MIGRANT CRISIS What should we be doing?

By Sr Deirdre Mullan

34 ‘THE SHORT-LIVED MERCY OF MEN’

38

28

The place of missionaries in two films

By Paul Clogher

38 MATERDOMINI

OPINION

REGULARS

The International Shrine of St Gerard

By Brendan McConvery CSsR

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

04 REALITY BITES

20 KATY DOBEY

07 POPE MONITOR

33 CARMEL WYNNE

08 IRISH SAINT OF THE MONTH

41 WORLD JUSTICE IS A LOCAL AFFAIR Raising awareness of global poverty and equality

By Hannah Evans

47 PETER Mc VERRY SJ

09 REFLECTIONS 42 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 44 GOD’S WORD

REALITY BITES AWARD FOR KERRY REDEMPTORIST

STUDENTS SATISFIED WITH THEIR CATHOLIC COLLEGES Catholic third-level institutes Britain and Northern Ireland have come out of this year’s National Student Survey with very positive student ratings. St Mary’s University College Belfast, which was threatened with closure earlier this year, was second overall, with 96 per cent of students saying they were satisfied. The Jesuit-run Heythrop College in London, also threatened with closure, came twenty-first. Both Newman University in Birmingham and Liverpool Hope University (a Catholic-Anglican foundation) were placed 35th. The Student Survey measures students’ satisfaction by asking final-year undergraduates to answer questions about their learning experience, including whether the course was intellectually stimulating.

INCREASE IN STUDENTS TAKING A-LEVEL RELIGION

4

Fr Seán Myers CSsR preparing for Mass in the Brazilian interior

KILLARNEY

NO OPTION BUT TO HELP

It has been announced that the 2015 Hugh O’Flaherty International Humanitarian Award will be awarded to Fr Seán Myers, a Kerry born Redemptorist Missionary in Brazil. It will be presented to Fr Seán by the Mayor of Killarney on Saturday October 31. The award is named after Monsignor Hugh O’Flahery, ‘the Vatican Pimpernel’ who with his colleagues in the Rome Escape Line, saved more than 6,500 lives during the Nazi occupation of Rome.

Nominations have been invited for people or organisations, which have displayed the same humanitarian ideals and principals of the Monsignor and would be deserving of this Award.

From a shortlist of ten nominees, Fr Myers was chosen as the recipient for 2015. He was nominated by the Fossa Community, where he was born some 85 years ago.

In the spring of 1960, the recently ordained Fr REALITY OCTOBER 2015

Seán with two confreres arrived in north east Brazil and assumed responsibility for a parish over half the size of the island of Ireland. The citation states: “Much of the part of Brazil to which he was assigned in 1960 was unknown, inaccessible, ignored and neglected by the authorities. He quickly became widely known as “Padre Joao”. During his parish visits to the remote villages and homesteads in the interior, he encountered people who lived in isolation, without water, often hungry, illiterate and undocumented. He found people who lived in fear of eviction, women who worried about loss in childbirth and children who spent their days tending animals. Having no deeds or proof of ownership ensured vulnerability when faced with the notorious “land grabbers” and corrupt officials...

He identified with their sense of helplessness and hopelessness. He knew the value of education, good health and the necessity of water and road access. His humanitarian and Christian spirit told him he had no option but to help.”

Figures for the 2015 A-level or final secondary school examinations show an increase in the number of students taking religious studies. This year, more than 23,000 students took religious studies, an increase of 6.5 per cent on the previous year and more than double the number who took it in 2003, an increase of more than 110%. This makes it one of the fastest growing examination subjects, with only further maths showing more rapid growth.

The National Association of Teachers of Religion commented that religious studies are important because an understanding of religions and how they work is essential for understanding modern Britain.

The spokesperson for the association commented: “Pupils want to study it because it allows them to explore crucial questions in relation to beliefs, values and morality, and contributes to their preparation for living in a multifaith, multicultural world.” It also provides an excellent foundation for further academic study. According to researchers at Durham University, religious studies is not ‘an easy option.’ In examination terms, it was in the middle-difficulty range, similar to geography, and more demanding than English.

N E WS

Football mad Cilla with Bill Shankly, Liverpool manager 1971

CATHOLIC FUNERAL FOR CILLA LIVERPOOL

The popular singer and television presenter, Cilla Black, received a Catholic funeral at her family’s local Catholic Church in Liverpool where she had been married and which is served by the Redemptorist Community of Bishop Eton. The Mass was celebrated by Bishop Tom Williams, Auxiliary Bishop of Liverpool. Born Priscilla Maria Veronica White, she belonged to a typically Irish Catholic Liverpool family. The Gospel reading was the story of the Journey to Emmaus(Luke24) and the hymns included traditional favourites like “All Things Bright and Beautiful,” “The Lord is my Shepherd,” “Amazing Grace,” and “Guide me, O Thou Great Redeemer.” In his homily, Bishop Williams said: “Cilla and I come from the same neighbourhood... I didn't know her, but I knew many of the characters and people that she knew and loved. It was a community of survivors, particularly the strong women. They were all strong individuals, but each was blessed with an innate determination, and opinionated, but also good listeners: passionate and committed, but with 'tongues that could take tar off walls'. No fools, but with hearts of gold and sentimental to a fault. Honest and generous, but you never crossed them. And over and above all that they had a fierce pride, a strong faith and a wicked sense of humour. That's why I said at the beginning of our Mass, and with confidence, that Cilla - the person - and mother - had five 'F' words in her life: Family, Friends, Football and Fun, and the word that gave meaning to them all was 'FAITH', a happy and tough upbringing; a faith that gave her confidence in crisis, a faith that kept her afloat, even when she clung to it for dear life.”

Cilla Black 1943 - 2015

The love of her life: Husband Bobby Willis

ISLAMIC STATE DESTROYS HISTORIC MONASTERY SYRIA

Mar Elian Monastery

HISTORY LOST FOREVER

Islamic State militants have bulldozed Mar Elian Monastery, an ancient structure located just outside a Syrian town of Al Quaryatayn. Mar Elian monastery was founded some time before the year 500. The monastery provided refuge to hundreds of Syrians displaced Two members of Mar Elian's community had been abducted earlier, the prior Father Jacques Mourad and a deacon, Boutros Hanna. The Islamic State has

GOODBYE TO A LIVERPOOL LASS

persecuted all people who do not belong to the Sunni Islamic sect in its territory – Christians, Yazidis, and even Shia Muslims. It destroys any non-Sunni religious sites, which it regarded as pagan. In addition to Christian churches, it has destroyed Shia mosques and shrines, as well as

archaeological sites of ancient pre-Islamic cities.

Islamic State militants are reported to have killed Khaled al-Asaad, an 81-year-old archaeologist in charge of the Roman city of Palmyra. In the four years since the outbreak of the Syrian civil war, almost a quarter of a million people have been killed. Four million have become refugees and another eight million are displaced within their own country. What began as demonstrations against president, Bashar al-Assad and his Ba'athist party, has become a complex fight involving the Syrian regime, moderate rebels, Kurds and Islamists, such as al-Nusra Front and the Islamic State. continued on page 6

5

REALITY BITES THREE ANNIVERSARIES AT TAIZÉ TAIZÉ

6

BORN TO SERVE

This year the French ecumenical monastic community of Taizé celebrates three important anniversaries – the centenary of the birth of its founder, Roger Schutz, the seventy-fifth anniversary of the community’s beginnings and the tenth anniversary of Bro Roger’s death.

Born the son of a Swiss Reformed pastor and his wife in Vaud, Switzerland, on 12 May 1915, Roger Schutz began the study of theology with a view to entering the ministry. The outbreak of World War II led to a change of plan. He believed God was calling him to serve people who suffered because of the war, and he cycled from his home to the village of Taizé, in what was then unoccupied France. He bought an empty house where, for two years, he and his sister Genevieve hid refugees, both Christian and Jewish, until they were forced to leave Taizé because of threats from the Gestapo. He returned four years later, accompanied this time by a group of similarly minded young men, who would become the nucleus of a monastic community living in celibacy and poverty. Gradually, the community was drawn into the work of reconciliation between France and Germany, and then into the ecumenical movement. After the student riots throughout Europe in 1968, it became a place of meeting for young people of different nationalities and religious backgrounds, many of whom were attracted by

the community’s style of prayer and liturgical music. Imitating the life style of the Little Brothers and Sisters of Jesus, the Taizé Community has also some small fraternities living among disadvantaged people.

With the Second Vatican Council’s commitment to striving for unity between the Churches, Taizé became an important centre for dialogue and theological research, and Catholic men were drawn to the community. Roger Schutz never formally entered the Catholic Church, but over the course of the years, he entered progressively into a” full communion in the faith” of the Catholic Church, without a “conversion,” which would have implied for him a break with his Reformed origins. Speaking at a meeting in Rome in the presence of Pope John Paul II, he said, “I have found my own identity as a Christian by reconciling within myself the faith of my origins with the mystery of the Catholic faith, without breaking fellowship with anyone.” The Pope, who was present, did not contradict him, and indeed, on occasion, he gave Roger communion at Papal Masses.

Roger was stabbed on 16 August, 2005 by a mentally distressed woman as he took his place among the brothers and pilgrims for evening prayer.

His funeral took place following a Requiem Mass concelebrated by Cardinal Kasper, president of the Pontifical Council for Promoting Christian Unity, and four Taizé brothers, who were Catholic priests.

Evening Vespers at Taizé and insert, Bro Roger

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

SISTERS APPEAL TO AMERICAN SUPREME COURT

Sr Loraine Marie Maguire speaking to local media

The Little Sisters of the Poor have announced that they are appealing to the Supreme Court over a federal contraception mandate which obliges employers to offer health insurance covering contraception, sterilization and the use of drugs that may cause early abortion. The sisters’ provincial superior, Sr. Loraine Marie Maguire, emphasized that, as religious women who have dedicated their lives to serving the neediest in society with love and dignity, they should not have to comply with a law that infringes their conscience. The sisters are among several hundred plaintiffs that have challenged the contraception mandate. Employers who fail to comply with the mandate face crippling penalties. In the case of the Little Sisters, the fines could amount to around $2.5 million (€ 2.2 million) a year, or about 40 percent of the $6 (€5.27) million the Sisters beg for annually to run their ministry.

Because the Little Sisters of the Poor are not affiliated with a particular house of worship, they do not qualify for the religious exemption to the mandate. The federal government has argued that it has sufficiently provided for the religious freedom of the Little Sisters and other religious organizations through an “accommodation,” under which the faith-based employers can pass the burden of providing the objectionable coverage to insurers, who must then offer it directly to employees without cost.

“In America, judges and government bureaucrats have no authority to tell the Little Sisters what is moral or immoral,” said Mark Rienzi, senior counsel of the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty and attorney for the Little Sisters. “And the government can distribute its drugs without nuns – it has its own healthcare exchanges that can provide whatever it wants.”

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS POPE FRANCIS CHANGES NULLITY PROCEEDINGS While a juridical process is necessary for making accurate judgments, the Catholic Church’s marriage annulment process must be quicker, cheaper and much more of a pastoral ministry, Pope Francis has said. Introducing new legislation for the process, he said he was not “promoting the nullity of marriages, but the quickness of the processes, as well as a correct simplicity” of procedure so that Catholic couples would not be “oppressed by the shadow of doubt” for prolonged periods. The changes will come into effect on 8th December, the same day as the “Year of Mercy” begins.

While the grounds for annulment have not changed, the changes were motivated by “concern for the salvation of souls,” and “charity and mercy” toward people who feel alienated from the church because of what they perceive as the complexity and slowness of the annulment process. In certain well defined circumstances, a bishop will be authorised to issue a declaration of nullity after an abbreviated process. Pope Francis also ordered that the “gratuity of the procedure be assured so that, in a matter so closely tied to the salvation of souls, the church -- by demonstrating to the faithful that she is a generous mother -- may demonstrate the gratuitous love of Christ, which saves us all.”

POPE IN THE PEW

St Pius X

Pope Francis has a special devotion to St Pius X and usually prays for catechists on that day. This year, he said Mass early and then went to St Peter’s Basilica to pray at St Pius’ tomb. About seventy people were already sitting or kneeling, waiting the seven o’clock Mass to begin. One of the basilica staff went to the sacristy where three priests were preparing to celebrate at the altar. “The pope's at the altar of St. Pius X!" he told them. "What do we do? Turn back?" they asked. "No, no, go ahead," was the answer.

When the little procession arrived at the altar, the celebrant looked at the pope, who nodded as if to encourage him to begin the celebration. He went down to the pope for the sign of peace. At Communion, the pope stood in line with the other members of the congregation. The celebrant told a journalist that Pope Francis and St. Pius X have a similar style: "a style of church where everyone -- pastors and faithful -- are brothers and sisters. It's the style and sensitivity of a man who was placed by the Lord at the service of the entire church, but who wants to walk with all the faithful with simplicity, modesty and the example of the saints."

THE POPE & THE FALKLANDS During a general audience at the Vatican on 19th August, a group of Argentinian pilgrims pushed a sign into the hands of Pope Francis. It read (in Spanish): “The time has come for dialogue between Argentina and the United Kingdom about the Malvinas.” Photographs of the Pope holding the sign spread rapidly on social media. Argentine politicians, including President Christina Kirchner, were not slow to take advantage of it.

The Vatican Press Office, however, clarified that Pope Francis has no intention of intervening in the dispute between Britain and Argentina over the ownership of the Falkland Islands. Fr Ciro Benedettini, vice director of the Holy See Press Office, explained that the photo was taken at an event in which people often give objects to the Holy Father and photograph him holding them. “There has been no change of position on this issue. The Pope does not want to enter into this debate. Holding something does not mean that he is taking a position either way,” he said. According to the press office, Pope Francis did not even know what the small poster said when it was thrust upon him.

More Pope Monitor on page 46

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IRISH SAINT OF THE MONTH ST GALL (550-646) Feast Day: 16 October

For reasons of their role in the Christian tradition, their martyrdom or their family relationship, some saints are remembered in pairs: Peter and Paul, Perpetua and Felicity, Augustine and Monica; and in the Irish missionary tradition Columban and Gall.

Like Columban, Gall was a monk of Bangor on the shore of Belfast Lough. From here about 590, a sturdy band of missionaries set sail for the Continent. After much travelling they reached Burgundy and settled among the Vosges Mountains on the Franco-German border. Within twenty years, the combined numbers of their three foundations numbered about two hundred monks. The Irish monks were expelled in 610 because Columban was too outspoken for the civil and religious authorities of the day.

Gall’s character now comes more into clearer focus, as Columban’s right-hand man, a zealous missionary, an effective linguist, and a gifted fisherman. He also seems to have been impetuous and lacking in the diplomatic niceties, landing sometimes in serious trouble and lucky to escape with his life. Once his enthusiasm got the better of him, and he tipped over a large vat of beer being preparing for a local festival. With the vat went any hope of winning converts. Another incident occurred when Gall dumped some pagan images into Lake Constance. Two monks who went to fetch the monastery cows for milking never returned and their bodies found in a nearby wood. It was time to move on.

Columban’s decision to cross the Alps into Northern Italy was not well received. Winter was approaching, and the refugee-Irish were wearying of interminable wanderings. Gall pleaded ‘unfit to travel.’ To this plea, Columban replied, “I know brother, that now it seems to you a heavy burden to endure toil and weariness for my sake. Nevertheless, as long as I live, you are never to celebrate Mass.’ The life-long friends parted. Gall got into his boat and headed to the little town of Arbon in Switzerland where he was nursed back to health. When well enough, he sought out a wilderness on the northern side of the Swiss Alps and settled there for the rest of his days.

Despite invitations to return to Luxeuil as abbot or to become bishop of Constance, Gall decided to stay where he was. Two years after parting with Columban, he had a presentment that he had died, so he was once more free to celebrate the Mass. After his death, the city of St Gallen grew up around his grave. There is no hard evidence of an organised religious community there until the appointment of Othmar as abbot of St Gallen in 720. Nothing indicates any connection with the Irish except that it seems to have followed Columban traditions until the eighth century when it adopted the Benedictine Rule.

St Gallen was an important centre of Irish influence in mediaeval Europe. Irish pilgrims visited Gall’s tomb or stopped over on their way to and from Rome. The Irish monks were fine scholars and left a permanent stamp on the intellectual standing of the abbey. The Library of St Gallen is second to only Verona as Europe’s oldest library. It contains many Irish manuscripts from as early as the 9th century when Moengal the Irish monk was head of the monastic school. ‘Exceedingly learned in sacred and in secular knowledge,’ Moengal so influenced figures such as Notker the Stammerer in the development of church music that ‘some historians have seen the influence of Moengal’s Irish musical tastes in the fame thus acquired by St Gall.’ Isn’t that something to sing about!

John J. Ó Riordáin, CSsR REALITY OCTOBER 2015

Volume 80. No. 8 October 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

St Gall preaching on the shores of lake Zurich by Ludwig Glötzle

8

Reality

(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 It always helps to have a bit of a prayer in your back pocket.

At the end of the day, you got to have something and for me it’s God, Jesus, my Catholic upbringing, my faith.

LIAM NEESON

Sorrow can be alleviated by good sleep, a bath and a glass of wine.

You can discover more about a person in an hour of play than in a year of conversation.

PLATO

C.S. LEWIS

I am quite sure I am more afraid of people who are themselves terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.

ST TERESA OF AVILA

ST THOMAS AQUINAS

Every day I'm trying to be more humble and how do you do that?

I guess, every day, we have Mass. Every day, I pray the rosary. That's what I do.

JIM CAVIEZEL

Character is like a tree and reputation is its shadow. The shadow is what you think of it. The tree is the real thing.

ABRAHAM LINCOLN

The world is not a wishgranting factory.

JOHN GREEN, THE FAULT IN OUR STARS

The heart of a mother is a deep abyss at the bottom of which you will always find forgiveness.

HONORÉ DE BALZAC

We must be willing to let go of the life we have planned, so as to have the life that is waiting for us.

E.M. FORSTER

In light of heaven, the worst suffering on earth will be seen to be no more serious than one night in an inconvenient hotel.

Let no one ever come to you without leaving better and happier. Be the living expression of God’s kindness.

When you think of the long and gloomy history of man, you will find more hideous crimes have been committed in the name of obedience than have ever been committed in the name of rebellion.

ST TERESA OF CALCUTTA

C.P. SNOW

JOYCE GRENFELL

There is nothing in the world so irresistibly contagious as laughter and good humour.

CHARLES DICKENS

ST TERESA OF AVILA

There is no such thing as the pursuit of happiness, but there is the discovery of joy.

The Christian does not think God will love us because we are good, but that God will make us good because He loves us.

Fear is such a powerful emotion for humans that when we allow it to take us over, it drives compassion right out of our hearts.

ST THOMAS AQUINAS

I've always been bad.

Probably I shall be bad again, punished again. But the worse I am, the more I need God. I can't shut myself out from His mercy.

EVELYN WAUGH

It takes an awful lot of living with the powerless to really understand what it is like to be powerless, to have your voice, thoughts, ideas and concerns count for very little.

JOHN O’DONOHUE

To be a Christian means to forgive the inexcusable because God has forgiven the inexcusable in you.

C.S. LEWIS

9

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

E DI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

WOMEN WITH A MISSION

World

Mission Sunday is celebrated each year on the second last Sunday of October. This year, that day coincides with the feast of St Luke. In addition to his Gospel, Luke wrote the first history of the Christian mission in the Acts of the Apostles. Contemporary biblical scholarship has taught us to read these brief narratives with an eye to a richer underlying story, and especially what has been described as the “hidden history of women” in the Church. While Peter and Paul are clearly the major pioneering figures at the beginnings of the Church’s mission, Priscilla is every bit as capable an instructor of new converts as her husband Aquila. Phoebe, who has made her money from haute couture, funds the first new mission territory in Europe. Dorcas is head of social outreach for the church of Joppa.

As we remember all Irish missionaries and their work this month, let us remember especially the contribution of Irish women, lay and religious, Catholic, Protestant and Dissenter, to the Church’s commitment to continuing the mission of Jesus as evangelist, teacher and healer. According to the standard reference history of Irish Catholic missions, Edmund Hogan’s The Irish Missionary Movement, the sisters were there from the beginning. In 1839, less than 25 years after their foundation, the first five Irish Sisters of Charity left for what was then the unknown territory of Australia. The same year, the Cork Ursulines sent members of their community to British Guiana, becoming the first Irish missionaries in the South American continent.

Irish Loreto Sisters went to Mauritius in 1840.

The following year, more Loreto sisters and Presentation Sisters went to India. And so it continued throughout the nineteenth century.

That the sisters were English speakers made them particularly welcome wherever the map

showed the red of empire. It led perhaps also to an unconscious alliance with colonialism that was not shaken off until the middle of the twentieth century. The work those early sisters did was almost universally in the domain of education. Early in their time on Calcutta, the Loreto Sisters were told to discontinue the supervision of a hospital they had taken on.

Something of a “Golden Age” for Irish missionaries, both men and women, began in the second decade of the twentieth century. It may be simply chance that it coincided with the flowering of the movement for independence but it may also be a fact that the idealism and energy of a new Ireland found a ready channel in the work of the foreign missions. In addition to the communities that continued to send members to work abroad, a number of new communities were founded exclusively for the work of foreign missions. The first women who would form the nucleus of the Missionary Sisters of St Columban gathered in a house in Cahircon, Co Clare in February, 1922, to go to what was for Irish Catholic women, the totally new territory of China. In October the following year, eight women began a process that would lead to the foundation of the Holy Rosary Sisters who saw Nigeria as the place where they would work. The founding story of two other groups, the Franciscan Missionaries for Africa and the Medical Missionaries of Mary are told at greater length in this issue.

There are probably few places in the world where you will not meet an Irish sister, either a member of an Irish community or a member of an international congregation with Irish members.

What was distinctive about the work of this generation of women is the priority it gave to the medical care of women and their children.

The Holy See’s reserve about allowing religious women to practise certain medical skills,

particularly in surgery and obstetrical care, was driven by an outdated concept of modesty, and it is to the credit of strong-minded women like Mary Martin and Kevin Kearney that they saw the folly of this and refused to back down.

It is impossible to estimate their contribution to the health of African women, continuing into the more recent struggle against AIDS. In recent decades, willing partners of the sisters have been laywomen, qualified as doctors or nurses, who have come to spend several years working under the trying conditions of a hospital in the developing world.

During a state to Malawi last year, President Higgins said that “Ireland’s original pioneers and ambassadors in Africa were our missionaries,” and that he and his wife were always amazed as they travelled through the Third World by the number of people whose lives have been changed by “the education and health services which are the legacy of these selfless, dedicated and committed individuals.” They are now an aging group. Much of their work in the field will be continued by congregations that have sprouted from their mother stem. Another Irish president, Mary McAleese, remarked that “No one forced them to come here. No law except the law of love." From where will Ireland get that sense of idealism and love in the future?

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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C OV E R STO RY

12

Women with a Mission REALITY OCTOBER 2015

MOTHER KEVIN 1875 – 1957 A WICKLOW-BORN ORPHAN WAS A PIONEER IN WORK FOR HEALTH CARE AND EDUCATION FOR AFRICAN WOMEN. KNOWN AFFECTIONATELY AS “MAMA KEVINA,” TERESA KEARNEY FOUNDED THE FRANCISCAN MISSIONARY SISTERS FOR AFRICA (MOUNT OLIVER) AND THE LITTLE SISTERS OF ST FRANCIS.

BY SR CECILIA SWEENEY FMSA

Teresa

Kearney was born in a farmhouse in Knockenrahan, Co Wicklow, in April 1875 and was given the name of Teresa of Avila in baptism. She was born just twenty-eight years after the worst famine year - 1847. Her father died before she was born and she lost her mother when she was only ten years old.

Teresa experienced the loneliness of an orphan very early in life as well as the loss of her family home and the break-up of her family. Her older sisters went to America – a common refuge for many Irish people at that time. The final blow was the death of her beloved grandmother, to whom she had turned after her mother died, on the 10th anniversary of her mother’s death.

Her early life was so traumatised by these family sorrows that one might have expected a needy insecure personality to develop. This was far from the case of Teresa Kearney. She was a lively, warm hearted young girl who loved nature, entered fully into life and never settled for half measures. Her early encounter with death and loss, the struggles of those times and her personal state as an orphan probably gave her an extra sensitivity towards children and people in need and helped to prepare her for a life of commitment to the service of the people, especially the poor and vulnerable.

ENTERING THE CONVENT From early in her life, Teresa Kearney had the heart of a missionary disciple. She seems to have had a strong sense of being called and a personal dream to go and help African

people in need. No stranger to suffering and separation, she drew strength from meditating on the Passion of Christ and made it her special dedication at her religious profession as a Franciscan Sister in St Mary’s Abbey, Mill Hill, London.

Teresa entered St Mary’s Abbey in 1895.

The vocation to serve on the foreign missions was deeply esteemed. This was the reign of Queen Victoria and the fairly rigid, but safe and predictable fashion of social life, was also the norm for convent life. It is a tribute to Teresa Kearney, now Sister Kevin, that she emerged from the tragedies of her youth and restrictions of her times to become a valiant and forward – looking woman.

There is little record of her spiritual growth during her time in the Abbey. She did not keep a journal but she was noted for zeal and generosity. Early in her religious life, she volunteered for her community’s American mission. Asked if she was willing to go to Uganda instead, Sr Kevin was delighted and danced around the room with another Sister! The epic journey involved excitement, enthusiasm and zeal.

A look at what they packed shows the total contrast with modern missionary travel and modern Africa: they packed a stove, a coffee grinder, a washtub, and a supply of sun helmets!

Morton Stanley, the explorer, met King Kabaka Mutesa, who told him that the people of the Great Lakes wanted missionaries to come and bring them God’s Word! These two events came together in January 1903 when the six Franciscan sisters arrived on the shores in the Kingdom of Buganda. Bishop Henry Hanlon, a Mill Hill Missionary, had asked for volunteers to work there. His special interest and concern was the care and development of women and girls. When the Sisters finally reached Uganda, they were met by laughing, clapping people. They were charmed and their diarist says: “Sr Kevin looked as though she had been left a fortune”! Her life long bond with the people of Uganda had begun.

She was a lively, warm hearted young girl who loved nature, entered fully into life and never settled for half measures

UGANDA In the month that Teresa Kearney was born in Wicklow, April 1875, in far off Uganda, Henry

Uganda was both a natural paradise (often referred to as ‘the pearl of Africa’) and a place of fear and hardship. The people had come through the Arab slave trade and were exhausted from wars and political oppression under Kabaka Mwanga.

They were also confused by the sectarian strife among the religious bodies. Officially, Uganda had become a protectorate under Britain but the medical service was in its infancy. Diseases were rampant: malaria, virulent fever, plague, leprosy and a terrible incidence of infant mortality and maternal deaths. The sisters’ healing ministry began with the setting up of a dispensary under

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a mango tree at Nsambya as Kevin and her companions dispensed what remedies they could.

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MEETING THE CHALLENGE The task facing Sr Kevin and her companions was huge and, despite their small numbers, they were not deterred. As well as lacking adequate staff, they battled with superstition, lack of funding, lack of medicine, equipment, transport and reliable means of communication.

From the start, Sr Kevin showed vision and courage in entering the unexplored world of the African interior. In those early years, her faith and courage in adversity were unfailing.

Sr Kevin was totally without any sense of racial superiority and enjoyed visiting the people in their homes, bringing medicines and comfort.

She closely resembled St Francis in her love for the poor and suffering and to the people she became known as ‘Mama Kevina’. After her death, one Ugandan woman recalled her visit to their home in a time of plague. By the time Kevin arrived, the woman was already dead.

Her daughter recalled how with her own hands, the sister washed her mother’s body. She spoke out strongly on the fundamental principles of justice, especially during the war years when she saw Ugandan soldiers being treated not, as people, but as ‘load carrying units’. She became so strongly associated with healing and providing that, in the war years, the Baganda soldiers in Burma called the plane which brought their provisions ‘The Mama Kevina’.

TRAIL BLAZING Mother Kevin was a trail – blazer, a prophetic woman ahead of her times. Her advanced thinking on the issue of midwifery was very evident. It may have been the untimely death of her mother and her experience as an orphan that contributed to her concern with the appalling rate of maternal and infant death she found in Uganda. She brought her plea for women to Cardinal Bourne of Westminster. Her efforts helped procure more liberal legislation from Rome in 1936 and won the right for sisters to engage in maternity work. She would doubtless be pleased with the care given to mothers and children today and there would be a special place in her heart for those orphaned by the HIV/AIDS pandemic, where children head REALITY OCTOBER 2015

Mother Kevin Kearney

households and the grandmothers struggle to look after their orphaned grandchildren as her grandmother once loved and cared for her.

In the treatment of leprosy too, Mother Kevin showed herself to be very forward thinking. She understood the fear that the disease inspired and saw it as a grave social problem as well as a medical one. In 1932, she set up the first leprosarium at Nyenga, five miles from the source of the Nile and another at Buluba on the shores of the great Lake Victoria/ Nyanza. They revolutionised the lives of the sufferers as treatment and rehabilitation took place.

AN AFRICAN CONGREGATION OF SISTERS Mother Kevin helped people to become pioneers in their own right in many fields. In 1923, a group of Ugandan girls approached her and asked to become sisters, she realised that it was an audacious proposal. With profound faith in God’s providence, she started plans for a local Congregation that would grow and develop close to its roots. This was the beginning of the Little Sisters of St Francis, their title based on St Francis’s injunction to be the ‘minores’ or little ones.

EDUCATION Mother Kevin fought for the education of African women. “We are pledged to do everything possible for the welfare of the women in this

country,” she held. Circumstances and tragedy had limited her own educational opportunities but she had a passion for life-long learning. Her contribution to the development and expansion of education in East Africa is legendary. She wanted to create a better life for the women of Uganda and knew that education was the key to their advancement. Her programmes were always life – related. She blended child welfare and mother care with reading and writing, ensuring that traditional song and dance, as well as religious studies, were part of the learning programme.

She made radical calls on the people in the home territories to be part of this missionary work.The Director of Education in Uganda described her work as: “Potentially the most productive I ever knew… a real source of inspiration to anyone who believes in spiritual values in education”.

A WOMAN OF FAITH: Mother Kevin believed that a fruitful harvest depended even more on prayer and sacrifice than on activity. Throughout her life, she faced many challenges but her faith was unwavering.

While she received a much recognition for her ground breaking missionary work, she remained kind, humble and practical .When awarded the M.B.E. for her work at Nsambya during the war years, she held a children’s party to celebrate the event. Perhaps her message to us today would be similar to what she gave a Little Sister of St Francis who went to her for advice. The Sister says: “I came to Mother in floods of tears to tell her of my despair. After talking kindly to me for a minutes, she picked up a basket with four little kittens in it. She lifted each and tried to put it down on the floor but each one clung to her hands, digging tiny claws into her sleeves. Then she smiled at me and said: ‘Be like the little kittens, cling on!

God is your Heavenly Father. If you cling to Him, nothing evil can happen to you. Fear nothing.

Trust in God’”.

Sister Cecilia K Sweeney is a member of the Franciscan Missionary Sisters for Africa. She was born in Donegal and entered the Franciscan Novitiate at Mt Oliver, Dundalk. She has been on ministry in East and Southern Africa for many years and is presently in the Generalate of the FMSA in Sandymount, Dublin.

MARIE MARTIN AND THE MEDICAL MISSIONARIES OF MARY THE MEDICAL MISSIONARIES OF MARY WERE ONE OF THE FIRST ORDERS OF WOMEN WHO WERE ALLOWED TO PRACTISE AS DOCTORS, SURGEONS AND MIDWIVES. THEIR FOUNDATION IS THE LIFE-STORY OF A REMARKABLE WOMAN

BY SR CAROL BRESLIN MMM

Marie

Martin was a pioneer in health services, in women’s development, education, and religious life. Her experience convinced her that dedicated women were needed to bring health care to places where there was none, especially to mothers and children. She welcomed diversity and saw the need for freedom to make decisions, to be courageous, and to be professional in work. This A young Marie Martin with wounded soldiers in Malta required a deep spirituality. At the time, for her and for others who shared her ideas, a religious, and especially a missionary, I would this was radical thinking. Above all she wanted to be the mother of millions and millions of souls. discover and follow God’s will in her life.

I made up my mind then and there that, with FALLING IN LOVE Born into a comfortable merchant family in Glenageary, Co Dublin, in 1892, Marie Martin loved her home and family and enjoyed the social whirl. Nevertheless, having finished school she wondered, “What was I going to do with my life?

I was very fond of nursing the sick and the poor.

I used to go out and visit all the poor people of the parish.I prayed and asked God to show me His will.”

Marie fell in love and for a while, thought seriously of marriage but a turning point came during a visit to the local church.

“This day...I was thinking more seriously about the matter. I just fell to the foot of the altar and I told Our Lord about my anxiety and my ideas for the future, asking Him to let me know what He would wish and like a flash, I saw that if I became

God’s help I would offer myself somewhere to do mission work and to be the mother of souls, if He was good enough to call me to be His spouse.

I went into town and I met my friend. I had my mind made up: marriage was out of the question.”

Years later, Marie would say of Gerald, “He was the person I most loved in all the world.”

NURSING AT THE FRONT When World War I began, Marie started training as a Red Cross nurse. Two of her brothers, Tommy and Charlie, were in the Gallipoli campaign. Red Cross nurses were asked to volunteer and Marie sailed for Malta in 1915. She was posted to a military hospital where she learned that Charlie was missing in action. In 1916, she was sent to nurse in France. There she got the news that Charlie had died. Marie Martin experienced the horrors and carnage of war.

“During that time in France,” she said, “I saw what one can do as a nurse. I just thought, what a wonderful thing it would be if we could have a group of women dedicated to God, heart and soul, with only one thought, to love Him and to love souls, and through that to give them the comfort of the Catholic Church. How this was to be done I’d no idea but that stuck in my mind so I prayed and waited.”

Back at home, a priest asked her if she would help Bishop Shanahan in Nigeria. He wanted religious women to care for the sick and for women and babies at birth.

Marie offered to go. The bishop did not encourage her but said he would discuss it with his council.

AFRICA CALLING Marie started midwifery training to prepare and met another woman called Agnes Ryan, who was doing medicine and wanted to join her. One day a cable arrived from the bishop: “Urgently needed, if you do not mind coming alone.”

The two women sailed for Nigeria in 1921. They were told they were not to do medical work but to run a school and teach catechism. Though disappointed, they agreed. Soon Agnes became ill and returned home. Marie now continued as best she could.

She saw people in great need of health care, but the Church did not allow women religious to practice surgery or obstetrics. Nevertheless Marie, Bishop Shanahan and his council discussed beginning a missionary congregation, with Marie

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Sr Marie Martin

as the foundress. She began religious training and was about to receive her habit when a telegram arrived: “Come home.” Bishop Shanahan had decided to begin the new society in Ireland with the help of the Dominican Sisters.

When Marie told the priests in Nigeria she was going, they said, “If you go home there will never be a congregation of medical missionaries.” She replied, “Obedience will never stop any work. If God wishes this, nothing will stop it.” She went home by the next boat.

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PURSUING A DREAM Though persuaded to complete her religious training in the new Holy Rosary Congregation, Marie felt from the start that she was in the wrong place. Believing she would not be doing God’s will in a teaching congregation, she left in 1926.

Uncertain, she applied to the Carmelites but was advised to try instead to find an Order that would do the work she believed so necessary for the Catholic missions. She worked with a priest founding a medical missionary Order, but returned home after a year, her health broken down. Marie said, “I just thought I was a failure...

The doctors thought I would never be able for any active work again.”

Now her spiritual guide encouraged her to draw up more definite plans for the kind of society she had in mind. In 1933 she spoke to Archbishop Robinson, Papal Nuncio in Ireland. He said her ideas were an inspiration from God, but she should wait until the Holy Father spoke. Marie was disappointed because she had already gathered a group of interested women.

Marie was attracted by Benedictine spirituality and she heard that the Benedictine monks needed help with the housekeeping at their boarding school at Glenstal. She offered to help, REALITY OCTOBER 2015

if the monks would give her and her companions religious conferences. They agreed and in March 1934, Miss Martin and Miss Leydon arrived in Glenstal. Another setback came when a heavy radiator fell on Marie’s foot, necessitating prolonged treatment. Still, there was hope.

Another member, Miss O’Rourke arrived in February 1935.

While Marie was in hospital, she received a visit from Monsignor Joseph Moynagh. Appointed Prefect Apostolic of Calabar, Nigeria, in 1934, he wanted to reopen a hospital and needed staff.

Marie thought she could find two nurses. She also said she wanted to start a medical congregation to help mothers and children in Africa and asked if he would accept her in his prefecture, if permission was granted. He was so impressed by her that he agreed.

Bishop Moynagh later remarked, “The thought in the back of my mind was that she would never be able to come, but I did say yes and I did feel that she had something extraordinary.”

Martin. Marie was invited to a meeting. The outcome was that the new congregation should be founded in Africa. Monsignor Moynagh was informed in Nigeria. He had to keep his promise to Marie!

There were further misunderstandings before the group could depart for Nigeria, but Dom Bede, a monk of Glenstal, thanking Marie for all she had done for monastery and school, wrote: “The comforting way in spiritual things is not to be humanly sure of tomorrow. Tomorrow belongs to God.” On 8 December 1936 Monsignor Moynagh cabled, “Come”.

On 28 December, Marie Martin sailed for Nigeria with Bridie O’Rourke and Mary Moynagh. When they arrived, Marie’s companions went on to Anua. Marie arrived later with Archbishop Riberi

BEGINNING THE WORK Marie rejoined her companions in Glenstal in July 1935 and by the following January, she had drafted the MMM Constitutions. Events now moved quickly. After a retreat at Kylemore Abbey in February, Marie was shown the news that Rome had given permission for religious to do maternity work in mission countries and encouraged the formation of of societies for this purpose. Marie exclaimed, “This is an answer to ten years of prayer!”

In March 1936 she wrote to Rome with her plans to found a missionary group that would include all branches of medicine, with special dedication to maternity work. Permission arrived on 5 May 1936. By now, three other women had joined the group and it was decided that they would move to Dublin in September. Marie’s mother offered the basement of the family home, Greenbank, as temporary accommodation.

The next problem was to find a bishop to accept the MMM foundation in Ireland. In October 1936, Archbishop Antonio Riberi, the Nuncio to East and West Africa, visited the Dublin Nunciature.

He had been present when Marie had first met Archbishop Robinson, and he asked about Miss

and Monsignor Moynagh to plan the founding of MMM. By 2 March 1937 they had sent the final letters to Rome.

Marie now became very ill with malaria and was transferred to the European Hospital in Port Harcourt, arriving on Holy Thursday 1937. After Easter, word came that Monsignor Moynagh was authorized to erect the Congregation of the Medical Missionaries of Mary and to receive the vows of the Foundress.

On 4 April 1937, Marie Helena Martin made her profession of vows. Her two companions were to begin their novitiate in Nigeria while, according to instructions from Rome, Marie returned to Ireland to begin a foundation there. Still very ill, she was carried to the boat and Monsignor Moynagh thought she would not reach Ireland alive.

Nevertheless, as Father Bede wrote: “Tomorrow belongs to God.” The Medical Missionaries of Mary was born.

I just thought I was a failure...

The doctors thought I would never be able for any active work again

Sr Carol Breslin is from Bloomington, New York and qualified as a physician from UCD in 1979. She served for twelve years in Nigeria and fourteen years in Ethiopia. She is now Director of MMM Communications in Dublin. A fuller version of this article is available on the MMM website: www.mmmworldwide.org

EDEL QUINN A PIONEERING LAY MISSIONARY EDEL QUINN’S AMBITION WAS TO ENTER THE ENCLOSED CONVENT OF POOR CLARES IN BELFAST. SHE DIED IN NAIROBI AT THE AGE OF 37 WORKING IN AFRICA FOR THE EXTENSION OF THE LEGION OF MARY

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

Although

many religious sisters had been part of the Irish Church’s outreach, lay people were more or less unknown as lay missionaries. Edel Quinn, one of the earliest of Irish lay missionaries, spent eight years in Africa before dying there at the age of 37.

Edel Quinn was born in Kanturk, Co Cork in 1907. Her father worked in the bank and, as was the custom in the profession at that time, bank officials were regularly transferred from one part of the country to the other bringing their families with them. The Quinns’ itinerant existence took them to Clonmel, Cahir, Enniscorthy and Tralee before they finally settled in Dublin when Edel was seventeen. Edel was already planning the next stage of her journey – to the recently founded contemplative community of Poor Clares. Belfast, recently shaken by severe intercommunity tension, seemed like an alien place for a family that had lived in the relative peace of small Irish country towns and her mother persuaded Edel to take some time to do a commercial course and get some work experience before entering.

EDEL MEETS THE LEGION Edel was an attractive young woman who

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enjoyed the social life of the local tennis club. The young French manager of the firm where she worked in Dublin was smitten by her and proposed marriage, only to learn to his disappointment of her convent plans. In 1927, Edel made her first contact with the infant Legion of Mary. It had been founded just six years previously by a young civil servant called Frank Duff. The Legion’s vision of lay men and women actively involved in the work of evangelisation earned it some suspicion from the Irish bishops. When the presidency of a branch that did particularly sensitive work in the notorious red-light district of Dublin became vacant, Edel was asked to take it on. The regular members, who had already

spent time in this difficult work that included regularly visiting the lodging houses where the women plied their trade, were horrified when they met their new president with her youthful good looks and quiet manner. “A child has been sent to lead us!” they said. It did not take them long to realise that “the child” had backbone.

Edel had never quite given up her hopes of becoming a nun. Feeling she had done enough to keep her mother happy, she resumed her contacts with the Poor Clares. Everything was being arranged for her entry, but early in 1932, shortly before her departure to Belfast, what she thought was a minor illness proved to be an advanced state of tuberculosis. That was the killer disease in Ireland of the time. After

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eighteen months in a sanatorium, she returned home, but with a bleak outlook for her future health. As she tried to pick up the threads of normal live, she returned to her office job and to her work with the Legion.

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OFF TO AFRICA The Legion was beginning to expand beyond Ireland. A summer working in England and Wales gave her the idea of moving permanently to Chester to work and to devote her spare time to extension work with the Legion. Another suggestion emerged – why not send her to South Africa where the Legion had begun to put down roots and the climate might prove beneficial to her health. An Irish missionary, Bishop John Heffernan, Vicar Apostolic of Nairobi, got wind of what was afoot and made an alternative proposal. His territory in East Africa, including Zanzibar, was in greater need of the dynamism of the Legion. The climate however posed a greater risk to Edel’s health and the process of making the final decision was a stormy one.

On 24 October 1936, Edel left Ireland for Africa. She would never return. She travelled with a group of missionary priests and sisters. As the only lay person, she was allotted a first-class cabin as it was the only one available. It became an additional chapel in which two of the priests celebrated Mass daily in addition to those who used the ship’s salon. The company at her table consisted of three Anglican clergymen, four Mill Hill priests, six Holy Ghost fathers, two Franciscan sisters, a French Catholic woman and her husband. Almost a month later, they landed in Mombasa. Edel’s African journey had begun.

The young Edel

Edel, aged 4

GROWING THE LEGION Bishop Heffernan did not give her much time to become acclimatised to Africa. The very day of her arrival, she began the next stage of her journey, 350 miles to Nairobi, a trip that took eighteen hours.

The original plan for her work was that each missionary who wanted to found branches (praesidia) of the Legion in his mission territory would take responsibility for the work in his own area and when the work was done, pass her on to his colleague in the next area. The Legion authorities in Dublin were happy with that arrangement. It gave them some assurance that someone was looking after this young woman whose health would continue to be a cause for concern. It also relieved them of the expenses of her travel. They had not reckoned with Edel’s sense of independence however. The distance from one mission territory to another could be quite considerable – up to a hundred miles – and she felt it was imposing a burden on busy men. She got permission to spend £40 on a four year old car but with one proviso: she was not to drive it herself on long distance journeys in case of breakdowns on isolated roads. A driver was hired, a Moslem called Ali, who kept a gun in the back of the car in case it was needed as protection against wild animals.

And if the car was not available, a lift had to be hitched in the back of a lorry.

Edel’s first Christmas in Africa was a memorable occasion. She spent it with an Irish missionary working in an African parish.

She was amazed at the crowds at the three Masses during which the people sang the Latin responses. “Breakfast,” she wrote, “was a quick affair, as there were forty adult catechumens awaiting baptism.”

With the help of the missionaries who had spent years in the field, Edel had to create an approach to the Legion and its work among the Africans. The social world of Africa in the years before World War II was complex. It was a colonial world with competing languages. The young Irish woman was a quick learner. One of her first tasks was to translate the Legion prayers into seven local languages and to provide a synopsis of the basic Legion regulations for the same purpose. It was also a question of encouraging lay people, with a deep regard for the hierarchical values of tribal society to accept the Legion’s call that they take an active share in the mission of the Church, and that women would become some of the most active members of the Legion. It was not long before the Legion had proved its value, bringing new life and vigour into parishes with groups of lay people prepared to take their place in the Church’s mission of evangelisation so that there were many conversions and returns of the lapsed to practice, as well as an intensification Edel Quinn, before she left for Africa

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of the spiritual life of the members.

For the next eight years, from her base in Nairobi, Edel covered much of Central and Southern Africa, planting the Legion where she could. Her travels included Tanzania, Malawi, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Mauritius, and South Africa. The trip to Mauritius was particularly hazardous as the presence of submarines in the Indian Ocean was a perennial risk but after eight months’ work, she left behind thirty-six active branches of the Legion.

LAST DAYS IN AFRICA Edel’s health was never robust. Her underlying tuberculosis was intensified by the illnesses which were a constant hazard to Europeans in Africa before antibiotics and modern medicine.

It was not helped by her tendency to drive herself to the point of exhaustion when she felt she was well enough to work. Writing to Frank Duff at this time, she could make light of her health while forced to admit she had driven herself further than she should: "I am not

exactly a heavy-weight these days ... I am paying for my Kisumu trip and the Curia (meeting of the Legion’s governing body for district); it proved too much for me."

She returned to Nairobi in April 1944. After a series of devastating heart-attacks, she died in the evening of 12 May. She was 37. Her last resting place is in the mission cemetery, close to the grave of another great Irish missionary, Bishop Joseph Shanahan, who had died the previous year and whose body was later transferred to the church that had been his cathedral in Onitsha, Nigeria.

Edel’s headstone bears the Legion emblem and the following inscription: "Edel Quinn: Envoy of the Legion of Mary in East Africa from 30th October, 1936, to 12th May, 1944, on which day she died at Nairobi. She fulfilled this mission with such devotion and courage as itself to stir every heart and to leave the Legion of Mary and Africa itself for ever in her debt.

The Holy Father himself paid tribute to her great services to the Church."

HEROIC VIRTUE Edel was declared a “Servant of God” by St John Paul with the title “Venerable” on 15 December 1994, a little more than fifty years after her death. The decree declared, in its traditional expression that she had “practiced to a heroic degree, the theological virtues of faith, hope, and charity towards God and her neighbour, and the cardinal virtues of prudence, justice, temperance, and fortitude." It is no accident that a woman who felt called to devote herself to a life of contemplative prayer as a Poor Clare was able to find her fulfilment as a missionary.

I thank Catherine Murphy of the Concilium of the Legion of Mary in Dublin for making available to me the material for this article.

SEEK A NEW DIRECTION

EXPLORE RELIGIOUs SISTERS OF CHA RIT Y

The Love of Christ urges us on – as Sisters of Charity we continue to live a journey of loving service in the Spirit of our Foundress Mary Aikenhead who spent her life in love serving ‘God’s nobility the suffering poor’.

The rest of your life is starting now – Is God inviting you to share in this same journey of loving service as a Sister of Charity, as a friend of Mary Aikenhead or as volunteer in one of our services?

Take the first step and contact Sr. Rita Wynne on 086 343 4448 or email ritawynnersc@eircom.net

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You can also get more information on our website www.religioussistersofcharity.ie

5/31/2013 8:06:25 PM

COMMENT THE WAY I SEE IT KATY DOBEY

THE FIRST DAY OF SCHOOL

A TEACHER REMEMBERS THE EMOTIONS AND EXCITEMENT OF HER OWN FIRST DAY AT SCHOOL

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I’m sure I’m not the only one to remember my first day of school.

It may be a hazy memory, but there are certain experiences and emotions I can still clearly recall.

There was a particular feeling of pride. I felt: Big. Old. Important.

My chest swelled as I could finally follow my sister into big school.

We have a photo of the two of us on the morning of my first day. My school bag looks too big and too new. My uniform is pristine. My fringe is freshly cut (too short). My cheeks are flushed, but my smile is full of excitement.

My memory of the classroom is distant. Its routines and its décor escape me now, but many of the faces of those who populated it, I can easily recall. On my first day, I sat down beside a blonde haired girl, called Germaine. Later we became friends, but not best friends; an important distinction at the time. Later in the year, the two of us often reminisced about our first day and our first friendship. I have a very clear memory of such a conversation where I accidently said that we’d been “first best friends” instead of simply “first friends.” This did not go down well and I remember being utterly embarrassed at my four-year-old tongue’s slip up.

My teacher was my hero. She wore short red hair and her smile filled the room. I remember so much about her, the lessons about numbers and the alphabet, the songs we sang and the stories she read. I remember her particular artistic streak. She seemed able to draw anything on the blackboard.

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She could make arts and crafts look easy and amazing. She also made me feel able and confident.

It is so hard to remember anything about something that happened over twenty years ago, but I still have fond memories of my earliest days in the classroom.

One of lessons I remember most was about Vincent Van Gough.

She showed us his paintings and somehow inspired a four year old to love this painter and his works.

She showed us his techniques and told us about his life and works (ear problems not included). She helped us to recreate our own painting of sunflowers; a work I was wonderfully proud of. For many years, I felt I had a special understanding and appreciation of Vincent Van Gough due to her lessons. Somehow a possessive feeling of expertise still lingers within me, though I haven’t studied this artist since those

days in junior infants. She filled me with a belief in myself that even a four year old could gain a special, deep understanding of art: or of anything for that matter. The world was my oyster.

I also remember meeting Ms. Vaughn outside of school one weekend. Living in Dublin, my family and I took regular trips to Tipperary to visit my Nana.

This involved a drive through the town of Abbeyleix in Laois.

My Mum had told me that my teacher was from Abbeyleix, so every time we drove through, she entertained me with the job of looking out the window in case we saw teacher. And once we did! I was shocked into silence and stared out the back window of the car as she exchanged pleasantries with my parents while we sat in a line of traffic in the town. Although I was too shy

to speak to my teacher there on the street, I was certainly full of chat about it back in school on Monday. I gained a day’s worth of bragging rights. My mother also gained two years’ worth of car entertainment for the long way to Tipperary.

It is strange to me now to face a class of thirty four-year-olds. It is a privilege to have the chance to take on a role with so much potential to shape, influence and teach. It is an age group where the children are pre-disposed to love their teacher and their new found independence outside of the home and family. I hope I can make at least half the impression that Ms. Vaughn made on me. I would be flabbergasted if they could remember even one lesson in twenty years’ time. I can hope and I can try. Here’s to another great school year!

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POPE FRANCIS’S JUBILEE OF MERCY A SPECIAL HOLY YEAR OF DIVINE MERCY BEGINS ON THE FEAST OF THE IMMACULATE CONCEPTION, 8 DECEMBER. THE FIRST HOLY YEAR WAS HELD IN 1300. SALVADOR RYAN OFFERS US A HISTORICAL PERSPECTIVE ON SOME NOTABLE HOLY YEARS IN THE PAST SEVEN CENTURIES

BY SALVADOR RYAN

On

Saturday 11th April last, the eve of the Solemnity of Divine Mercy, Pope Francis published the bull (or letter), Misericordiae Vultus (“The Face of Mercy”), which announced an extraordinary Jubilee of Mercy that will run from the Solemnity of the Immaculate Conception (8th December 2015) to the Solemnity of Christ the King (20th November 2016). In speaking of his plans

in an address on the Fourth Sunday of Lent, the pope explained that the idea arose out of a wish that “the Church may render more clearly her mission to be a witness to mercy”.

The letter itself is a remarkable document, which calls for a radical change in its readers’ lives and attitudes, and particularly invites its hearers to open themselves to the quality of mercy, which is “the force that reawakens

us to new life and instils in us the courage to look to the future with hope” (MV, 10).

What is particularly noteworthy is that, out of 25 sections in Pope Francis’s letter, the issue of the accompanying indulgences associated with the Holy Year is not raised until section 22. In this, the pope is clearly setting out a marker. What is most important is not a preoccupation with the gaining of a plenary

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indulgence (the removal not just of sin, but of the ‘temporal punishment’ due to sin, i.e. the consequences of sin), but the change of the sinner’s heart, the re-orientating of the whole person and his/her attitudes, in what is best captured in the Greek word metanoia.

22

JUBILEE YEARS – A BRIEF HISTORY But where did the tradition of Jubilee years (or ‘Holy Years’) actually come from? And how often have they been held in the past?

The first Jubilee Year was proclaimed by Pope Boniface VIII in 1300. It was in response to a surge of pilgrims visiting Rome at the time, many of whom claimed to have “heard it from the elders that any Christian who visited the body of the apostles during this centenary year would be delivered from his sins and punishment”.

What Pope Boniface actually did was to regularise and set out parameters for what was already a popular movement. During this year of Jubilee, pilgrims would receive a plenary indulgence – “full and copious pardon” from their sins (release from both sin and its punishment) if they visited the basilicas of St Peter and St Paul outside the Walls daily for fifteen days after confessing their sins. For native Romans, for whom the journey would by much less arduous, thirty days were prescribed.

The idea of a Jubilee Year, however, had a venerable history even before the advent of Christianity. The custom of the Jubilee Year was rooted in Jewish Law, according to which a jubilee arrives every fifty years or so at the end of seven sabbatical cycles, each of which lasted seven years. In these special jubilee years, slaves were to be freed and confiscated land returned to its former owners. Following on from this Jewish root, ancient Christian authors often used the term ‘jubilee’ to describe a period of superabundant grace and joy – a “year of favour” as described by Jesus in Luke 4:19.

JUBILEE AND PILGRIMAGE The advent of Jubilee Years had a number of spin-off effects. Not least was the huge increase in pilgrims visiting Rome. In the year REALITY OCTOBER 2015

1300, it is estimated that some 200,000 made the journey. They were so generous in their donations that one record recounts that two clerics stood at the high altar of St Paul’s outside the Walls throughout the day and into the night gathering the huge number of coin offerings into piles with rakes.

The great Italian poet, Dante Alighieri, set his Divina Commedia in Holy Week of the Jubilee year of 1300. In a well-known passage, he compared the traffic system in Hell to the one-way system he had witnessed being used for pilgrims crossing the Tiber by the Ponte Sant’Angelo to reach St Peter’s during this first Jubilee.

Originally intended to be called only once every century, Pope Clement VI (who was the fourth pope to reside at Avignon rather than Rome) was persuaded by a Roman delegation in 1343 to reduce the gap between jubilees to fifty years. The delegates appealed to Leviticus 25:11 that said “That fiftieth year shall be a jubilee for you” for precedent. Part of their reasoning was that a cash-strapped and pope-less Rome would benefit from the injection of revenue and that it might entice Clement to return. Clement, however, was perfectly happy where he was. He showed no enthusiasm for re-locating, much to the dismay of the Roman populace and the Italian members of the Curia.

Pope John Paul II and the then Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey opening the Holy Door in 1999

His bull Unigenitus of 1343, announcing the next Jubilee, was significant in that it defined the idea of the Church’s “treasury of merits” (of Christ and the saints) from which poor sinners could draw down spiritual capital.

This idea underpinned much of the tradition of indulgences which would be so roundly criticised during the Reformation. In the second Jubilee of 1350, Clement added the basilica of St John Lateran to the list of churches to be visited. He also reduced the obligation to visiting one church only, rather than all three.

JUBILEE WITHOUT THE PILGRIMAGE Some exemptions were made that relieved would-be pilgrims of the necessity of travel. Two notable cases were Elizabeth of Hungary and the English royal family. They were permitted to receive their indulgence at home, with the proviso that they paid the equivalent of the expected cost of the trip into the papal coffers. The populace of Majorca also obtained the privilege of indulgence without travel upon payment of 30,000 florins.

By the Jubilee of 1450 (the sixth), the Pope (this time Nicholas V) was once again resident in Rome. Huge crowds flocked to the city, “arriving like grasshoppers”, in the words of one contemporary, and filling all 1,022 of the Roman “hotels” and leading many to camp out in the fields and vineyards. With these large numbers, however, there also came a more sinister visitor – plague – and Rome’s hospitals and churches soon became crammed with the sick and dying.

On 19th December, owing to the large crowds, a disaster on the Ponte Sant’ Angelo led to the deaths of 172 pilgrims. To avoid a repeat of this (and to relieve the traffic congestion), a future pope, Sixtus IV, had the Ponte Sisto built for the Jubilee of 1475. It was also during this Holy Year that the building of the Sistine Chapel commenced.

THE HOLY DOOR The advent of a specific “Holy Door”, through which pilgrims could walk, dates from the Jubilee year of 1500. It was the

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initiative of Pope Alexander VI, and his “Golden Door” was designed to be bricked up with easily-removable bricks in the space between jubilees. The ritual accompanying the opening of the holy door involved the recitation of three verses from Psalm 117, accompanying the three knocks that the Pope gave to the door with his silver hammer.

Holy doors were not always willing to open just so easily however. When Pope Gregory XIII hammered on the door in 1575, expecting its easy collapse, the bricks were not compliant. He knocked on them even harder and both broke the hammer and cut his finger. Incidentally, on Christmas Eve, 1999, when he was opening the Jubilee of the third millennium, Pope John Paul II dispensed with the ceremonial hammer and pushed the doors open instead. There had been such significant advances from the inter-confessional hostilities of the sixteenth century, so that, when opening the Holy Door at St Paul’s outside the Walls, Pope

John Paul was assisted by the Archbishop of Canterbury, George Carey.

THE INTENTION OF THE HOLY YEAR Jubilee years have often been marked by specific special intentions. In 1625, Pope Urban VIII proclaimed a Holy Year for peace, when war had broken out between the Duke of Savoy and the Republic of Genoa. Three hundred years later, Pope Pius XI would announce a Holy Year for the intention of peace between nations.

In 1950, Pope Pius XII asked for special prayers for “the prompt re-establishment of tranquillity in the holy sites of Palestine,” in the Arab-Israeli conflict that followed the establishment of the State of Israel. In 1975, Pope Paul VI called a Jubilee to mark ten years since the closing of the Second Vatican Council, but also proclaimed it as a year for renewal and reconciliation, a year for metanoia.

More recently still, Pope John Paul II

used the Holy Year of 2000 to call for a “purification of memory” for the Church and an acknowledgment of the Catholic Church’s wrongdoings over the centuries – especially sins against human and religious freedoms, against the dignity of women, and against Jews. In its immediate aftermath (4th May 2001), the Pope travelled to Greece to apologise before the Archbishop of Athens for the many Roman Catholic sins against its Orthodox brethren, not least the Sack of Constantinople in 1204.

This coming Jubilee will be the 28th in the Church’s history. Given the history of holy years (and the initiatives that have accompanied them), we can surely dare to expect something special. And, even then, as has been his form, Pope Francis is bound to surprise us.

Salvador Ryan is Professor of Ecclesiastical History at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth

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Q U E ST I O N S TO JE SUS 2

HOW OFTEN

LORD,

FORGIVE?

SHALL I

REFLECTING ON HIS OWN STRUGGLE TO FORGIVE, THE AUTHOR CONSIDERS PETER’S QUESTION TO JESUS

BY MIKE DALEY

It 24

happens, at best, once a year. My dad visits from out of town. I tell my wife not to, but she always insists on rolling out the red carpet for him. The house is never cleaner. The food is never tastier. The hospitality is never grander. And the stress is never greater. We’re still recovering from the most recent one. I blame her though. She’s the one who told me to contact him after the birth of our first child some sixteen years ago.

As hard as I try, I can’t separate the Visit, whatever good memories result, from the Affair, the effects of which have lingered for decades. I remember it like it was yesterday. My mom had come to pick me up from college for the holidays.

Relations had been strained between my parents for some time, but I was unprepared for what she would say. Breaking through the small talk, with pained eyes and faltering voice, she said, “Your father’s having an affair. He’s moved in with another woman.”

TWO MOVIES Having had some years to mull all this over, three things help me live the very real human tension between the desire for justice and the call to forgiveness: two movie scenes and a scripture story. The first comes from the Western Unforgiven. In it the outlaw, killer turned bounty hunter, Will Munny, played by Clint Eastwood, counsels the Schofield Kid after his first kill. Munny says, “It’s a hell of a thing, killing a man…” To which the Schofield Kid replies, “Yeah, well, I guess they had it coming.” Without missing a beat, Munny responds, “We all got it coming kid.” If justice is ultimate, we’re all (not just my dad) in big trouble.

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

The second one involves the film Dead Man Walking. The movie chronicles the life-changing ministry of Sr. Helen Prejean to death row inmates.

Frustrated at Sr. Helen’s compassionate care to the murderer of their daughter, the slain girl’s parents ask why. Sr. Helen says, "I'm just trying to follow the example of Jesus who said that every person is worth more than their worst act." I don’t know about you, but for me, it’s almost impossible to think of my dad and not think the worst. … AND THE STORY Which brings me to the Story. It’s one we know well: “A man had two sons, and the younger son said to his father, ‘Father, give me the share of your estate that should come to me.’ So the father divided the property between them” (Luke 15:11-32). The problem of the Story is that I identify with the wrong person—the elder son.

My father has long played the role of the wayward son. He left my brothers, mother, and me adrift, wondering when he was returning home. I, on the other hand, turned judgmental and jealous. Like the elder son, I played the dutiful one. Inwardly, though, I was a sinner consumed with envy and bitterness at the joyous reception that accompanied my father’s return to relationship with others—brothers, sons, friends and even, to some extent, the Church.

In his book The Return of the Prodigal Son, Henri Nouwen, one of the great spiritual writers of our time, recounts a visit from a friend during which they discussed Rembrandt’s painting of the parable. In the course of the conversation Nouwen’s friend said to him: “Whether you are

the younger son or the elder son, you have to realize that you are called to become the father.”

Pope St. John Paul II voiced much the same thing in one of his first encyclicals, Rich in Mercy: “The parable of the prodigal son expresses in a simple but profound way the reality of conversion. Conversion is the most concrete expression of the working of love and of the presence of mercy in the human world.” In it Jesus is also beautifully imaged as the “Incarnation of mercy” or forgiveness. A world alienated from God is invited anew— through Jesus’ life, death, and resurrection—to relationship.

demands, “Pay back what you owe.” His associate begs, “Be patient with me, and I will pay you back.” The servant is unmoved, however, and has his associate thrown in jail until the debt is paid. Upon hearing this, the king summons the servant and says, “I forgave you your entire debt because you begged me to. Should you not have had pity on your fellow servant, as I had pity on you?” At which point the unforgiving servant is handed over to jailers to be tortured until he pays back what is owed.

Perhaps, like me, you uncomfortably recall the words of that very familiar prayer, the Our Father: “And forgive us our debts, as we forgive our debtors” (Mt. 6:12). The stumbling block to

I'm just trying to follow the example of Jesus who said that every person is worth more than their worst act Sr. Helen Prejean

ST. PETER’S QUESTION TO JESUS In so much of my life, though, the call to forgiveness—loving compassionately, fearlessly, and wholeheartedly—is hesitantly voiced and conditionally practiced. I’m drawn to and reassured by Peter’s question to Jesus, "Lord, how often shall my brother sin against me and I forgive him? Up to seven times?" (Mt 18) I think we can all agree with Peter: Isn’t there a point at which justice trumps forgiveness? Some questions are better left unasked. Jesus answers, “I say to you, not seven times but seventy-seven times.” Peter wants limits. Jesus invites hope.

Offers risk. Demands love. And tells a story.

In the Parable of the Unforgiving Servant (Mt 18: 21-34) a king wishes to settle accounts. He discovers a debtor who owes a huge, more than likely unpayable, sum of money. As was common during that time, the king orders him, his family, and property to be sold in payment.

All the servant can do is to plead in homage to the king: “‘Be patient with me, and I will pay you back in full.” Moved with compassion for his servant, the king forgives the loan.

Later that same day, the servant encounters an associate who owes him a much smaller amount. Seizing and choking him, the servant

forgiveness, as it has always been, is us, we who try to limit and put conditions on God’s love. As the Brazilian theologian, Leonardo Boff reminds us in his book The Our Father: “We are indebted to God and indebted to our fellow humans. The bread of our communal life is forgiveness and a reciprocal demonstration of mercy; if this is lacking, broken ties cannot be repaired. God’s forgiveness reestablishes vertical communion with the Most High; forgiving those who have offended us reestablishes our horizontal communion. The reconciled world begins to flourish, the kingdom is inaugurated, and we begin to live under the rainbow of divine mercy.”

Peter’s question about forgiveness, as well as our own, is easy to voice, but more difficult to live. Forgiveness, as experience suggests, happens in fits and starts - often in unplanned ways and places, through unexpected persons. As much as we’d like to avoid it, forgiveness is messy and incomplete. Yet, we know from Jesus’ own words, whatever the case may be, there is much at stake as to how we practice forgiveness. Dare we say, even our salvation?

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

25

SCIENCE AND FAITH SERIES

© Paris Bibliothèque Nationale de France

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.

26

ICOLE

RESME

THE EINSTEIN OF THE 14TH CENTURY THE MEDIEVAL MIND DID NOT KNOW THE COMPARTMENTALISING OF KNOWLEDGE THAT BECAME PREVALENT IN THE MODERN AREA. DID A FRENCH PRIEST ANTICIPATE MANY OF THE DISCOVERIES OF A LATER AGE?

BY SUSAN GATELY

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

Fourteenth

century France was a rough ride. Universal crop failure due to bad weather caused a great famine in 1315. Just over twenty years later, the Hundred Years War broke out between France and England, and within a decade, the Black Death was decimating its population.

In the feudal society of medieval France, most people struggled to live as peasants while monarchs and bishops often vied together for temporal power. Early in the 14th century, the centre of the Catholic Church moved from Rome to Avignon.

A POOR YOUNG MAN ON THE WAY UP Into this world of political intrigue, poverty and war came Nicole Oresme around 1320. Born in a village in Normandy he was educated in a college in Paris the king sponsored for needy students. Oresme studied arts and then, in his mid twenties and at the height of the plague, he began his theological studies. In 1355 he was awarded the degree of Master of Theology and shortly after appointed Grand Master of his old college, the College of Navarre in Paris.

His mind was fascinated by knowledge and questions. His interest jumped from theme to theme: from geometry to theology to music; from physics to astronomy to economics. It was, arguably, his growing reputation as a mathematician that brought Oresme to the attention of the king, Jean le Bon, according to Jon Mackley from the University of Northampton. Impressed by the priest's learning, King Jean asked Oresme to help him avoid the financial collapse he faced over the war. Oresme responded by writing a treatise against the alteration of currency (1355), in which he argued against permanent devaluation of currency on the principle that "bad money drives out good", often called Gresham's Law. Following defeat at the battle of Poitiers in 1356, King Jean was taken captive in England, and his son Charles took over power. Oresme became his friend and mentor. In 1364 Charles V was crowned king.

Charles wanted to govern 'scientifically', surrounded by advisors imbued with learned works. To this end he commissioned Oresme to produce French translations and commentaries of Aristotle's politics, ethics and economics.

"This support of his studies enabled him to become arguably the most astute commentator

and critic of his time on the accepted Aristotelian science and cosmology," says Dr Stephen Pumfrey, History of Science at Lancaster University. Possibly as a reward for his service to the king, Oresme received high clerical appointments, rising to Bishop of Lisieux, but he clearly wanted to devote himself to his academic work in Paris.

Over a thirty-two year period, the maverick priest wrote thirty five 'treatises' on maths, physics, theology, philosophy and economics, yet would humbly admit: "Therefore, I indeed know nothing except that I know that I know nothing."

This captures a trend in his work," comments Dr Pumfrey, "to analyse scientific and philosophical orthodoxies and show that they were not necessarily true."

REMAKING THE UNIVERSE? One of his great explorations related to the position of the earth in the universe. At the time, the universe was thought to be a nest of spheres, like onion rings, following the ancient Greek model of Aristotle. "Earth was the heaviest and so fell to form a ball resting at the centre. Then came water, air and fire. Then came the perfect world of the physical heavens, with the seven planets ranged upwards: moon, Mercury, Venus, sun (in the middle) Mars, Jupiter and Saturn," says Dr Pumfrey. Beyond this was the sphere of the stars, then a sphere called the 'Prime Mover' - Aristotle’s quasi-divine power that made all the spheres below it rotate.

Oresme analysed the possibility that the earth rotated on its axis. He gave brilliant mathematical and physical arguments, far ahead of his time, that we would not be able to tell the difference between a rotating and a stationary earth. "Because we would be unable to tell, he finally sides with a stationary [earth] as it aligned with the most basic reading of the Bible," comments Dr Dan Burton from the University of Alabama.

For Oresme, science and theology were compatible; however, he was eager to differentiate between science and superstition. As an advisor to Charles V, Oresme was anxious to ensure the king did not make decisions based on astrology.

"He uses the Treatise (“Livre de Divinacions“, 1366 ) to distinguish between astronomy and astrology, between what is 'honest knowledge' that can be proven by science and what is superstitious speculation," writes Mackley.

A UNIVERSAL MIND In optics Oresme produced an analysis, anticipating later discoveries, that the atmosphere would bend or refract light more or less depending on how dense or rare the air was. This meant that astronomers needed to correct the positions of the stars they observed and, indeed, that nothing in the universe was exactly where it seemed to be.

In physics, he seems to have been the first person ever to 'graph' physical quantities. He used such graphs to prove an important theorem about acceleration. Based on this, he correctly speculated that the speed of a falling body is directly proportional to its time of fall, the law which Galileo discovered and experimentally proved three hundred years later.

In mathematics, he laid the foundation of analytical geometry later developed by René Descartes and gave the first proof of the convergence of a geometric series and of the divergence of the harmonic series (1 + 1/2 + 1/3 + 1/4 + 1/5 etc. diverges, i.e. adds up to infinity). He also proved the Merton's theorem. "The achievements of this man were extraordinary even by modern day standards," says Dr Paul O'Hara, Maths Professor at Northeastern Illinois University.

His humanist theology complemented his work as a scientist. He believed that although God could perform miracles at will, people had to first look for natural explanations of phenomena. While little is known of his personal faith, he was not afraid to tackle corruption, writing a memorable sermon delivered before the then Pope Urban V at Avignon in 1363 roundly condemning the monetary excesses and extravagance of the Pope and his court. Twenty one years later, in 1382, Bishop Oresme died.

Clagett his biographer writes: "This brilliant scholar has been credited with ... the invention of analytic geometry before Descartes, (....), with discovering the law of free fall before Galileo, and with advocating the rotation of the Earth before Copernicus. None of these claims is, in fact, true, although each is based on discussion by Oresme of some penetration and originality ..."

Not surprising then that he is sometimes called: "Einstein of the 14th century."

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

27

F E AT U R E

THE MIGRANT CRISIS - W H AT S H FOR MONTHS NOW, WE HAVE SEEN IMAGES ON OUR TELEVISION SCREENS AND PICTURES IN OUR DAILY PAPERS OF PEOPLE IN FLIGHT. MANY NEVER MAKE IT, DROWNING AS MAKESHIFT OR INADEQUATE BOATS FAIL TO CARRY THEM TO LAND. AN IRISH MERCY SISTER WHO WORKS FOR THE UN SHOWS US THE GLOBAL PICTURE OF THIS APPALLING CRISIS.

BY SR DEIRDRE MULLAN RSM

I 28

have been both saddened and perplexed watching the nightmare of the “rescued” refugees unfold at the Channel Tunnel and other ports in Europe, as thousands of desperate

people fleeing from hunger, war, traffickers and economic disaster try to board lorries and trains in search of a better life. I feel both a sense of helplessness and hopelessness, as I watch nations

erect fences and barricades, fire tear gas and shut out helpless destitute people who are, at the very least, entitled to our compassion as fellow human beings. I am propelled back in time to our own country and the stories of our collective foremothers and forefathers fleeing this tiny island in search of life in new lands, where hunger and religious persecution were not the norm.

It is true that we are living in the most atheistic epoch of all times. In the saturated sea of tensions that surround us, I ask the question: What has happened to us as a species? Have the four isms – individualism, materialism, minimalism and hedonism

Relief: A Syrian refugee woman cries as she carries her baby through the mud to cross the border from Greece into Macedonia

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

– so consumed our collective conscience that we can switch off, or airbrush out the anguish and terrible suffering that is happening just a few hours away?

WHAT ARE THEY FLEEING FROM? Having visited refugee camps in SubSaharan Africa, I have some idea of why people might want to run away. Most of the people huddled in Calais, or in other European ports, are fleeing either economic injustice or IS militants in Syria and elsewhere, and have crossed the Mediterranean in sinkable boats which have already cost thousands of their lives. Their suffering, which many of us glimpse from the comfort of our armchairs in front of our television sets, is

Help: A father looks for help afer his child collaspes with sun-stroke

T SHOULD WE BE DOING?

stroke

clear and direct. It reminds us that consumerism and trafficking are faceless; they are without conscience and unrestrained by anything other than their own materialistic dynamics, and thus incapable of having moral responsibility.

In June 2015, the United Nations Refugee Agency (UNHCR) reported that the number of people FORCIBLY displaced had risen to 59.9 million, up from 37.5 million only a decade ago. That statistic means that one person in every 122 of us is a refugee!

ONE EXPERIENCE: SUDAN I am personally touched and concerned every time I hear about Sudanese refugees. Why? For the past four years, a group made up of

educators, students co-workers and friends have been working directly with the indigenous peoples of the Nuba Mountains region in Sudan.

I know in my heart that, if I was living there and a victim of my own government’s scorched earth strategy, I too would run away.

The isolated Nuba Mountains region of Sudan, on the border with South Sudan, faces the worst hunger crisis in the world today.

Conflict between rebels and the Sudanese Government has forced hundreds of thousands of people from their homes since 2011. Aerial bombardment has made farming impossible. Lack of food has led to the hunger crisis. Children in school cannot concentrate on learning because of fear.

Grief: Relatives carry a coffin for two Syrian toddlers and a mother who drowned as they were trying to reach Greece

During the period 2013-2015, more than a million people have been displaced and hundreds of thousands brought to the brink of starvation while enduring a Khartoum-imposed humanitarian blockade, which has seen their livelihoods annihilated by relentless aerial attacks on agriculture --- with no prospect of relief aid. Some 300,000 have fled to South Sudan and Ethiopia to refugee camps that offer poor conditions and are vulnerable in a wide variety of ways.

Thousands have died.

and otherwise – not to press the government in Khartoum to relent on its indiscriminate bombing of its own civilians and to end its humanitarian blockade of both the Nuba Mountains and Blue Nile.

The chief tool early on was simply a denial of the evidence, evidence

One person in every 122 of us is a refugee!

TURNING A BLIND EYE? Two years ago, so much of this was visible, and yet it proved more convenient – politically

that soon became incontrovertible.

What I remind the students with whom I interact in my capacity as a consultant to UNICEF, is that our world is in desperate need of the kind of servant leadership so clearly demonstrated by Cathy Solano, a Mercy Sister from Australia,

The Wait: Hundreds of migrants line up to catch a train near Gevgelija, Macedonia

29

Each of us who call ourselves Christians might well ponder the question: If you are indeed a Christian, what can I depend on you to do?

When we exercise kindness and compassion, we realize that love allows us to slip gently into the life of another, and together is always better than going it alone.

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Tensions Rise: A policer officer hits a man with a baton as he tries to maintain order while migrants wait for trains at a temporary camp near Gevgelija, Macedonia

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and an American doctor, Tom Catena, known as “Dr Tom”.

These two heroic individuals, who live and work in Nuba, are shining examples that there is moral good in our world. When I invite young people to reach out and make a difference in our hurting world, I encourage them to ask questions – and to keep asking questions.

As a network of Mercy schools, we have built a school and provided hundreds of scholarships in the Nuba.

Children in two small schools in Donegal pledged ten euro of their confirmation money to buy a school uniform for a child. We have pictures of these children hanging in our classrooms as a reminder that their plight is our plight too!

The interruption of children’s education is a real cause for concern.

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

SOME PAINFUL QUESTIONS  What is our role when we know that genocide is happening today in Nuba and elsewhere?  What is our role when we know first-hand that genocide is happening and is deliberately directed at people and children with whom we have interacted, some of whom we have got to know by name and worked with for the past number of years? Do we have a moral responsibility? How can we encourage, teach and bear witness to the kind of servant leadership so clearly lived daily in the Nuba by Sister Cathy and Dr Tom? The values of servant leadership – putting others first and leading from the heart – need to emerge from every corner of our world if we are to save ourselves from the toxicity and anxiety which has too often become the order of the day.

Deirdre Mullan RSM, PhD is a Sister of Mercy from Ireland who works with UNICEF at United Nations headquarters on a project Partnering Religious Congregations with UNICEF. She is also the Executive Director of the Mercy Reaches Mercy project, educating girls to educate girls which has built many schools around the word and provided hundreds of scholarships.

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Breaking the Word in October 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:

St. Gerard’s, Dundalk (Co. Louth) Solemn Novena (8th – 16th October 2015) The Novena will be preached by Ciaran O’ Callaghan CSsR. and Brendan O’ Rourke CSsR, Fr. Aidan McAleenan and Fr. Anthony Thompson

Glenamaddy (Co. Galway) Cluster Mission (3rd – 10th October 2015) Mission preached by Denis Luddy CSsR, Johnny Doherty CSsR, Laurence Gallagher CSsR and Mrs. Sarah Kenwright

Feenagh / Kilmeedy (Co. Limerick) Mission (17th – 23rd October 2015) Novena preached by Derek Meskell CSsR and Michael Dempsey CSsR

Nass (Co. Kildare) Cluster Mission (17th – 23rd October 2015) Mission preached by Seamus Enright CSsR, Brian Nolan CSsR, Laurence Gallagher CSsR and Ms. Niamh O’ Neill

Dungannon (Co. Tyrone) Mission (17th – 24th October 2015) Mission preached by Johnny Doherty CSsR, Denis Luddy CSsR, Ciaran O’ Callaghan CSsR and Mrs. Sarah Kenwright

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

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y.

Father Mike Shea CSsR is a worried man. He founded an orphanage in North-East Thailand for children with HIV and AIDS 16 years ago. Now, there are 145 children in his care. At 76, the years are taking their toll.

The children need to be housed, fed and educated. Father Mike needs reassurance that we will look after his children when he is no longer with us.

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8

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COMMENT CHRISTIAN PARENTING CARMEL WYNNE

SIBLING RIVALRY

RIVALRY AND DISAGREEMENT BETWEEN MEMBERS OF A FAMILY CAN BE FRUSTRATING AND EVEN WORRYING TO PARENTS. IT CAN BE A SPECIAL CONCERN FOR PARENTS WHOSE CHILDREN ARE NOW ADULTS BUT WHOSE CHILDHOOD RIVALRIES ENDURE Isn't it hard when older parents dread family celebrations because siblings who don’t get along act up? There isn’t a family in the world that has not experienced some level of sibling rivalry. Many parents live with the hope that the rivalry will cease as teenagers become more independent or when they finish college. Sadly it frequently doesn’t.

The unhappiness that is caused by the squabbling, jealousy and fighting between siblings is a concern for many parents. It’s understandable that younger children quarrel and fight in an effort to assert themselves.

Psychologist Virginia Satir says that family life is something like an iceberg. Most of us are only aware of about one tenth of what is going on, the tenth that we can see and hear.

It is frustrating and stressful when sibling rivalry goes on beyond childhood and continues to have an ongoing impact on adult relationships. There are lots of things parent do to help their children get along better. The puzzle is that what works well with one child may have very little effect on others.

One reason for this is that the relationships in a family are very complex. How a parent corrects a child who misbehaves can either be a positive learning experience or a guilt inducing one that makes the child feel bad. Young people feel guilty when their parents are upset with them. Ideally a parent would communicate clearly about

what they expect and give some explanation as to why he or she is upset.

The pressures of daily life are so stressful that most parents don’t have the time for explanations and checking out that the child had clarity about what was expected.

In some families there is one rule for the children and another for the adults. How parents treat their children and how they react to conflict can make a large difference in how well siblings get along. Children do what they see their parents do. If mum is highly critical and negative in the way she speaks about others that’s how a child will communicate too.

Actions are far more powerful than words. Family dynamics play a role. If parents are having issues in their own relationship, this will cause stress for their children.

When children feel insecure, it decreases their ability to tolerate frustration. Everyone in a family dealing with stress tends to have a short fuse, leading to more conflict.

Another issue that tends to create sibling jealousy is when one child has a perception that other brothers or sisters are favoured. One child may have characteristics of a family member the parent dislikes and this may subconsciously influence how the parent treats that child.

The parents’ own childhood experiences will also influence the atmosphere in the home.

Children often fight more in

families where parents believe aggression, name-calling and fighting between children is normal and an acceptable way to deal with conflicts. What lesson does a child learn when a parent punishes him or her for saying nasty things to a sibling?

Some children develop the skills to work through conflict in a positive way and they get learn to relate in a friendly, respectful manner. Others seem to take a perverse pleasure in goading each other. It’s as if they have an immature and unhealthy pattern of relating.

Stress in the parents' lives can decrease the amount of time and attention they can spend with the children and increase sibling rivalry. It’s unfortunate that some people hold the wrong believe that you can say what you like to people in your family because they will love you anyway.

Isn't it hard when older parents dread family celebrations because siblings who don’t get along act up? There is a pattern that everyone can see develop as they build up to the childish disagreement or row that ends in the same petty squabbling. It’s strange how people who have the professional skills to be excellent communicators can sometimes find it impossible to work things out with siblings. They have the skills to co-operate with colleagues and the ability to see another person’s point of view but they seem to lose all that expertise

when they are in a family situation.

Most likely your children’s relationship will eventually develop into a close one. But remember: Being fair is very important, but it is not the same as being equal. Older and younger children may have different privileges due to their age, but if children understand that this inequality is because one child is older or has more responsibilities, they will see this as fair. Even if you did try to treat your children equally, there will still be times when they feel they’re not getting a fair share of attention, discipline, or responsiveness from you. Expect this and be prepared to explain the decisions you have made. Reassure them that you do your best to meet each of their unique needs. Plan family activities that are fun for everyone. If they have good experiences together, it acts as a buffer when they come into conflict. It’s easier to work it out with someone you share warm memories with.  Make sure each child has enough time and space of their own. They need chances to do their own thing, play with their own friends without their sibling, and to have their space and property protected.

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

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MIS S I O N

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&

MISSION REALITY OCTOBER 2015

MOVIES

THE SHORT-LIVED MERCY OF MEN TWO MODERN FILMS EXPLORE THE AMBIGUITIES OF MISSION WITH AN EYE TO THE REALITIES OF THE CONTEMPORARY WORLD

BY PAUL CLOGHER

The

spread of Christianity in the wake of colonialism often entailed the oppression, and sometimes even the destruction, of indigenous peoples. Yet the missionary tradition has given us some of the most courageous figures in the history of Christianity. These contradictions have made mission an attractive theme for filmmakers.

Missionaries are often heroes, sometimes anti-heroes, who face the challenges of the unknown or the exotic and lead lives of courage and self-sacrifice. Filmmakers, too, often allude to more contemporary political and social themes, giving us a broader view of how the Christian tradition relates to contemporary culture. Skilled directors leave gaps for us to fill in. They may depict characters sympathetically while leaving viewers to make up their own mind about the motivation driving their zeal and whether it was a good thing for native peoples and Christianity itself.

Two modern classics offer powerful illustrations of this dynamic and show how the history of missionary activity matters to the present as much as the past.

THE MISSION Even if you never watched Roland Joffé’s The Mission (1986), you are probably familiar with Ennio Morricone’s music, especially Gabriel’s Oboe, a haunting melody that was part of the film’s main soundtrack.

Joffé integrates Morricone’s music into the story via a first encounter between a Jesuit missionary, Father Gabriel (Jeremy Irons) and a suspicious group of Guaraní tribesmen in South America. While they react badly to

the strange sounds of Gabriel’s oboe, the scene marks the beginning of a relationship between these two groups who, at first glance, appear to have little in common.

Joffé portrays Gabriel as the ideal missionary. He integrates himself into the Guaraní community, taking into account their customs a n d tr a d i ti o ns .

By the same token, he remains wholeheartedly committed to his faith and has a ferocious sense of social justice, a term probably unfamiliar to eighteenth century ears. The tribe are depicted as guileless, innocent, and idyllic, while their care for one another and sense of community hints at a kind of nascent Christianity, a Christianity before Christ. Together, the Amerindians and the missionaries form a heavy, yet at times simplistic, contrast with the European slave traders and colonists who, sometimes with church backing ,

murder and enslave the native peoples.

A deeply moving film in places, part of the story deals with Gabriel’s polar opposite, Mendoza (Robert De Niro), a ruthless slave trader who joins the community to do penance after murdering his half-brother in a duel. Eventually, he takes vows and joins

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36

the order. Ecclesial and imperial politics combine to threaten the mission but the missionaries defend their community to the last, giving their lives in the process. This film makes an important distinction between the behaviour of the ‘official’ church, especially its alliance with the Portuguese empire, and the actions of the missionaries who, like the first Christians, hold all property in common. The film is set sometime around 1758, when the Guaraní were defeated by the European colonialists. Not long after this, the Jesuits were suppressed. So the film draws an interesting parallel between this quasi-fictional, even romanticised,

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

take on the Jesuits in South America and the history of this period. The Mission was released, interestingly, in 1986, just as the Vatican began to issue directives against liberation theology. Gabriel’s missionary community, with its emphasis on shared living and communal wealth, may well be a reference to this more contemporary struggle in twentieth century Christianity.

The Mission idealizes the Jesuit community and their relationship with the tribe. The priests are paternalistic while the Guaraní are almost childlike in their innocence.

The history of this period is doubtless far more complex, so perhaps The Mission is not really about the eighteenth century, or indeed any century, but an ideal missionary community.

On the one hand, it is somewhat sentimental and mourns a lost opportunity: on the other, it draws on the contemporary world of 1980s Catholicism to hint at a better way, a kind of mission that looks beyond the uneasy alliances of churches and empires.

BLACK ROBE Black Robe (1991) takes us a long way from the swashbuckling, romanticized world of The Mission. Here, tragedy, suspicion, and loneliness dominate the lives of the missionaries and those they seek to convert.

Based on Brian Moore’s novel, this film tells the story of an earnest French priest, Father Laforgue (Lothaire Bluteau), tasked with reinforcing a Jesuit outpost on the fringes of seventeenth century Quebec. Samuel de Champlain, the founder and governor of the province, entrusts the young pastor with the care of a group of Algonquin. Laforgue’s rigid view of salvation however leads him into conflict with his fellow travellers, who begin to suspect him, the eponymous black robe, of being a sign of misfortune, a demon. Daniel (Aiden Young), Laforgue’s young interpreter, begins an affair with the daughter of the Algonquin leader. His love for her alongside the growing dynamic of resentment, inevitably, brings tragic consequences.

Laforgue’s understanding of mission focuses, relentlessly, on individual salvation.

The natives require saving grace and have no access to salvation within their own traditions. This takes us into the wider conflict of Black Robe. The French and their missionary allies appear insensitive, arrogant, and, at times, ineffective in their pursuit of Christianization, regarding native peoples as less than human. The journey upstream deconstructs Laforgue’s heroic and saintly understanding of mission. He craves martyrdom and purity but lusts after the Algonquin leader’s daughter. In the end, almost with resignation, he appears to accept the validity of their beliefs. Black Robe makes a necessary statement about Christian missionaries and the clash of cultures. It may take a rather bleak view of mission but it raises questions that have dominated the Christian relationship with religious diversity for centuries. When Christianity aligns with the state, does it construct inauthentic, oppressive structures of authority? Instead of speaking all the time, should Christians listen and something new about their own tradition from those we leave outside.

TRAGIC HEROES Our two Jesuits make for an interesting contrast. They may even represent a clash of cultures, a battle between two ‘Christianities.’

Gabriel cares for the Guaraní as if they were his children. For him, their romanticized lifestyle is a nascent form of Christianity.

His attitude reflects twentieth century liberal Catholic thought rather than that of the setting of the film. His courage and determination endear him to viewers but the film hints at a bigger question. The Jesuit mission brings tragedy and violence: despite the missionaries’ best efforts, the community becomes the target of imperial oppression.

Would the Guaraní have been better off had the Jesuits left them alone? The Mission leaves this question open to viewers.

Black Robe, contrastingly, offers little assurances. Laforgue is not a particularly likeable character. He barely hides his disdain for the Algonquins, saying, ‘The devil rules here. He controls the hearts and minds of these poor people.’ Black Robe takes an ultimately sceptical view of Christianity, or at least Laforgue’s version. When one of his guardians, Chomina, lies dying, the priest asks him to accept baptism. He refuses and awaits the She-Manitou, who will take him

to the spirit world where men’s souls hunt the souls of animals. In the next shot the She-Manitou appears as a beautiful woman, thus vindicating his refusal.

Both directors link their stories to contemporary questions and themes. They engage the legacy of Christianity’s encounters with native traditions and cultures. Gabriel and Laforgue are a juxtaposition of two theologies, one inclusive, the other more exclusive. There is a contrast too in the depiction of the native peoples. In The Mission, the Guaraní are receptive to the missionaries. Black Robe paints a picture of hostility where the Iroquis, Algonquin, and Huron tribes seem intellectually superior to their pastor. In both films it is clear that the native peoples’ beliefs and practices share some similarities with Christianity.

For Gabriel, this is a strength, but Laforgue treats it as an irrelevance. These contrasts, too, reflect the styles of both films. The Mission veers into romanticism at times, while Black Robe retains a kind of gritty bleakness throughout. The Mission attempts to comment on contemporary theological issues. By depicting the Vatican emissary’s shock at their communal lifestyle, Joffé draws striking parallels between the Jesuits and the liberation theologians of the 1980s. He

reinforces the point by Gabriel pointing out that their lifestyle is merely ‘the doctrine of the first Christians.’

The Mission and Black Robe are tragedies.

Both directors are keen to show the harsh realities of missionary life. At the end of Black Robe, Laforgue baptizes the Hurons, but the epilogue tells us that within fifteen years they were routed and killed by their enemies.

Loving their enemies came at the cost of their own existence. Likewise, The Mission concludes with the Portuguese attacking the community. Gabriel and Mendoza react differently, one prays while the other fights.

Both die, however, and in a poignant final shot, a band of children collect what is left of the mission and flee. Neither filmmaker gives us a wholly idealized vision of mission.

Perhaps the fate of both missions is summed up best by the Vatican Emissary, Cardinal Altamirano as he recounts the Guaraní’s tragic fate: ‘So it was that the Indians of the Guaraní were brought finally to account to the everlasting mercy of God – and to the short-lived mercy of men.’

DR PAUL CLOGHER lectures in theology and cinema in the School of Humanities, Waterford Institute of Technology

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MATERDOMINI SHRINE OF ST GERARD

THE SHRINE OF ST GERARD MAJELLA IS SET AMONG THE BREATHTAKING SCENERY OF THE MOUNTAINS OF SOUTHERN ITALY. IT WAS THERE THAT GERARD, WHOSE FEAST DAY IS ON 16 OCTOBER, SPENT THE FINAL YEAR OF HIS LIFE AND WHERE HE IS BURIED.

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

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High

in the m o unt ains o f southern Italy, there is a tiny hamlet called Materdomini. The name means, ‘the Mother of the Lord,’ the title of a small church that stood in the place since the twelfth century. Today, Materdomini is reached by an excellent highway that climbs the valley of the river Sele. The river is forty miles long from Caposele, ‘the head of the Sele,’ where it rises, until it enters the Gulf of Salereno. The highway was a sop to an almost forgotten corner of Italy that was devastated by an earthquake in 1980.

That ear thquake als o d estroye d the church and monaster y of the

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

Redemptorists. The church was the burial place of St Gerard Majella, popularly known as the “Mother’s Saint.” His feast on the 16 October each year is celebrated in Redemptorist churches throughout the world, and nowhere with greater fervour than St Joseph’s, Dundalk. It was in Materdomini that Gerard was buried in the afternoon of day of his death. It is said that the people of the surrounding villages came to see what was happening when the bells of the church rang out a feast day chime, despite the best efforts of the brother sacristan to ring the sad deathknell to announce the death of Gerard.

THE MOTHER OF THE LORD The church at Materdomini has been a centre of devotion to the Mother of the Lord since 1527. It attracted the devout from the surrounding villages of that portion of the Appenine mountain chain, the backbone of Italy. The church and the small monastery attached to it would have remained virtually forgotten had not the local bishop offered them to a priest who, some years previously, had founded a group of missionaries. In 1746, Alphonsus Liguori, the priest and his companions had preached a mission in Caposele. Three years later, a young tailor from another small town called Muro would

join the group as a brother. His name was Gerard Majella.

The object of devotion in the little church was a small and rather curiously shaped statue of the Blessed Virgin. It is unusual in that it is a statue of Our Lady kneeling: it is hard to see that, since her gown covers her knees and the statue is usually placed so that it is facing the people praying. It has been suggested that it may originally have been part of a set and that the other figure was the angel Gabriel bringing Mary the news that she was to be the mother of the Lord. The statue is still exposed for veneration in the old church, now restored, and where Gerard’s tomb now stands.

GERARD AND MATERDOMINI Gerard first came to live in the monastery of Materdomini in the spring of 1754 during what was a dark time in his own life. He had been under the cloud of a false accusation of abuse for several months andwas forced to leave the monastery of Deliceto where he had spent most of his Redemptorist life.

He had also begun to show the first signs of tuberculosis. By early in the summer, the person who had made the charge withdrew it and Gerard was sent to spend a brief time in Naples.

He returned to Materdomini for the patronal feast of the church, 8 September 1754. In a little more than thirteen months,

St Gerard's tomb at Materdomini

he would be dead. He was appointed bursar with special responsibility for the building of the new monastery. In addition, he volunteered to nurse a 21 year old student, Pietro Picone, who was suffering from the same disease as Gerard. The young bursar’s main responsibility was to raise funds for the new monastery and several times in the

Cold and hungry people do not always stand in an orderly queue when food is being distributed. Some slipped back to the top of the line for another helping but Gerard simply said: “Let them be. They might be thieves, but Jesus Christ loves them! Do not worry, there is enough for everyone!’ Gerard also kept an eye open for respectable people

Gerard first came to live in the monastery of Materdomini in the spring of 1754 during what was a dark time in his own life course of the year, he undertook fund-raising tours, visiting the community’s benefactors and questing for some agricultural produce from the farmers.

FEEDING THE STARVING Materdomini’s setting makes it breathtakingly beautiful in summer, but the winters are harsh and the biting winds from the mountains are accompanied by heavy falls of snow. The year of Gerard’s arrival, the harvest had been disastrous and by January, famine reigned in the district. The monastery’s most frequent visitors were the poor, looking for food or warmer clothing. Gerard always managed to find something to keep them warm, even if it meant giving away the few spare clothes he had or raiding the monastery wardrobe for sheets and blankets to keep a poor person warm.

who had fallen on hard times but were too proud to beg and quietly put food aside for them.

One of the best-known pictures of Gerard depicts the scene at the monastery door that dreadful winter. Poor people crowd around waiting for food. In the background can be seen the snow covered mountains. In the front of the picture, a blind musician plays his flute. Gerard has risen from the ground in ecstasy. According to the story, Gerard had asked the man to play one of his favourite hymns. As the man played, Gerard was so overcome with the thought that God was present among these poor starving people that he was quite literally swept off his feet.

Gerard was sometimes swept off his feet by a crucifix or painting of Our Lady. What seemed to strike him now was the truth of the Gospel saying – “whatever you do to the least of these my brothers or sisters, you do to me.”

ILLNESS AND DEATH During the summer months of July and August, Gerard embarked on another fund-raising tour. Gerard’s tours were never exclusively for raising money. He stayed usually with friends of the community who were only too happy to have him, especially if he could visit the sick or the housebound.

On the 23 August, he wrote to his superior to say that, a few days earlier, he had begun to cough blood.

A week later he returned to Materdomini for the last time. “Gerard was deathly pale and haggard,” wrote his superior, “but with

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F E AT U R E

his usual serene and lovable manner, so that as soon as I saw him, I could scarcely restrain the tears that flooded into my eyes.”

His last days were not easy. Sometimes, the fever drenched him in sweat and even made him delirious and caused him to see things that terrified him. The cost of the medicines he needed caused him scruples. He had brought nothing into the community: for the past seven years it had fed and clothed him, so why should it be burdened with even greater expense?

Towards midnight on the 15 October, he asked the brother sitting with him for a drink of water. The brother went to fetch some from the kitchen. When he returned, it was clear Gerard was in the final moments of his life. He was twenty-nine years, six months and ten days old.

THE SHRINE TODAY Materdomini is one of the most important religious centres in southern Italy. At its heart

is the modern basilica which was consecrated in 1974. Attached to it is a museum which tells the story of Gerard and of devotion to him world-wide, including a reconstruction of the room in which he died. The original basilica and monastery have been restored after the destruction of the earthquake and there Gerard’s mortal remains rest in a finely carved tomb of white marble. The shrine attracts thousands of pilgrims during the pilgrimage season. Of special interest, given devotion to Gerard as ‘the mother’s saint’ is the exhibition of photographs of children and votive offerings in thanksgiving for a good delivery.

Materdomini will feature in the Irish Redemptorist Pilgrimage, 21-28 May 2016, visiting sites associated with Ss Alphonsus and Gerard. For further information contact Claire Carmichael at ccarmichael@redcoms.org Brendan McConvery is a Redemptotist from Belfast. He is a well-known biblical scholar and author of St Gerard Majella Rediscovering a Saint. He is currently editor of Reality.

A Redemptorist Pilgrimage Visiting the sites associated with St. Alphonsus & St. Gerard in Southern Italy

Saturday May 21st to Saturday May 28th 2016.

Based at the Caravel Hotel in Sant’Agnello, Sorrento (Half Board) Cost: €949.00/ £710.00 per person sharing.

Places are limited so early booking is advised.

For further details contact Joe Walsh Tours, 143 Lower Baggot Street, Dublin 2 (01) 2410816 or Claire Carmichael at ccarmichael@redcoms.org

D E V E LO P M ENT IN ACTION

WORLD JUSTICE IS A LOCAL AFFAIR TRÓCAIRE HAS A LONG HISTORY OF WORKING WITH LOCAL GROUPS TO BRING SOCIAL JUSTICE ISSUES ALIVE IN PARISHES, CLASSROOMS AND COMMUNITY GROUPS ACROSS THE ISLAND OF IRELAND. IN THIS ARTICLE, MEMBERS OF THE CLERGY AND VOLUNTEERS REFLECT ON THEIR EXPERIENCES OF COLLABORATING WITH TRÓCAIRE TO RAISE AWARENESS OF GLOBAL POVERTY AND EQUALITY

BY HANNAH EVANS

Trócaire’s

involvement in Nenagh parish predates the arrival of Fr. Des Hillery three years ago. "In fact," says Fr. Hillery, "it goes back as far as the time when Trócaire was set up. There are quite a few people from Nenagh who have worked in the missions or as volunteers over the years.

All that ties in with the Trócaire ethos around development and the human link."

The parish is involved with Trócaire in a number of ways, from education programmes in local schools to workshops drawing on Trócaire’s teaching resources and booklets around social justice and climate change. This is particularly so during its Lenten Campaign.

One Trócaire resource for adult congregations is based around the Stations of the Cross. “The Stations of the Cross is a traditional means of prayer and reflection," says Fr. Hillery. By linking each station with a different theme, for example care of the planet and the death of Jesus, "it takes something communal and gives it a world dimension".

Initiatives like these "add up to a strong statement throughout the season of Lent on issues that can sometimes be difficult for people to engage with,” he says. "For example, people are very much aware of the fine spells of weather we have had and the storms of previous years. Trócaire’s staff members bring back stories of the more radical effects of climate change from further afield in areas closer to the equator. Those experiences of volunteers, missionaries and lay missionaries put a human face on climate change. It's rapidly taking place and we have to think about what's being passed on to generations to come."

Fr. Gerry Campbell who works in St Patrick’s parish Dundalk is Trócaire’s diocesan representative for Armagh. He arranged Trócaire climate justice talks throughout his parishes during Lent, as well as distributing Glas, a resource about climate change produced by Trócaire, to schools in the diocese.

Fr. Campbell is now planning to form a team of Trócaire volunteers, one from each of the 17 pastoral areas. The idea is that this would form a larger social justice group. He hopes that this local connection with people who have a heart for faith and justice might help to strengthen the message of social justice for parishioners.

One person who clearly has a heart for faith and justice is Eleanor Custy. The 18-year-old from Ennis, Co. Clare, has been a Trócaire volunteer since Christmas. "I'm in college in UCC. There was a volunteering fair before Christmas and Trócaire had a stand at it," she says. Eleanor is also chair of the Killaloe Youth Council.

In the short time since her volunteer training with Trócaire, Eleanor has been kept busy. She took part in an organised school visit with a member of Trócaire’s staff to give a presentation on climate change, something she says helped build her confidence. The young volunteer had given talks in schools previously having made a trip to Calcutta two years ago.

She also organised a sponsored silence as part of the Trócaire Lenten campaign. "Killaloe youth group held a 24-hour sponsored silence on Good Friday," she says. "We held a silent prayer around the cross and posted about it on our Facebook page to help raise awareness about climate change and the effects particularly in developing countries."

Fr. Noel Kirwan of Cathedral parish in Limerick recently held Trócaire’s Rediscovering Mercy programme. This course aims to create a space for reflection on how mercy is both experienced and expressed in our lives, in the Scriptures, in our Church and in the work of Trócaire.

"It was attended by great cross-section of people," he says. "We were expecting the group to be aged around 18-30, but we got responses from people who were older and who brought their own wisdom. Our youngest was about 18 and our oldest was probably in their 60s.

We also had a couple of students from the University of Limerick.”

The course consists of four sessions over four consecutive weeks, each taking 60-80 minutes and facilitated by a Trócaire representative. It is particularly suitable to the seasons of Advent or Lent. "On the second night, the group was shown photographs from Africa and asked to look at them having thought about mercy," says Fr Kirwan. "I was bowled over by the reaction and the connections people drew.”

Describing the programme as "life-giving", he says it "shows us there’s mercy in the community. “It’s a very enriching experience and an ideal programme for any parish beginning to look at justice. The resources are excellent. With very little experience of group work someone could do this and build confidence to do more."

Hannah Evans is Church Development Officer with Trocaire

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UNDER THE MICROSCOPE THE EUCHARISTIC HYMNS OF THOMAS AQUINAS REVIEWED BY FR JAMES GOOD THOMAS AQUINAS IS WELL-KNOWN FOR THE INGENUITY AND DEPTH OF HIS PHILOSOPHY. LESS WELL KNOWN ARE HIS POEMS, ESPECIALLY THOSE WRITTEN IN HONOUR OF THE EUCHARIST

Most

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people would agree that the greatest mind in the history of the Catholic Church – perhaps in the history of the world – was Thomas Aquinas, a Dominican Friar who died at the early age of 47. The sheer quantity of the work he left behind him (apart from its superb quality) is simply baffling. Had he lived a normal lifetime, it is hard to imagine what the quantity of his work would have been.

The family of Aquinas was a wealthy noble one, and they had his future planned as a Benedictine. However, Thomas escaped and ran away to join the Dominican, at the time known as mendicant friars or beggar monks. Surprisingly, Thomas was sent to the University of Paris, where he became the academic assistant to another Dominican, Albert the Great. They criss-crossed Europe as they lectured together.

Albert began, and Aquinas completed, the greatest revolution in the history of Christian thought. The philosophy of the Greek Plato was the foundation of all Christian theology for a thousand years. Aquinas rejected it, and replaced it by the philosophy of Plato’s pupil Aristotle. With little change, the philosophy of Aristotle remains the foundation of Christian thinking to this day.

AQUINAS THE POET The work of Aquinas as a poet is not as well known as his philosophy and theology, but it belongs to the same top class. In 1264, the reigning Pope decided to institute a special joyous feast, Corpus Christi, to commemorate the gift of the Eucharist, removing it from the sad background of Holy Thursday.

In those days major feasts of the Church were celebrated with an octave, eight additional days of celebration to follow.

REALITY OCTOBER 2015

The work of Aquinas as a poet is not as well known as his philosophy and theology, but it belongs to the same top class To write the whole office for the feast and octave of Corpus Christi, the Pope selected Thomas Aquinas, then only thirty seven years old. The result showed Aquinas to be not merely a theologian, but a first-class poet as well. The hymns, best known from the Latin of their opening lines are as follows: Adoro te devote, Pange lingua, Sacris Sollemniis, Lauda Sion and Verbum Supernum Like most great poetry, Aquinas’s lose much of their beauty in translation. While many translations have been attempted, none of them capture the precision of the original.

They are really untranslatable into another medium. Take the following single verse as an example:

Being born, He gave himself as our companion; Eating with us, He became our food.

Dying, He became our price (of redemption) Reigning, He became our reward.

With the gradual death of the Latin language, the five Eucharistic hymns of Aquinas gradually died with it. Only bits of three of them continue to be sung today , in each case, the doxology or praise of the Trinity with which each poem ends. The three are: O salutaris hostia, still sung occasionally at Benediction Tantum ergo, officially part of the rite of Benediction Panis angelicus, which still survives on major occasions.

When he sang Panis Angelicus at the Dublin Eucharistic Congress in 1932, John McCormack’s name and fame spread across the world. Even a poor translation of this great hymn gives us a realisation of the faith of Aquinas.

The bread of angels becomes the bread of humans.

The heavenly bread puts an end to symbols.

O wonderful mystery! A poor and lowly slave Eats (the body of) the Lord.

St Thomas’ poems , just as much as his theology, show clearly that he has every right to his Latin title of Doctor Angelicus or Angelic Doctor.

Fr James Good was professor of philosophy in University College before spending several years as a missionary in the Turkanah desert. He now lives in retirement in his native diocese

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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH WHAT GOD HAS UNITED, OCTOBER HUMANS MUST NOT DIVIDE The Pharisees were not a unified movement. Great teachers attracted disciples 27th SUNDAY IN but often differed on how ORDINARY TIME they interpreted the Law. The two leading schools in Jesus’ day, following the teachers Shamai and Hillel, differed quite considerably on the question of divorce. Shamai took a strict line, and Hillel a more liberal one. The person who questions Jesus may have been trying to classify him as a liberal or a conservative: which side is he on? Instead of quibbling about words, Jesus invites us instead to go back to look at God’s plan for marriage as it was expressed at the very beginning of the human story. You don’t find the ideal just by looking at laws, since laws are usually designed to deal with failure. The attraction of a young man and a young woman for each other is deeply lodged

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in human nature. Jesus points to the nature of the physical act of love itself. It is an intimate act of exchange in which a man and a woman give each other exclusive possession of their body so that they are no longer two but one. Princess Diana made an extremely sad statement in a television interview about her failing marriage.

"There were three of us in this marriage,” she said “so it was a bit crowded." In a very different sense, people who have conferred on each other the sacrament of matrimony know there will always be a third person in their relationship. That third person will not make them anxious or troubled. It is Christ the Bridegroom who, in the grace of the sacrament, brings consolation and hope in time of difficulty, who turns the everyday water into the new wine of the kingdom of God. By the grace of the sacrament, their loving is not simply a physical act but it becomes the gift of what they prize most deeply. Renewing your marriage vows, especially when you feel that the excitement has gone out

Space on front cover for your parish name Front and back of the booklet can be personalised for your parish, to give it an even warmer feel Space on back cover for a greeting to your parishioners, parish contact details, regular Mass times, etc.

HE WENT AWAY SAD, FOR HE WAS A MAN OF GREAT WEALTH Three Gospels tell this story but each of them introduces 28th SUNDAY IN the main character a little ORDINARY TIME differently. For Matthew, he is a young man. For Luke, he is ‘a ruler’ or someone of status. For Mark, he is simply ‘a man,’ but later he will be identified as a person of great wealth. His question comes from a heart that searching for something. He is a good person, but he has an uneasy feeling that something more might be demanded of him. Mark says that Jesus

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of your relationship, can be a powerful reminder of what you and your spouse are to each other.

Today’s Readings Gen 2:18-24 Ps 127 Heb 2:9-11 Mark 10:2-16

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‘looked steadily at him, and loved him.’ What was in his face that so deeply revealed what was in his heart and gave Jesus the hope that he might be able to live the kind of life that some of his disciples had difficulties with? Following Jesus is not a question of adding on more prayers, or keeping more rules.

It requires something much more radical: “Go, sell everything you own and come follow me.” This marks a moment of crisis for the man. The man’s face fell at these words, for he was a man of great wealth. Did he turn away, leaving Jesus looking after

him with that same look of compassion that he had fixed on him as he answered his question?

Sometimes finding the path to discipleship can take time. There may be questions that cannot be answered just now, decisions cannot be faced at the moment. As we read this Gospel today, we might think of young men and women who are struggling with the decision whether to follow Jesus as a priest or religious. For many of them, the decision does not need to be taken immediately. They have the rest of this academic year at school or college to weigh it up.

Let’s keep them in our prayers that they will make it freely and with generosity. The great mystic, St John of the Cross once remarked that a skylark can escape from its cage, but if it is retained by a single thread of silk, it will never soar to freedom. Sometimes it is not the big things that stop us following Jesus more closely but the small things that limit our freedom.

DO US A FAVOUR, BOSS! The Zebedee brothers seem OCTOBER to have been from a better off family than their neighbours, Peter and Andrew. As young men of ambitious family often MASS FOR THE do, they probably assumed they SPREAD OF THE GOSPEL had a better claim than their poorer neighbours to positions of influence in the Kingdom, but they are leaving nothing to chance. Drawing Jesus aside, they ask for a favour – the two best jobs in the kingdom. Jesus replies that they do not realise what they are asking for. If they want to belong to his inner circle, then they must drain the cup of suffering he will drink or be baptised in his baptism. Baptism here does not mean wetting the head with a little water, but drenching,

soaking or submerging in the deep waters of death that will leave them gasping for air.

When the other disciples realise that the brothers are up to, a row breaks out so Jesus gives them another lesson on discipleship. Following him is not about being in control. It is not about having power or influence. They need to learn from him what it means to be servant, to take the last place.

Catherine de Hueck was a Russian countess. After the Russian revolution, she wandered through much of Europe with her young husband and child in searchofahomebeforeeventuallysettlinginCanada.

Deeply dissatisfied, she knew she was in search of her spiritual roots. Eventually, she gave up everything to work for the poorest of the poor. Sheknewthatnot everyone is called to such radical service but she also realised that every moment brought its own call to

service. "The duty of the moment is what you should be doing at any given time, in whatever place God has put you. You may not have Christ in a homeless person at your door, but you may have a little child.

If you have a child, your duty of the moment may be to change a dirty diaper. So you do it. But you don't just change that diaper, you change it to the best of your ability, with great love for both God and that child.... There are all kinds of good Catholic things you can do, but whatever they are, you have to realize that there is always the duty of the moment to be done. And it must be done, because the duty of the moment is the duty of God.”

MASTER, LET ME SEE AGAIN Jesus has reached the last stage of his journey to Jerusalem where he will be crucified in just over a week. A stiff climb of fifteen miles 30th SUNDAY IN faces them. As they leave the ORDINARY TIME town of Jericho behind, a blind beggar calls out for help. People who received healing from Jesus in the Gospels are usually anonymous. The exceptions are Peter’s mother in law (but we don’t know her proper name), Lazarus who was raised from the dead and the man in today’s story. He is called ‘Bartimaeus’ (‘the son of Timeaus)’ just as Jesus would have been known to his neighbours in Nazareth as ‘Bar Yoseph’ (‘the son of Joseph’). Beggars were a nobodies.

They could claim no rights for themselves. Often their financial need was compounded by physical

disability, in this case blindness. Despite that he refuses to be cowed. No one will silence him when he decides he needs to be heard. When Jesus calls him, he responds eagerly, throwing off his cloak, jumping up and asking for what he wants, to have his sight restored.

Mark recounts two cures of blindness, one at the beginning and the other at the end of Jesus’ journey to Jerusalem. The first is unusual among all the healing stories of the Gospel, for the cure at first seems only partly successful and needs to be repeated. In the second case, the story of Bartimaeus, it is instantly successful and the man ‘follows him along the road’, that is, he becomes a disciple. Mark is probably using the symbol of blindness to convey to his readers that disciples of Jesus can be blind to the essentials of what it means to follow him.

ThepoetRobbieBurnsonceprayed“Owouldsome power the giftie gie (give) us, to see ourselves as others see us.” Seeing ourselves as we really are is not such a small gift! It can be a gift we do not really want to accept! Catching even a glimpse of myself behaving badly is enough to make me turn away and look at something else, preferably someone else’s mistakes!

The last journey to Jerusalem was a crash course in discipleship. Most of what Jesus taught them about replacing ambition with service, about imitating the povertyandhumilityofachildratherthanthepowergrabbingofthetyrant,wentovertheirheads.Theone who became the model of discipleship was the blind beggar who followed him along the road.

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Today’s Readings Wis 7:7-11 Ps 89 Heb 4:12-13 Mark 10:17-30

Today’s Readings Isa 53:10-11 Ps 32 Heb 4:14-16 Mark 10:35-45

Today’s Readings Gen 2:18-24 Ps 127 Heb 2:9-11 Mark 10:2-16

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THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 8, OCTOBER 2015

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 6 ACROSS: Across: 1. Velcro, 5. Bereft, 10. Pressed, 11. Garbage, 12. Goth, 13. Tapir, 15. Stye, 17. Lag, 19. Thread, 21. Epochs, 22. Courage, 23. Crusoe, 25. Geiger, 2.8 Act, 30. Laud, 31. Askew, 32. Clay, 35. Crucial, 36. Sabbath, 37. Slalom, 38. Seethe.

DOWN: 2. Elector, 3. Cosy, 4. Ordeal, 5. Bigwig, 6. Rare, 7. Frantic, 8. Spigot, 9. Celebs, 14. Patrick, 16. Bacon, 18. Épées, 20. Doe, 21. Egg, 23. Calico, 24. Unusual, 26. Goliath, 27. Rhythm, 28.

Asylum, 29. Teases, 33. Pill, 34. Oboe.

Winner of Crossword No. 6 Billy Hannon, Co. Galway

ACROSS 1. An angelic child. (6) 5. Dim, gloomy, or shadowy. (6) 10. Illegally took, shelled, and boiled an egg. (7) 11. Precise details for meals. (7) 12. Extinct flightless bird. (4) 13. African country, capital Accra. (5) 15. The frame of a ship. (4) 17. Latin and Christian greeting. (3) 19. Sacred place for veneration or worship.

(6) 21. Semiaquatic mammal. (6) 22. Name of 16 Popes. (7) 23. Scowl, have an angry or sullen look. (6) 25. Avoided or escaped by cleverness or trickery. (6) 28. Official record of a voyage. (3) 30. Comply with a law or command. (4) 31. An artificial waterway. (5) 32. The elder twin brother of Jacob. (4) 35. Fe time. (4,3) 36. The least populous state in the U.S.A. (7) 37. Give a hand. (6) 38. The proper name of God in the Old Testament. (6)

DOWN 2. A person who accumulates things unhealthily. (7) 3. River and industrial region of Germany. (4) 4. Siddartha Gautama. (6) 5. Calm, peaceful and untroubled. (6) 6. Tease in a scornful manner. (4) 7. A feeling of intense pleasure or joy. (7) 8. Tools for playing cards. (6) 9. Sacred songs or hymns. (6) 14. City of seven Popes (1309-1377). (7) 16. A messenger of God. (5) 18. A manner or way of doing something. (5) 20. Do wrong, be incorrect. (3) 21. Monetary unit of Denmark and Norway.

(3) 23. Just the woman for excelsis Deo. (6) 24. Dwarf leopards. (7) 26. Regard with contempt or repugnance. (7) 27. A person made to to hard menial or dull work. (6) 28. A passionate expression of grief or sorrow. (6) 29. The City of the Tribes. (6) 33. South Asian garment for women. (4) 34. Rubbish, nonsense. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.8, October 2015 Name: Address: Telephone:

All entries must reach us by October 31, 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. 8, Redemptorist Communications, 75 Orwell Rd., Rathgar, Dublin 6

POPE MONITOR continued from page 7

FACTS ABOUT THE HOLY SEE The 2014 edition of the Activity of the Holy See, released in July, runs to more than 1,600 pages. In addition to information about the activity of the various Vatican Departments, it contains many interesting, sometimes bizarre, but usually inaccessible, facts about the Vatican. Here are some: •The Vatican pharmacy employed seven religious and 53 laypeople •During the year, examination of possible miracles in 58 separate causes for canonisation took place. The final step, the signing of the decree by the pope, took place in17 cases.

•During the academic year of 2013-14, 1,086 scholars from 54 countries were authorised to carry on research in the Vatican “Secret Archives.”

•An average of 76.2 scholars a day used the Vatican Library.

•There are 194 people, all laity, in the Vatican Security and Civil Protection Services, including the Papal Gendarmes.

•611 people hold Vatican citizenship, including 78 cardinals and 108 members of the Pontifical Swiss Guard.

•The Philatelic and Numismatic Office issued twenty new series of stamps. Among them was a stamp to celebrate the 125th anniversary of the birth of Charlie Chaplin.

•Almost 500 journalists are permanently accredited to the Vatican and a further 4,126 temporary passes were issued by its press office to other media people.

•Thirty-eight priests and bishops were dismissed from the clerical state, mostly in relations to the sexual abuse of minors.

•Vatican gendarmes wrote 93 tickets for parking or other traffic violations.

•Pope Francis gave more than $612,000 to emergency disaster relief efforts around the world through the Pontifical Council, Cor Unum, the Vatican's charity, and an additional $1.6 million to human promotion and development projects.

•The number of Catholic schools and students throughout the world increased. From primary schools up to university level, the Church runs more than 210,000 educational institutions with a total of close to 58 million students.

•In July 2014, each of Pope Francis' daily tweets in Spanish were retweeted an average of 11,000 times. The mini-messages sent out on his English Twitter account were re-tweeted an average of 8,200 times.

•The Vatican fire department responded to 466 emergency calls. Five were for small fires, 96 were in response to alarms going off and 82 were for stuck elevators.

•In 2014, 282 babies were baptized in St Peter’s Basilica and a further 183 in St. Anne's Church just inside Vatican City.

•The health office for Vatican employees reported 162 injuries in the work-place.

COMMENT REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

DECRIMINALISATION OF DRUG POSSESSION

SHOULD THE POSSESSION OF SMALL AMOUNTS OF DRUGS FOR PERSONAL USE BE DECRIMINALISED?

The

Oireachtas Committe e on Justice, Defence and Equality have been examining the desirability or otherwise of decriminalising the possession of small amounts of drugs for personal use. They have visited Portugal where such measures were introduced in 2001.

While drugs are still illegal there, possessing small, defined, amounts is treated as a misdemeanour, like a parking offence. This change in policy has not led to an increase in drug use in Portugal but has resulted in a significant decrease in HIV infections and drug related deaths, and in a reduction in drug use amongst 15 to 24 year olds, the age-group most at risk.

There are strongly held arguments both for and against following the Portuguese model in Ireland. I support the proposal for several reasons.

CRIMINALISING DRUG USE ISN’T WORKING For decades, we have tried to reduce the availability and use of drugs, primarily through the use of the criminal justice system.

Thousands of people have been prosecuted for the possession of drugs for personal use. The outcome: more and more drugs are now available in every town and even village in Ireland. ‘Illegal’ drugs are sometimes referred to as ‘controlled drugs’, but the reality is quite patently the opposite!

Ireland now has a free market in drugs. In some areas you can have your drug of choice delivered to you quicker than a pizza.

VALUE FOR MONEY The cost of Garda time, court proceedings and imprisonment involved in prosecuting, and penalising, people for the possession of drugs for personal use is probably impossible to quantify, but it runs to hundreds of millions of euro.

I have personally been in court with a young man who was charged with possession of cannabis to the value of €2. He was granted free legal aid. The case was adjourned four times, with the prosecuting Garda having to spend each morning in court - and one afternoon waiting for the case to be called.

The Judge told the young man that he was considering a threemonth sentence but would first ask for a Probation report. The young man met the Probation Officer on two occasions (at the expense of the State), and, having got a positive report, was spared a prison sentence. He is still using cannabis!

In 2014 alone, 11,877 such offences were prosecuted in the District Courts where less serious offences are dealt with, of whom 382 people were sentenced to prison, 2,309 were fined (which involves substantial Garda time spent in collection), 1,611 were placed on probation and 306 were sentenced to community service.

Community projects, receiving state funding of twenty thousand euro a year, will be rigorously evaluated to see if they are providing value for money. But

a system which costs millions of euro a year is never evaluated in terms of effective outcomes.

INVESTING IN TREATMENT Decriminalising the possession of drugs for one’s own personal use would, on its own, save huge amounts of money, in both the criminal justice system and health services, as the Portuguese Government has acknowledged.

However, to be effective, the savings would need to be reinvested in treatment services and in information and education about drug use. This entails taking the responsibility, and funding, for drug enforcement away from the Gardai and transferring it to the Department of Health. It means “medicalising” drugs, not criminalising their users. It involves seeing drug use as a health issue, which requires support and treatment, not a criminal issue which requires punishment. It sees addicted drug users as vulnerable people in need of help, not criminal outcasts. It means a state response to drug use that emphasises the role of health professionals and counsellors, not lawyers, and thereby frees the Gardai to focus on drug dealing.

Treatment options for drug users in Ireland are very inadequate.

Outside Dublin, treatment may be patchy or even non-existent.

Even in Dublin, long waiting lists are common, the length of waiting time often depending on where you live.

In my experience, every drug

user, at some point in their life, becomes fed up with their drug dependency and seeks treatment.

There is then a small window of opportunity, perhaps several months, in which the person is open to, and even eager to, engage in treatment. But if that treatment is not available, they are likely to become demoralised and their desire for treatment may fade.

CHANGING ATTITUDES A common argument against decriminalising the possession of small quantities of drugs is that it gives a message that society does not consider drug use to be an issue of serious concern. However, if we re-invest, in treatment and education, the money saved by decriminalising the possession of drugs, we can actually give the opposite message: drug misuse is an issue of concern – but, like alcohol misuse, it is a health and social issue. Unlike some other countries, we do not criminalise alcohol use, we criminalise some of the consequences of alcohol misuse, such as violent behaviour, or driving over the alcohol limit.

By providing adequate and easily accessible communitybased and residential treatment programmes, and investing in health professionals to work with drug users in the community, we give the far more effective message that drug misuse is bad for your health, for your family, for your community - but that help to address the problems which it causes is readily available.

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CHRIST COMMUNITY COMPASSION THINK ABOUT IT

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