Reality Magazine September 2019

PLANNING PERMISSION GRANTED

THE OFFERTORY GIFTS: SYMBOLISM ON THE MOVE

LIVING FAMILY: BRINGING GOD INTO FAMILY LIFE

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

SEPTEMBER 2019

TRANSGENDER AND CATHOLIC WHAT HAS THE CHURCH TO SAY?

WHAT IRELAND OWES TO THE SISTERS THE LESSER KNOWN MOTHER TERESA

RECLAIMING THE SPIRITUALITY OF EDUCATION THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN NORTH AND SOUTH

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

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES 12 TRANSGENDER AND CATHOLIC How do we respond to the question of gender change? A Catholic moral theologian explores some of the issues.

By Dr Patrick Hannon

19 LIVING FAMILY FAMILIES LEADING FAMILIES TO THE HEART OF THE CHURCH What happens when you are a young married couple and missing the buzz of a youth movement, but maybe need it now more than ever?

By Susan Gately

22 PREPARING THE GIFTS After the prayer of the faithful, the preparation of the altar and the gifts of bread and wine takes place. How can we get the most out of this rich part of the liturgy?

By Maria Hall

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26 A LESSER KNOWN MOTHER TERESA Since the beginning of the 19th century, the founders of women’s religious orders have made important contributions to the life of the nation.

By John Scally

32 GRACE, BLINDNESS AND BIRETTAS An Irish Redemptorist who has served in the Philippines for more than 20 years begins a short series of letters describing his work.

By Fr Colm Meaney CSsR

34 PERSPECTIVES FROM THE NORTH ON A ‘SPIRITUALITY OF EDUCATION’ Irish education is going through a time of challenge and change. The situation in Northern Ireland faces different questions but it also needs to reclaim a Catholic spirituality of education.

By Michael Bennett

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OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY

04 REALITY BITES 07 POPE MONITOR 08 SAINT OF THE MONTH 09 REFLECTIONS 38 PRAYER CORNER 41 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

18 JIM DEEDS 31 CARMEL WYNNE 44 PETER McVERRY SJ

REALITY BITES PRIEST CONCELEBRATES BIRTHDAY MASS WITH HIS FOUR SONS ITALY

A FAMILY CELEBRATION

Don Probo Vaccarini was ordained priest at the age of 69 after the death of his wife Anna Mari. Of their seven children, the four sons all became priests.

Born on June 4, 1919, Probo Vaccarini trained as a surveyor after leaving the Italian wartime army in which he had taken part in the Russian campaign in the Second World War. After his wife died and with the encouragement of his family, he studied for a degree in theology and was ordained priest at 69.

Since then he has worked as a pastor, in San Martino in Venti, a small rural community near the Adriatic Sea. Don Probo celebrated his 100th birthday on Tuesday May 28, 2019, marking the occasion with a Mass concelebrated with his sons and Bishop Francesco Lambiasi in the Cathedral of Rimini, Italy.

EXTRAORDINARY MONTH OF MISSION WORLDWIDE

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CALL TO MISSION

October is already recognised by our global church family as Mission Month, with World Mission Sunday falling in its penultimate weekend.

However, Mission Month 2019 will have even greater significance. The Holy Father has announced it as the ‘Extraordinary Month of Mission’ (EMM2019), with the theme Baptised and Sent: The Church of Christ on Mission in the World.

So, what does this mean for the Church in Ireland? EMM2019 will be a special month of prayer and action to help strengthen and grow God’s mission and the Church. World Missions Ireland, the

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

Pope’s official charity for overseas mission, is creating resources to help parishes live out EMM2019 as fully as possible. However, each parish is being encouraged to live this extraordinary month with absolute freedom and creativity.

In the October issue of Reality World Missions Ireland will take a more in-depth look at EMM2019, including where to access the official hymn, prayer, videos, social media material and information pack. Till then, if you have any questions contact World Missions Ireland on 01 497 2035 or info@ wmi.ie.

Don Probo Vaccarini and his sons

DEDICATION OF STATUE TO ST OLIVER PLUNKETT ARMAGH

INSPIRED BY DEEP PRAYER

Archbishop Eamonn Martin dedicated Archbishop Martin blesses the newly revealed a new statue of St Oliver Plunkett at statue Armagh Cathedral on July 9. It was specially commissioned and cast in bronze by Dublinsculptor Dony MacManus. The seven-foot high statue depicts Saint Oliver at the moment of his martyrdom. The saint is cast in Ecce Homo pose (ie ‘Behold the man’, as in the Crucifixion of Jesus). He stands, wearing his pectoral cross, with his hands bound behind his back gently clasping the martyr’s palm, which trails down to the archbishop’s pallium, making it clear that St Oliver’s martyrdom is connected with his episcopacy. The sculptor said, “In order for liturgical or sacred art to feed a congregation, it has to come from deep prayer, just as a homily can affect a congregation only to the extent that it comes from the prayer of the priest. In each case, of course, the Holy Spirit plays a key part.” The aim of the statue design of St Oliver he said “is to break the heart of those who see the work, so that they are affected in a deeply emotional way.” Archbishop Martin announced the plan to honour martyrs of the past, present and tomorrow last November. In December 2018, he travelled to Iraq, and met with Archbishop Bashar Warda CSsR in Erbil, to hear and see at first hand the devastation that has been wrought upon Christians in that region. He also wrote to the Church in Sri Lanka, and Burkina Faso, Africa, offering Armagh’s prayerful solidarity to the local churches following the murder of Christians during worship earlier this year.

N E WS

MIRACLE FOR FULTON SHEEN BEATIFICATION USA

MEDICAL SCIENCE UNABLE TO EXPLAIN

Pope Francis approved a miracle on July 5 for the beatification of Archbishop Fulton Sheen, which will take place in the near future. Bonnie Engstrom had delivered a full-term baby in a home birth, but the child showed no sign of a pulse until more than an hour after his birth. Bonnie and her husband Travis had prayed to Archbishop Sheen on a daily basis throughout the pregnancy "for his intercession in the life of my child and in our marriage — to walk with us and to walk with my son, that he would be a lifelong Catholic who would love God and love his faith, that he would be a man of integrity.” During that hour, their prayers grew more intense. When the baby finally began to breathe, the parents were warned, since his blood supply had been cut off for so long due to a twist in his umbilical cord, he would probably be blind, and never walk, talk or be able to feed himself. Eight years on, James Fulton Engstrom is a healthy little boy

Bonnie and James Fulton Engstrom

who likes chicken nuggets, Star Wars and riding his bicycle. Medical science was unable to explain the healthy development of the little boy, who was given the name of the Archbishop in his baptism, and the cure has been accepted as miraculous. Archbishop Sheen, the son of Irish immigrants to the United States, was a pioneer in the use of radio and television as instruments of evangelisation.

HARD HAT INSTEAD OF MITRE PARIS

BETTER SAFE THAN SORRY

Wearing a white safety helmet, the Archbishop of Paris celebrated Mass in the Lady Chapel of the Cathedral of Notre Dame two months after the devastating fire. The Mass was to mark the anniversary of the cathedral’s dedication on June 16. In addition to some members of the Cathedral Chapter, the attendance included cathedral staff, some of the workers engaged on the recovery operation and members of the fire brigade whose heroic efforts had prevented more extensive damage to the historic church. They were all told to wear protective helmets on account of the danger of falling masonry. The service was broadcast by the diocesan television chain to a large audience. In his homily, the archbishop stressed the purpose of Notre Dame as a place of Christian worship, and not an ornament of the secular state. It could never be reduced to a cultural or “patrimonial good” and if Jesus was removed as the cornerstone, it would collapse in a spiritual rather than a physical sense.

Archbishop Aupetit and concelebrants wearing safety helmets

NEW BISHOPS ARMAGH & CLONFERT NEW FACES Two new bishops have been nominated for Irish dioceses. Fr Michael Router, parish priest of Bailieborough, County Cavan, was ordained as Auxiliary Bishop of the Archdiocese of Armagh, with the titular see of Lugmad, on July 21. Since bishops should have a diocese, auxiliary bishops are given titular sees of defunct dioceses: Lugmad was a former diocese in County Louth. Bishop Router will live in Dundalk. He has a particular interest in adult religious education. Fr Michael Duignan was appointed Bishop of Clonfert, County Galway in succession to Bishop John Kirby. By coincidence, both men are natives of the same parish, Bealnamulla near Athlone. Fr Duignan holds a doctorate in theology and taught in St Angela’s College, County Sligo. He has been involved in the restoration and formation of men for the permanent diaconate in his home diocese of Elphin and in 2014, he was appointed by Irish bishops as National Director of the Permanent Diaconate in Ireland. continued on page 6

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REALITY BITES BUILDING PERMISSION GRANTED – AFTER ��� YEARS

PRAYERS AND PLOUGHING

One of the chief tourist attractions of Barcelona is the Church of the Holy Family (Sagrada Familia) designed by the architect Antonio Gaudi. Work on the church began 137 years ago, and is still unfinished. The foundation stone was laid in 1882, but city officials say there is no record showing a construction licence was ever granted, although one was requested in 1885. The present one is valid until 2026, which the builders say is enough time to finish the central towers. The council has charged €4.6 million for the licence.

The Bishop of Kildare and Leighlin has announced a competition involving two prayers. The first is to find Ireland’s favourite prayer and the second is to find a new prayer for the environment. Visitors to the 88th National Ploughing Championships in County Carlow from September 17–19 are being asked to vote for their favourite traditional prayer, and to compose a prayer for the protection of the environment.

Launching the search for Ireland’s favourite prayer, Bishop Denis Nulty said, “Prayer is still important for many citizens. In the two months leading up to the Ploughing Championships, I am asking people all around the country to choose the prayer they like most." He continued, “The Ploughing Championships take place in the middle of the annual Season of Creation, which the Catholic Church marks from September 1–October 4. I am also inviting people to submit a personal prayer (no more than 100 words) about the environment which they compose themselves. This new environmentally centred prayer could relate to farming, gardening or sustainability.”

The ‘Prayer at the Ploughing’ challenge is open to people of all ages and all faiths. People can submit their preferences and entries to prayerattheploughing@kandle.ie between now and September 10.

IRISH NUN HONOURED 6

Sr Berchmans with Cardinal Nichols, Muhammad Nafees Zakaria (centre right), Adrian O'Neill (right), and two former pupils

Clare-born Sr Berchmans Conway (89) was presented with the Benedict Medal by the Archbishop of Westminster and Chancellor of St Mary’s University, Cardinal Vincent Nichols, to honour almost 60 years' work in Pakistan. Sr Berchmans, a Sister of Jesus and Mary, taught children of all faiths at convents in Lahore, Murree and Jugnu Mohsin. She is the fifth recipient, and the first woman, to be presented with the Benedict Medal. Former recipients include Bartholomew I, the Ecumenical Patriarch and Archbishop of Constantinople, and Dr Richard Clarke, Archbishop of Armagh and Primate of all-Ireland.

DE-CONSECRATING CHURCHES More than one fifth of all church buildings in the Netherlands have been converted into libraries, apartments, offices or other functions in line with the growing secularisation in the country, according to an inquiry by the Protestant daily paper Trouw. One-fifth of those built before 1800, which gives them status as national monuments, have been secularised.

Almost a quarter of those built since then have been given over to other uses. According to the paper’s report, "For Roman Catholics the church is sacred, for Protestants the church is REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

13th century Dominican church converted into a bookstore in Maastricht

useful. As a result, Roman Catholics are more reluctant to give their churches a different function. This means that only about 15% of Catholic churches have been desacralized in comparison to one quarter of Protestant church buildings." Many of the Catholic churches are large neo-Gothic buildings and so are harder to convert to commercial use than smaller Protestant churches, it added. Catholics prefer to convert their buildings for social use while Protestant churches are more commonly designated for office or apartment use.

N E WS

POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS POPE’S CHOIR CHIEF RETIRES The Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina

Fr Massimo Palombella has retired from his position as director of the Sistine Chapel Choir. He has been under investigation for financial fraud. Pope Francis accepted his resignation on July 10, and Fr Palombella "is now available to his religious congregation, the Salesians, for whatever new ministry that will be entrusted to him.” Reports of a financial scandal involving the Sistine Chapel Choir broke in July 2018. The Holy See press office confirmed the report, adding that Pope Francis had authorised an investigation, which is still ongoing, into economic and administrative aspect of the choir. The allegations included money laundering, aggravated fraud against the Vatican City State, and embezzlement involving the choir manager Michelangelo Nardella and Fr Palombella. In January, Pope Francis brought the choir under the control of the Office of Pontifical Liturgical Celebrations and ordered that new statutes be drawn up for its administration.

Known officially as the Cappella Musicale Pontificia Sistina, the choir has 20 professional singers as well as a treble section made up of 35 boys aged 9-13. The Sistine Chapel Choir is believed to be the oldest active choir in the world, with a history of about 1,500 years.

Fr Massimo Palombella and Michelangelo Nardella

WOMEN APPOINTED TO CONGREGATION OF RELIGIOUS Pope Francis appointed 23 new members of the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life. They include six women religious superior generals and one head of a women’s secular institute.

The six women superior generals are Sr Kathleen Appler of the Daughters of Charity of St Vincent de Paul; Sr Yvonne Reungoat of the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (also known as the Salesian Sisters of Don Bosco); Sr Françoise Massy of the Franciscan Missionaries of Mary; Sr Luigia Coccia of the Comboni Missionaries; Sr Simona Brambilla of the Consolata Missionaries; and Sr M. Rita Calvo Sanz of the Company of Mary Our Lady. Olga Krizova, general president of the Don Bosco Secular Institute, was also nominated

Sr Kathleen Appler

Sr Yvonne Reungoat

Sr Françoise Massy

Sr Luigia Coccia

Sr Simona Brambilla

Sr. M. Rita Calvo Sanz

ST PETER’S RELICS FOR THE ORTHODOX The Confessio, St Peter's Basilica Vatican City - St Peter's tomb is behind the niche

Pope Francis unexpectedly gave a reliquary containing what are believed to be bone fragments of St Peter to Orthodox Patriarch Bartholomew, an ecumenical gesture that has generated controversy among some Catholics. The relics had been placed in a chapel in the papal apartments by Pope Saint Paul VI. They had been discovered during an archaeological dig in the Vatican in 1952. Pope Paul VI said that the bones had been “identified in a way which we can hold to be convincing … we have reason to believe that the few, but sacrosanct mortal remains of the Prince of the Apostles have been traced.”

A delegation from the Ecumenical Patriarchate of Constantinople were guests at the Mass for the feast of Saints Peter and Paul, as has been customary in recent years. After the Mass, Pope Francis brought Archbishop Job, head of the delegation, to a chapel in the papal apartments and offered him the reliquary as a gift for the Patriarch. The Archbishop called the gesture “another gigantic step towards concrete unity”, but it has been criticised by some Catholics.

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REDEMPTORIST SAINT OF THE MONTH BLESSED METHODIUS DOMINIC TRCKA 1886-1959

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Dominic Trcka was born in what is today the Czech Republic on July 6, 1886. He entered the Redemptorists in 1902, was professed in 1904, and ordained in Prague on July 17, 1910.

From the start of his priesthood he took part in the usual Redemptorist apostolate of preaching popular missions and novenas. During the First World War, he took care of Croatian, Slovene and Ruthenian refugees at Svata Hora, the Czech national shrine of Our Lady which had been entrusted to the Redemptorists.

Although by birth and upbringing he belonged to the Roman Rite, Dominic felt that the Catholics of the Greek Rite were in greater need of priests. In 1919 in response to his request to work with them, he was sent to Lviv in the Ukraine. Not only did he have to learn a new way of celebrating Mass, but he also had to learn a new language and culture. He was greatly assisted by one of his Redemptorist confrères, Fr Nikola Carneckyj. Later in life, both of them would meet the same fate as martyrs and eventually be beatified by Pope John Paul II. Fr Dominic at this time adopted a new name, Methodius, in honour of one of the first missionaries to the Slavic peoples.

In December 1921 he was sent to Stropkov, in Eastern Slovakia, where he founded a Redemptorist community with members belonging to both the Latin and Byzantine rites.

During the Second World War, the Slovak State suspected the Redemptorists of anti-State propaganda because of their pastoral work with Ruthenians in a Slovak nationalist situation.

Since Fr Methodius was the chief suspect as superior of the house, he resigned his post as superior in order to save the other members of the community. When the Redemptorists established the Greek-Catholic Vice-Province of Michalovce, Fr Methodius was appointed the first Vice-Provincial on March 23, 1946. He encouraged the Redemptorists' return to Stropkov where they worked until the Communists came to power in post-war Czechoslovakia. On April 13, 1950, all the Redemptorist communities were declared suppressed and the members taken to prison camps. Two years later, Methodius was charged with espionage and high treason. The evidence was that he had circulated copies of the pastoral letter of the bishop and sent reports of the Redemptorist communities to the Roman superior general. He was sentenced to 12 years in prison. After a summary show trial, he was sentenced to 12 years of imprisonment, during which he was subjected to lengthy interrogations and torture. In 1958 he was transferred to the prison of Leopoldov. The following Christmas he was caught singing a carol and sent to the 'correction cell' where he contracted pneumonia. Another prisoner, a doctor, recommended that he be admitted to hospital: all he got for his efforts was Methodius’ transfer to solitary confinement. Finally, he died in his own cell on March 23, 1959, after forgiving his persecutors. He was buried in the prison cemetery, but after the liberation of the Greek Catholic Church, his remains were transferred on October 17, 1969, to the Redemptorist plot in the cemetery of Michalovce.

Pope St John Paul II proclaimed him Blessed on November 4, 2001. His memorial day is August 25.

Brendan McConvery CSsR REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

Reality Volume 84. No. 7 September 2019 A Redemptorist Publication ISSN 0034-0960 Published by The Irish Redemptorists, St Joseph's Monastery, St Alphonsus Road, Dundalk County Louth A91 F3FC Tel: 00353 (0)1 4922488 Web: www.redcoms.org Email: sales@redcoms.org (With permission of C.Ss.R.)

Editor Brendan McConvery CSsR editor@redcoms.org Design & Layout David Mc Namara CSsR Sales & Marketing Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org Accounts Dearbhla Cooney accounts@redcoms.org Printed by Nicholson & Bass, Belfast Photo Credits Shutterstock, Catholic News Agency, Trócaire,

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REFLECTIONS To be a Christian is to believe we are commanded and authorised to say certain things to the world; to say things that will make disciples of all nations.

God wants that, in all things, we respect one another, love one another, treat one another as the most tender of brothers.

ROWAN WILLIAMS

He looked haggard and careworn, like a Borgia who has suddenly remembered that he has forgotten to shove cyanide in the consommé, and the dinner-gong due any moment.

Humility is attentive patience.

SIMONE WEIL

The spiritual life does not remove us from the world but leads us deeper into it.

HENRI NOUWEN

We fear to know the fearsome and unsavoury aspects of ourselves, but we fear even more to know the godlike in ourselves.

BLESSED CHARLES DE FOUCAULD

IRISH PROVERB

PG WOODHOUSE

The best way of breaking down barriers between people or communities is through simple, unforced acts of kindness. One act can undo years of estrangement.

Miracles are a retelling in small letters of the very same story which is written across the whole world in letters too large for some of us to see.

CS LEWIS

CHARLES CARDINAL JOURNET

The louder our world today is, the deeper God seems to remain in silence. Silence is the language of eternity; noise passes.

Our redemption through the suffering of Christ is that deeper love within us which not only frees us from slavery to sin, but also secures for us the true liberty of the children of God, in order that we might do all things out of love rather than out of fear– love for him that has shown us such grace that no greater can be found

SEAN O FAOLAIN

When giving treats to friends or children, give them what they like, emphatically not what is good for them.

GK CHESTERTON

JONATHAN SACKS

Be gentle with yourself. Suffer no despair about the person you are. It suffices that the God of Love makes of you the places of his dwelling and the vessel of his mercy.

In the presence of great music, we have no alternative but to live nobly.

Becoming like Jesus is as much about having a relaxed and joyful heart as it is about believing and doing the right thing, as much about proper energy as about proper truth.

RONALD ROLHEISER OMI

ABRAHAM MASLOW

GERTRUDE VON LE FORT

Más maith leat siocháin, cairdeas, agus moladh, éist, feic, agus fan balbh. (If you want peace, friendship, and praise, listen, look, and keep quiet.)

PETER ABELARD

Once an allegation has been repeated a few times, it is no longer an allegation, it is an established fact, even if no evidence has been brought out in order to support it.

DAG HAMMARSKJOLD

But how could you live and have no story to tell?

FYODOR DOSTOEVSKY

She fitted into my biggest arm-chair as if it had been built round her by someone who knew they were wearing arm-chairs tight about the hips that season.

PG WOODHOUSE

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Partners in Peace Two men of God – Intrinsic to the Irish Peace Process – Convinced of their path – Spurred on by their faith

For the first time, the personal stories and political struggles of Redemptorists Alec Reid and Gerry Reynolds are told, highlighting their underlying influence in gaining peace on this island

ONE MAN, ONE GOD

UNITY PILGRIM

Fr Alec Reid made an extraordinary contribution to the Northern Ireland peace process. As a member of the Clonard community for over 40 years, Fr Alec’s peace ministry emerged from a religious community deeply rooted in west Belfast.

Fr Alec saw himself as a servant of Christ in a situation of political conflict. He felt prompted by the Holy Spirit to reach out and work for peace. His contribution to peace in Ireland is immeasurable, and there would not have been a peace process without his hard work and determination.

This unique book by Fr Martin McKeever CSsR. explores the extraordinary work of this good and simple priest.

When Limerick-born Redemptorist priest Fr Gerry Reynolds first arrived in Belfast in August 1983, it was to a city starkly divided by conflict and violence. His instinct to reach out to those who were suffering, on both sides of the community, would develop into a lifelong devotion to the cause of peace and Christian unity – a pilgrim of peace.

He believed the church could be ‘God’s peace process in human history’, and that dialogue and friendship would open hearts to the mutual understanding and trust that are the foundations of true peace.

Above all, Gerry was a pilgrim, struggling in his faith, always striving towards the goal of Christian unity, one small step at a time. This book by Gladys Ganiel draws on Gerry’s own words and writings, and the recollections of his family and friends, to uncover the story of this gentle priest, pilgrim and peacemaker.

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EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

IN SAD REMEMBRANCE

My

father’s Aunt Lizzie was visiting her daughter Tess in New York. As she sat watching the evening news on August 15, 1969, to her horror she saw her house in Conway Street, Belfast, going up in flames. Aunt Lizzie was house-proud in the way many Belfast women of her generation were. All the little treasures she had accumulated in about 50 years of marriage, including family photographs, had gone up in smoke. All she now possessed was the contents of the suitcase she had brought with her to the States. But Aunt Lizzie had that other quality of a Belfast mill-girl: she would not be beaten, and when she returned home a few weeks later, she started home-building from scratch in a new house in the outer suburbs. .

The few days between Wednesday, August 12, and the following Sunday, might be said to have ignited the powder keg of political and social unrest that had constituted Northern Ireland for most of its history. With each of those days, it increased in intensity. Just before midday on August 15, 1969, a sniper on the roof of an old linen mill near Clonard Monastery began shooting at people in the street below. In an effort to dislodge him, someone set fire to the mill. It was so close to the monastery that it and the church for a time looked to be in danger. By mid-afternoon, a full-scale riot was in progress and houses in two streets close by were blazing. Since no fire engine would venture into the area, it seemed likely that the flames would soon reach the monastery: as a precaution, the Blessed Sacrament was removed from both the church and community chapel and the elderly members of the community were sent for safety to friends’ houses. Around six o'clock in the evening, British troops finally arrived to restore order. The monastery became a centre for immediate relief operations. "With the help of the Sisters of Charity [who lived nearby] we set up tables in the corridor where people could have a meal," noted the monastery chronicler.

In those five days, eight people had been killed. Five Catholics, one of whom was a nine-

year- old boy, were shot dead by the Royal Ulster Constabulary, two Protestants were shot dead by nationalist gunmen and a 15-year old boy, later claimed as a member of Fianna Éireann, the junior IRA, was shot dead by loyalist gunmen at the rear of Clonard Monastery. The injured numbered more than 750, including 72 Catholics and 61 Protestants who suffered gunshot wounds.

Over 150 Catholic homes and more than 270 businesses were destroyed in different parts of the city. It has been estimated that 83 per cent of all buildings destroyed were owned by Catholics.

During the summer months of 1969, almost 2,000 people across the Greater Belfast area had been forced to flee their homes, more than 80 per cent of them Catholics. This led to an increased ‘ghettoisation’ of the city, as Catholics tended to seek security in West Belfast and Protestants in the East and North. Many Catholics sought security across the border in temporary ‘refugee camps’ at Irish army bases. It is estimated that at one time, Gormanstown Camp in County Meath held 8,000 refugees. The human costs of the 'Troubles' since then are sobering. More than 3,500 people were killed, and about half of those deaths were in Belfast, while 50,000 people were injured. The circumstances of many of those deaths were horrifyingly brutal – the kidnapping and murder of a teenager on his way home from a band practise, the killing of three and wounding of seven innocent people as they worshipped in a small country Pentecostalist church in County Armagh, the slaughter of members of a showband returning home after a gig, the indiscriminate death and serious injury from bomb blasts in pubs and other places.

The British Army presence on the streets of Belfast was meant to be a temporary measure.

In fact, it lasted almost 40 years until 2007. ‘Peace lines’ erected as temporary measures soon became permanent. Almost 60 of them still stretch for over 21 miles in Belfast. If today they are as much ‘exhibition space’ for the iconography of Loyalists and Nationalists and one of the unofficial

tourist attractions of the city, many of the locals still want to keep them in place for fear of what might happen if they are taken down.

The Good Friday Agreement of 1988, whose beginnings can be traced to meetings in Clonard Monastery has, it is true, brought an uneasy peace.

Yet as we come to the end of another summer marching season and pass the 50th anniversary of the events we have recalled in this article, the Northern Assembly is still in abeyance and the uncertainty of Brexit and the loathing of the ‘backstop’ on the part of the politicians who will now control the British and Northern Irish governments still speaks of an uneasy society.

What we can give thanks for is the extraordinary Christian witness of forgiveness and reaching across the divides that is seldom given the publicity it deserves.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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C OVE R STO RY

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REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

TRANSGENDER AND CATHOLIC IF ALL MEN AND WOMEN ARE MADE IN THE IMAGE OF GOD, HOW DO WE RESPOND TO THE QUESTION OF GENDER CHANGE? AN EXPERIENCED IRISH CATHOLIC MORAL THEOLOGIAN EXPLORES SOME OF THE ISSUES.

BY PATRICK HANNON

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As

a way into a complex topic we might look at what Pope Francis has been saying, and I’m going to take three of his dicta, each of which has puzzled some, and which, when taken together, have caused others to question their coherence.

The first is "Who am I to judge?", Francis’ reply to a reporter’s question; the second is his reference to "ideological colonisation" when talking about transgender; the third, his insistence that a Christian approach must always start from the recognition that when we talk of people who are LGBT we are talking about brothers and sisters, made in God’s image and of equal dignity with every human person.

When Pope Francis said "who am I to judge?" he was following the prescript of Jesus "Judge not, that you may not be judged". But he was speaking also from a moral theology which distinguishes between what it calls ‘objective’ and ‘subjective' morality. Objective morality is

what a norm requires one to do, or to be, or to avoid; the Ten Commandments are familiar examples. Subjective morality refers to a person’s capacity to implement the norm, a capacity which is ours because we have minds and some power of choice. That is, reason lets us see the claim of a principle, and what we call will allows us to choose to implement it or not.

When Francis insists on the equal dignity of persons of whatever sexual orientation, he’s repeating an elementary Christian truth NOT A PSYCHOLOGICAL DISORDER The distinction is made in the context of an account of moral responsibility, of when and to what extent we’re answerable for our choices: what the textbooks of moral theology call imputability or culpability.

Since their appearance early in the 17th century, moral textbooks have recognised

C OVE R STO RY

factors which affect responsibility because they affect our power of choice. Among these are psychological conditions which make grasp of a norm difficult or impossible, or otherwise limit or deprive one of the freedom to choose.

Same-sex orientation is not a psychological disorder, even if it took until the 70s before psychiatric orthodoxy acknowledged this.

But it is deeply seated in the psychology of some men and women, making heterosexual relationships impossible for them. It’s inevitable that norms premised upon heterosexuality seem, as it were, beside the point for the constitutionally homosexual.

What this implies in terms of Catholic teaching for the expression of their sexuality is what’s in debate when same-sex marriage is discussed.

The Catechism of the Catholic Church reiterates traditional teaching: "Basing itself on Sacred Scripture, which presents homosexual acts as acts of grave depravity, tradition has always declared that 'homosexual acts are intrinsically disordered.' They are contrary to the natural law. They close the sexual act to the gift of life.

They do not proceed from a genuine affective and sexual complementarity. Under no circumstances can they be approved"(CCC 2357). The Catechism is reproducing teaching found in various sources in Catholic tradition, synthesised in a 1975 Instruction of the Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith.

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NOT JUST RULES This isn’t the place to consider the arguments theologians make in favour of a revision of traditional norms. What I want to do, rather, is to point out that norms aren’t all that’s taught in a Catholic theology of morality and that it’s a mistake to isolate them, as though there’s nothing more to be said. Only some of what more needs saying is our concern here; it would take much more than a short piece to go into everything. But a vital point is that, given its recognition of the difference between objective and subjective morality, it’s also an item of Catholic teaching that ultimately only God can judge the actual REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

morality of persons in a homosexual relationship.

So when Pope Francis said "Who am I to judge?", he wasn’t saying something foreign to Catholic theology. The distinction between objective and subjective morality, and what it implies about moral responsibility, is as characteristic of Catholic teaching as are the norms the Catechism reproduces, as indeed the Catechism itself elsewhere makes clear: "Imputability and responsibility for an action can be diminished or even nullified by ignorance, inadvertence, duress, fear, habit, inordinate attachments, and other psychological or social factors" (CCC 1735).

And when Francis insists on the equal dignity of persons of whatever sexual orientation, he’s repeating an elementary Christian truth. But what of his remark concerning "ideological colonisation" when addressing transgender issues?

Perhaps the first thing to observe is that he wasn’t speaking of transgender folk

but of what is called transgenderism, a theory or theories about the transgender phenomenon. Gender theory is multifarious, but a key idea is the distinction it makes between biological sexual characteristics (‘sex’), and the identities and roles people

in their case insofar as it may involve the choice of gender reassignment surgery.

Among the questions to which this gives rise, some concern society as well as individuals: whether there ought to be an age-limit below which the law won’t permit

Catholics must discern difficult situations of sexual morality on a case-by-case basis, even when presented with a person who is considering or has had gender reassignment surgery assume/are assigned in societies (‘gender’).

All versions start from the fact that there are people who experience incongruity between their biological sex and their gender identity, and this must be the starting point also of ethical reflection.

What Catholic teaching says about gays and lesbians applies to transgender persons too. There is an added ethical complexity

re-assignment, for example, or what support is due to parents whose child gives evidence of sex-gender incongruity. How or to what extent education and health services ought to cater for transgendered persons? These questions are complex, and it will take time for science and law and politics and ethics to cope with them. Meanwhile, what is a Catholic expected to think?

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There is a need for dialogue, real conversation, and the building of bridges WHAT ARE CATHOLICS EXPECTED TO THINK? Pope Francis speaks of transgender concerns at two levels. One – it may be called the pastoral – is when he affirms that ‘discernment’ and ‘accompaniment’ are what should characterise a Catholic’s attitude, not judgment. "Catholics must discern difficult situations of sexual morality on a case-by-case basis, even when presented with a person who is considering or has had gender reassignment surgery." We’ve seen something of the theoretical underpinning of this approach; to which might have been added what Pope St John Paul II called the law of gradualness, the idea that character formation and growth in virtue are not linear and take time. But, again, what of ‘ideological colonisation’?

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This is on the other level at which Francis addresses transgender issues, and when he speaks thus he is thinking beyond the level of personal ethics. 'Ideological colonisation' is a term from the vocabulary of Latin American political theory. It refers to the imposition of a worldview and of values of Western provenance, a process seen as analogous to the colonisation of the South American continent by Spanish and other European powers. At the core of the worldview is an anthropology which has been described by one critic as libertarian, subjectivist, and consumerist.

And the process is a form of oppression of the poorer countries, in that it often makes adoption of the new values a condition of humanitarian aid.

TRANSGENDER, MARRIAGE AND FAMILY Pope Francis speaks out against this process in all its aspects, economic and political as well as social, but he has been concerned especially about its impact upon marriage and family values. This is the context in which he criticises transgender theory, and he has in mind what a commentator has called the aggressive promotion of transgenderism, especially when it takes place by way of the educational system.

His attitude is summarised in the remark: "It is one thing to have homosexual tendencies or a sex change, but it is another to teach it in schools", and it’s clear from other remarks of his that he is referring to schools which teach that it is perfectly in order to choose one’s gender.

The pope isn’t alone in criticising the West’s proclivity for what has come to be called cultural imperialism, and not the only religious leader who questions a secularism which discounts values important to the faiths; and it’s only to be expected that he will defend a Christian conception of the family.

To be expected also is that there is opposition to his thinking, and not only from outside the church, and that LGBT people who are Catholic continue to look for assurance of their full inclusion.

Important as is the pope’s critique of Western attitudes and values, it cannot be allowed to eclipse his pastoral teaching about how Catholics should look upon their brothers and sisters who are LGBT. And surely it’s time to amend the Catechism’s account of homosexuality.

What’s clear is that there is a need for dialogue, real conversation, and the building of bridges, to borrow the title of a book by James Martin SJ which has been praised by senior prelates, including Cardinal Kevin Farrell, head of the Vatican’s Dicastery for Marriage and the Family. Dialogue is also called for in a document issued recently by the Congregation

for Catholic Education, the subtitle of which is ‘Toward a Path of Dialogue on the Question of Gender Theory in Education’. The path it advocates involves "listening, reasoning and proposing", and enjoins on Catholic educators "a way of accompanying that is discreet and confidential, capable of reaching out to those who are experiencing complex and painful situations"; and it calls on every school to be

"an environment of trust, calmness and openness, particularly where there are cases that require time and careful discernment". These are admirable sentiments and the document contains useful counsel, but it is open to serious criticism, including that it is selective as regards the researchers to be listened to and reasoned with, and shows no evidence at all of having heard the experience of the people of whom it speaks. Discouraging as this is, it cannot be allowed to be the end of the conversation.

Fr Patrick Hannon is a priest of Cloyne diocese and emeritus professor of moral theology at Maynooth. He was parish chaplain in Donabate County Dublin until this year. He holds doctorates in theology (Maynooth) and law (Cambridge), and is a member of the Irish Bar. Among his publications is Right or Wrong: Essays in Moral Theology (2009), and another collection is due from Veritas later in the year.

COMMENT WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS

LONELINESS

EVEN THE LONELINESS OF LONG AGO LEAVES A PAINFUL TRACE IN THE MEMORY

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In the early 1960s, unable to find work at home, my dad moved to London, settled in Kilburn and looked for a job. He went with a sense of hope and a confidence that he would be successful. This was the place where the streets were paved with gold after all.

The London he arrived in was the London of the Swinging Sixties.

The whole world was waking up to London’s relevance in terms of culture, clothing and music.

Carnaby Street was the centre of this. We still see iconic footage of London back then with its red phone boxes and black and white mini-skirted young girls dancing to The Beatles or The Kinks.

The London he arrived in was also a London whose local pubs had signs outside which read, 'No blacks, no dogs, no Irish'. The land of opportunity turned out to be a land of struggle for my dad.

His accent set him apart from the indigenous people, many of whom seemed to resent him being there. Many others, of course, didn't resent him at all and he tells me of meeting good folk there.

Unlike in Belfast though, his perceived religious outlook and his perceived political stance was never questioned- Catholics, Protestants and unbelievers were all 'Paddy' to the locals. And while it was a struggle, he did get work.

He earned enough to eke out a living and enough to remain in his bedsit in the (mainly Irish) area of Kilburn. He was an economic migrant as we call people now.

And it was tough being an economic migrant.

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I remember him telling me of his experiences when I was a young man growing up. He told some funny stories and stories of good times. For example, he told me of having to change the way he said 'eight' in his thick Belfast accent to a more London 'ite' to be understood and buy the right ticket on a bus.

Then, one afternoon a few years ago, I was at home in my parents' house and my uncle Danny came over to visit my dad. It was a nice sunny day and I was out in the back garden playing my guitar. The two men joined me. At some point I began playing Kris Kristofferson's song, 'Sunday Morning Coming Down'. It triggered memories for my dad and my uncle Danny, who had also spent time as an economic migrant in London.

They began speaking of the loneliness they experienced there.

It seemed that for both of them, loneliness was one of the defining characteristics of their stay and was at its worst on a Sunday. On a Sunday in the 1960s, London came

to a silent standstill. There was precious little to do and precious little to distract them from the difficulties in life. Outside a small group of their fellow country men and women, they were alone and far from home.

Kristofferson's song captured the bleakness of their situation perfectly. "On the Sunday morning sidewalks, wishing Lord that I was stoned. Coz there's something in a Sunday, makes a body feel alone", he sings.

Thank God our afternoon in the garden was a million miles away from the experiences of their youth. But those experiences were deeply ingrained in both of them.

Loneliness, it seems, cuts deep.

Some 50 years later this still held significance for them both.

I love London. I go there a lot.

I have family there (my cousin Gary and his wife Sacha and their wonderful children). I love English people. And the kinds of exclusion I'm describing here can and do happen all over the world.

Of course, we don’t have to look to London 50 years ago nor only to those who are displaced from their homelands to find it. It exists in our own villages, towns and cities.

Jesus, too, knew what it meant to be lonely. The experience of his trial and subsequent torture and execution were times of desperate loneliness as he was deserted by all but a few. That Jesus understands our loneliness can be a source of comfort to us all in our lonely times. I am minded to reflect how, from the cross, Jesus recognised the loneliness he saw in those few who accompanied him all the way.

He saw his mother and the beloved disciple John there, devastated and lonely. What did he do? He put them together. Woman behold your son. Son behold your mother.

He connected them. He knew that the remedy to loneliness is company, love and friendship.

If we are to be followers of the way that Jesus taught, we too are to connect with people and hold them in love, prayer and friendship. As parish communities how would it be if we started a ministry to the lonely? Perhaps a phone call or a visit would mean the world to someone who has no other contact with friends or family. Were we to do so, we might hear the words of Jesus ringing in our ears, “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

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

G OD' S SURPR I S E S I I

LIVING FAMILY FAMILIES LEADING FAMILIES TO THE HEART OF THE CHURCH

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WHAT HAPPENS WHEN YOU ARE A YOUNG MARRIED COUPLE AND MISSING THE BUZZ AND NETWORKING YOU HAD A FEW YEARS EARLIER IN A YOUTH MOVEMENT BUT MAYBE NEED IT NOW MORE THAN EVER?

BY SUSAN GATELY

It

is a scene of ordered havoc, typical of any family blessed with young children.

When I arrive in Seán and Áine’s lovely house in Wicklow, the family is settling in to dinner.

Páidí, the youngest, aged nine months, sits in a high chair at the top of the table. He’s teething and miserable. To his right sits Ciaran, aged two; the eldest, Maura, aged four, is opposite him. The table, covered by a plastic cloth, is bare except for essentials: plates, forks and glasses. They are eating spaghetti bolognese. Áine grates some parmesan cheese over their meals. As we talk, Ciarán breaks up some of the cheese

and with a twinkle in his eye contemplates throwing it into his glass of water. His sister Maura makes the decision for him – taking the cheese from him and popping it in the water with a chuckle. Meanwhile their parents talk happily to me, ignoring the mischief afoot. This is living family.

BEGINNINGS Áine and Seán, who married in 2013, are one of the founding couples of a new movement for families, Living Family, which began in 2015, growing out of the spirituality of Youth 2000 (Y2K) movement. Its aim is for families

and individuals to grow in personal holiness in a manner that is authentically Catholic and to reach out to other families.

Seán and Áine met in 2009. By that time, Seán had been involved in Y2K for many years. He came from a wealthy Dublin family, where prayer was always part of the daily rhythm of life. At a young age, Seán began to go to daily Mass. In the mid-70s however the family lost everything. “We ended up, the six of us in a one-bedroom house on the side of a mountain in Wicklow,” Seán recalls. But this turned out to a blessing forging a “great love” in the family. In his 20s, the young engineer

G OD 'S S U R P R I S E S II

20

got involved in Y2K, becoming a pillar of the organisation in which young people evangelise their peers through festivals and retreats.

Meanwhile Áine, from Drogheda , studied visual communications and entered the heady, liberal world of a successful design agency in Dublin. Aged 21 she spent a summer working with the Missionaries of Charity in Calcutta in an orphanage for profoundly disabled children.

That summer, the sisters endured much criticism over a secretly filmed report of the orphanage. Áine was deeply hurt by the report and expected the leader of the community to feel the same.

Instead “she was praising Jesus – all love, forgiveness and mercy”.

Her authentic witness convinced Áine that “Jesus was real”.

Sean and Áine Ascough with their children, Maura , Ciarán, and baby Páidí

SEARCHING Returning to Ireland she searched for this “real Jesus” in various denominations but found herself “getting more lost”. Dawn Eden’s book The Thrill of the Chaste, based on her own experience which offers a Christian defence of premarital chastity, set her in a new direction. “It blew

However, her fears were allayed when she became friends with a married couple in the US divided by the same years. “Now I don’t even notice it,” she says. The two wed in 2013.

“I see Áine as my spiritual twin,” says Seán.

retreat in Sligo in 2015 and Living Family was born. The name is a play on words: “We are ‘living’ family,” explains Seán “and also want our families to be ‘alive’.”

NEW START Over 20 couples and their children came to the first retreat. “We were surprised by the pent-up demand. It was like our couples were starving and missing the lifeline of Y2K.” The day retreat repeated many of the elements of a Y2K retreat with Mass, Adoration, sharing by a couple on an aspect of faith, and Confession. At the first weekend Sisters from the Servant Sisters of the Home of the Mother order (whose charism is ministry to young people) looked after the children, assisted by Y2K volunteers.

Since then, Living Family has offered retreats once or twice a year, providing young families with the opportunity to step off the relentless treadmill that is 21st-century family life for a moment of renewal. Retreats on average attract 20 to 25 couples, and around 70 children (most aged under six).

Its aim is for families and individuals to grow in personal holiness in a manner that is authentically Catholic and to reach out to other families me away.” Her choice of chastity led her to a prayer group and in 2009, turning her back on a coveted place on the Master’s programme of the Royal College of Art in London, Áine signed up to be part of the 'Pure in Heart' mission team for a year. Áine and Seán bumped into each other at a book launch. In spite of an instant connection which increased as their friendship grew, Áine was hesitant, as there was a substantial age gap between them.

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From the start they felt they had a spiritual mission for the Gospel, “shoulder to shoulder, looking in the same direction,” he says.

At a retreat in 2005, the leaders of Y2K considered how the spirituality was bearing fruit. “We thought of a Y2K for families to replicate its spirituality in a family-centred manner,” Seán recalls. However, it took ten years for this to become a reality. Encouraged

by Archbishop Eamon Martin, a number of couples formerly in Y2K had a one-day

The next Living Family Retreat day is on Sunday 29th September 2019 at Emmaus Conference Centre, Swords, Dublin. For information email info@livingfamily.ie

Retreats are very lively, and all the messiness of family life is welcomed and accepted “Retreats are very lively, and all the messiness of family life is welcomed and accepted,” says Áine. “We understand that couples can’t do high commitment. We just ask them to show up.” Since the defeat of the abortion referendum, they have experienced a “further anointing on the initiative”. “People woke up to a different Ireland and feel a need to share and support each other,” says Seán.

At the end of a typical retreat day, children lead the Rosary. Four-year-old Maura describes the experience. “All of the children take turns. I did the Hail Mary on the mike.”

Jim and Lisette and daughters Teresa (4) and baby Zélie went to their first Living Family retreat two months ago, hearing about it by word of mouth. “I never forget walking into the room where Mass was to be held,” recalls Lisette. “It was filled with music.

The children were singing a song: ‘The fruit of the spirit is not a coconut!’” which Teresa has been singing ever since.

Mealtime at the Ascoughs

MORE THAN A DAY “It was lovely to spend time with couples who were trying to bring up their children in the love and hope of Christian faith and to learn from their wisdom and witness,” recalls James. Lisette was impressed by the testimony of a ‘mature’ couple who urged them to find time to be together as a couple.

That couple had a system where they hung a cap on the outside handle of the kitchen door when they needed to chat alone. “The children knew what it meant - don’t come in unless there’s blood!” says Lisette.

At the end of the weekend, she felt “refreshed, renewed, energised and reassured”. Since then they have made a point of praying together most nights. For Jim, it reminded him of the areas he needed to work on in his relationship with Lisette, like practising patience and attentiveness. “It was a powerful and much-needed reminder that as a family we should start from a position of humble gratitude and, from there, seek to cultivate the virtues of honesty, courage, and kindness. I think it also helped reinforce for us both the vital importance of family prayer as the bedrock of our home life.”

Grew out of the spirituality of Youth2000 Began with retreat in 2015 in Sligo Holds two retreats each year tailored to full families Present in Leinster, Ulster and Connaught  Involves around 120 couples.

Jim and Lisette Carr and family

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

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AFTER THE PRAYER OF THE FAITHFUL, THE PREPARATION OF THE ALTAR AND THE GIFTS OF BREAD AND WINE TAKES PLACE. HOW CAN WE GET THE MOST OUT OF THIS RICH PART OF THE LITURGY?

BY MARIA HALL

The

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most memorable Mass I ever attended was in the most humble of surroundings in Kitwe, Zambia, in a shanty town church called St Anthony’s, built of bare breeze blocks with a tin roof.

Simple wooden benches seated about 100 people. There were home-made musical instruments, a plain altar table and a lone, battered picture of Our Lady on the wall.

The liturgy was profound and moving. It was in Bemba, the local language, and full of vibrant music with everyone swaying naturally to the beat. The Mass lasted twohours and the priest had three other churches to attend. But no one was in a hurry!

The Liturgy of the Word ended, music started and the collection began. Every person processed singing and dancing to the front where two altar servers held plastic buckets for their offering. This was an impoverished community where 3,000 people shared five water taps. And yet they still gave!

IN THE PAST Back in the early days of the church, collecting for the poor was an integral part of Eucharist.

Justin Martyr wrote in the second century that those who were able, gave willingly.

Those less fortunate were looked after spiritually through Eucharist and practically from the collection. Bread for Eucharist was baked at home and brought forward in procession. Eventually this practice ended and so did the need for a procession.

After many centuries, the participation of the people was restored by Vatican II. The ‘Offertory’ rite of the 1570 missal was

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renamed and refocused on offering and preparation involving the whole assembly: At the beginning of the Liturgy of the Eucharist the gifts, which will become Christ’s Body and Blood, are brought to the altar. First the altar, the Lord’s table, which is the centre of the whole liturgy of the Eucharist, is prepared. The offerings are then brought forward. It is praiseworthy for the faithful to present the bread and wine, which are then accepted at an appropriate place by the priest or deacon who carries them to the altar. (General Instruction on the Roman Missal [GIRM]73) THE ASSEMBLY The assembly isn’t meant to just observe the Preparation of the Gifts. We are called to offer ourselves and prepare inwardly for an encounter with Christ through the sacrifice which is about take place at the altar; this is the very heart of active participation. The bread and wine being brought through the assembly to the altar are a symbol of the link between God and us. We take the work of his creation, wheat and grapes, we use our talents to transform them into bread and wine, and then we offer them back to the Father in the hope that we in turn will be transformed.

We also offer ourselves and everything about our lives; our gifts and talents, joys and sorrows, achievements and failures, which, when they are offered, are divinely transformed and so we too are divinely transformed.

Another point worth making is that we associate the raising of bread and wine with the Consecration. Lifting them only "a little" (GIRM 142) is a small but important detail that will avoid misunderstanding. It is essential to focus

The

PREPARING

on developing a deep and proper understanding that along with the bread and wine, we present ourselves to God in the hope that we will be more fully transformed by his grace through the Eucharist. GIRM 22 reminds us that the faithful too should have a "deep" and "genuine meaning" of the rites and texts of the Eucharist.

As ‘practising’ Catholics we should all seek to grow, for a full and conscious understanding of the meaning of ‘preparation’ and ‘offering’ will be truly transformative.

Of these elements the bringing of the gifts, the placing of the gifts on the altar, and the prayer over the gifts are primary. All else is secondary.” (Music in Catholic Worship 46) This part of the Mass can seem busy and disjointed and it doesn’t help that we still refer to it by its pre-conciliar title as ‘offertory’. It can feel like a commercial break, yet it is full of liturgical symbolism and action. We should be striving to emphasise what is important whilst avoiding unnecessary distractions.

Gifts PRACTICAL CONSIDERATIONS “The Eucharistic prayer is preceded by the preparation of the gifts. The purpose of the rite is to prepare bread and wine for the sacrifice. The secondary character of the rite determines the manner of the celebration.

It consists very simply of bringing the gifts to the altar, possibly accompanied by song, prayers to be said by the celebrant as he prepares the gifts, and the prayer over the gifts.

THE COLLECTION "When the Prayer of the Faithful is completed, all sit…" (GIRM 139). This includes the priest and deacon. In other words, we don’t just carry on with the text of the mass, neither is it a time for announcements! We all sit, prepare ourselves, pray quietly, join in the hymn and watch the altar being prepared and the procession.

Money or other gifts are brought up, for the poor and for the church. But how aware are we that we are collecting for the poor, or are we just paying the church heating bill?

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We take the work of his creation, wheat and grapes, we use our talents to transform them into bread and wine, and then we offer them back to the Father in the hope that we in turn will be transformed PREPARATION OF THE ALTAR As the collection is being taken, the altar table (which other than candles, has been bare until now) is prepared by the servers.

This symbolic action is meant to draw our attention to the shift from ambo to altar; Word to Eucharist. The servers place Missal, corporal, pall, purificators and chalices on the altar table, signifying that the Eucharistic meal is being prepared. Watching this action is part of our personal preparation.

One of the Prayers of the Faithful might be for those for whom the collection is taken, for example: We pray for those whose lives are affected by poverty and war and for those who are striving to help them.

We especially remember Trócaire volunteers and the people of Rwanda, for whom we are collecting today.

Lord in your mercy… continued on page 25

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Music suggestions for the offertory

The offertory procession... can feel like a commercial break yet it is full of liturgical symbolism and action

•Quiet instrumental music (eg Taize or Margaret Rizza) •Offertory song from The Simple Gradual (Geoffrey Chapman 1969) Take Lord and receive (Bernard Sexton) Called to your table (Ephrem Feeley) •Hymn reflecting the unified nature of the community: We are many parts (Marty Haugen) One bread, one body (John B. Foley SJ) We are the body of Christ (David Haas) •Hymns reflecting the scripture of the day

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The collection needs to happen without fuss or too much disruption. Those helping with the collection should carry out their role in a discreet and prayerful manner, as they are participants in the liturgy too!

On a special occasion, consider having the congregation bringing up their offering in procession (Zambia style; money, food, clothing). It would serve as a powerful reminder that we are giving as a community and giving for those in need.

RESOURCES •Guide for Servers. (The Liturgical Ministry Series) – Laughlin, Shaddock, Turner, Williamson •Liturgy Training Publications, https://ltp.org/ (Detailed and useful guidance) •Forming the Assembly to Celebrate the Mass – Lawrence E. Mick. LTP 2002. (A great chapter on Preparing for Sacrifice).

•Chant version of the Simple Gradual available free at https://media.musicasacra.com/pdf/ simplegradual •Further videos and other resources on The Presentation of the Gifts at www.mariahall.org/themass of the people as the priest speaks the words of the text quietly. When there is no music, the priest may say the ‘Blessed are you, Lord’ aloud for everyone to respond.

A reflection for those in the procession

THE PROCESSION Those taking part are representing the wider community. They might be individuals, families or representatives from parish groups.

Liturgical processions are part of the ritual action, and full of symbolism, and so, whilst moving slowly forward, the gifts brought should be held high for the assembly to see.

Acolytes and cross might accompany the processions on solemn occasions.

The bread and wine should be those to be used at that Mass. The parish might consider having a bread-baking ministry where the bread, is baked at home, and brought forward by those who made it. When the procession reaches the priest, servers help him receive the gifts.

CHILDREN This is also when participants in the children's liturgy return into church. They re-join their families quietly while the collection is taking place. It is important that they are

acknowledged and so may be represented in the procession. It’s very tempting to make a big show of the children’s group but this isn’t the time. Mass is a Christ-centred liturgy, not people-centred; consider other occasions or ways in which more time could be devoted and would be more appropriate in encouraging and celebrating the work of the children.

MUSIC A hymn at the Preparation is not essential, but it is an effective way of unifying action. Singing hymns makes individual worshippers an assembly. But it’s difficult to find a Preparation hymn which doesn’t mention ‘offering’. Here’s a challenge for composers! Try to select one that speaks of transformation and sanctification.

Consider having instrumental music throughout so that everyone can watch the gifts being brought forward and have time to make their own prayers. This can continue right through to the incensation

Take a moment to clear your mind while the preparation song is being 25 sung.

Remember that you are representing the entire parish, as we return to God a small part of the many blessings that He has given to us. The unleavened Bread and Wine that you carry will be consecrated to become the Body and Blood of our Lord Jesus Christ.

Treat it with reverence and respect, and as you walk, hold it high for all to see.

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

W HAT I R E L A N D OW E S TO TH E SISTE RS

M

T H E LE S S E R

The

Loreto sisters were founded by Mary Ward. She was born in York in 1585 and predicted the apostolic influence of women in time to come in families, in public life, and in the Church. She entered a Poor Clare convent, but when she was about 24, she felt that God was calling her and that "some other thing" was destined for her. She would go on to pioneer a new type of religious life for women. On leaving the Poor Clares, she returned to England in disguise. She eventually founded a community of active sisters in 1609 in northern France. Unlike the cloistered nuns in other convents, she and her companions educated young women, helped persecuted and imprisoned Catholics, and spread the word of God in places priests could not go. The sisters lived and worked openly on the continent, but in England they had to work secretly.

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SINCE THE BEGINNING OF THE NINETEENTH CENTURY, THE FOUNDERS OF WOMEN’S RELIGIOUS ORDERS HAVE MADE IMPORTANT CONTRIBUTIONS TO THE LIFE OF THE NATION.

BY JOHN SCALLY REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

THE GALLOPING GIRLS Some of Mary Ward’s ideas about religious life were viewed with suspicion because they were so revolutionary at the time. She insisted on three

Mother Teresa K NOW N

essential requirements of her institute. The first and most critical was not to be enclosed.

Next, she sought government by a woman as general superior which bordered on heresy at the time. Finally, she required flexibility in the hours of prayer.

She was anxious that her sisters would not face tension between attending prayers at set times and tending to those in need.

Mary was imprisoned by church officials who called her a dangerous heretic for her efforts to expand the religious in spreading the faith. In 1630 while she was imprisoned in a convent in Munich, Pope Urban VIII compared her institution to "a weed in the cornfield". Her work was destroyed, and the sisters scattered. But she never lost hope and kept the flame burning.

When she died in 1645 her sisters were still suffering from a tainted reputation. Described variously as “female Jesuits", “wandering gossips” or the “galloping girls”, it was only in 1713 did Pope Benedict XIII agree to recognise the institute, as long as it airbrushed out Mary Ward’s name as founder.

By 1953 though, the Vatican would describe her as "this incomparable young woman whom England gave to the Church".

BRINGING MARY WARD TO IRELAND In Ireland the founder of the Irish branch of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary was Frances Ball. She was born in Dublin on January 9, 1794. At the age of nine she was sent to school at Mary Ward’s Bar Convent in York. Ten years later, she was received into the Bar Convent novitiate at the request of Dr Daniel Murray, the Archbishop of Dublin, to be trained as religious of the Institute of the Blessed Virgin Mary with the view to establishing a foundation in Ireland. There she received her religious training and made her profession in 1816, taking the name of Mary Teresa. In 1821 at the request of Dr Murray, she returned to Dublin with two novices to establish a convent and school there. In 1822 she opened the first house of the institute in Ireland, in Rathfarnham House.

As there were only three sisters there, Teresa decided to call the

house ‘Loreto’ after the village in Italy where, according to legend, the Holy Family’s house had been miraculously transported from Nazareth. The name ‘Loreto House’ was to be used for all the subsequent foundations that came from Ireland and resulted in the sisters of the Irish branch of the IBVM being popularly known as ‘Loreto sisters’.

The Loreto sisters worked with oppressed, outcast and marginalised social groups.

Reading their comments on poverty from a century earlier, with the eyes of the third millennium (always a risky business), it is striking the degree to which the sisters reacted to the effects of poverty without apparently

to this. Firstly, sisters were simply too busy with their apostolic work to engage in social analysis.

Secondly, their position on the bottom rung of the church's hierarchical ladder did not encourage them to be a critical, or even a confident, voice. Thirdly, they were in part dependent on the social system for their position and property – it would not have served their short-term interests to be seen to be critical of the rich.

SEEING GOD IN ALL THINGS Frances Ball believed that in the Bible the question of where and how we can serve the Lord has an unambiguous answer. We find him in the hungry, the thirsty, the stranger and the naked, we see

From the beginning, she wanted her Loreto sisters to be women who recognise God in the course of their daily care to others showing any concern for the system which caused people to be so poor and the total absence of demands for social reform.

This was a reality in all female congregations at the time.

A number of factors contributed

him wherever people are in need and cry out for help. The Christian God revealed to humankind in a definitive way in the bruised and broken body of the suffering Jesus, continues to reveal himself wherever human suffering is to be found.

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A Redemptorist Pilgrimage Visiting the sites associated with St. Alphonsus & St. Gerard in Southern Italy Saturday May 16th to Saturday May23rd 2020.

Based at the Caravel Hotel in Sant’Agnello, Sorrento (Half Board) Cost: €1,095.00/ £985.00 per person sharing.

Places are limited so early booking is advised.

Group Leaders Fr Seamus Enright CSsR and Fr Dan Baragry CSsR For further details contact Claire Carmichael at ccarmichael@redcoms.org Tel: 00 353 (0)1 4922488

Beautiful Sorrento

Praying with St Gerard: The Family Saint

Who was this man, Gerard Majella, patron of mothers and babies, who has given his name to tens of thousands of boys and girls?

This beautiful, new pocket-size book by Fr George Wadding CSsR offers prayers and reflections based around the life of this wonderful saint.

€3.00 / £2.50 (plus p&p) www.redcoms.org sales@redcoms.org 00353 (0)1 4922 488

WHAT IREL AND OWES TO THE SI ST E R S

From the beginning, she wanted her Loreto sisters to be women who recognised God in the course of their daily care to others. The heart of their ministry was the ongoing discovery of God's presence in the midst of the human struggle.

It is not surprising that Frances’ God-centered women were very much in demand in the church.

A German priest invited them to send a group of sisters to serve as teachers and tend to the welfare of the needy in Calcutta. Mother

A German priest invited them to send a group of sisters to serve as teachers and tend to the welfare of the needy in Calcutta Although their apostolate brought them in a very concrete and immediate way in contact with great misery, they were able to see the face of a loving God even when nothing but darkness seemed present. In their practical ‘hands-on’ approach to people in need they came in touch with a larger presence. Their care for the sick and the poor revealed the deep connections of their individual lives with the saving life of Jesus Christ.

As they entered into the struggles and pains of the people they served in Ireland and beyond, they reached out to these people to reveal to them God's presence in their lives.

Teresa Ball agreed to meet the priest, but she refused his request on the basis that the needs of the poor in Ireland had priority. Not taking no for an answer, he resorted to a little moral blackmail and told her that she would be responsible for the souls of these children if she denied them the privilege of Christian education! Moved by his plea, Teresa, in a way that marked her as a woman ahead of her time, allowed the priest to make his appeal directly to her community of sisters. On August 23, 1841 they left Ireland aboard the Scotia and arrived in India on December 30 that year.

The baker’s dozen of young Irish women set up home at 5 Middleton Row and named it Loreto House.

On January 10, 1842, they opened their school. Such were the glowing reports from Calcutta that there was a constant supply of volunteers from Rathfarnham to India despite 42 young Loreto sisters meeting premature deaths over the next 20 years. Many sisters showed the cumulative results of scarce resources, inadequate diet and demanding work schedules including seven days a week rosters.

A young woman from Albania entered the Rathfarnham noviciate in 1928. After more than 20 years as a Loreto sister, St Teresa of Calcutta founded the Missionaries of Charity.

THE WORD IS THEIR CONVENT One of the curious features of modern history is that right up to the 1950s so many Irishwomen were ready, willing and able to leave the Emerald Isle to enter a convent in India, Australia, America or Africa.

A noteworthy feature of the diaspora of Irish nuns’ provinces

Rathfarnham House

today is that so many of these Irish women also have blood sisters in the congregation. The willingness of so many women to enter religious life at a time when educational opportunities were becoming available for women in Ireland has puzzled many historians. In his book, The Irish Missionary Movement, (1990) Edmund M. Hogan contends that the exceptional impulse of sacrificial duty, apparent in the leaders of the 1916 Irish rebellion, carried over to subsequent generations and flowered most dramatically in Irish missionaries.

George Eliot's comment on Dorothea Brooke in Middlemarch could apply to many of these Loreto sisters: "But the effect of her being on those around her was incalculably diffusive: for the growing good of the world is partly dependent on unhistoric acts; and that things are not so ill with you and me as they might have been, is half owing to the number who lived faithfully a hidden life, and rest in unvisited tombs."

John Scally teaches theology at Trinity College, Dublin. He has a special interest in the areas of ethics and history.

29

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

ARGUMENTS CAN BE GOOD FOR RELATIONSHIPS

SOMETIMES ARGUMENTS ACT AS AN EMOTIONAL SAFETY VALVE THAT CLEARS THE AIR AND HELPS RELATIONSHIPS TO FLOURISH Isn’t it heartening to know there is research that says, “There are no lasting emotional relationships without conflict”.

At the University of Washington in Seattle, psychologist John Gottman PhD worked with couples, who agreed to talk about their conflict issues. One of his findings was that the absence of conflict is a sign of emotional distance so great as to preclude an authentic relationship.

Conflicts happen for any number of reasons. Whether you live in a family or in a community you know how quickly bad feeling can descend into a squabble over something as minor as who gets to decide what television programme to watch.

When people want different things disagreements arise and if an amicable agreement is not reached, the perception that there are winners and losers causes resentment.

People will make all sorts of compromises to avoid conflict.

Negative feelings build up when couples don’t speak out and tolerate unacceptable behaviour.

In many situations a robust argument acts like a safety valve and brings into the open what either person perceives as a problem that should be discussed.

Arguments allow couples to express how hurt or angry they feel. Once the air is cleared, and a couple have expressed their feelings and talked about how to deal with their issues, both feel better, more loving and emotionally connected.

accusations. The tragedy when this happens is that no amount of apologising can undo the damage done by words that can never be taken back.

Seemingly small daily stressors like perceived failures to help with housework will put a strain on family relationships. Resentment builds when one person feels overworked and requests for help are not heard or ignored. A perception that the rest of the family do not help and never clean up can be hotly disputed by teenagers. Some, who hate being reminded to do chores, become uncooperative. Parents often assume that they are good communicators when in reality they have skill deficits. Anyone who makes the same request over and over again is not communicating effectively. Constant reminders feel like nagging and frequently have the opposite to the desired effect.

Young people switch off and go deaf when they feel nagged.

Every married couple will go through times when spouses feel like they are not getting along with each other or with their children.

Counselling helps some couples, especially when they believe that they have major problems that may be impossible to fix. It can be a huge relief to challenge the

belief that you’re no longer in love or compatible with each other, that you argue more than other couples, that there is too much resentment and hostility in the way family members speak to each other. The perception that you’re no good at handling the problems in your family happens to virtually every couple at some stage in their marriage.

The wrong belief that feeling angry with your partner is a sign that there is something wrong with the relationships is one reason why couples refrain from fighting. Anger is a warning sign that there is an issue causing discontent that needs attention.

Ignoring angry feelings is not good for a relationship. Negative emotions can only be denied or ignored for so long. Eventually when feelings become too painful, an incident can have the effect of being the straw that breaks the camel’s back, and one person loses control. She becomes so emotionally upset that she breaks down and weeps uncontrollably, or he loses his temper and spews out hurtful complaints and wounding

Some couples who don’t have at least the occasional row may have issues with trust and honesty. They may be emotionally disconnected and communicate at a very superficial level. When couples don’t talk they make assumptions and conflicts are bound to arise.

Some people who engage in mind-reading believe that if their partner loved them enough, s/he would understand what the other was thinking and feeling without being told. Choosing the right time to have a discussion about what happened is vital to a positive outcome.

How well a couple talk about how they are feeling and what they were thinking that caused those feelings is a good guide to the state of their relationship. What is really important when couples have an argument is that each person will respect the partner’s right to have his or her own feelings and be willing to really listen with full attention. The Buddha offered advice that the wise will follow: “Those who find the right words never offend anybody. Yet they speak the truth. Their words are clear but never harsh. They do not take offence and they do not give it.”

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

31

GRACE, BLINDNESS AND BIRETTAS AN IRISH REDEMPTORIST WHO HAS SERVED IN THE PHILIPPINES FOR MORE THAN 20 YEARS BEGINS A SHORT SERIES OF LETTERS. HE CONFESSES HOW EASY IT IS TO GET THE WRONG IMPRESSION OF PEOPLE AND SITUATIONS.

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

The

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army hasn’t a great reputation in this country. After backing the Marcos dictatorship in the 70s and early 80s, during which rivers of innocent blood were spilt, they then did a convenient u-turn with the election of the laywoman Corazon Aquino in 1986, which was the year I arrived in the country. Then, however, they were sometimes instrumental in de-stabilising her presidency – often with terrible, unnecessary bloodshed. No, I wouldn’t place much trust in the military.

Fr Colm Meaney leading the Palm Sunday procession

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

SOLDIERS AND GRACE So, I was even more surprised when my guide told me that the soldiers billeted in the village would like me to visit them. Not sure what to expect, I brought my guitar and a few mission books, and a niggling doubt that this was all for the birds, and suspected that the soldiers were trying to score an easy point with the villagers by the visit of the padre.

All eight of them were in full uniform, their rifles safely leaning against the trunk of a mango tree, under whose leafy branches

we sat. Formal handshakes all round, very respectful towards myself, a few even taking my hand and placing it on their foreheads – the quintessential Filipino sign of respect.

I suggested we sing a few songs and they joined in heartily. I read the parable of the sower and we shared a little. I asked, “If the goal of the sower is a bountiful harvest, what is the goal of the soldiers in this village?” And, just as the farmer tends the seedlings and puts fertiliser on them, what steps might the army take to achieve its goal?

Couples to be married make their way to the chapel

Afterwards we had rice cakes and coffee and the obligatory “photo-taking”, and they even gave me an envelope, the fruit of a whipround collection. They struck me as downto-earth men, trying to do the best they could. As sometimes before, grace surprised me. (I often ponder the closing line of that great novel, The Diary of a Country Priest: “What does it matter? All is grace”).

IN THE BARIO More’s the pity that I was so unaware of grace’s presence a few weeks earlier. I had spent the morning going from house to house in a hilly area, the format being the usual: introduce myself, chat about their family, sing a couple of mission songs, short prayer and offer an invitation to attend the mission activities. That day happened to be the date of the 'monthly Mass' in their chapel, so I was filling in for the pastor.

After the Mass my guide said that there was one more house to visit – I had thought that we had finished and was looking forward to putting my feet up for the rest of the day.

The 'house' was nothing more substantial than a glorified shed, dirt floor, zero luxuries or even trinkets. The mother was cradling her daughter. I asked if she had been at the Mass. She said she hadn’t, and then I made an utterly foolish and insulting comment about a lack of faith on her part. Her daughter is severely handicapped; how could she have attended? But even if her daughter were perfectly healthy, I had no right to pronounce on her faith or lack thereof.

My comment was worse than stupid, it was a gratuitous trespassing on the woman’s dignity. I was hoping the ground would open beneath my feet, but regret is always at least a split-second too late.

Any grace that may have attended my visit to that long-suffering mother in her littlebetter-than-a-hovel home must surely have been snuffed out by my unworthy comment; but maybe not. I had already mistaken the military and now, hopefully, I was mistaken about the power of grace; perhaps it could miraculously bring some good out of the seeming ruin of my woefully wrong words.

Surely divine grace could disarm my illchosen, censorious comment and maybe what will remain with the mother will be how I anointed her daughter and invoked God’s blessing on both of them. I certainly hope so.

Mission helpers and Our Mother of Perpetual Help

AND THE BIRETTA On a lighter note, recently we had the pastoral visit of the bishop to the parish where the mission was being held. Well it was like a journey back in time, at least as costumes were concerned. To meet the bishop, the parish priest was decked out in a cope, as though he was about to officiate at Benediction. Maybe he did indeed have a 'good word' (the literal meaning of 'benediction') for the bishop, in that he’s a very popular priest, compared with his predecessor, whose draconian policies would make the tyrannical Ivan the Terrible seem the perfect gentleman. In fact, during my visits, I met couples who switched to another sect purely because of the former PP’s intransigence, mostly regarding baptism.

At any rate, the PP was sweating in his cope in the tropical heat, and the lay ministers were also perspiring profusely in their official gear. But when the bishop arrived I thought we really had gone back in time, to about the era of the Borgias. His grace was actually wearing a biretta, the three-pronged hat that went out of fashion soon after Vatican II. Still, I enjoyed the entire event. I’m a big fan of pageantry, even if the costumes this time were a tad passé.

And the bishop is a very friendly fellow. That day happened to be the 29th anniversary of my ordination, and he made many references to the event during lunch. I took a lift in his van to the marketplace where I was going to get a motorbike ride back to the village.

As I walked away from his van he called me back and pressed two 1,000 peso notes into my hand (about €40, a very generous gift in this country, more than two weeks’ pay for farm labourers). I promise never again to make fun of his biretta.

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

33

E D U CAT I O N

‘The Spirit will not fail us; it has not yet been fully sought or fully heard’.

SOME PERSPECTIVES FROM THE NORTH ON A ‘SPIRITUALITY OF EDUCATION’

34

IRISH EDUCATION IS GOING THROUGH A TIME OF CHALLENGE AND CHANGE. THE SITUATION IN NORTHERN IRELAND FACES DIFFERENT QUESTIONS BUT IT ALSO NEEDS TO RECLAIM A CATHOLIC SPIRITUALITY OF EDUCATION

be addressed by consistent discernment of and movement "towards a spirituality of education" evidenced in principles, policy, practice and structures; essentially, these would provide full answers to the article’s key questions.

BY MICHAEL BENNETT

REFOCUSING ON VISION Dom Mark Patrick suggests that current negative views do not derive from vision statements or the inspired people behind them. However, this does not invalidate rigorous re-focusing on vision and re-dedication to a spirituality of education. The article itself contains ‘riches in a little room’ as baseline material that could be developed into highly structured content and process to assist authorities, partners and stakeholders in seeking and discerning a unifying spirituality and devising a robust 21st century vision and strategy.

John

Scally’s article, with input by Dom Mark Patrick Hederman [Reality, January/February] has resonance far beyond Catholic Schools Week. It considered foundational principles and basic values of Catholic education and stressed the central importance of clear answers to two very straightforward key questions – "Who are we?" and "How do we explain ourselves as Catholic schools?"

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

The authors suggest, correctly, that problems currently facing Catholicism are bound up with "catastrophic revelations of the recent past". Inevitably, this "negative historical legacy" aroused justified anger and brought about inevitable alienation of many. It has also fed into or given rise to some "erroneous perceptions of a contemporary population". It is vital that any erroneous views about Catholic schools should

‘progressive’ aims; some of the latter have already been achieved. Overall, much of the prevailing ‘spirit of the age’ is inimical to that Spirit we seek to amplify in policy and practice and indeed, some opinion, overtly or covertly, consciously or unconsciously, is opposed to all faith schools – particularly, Catholic schools. There is every reason, therefore, for at least equal effort and greater conviction in fully exploring and clearly explaining our governing Spirit and mission.

If, as the Reality article asserts, "the soul of any society is in its education system" it is imperative that Catholic education remains and increases as a life-enhancing, animating principle in the ‘soul’ of modern Ireland. That animating principle needs to be felt and heard amid the clamour of other and competing forces within society. Macro-review and strategy would constitute a formidable but ultimately liberating task for the Catholic education sector.

However, we have had plenty of experience of major reviews and reform and, although much of it had to be retrospective in scope and reactive in response to redressing terrible wrongs, it also forged new thinking, sound policy and rigorous

procedures for safeguarding and protection.

Catholic education can have a positive, proactive and forward-looking remit and remains one form of safeguard against overmastering materialism and many vacuous promises of secularism; a system that translates spirit into practice and "offers living proof of an alternative vision".

FINDING THE SPIRIT We can tap into a vast store of positive and unifying potential for the Spirit that lies within us. A strong ‘sense of the faithful’ is palpable and available among those principals and teachers truly committed to Catholic education. We have common cause in teaching our children to be more rather than just having more; we want to justify and fully vindicate the trust of parents; we have a shared mission to promote the common good. We also have common identity by virtue of our Catholic baptism and faith; we also have the privileges and responsibilities of a common call to discipleship.

Besides the massive potential of these gifts and graces, we have tremendous cumulative and collective professional experience and each of us

It is imperative that Catholic education remains and increases as a life-enhancing, animating principle in the ‘soul’ of modern Ireland Whether or not such a process is feasible is a matter for the appropriate leadership and proper authorities to decide. Nonetheless, there would be undoubted value in widespread engagement of front-line providers in discerning spirit, devising strategy and implementing structures. The right sort of dynamic at nationwide, diocesan or local levels could form, inform and, where necessary, transform aspects of Catholic provision to meet the needs and enhance the lives of generations of students.

WHAT ARE THE GOALS OF CATHOLIC EDUCATION? Interest groups in secular society have not hesitated to advance their agenda. A great many causes, alignments, re-alignments, collaborations and coalitions have planned and set ‘new’ and

35

REDEMPTORIST

PARISH MISSIONS

Breaking the Word in September 2019

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:

Elgin, Scotland (7th – 13th September 2019) Parish mission preached by Peter Morris CSsR and Laurence Gallagher CSsR Holy Cross Novena (13th – 15th September 2019) Novena preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and Gerry Moloney CSsR Ballyshannon Novena (23rd September –1st October 2019) Novena preached by Denis Luddy CSsR and Helena Connolly The details above are accurate at the time of printing. If you have any views, comments or even criticisms about Redemptorist preaching, we would love to hear from you. If you are interested in a mission or novena in your parish, please contact us for further information. And please keep all Redemptorist preachers in your prayers.

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

FROM REDEMPTORIST COMMUNICATIONS VISITS TO THE BLESSED SACRAMENT FOR THE 21st CENTURY, by Richard Tobin, C.Ss.R. The practice of visiting the Blessed Sacrament has been going on in the Church for hundreds of years. Keeping the Bread of Communion in the tabernacle is a reverent prolonging of the Mass, to give us more time for adoration, thanksgiving, and further prayer.

Nearly three hundred years ago St Alphonsus published his book of Visits to the Blessed Sacrament, which became, and remains, a classic of devotional writing.

This new book is offered in continuity with the spirit of that great work. It contains 28 visits – reflections and prayers – that draw us ever deeper into the mystery of God and God’s love for humanity.

It is a wonderful companion for all who take part in Eucharistic or 40 Hours Devotion, and for those who like to make the occasional visit to the Blessed Sacrament. Beautifully presented in full colour throughout, this is a devotional gem you will treasure for years.

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EDUCAT I O N

has individual spiritual gifts or charisms. The First Letter to the Corinthians tells us that "there are different kinds of spiritual gifts but the same Spirit".

We should look within that vast unifying dynamic to discern and release the energy and light of that overarching Spirit to properly "elaborate the values [we wish] to promote".

the enduring myth that academic excellence is best achieved and maintained by the obsolete apparatus of so-called ‘academic selection’ at age 10-11. Effectively this means ‘academic rejection’ for the majority.

Children are divided between two types of post-primary school and both types are

founded on discredited 1940s ideas about fixed human intelligence. Testing at age 10-11 affords some Catholic schools the right to select many children – sometimes siblings and even twins – on the basis of so-called ‘academic ability’. The effect is to reject vast numbers who took the test and to assign those who did not into categories of perceived winners and losers.

Strong opposition has been voiced by many secular experts, several of the main political parties, numbers of authorities and a range of professional bodies that comprise people of all faiths and none. The system has been criticised in successive formal statements and media input by the northern Catholic bishops, by policy positions of the Council for Catholic Maintained Schools, by many governors and hundreds of nursery-, primary- and post-primary principals. There has been limited but welcome and successful movement towards non-selective schools in some places, but other areas remain stubbornly resistant to change whilst still others have seen piece-meal and uneven reform.

and to try to "explain ourselves as Catholic schools" would involve logical, moral, ethical, educational and theological inconsistencies and provoke heated argument and counterargument.

Whatever one’s view – and there are others who will argue differently – there has simply never been sufficient drive or willed perseverance in bringing together sufficiently representative groups of those front-line principals and other stakeholders most directly involved and affected. Surely, some proactive leadership – whatever authority, agency – can set a process in motion that takes us out of our separate silos and parallel universes. Certainly, the situation is long past debates, stated principles, position papers, fragmented views, inaction, uneven action, opinions voiced in splendid isolation and distant deliberation by commissions of virtually anonymous make-up, dimly understood function and little direct communication with principals.

There is need for a ‘soul space’ and an ‘otherness’ of time, place and mindset; perhaps an opportunity to dwell, albeit temporarily, in or close to, the ‘alien’ territory of the ‘other’. That dynamic moves us out of respective comfort zones to allow rigorously honest reflection and discussion on what we have done, failed to do, ought to do and are prepared to do for all our children. It can awaken the cumulative and collective ‘otherness’ of gifts, graces – the Spirit within and without – referred to earlier and who knows where that might take us?

We need some broker to create this type of space and ‘otherness’ of opportunity. We are not used to joint involvement in an open agenda in open-mindedness to one another and in genuine openness to the Spirit.

The Spirit will not fail us; it has not yet been fully sought or fully heard.

Whether it is fully heeded is another matter and that is our choice and our dilemma.

WHO ARE WE? In our context, therefore, even one key question like ‘Who are we?’ results in immediate tension and massive confusion

Michael Bennett is a retired post-primary principal and member of the Executive Committee of the Catholic Principals' Association which has over 250 members, drawn from nursery, primary and post-primary schools

Testing at age 10-11 affords some Catholic schools the right to select many children – sometimes siblings and even twins – on the basis of so-called ‘academic ability’. The effect is to reject vast numbers who took the test and to assign those who did not into categories of perceived winners and losers WHAT ABOUT THE NORTH? The authors did not offer prescriptive answers to their own key questions. Instead, they highlighted challenges posed, and opportunities offered by, the "changing face of Catholic schools in a pluralist Ireland".

Presumably, the North is part of that ‘pluralist Ireland,’ and certainly implications of ethos, spirit and Catholic Schools Week do not stop at the walls of institutions or at borders.

Much of the article has virtually identical resonance for us in the North, but there are also some very urgent and different nuances.

Significant divisions exist within the northern Catholic sector, and so every phrase can resonate similarly and differently with us.

Given the likely unfamiliarity of readers of Reality with the precise mechanisms and effects of this system, it is probably best to give only a very short version of our views. Amidst a range of other pressures on all principals, staff and schools, there is major division of opinion on our Catholic post-primary school system. Briefly and unapologetically, we believe that the mechanisms of our post-primary system are remnants of an outmoded worldview.

The system is decidedly un-Catholic, socially unjust, educationally unsound, morally wrong and Darwinian in effect.

It is based on virtual addiction of some to

37

38

'The Crowning of the Virgin' by Raphael 1502-1504

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

Praying with the Rosary – The Fifth Glorious Mystery prayer corner

Crowning of Our Lady Queen of Heaven LIKE THE ASSUMPTION, THERE IS NO BIBLICAL ACCOUNT OF MARY’S QUEENSHIP, BUT IT REFLECTS THE LONG CATHOLIC PRAYER TRADITION THAT ACKNOWLEDGES MARY AS THE QUEEN MOTHER OF HER SON

BY GEORGE WADDING CSsR

We

frequently invoke Mary as queen. We say the ‘Hail, Holy Queen’. We sing ‘Hail Queen of Heaven’ and ‘Queen of the May’. At Easter time we replace the 'Angelus' with 'Regina Coeli' (Queen of Heaven). And not so long ago the Litany of Loreto was the principal ‘trimming’ at the end of the Family Rosary: in it we invoked Mary as Queen of Prophets, Queen of Apostles, Queen of Martyrs (etc, ten times in all), and Pope Pius XII, on October 11, during the Holy Marian Year of 1954, added one more, Queen of Heaven. In 1969 Pope Paul VI moved the feast of Mary’s Queenship from the end of May to August 22, the octave of her Assumption, to point up the connection between the two feasts.

WOMAN CLOTHED WITH THE SUN The Book of Revelation has the famous verse, “A great sign appeared in heaven, a woman clothed with the sun, with the

moon under her feet, and on her head a crown of twelve stars" (Rev 12:1). The woman in this text is Israel with her twelve tribes, the ‘mother’ or ‘forbear’ of the Messiah Saviour who would be hunted by the dragon (Satan). But it is easy to see how the church, in time, would come to apply this text to Mary, the physical mother of Jesus, the Messiah and King of Kings.

Mary’s crowning as queen was a popular notion and would figure frequently in the paintings of the great masters: (before 1500) Velasquez, Fra Angelico, Filippo Lippi, Botticelli, (post 1500) Raphael, Albrecht Dürer, El Greco and others. The setting for these paintings is usually a lavish court where Mary is crowned by her Son or by the Trinity, surrounded by faithful courtiers (apostles and saints).

In general, the art of this period, often paid for by royalty and the nobility, increasingly regarded the heavenly court as a mirror of earthly ones. And there’s the rub.

Mary was no earthly queen, no

more than Jesus was an earthly king (“My Kingdom is not of this earth” – John. 18:36). So when we pause at the Fifth Glorious Mystery and try to contemplate the Crowning of Our Lady as Queen of Heaven, what image do we have?

In this day and age, although the paintings of the Renaissance artists are wonderful to view, I am not sure they are any help to pray. Crowns of gold and precious jewels denote the power and privilege associated with earthly royalty. That sort of esteem was far from Mary’s mind when she uttered her Magnificat: “He casts the mighty from their thrones and raises the lowly; he fills the starving with good things, sends the rich away empty” (Lk. 1:46f). Hers were not the values and aspirations of earthly courtiers but the ideals of her Son’s Beatitudes and his Sermon on the Mount (Matthew 5 & 6). So we look for other biblical imagery that might help our contemplation of the crowning of Mary.

THE ATHLETE’S CROWN In his first letter to the Corinthians, St Paul wrote: “Everyone who competes in the game goes into strict training.

But they do it to get a crown that will not last; but we do it to get a crown that will last for ever” (9:25). Mary’s crown is more like the simple wreath of laurel leaves, with which the victor in the games was crowned. It had no intrinsic worth. Its value was in what it symbolised; it was the time-honoured convention for recognising and honouring the athlete’s heroic effort, his sweat and toil, his patience and perseverance and his ultimate victory. And that, for me, is a truer image of Mary’s crown than the crown of gold and precious jewels.

The day she said ‘yes’ to the angel Gabriel her ‘strict training’ began. She faced down the gossips of Nazareth and, in total trust, submitted her maidenhood and the joys of physical intimacy to God’s plan of salvation.

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prayer corner The child she held in her arms at Bethlehem was her crown, her delight, her reward for so readily assenting to God’s will.

But mu ch p ain w oul d follow. She knew the great love that drove her Son to die for humanity. In her soul she experienced the scourges that tore his sacred flesh, the thorns that pierced his head, the nails that were driven through his hands that once blessed the sick; she shared his burning thirst, his shame and ridicule. Standing with him by the cross, she bore no bitterness but sought God’s forgiveness for those who made him suffer so and for those who would reject his love.

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THE MARTYR’S CROWN There are no royal crowns on Calvary. The dead son she held in her arms was Mary’s only crown, her martyr’s crown, a crown she shared with her Son. She was the Second Eve to his Second Adam, most intimately associated with him in the struggle against the infernal foe as foretold in Genesis 3:15: “I will put enmity between you (the serpent) and the woman and between your offspring and hers; he will crush your head, and you will strike its heal.” Her son was crucified for allegedly claiming to be king. The irony was: in his very crucifixion he was doing the most regal thing a king could do – he was giving his life to save his people.

And his Queen Mother was with him.

In all of human history since the fall of Adam and Eve, only one human being is worth calling our queen – the Virgin Mary.

Remember, Christ was truly human, but also truly divine.

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Don’t look for her in a royal palace.

You will find her, rather, holding a baby in a stable or cradling her butchered Son on Calvary. Her crown is eternal life beside her Son, her reward for her faithful love. She fought the good fight. She finished the race. She kept the faith. Now she wears the crown of righteousness which the Lord, the righteous Judge, has awarded to her – life everlasting (cf 2Tim 4: 7-8). She turns to us and says: You who are faithful, you, too, will be crowned as I am crowned.

You call me your queen and mother and I call you my crown – you my children whom I love and long for, you are my joy and my crown. (cf Phil 4:1) Fr George Wadding CSsR is a member of the Redemptorist Community at Dun Mhuire, Griffith Avenue, Dublin. He is the author of Praying with St Gerard, the Family Saint (available from Redemptorist Communications) 'The Crowning of the Virgin' by Diego Velázquez 1641-1644

Mary, on the other hand, was only human and not divine, and yet she remained free of sin. She not only said yes to God’s plan for her, but she was humble, obedient, and open to whatever difficulties might come from that plan. She was her Son’s first and greatest disciple.

OUR TAINTED NATURE’S SOLITARY BOAST The poet William Wordsworth was so right when he wrote…

Mother! whose virgin bosom was uncrost With the least shade of thought to sin allied; Woman! above all women glorified, our tainted nature's solitary boast.

S o when we contemplate the Fifth Glorious Mystery of the Rosary, let’s banish all thought of royal assemblies, of courtiers and minions, of jewelstudded diadems and priceless gems.

Mary is our queen because she is our fallen nature’s solitary boast; she was her Son’s first and best disciple; she was everything we are called to be and everything we might wish to be.

Hail, holy Queen, Mother of Mercy, hail our life, our sweetness and our hope.

To thee do we cry, poor banished children of Eve; to thee do we send up our sighs, mourning and weeping in this valley of tears.

Turn then, most gracious advocate, thine eyes of mercy towards us; and after this our exile, show unto us the blessed fruit of thy womb, Jesus. O clement, O loving, O sweet Virgin Mary.

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE DEEPER INTO THE MESS Deeper into the Mess - Praying through tough times

by Brendan McManus and Jim Deeds Irish Messenger Publications, 2019 Paperback, €9.95 ISBN- 9781788120210

This is a companion volume to the authors’ previous book Finding God in the Mess. Whilst not a comprehensive or prescriptive manual on prayer methods, it focuses on a tried and tested way of praying in difficult situations, what the authors call "emergency prayer".

Heavily influenced by Ignatian spirituality, the meditations are divided into five groupings that roughly follow the dynamic of the Spiritual Exercises, namely: we are all created by God who deals directly with us; when God appears absent or disinterested in our human troubles he is actually intimately involved and lovingly concerned for our wellbeing; at times we will suffer but God will bring good out of every situation.

In the introduction, the authors describe our many difficulties with prayer, yet we are encouraged to use our bodies, words, symbols and gestures to discover how to "pray as we can , not as we can't". The goal of all prayer is to make Christ the centre of our lives and thereby to transform ourselves, our lives and especially the mess of our lives.

Each chapter is preceded by a "conversation" with God in which God is the benign and reassuring voice responding to the tentative yet hopeful pray-er. The book also closes with a 'Conversation on Answered Prayer'.

Speaking directly to the reader, the authors create a sense of warmth and understanding of the prayer and life journey of the reader and the problems encountered. A quotation from St Ignatius Loyala's Spiritual Exercises sets the focus of each chapter. A short mantra or meditation follows and two or three fitting scriptural texts

that encourage reflection. Each section then concludes with a practical suggestion for action.

Beautifully illustrated throughout with stunning photos taken mainly by the authors, the photos become an integral part of the meditation, highlighting the indwelling of God in nature and in all created things. Topics include: Transforming Failure; Becoming Unstuck; Suicide; Self-criticism; Suicide; and others. Presenting an honest and realistic look at the problems facing many people, the authors always emphasise hope – not the facile and transitory 'feel good' sound bites offered in social media, but rather the reality of light out of darkness, life out of death that is the Resurrection.

An uplifting and comforting book that could be used as a resource for individual or group prayer and discussion/ reflection.

DANCING TO MY DEATH Dancing to My Death - With a love called cancer

by Daniel O’Leary Columba Books, 2019 Hardback, €16.99 232 pages ISBN- 978-1782183624

I have to admit it was with some trepidation that I started to read and then review this book. As a fan of Daniel O'Leary , priest, writer, retreat-giver and spiritual director, over many years, I was shocked and saddened to read of his diagnosis of colorectal cancer and subsequent death on January 21 this year. The book's title is shocking in its bluntness and the dustcover hints at the inevitable solitariness of the final journey we all must take to God, depicting a single figure on a golden strand, walking towards the horizon.

Written in the format of a journal, there are four sections, each a short but intense offering indicative of the rigours and low energy that result from cancer treatment.

BOOK REVIEWS BY KATE GREEN

In the foreword, he outlines his personal "cantus firmus" and describes death as "a wild moment of growth and transformation into an unimaginable depth of being". He describes his writing as "no-frill reflections" that remain "essentially unaltered". He asks forgiveness for his "pathetic inability to cope with the cup I was given to drink", and ponders his reasons for committing such thoughts and feelings to print.

With searing honesty and humility, he admits: "Pillars of certainties, doctrines, teachings and religious habits have toppled. Foundations of my Faith have shaken. There is a silent assassination of shallow certainties."

Such declarations from a man who has committed his life to the service of God and his people must be a comfort to anyone to whom the dark vicissitudes of life may have brought desolation and rupture from faith and/ or practice.

Each page is a deeply intimate conversation with the reader whom he challenges to reflect even as he does. It does not make for easy reading for these are physical, mental and spiritual "dark nights of the soul". As ever, he draws sustenance from the words and writings of wise and holy people: Richard Rohr; Jean Vanier; Rumi; Teilhard de Chardin and many more. And always one is aware of his gratitude for the tender love of family and friends who sustained and carried him in prayer and companionship. Over and above all is his enduring love for Christ.

With a foreword by Sr Stanislaus Kennedy and a "Postscript for Daniel" by Margaret Siberry, one is left in no doubt of the graces and blessings given to him by God, and so generously passed on to so many others. In Margaret Siberry's words: "Those of us who knew and loved you, were blessed, always, by your dancing heart."

A painfully beautiful final testament, this is an inspiring and uplifting book. In the words of Richard Rohr: "Read even small parts of this marvellous book and you will know how truly holy and good he was."

Rest in peace, Daniel O' Leary.

Kate Green is a former teacher of English and Religious Education in Belfast. She works closely with the Redemptorist Congregation, mainly in Clonard Monastery.

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RWANDA

�� YEARS AFTER THE GENOCIDE BETWEEN APRIL AND JULY 1994, IT IS ESTIMATED THAT BETWEEN HALF A MILLION AND A MILLION PEOPLE WERE MURDERED IN RWANDA, ABOUT 70 PER CENT BELONGING TO THE TUTSI POPULATION. TODAY THANKS TO TRÓCAIRE, PEOPLE FROM THE TWO ETHNIC GROUPS OF HUTU AND TUTSI ARE MOVING TOWARDS RECONCILIATION.

BY JOSEPHINE LAMB Photographs by Josephine Lamb

July 42

2019 marked 25 years since the end of the Rwandan genocide, when up to one million people were killed in just 100 days. The genocide saw members of the Hutu ethnic group target members of the Tutsi ethnic group.

Today, thanks to a reconciliation programme funded by donations to Trócaire, people from the different groups are living in peace, determined to never let hate divide them again. Immaculée (54) and Vianney (60) are living proof of the power of reconciliation. Immaculée’s entire family, including her husband and three children, was killed during the genocide, while Vianney took part in the killings. Today, they are working together as friends.

MEETING SOMEONE WHO KILLED FAMILY MEMBERS Immaculée says she “lost hope in life” for a long time after her family was killed. It was her introduction into a reconciliation group, funded

by Trócaire, that changed her life. There, she came face-to-face with Vianney, who she suspected of killing her nine-year-old son. Vianney confessed to her that he had killed two of her cousins but assured her he was not the person who killed her son.

“To tell you the truth – I wasn’t immediately

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

Imaculée and Vianney

convinced – I was still suspecting him – but as the journey continued I believed he didn’t kill my child,” Immaculée said.

Forgiveness did not come immediately, but over time Immaculée and Vianney spent more time together. She realised that he was also suffering from what he did.

“At the start I couldn’t understand how I would ever be able to tell others and talk about what had happened to me,” she says. “But I then realised that both survivors and perpetrators were traumatised in one way or another. When Vianney talked to me about love versus hatred – that is how the whole journey really started.”

a time, I did consider suicide because I couldn’t bear to look back at what I had done.”

It has been a long journey for Immaculée and Vianney, one that inspires hope. “We are now friends,” he says. “When people see and hear the example of what Immaculée and I are doing, hopefully they will be doing the same. Rwanda will be better.”

Immaculée has thanked people in Ireland for helping them on their reconciliation journey. “We are grateful for the support of Trócaire,” she says.

“It is important that we give our testimony so that the younger generation have it on record and can improve the future.”

WHY DID THEY DO IT? Twenty-five years on, Vianney still can’t understand what drove him to kill. Political leaders stirred up hatred and encouraged the violence. They were swept up in it, he says.

“For me, it has been a long journey,” he says. “At

ANOTHER STORY Another powerful story from that dark time comes from Josiane. Her father, sister and two brothers were among the people murdered during the Rwandan genocide. Her mother struggled to provide food for her in the aftermath – but today

AUTUMN

Josiane is a university graduate working for Trócaire in Rwanda. Her remarkable story shows how life in Rwanda has transformed from 25 years ago.

Josiane was just three years old when the genocide happened. In 2004, when she was 13, she featured on the Trócaire box, which was distributed to one million homes across Ireland.

The 2004 Trócaire Lent campaign changed her life. Thanks to donations from the public, Josiane and her family, along with thousands of others, received support and equipment to help them improve their farming. This meant they could feed their families, earn an income and allowed the children to continue in school. Today, 15 years later, Josiane, 28, is now married with a beautiful baby boy, Gianni. Graduating with a qualification in business management and accounting, she now works in Trócaire’s office in Rwanda.

“I am very happy,” says Josiane. “Life was very difficult after the genocide. We didn’t have enough to eat and we couldn’t afford the fees to allow me to continue my studies after primary school. But thanks to Trócaire supporters, not only was I able

Josiane and her mother

to go to secondary school, but I then went to university.

“I am very proud that I now work for Trócaire and can help others, as well as taking care of my baby son. I want to say a big thank you to the people of Ireland – you have helped to change my life and that of my family, and you should be proud that you are helping so many people.”

Trócaire CEO Caoimhe de Barra has thanked people in Ireland for their role in helping to rebuild Rwanda. "Rwanda's transformation is truly incredible," she says. "The country has moved on so much from the horrors of 1994. A generation of young people who grew up after the killings live in a country that is peaceful. There are still huge challenges in Rwanda but the progress over the last 25 years has been remarkable. People in Ireland should feel very proud of the role they played in helping the people of this beautiful country to build a new future."

Josephine Lamb is a Trócaire communications officer, based in Belfast. For more information on Trócaire’s work visit www. trocaire.org

Ennismore Retreat Centre ST DOMINIC’S

Saturday 7th September 10.00am. – 4.30pm €60 The Meaning is in the Shadows Fr Peter McVerry SJ

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

Saturday 12th October 10..00am – 1.00pm Cost Donation Lectio Divana Brendan Clifford

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

Friday 18th October Cost: €25 Archangel Raphael Fr. Jim Cogley

www.ennismore.ie

CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

TV LICENCE

HOW CAN YOU AFFORD A TV LICENCE THAT COSTS €160 WHEN YOU ARE TRYING TO LIVE ON A JOB SEEKER’S ALLOWANCE OF €107.70?

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The global Wealth Report 2019 has some useless but interesting information. For example, it found that the most expensive car sold at auction in 2018 was a 1962 Ferrari 250 GTO, which went for $48.4 million, while the most expensive bottle of whiskey was a bottle of The Macallan 1926 which went for $1.5 million.

But it also has other more relevant information. In 2018, in Ireland, there were nine billionaires, 1,029 “ultra-high net worth individuals” with assets of €25 million or more, and 77,984 millionaires, an increase of 3,000 from last year. It predicts a further 17,000 Irish people will become millionaires by 2023, on the back of rising asset and property values.

John is definitely not one of them! He is 24 years old. He has been homeless for several years, but has recently moved into private rented accommodation, using the Government subsidy (Housing Assistance Payment) to help pay the rent. Since John is under 25 years of age, he only receives €107.70 per week on Jobseekers’ Allowance. Out of this, he pays €40 per week towards the rent and he pays €27.50 for a weekly bus pass. He has €40.20 left to buy his food, pay for his heating and electricity, and all his other needs. He has recently received a final notice to pay €160 for his television licence. There is no way John can afford a television licence.

(Ironically, his television is broken REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

incentivise the poor to work, you have to reduce their income.

“Everyone but an idiot knows that the lower classes must be kept poor or they will never be industrious,” wrote English traveller Arthur Young in 1771.

and he cannot afford to replace it either!) He will eventually be prosecuted and fined. There is no way John can afford to pay a fine. Because he receives so little welfare, he cannot even pay the fine by instalments. So he will be arrested and may be sent to prison – where he will be able to watch television in his cell to his heart’s content!

In Budget 2014, Joan Burton, Labour Party, reduced the social welfare payments to young people under 25 to €100 per week. The rationale was to encourage young people to take up work experience, training, or education, although there was no evidence that young people were shy of doing so.

The Government promised that sufficient places would be available to those young people to provide training or education for them, but while over 21,000 young people were affected by

this reduction, only 3,250 extra places were provided for them.

The effect of this reduction was to condemn almost all young homeless people to remain homeless until they reached the age of 26, as it is almost impossible to live independently on this reduced payment, as the story of John above illustrates. In reality, the reduction was simply a money-saving exercise, and like many money-saving exercises, the poorest are those most impacted.

M e a nw h i l e , t h e b a n k s pressured the Government to abandon the pay cap of €500,000 per annum for their CEOs, which was introduced during the recession, as they cannot find anyone suitable who was prepared to work for €10,000 per week!

It seems that to incentivise the rich to work, you have to increase their income, but to

Poverty in Ireland is still a major issue today. One in every six people in Ireland (about 760,000 people) lives with an income below the poverty line. One in every five children in Ireland, (about 230,000 children) lives in poverty. Many go to school hungry. Growing up in poverty has lifelong consequences – children are more likely to underperform in school, and therefore to experience greater levels of unemployment in adult life, to experience low self-esteem, higher stress levels, as well as mental and physical problems in later life.

Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland are divided, not by a wall or physical infrastructure, but by an invisible line on a map. An invisible, but real, barrier also divides the Ireland of wealth from the Ireland of poverty. The lives of those on one side of the barrier have little in common with the lives of those on the other side.

One united Ireland is not even on the agenda.

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

GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH ETIQUETTE FOR THE KINGDOM OF GOD Hyacinth Bucket (she prefers to pronounce it ‘Bouquet’) is a comic, but 22ND SUNDAY IN really very sad, figure in ORDINARY TIME the television comedy, Keeping Up Appearances.

Every attempt she makes to appear as a wellbred fashionable lady is undermined by her family, who cheerfully live in squalor, but turn up just at the moment Hyacinth is trying to make an impression. Hyacinth would not have found this Gospel much to her liking.

She believed her place was always at the top table and would have been aghast at the thought of having her sister, or brother-inlaw Onslow, arriving for one of her candle-lit suppers.

In today’s Gospel, Jesus invites us to identify, not with Hyacinth but with the poor and outcast who are invited to a feast where they are not even on the guest list. Today’s Gospel is a lesson in the etiquette of the Kingdom of God. It invites us to widen our horizons, to identify with the loser and the outcast,

more than with the winner and the wealthy.

If the Pharisees are watching Jesus closely to see if he is keeping the law, he is also watching them and observing how they behave as guests. Where you sat at a formal meal in Jesus’ day was important. It marked your place in society. To be near the host and the guest of honour was a mark of distinction.

To have to yield your place to make room for someone else was not just a momentary embarrassment or an inconvenience of having to find a place as the table filled up. It meant losing face before friends and neighbours. Jostling for the best places draws from Jesus what looks like a piece of shrewd advice to Hyacinth Bucket and her likes: it is better to be invited to move up a place than to move down, because you will probably go even further down than you than you deserve! Jesus’ words are very like advice given in the Book of Proverbs: "Do not put yourself forward in the king's presence or stand in the place of the great; it is better to be told, 'Come up here,' than to be put lower in the presence of a noble" (Prov 25:67). It is rounded off with an echo of

Luke’s common theme of the radical change of social position the coming of the Kingdom will entail: those who exalt their sense of their own importance will be humbled, the humbled will be raised up.

If the advice about choosing a place at table is worldly and clever, the final word to the host about how to make out a guest list looks like social suicide! Dinner parties provide excellent opportunities for networking your way up the social ladder. Jesus’ advice undercuts that: when you have a party, invite the poor, the crippled, the lame and the blind. This kind of social networking only makes sense in the Kingdom of God. This might also reflect the ideal of the Christian Eucharist when slaves sat down at table with masters, poor labourers with merchants. It is training for the last great feast to which we are all invited, the feast of the Kingdom of God.

COUNTING THE COST One of the remarkable things about the early Christian movement was how it broke the existing patterns RD SUNDAY IN 23 of social relationships.

ORDINARY TIME It created a new kind of family, not one not based on blood kinship but on faith and the water of baptism. There is a very challenging sentence in the Gospel. "Whoever comes to me and does not hate father and mother, wife and children, brothers and sisters, yes, and even life itself, cannot be my disciple” (Luke 14:26).

Was Jesus preaching a message of hatred? No, but he was telling his disciples that one of the risks in following him was that there would be a new look at family life. Despite what we sometimes hear in preaching, Jesus was not totally in favour of family life. Family life in his time was a total system. Even today, if you

travel through the Holy Land, you might be struck by the size of the houses of Palestinian families. As each son marries, a couple of new rooms are added on to the house. There is something to be said for that kind of closeness, but it also has a down side. The demands of the family and its honour can be so close that it is almost suffocating. Jesus was aware that following him and living the demanding message he preached of love for outcasts and strangers would bring his disciples into conflict with their families. If they wanted to follow him, then they had to be ready to break with family in as radical a way as he did. You remember the passage in the Gospel where some of his relatives come to take him home, thinking that he had gone mad! Why should a boy with a good mother, a loving extended family and a steady job as the village carpenter, and who looked like he would make a good husband, go off proclaiming the kingdom of

God and live homeless and dependent on the charity of others?

The point of the two parables is about reckoning the cost. The parable of the tower might remind us of people trapped in mortgages they can ill afford. While they warn us not to act too rashly or without thinking, they might also be a reminder that to be generous, we need a certain kind of spiritual freedom. There is a traditional prayer goes: “Lord, teach me to be generous. Teach me to serve you as you deserve; to give and not to count the cost, to fight and not to heed the wounds, to toil and not to seek for rest, to labour and not to ask for reward, save that of knowing that I do your will."

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SEPTEMBER

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Today’s Readings Sir 3:17-20, 28-29; Ps 67; Heb 12:18-19, 22-24; Luke 14:1, 7-14

Today’s Readings Wis 9:13-18; Ps 89; Phm 9-10, 12-17; Luke 14:25-33

God’s Word continues on page 46

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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH THE JOY OF FINDING SEPTEMBER The three parables in today’s Gospel are held together by a common theme of finding the lost – a lost sheep, a TH 24 SUNDAY IN lost coin and a lost son.

ORDINARY TIME They are Jesus’ response to the exclusivist nature of the religion of the Pharisees. There is a progression in the value of what was lost: one sheep out of a comparatively large flock, a coin in an economy where coins were a relative rarity, and one son out of two.

The story of the lost son reflects a common family situation. In rural Galilee, opportunities for a younger son were few and far between.

Rather than waiting around for his father to leave him an inheritance, at most, of one third of the family property, he might go to seek his fortune elsewhere. A wise father might 46 arrange for an adventurous son to receive his inheritance early. The picture of the youngest

son is, unfortunately, rather true to life. A wallet full of money amid the temptations of a big city far from home means the end of carefully laid plans and resolutions. This boy’s life is up-ended by another calamity – an unexpected famine and an empty wallet.

Luke is a very skilful storyteller. He does not just tell what happens, but he gives us access to the inner world of the characters by having them speak aloud. We hear the younger son’s musings as he sits in the pigsty (no place for a good Jewish boy!) and the careful rehearsal of his home-coming speech – "I have sinned … I do not deserve to be called your son… just give me a job as a hired hand." The scene now shifts and we observe it from the father’s perspective. Seeing him approach, he runs to welcome him home – not exactly good behaviour for an ageing man. He calls for all the signs of sonship to be lavished on him – best clothes, gold signet ring, shoes, and orders a feast to be prepared for this boy who has been restored to life.

Preachers sometimes end the parable here. True, it has made its principal point: no matter how far we wander from home, God is still a loving father. But Jesus continued the story because he wanted to make an even more telling point with the arrival of the elder brother. We know he existed, but so far he has been silent. Now he delivers a tirade of angry complaints, raking over his brother’s faults (and adding a few more for good measure, including the insinuation of a wildly immoral sex life). Next, he turns on his father: years of slaving, and for what? The father listens quietly, but just as determinedly, and shows he is not for budging on the way he has treated the prodigal. The elder brother has a choice – to come into the party, or sulk in the barn. Good story teller that he is, Luke leaves us to work that one out for ourselves.

MAKE THE BEST OF IT! In some ways this is a rather troublesome Gospel! It might help to recognise just over half of it is devoted to a parable: 25TH SUNDAY IN ORDINARY TIME the remainder is a set of sayings about money and servants with no immediate connection to the parable.

In Jesus’ time, large estates were often owned by absentee landlords who left their daily running to an administrator or steward. The steward ran the estate to his own advantage. Provided he got a regular income, the landowner showed little concern for the details. The steward in the parable been fired for shady dealing. Faced with ruin, he is forced to consider his options.

Hard work and begging are both out of the question: they would entail loss of status and honour in a community where keeping up a reputation was important. His solution is to call in whatever favours might be owed

him. Jewish law forbade lending at interest.

The rabbis’ solution aimed to keep the letter of the law but also to generate some income for the lender. The borrower first agreed to the amount to be repaid. A lesser sum was handed over, the difference being the equivalent of the interest. The person who borrowed 50 measures of oil agreed to repay 100, the borrower of 80 measures of wheat agreed to repay 100 and so on. The extra 50 or 20 was the steward’s ‘cut’ for negotiating the deals. By telling the borrowers to write smaller sums, he is doing them a favour, but taking the loss himself. He is calculating that his favour will be repaid. Once known for driving a hard bargain, he now gains a reputation for fair play and generosity, and custom demands that it be reciprocated.

Instead of feeling cheated, the landowner is forced to smile at the sheer ingenuity or even brass neck of his steward in making the best of a bad situation. It opens a series of sayings. The first of them, "the children of this world" are more astute business people

than "the children of light", is perhaps a statement of fact: being too religious can blind one to earthly realities! Jesus advises wealthy Christians to make the best use of their wealth for the sake of the kingdom.

He is no champion of money, however. He calls it "that tainted thing". Older translations simply used the word from the original Greek text and spoke of "the mammon of iniquity".

'Mammon' was a Syrian god of possessions.

Its only other use, in Matthew’s Sermon on the Mount (6:24), also points to a tension between serving God and placing wealth at the centre of one’s concerns. This tension is further pointed up by the saying about the impossibility of serving two masters and applies it to the tension between God and money in the life of the believer.

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REALITY SEPTEMBER 2019

Today’s Readings Exod 32:7-11, 13-14; Ps 50; 1 Tim 1:12-17; Luke 15:1-32 or 15:1-10

Today’s Readings Amos 8:4-7; Ps 112; 1 Tim 2:1-7; Luke 16:1-13

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 7 SEPTEMBER 2019

RICH MAN AND BEGGAR This parable is often called ‘Dives and Lazarus.’

The poor man is certainly called Lazarus. Jesus does not name the rich man. ‘Dives’ is simply the Latin for rich person. He may be the anonymous 26TH SUNDAY IN rich. The Aramaic form of the beggar’s name was ORDINARY TIME Eliezer (‘my God helps’), but it is a cruel irony that there is little sign of a divine helper. The rich of the ancient world did not dine out in expensive restaurants: instead they entertained at home, taking the opportunity to show even more of their wealth. In contrast to the rich man, Lazarus is covered with sores and has neither the energy nor the will to chase away the dogs that lick his sores. Both men die within a short time of one another, and it is in death that the significance of the poor man’s name is revealed. God his helper commands the angels to bring him to paradise, while the rich man goes to the shadowy underworld.

The parable now shifts to a realm beyond this world. One of Luke’s favourite themes is how the kingdom of God overturns the accepted values of the human world. From his place in the underworld, the rich man sees the despised beggar sitting at the heavenly table alongside Abraham. Abraham, the ancestor of the Jewish people, acts as God’s representative and spokesperson in dealing with humans. There are two exchanges between the rich man and Abraham. In the first, he demands Abraham to order Lazarus to come and cool his tongue in the burning flames of hell with a drop of water. Abraham replies that it cannot be done. Death has fixed a great gulf between the two realms which is stronger than the social gulf that separated them on earth. The rich man has no interest in bridging that gap in his life-time. He still does not grasp that the beggar is not his slave to be ordered around. The second exchange is somewhat more chastened. The rich man remembers his brothers and wants Lazarus sent as a ghost to warn them of what faces them. That too is impossible, replies Abraham: besides, they have the teaching of Moses and the prophets that commanded respect for the poor of the community. If they failed to listen to the living word, what chance is there that they should heed a ghost? Jesus, like Lazarus, will be rejected. He will undergo a death even more shameful than that of the beggar who dies in the street at the gate of a rich man.

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SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 5 ACROSS: Across: 1. Novena, 5. Vipers, 10. Extinct, 11. Lucifer, 12. Tome, 13. Covet, 15. Plot, 17. Rat, 19. Census, 21. Wisdom, 22. Rubicon, 23. Stymie, 25. Easter, 28. Pax, 30. Cane, 31. Canal, 32. Limb, 35. Entrant, 36. Atheist, 37. Geiger, 38. Unpaid.

DOWN: 2. Ottoman, 3. Etna, 4. Author, 5. Velvet, 6. Puce, 7. Ruffled, 8. Septic, 9. Pro tem, 14.

Vatican, 16. Turin, 18. Sinai, 20. Sue, 21. Woe, 23. Sacred, 24. Yangtze, 26. Tbilisi, 27. Robots, 28.

Pastor, 29. Xanadu, 33. Pang, 34. Chip.

Winner of Crossword No. 5 Elizabeth Meagher, Clane, Co. Kildare.

ACROSS 1. The only sovereign state on the island of Borneo. (6) 5. Writer or a book, article, or document. (6) 10. Remained in one place in the air. (7) 11. Mythical Greek singer who visited the underworld. (7) 12. American fort and gold bullion store. (4) 13. Ancient Irish writing set in stone. (5) 15. It can be sticky, Basmati and Jasmine. (4) 17. The National Tree of the USA, England, France and Germany. (3) 19. Occupants of UFOs? (6) 21. Added fuel to a fire, (6) 22. A letter from an Apostle. (7) 23. Not genuine, fraudulent. (6) 25. The colour between orange and green. (6) 28. Playing card with a single spot. (3) 30. Hideous giant of fairy tales. (4) 31. The talocrural region between the foot and the leg. (5) 32. Raze the Old Testament book. (4) 35. Flat highland. (7) 36. Multi-thonged lash used by the Romans.

(7) 37. A book of sacred songs. (6) 38. Discrimination against older people. (6)

DOWN 2. Italian filled dumpling. (7) 3. Roman Emperor with a fiery reputation. (4) 4. A colour of the rainbow. (6) 5. Waterproof jacket, typically with a hood. (6) 6. Offers betting advice to the waiter. (4) 7. A tapering stone pillar set up as a monument or landmark. (7) 8. Division of a polo match. (6) 9. Move up, climb. (6) 14. A cushion for kneeling on in church. (7) 16. A mocking smile, remark or tone. (5) 18. Iron alloyed with carbon. (5) 20. Keep a secret watch on a person or thing to obtain information. (3) 21. Cunning or deceitful. (3) 23. Encourage a hesitant speaker. (6) 24. Title given to Mary, mother of Jesus. (3,4) 26. He was brought back to life after four days.

(7) 27. The largest animals ever. (6) 28. Happening once a year. (6) 29. His ale hides a biblical wonder-maker. (6) 33. Unkind and stingy. (4) 34. The "Eternal City." (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.7, September 2019 Name:

Today’s Readings

Address: Telephone:

Amos 6:1, 4-7; Ps 145; 1 Tim 6:11-16; Luke 16:19-31 All entries must reach us by September 30, 2019 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.7, Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC