Reality Magazine September 2020

JEAN DONOVAN: MODERN MARTYR

SEPTEMBER 2020

PETER McVERRY: MYTHS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS

THE DERRYNAFLAN PATEN: EUCHARISTIC THEOLOGY OF ANCIENT IRELAND

Informing, Inspiring, Challenging Today’s Catholic

QUERIDA AMAZONIA A REVIEW OF POPE FRANCIS' RESPONSE TO THE SYNOD ON THE AMAZON

WORSHIP IN SCHOOL

NURTURING THE FAITH OF CHILDREN

REMEMBERING JEAN SULIVAN FRENCH PRIEST AND NOVELIST - CRITIC OF THE CHURCH OR PROPHETIC VISIONARY?

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

Vienna Pilgrimage

in the footsteps of

St Clement

Celebrating the 200 th Anniversary of his death.

12th March –16th March 202 1

Price: Includes:

€695 Direct flight from Dublin to Vienna Staying at the Pallottihaus 20kg check in bag per person and small piece of hand luggage Return transfers from airport to your accommodation

4 breakfasts & 4 main meals Private coach for full day excursion Single room supplement €25 per night (limited number of rooms) Pilgrimage Highlights Walking tour of St Clement related sites in Vienna Day excursion to Tasovice (Birthplace of St Clement) Znomjo & Klosterbruck (Where Clement worked as a baker and servant to the Abbot) Visit to the shrine of St Clement Free time to explore Vienna/Schonbrunn Palace etc For a booking form contact:

Claire Carmichael ccarmichael@redcoms.org

IN THIS MONTH’S ISSUE FEATURES �� QUERIDA AMAZONIA A REFLECTION A theologian offers some reflections on Pope Francis’ document on the Amazon.

By Suzanne Mulligan

�� WORSHIP IN SCHOOL A good Catholic school should help all its students to become saints (Pope Benedict).

By Maria Hall

�� REMEMBERING JEAN SULIVAN The French priest-writer whose books contain stinging attacks on clericalism and the abuse of power within the Church.

By Eamon Mahar

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�� LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION The coronavirus pandemic has forced us to be more at home with one another – not for a few minutes or a few hours daily but even for weeks.

By Mike Daley

�� CULTURE SHOCK Still culture-shocked, after all these years!

By Fr Colm Meaney CSsR

�� THE MONASTERY OF BOSE Founded in 1968, the monastery of Bose is home to a unique community belonging to different Christian communities who seek to live out the Gospel.

By Bishop John McAreavey

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�� THE DERRYNAFLAN PATEN: DISCOVERING AN ANCIENT EUCHARISTIC THEOLOGY The paten was not just a major historical discovery but also a link to how the early Irish Church celebrated the Eucharist.

By Prof Thomas O’Loughlin

�� END OF ST BENNO’S The success of St Benno's was quickly forgotten when Clement and community were ordered to leave Warsaw.

By Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR

OPINION

REGULARS

11 BRENDAN McCONVERY

04 REALITY BITES 07 POPE MONITOR 08 WOMEN SAINTS & MYSTICS 09 REFLECTIONS 38 UNDER THE MICROSCOPE 42 TRÓCAIRE 45 GOD’S WORD

19 JIM DEEDS 31 CARMEL WYNNE 44 PETER McVERRY SJ

REALITY BITES HAGIA SOPHIA BECOMES A MOSQUE TURKEY

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TREASURE LOST

It is said that when Russia converted to Christianity, they wondered whether to adopt the liturgy of the Roman Rite or the Byzantine Rite. The delegation sent to Constantinople were swept off their feet by the beauty of the worship in the great church of Hagia Sophia, Holy Wisdom. They reported: “we no longer knew whether we were in heaven or on earth, and we know not how to tell of it.”

The great church was turned into a mosque in the 15th century when the Ottoman Turks conquered Constantinople. It became a museum in 1943 under Kemal Atatürk's secular government (who also changed the city’s name to Istanbul). Turkey has been growing increasingly Islamised under Prime Minister Recep Tayyip Erdoğan. His government declared it a mosque in June, and the first Muslim Friday prayers were held in it on July 24.

Once known as Asia Minor, Turkey was one of the great centres of early Christianity. Kemal Atatürk's government had granted protection to some historic Christian sites. Many of these

have been converted from museums to mosques.

In addition to Hagia Sophia, these included the basilica of Iznik (Nicea) where the Nicean Creed was formulated and several church councils held, the great church of Trebizond on the Black Sea and the historic Studion Monastery. The Orthodox Churches consider Constantinople/Istanbul their spiritual home in much the same way as Roman Catholics identify with the Vatican. They have

A YEAR OF LEGALISED ABORTION DUBLIN STAGGERING RESULTS The Irish bishops have described the number of abortions in 2019, the first year of legalised abortion, as “staggering".

Ireland’s Department of Health announced at the end of June that 6,666 abortions had been performed during the year. Of these, only 24 were performed on medical grounds, and an additional 100 on the grounds of possible fatal foetal abnormality. “The vast majority of babies who were aborted in Ireland last year, 6,542 of them, are euphemistically described as having been ‘terminated’ in ‘early pregnancy'," said the bishops’ Council for Life. “ While we never got to know them personally, each one was a unique and precious human being.

It was not their fault that their conception was inconvenient or untimely, or the result of sexual assault or that their parents lacked the support that would have helped them to embrace life.” Maeve O’Hanlon of the Pro Life Campaign said the numbers show the “terrifying results” of what advocates for changing the Irish constitution were pushing.

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

protested at the change and deplore how the West has turned a blind eye on the conversion.

They fear that the change of status of the church may be accompanied by damage to the priceless mosaics, or that they will at least be hidden from public view out of respect for Muslim sensibilities.

Christians are very few in Turkey and are uneasy with President Erdoğan's policy of increasing Islamisation.

SHARP FALL IN CHURCH INCOME DURING PANDEMIC DUBLIN MONEY DRAIN Donations to the Catholic Church throughout Ireland have plummeted between March and July. The Dublin Archdiocese, for example, estimates its income is down by 80 per cent as a result of the pandemic lockdown. It said the need to close churches “resulted in very serious consequences” for its major source of income, the Sunday church collections.

The archdiocese has initiated a strategy to address this situation by reducing costs, which is expected to take some months to complete. The priests of the archdiocese have agreed to accept a reduction in salary of 25 per cent. A voluntary redundancy scheme has also been extended to all other staff in the diocesan support services

and to parish pastoral workers. The archdiocese believes it has the capacity to reduce staffing levels by a third, depending on the level of take-up, from the current number of 82 people. Centrally-funded church programmes such as education, pre-marriage courses and similar are also affected by a fall-off in local parish income.

Religious communities of contemplative sisters who depend on supplying altar breads as their main source of income are also at a serious loss of more than 25 per cent of their annual income. Charities like the St Vincent de Paul and Trócaire, while not directly under church control but which used churches as collecting points, are also seriously affected by the fall in income.

N E WS

RECORD NUMBER QUITS CHURCH MUNICH

IS THIS THE END?

A record number of people left the Church intheGermanArchdioceseofMunichand Freising last year. According to the statistical office of the diocese, 10,744 Catholics formallywithdrewfromtheChurchin2019.

It noted that this was 20 per cent higher than in 2018, when 8,995 people left. It was also the first time that annual departures had passed beyond the 10,000 mark since records began. Previously, the highest figure was 9,010, set in 1992. According to the Bavarian public-service radio station, people gave a variety of reasons for leaving, includingadesiretostoppayingchurchtax, the clerical abuse scandal and the position of women within the Church. The Church in Germany is funded quite considerably throughataxcollectedbythegovernment.

If an individual is registered in a religious denomination,between8and9percentof theirincometaxgoestothedenomination.

The only way to avoid the tax is to make an official declaration renouncing their membership of the Church. The Church is then under no legal obligation to admit them to the sacraments or to provide them with a Catholic burial. While the number of Catholics abandoning the faith has increased steadily since the 1960s, the Church’s income has risen. In 2018, the Church’s income rose to €6.64 billion, while 216,078 people had left the Church.

LastyeartheGermanbishopsannounced plans for a two-year 'Synodal Way', which would bring together laity and clergy to discuss four major topics: 1. the way power is exercised in the Church; 2. sexual morality; 3. the priesthood; and 4. the role of women. Last June, Pope Francis sent a 28-page letter to German Catholics urging them to focus on evangelisation in the face of a “growing erosion and deterioration of faith.”

VATICAN'S ‘NO’ TO PROPOSED CLOSURE OF PARISHES TRIER, GERMANY

CHANGING TIMES LEAD TO LESS OPPORTUNITY

The Vatican has intervened to halt a controversial plan to reorganise the Diocese of Trier in Germany.

The restructuring programme was formally adopted by the diocese in October 2019, following a threeyear diocesan synod aimed at addressing declining Mass attendance, a shortage of vocations, and other challenges facing the Church in Germany. The plans included the merger of all of the diocese’s 887 parishes into 35 larger parishes to be led by 'pastoral teams' of laypeople and priests. Some members of the diocese, including some priests, expressed concern about some of the provisions especially since the reorganisation of parishes might lead to people needing to travel up to 80 kilometres for Sunday Mass. The Congregation for Clergy and the Pontifical Council for Legislative Texts expressed concern about some of the provisions, including the proposed reform of the parishes. Bishop Stephen Ackermann of Trier met with the Roman congregation who expressed concerns regarding the role of the pastor in the proposed leadership teams, the service of other priests, the conception of the parish bodies, the size of the future parishes and the speed of

Trier Cathedral

implementation of the plan. Bishop Ackermann filled them in on the background of the changes, including a perceived reduction of commitment to the work of the Church on the part of many laity over recent years and the tremors caused by sexual abuse by clerics on the people of God. “In addition,” the diocese said, “demographic change, declining financial resources and the lack of priests are limiting pastoral opportunities in the diocese.”

COLUMBIAN CHURCH FACES BANKRUPTCY BOGOTÁ

CHURCH CRISIS REFLECTS COLUMBIA'S ECONOMIC BREAKDOWN

The Church in Colombia expects to go bankrupt

by August 2020, according to one of its senior archbishops.

The financial crisis is a direct result of the coronavirus outbreak, which has caused LUIS JOSÉ RUEDA APARICIO chaos in the country’s Archbishop of Bogotá healthcare system.

According to Archbishop Luis José Rueda of Bogota, “three months of zero income and 100 per cent of expenses” will cause an “explosion” of church finances. Although some bishops were trying to fundraise amongst wealthy parishes to avoid bankruptcy, the Church’s problems are

compounded by a national economic crisis. The International Monetary Fund last June lowered Colombia’s economic growth projection for this year to -7.8 per cent from April’s figure of -2.4 per cent. This would be the worst crash in the modern history of Colombia.

Colombia’s estimated 5,000 churches maintain 50,000 to 80,000 charitable initiatives and social institutions from soup kitchens to schools and care homes. It does not receive any financial support from the state and its main income comes from collections at Mass, which were suspended since March 15. With 90 per cent of parish income cut off, the dioceses have been forced to use savings and liquid assets to pay debts and wages, but these, according to Archbishop Rueda, will run out in the near future. continued on page 6

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REALITY BITES BLESSING FOR SAME-SEX UNIONS? According to its author, a book considering how homosexual couples might receive a formal, liturgical blessing of their union in the Catholic Church was written in response to a request from the liturgical committee of the Austrian Bishops’ Conference.

The book, Benediction of SameSex Partnerships, is a collection of theological and liturgical

essays by German and Austrian theologians. One of its editors, Fr Ewald Volgger, is director of the Institute for Liturgical Studies and Sacramental Theology at the Catholic University of Linz. Some German bishops have called for a wider debate on sexuality in general and the Archbishop of Munich, Cardinal Reinhard Marx, has expressed the view that

homosexual couples can receive a Church blessing, “in the sense of a pastoral accompaniment”, in the Catholic Church. The Congregation for the Doctrine of the Faith, however, had made it clear that “there are absolutely no grounds for considering homosexual unions to be in any way similar or even remotely analogous to God's plan for marriage and family.”

IRISH COLLEGE NOT TO ACCEPT SEMINARIANS

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It was announced in June that the Pontifical Irish College in Rome will not accept new students for the seminary programme this September and that the future of priestly formation in the Eternal City will be kept under review.

The college was founded in 1628 by the Irish Franciscan Fr Luke Wadding OFM and the Italian Cardinal Ludivico Ludovisi. It was one of a chain of Irish colleges on the European mainland founded during the penal period for the education of Irish candidates for the priesthood and religious life. Other Irish colleges included Louvain in Belgium, Paris,

Salamanca (Spain), Lisbon (Portugal) and Prague. Louvain and Paris still survive as centres of Irish study, but the Pontifical Irish College is the only one still in the hands of the Irish Church and serving its original purpose. Declining numbers of candidates and changing styles of

priestly formation, including the need for pastoral experience during training, have decreased the need for Roman college. While it will remain open as a residence for priests pursuing postgraduate studies in Rome or for clergy wishing to take a break or a sabbatical, it will not accept students to pursue seminary level studies in theology at the Roman universities such as the Angelicum and the Gregorian. Situated in the heart of Rome’s old city, a short walk from the Colosseum or St John Lateran, it has been an attractive centre for pilgrimage groups to Rome in recent times.

'POPE FRANCIS' HOSPITAL SHIP FIGHTS AGAINST COVID-19 The 'Pope Francis' Hospital Ship has been sailing the Amazon River for a year, bringing medical aid and assistance to some 700,000 members of coastal populations – many of them indigenous communities – in Brazil’s Amazon Rainforest.

Experts are warning that while deforestation in the Amazon rainforests continues, the lives of indigenous people are at greater risk as the mortality rate from the coronavirus is already double REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

that of Brazil's population. Their situation is exacerbated due to lack of access to proper medical care and their distance from the nearest intensive care units. The crew of the 32-meter-long boat includes 23 medical experts. It has consulting rooms, an operating theatre, a laboratory for testing and diagnosis, a pharmacy and a vaccination centre. It is equipped to carry out X-rays, mammograms, echocardiograms and specialist medical visits like ophthalmology and dentistry. In

a letter to crew, the pope reminded them that the Church has been called a "field hospital", welcoming everyone, without distinction. Now, he said, the Church presents itself as a “hospital on water". "Like Jesus, who appeared walking on water, calmed the storm and strengthened the disciples' faith, this boat will bring spiritual comfort and serenity to the concerns of needy men and women, abandoned to their fate.”

TWO DERRY BISHOPS HONOURED FOR PEACE WORK The former Church of Ireland Bishop of Derry and Raphoe, Dr Ken Good, and the present Catholic Bishop of Derry, Dr Donal McKeown, were among more than 30 people recognised by the annual Lambeth Awards of the Archbishop of Canterbury. Bishop Good and Bishop McKeown have each been given a Langton Award for Community Service, named after the medieval Archbishop Stephen Langton. The citation accompanying Bishop Good’s award said it was "for giving strategic leadership to the local church to engage fully with the community, throughout his ordained ministry, most of which was in the complex community of Northern Ireland".

Bishop McKeown’s citation said his award was "for his exceptional and sustained dedication to the cause of peace and social cohesion in an environment of traditional interdenominational tension". Bishop Good said he was humbled and grateful to receive the award alongside his friend Bishop McKeown. “I’m thankful for having had Bishop Donal as a trusted companion in what became for us a joint quest. Donal and I do what we do because of a sense of calling.

Jesus told his disciples to love one another, and that is a command we have sought to live up to and to share as best we can, whatever the cost. In this, we have been privileged to follow in the footsteps of inspirational predecessors."

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POPE MONITOR KEEPING UP WITH POPE FRANCIS POPE DONATES AMBULANCE FOR USE OF HOMELESS

Pope Francis blesses the ambulance

On Pentecost Sunday, Pope Francis blessed a Vatican ambulance which will serve especially the poor of Rome. The Pope entrusted the ambulance to the Office of Papal Charities, under the direction of Cardinal Konrad Krajewski, the Papal Almoner. According to the Holy See Press Office, the ambulance will form part of the Vatican transport team and has SCV (Vatican) licence plates. It will be used exclusively for “the poorest, who remain almost invisible to Institutions”. The statement recalled Modesta Valenti, an elderly homeless woman whose name was given to a street in Rome. In January 1983, she felt ill after a long, cold night sleeping rough outside the main Termini train station.

Passers-by called an ambulance, but it refused to take her on account of her poor hygiene. Several hospitals were contacted but they also refused to take responsibility for her. She was left on the ground in pain for several hours, and she died before an ambulance finally arrived. The new ambulance will be part of other initiatives overseen by the Papal Almoner, including a mobile clinic used to provide care to dwellers in Rome’s poorer neighbourhoods and the Mother of Mercy Clinic in the Colonnade of St Peter’s Square which provides first-aid care to many homeless who flock to the area.

OVERSIGHT FOR ST. PETER’S BASILICA

At the end of June, Pope Francis announced the appointment of a commissioner to investigate the management of the body that oversees St Peter's Basilica. It was also announced that computers and documents were seized from the offices of the Fabbrica di San Pietro on the instructions of the highest law officer of the Vatican City.The Fabbrica oversees the maintenance of the basilica. Archbishop Mario Giordana has been given a mandate to reorganise the "administrative and technical offices" of the Fabbrica, and to update its statutes. He will be assisted by a commission. These measures were taken in light of a new transparency law issued by the pope, regarding the use of outside contractors by the Church's central administration, a step in the ongoing reforms of Vatican finances.

The day-to-day maintenance work in St Peter's is carried out by craftsmen known as the Sanpietrini, many of whom are the descendants of those who built the basilica in the 16th and 17th centuries. They often work in the dizzying heights of the dome and other hard-to-reach parts of the building, such as the Baldachino, or canopy, designed by Gian Lorenzo Bernini, over the papal altar.

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Dusting time at St Peter's Basilica

POPE APPOINTS WOMEN TO HIGH VATICAN POSTS Pope Francis has appointed women to run two key posts in Vatican administration. This is part of his continuing plan to make the curia and the general administration of the Holy See more representative of the Church at large. He named

Dr Raffaella Vincenti as head of the Vatican Apostolic Library: she had previously been secretary of the library. As well as housing a vast collection of books and papers, the Vatican library is an important research centre for historians. Pope

Francis named Professor Antonella Sciarrone Alibrandi as a member of the managing board of the Vatican’s Financial Information Authority (AIF), which works to combat money-laundering and financing of terrorism. She

is a professor of the Catholic University of the Sacred Heart, Milan and a member of the Milan Bar Association, president of the Association of Economics and Law Professors, and a member of the Union of Catholic Jurists.

WOMEN OF THE SPIRIT A SERIES OF WOMEN SAINTS AND MYSTICS JEAN DONOVAN 1953–1980

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Jean Donovan is a modern martyr whose life is a radical witness to what it means to take up one’s cross and follow Jesus. Late in her short life, she wrote: “I think that the hardship one endures maybe is God’s way of taking you out into the desert and to prepare you to meet and love him more fully.”

Donovan was born on April 10, 1953 and grew up in Westport, Connecticut. She was the younger of two children and her father was an executive engineer in a company which manufactured helicopters used in the Vietnam War. When she was 20, Jean Donovan spent a year as an exchange student at University College Cork. Here she deepened her faith, and was deeply influenced by the college chaplain Fr Michael Crowley, who was one of the four founding Fathers of the Cork and Ross Mission to Peru. He advised his students that when they got “a nice job, don’t become a nice comfy capitalist. Feel it as your Christian duty to change the wrong structures around you…”

On returning to the United States, Jean began volunteering in the Cleveland Diocese Youth Ministry, where she heard about the diocesan mission project to serve the poor in the El Salvador civil war. It was not an easy call. She wrote at one stage: “I sit there and talk to God and say ‘Why are you doing this to me? Why can’t I just be your little suburban housewife?'"

Jean Donovan left her successful job and completed the Maryknoll Lay Missioners training course. She arrived to work in a poor parish in La Libertad in July 1979. At this time, repression was intensifying and the Church had become a major target. Death squads had murdered tens of thousands, the bodies of the dead often being mutilated and left unburied to terrorise the country’s poor. As a missionary, Donovan buried the dead, supported relatives, played with children and distributed food. She used her skills in business and education to manage parish budgets and carry out family education programmes.

Jean also met the Archbishop of San Salvador – the recently beatified St Óscar Romero –who was to have a profound effect on her. He denounced the injustices and massacres committed against civilians by government forces. His homilies also convinced Donovan of the power of prayer in making a difference to the world. In gratitude, she baked him chocolate chip cookies every Sunday. When Romero was assassinated in 1980, Donovan and the Sisters stood vigil over his casket at San Salvador’s cathedral, where dozens of others were also assassinated.

In the summer of 1980, two of her closest friends were assassinated while walking home from a movie. She took a six-week break to visit her parents in Miami and boyfriend in London. She feared that she might be killed, but after praying in a chapel in Maryknoll, her mother reported that “she had made peace with whatever frightening thoughts she had".

On returning to El Salvador, Jean wrote that “life continues with many interruptions. I don’t know how the poor survive. People in our positions really have to die to ourselves and our wealth to gain the spirituality of the poor and oppressed."

On December 2, 1980, Donovan and three religious Sisters were raped and shot at close range by members of the military. Two days later, the bodies were found in a shallow makeshift grave.

She was 27.

Several weeks before her death she had written: “The danger is extreme… Several times I have decided to leave El Salvador. I almost could except for the children, the poor, bruised victims of this insanity. Who would care for them? Whose heart could be so staunch as to favour the reasonable thing in a sea of their tears and loneliness? Not mine, dear friend, not mine.”

Following the assassinations of Donovan and the Sisters, US citizens protested the conditions and human rights of the poor, urging the US government to stop supporting the El Salvadoran junta. The civil war finally ended in 1992.

Sophia White REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

Reality Volume 85. No. 7 September 2020 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.)

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REFLECTIONS We prefer to take our chance with cholera than be bullied into health. There is nothing a man hates so much as being cleansed against his will or having his floor swept, his hall whitewashed, his dung heaps cleared away and his thatch forced to give way to slate. It is a fact that many people have died from a good washing.'

LETTER TO LONDON TIMES PROTESTING ABOUT PUBLIC HEALTH REGULATIONS 1849

The difficulty of explaining ‘why I am a Catholic’ is that there are ten thousand reasons all amounting to one reason: that Catholicism is true.

And, of course men know best about everything, except what women know better.

GEORGE ELIOT (MARY ANN EVANS)

Such a splendid sunny day, and I have to go. But how many have to die on the battlefield in these days, how many young, promising lives... What does my death matter if by our acts thousands are warned and alerted? Among the student body there will certainly be a revolt.

If you and I are to live religious lives, it mustn't be that we talk a lot about religion, but that our manner of life is different.

It is my belief that only if you try to be helpful to other people will you in the end find your way to God. LUDWIG WITTGENSTEIN

SOPHIE SCHOLL

In conversation, trifling occurrences, such as small disappointments, petty annoyances, and other every-day incidents, should never be mentioned to your friends.

(1921-1943, CATHOLIC STUDENT

MRS BEETON

EXECUTED FOR RESISTANCE TO NAZISM)

They say the bad guys are more interesting to play but there is more to it than that – playing the good guys is more challenging because it's harder to make them interesting.

Wherever the Catholic sun doth shine, There’s always laughter and good red wine.

At least I’ve always found it so.

Benedicamus Domino!”

I love you not only for what you are, but for what I am when I am with you. I love you not only for what you have made of yourself, but for what you are making of me. I love you for the part of me that you bring out.

HILAIRE BELLOC

ELIZABETH BARRETT BROWNING

Natural science does not consist in ratifying what others have said, but in seeking the causes of phenomena.

A proverb is a short sentence based on long experience.

ST ALBERT THE GREAT

I think being a woman is like being Irish...

Everyone says you're important and nice, but you take second place all the time.

Young men make wars, and the virtues of war are the virtues of young men: courage and hope for the future. Then old men make the peace, and the vices of peace are the vices of old men: mistrust and caution.

IRIS MURDOCH

ALEC GUINNESS

G. K. CHESTERTON

Be who God meant you to be and you will set the world on fire.

ST CATHERINE OF SIENA

MIGUEL DE CERVANTES

GREGORY PECK

The only thing that has to be finished by next Friday is next Thursday.

MAUREEN POTTER

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EDI TO R I A L UP FRONT BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

WHATEVER BECAME OF LIMBO?

One

of our readers wrote some time ago asking, "Whatever became of Limbo?" She said she had heard someone say it had been abolished.

A good question! When I was in primary school, we were taught how to baptise a baby in case of an emergency – an unlikely situation for small children to encounter in 1950s Ireland. Closer to the real issue, however, was a tradition that encouraged baptism as soon as possible after birth.

Many city parishes had a priest on duty for baptisms at a fixed hour each day, so many of us were baptised the day after birth with no family present. It all revolved around the belief that baptism was absolutely necessary for salvation.

Let’s begin with a few facts that coloured the early debate. The word ‘limbo’ was not used by Jesus and does not appear in the New Testament. It is a Latin word (limbus) that means an edge or a border: in this case, the shadowy borders of the land beyond death. In the first centuries of the Church’s life, baptism was a sacrament for adults.

It was only with the rise of a heresy called Pelagianism that the question of children and original sin was raised. In trying to clarify how all humans inherited Adam’s sin, St Augustine taught that, even children, because they were humans, inherited the guilt of original sin and needed baptism, but since they had no sin of their own, their punishment would be very light.

The theological debate about children and original sin continued for centuries. On the one side were those who put the primacy on God’s absolute love for human beings: on the other, those who believed that Adam’s fall had been so catastrophic that it coloured the human story for ever. The debate eventually coined the term ‘limbo’ at the turn of the 12th/13th century. This was where those children had not been cleansed by baptism,

and so could not enter the presence of God, remained on the edge (limbo) of eternal life.

The same word had already been used for the saints of the Old Testament who would eventually be brought into paradise by Jesus at his resurrection. This was the limbus patrum – the limbo of the ancestors – the waiting room of the afterlife. But since these innocent little creatures had done no wrong, they lived in a state of natural happiness, unaware even that they were deprived of the sight of God. About the beginning of the present millennium, the International Theological Commission decided it was time to take a fresh look at this question. Over several years, they studied the issue at their annual meetings, read it up and wrote papers for circulation to one another until they felt they had enough to express the Church’s teaching in a fresh way that remained true to the great truth of salvation. It came in a document, 'The Hope of Salvation for Infants who die without Baptism’, eventually issued in 2007. It noted how unclear many of the issues in the debate really were, including the meaning of ‘limbo’ itself or how the question was considered without any reference to the faith of their parents. It also observed how the dialogue of theology had moved on, and how the word ‘limbo’ was an inadequate expression of the Church’s faith and experience of the mystery of eternal life compared to the richness with which it was treated in the liturgy and Holy Scripture.

Common in Irish Catechisms, for example, down to the 1950s, the word ‘limbo’ does not appear in the current official Catechism of the Catholic Church.

I suppose the shortest answer to our reader’s question might be that limbo was never ‘abolished’ because it never really ‘existed’. Our search to understand the hidden mysteries of faith is ongoing. Limbo

was a ‘moment’ in that quest for meaning.

It solved some problems but left others hanging. While for some of us, the meaning of limbo may be of historical value, for others it is particularly poignant and painful, as it meshes with equally poignant and painful mysteries of human life like the loss of a child at birth. It also tells us something about the task of theology. Theology is not sophisticated God-talk for the initiated. It is an attempt to follow the clues scattered throughout our universe and our own fragile existence to their ultimate source in a loving God who is the source of love. It raises too the question of how the Church can bring the faithful into this continuing dialogue. Few of our Catholic brothers and sisters are aware of the work of the International Theological Commission. It seldom figures as the subject of a Sunday homily. We at Reality are open to exploring with you some of these questions, so feel free to send them in. Our mission, as you can read on the front page of every issue, is to inform, inspire and challenge today’s Catholic. That we try to do.

Brendan McConvery CSsR Editor

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Querida A A RE F L E C T I O N

A YOUNG IRISH THEOLOGIAN READS A RECENT PAPAL DOCUMENT IN THE LIGHT OF THE COVID-19 CRISIS

BY SUZANNE MULLIGAN 12

Pope

Francis’ much-anticipated document Querida Amazonia was issued on February 2, 2020. It is the Holy Father’s response to the Synod on the Amazon, and among his aims is to identify new paths of evangelisation in the region. Synods are nothing new in the Church, of course. But Pope Francis’ Apostolic Exhortation was eagerly awaited, helped no doubt by considerable media speculation as to what he might say. Would he relax Church law on priestly celibacy?

Would he open the door to the ordination of female deacons?

Initial responses to the document were interesting.

I was struck by how many news headlines described it as a document about priesthood. I heard many people talk about how the Pope had “rejected” the idea of a married clergy, and in so doing was keeping alive traditional teaching on celibacy. Others felt that the document was a missed opportunity. It was the moment when Francis might advance dialogue on clerical celibacy and on the role of women in the Church. But instead the moment had passed.

So as I read this Apostolic Exhortation it came as a surprise to me that there is comparatively little said about priesthood. Querida Amazonia is a rich and

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

Amazonia For Pope Francis, climate justice cannot be understood apart from other global realities like poverty, inequitable economic structures, war, displacement, migration, trafficking, and political and economic corruption. challenging document that addresses issues of human rights, climate justice, empowerment of the poor, and the plight of indigenous peoples. Francis writes with the urgency and passion that is characteristic of his earlier work. He is direct, even blunt at times, but this is accompanied by a profound sense of compassion for the most vulnerable populations of our world, especially the peoples of the Amazonian regions.

He frames his Exhortation around four chapters or “dreams”. Let us look at some key points raised in the document.

A SOCIAL DREAM A feature of Pope Francis’ social teaching is how he connects various forms of injustice in our world. The ecological crisis does not stand alone as one problem among many. For Francis, climate justice cannot be understood apart from other global realities like poverty, inequitable economic structures, war, displacement, migration, trafficking, and political and economic corruption. “A true ecological approach always becomes a social approach; it must integrate questions of justice in debates on the environment, so as

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hear both the cry of the earth and the cry of the poor” (n.8). Social policies must better reflect the interconnectedness of these injustices so as to tackle society’s problems in realistic, sustainable, and responsible ways.

Entire biospheres are being lost and the rights of indigenous peoples are being ignored in order to serve the economic interests of a few. When this happens, “economic relationships are unduly altered and become instruments of death …We cannot allow globalisation to become a ‘new version of colonialism’” (n.14.) There is a note of warning here also. We can allow ourselves to become immune to what is happening, to become dulled by indifference. To counteract this, Francis calls for solidarity among peoples and for a greater willingness to dialogue and learn from others. We are guests of the peoples of the Amazon, he insists, and we must have the humility to learn form, and listen to, their wisdom.

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

A CULTURAL DREAM Cultural identity is under threat around the world. Cultural, religious and ethnic plurality ought to be celebrated and protected, for we lose much when we lose a sense of who we are. The philosopher Michael Sandel describes human beings as “story telling beings”. In other words, we belong to a narrative, to a time and a place, we have our songs and our dance, our liturgies, and our ways of remembering. This is what makes us who we are, and adds to the richness of human existence.

Pope Francis expresses particular concern for the ways in which indigenous peoples’ ways of life are increasingly under threat. He calls us to “cultivate without uprooting, to foster growth without weakening identity, to be supporting without being invasive” (n.28). This applies also to the ways in which we evangelise. We must be sensitive to local expressions of religious belief, and not to dismiss all that local communities can bring to expressions of faith.

As we witness the rise of right-wing political movements across Europe and beyond, the pope’s message is more important than ever. Cultural diversity is not a threat to our way of being, but rather something that we ought to celebrate and protect. It enriches our own lives but need not undermine what is unique to us. “Our own cultural identity is strengthened and enriched as a result of dialogue with those unlike ourselves.

Nor is authentic identity preserved by an

impoverished isolation” (n.37). Furthermore, Francis warns us that: “A culture can grow barren when it becomes inward looking” (n.37).

The consumerist vision of the person is having a “levelling effect on cultures, diminishing the immense variety which is the heritage of all humanity” (n.33). While human beings are by their very existence consumers, what is being rejected here is the unsustainable way in which we consume the world’s resources. Unlimited capitalism feeds this consumerist mentality, with profound repercussions for the planet. Francis warns that consumerism, individualism, discrimination, and inequality all “represent the weaker side of supposedly more developed cultures” (n.36).

consumerist paradigm that destroys nature and robs us of a truly dignified existence” (n.46). In a very powerful section of the Exhortation, he reminds us that the interests of a few “should not be considered more important than the good of the Amazon region and of humanity as a whole” (n.48).

Pope Francis is asking us to reevaluate the manner in which we produce and consume.

“Human beings contrive to feed their selfdestructive vices: trying not to see them, trying not to acknowledge them, delaying the important decisions and pretending that nothing will happen” (n.53). Here we are at the heart of Querida Amazonia.

Technological and scientific solutions are not enough. We are challenged to rethink our lifestyles, to reexamine our attitudes,

We cannot allow globalisation to become a ‘new version of colonialism' AN ECOLOGICAL DREAM Echoing Laudato Si', Francis argues that we need to be freed from the “technocratic and

to see in a new way, to reimagine. We must cultivate new habits; we need a change of heart (metanoia – conversion). Metanoia is

an integral part of our entire life as Christians; we are constantly called to repent our sinful ways, to become better persons in the word.

Pope Francis asks us to look inwards, to foster more authentic relationships with the natural world, to fall in love once more with God’s creation, to see its mystery and its beauty.

The Amazon after all, is “a space where God reveals himself and summons his sons and daughters” (n.57).

AN ECCLESIAL DREAM Although in the fourth chapter Francis considers many aspects of evangelisation and life within the Church, it is the most disappointing section of the Apostolic Exhortation. He turns his attention to “the strength and gift of women” (n.99 ff), but the tone is paternalistic and is filled with predictable platitudes. It echoes sentiments that we find in John Paul II’s work and suffers from the same inconsistencies and contradictions.

Pope Francis warns against restricting our understanding of the Church to what he calls

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COVER STO RY

Pope Francis expresses particular concern for the ways in which indigenous peoples’ ways of life are increasingly under threat.

her “functional roles”, for this “would lead us to believe that women would be granted a greater status and participation in the Church only if they were admitted to Holy Orders”. He continues: “Women make their contribution to the Church in a way that is properly theirs, by making present the tender strength of Mary, the Mother. As a result, we do not limit ourselves to a functional approach …” But why attribute functional roles to men and not to women? He warns against the clericalisation of women, but why is the clericalisation of men less problematic?

This section leaves us with more questions than answers.

Moreover, as British theologian Tina Beattie points out, gender roles appear to be misrepresented in Querida Amazonia.

“Francis’ concept of ‘woman’ is mired in a sentimental fantasy. While in the real world, gender roles and identities are agile and malleable, he imagines ‘woman’ as an archetype frozen in time, its function being to ‘soften’ male culture with a feminine tenderness and receptivity” (“A ‘frozen’ idea of the feminine”, The Tablet, February 22, 2020, p.6).

CONCLUSION As I write, the COVID-19 pandemic is wreaking havoc around the world. Many experts are linking the outbreak of the virus to live animal markets in China and an increase in demand for exotic animals.

Environmentalists believe that ecological deterioration is increasing the transmission of several viruses from other animal species to humans, since the destruction of ecosystems is removing the 'safety nets' once provided by nature.

Ironically, the COVID-19 pandemic has also led to a decrease in pollution around the world.

We read how parents in India can now show their children the stars thanks to clearer skies; fish and dolphins have appeared in the canals of Venice; wild flowers are blooming and the bees are benefiting. And it vividly reveals to us the magnitude of human impact upon the natural world. Pope Francis’ Exhortation is all the more prophetic in these times of crisis and upheaval.

COVID-19 is forcing us to realise we can no longer ignore the devastation of God’s world.

I am reminded of the parable of the rich man and Lazarus. The rich man felt safe and secure in his wealth. He felt untouchable. But it was a false sense of security, for the rich man was in a deep moral and spiritual crisis. He was in need of being awakened from his moral blindness, but the person who could liberate him was the one person whom he continued to ignore. His riches had made him so complacent that he failed to see how precarious his life really was.

We too are at risk of succumbing to false securities. Perhaps the COVID-19 pandemic is a kairos moment for humanity, 'a wake up call' that shakes us from our slumber of indifference.

Only we can decide how to respond. Do we ignore the degradation around us, or do we embrace a change of heart and return to better ways of living, in wholesome relationship with others and the world?

Dr Suzanne Mulligan lectures in Moral Theology at St Patrick’s College, Maynooth, where she is director of the Higher Diploma in Theological Studies.

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COM M E N T WITH EYES WIDE OPEN JIM DEEDS

UNEXPECTED FRUIT

FROM THE PLUM-TREE LEARN THIS LESSON. As I sit to write to you today, friends, I am looking out onto my back garden, which is paved all over, save for one section in the back right-hand side. That section was not paved over because it has an old plum tree in it. We have tended to the plum tree now for over 20 years. It came to us as a cutting from a tree that had stood in the garden of my wife’s parents– both now gone to God–and it reminds us of them. It took many years before the tree really took root and sprouted branches and deep green leaves. It took another few years from then before it gave us fruit. As I look at it today, I am reminded of a story about the tree from a couple of years ago. Allow me to retell it.

That year, there had been absolutely no fruit on the tree right throughout the fruiting season.

Over the previous few months, I had kept watch, hoping to see the pink/purple hue of the luscious fruit. But alas, I saw nothing.

The tree had stood as a symbol of barrenness all summer long.

That summer, my wife Nuala and I often said with a sigh of regret and a tinge of sadness, "I hope that’s not it finished" or "that might be the last of the plums then". We get great pleasure out of producing our own fruit from such a special tree.

One day towards the end of the fruiting season, I stood in the garden and looked at the tree.

It was big and unruly, and it was in need of cutting back in order to get ready for the coming year.

So, I took to it with my secateurs and cut back branches, twigs and

these moments we can cry out in despair, "will this never end??!"Even in the midst of the seemingly most barren times, there is fruit. We may not see it yet, but good is out there.

We may not feel it yet, but relief is out there. We may not believe it yet, but we are loved and lovable.

Above all this, there is bad news and good news. The bad news is that we are not in control. The good news is that God is! I am minded to think of the Gospel of John when Jesus said, "I have come that they might have life, and have it to the full" (John 10:10).

leaves. I pruned it right back to a more manageable and, hopefully, more productive shape. As I took my final pass at the tree something caught my eye. In amongst the dark green leaves and light brown branches another colour shone out – purple! It was high up in the tree, amongst a very dense set of branches and twigs. All but hidden until this pruning, there hung a set of four plums. Right in the middle of this ‘barren’ tree, there had been fruit all along. I stood for a moment, looking up, and marvelled at this sight. I picked the plums carefully, not wanting to damage this precious bounty.

I knew almost immediately that this situation had so much to teach me. The moment standing under the canopy of the tree looking up at the fruit was heavy with significance and symbolism.

And my first taste of the first plums of summer that day was

joyous. The lesson it taught me was a valuable one.

These are very strange and very stressful times we are living in and living through. Our lives have been turned upside down and many of us miss the old routines of a life where contact with each other was natural and taken for granted. We are having to learn a new physical vocabulary with social distancing, queues and face masks becoming part of our everyday experience.

In the middle of this all, it can be easy for us to believe that life has become quite sterile and distant and even barren.

My lesson from the plum tree that day a few years back rings loud in my ears and speaks into these pandemic times. We might reflect on how many times we reach points in our lives which we experience as ‘barren’, or fruitless, or just plain awful. In

So, perhaps in these days we could hold that piece of scripture close to our hearts. If you or someone you love are going through a rough time right now, remember that you are not alone. If your life feels like a damp squib or painful or difficult, remember that pruning back the leaves and branches that distract us – self-doubt, fear, worry, hate and resentment – can reveal another way to go and reveal fruit that we didn’t even know was there at all.

As I finish writing to you, friends, I am looking out once more on the old plum tree and I can see that this year it is heavily laden with fruit, ripening as you read this. I pray that your life will be heavily laden with fruit too; the fruits of the Holy Spirit, themselves expressions of the great plans God has for you.

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

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LIT LI T U RGY

WORSHIP IN SCHOOL

BY MARIA HALL

There

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are many unique things about Catholic schools.

At the heart of each school community is the desire to nurture each young person as a child of God, who has gifts and talents, who is capable of great things, who is a potential saint!

Prayer is at the heart of school life. It is a microcosm of the Church’s liturgical life, defining the rhythm of the day, the week, the year. Daily class prayers in the morning, at mealtimes, at the end of the day, larger weekly gatherings, celebrating the Sacraments; all these moments in time place God at the centre of Catholic school life.

As well as taking part in the formal liturgies of the Church, schools have a wonderful

opportunity to be creative and develop their own services. Here are the essentials for creating a good paraliturgy. With these in place, teachers and catechists can then be as creative as they like.

A SACRED SPACE The general arrangement of the sacred building must be such that in some way it conveys the image of the assembled congregation and allows the appropriate ordering of all the participants…Indeed, the nature and beauty of the place and all its furnishings should foster devotion and express visually the holiness of the mysteries celebrated there.

(GIRM 294)

This guidance from the General Instruction of the Roman Missal is referring to the arrangement of church buildings, but it is equally relevant to any place where we gather to pray. Creating a sacred space in the classroom, school hall or even in the outdoors takes us away from the daily routine and helps us enter into a heavenly reality. This sacred space should be different to any other place of learning. It’s not an assembly or performance or lesson!

Ideally, move furniture and make a distinctive space. Try to gather in a circle or semi-circle, with a central focus point. If you must sit at desks because of limited space, remove pens and books so they don’t cause a distraction.

Change the lighting, close curtains or blinds, light a candle, even incense if you can.

A GOOD SCHOOL PROVIDES A ROUNDED EDUCATION FOR THE WHOLE PERSON. AND A GOOD CATHOLIC SCHOOL, OVER AND ABOVE THIS, SHOULD HELP ALL ITS STUDENTS TO BECOME SAINTS. POPE BENEDICT XVI

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

SCRIPTURE When the Word of God is read, Christ himself is speaking to us, and so nothing is more important! Scripture must be at the heart of all liturgy. It might be a passage that the children are learning about in religious lessons but used in a prayerful context. It might be a parable or story or a single line of a psalm to reflect on. A simple class liturgy might be gathering in a sacred space, listening to the Word and reflecting in silence. For a larger school liturgy, you might consider how the Bible or Lectionary is carried and where it is placed. Unlike other faiths (the Torah in Judaism and the Quran in Islam) we don’t have traditions about reverencing the actual book. One reason for this is that our focus is on ‘the Word’ not the book. Over the centuries, the Catholic laity haven’t been encouraged to read scripture, for fear that we would misunderstand it! Thankfully, times are different, and we can be creative in schools in showing our reverence for the Word of God. This is a great opportunity to promote the ministry of lector, encouraging young people to use their skills in church too, developing practical skills and learning about the responsibilities of being the mouthpiece of God. PRAYER I once heard the great liturgical composer Marty Haugen speak about pastoral music; he said we must allow the congregation to ‘own’ what they sing. In other words, the music must become so familiar (repeated) and understood that it becomes second nature.

The same is true of prayers. As educators, we have a responsibility to pass on the formal prayers of the church to the next generation.

They need to be repeated often so that the

words become familiar and ‘owned’.

The classroom is also a great place for creativity through pupils composing their own prayers.

•For the youngest children, use a short phrase repeated three times, eg "Jesus I love you."

Develop that to "Thank you God for…" or "Help me to be…"

As the children get older, they will come up with their own ideas.

•A simple bidding prayer format can be used for most age groups. The older the child, the more detail you would expect in the prayer; ‘"We pray for…that they… Lord in your mercy…"’

This can be used in class prayers and at Mass!

•For junior children, look at the psalms and choose a favourite phrase, eg "I thank you Lord with all my heart" or "Give praise to the Lord". This becomes a repeated phrase between composed lines: Give praise to the Lord…for my family and friends Give praise to the Lord…for my teachers Give praise to the Lord…for the games I play.

•Avoid starting a prayer with "Dear..."

That’s for a letter! Begin with an adjective, an attribute of God, eg Almighty, Forgiving, Compassionate. There is a full list on my website!

There are the primary symbols of bread and wine, candles, water and oil; then secondary symbols (incense, liturgical colours, flowers) which appeal to the senses and help us to encounter God. For the simplest of liturgies, all you need for a focal point is a suitably-coloured cloth to match the liturgical season, a candle and a Bible.

Creating a sacred space in the classroom, school hall or even in the outdoors takes us away from the daily routine and helps us enter into a heavenly reality

SIGNS, SYMBOLS AND GESTURES We cannot see God, so we use tangible signs and symbols to help us gain a sense of the sacred, perceive him, and so become closer to him.

Various gestures (sign of the cross, sign of peace, bowing) and postures (kneeling, sitting, standing) are physical ways of expression and participation. They all add to the richness of our connection with God. One simple and effective idea is during a class liturgy at the end of the week, have each pupil offer a piece of their work to God in praise and thanksgiving. With some quiet music playing they approach the focal point/altar one at a time, bow (this should be practised) and place their work before the Lord. If repeated over time, this powerful and individual symbolic act will become a meaningful class ritual.

Art and music can be very inspiring. Think carefully about the images you use. Are they modern, appealing to young people, relevant? Music needs to create a calm, contemplative atmosphere. Keep your music selection especially for liturgies so that it becomes associated with that special time (don’t use quiet reading music or gettingchanged-for-PE music!)

continued on page 22

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Various gestures (sign of the cross, sign of peace, bowing) and postures (kneeling, sitting, standing) are physical ways of expression and participation SILENCE In today’s busy world, silence can be uncomfortable; we don’t know how to use it.

The Catechism tells us "words in this kind of prayer are not speeches; they are like kindling that feeds the fire of love". God speaks to us in silence. And so, we need it!

But silent prayer doesn’t just happen. We must practise from the youngest children upwards, developing their ability to sit quietly and contemplate. They will need some guidance about what to think about during silent time; the scripture passage they have just heard, who they want to pray for or events in their own lives.

They should be reassured that it’s all right if your mind wanders or if you get distracted.

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

Just try to re-focus. The youngest children might manage 20 seconds, older children four or five minutes. Never underestimate what they are capable of! But they must understand what they are doing, and they must practise! Then, the silence will speak to their hearts!

•All adults should join in and lead by example. It’s not the time for cleaning paintbrushes or marking books. We should always show that nothing is more important than prayer in the daily life of the school.

TIPS FOR TEACHERS •In an age where many people think religion is out of date, we must make our prayer relevant. We must pray for the needs of the world, our local community and those closest to us. Discuss with your young people what concerns them and make those issues the focus of your prayers.

•We should be mindful to include all kinds of prayer: thanksgiving, petition, praise, sorrow and intercession.

•A liturgy is not a lesson or an assembly. It’s not the time for teacher input, for questioning or explaining. It is a time for communication with God! Signs, symbols, words and actions should speak for themselves. Younger children will need some guidance, but the more a liturgy can happen on its own, the more effective it will be.

When you repeat something that works often enough, it becomes a ritual…that’s good!

www.mariahall.org/liturgy-and-young-people Good News Bible: Excellent translation for young people of all ages.

Lectionary for Masses with Children: The processional version is excellent if you can afford it but the study edition is useful for the translation of the readings.

Hear the Good News, Katie Thompson. Kevin Mayhew.

Sunday Gospels clearly presented and translated for young people.

Fifty Masses with Children, Sr Francesca Kelly.

Columba Press.

A full liturgy of the Word which could be a separate liturgy or used at Mass. The scripture translations are great for younger children.

School Liturgies Made Easy, Lisa Freemantle and Carmela Caporiccio. Novalis.

A useful handbook for staff with good planning sheets.

RESOURCES

F E AT U R E

Remembering

Jean Sulivan 1913-1980

JEAN SULIVAN WAS A FRENCH PRIEST-WRITER WHOSE BOOKS CONTAIN STINGING ATTACKS ON CLERICALISM AND THE ABUSE OF POWER WITHIN THE CHURCH. AMONG HIS CHARACTERS CAN BE FOUND REBEL PRIESTS, PROSTITUTES, TRAMPS AND DRUG ADDICTS. SUCH PEOPLE OFTEN HAVE A MORE INTIMATE AWARENESS OF THE TRUE MESSAGE OF CHRISTIANITY THAN THOSE LIVING CLOSE TO THE CENTRE OF THINGS.

BY EAMON MAHER

In

1991, I was first introduced to the French priest-writer Jean Sulivan’s work by my prospective PhD supervisor. At the time, I was keen to concentrate on the major French Catholic writers – François Mauriac, Georges Bernanos and Julien

Green – who had always fascinated me and whose works I had studied over a number of years. Sulivan, I quickly discovered, was a very different kind of writer. He did not see himself as prolonging in any way the path paved by these prestigious predecessors. The

religious reality of the 1950s, 60s and 70s in France demanded a different approach, one that took on board the growing secularism of French society and, especially, the changes introduced by Vatican II. Having been ordained in 1938 and sent to work

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in the Catholic lycée in Rennes, where he became heavily involved in cultural activities, Sulivan experienced firsthand how the Catholic Church was in need of regeneration if it were to retain relevance among the working classes and among a more educated laity who were no longer content to be dictated to by priests, especially when it came to issues surrounding sexuality. Brittany was analogous to Ireland in terms of the blind adherence demanded of Catholics during Sulivan’s youth, which he describes so well in his memoir Anticipate Every Goodbye, which I translated into English: The priests of this time tended to preach about laws and obligations. In this way they had succeeded in transforming Christianity into something approaching a natural religion. In their eyes the rural order in which the Church still played a dominant role was an expression of the divine will.

They had forgotten about freedom, without which there is no real faith.

These lines could easily have been written

refer to as a compagnon de route.

His writings have shaped my life and my approach to Catholic rituals and practice. It came as a real surprise to me recently when I realised that 2020 marks the 40th anniversary of Sulivan’s death.

MOTHER AND SON His real name was Joseph Lemarchand and he was born in 1913 in Montauban-de-Bretagne, not far from the Rennes. The death of his father in the trenches of the Great War led to the remarriage of his mother out of financial necessity, something at which her young son baulked inwardly. Sulivan knew his mother had no other option than to remarry if she wanted to retain their small rented farm, yet he resented the arrival of what he viewed as a male intruder into the family home. Life in Brittany at the time was strongly Catholic, and so it was no real surprise when Sulivan chose to enter the junior seminary. His mother rejoiced at the thought of having a son ordained a priest, but she often questioned the particular form of priesthood he espoused. She would have loved him, for example, to say Mass in the local church and

His mother rejoiced at the thought of having a son ordained a priest, but she often questioned the particular form of priesthood he espoused by someone like John McGahern in relation to his experience of growing up in Leitrim and Roscommon in the 1930s and 40s.

Indeed, the similarities between the Breton and Irish contexts was one of the things that appealed to me during the six years I spent working on the PhD which would deal with the theme of marginality in the life and work of Sulivan. While he is not an easy writer to come to terms with – his style at times is disjointed and the hidden meaning difficult to decipher – Sulivan has become far more than a mere academic interest for me. He is a spiritual mentor, or what the French would REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

to wear conventional clothes (his usual attire was a leather jacket, sweater and sunglasses), things he refused to do. About his books, she regularly complained that they had neither beginning nor end, and that the language and characters were perplexing. The weekly trips home to see his mother were precious to Sulivan. He dreaded the thought of one day not seeing her familiar outline silhouetted by the curtains as his car approached the house where she lived alone after the death of her second husband. When her time to leave the world finally arrived, however, Sulivan came to see her death as a painful liberation, as it

allowed him to write in any way or about any subject he wanted without upsetting her sensibilities.

Provocation ou la faiblesse de Dieu, Sulivan’s first publication in 1958, made him realise that he wanted to pursue a priesthood of the pen, and between then and his death some 22 years later, he went on to publish ten novels, two short story collections, a spiritual journal, Morning Light, several articles in Le Monde and other newspapers, as well the aforementioned memoir, Anticipate Every Goodbye. He received numerous literary awards and was part of the prestigious Gallimard publishing house. His superior Cardinal Roques released him from pastoral duties so that he could move to Paris and concentrate exclusively on his writing. That was a daring decision, given that Sulivan’s books contain stinging attacks on clericalism and the abuse of power within the Church.

In addition, among his fictional characters can be found rebel priests (many based on real people), prostitutes, tramps and drug addicts. In Sulivan’s estimation, such people often have a more intimate awareness of the true message of Christianity than those living at the respected centre of society.

WHAT KIND OF PRIEST? When his second novel, The Sea Remains, was awarded the Grand Prix Catholique de l i tt é ra t u re i n 1964, it looked as if his career was consolidated.

Yet, at the awards ceremony, Sulivan felt like a fraud. The novel describes a cardinal who turns his back on his exalted position within the Church to follow a more humble path. The irony was not lost on Sulivan, the creator of this character, that here he was being celebrated by the literary and Catholic establishments, prostituting himself in order to gain an

audience. From that point onwards, his prose style changed, and he began to write in a less coherent style, just as his characters and their existential dilemmas became increasingly radical. For example, in Eternity, My Beloved we encounter Strozzi, a priest who ends his career among the prostitutes of Pigalle. Strozzi was based on the real-life figure, Auguste Rossi, who features in Gilbert

has fallen on top of me, everything has taken place without my being able to control it. I have become a happy fool." One very interesting aspect of Sulivan’s work is the way some of his characters willingly choose homelessness over financial security and end up content in their destitution. Marginality does not impoverish but rather can enrich those who embrace it by enabling them to truly ‘see’ what is happening around them and to appreciate the small joys of life. This is not to say that Sulivan was extolling poverty in itself – some of the tramps and drug addicts we encounter in his work endure much pain and suffering – but he felt that, when chosen freely, it can be liberating.

In his spiritual journal Morning Light, Sulivan provides a frontal attack on the complacency of those hierarchical figures within the Church who in his view have betrayed the origins of Christianity. He sees a positive side to how the Church had become a minority concern for most people: "Like the storm-clouds of the exodus, the Church’s face is more luminous today than when it seemed to rule. It has found glory in its humiliation." Around the time of the clerical abuse scandals I often pondered these words and marvelled at how prophetic they were.

Out of evil good can emerge: after the scandals that rocked it to its very foundations, the Church was forced to become more humble, less triumphalist and to reconnect to Christ’s message of love for others. Sulivan seemed to sense the chasm that was developing between the functionaries (he used this word regularly) who looked on the Church primarily as an institution, not as a community, and those

One very interesting aspect of Sulivan’s work is the way some of his characters willingly choose homelessness over financial security and end up content in their destitution Cesbron’s novel Les saints vont en enfer (The Saints Go to Hell) under the sobriquet le père Pigalle. At regular intervals Sulivan intervenes in his own text to express his admiration for this character who lives what he merely writes about, remarking: ‘Strozzi stole my novel from me. To be honest, he’s paying me back a hundredfold since he’s giving me his very soul.’

In Les mots à la gorge (Words in the Throat) (1969), a journalist, Daniel Dorme, finds himself at a crossroads when he recognises that he is expected to toe the party line and write things that will not upset the powerful elites. He leaves his job and becomes alienated from his wife and daughter. He ends up wandering around the streets of Paris in what he describes as "glorious dishonour" because he is no longer obliged to conform to social propriety. Stripped of worldly goods and traditional comforts, Dorme comes to see more clearly the futility o f th e mai nstream world where people are preoccupied with the acquisition of money at any cost. He realises that he is the lucky one, he who has nothing, he who has been ‘chosen’ in a way: "Everything

who were genuinely committed to the Gospel, which, in Sulivan’s view, has a different significance alto gether : "The G o sp el o f fers a broad vision because it is ontological, not legalistic, and presumes an openness to love beyond any calculation. In this sense morality doesn’t exist for others, but only for oneself … People are not lost or saved by either their goodness or their evil but because of the attitude they have to their goodness or evil." All of us would benefit from digesting the deep truth contained in these lines.

In February 1980, Sulivan was hit by a car as he emerged from one of his daily walks in the Bois de Boulogne. He was brought to hospital, but never regained consciousness.

His work has helped me particularly at times of personal grief and doubt, and I do believe that many other people who are struggling to find meaning in their lives would do worse than to read his work and commune with a message which, 40 years after his death, is still highly relevant.

Eamon Maher is director of the National Centre for Franco-Irish Studies in TU Dublin. His latest book, co-edited with Brian Lucey and Eugene O’Brien, Recalling the Celtic Tiger, is published by Peter Lang, Oxford.

25

O U R FAT H E R - PA RT 7

LEAD US NOT INTO TEMPTATION

THE CORONAVIRUS PANDEMIC HAS FORCED US ALL TO SLOW DOWN. IT HAS ALSO FORCED US TO BE MORE AT HOME WITH ONE ANOTHER – NOT FOR A FEW MINUTES OR A FEW HOURS DAILY 26 BUT EVEN FOR WEEKS.

BY MIKE DALEY

If

there has been an upside to the coronavirus pandemic, it’s that it has invited people who otherwise would have been burdened with (or distracted by) the obligations of work to slow down their lives and be present to one another.

No excuses. Families literally are seeing and being with one another in ways they haven’t been in the recent past. They’re under the same roof… at the same time…in the same spaces. Not for minutes, not for days, but for weeks.

Another thing I’ve appreciated is the opportunity to read. Usually the pace of life is such that I start a book, get interrupted by life, forget what I read, then start all over again.

Recently, though, I’ve had the opportunity to read some books from start to finish.

“I’M BETTER THAN YOU ARE” One of the books was In the Shadow of the Bridge by playwright and novelist Joseph Caldwell. In it, Caldwell tells of how a sexually REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

repressed, Midwestern, Irish Catholic boy moved to the big city (New York of course), encountered Dorothy Day and the Catholic Worker Movement, lived the bohemian and free-spirited lifestyle of a struggling author, found professional success, later was confronted by the AIDS epidemic, and now lives with a deep appreciation of how blessed his life has been.

Of all the episodes he describes, the one I was drawn to the most was, as he tells it, his first conversion. Caldwell was 15 at the time and the subject of the story was Rosemary or, as he called people of her ilk, a “nonpaying stray”. In addition to being one of eight children, his house still found room for people who happened to attach themselves to it for months or years at a time.

Amidst his family chaos, Caldwell eventually came to especially resent the long-straying resident Rosemary. Given her obscure history,

his bitterness only increased when he found out that she was pregnant. To make matters worse, pregnant Rosemary went off somewhere only to return later, no longer pregnant.

Despicable hypocrite that he knew himself to be, Caldwell still felt he had no choice but to confront his mother. Didn’t she know that she was harbouring someone who had an abortion?

Is this what good, observant Catholics do? He remembers his mother’s words like they were said yesterday: “We don’t know that. All we know is that she’s lost her baby. And if she did have an abortion, doesn’t that mean she needs us more than ever?”

Caldwell states that he could have or should have felt chastened or shame at his selfishness.

Instead he felt amazement. It was then he discovered what Catholicism is all about: “It was not about sin and guilt and judgment. It was about caring–a simple caring for those most in need, no matter what.”

In that moment Caldwell did the scariest and most freeing thing that any one of us can do, he placed his humanity on the same level as Rosemary’s. No one was better or worse, just human. Flawed, fragile, and graced. What a temptation, though, to be better than. I don’t think it ever goes away. At least not for me.

GOD AS TEMPTER? Not a few persons are left a little unsettled by a God who may “lead us into temptation”.

To this possibility Pope Francis says, “It is not God who tosses me into temptation to see how I fall. A father does not do this. A father helps his child get up right away. The one who leads us into temptation is Satan.”

For this reason, some have suggested– including Pope Francis–that the traditional words of the prayer be translated differently so as not to lead to a distorted image of God. Using contemporary language, the Presbyterian minister Eugene Peterson rewords the petition as “Keep us safe from ourselves and the devil.” Irish Dominican biblical scholar Celine Mangan suggests “Dissolve our fear, release us for trust.” The present and official Roman Catholic English translation is “And do not subject us to the final test.”

Considering the different wordings and various translations, scripture scholars are divided as to the meaning of 'test' or 'temptation'. Is it an ongoing, daily one or the one to come at the end of time? Mangan suggests it doesn’t have to be an either-or situation: “Every facing of temptation is a fight against evil. We are always living in the end times and the Church is always engaged in the great struggle to show the true face of God within a world which is determined to shut it out. The struggle goes on in our own ranks as much as outside. Today our ordinary lives are drawing us more and more into the arena of that struggle.”

THE GREAT TEMPTATION Though Jesus’ temptations scripturally number three (see Mt 4:1-11), I only see one – the temptation to refuse his humanity; to deny the reality of his Incarnation where Jesus becomes like us in all things but sin (cf. Heb 4:15).

In the aftermath of his baptism by John, having heard the words of his Father proclaim, “You are my beloved son with whom I am well pleased”, Jesus goes to the wilderness. There he fasts and prays considering what this 'sonship' means.

After 40 days and 40 nights, Jesus is hungry. Satan appears with an easy solution: “Command that these stones become loaves of bread.” Nourished by the word of God, Jesus replies, “One does not live by bread alone” (Deut 8:3).

Later, Jesus is taken to the parapet of the Temple and told to throw himself down assured that he

will be rescued by angels. Jesus responds, “You shall not put the Lord, your God, to the test” (Deut 6:16).

Finally, Satan takes Jesus to a high mountain and shows him all the kingdoms of the world. They are his if only he worships Satan. Jesus answers, “The Lord, your God, shall you worship and him alone shall you serve” (Deut 6:13).

They were his for the choosing and abusing – comfort, safety and security. Jesus, however, remains obedient to God. His path will be one of vulnerability, risk, solidarity, and, ultimately, death on a cross. In other words, he chooses what I often resist–humanity. Though he could have accepted it, Jesus refuses the temptation of 'I’m better than you are.'

Closer to our time, so too did St Damien of Molokai. Rather than live the clerical temptations of power, privilege and prestige, Damien asked for a daring assignment – the leper colony on the island of Molokai. Little had changed from Jesus’ time to Damien’s when it came to lepers. They were still social pariahs, who were met with fear, whose 'treatment' was isolation. Except that Damien made them his own. After living with and ministering to them for some years, he literally become one with them when he acquired leprosy. When he found this out, he is reported to have said, “I make myself a leper with the lepers to gain all to Jesus Christ.” Damien died of the disease in 1899.

Though tests and temptations abound, it is in and through our humanity where we discover and live out our relationship with God. Jesus tells us this in and through the Incarnation. As a result, there is no 'I’m better than you are', only 'I am one with you'.

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

27

CULTURE SHOCK STILL CULTURE-SHOCKED, AFTER ALL THESE YEARS!

BY COLM MEANEY CSsR

You

know you’ve arrived in the Philippines the minute you leave the airplane in Manila – the heat and the humidity strike you as sauna-like.

But, like most things, you get used to the high temperature and the constant perspiration. Another, more personal, reminder of being in a strange culture occurred the next day in our church in Manila.

When the priest said “let us offer a sign of peace”, I duly held out my hand to shake my neighbour’s as a sign of Christian harmony between us. He looked at me as if I’d arrived on the last flight from Mars. Filipinos never shake hands in such a setting: they nod and smile and the children place on their foreheads the hands of their elders – the quintessential sign of respect in this culture.

My time here since 1986 has been a series of adjustments to a culture very different from Ireland. So many differences: language (many, many dialects), food (rice, not potatoes), drink (fermented coconut juice, not Guinness), climate (two seasons, rainy and dry, not four), latitude (being so near the Equator, the sun rises and sets about the same time each day, 5.30am and 5.30pm), so no long winter nights, no gloriously long summer evenings).

28

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

STRANGE CITIES Yet after 20 years here, spent mostly in rural areas consisting of small towns, and villages scattered around the hills and along the coastline, I met with another cultural challenge when I moved to the city, specifically the poorer, downmarket parts. The rural Philippines is generally unspoilt: the streams flow with clear water, the air is pure, the silence bliss. Houses, grouped together in a hamlet or spread out over the hills, generally have a garden with some root crops (eg cassava, peanuts); water is drawn from the communal well.

I moved into city missions in 2005, and began in a large, slum-like area. After the tranquillity of the previous years, this was a culture shock as intense as my initial arrival in Manila in 20 years before. It was a large area of mostly poor families, with a few better off living amicably among them, their prosperity largely having come from the drug trade, a persistent problem in the Philippines.

The contrast with the countryside was stark: houses piled up higgledypiggledy on one another, the 'water' in the creeks darker than black polish, the incessant noise due to the singalongs. And yet the amazing thing was that, when I began my daily visits among the people, together with my two lay companions, the people of this vast slum turned out to be 'the salt of the earth', trying with the sweat

of their brows, and often against tough odds, to make ends meet and live a life of quiet dignity. Allow me to introduce some of them to you.

MEET JOSÉ AND CHARLIE When we had our mission in the poor area which is called Mambaling, the president of the local chapel was José. Being president of a chapel is not an onerous task. It simply consists in organising the annual fiesta celebrations, a novena of nightly devotions led by a lay minister, and then the fiesta Mass on the patron's feast day, celebrated by the parish priest. José and his wife Esther have six children, in their teens and younger.

It would be inaccurate to describe where they live as a 'house', more like a shack really. But the parents strove to send all the children to school, the eldest even doing a vocational course after secondary school. He is now the breadwinner of the family.

José made a meagre living from designing seashells (cowrie). He would gather the shells on nearby islands and carve onto them typical Filipino scenes and seasonal greetings.

But his livelihood has been undercut by cheaper wages in China, so Jose is now out of work. Esther actually graduated as a teacher but because of sickness, she never held a steady teaching job. She gives grinds to local pupils and is a most dedicated school catechist. José is indefatigably

hopeful about life and their efforts, not only to rear their family as best they can, but also to lend a helping hand in the community whenever possible. Whenever I'm in Cebu I visit them, and it's like a tonic being in their company.

Whenever I need a haircut I go to Charlie's place. 'Place' is about the best description because 'salon' it most certainly is not! His barber shop is the essence of simplicity: a two-metre square covered space attached to his aunt's house. It consists of one plastic chair, one mirror and Charlie's tools (scissors, razor, comb) necessary to produce, if not exactly a Parisianstyle coiffure, at least a reasonable short back and sides. Charlie is in his early 20s. He set up his own place having worked with another barber for a few years, gaining experience.

He hasn't much money, but he has determination. He's quite serene in his shop as he awaits his next hirsute customer.

EATING OUT Food, of course, is a great source of creative artistry in the Philippines, providing a livelihood for many. If you have the money you can dine as grandly as a duke, but I and many Filipinos prefer to satisfy our hunger more downmarket. The most basic sellers are the street vendors, the women (mostly women) walking through urban areas with a large

tray on their heads. The tray holds the goodies: anything from sweet rice cakes, various corn-based delicacies, bread made from flour produced from the cassava plant, and the price is right – outrageously good value by Irish standards, affordable to the likes of José and Esther.

Next are the carindarias: a very basic eatery where the day's menu is displayed on a long counter; the customer looks into each saucepan and chooses what will go with the staple which is rice (milled corn in some parts of the country) – fish, pork, chicken, soup, etc. The meal can be eaten there in very basic surroundings or taken home in a plastic bag. Again, exceptionally good value.

The washerwoman (labandera) fulfils an important role. All our Redemptorist houses have full-time labanderas, as do most middle-class homes. In the urban settings the washerwoman uses both a washingmachine for heavier materials (they’re not Luddites after all!) and still handwashes the delicates. It is not slave labour, it's using skilled women to give the family clothes a thorough washing, bleaching and ironing. Such is the quality of the ironing that the shirts and trousers have an edge so sharp you could shave with it.

Sometimes an iron filled with hot charcoal is used, but in urban settings it's mostly electric.

In the suburban home, the washer often works alone, serenely performing her simple but vital task – alone, but not in silence. Generally, Filipinos find silence difficult and so, before ever a soiled shirt or pants is put into water, the radio is switched on. But at the village well or along the bank of the river, the women gather and, as they work through mighty bundles of dirty linen, chat incessantly, infectiously, hilariously. It's a great venue at which to catch up on the latest news (even fake news!), village tales, buzz, and interesting arrivals in the village (e.g., my presence on mission, like a Martian landing on planet Earth). Interestingly, a riverbank was the venue for St Paul's first European convert, Lydia of Philippi (Acts 16:13). They were not washing clothes; it was the Sabbath and they were at prayer.

These people are not destitute, but neither are they comfortably well-off.

Each day presents a challenge to get going, Social welfare is practically nonexistent in the Philippines, apart from a type of 'children's allowance' started in recent years; and if they don't get going, they have no income that day.

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

29

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COM M E N T FAMILY & RELATIONSHIPS CARMEL WYNNE

DO UNTO OTHERS

NO MATTER HOW MUCH WE LOVE THE MEMBERS OF OUR FAMILY, CONFLICTS AT TIMES ARE INEVITABLE. THAT MAY HAVE BEEN EVIDENT TO US DURING THE PANDEMIC. No family will get through the COVID-19 pandemic without arguments, disagreements and possibly rows. To put ourselves under enormous pressure to maintain a conflict-free, happy atmosphere in the home is not a realistic expectation in lockdown.

What goes on in family relationships is complex and unpredictable. Linguist Deborah Tannen who studied family communication for decades describes the give and take of family conversation as being like, "tectonic plates in the earth that move this way and that. The drives toward connection and control provide an enduring fault line."

Psychologists tell us that there are always tensions between mothers and daughters, fathers and sons.

No matter how much we love our family members, conflicts are inevitable. Conflict coach Cinnie Noble says, “We all follow habitual and cyclical patterns of responding to and managing conflict.” Conflict begins when we are provoked by something someone says or does or doesn’t do. If we feel challenged or undermined we are triggered emotionally. We then attribute motives to the other person and we react to what we believe to be true.

The person we are in conflict with goes through a similar cycle.

Every time either person thinks or talks about what happened, their version will alter slightly. The simplest thing can put us on the ‘not so merry-go-round’ of conflict.

We rub each other up the wrong way because we have a long-shared

to understand that seemingly minor disagreements with family members leave us bruised emotionally, hurt in different ways.

Most of us cover it up well so that it doesn’t show on the outside, but each painful bruise leaves us hurting, emotionally vulnerable, hyper-sensitive to being hurt inside. This explains why we have what appears to be an over-thetop reaction when we are triggered again and others tell us we seem to have a chip on the shoulder.

There is no way to be a good problem solver if you’re in a highly emotional state. At a different time it was possible to walk away to give yourself the time to calm down. It takes maturity and self-control to keep cool when we are confined in a limited space and feel angry or disrespected. It takes integrity and courage to put your feelings into words and share what you are going through.

between unhappy, miserable and highly-conflicted people and happy, well-adjusted, friendly people is how they deal with their hurt feelings. The unhappy people tend to be highly conflicted and critical.

They attack or become defensive, show contempt and stonewall or turn away when another person is talking. Unaware that they carry a chip on their shoulders, they blame others for upsetting them.

Well-adjusted people are not afraid to name what didn’t work and explore their choices about what to do differently next time. Rather than be critical or apportion blame, they seek ways to defuse the conflict.

Instead of making statements, they show genuine interest in what was stressful. They ask open-ended ‘What’ and ‘How’ questions about what the other needed and didn’t get. The wrong question to ask if you want to defuse conflict is ‘What went wrong?’ The right question is ‘What can I do to make a difference?'

You know that it doesn’t feel good when no one thanks you for all you do. Imagine you decide to appreciate and validate your family members. What if you said ‘Thank you’, to show how you appreciate the efforts people make doing chores and going to their rooms to give you space. Would it make for a friendlier atmosphere in the home?

Would everyone be happier if you did unto others as you would have them do unto you?

Leading researchers have found that 70 per cent of conflicts are unresolvable. The main difference

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

Tectonic plate between North America and Euraisa

history with everyone in our family.

When this happens some people go on the attack. They justify feeling angry and put down by making others responsible for their upset.

They paint themselves as the innocent victims by blaming others who are likely to react by becoming defensive.

People who become defensive tend to get caught up in attempting to establish the facts. There is a danger this will aggravate matters and generate more tension. They may not see it as lying but when they embellish, exaggerate or play down their role it doesn’t help resolve the conflict.

Almost everything we say in a conversation echoes with meaning from past experiences. A wrong word, the tone of voice, even a facial expression can act as a trigger, spark conflict and bring up resentments about perceived wrongs and lost freedoms. No one can change how we related in the past. But we can develop an understanding of what triggers and provokes us. It’s helpful

31

F E AT U R E

THE MONASTERY OF BOSE FOUNDED IN 1968, THE MONASTERY OF BOSE IN THE NORTH OF ITALY IS HOME TO A UNIQUE COMMUNITY OF 80 MEN AND WOMEN BELONGING TO DIFFERENT CHRISTIAN COMMUNITIES WHO SEEK TO LIVE OUT THE GOSPEL TOGETHER. IN ADDITION TO BOSE, IT HAS COMMUNITIES IN JERUSALEM AND SEVERAL OTHER PLACES IN ITALY. IT IS ALSO A PLACE OF WELCOME WHERE SEEKERS ARE INVITED TO COME TO PRAY OR STUDY.

BY BISHOP JOHN McAREAVEY Photos courtesy of Archivio fotografico Monastero di Bose

I 32

spent the last week of June and the first week of July 2019 in the monastery of Bose. I had heard about it some years before and was glad to have the opportunity to spend some time with the brothers and sisters of Bose.

A PLACE FOR SEEKERS In the summer months, the monastery offers a programme of courses on biblical themes and on spirituality. During my time there, Br Giancarlo Bruni, a monk of Bose, offered a course on ‘The human journey in the light of Exodus' Prof Massimo Grilli, professor emeritus of the Gregorian University,

Rome, offered a course on ‘Face to face with Jesus in the Gospel of John’. Other courses were offered during July and August. The programme for each year is advertised on the monastic website in the spring. Each course begins on Monday afternoon; there are two sessions on Tuesday, one on Wednesday, two on Thursday, two on Friday and one on Saturday. Each session lasts an hour. In addition to these academic courses, a course on Hebrew is also offered.

Participants in the various courses arrive on Monday morning and leave after lunch on Saturday.

The monastery also hosts groups of young people

The monastery at Bose

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

who do manual work on the monastic farm, picking fruit and vegetables according to the season.

In addition to the courses, participants are welcome to join the community for prayer. Morning prayer begins at 6.00, midday prayer at 12.30 and evening prayer at 18.30. Lectio divina, led by a brother or sister of the community is at 17.00. Eucharist is celebrated on Sundays, Thursdays and certain saints’ days and holy days. During my visit, we had Mass on the feast-days of Sts Peter and Paul, and St Thomas the apostle. Meals are scheduled around prayer times: breakfast is available from 5.30 till 8, lunch at 13.00 and dinner at 19.00.

HIGH IN THE MOUNTAINS The monastery is situated in a remote area in the foothills of the Italian Alps. Details of trains and buses are available on the website.

The monastery has a library of which a university could be proud, a sign of Bose’s deep commitment to biblical studies, and studies in monasticism and spirituality.

It also has its own publishing house, Edizioni qiqaajon, which has published a wide range of religious publications, some by members of the community, others by scholars such as Massimo Grilli, who lecture on the summer study schedule.

In addition to books and booklets, a wide range of lectures on CD are available on the website and in the monastic shop. CDs of courses are available for participants before they depart on the final day.

Outside the summer season, the monastery organises and hosts international conferences on monastic, ecumenical and related areas.

The monastery has a workshop for icons and on each of the summer courses there is an evening session on the work of those who paint icons and a visit to the workshop and exhibition area.

AN ECUMENICAL COMMUNITY A particular feature of the monastery of Bose is that it is an ecumenical community. A recent visitor to Bose wrote: It is resolutely ecumenical: Catholics,

Evening prayer

Community members at work Kitchen produce

The tranquil gardens The tranquil gardens

Protestants, and Orthodox from a number of different regions and churches are community members. It lives now the reality of the “undivided church”, abolishing nearly a thousand years of distance and contention, and what an unexpected relief it is to feel that there at least, on that high plateau facing the Alps, the church is one.

Another feature of the monastery is that it is a community of brothers and sisters. Speaking of this aspect of the monastery, the founding prior, Enzo Bianchi wrote: I had two solutions: refuse a mixed monastic life in the name of tradition; or say yes and dare to try a new adventure, proving that men and women could live the same spiritual and monastic experience–together. When you are 25, you have nerve! … Our community could … begin to breathe with both lungs: the male and the female.”

The community is based on three fundamental principles: radical commitment to live the Gospel, life in common, and celibacy.

A fourth principle is closeness to the secular world that surrounds them, without loss of identity. The brothers and sisters wear a habit–a cowled, ivory-coloured robe–for church services only; at other times they dress in ordinary apparel.

The monastic community is committed to the practice of lectio divina and this is a fixed element of the daily and weekly programme.

A PLACE OF HOSPITALITY There is much more that could be written about Bose. However, my abiding memory is of the kindness and hospitality of the brothers and sisters. When I got badly bitten by insects during a heat wave, one of the sisters noticed and offered medical care, for which I was grateful.

A final memory: on a Wednesday afternoon I travelled with a fellow participant, Pietro Ferraris, to his hometown, Ivrea. There we visited the cathedral where the relics of Blessed Thaddaeus McCarthy are preserved. He was Bishop of Cork.

Returning from Rome like a pilgrim, he died in Ivrea on October 24, 1492. When the bag of this unknown pilgrim was opened, his bishop’s insignia and documents from the Holy See were found that revealed his identity.

FINAL NOTE Since I submitted this article in the spring of 2020, the Holy See issued a decree on May 13, 2020 stating that following "prolonged and careful discernment" of certain issues relating to the Bose community, the founder of Bose and three other members would be required to leave the community. On June 19 the brothers and sisters of Bose apologised for the upset this dissension had caused and re-committed themselves to a life of prayer and ministry.

Bishop John McAreavey is retired Bishop of Dromore and is now involved in pastoral activity.

The altar

33

F E AT U R E

The Derrynaflan Paten D I S C OVER IN G AN ANCIENT EUC HA R ISTI C THE O LO GY

THE DISCOVERY OF A PATEN, THE PLATE FOR HOLDING THE BREAD DURING THE CELEBRATION OF THE EUCHARIST, ALONG WITH THE CHALICE WAS NOT JUST A DISCOVERY OF ANOTHER EARLY IRISH TREASURE. IT WAS ALSO A LINK IN THE THEOLOGY OF THE EUCHARIST THAT ENABLED US TO SEE MORE CLEARLY HOW THE EARLY IRISH CHURCH CELEBRATED THE EUCHARIST.

BY THOMAS O’LOUGHLIN 34

When

onacoldspring morning in 1980 the news came of a spectacular find of early Christian metalwork on the monastery site of Derrynaflan (near Cashel), most interest focussed on the chalice – "another Ardagh chalice" ran one headline.

My own curiosity was sparked by the reference to the paten. Now, at long last, we had the basic set of eucharistic vessels: both chalice and paten together. This was so important because patens survive far less often than chalices. We have only a handful of examples from the Latin churches, so each tells us much about the evolution of the celebration of the Eucharist, and how it was understood, in specific

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

places and at specific times – now we had an Irish example as well! I can still remember my excitement as I went to the National Museum when they were first put, uncleaned, on display – and my curiosity was justified!

WHAT IS A PATEN? But why get excited about a paten?

For us, a paten is an almost flat saucer-sized disk which can sit atop Items discovered at Derrynaflan

This action of each person having a part – a particle – of a single loaf, and each drinking from a single common cup, expresses not only our solidarity with the Lord, but with one another a chalice, designed to hold, during the liturgy, a single unleavened wafer, about 5cm in diameter, shown at the elevation and then consumed by the priest – this has been the Latin practice for a millennium. If others are ‘going to communion’ – until the 1960s this was presumed to be a minority (if anyone at all) – then breads for their use were separate smaller unleavened wafers, cut into roundels, and held throughout the celebration in another vessel: the ciborium. For us, a paten looks paltry beside a chalice, a ciborium or a monstrance, but in the first millennium the paten was as significant as the cup.

The word ‘paten’ originally meant a big bowl (Greek: patené) because the bread of the Eucharist was a single large, leavened loaf. The loaf had to be large enough for each member of the congregation to have a piece – we have no evidence of celebrations with more than a hundred present.

The loaf (according to the law of the time) had to be whole, white, round, fresh, and ‘living’ (ie leavened).

Unleavened bread begins to appear only around the later tenth century.

This loaf rested on the dish until the singing of the 'Lamb of God’

when the deacons broke it into the number of pieces needed – and then arranged these carefully, often in a special pattern, on the paten so that the now-broken loaf could be shown to the assembly with the words "This is the Lamb of God".

We still do this at every Mass, but to appreciate its significance, we should remember there was then no elevation. This is why the Derrynaflan paten is about 36cm in diameter, and the decorations on it were probably to guide the deacons in arranging the pieces.

ONE BREAD: ONE BODY This attention to having a single loaf and to breaking it such that each had her/his share of the one loaf was seen as the basic symbolism of the Eucharist. It is the ritual action already being commented upon and interpreted by Paul when he wrote: The cup of blessing that we bless, is it not a sharing in the blood of Christ? The loaf that we break, is it not a sharing in the body of Christ? Because there is one loaf, we who are many are one body, for we all partake of the one loaf (1 Cor 10:16-17).

This action of each person having a part – a particle – of a single loaf, and each drinking from a single common cup, expresses not only our solidarity with the Lord, but with one another. What Paul reflected on we find expressed in the prayers of the Didache (also first century) and then expressed in large chalices and patens such as those from Derrynaflan.

We already suspected that Irish Christians understood the Eucharist this way because we have hymns for the time it took to break and arrange the loaf’s pieces on a paten; and a detailed description in Old Irish about arranging them. But there were always doubts: were these just archaic survivals? The Derrynaflan paten confirmed the whole picture!

Now you can appreciate my excitement: the paten is a theology in metal. Visiting the museum today, I am still struck by it – and wonder when shall we return to that practice of showing ourselves that we are in Christ "one body, for we all partake of the one loaf".

FOR FURTHER READING On how the size and design of the vessels reveal how the Eucharist

is understood: T. O’Loughlin, ‘The liturgical vessels of the Latin eucharistic liturgy: a case of an embedded theology,’ Worship 82 (2008) 482-504.

On the Breaking of the Bread in the Early Irish Church, see T. O’Loughlin, 'The Praxis and Explanations of Eucharistic Fraction in the Ninth Century: the Insular Evidence,’ Archiv für Liturgiewissenschaft 45 (2003)120.

A native of Dublin, Professor Thomas O’Loughlin taught in the Milltown Institute and the Dominican Studium in Dublin. He is currently Professor of Theology at the University of Nottingham. His most recent book on the Eucharist is Eating Together, Becoming One: Taking up Pope Francis’s Call to Theologians (2019)

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IN T H E F O OT ST E PS OF CL EMENT: PART 6

Clement and fellow Redemptorists being expelled from Warsaw

MORE THAN 20 YEARS OF CAREFUL BUILDING AND PLANNING IN ST BENNO’S HAD PRODUCED A 36 STRONG CROP OF HEALTHY VOCATIONS, BUT IT SEEMED AS IF IT WAS ALL TO BE WIPED OUT QUICKLY AND WITH LITTLE TO SHOW FOR IT. WAS CLEMENT’S LIFE TO BE ANOTHER TRIUMPH OF FAILURE?

BY BRENDAN McCONVERY CSsR

We

left the Redemptorists struggling in the uncertainty of founding a new house. For Clement, the priority was on a home for students. The most likely place for it was in Switzerland. Clement committed Fr Passerat to continue to look for foundations there where possible.. For much of the time, 20 or so students and a handful of fathers and brothers were divided into wandering groups and made their way to their agreed destination. As one of them described it: “We undertook our journeys almost exclusively on foot and that in every kind of weather. We stowed our possessions in our knapsacks: clothing, books, and the most necessary items.

Usually we covered ten miles a day.

We always wore the habit of our order.

They were so worn that we resembled a troop of beggars. Wherever we arrived, the curious stared at us.

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

Sometimes the people greeted us with respect, sometimes they laughed at us.

The news that a strange caravan was under way went before us. When we went to a village, the people whispered, ‘The Apostles are coming!’ … on our journeys, we always followed the order of the spiritual exercises prescribed by the Rule of our order – meditation, rosary, breviary. In the afternoon we always kept strict silence for three hours. The most difficult time was rising for morning prayer. Even if we were very tired, we rose at 4. Morning prayer always began on time.”

We cannot trace these wanderings in detail here. Often, their stay in places were short-lived. Some of the Swiss cantons were strongly Protestant, but even some that were officially Catholic were hostile, owing to the forces of anti-clericalism. Travel through the

Swiss Alps was no pleasure, especially as winter approached. Eventually, they made their home in the abandoned Carthusian monastery of Valsainte for some years, from 1818-1824 THE DEATH OF HUBL Anticlerical feeling was increasing against the community of St Benno. One night, a coach arrived at the monastery with a request for Fr Hubl to attend a sick call. It took off at break-neck speed, and the priest was bound and gagged. Eventually it came to a halt deep in the country and he was dragged from it into a hut where another group was waiting.

They demanded that he cease to hear the confession of a certain lady. When he refused to promise, he was stripped and beaten up.

After a while, he was put back into the coach and left at the door of the monastery but badly shaken.

This close brush with danger did nothing to minimise the pastoral zeal of Fr Thaddeus. A typhus epidemic broke out and Fr Hubl ministered especially to sick soldiers in the barrack infirmary.

Eventually he contracted the disease himself. For Clement, this was a severe blow. Thaddeus was his oldest friend, the first Redemptorist who made his vows along with him and had returned to implant the congregation with him north of the Alps. Thaddeus died on July 4, 1807: he was only 47 years of age. Thaddeus’ death left a deep mark on Clement. He had no close relations with his own family and Hubl was more than a brother to him. He was devastated by his death. Several times he confided to his correspondents how deeply he felt the loss: “The wound is deep, it hurts. It is difficult to bear."

FRENCH OCCUPATION In 1807, the French took control of the Duchy of Warsaw. Its new ruler, Marsal Davoust, permitted the community of St Benno’s to continue unmolested. Clement nevertheless knew they faced an uncertain future. “The Jacobins (French Repulicans) are spreading all kinds of terrible fairy talks about us…We have been publicly threatened with the gallows.”

In February 1808, a report appeared in newspapers about a handful of monks who were a danger to the community, just as they had formerly been a problem in Bavaria. Davoust decided to look for more information. He was

told the usual canard, that the Bennonites were Jesuits in disguise and working in alliance with the dethroned French royalists. This report did not stop with Davoust, however. He passed it on to Napoleon. In his covering letter he claimed that these men were the enemies of every government and "in their pamphlets they claim that your majesty wants to force the pope to become a Protestant, and their vicar general, Hofbauer, is a very dangerous man.”

A close watch was kept on Clement’s movements by the French secret police in Warsaw. Periodically reports were sent to no less a person than Napoléon himself! They have made an important contribution to the study of Clement’s life.

SUPPRESSION OF ST BENNO’S It was clear that the French rulers of Warsaw were not going to leave the Redemptorists in peace.

Suppression of the community and the closure of the house was the most likely prospect. A friendly police official, however, took a risk with his own career by telling Clement that suppression was imminent and that the decree of suppression had already been signed. Clement gathered the community and broke the news to them. It was decided to hide the most valuable possessions and to arrange that every member of the community be provided with a bundle of clothing and some money for travel expenses and to be ready to move quickly.

The Carthusian Monastery of Valsainte – Home of the Redemptorists 1818-1824

A few days later, the church was closed. The community of 40 was herded into a single room and the house locked. The house underwent an intense search by the police. Every member of the community was subject to further searches. Pressure was applied especially to the younger members of the community to announce that they were leaving.

Pre-printed forms were distributed announcing departurefromthecommunity butonlytwoavailed of them. The father of another student was a high government official, and his father was brought to St Benno’s to convince him to resign, but to no avail.

A few days later at 4 am, they were herded on to waggonsandoneafteranother,drivenawayfromthe monastery to the fortress of Kustrin. The suppression was celebrated with a banquet at the Masonic lodge and a pamphlet celebrated their defeat.

Ligurians! No honest person speaks this word without a teeth-grinding curse, should he be sullied and branded for all time. The scattered members of the Ligurian society who had laid their cuckoo’s egg in the nest of St Benno are dispersed!

ON TO VIENNA! For a few weeks, the Redemptorists were held in the fortress. They were fairly well-treated, and in addition to private Masses, they were allowed to hold a daily sung Mass. Eventually the day of farewell came. They were sent off in pairs to their families. As the eldest of the group, Clement was allowed to take the young cleric, Martin Stark, as his travelling companion. They were provided with travel documents, but once again Clement proved a poor traveller. They were stopped at a checkpoint that discovered they had wandered off their official route. As he got near Vienna, there was yet another discovery: Clement had taken some objects from St Benno’s without permission and so spent his first days in Vienna in prison!

Clement would spend the final 12 years of his life without the companionship of the men he had hoped to form into a religious congregation, It was in those years, however, that he became the ‘apostle of Vienna'.

Fr Brendan McConvery CSsR is editor of Reality. He has published The Redemptorists in Ireland (1851 – 2011), St Gerard Majella: Rediscovering a Saint and historical guides to Redemptorist foundations in Clonard, Limerick and Clapham, London.

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UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

BOOK REVIEW BY REV DR KEN NEWELL

EATING TOGETHER, BECOMING ONE: TAKING UP POPE FRANCIS’S CALL TO THEOLOGIANS

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Eating Together, Becoming One Taking Up Pope Francis’s Call to Theologians

by Thomas O’Loughlin Collegeville: Liturgical Press, 2019 Paperback. €26.99 / £19.99 ISBN- 9780814684580

This

beautifully-written book by the past president of the Catholic Theological Association of Great Britain has won first place in the 'Ecumenism or Interfaith Relations' category in the Catholic Press Association of the United States and Canada’s 2020 Book Awards. It also has an alluring gastronomic appeal, particularly among those who miss the simple pleasure of sharing a meal with family and friends because of the current pandemic. We yearn to be back together again around a wellstocked table and to while away an evening with good company and our favourite food.

These life-enhancing occasions assuage the irreducible hunger within all of us to be loved, included and belong.

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

With the precision of an Olympic archer, O’Loughlin targets an uncomfortable issue within his own Catholic tradition – the official practice of excluding Christians of other churches from the Eucharist. In 11 mind-opening chapters he builds an impressive case for a rethink, arguing that a more inclusive approach would reflect more closely the intention of the risen Christ who welcomes us to sit around his table as cherished guests.

“The Good News creates a space of gracious welcome… in the liturgy we perform the unified world that we want to see; we do not simply reinforce the fractured world that we have inherited” (200).

It takes courage to prise open a painful problem especially when the dominant ecclesiastical mood considers it closed. The book was triggered into life in 2015 when Pope Francis visited the Lutheran Church in Rome and was asked a question by a woman whose husband was Catholic: “We have lived happily together for many years…[but] we greatly regret not being able to participate together in the Lord’s Supper. What can we do to achieve communion [together]?”

Surprisingly, Francis revealed that he had been asking himself similar questions: “'Is sharing the Lord’s Supper the end of the journey or is it the viaticum (provisions for the journey) for walking together?’ I leave the question to the theologians, to those who understand.” For O’Loughlin, this moment was an epiphany; it sparked a passionate commitment to take up the papal invitation.

"But," he adds, "I could not think of a single book that presented the arguments in favour of a change in Catholic practice." This erudite masterpiece is the result.

The professor of Historical Theology at Nottingham University sets his sights on all the main theological, liturgical and canonical reasons offered within his tradition to defend the current practice and analyses one by

one their credibility. Two of the strongest arguments in his quiver are: 1: The Lord’s Supper is a human meal, a banquet of divine acceptance provided by the risen Christ for his hugely diverse band of friends and followers. It is not a hardearned reward for those who have attained a state of grace, but a place to enable them to grow into the community of Christ’s New Commandment (John 13:34). It remains a wonderful sacramental mystery rich in meaning, but it never ceases to be less than a human meal-sharing moment of equality and fraternity. If he invites us all to participate, then it is unacceptable for us to make anyone feel unwelcome or unworthy. "We as human beings love to have boundaries of belonging – we build more walls in our minds every day than a bricklayer in a week" (78). We can do better than this.

2: When we refer to the Eucharist as a gathering of brothers and sisters in Christ, do we really mean it or are we exploiting ‘the family’ metaphor? If, indeed, “we have all been baptised into Christ Jesus…and into his one body” (Rom 6:3; 1 Cor 12:13), how can we ever contemplate breaking that bond at his table? Our heavenly Father has only one family. “So, at a eucharistic gathering, do I see you as a Methodist or a Presbyterian, or do I see you as a baptised sister or brother?” (81).

It is typical of the author’s five-star presentational style to leave us with big questions that create ‘sit-down-and-thinkabout-it’ moments. Indeed, the book concludes with another one: “Non-Catholics at the Table: Now or Never?” Readers will assess Professor O’Loughlin’s case and draw their own conclusions. But if Christians from all the churches of Christ sit down and think the issues through together, this archer will have hit the target.

FROM SHORE TO SHORE: LIFE IN GOD'S GLOBAL KINGDOM:REFLECTIONS IN POETRY AND PROSE

From Shore to Shore - Life in God's Global Kingdom Reflections in Poetry and Prose

by Pamela Ferguson Resource Publications Paperback. 230 pages €21.00 / £13.43 ISBN- 9781725252516

From Shore to Shore: Living in God's Global Kingdom: Reflections in Poetry and Prose reveals a writer of deeply moving and beautifully-crafted poetry and prose, who is an absorber of beauty, a cherisher of loving relationships, and a poet and storyteller who can inspire.

It is emotionally honest and spiritually enriching, opening a door for all of us into the most personal and vulnerable moments of life. We are able to watch how the author coped with challenges and moulded them into an inner resilience and deep trust that inspire us to believe in God’s loving presence in all of life’s circumstances.

In her poetry and reflections, Pamela draws on all her experiences, growing up in

Nigeria where her parents worked in mission, returning to live in the Irish border area, then working with her husband in Christian universities in Indonesia and Japan before returning to Ireland where she supports newcomers to the country.

Her range of themes is expansive: nature’s eloquence, God’s still small voice, the demands and enrichment of living in different cultures; cross-cultural adoptions and the challenges of autism; the legacy of grandparents; the joy of belonging and the pain of separation; peace-making in a divided community; the silence that envelops visitors to Auschwitz; protecting the planet; the wisdom-quotations from Vincent van Gogh and the life-revealing art of Rembrandt.

The Christian spirituality pervading the book resonates with the rich classical Celtic tradition of “the land of saints and scholars”, a spirituality that offers a way of encountering God which re-energises the human spirit through the gift of Jesus Christ.

From Shore to Shore has made me look more closely at myself, those around me, and the natural world in a life-enhancing way. I’m not in the habit of reading a book twice, but for this compelling volume I will definitely be making an exception.

39

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Breaking the Word in September 2020

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:

Holy Cross Novena, Holy Cross Abbey, Co Tipperary.

(13th-14th September 2020) Preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR Kilbarron Parish, Ballyshannon, Co Donegal (27th September-4th October 2020) Novena preached by Laurence Gallagher CSsR, Gerard Moloney CSsR and Clare Gilmore 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: largallagher@gmail.com Tel: +353 61 315099

UNDER THE MICROSCOPE

BOOK REVIEW BY JANE MELLETT

THEOLOGY AND ECOLOGY IN DIALOGUE: THE WISDOM OF LAUDATO SI'

Theology and Ecology in Dialogue: The Wisdom of Laudato Si'

by Dermot Lane Dublin, Messenger Publications 2020 Paperback. 160 pages €19.95 / £18.95 ISBN- 9781788121941

The launch of Fr Dermot Lane’s new book was perfectly timed to coincide with the fifth anniversary of Laudato Si’ and the announcement of this year (May 2020-May 2021) as a special Laudato Si’ Anniversary Year. The core question in this publication is directed to theology: can theology see the ecological crisis as not only a challenge but also an opportunity for the renewal of theology in itself and an opportunity for theology to participate in the public debate about the environment?

In the opening chapter Fr Lane opens up Laudato Si’ as "a theological treasure chest waiting to be explored" and highlights a number of radical calls that are scattered throughout the encyclical such as the call to a bold cultural revolution, an intense dialogue between religion and science, the call to integral ecology and the call to an ecological and spiritual education. A true understanding of integral ecology commits us to realise that the threat of

climate change affects everything: economics, healthcare, migration, food security and politics.

Therefore, as we are dealing with the biggest threat of the 21st century, theology must enter into serious dialogue with these issues.

Once this foundation is laid, the chapters which follow take the reader on a rollercoaster exploring Laudato Si’s potential contribution to Anthropology, Christology, Eschatology, Liturgy and Eucharist. The book highlights the context in which we now ‘do’ theology, spirituality, liturgy and prayer, ie in the context of the New Universe Story – a 13.8 billion-year history of an ever-expanding universe.

This includes the reality of a planet facing its sixth mass extinction through the astounding loss of biodiversity. Fr Lane clearly emphasises that our religious traditions must come into a deep dialogue with these astonishing new realities if they are to survive.

A key chapter of this book is on the call to embrace and be attentive to the Spirit already active and present in the world and to move away from the damaging dualisms of the past: body and soul; spirit and matter; sacred and secular. Fr Lane calls for a new theology of the Spirit, recalling Laudato Si’s focus on the roots of the environmental crisis as deeply spiritual. It is the alienation of the human from nature and the mechanisation of nature which is at the heart of the ecological crisis.

I found the chapter on Ecology and Liturgy a breath of fresh air and for those involved in parish ministry it will be a very enjoyable read. The language of liturgy today is from an era that is past. Fr Lane’s focus is on embracing a new community creation model which acknowledges the sacramental presence of God in all of creation; which sees all creatures as companions on the journey and humans as part of nature, not above it. This model is based on a fundamental kinship which acknowledges how all things are interconnected and this must now be reflected in how we pray and do liturgy, because ‘we pray as we believe’. If the whole of the cosmos presents the Creator God to us, then our liturgies must reflect this community of creation. This chapter acknowledges that many have walked away because liturgy no longer speaks

to the reality of people’s lives or the reality of the world around us.

Refreshingly, Fr Lane also includes in this book an intense reflection on the resurrection of Jesus and the place of the Christ event in cosmology (or ‘Big History’) today. He asks key questions around the place of the risen Christ in the Universe Story, and calls for a new Wisdom Christology which must also embrace the development of a feminist Christology.

For those wondering, ‘what about Jesus?’ this chapter answers (and asks) many questions.

Theology & Ecology in Dialogue sets out on an exciting path, asking really tough questions at the beginning of each chapter which challenge the reader to move out of their comfort zone and consider new possibilities. This is a book which acknowledges the urgent need to embrace the arts, poets, philosophers, spiritual leaders, commentators across all disciplines. It is a synthesis of science, faith, Christology which also guides the reader through beautiful passages from scripture.

This work draws on papal teachings, the work of Teilhard de Chardin, Elizabeth Johnson, Thomas Berry and more.

It might sound like Fr Lane is trying to do too much in a small book, but he is clear that this is the beginning of a conversation. Is this book accessible for those without a background in theology? It does use academic theological language throughout.

Does the conversation need to happen at that level?

Absolutely! And urgently! That is not to exclude other readers; if you are up for the challenge, go for it and ask others to join you. This book is a gift to all who still care about the future of church and the contribution it can make to tackling the environmental crisis. Take your time, there is a lot to reflect on. Fr Dermot Lane has done theology a great service in the publication of this work.

41

BUILD BACK BETTER

HAVE WE LEARNED FROM THE VIRUS HOW VULNERABLE AND DEPENDENT ON ONE ANOTHER WE ALL ARE?

BY DAVID O'HARE

Kaafiya at her stall in Gedo region, Somalia.

Photo: Trócaire

265 poss by th

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As

an all-island organisation with supporters in the north and south of Ireland, Trócaire has urged both the Irish and UK governments to play their parts to help rebuild the world in a just and sustainable way. It calls for international commitments on aid spending, as well as a renewed focus on climate action and protecting human rights.

Trócaire’s CEO Caoimhe de Barra said: “COVID-19 has highlighted how interconnected and interdependent we are. It has also highlighted how vulnerable the poorest members of our global society are to sudden shocks.

Too many countries lack basic healthcare. Too many countries lack safety nets to protect their people. Overseas aid works. It

REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

has lifted millions out of poverty, slashed maternal and infant mortality rates, and led to more people being in school than ever before. Aid works but aid budgets are now under threat due to the COVID financial crisis. We can’t let the poorest people in the world suffer most.

WHAT WE PROMISED AND WHAT WE SPEND “Countries including the Republic of Ireland have already committed to spending 0.7 per cent of their national income on helping the world’s poorest people. That commitment amounts to spending just 70c for every €100, but Irish Governments have so far failed to do that. At a time when the World Food Programme has said that

COVID fall-out threatens famines of ‘biblical proportions’ – with an additional 265 million people possibly facing starvation by the end of 2020 – we need to do the right thing and invest in protecting the world’s poorest people.”

Trócaire’s call comes against the backdrop of the recent merger of the UK’s Department for International Development with the Foreign & Commonwealth Office. Caoimhe de Barra said: “Now more than ever the UK needs to do the right thing

Justine Machosi (36) is being supported by Trócaire projects in Muchanga village in the conflict-affected Ituri province of DR Congo.

Photo: Garry Walsh

prevent aid from reaching the most vulnerable.

“We have a unique window of opportunity to transform to more sustainable, resilient and inclusive societies that leave no-one behind.

Building back better is not a return to business as usual. Trócaire calls for a global recovery that puts both sustainability and human rights at the heart of the response at home and internationally.”

million people sibly facing starvation he end of 2020 and help those in the developing world by ensuring overseas aid focuses on alleviating poverty and is not used to solely further UK national interest.

“The UK is currently meeting the spending commitment of 0.7 per cent of national income, which is admirable, but the quality of that aid must be maintained. With the real possibility of cuts to the aid budget due to the effects of COVID-19 on the economy, the government must not cut spending in the areas that make the biggest difference for the poorest people, such as health, education and nutrition. The government must also ensure there is no politicisation of humanitarian assistance to further the UK national interest which could put the lives of aid workers directly at risk and

TAKE AN EXAMPLE Somalia is a perfect example of the impact overseas aid projects can make. In an area of conflict and high gender inequality, Kaafiya’s story is an inspiring one. She spreads health messages to women in her community and has now managed to start her own successful small business.

Kaafiya's small retail business in Luuq district of the Gedo region of Somalia is thriving. A lot has changed for her in just a few short months.

Kaafiya is 27 years old and her small shop serves approximately 1,000 people in her village. An aura of happiness and fulfilment can be felt as she goes about serving her customers with a broad smile.

One year ago, Kaafiya could not

imagine that she would be running a successful business. She says that it is a dream come true.

Gender inequality and illiteracy rates are very high among girls and women in Somalia. The vast majority have fewer opportunities in the labour market and have lower economic empowerment when compared to men. However, this has been changing in recent years.

Thanks to projects like Trócaire’s ‘Somali Advocates for Health and Nutrition’ (SAHAN) project, there are now opportunities for more Somali women to actively participate in development issues.

This is giving them jobs that were traditionally reserved for men, such as running small businesses.

Kaafiya says that she got the capital to start her business from saving her earnings from being involved in Trócaire’s project. She was paid to be a ‘Female Community Influencer’ which involved spreading awareness and information about Trócaire’s health services.

Kaafiya works with a counterpart, Amina, and together, they have managed to conduct over 4,000 home visits in the district.

"We were selected and trained as Female Community Influencers and part of our mandate is to promote

healthy behaviours, encourage and link women who have no contact with a health facility,” says Kaafiya.

“I have committed myself to the initiative that has been so fulfilling, on top of giving me the capital I needed to start a business.”

She says that her biggest motivation in the job was not only the impact it has on her community, but also the incentives she gets which have gone a long way to liberate her financially. The shop she set up has become a social hub, which she uses as a platform to extend health education to women.

Kaafiya is among 54 Female Community Influencers in three districts of the Gedo region of Somalia. So far, they have conducted over 50,000 home visits, reaching over 30,000 women and referring over 12,000 women and children under five to health facilities. The SAHAN project is implemented by Trócaire with support from the UK Department for International Development (DFID).

Caoimhe de Barra said, “Aid works so now is the time to protect our aid budgets. We can be a huge driver for positive change for the people who need our support the most.”

Children supported by Trócaire from the Mbuti community of Bahaha in the conflict-affected Ituri province of DR Congo.

Photo: Garry Walsh

43

CO M M E N T REALITY CHECK PETER McVERRY SJ

MYTHS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS

DO COMMONLY-ACCEPTED MYTHS ABOUT HOMELESSNESS PREVENT IT RECEIVING PROPER ATTENTION FROM THOSE IN AUTHORITY THAT MIGHT LEAD TO A RESOLUTION? To address the problem of homelessness, we obviously need to understand the causes and nature of homelessness. Unfortunately, there are some myths about homelessness, even amongst decision-makers, which prevent the problem from being resolved.

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Most homeless people have an addiction problem or a serious mental health problem. This is NOT true, except for a small subgroup of homeless people who get all the media attention because they are the most visible of all homeless people. Most media features on homelessness will show a person in a sleeping bag in a doorway.

Hence, they shape the perception of homelessness for many people.

However, the majority of people who are homeless today become homeless as a result of eviction from the private rented sector, either because they could no longer afford the increasing rents or the landlord says they are selling the house. Very few of them have an addiction or mental health problem. Some were working prior to eviction, others were very active in their community.

Many are single parents, a group that is most at risk of poverty. Today, the age group with the largest number of homeless people is the 0-4 age group!

This myth is important because it diverts attention from the structural problems which cause homelessness – lack of social housing, weak tenant protections, low wage and precarious employment – to a ‘moral’ problem, focusing on the personal REALITY SEPTEMBER 2020

tenure in which to bring up their children and integrate into the local community. Hostels and family hubs provide off-the-street temporary accommodation; they only manage homelessness, they do not solve it.

But they give the impression that the Government is addressing homelessness, which is politically important for governments.

defects of homeless people.

The cause of most homelessness today is poverty, an inability to afford one's own accommodation.

Homelessness is an unfortunate, but inevitable, consequence of economic growth. It is the price our society pays for progress.

This again is NOT true. Finland has succeeded in eliminating homelessness. Homelessness is a consequence of government housing policy failure over the past 20 or so years. A conservative ideology, which sees a smaller role for the state by outsourcing public services to the private sector, has transferred responsibility for the provision of housing to the private property market. In 1975, this country built 8,500 council houses; in 1985, this country built 6,900 council houses; and in 2015, this country built 75 council houses. The private rented sector was expected to compensate by providing secure and affordable housing for low-

income households. But it is neither secure nor affordable for many.

Most leases are for 12 months or less, and are easily terminated. And as demand has increased, so have rents. Furthermore, almost half of landlords are demanding a 'top-up' from the tenants, in addition to the government subsidy, pushing many tenants into poverty.

And some people find it almost impossible to access private rented accommodation, such as Travellers, people with disabilities, single men and large families.

The lack of council housing and the failure to regulate the private rented sector are major causes of homelessness.

The Government is doing all it can to address homelessness by opening more hostels and family hubs. Hostels and family hubs do not solve homelessness; they address rough sleeping. The solution to homelessness is to give people a home, where they have security of

The cost of providing council housing for all those in need is prohibitive. While providing council housing is certainly expensive, we need to consider it just as essential for society as education, health or childcare. The lack of council housing is also extremely expensive.

Taxpayers are paying €2 million per day to private landlords to provide housing for low-income households, which over the five-year housing plan, Rebuilding Ireland, will transfer €3.5 billion to private landlords without a single extra house being built.

Affordable, secure housing for everyone is considered a basic human right in 85 countries but not in Ireland!

A person, even a family with children, who are homeless have no legal right to shelter, never mind a home. If we were to insert a 'right to housing' in the constitution, which is supported by a vast majority of the population, it would put an onus on governments to make housing a priority which it does not presently have.

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 LIVING IN THE CHURCH S cripture s cho lars often call Matthew 18 ‘the church rule'. Three passages from it form 23RD SUNDAY IN today’s Gospel reading.

ORDINARY TIME The first and longest is about how to deal with disagreements and disputes within the community. The members of the earliest Christian communities were socially very close to one another. They shared their property and kept an open door for other Christians on their travels. The Eucharist included a substantial meal. In close-knit communities, however, disagreements between individuals often flare up and have the potential for poisoning the atmosphere, even for those who were not directly involved. Jesus proposes a three-step

process for resolving tensions of this kind.

Firstly, those who were in a disagreement were expected to meet one another in an atmosphere of trust to try and clear the air.

If that did not work, then they should invite some people that they trust to act as honest brokers. If this failed too, the last step was to submit the case to the judgement of whole community in the hope of finding a solution.

If one of the parties refused to accept this, then they were to be excluded from the community, and "treated like a Pharisee or a publican". A drastic step, to be sure, but it recognised how simmering resentment can destroy the life of a close-knit community.

Two solemn sayings follow, each introduced by "amen I say to you" (or depending on translation, "truly I say to you" or "I tell you solemnly"). Jesus had already given Peter the power of binding and loosing (Matt16:

9, see 21st Sunday). This new saying assures the community that its decisions will have the same kind of binding force. The second saying is about prayer. If as few as two people pray for the same thing, that prayer will have special efficacy in God’s sight. There was a Jewish tradition that God was present when Jews studied the Torah together: “If two sit together and occupy themselves with the words of the Torah, the divine presence abides in their midst” (Pirke Aboth 2:6). Jesus assures his followers that, when they pray, he will be with them. It anticipates the closing promise of the Gospel that he will be with them to end of the world (Matt 28:19)

WHAT PRICE PARDON? Matthew’s instruction SEPTEMBER on life in the Christian community that we b egan to read last week concludes with 24TH SUNDAY IN a great teaching on E TIM ORDINARY forgiveness. Acting as the representative of the other disciples, Peter asks Jesus how often one must forgive, probably sure that seven times was generous. To his surprise, Jesus replies, "not seven, but seventy times seven" and then uses a parable to spell out the meaning of such generosity.

Some key terms are important if we are to get the point of the parable. ‘Servants of a king’ are not household attendants who performed menial tasks. Just as the word ‘minster’ which originally meant servant is now used for a high government official, these ‘servants’ are not only members of the palace staff but the king’s trusted advisors, his ministers of state. Second, we need to understand the ancient monetary system that lies behind the parable. It

has been estimated that a talent is almost the equivalent of $20,000, so a thousand talents would be about 200 million dollars!

A denarius was at the other end of the scale.

Its value was the equivalent to the wages of an unskilled labourer. A hundred denarii would then be the equivalent of three months' wages. In terms to today’s values, it would work out as a little over €4,000. While it is not exactly a trivial sum, it is a drop in the ocean compared to 200 million dollars!

The first servant seems to have been someone who was able to play the system to his advantage. When he is discovered and threatened with losing everything, including having his family sold into slavery, he has no alternative but to throw himself on the king’s mercy and to ask for time to get his affairs straightened out. Probably to his surprise, the king does not just give him time, but he cancels the entire debt. The parable now takes a new twist. The one who is forgiven the enormous debt now meets another member of the royal household who owes him one hundred denarii. Just as he had pleaded with the king for time, his fellow

servant now asks him for time but is refused.

This is too much for his fellow members of the royal administration. They report the matter to the king who now demands full payment of the original debt. The point of the parable is clear: forgiveness is a two-way process. This is a point Matthew has pressed home from the beginning of the Gospel. It is a powerful illustration of the prayer "forgive us our debts, as we forgive those who are indebted to us" Jesus taught in the Sermon on the Mount (Matt 6:12).

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Today’s Readings Ezek 33:7-9; Ps 94; Rom 13:8-10; Matt 18:15-20

Today’s Readings Ecc (Sir) 27:30-28:7; Ps 102; Rom 14:7-9; Matt 18:21-35

God’s Word continues on page 46

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GOD’S WORD THIS MONTH HOW MUCH ARE YOU WORTH? This is the first of three ‘vineyard parables ’ we will meet in the 25TH SUNDAY IN Gospel over the next ORDINARY TIME few Sundays. Vine and figs were the most commonly cultivated fruit in the Holy Land in the time of Jesus. Vineyards were usually on hillsides, and the land was terraced to make more space available for planting.

Today’s parable has two parts. The first part tells how the landowner goes out five times in the course of the day to hire workers for his vineyard. The second part describes paying the workers at the close of the day.

Extra labour was needed around September when the grapes were ripe to get the harvest in. The parable also reflects the fragile economic world of Jesus. Small family farms often gave way to larger holdings, forcing the now landless workers to hire themselves out for the day if they could find work. They

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probably gathered in the village square before dawn hoping to be picked for work. A day’s work meant being able to feed a family for a day: a day without work would be a day without food. The landowner in the parable goes out to hire five times in the course of the day – at daybreak, the usual time for starting work, mid-morning (‘third hour’), noon (‘sixth hour’), mid-afternoon (‘ninth hour’) and finally just an hour before sunset (‘the eleventh hour’), the end of the working day. The only conversation recorded is with the first and the last groups. To the first, he promises a "fair wage" (a denarius – see last Sunday’s Gospel). While the conversation with the last group is longer, no particular wage is mentioned.

The second part of the parable hints that a surprise is in store. It would have been normal to have begun paying the wages with those who were hired first. Instead, the landowner tells the foreman to begin from the end. Probably to their immense surprise, the men hired last are given a full

day’s wage. As word of the boss’s generosity was passed back along the line, those who had been there since dawn were probably expecting to receive something more. To their disappointment, they get the denarius they had agreed, even though they, as they argued, had been slaving all day in the heat. The landowner reminds them of their bargain: a denarius for a day’s work. He is not being unjust but why, he asks, should they be jealous if he has chosen to be generous?

It is hard not to agree with the first group of workers that they had been hard done by!

It is a ‘good news’ story, however as it tells us that, in the end, our lives will be judged by grace rather than strict justice. God’s justice is not measured by strict justice so much as it is by generosity and compassion.

Today’s Readings Is 55:6-9; Ps 144; Phil 1:20-24, 27; Matt 20:1-16

THE REALITY CROSSWORD NUMBER 7 SEPTEMBER 2020

SOLUTIONS CROSSWORD No. 5 ACROSS: Across: 1. Jesuit, 5 Handel, 10. Cheddar, 11. Morning, 12. Rant, 13. Caves, 15. Stun, 17.

Tat, 19. Ballot, 21. Easels, 22. Anoints, 23. Strict, 25. Coptic, 28. Map, 30. Arch, 31. Canal, 32. Snob, 35. Dousing, 36. Intrude, 37. Censer, 38. Heaven.

DOWN: 2. Eternal, 3. Undo, 4. Threat, 5. Hamlet, 6. Nero, 7. Epistle, 8. Scarab, 9 Agents, 14 Vatican, 16 Coach, 18 Jason, 20 TNT, 21 Etc., 23 Shards, 24 Recluse, 26 Tonsure, 27 Cobweb, 28 Manger, 29 Parish, 33 Sips, 34 Etna.

Winner of Crossword No. 5 Mary Nolan, Dublin 17.

SECOND THOUGHTS ARE BEST This is Jesus’ second 'vineyard parable'; it is also the first parable he delivers in Jerusalem. He had only arrived there a few days earlier. The first vineyard parable of the labourers involved a prosperous 26TH SUNDAY IN landowner: this is a more modest family vineyard.

ORDINARY TIME Jesus unfolds an everyday situation and invites his audience to offer an opinion on it. It is not in the least dramatic but would be familiar to every parent of teenage boys.

A man asked his two sons to work in the vineyard: the first refused, then had second thoughts, but eventually did what his father asked him. The second made a great show of obedience, but did not show up for work. The judgement Jesus asks them to make is so obvious that his critics are lulled into giving the obvious answer. Then he springs the trap on them: now that they recognise that obedience is measured by deeds not words, who are the obedient children of Israel? The religious authorities did not respond to the Baptist’s call for repentance and renewal. Despised people, like tax-collectors for the occupying power and prostitutes, did. They will make their way into the Kingdom of God, while the 'pious' are left outside.

This is not the first time that Jesus has made the point that God will judge by deeds rather than empty words. Towards the end of the Sermon on the Mount, Jesus said a tree is judged by the fruit it bears and that “Not everyone who says to me, ‘Lord, Lord,’ will enter the kingdom of heaven, but only the one who does the will of my Father in heaven” (Matt 7:21). The second son tried to keep his father off his back by saying the right things. The first son had the courage to admit when he was wrong. Today’s Gospel invites us to look at the quality of both our prayer and our deeds. Unless it is grounded in the honesty and integrity of daily life, prayer can become an exercise in self-deception.

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Today’s Readings

ACROSS 1. The upside down tree. (6) 5. He was a father to Jesus. (6) 10. A large volcanic crater. (7) 11. Small crown worn by nobles and peers. (7) 12. He is the antagonist in Shakespeare's Othello. (4) 13. Biblical character who had a whale of a time. (5) 15. This Lazlo gave his name to a quick-drying writing implement. (4) 17. Nothing in many games. (3) 19. A lightweight form of cotton. (6) 21. Serving a purpose, helpful. (6) 22. Slightly shakes the archer's containers. (7) 23. A hereditary commander-in-chief in feudal Japan. (6) 25. A feeling of sickness in the stomach. (6) 28. Large dark antelope with a beard. (3) 30. An action intended to deceive someone. (4) 31. "The lambs will be for your clothing, and the .... will bring the price of a field."

(Proverbs 27:26) (5) 32. Therefore, in Latin. (4) 35. Head covering with a small stiff brim in front. (4,3) 36. Famous buried Roman city. (7) 37. A book of religious songs. (6) 38. The books of the Four Masters. (6)

DOWN 2. Claims that someone has done something wrong, typically without proof. (7) 3. Movable frame for a coffin. (4) 4. A light serving as a visible warning, signal or guide. (6) 5. Wild dog of Africa. (6) 6. Active nimble - especially of an older person. (4) 7. The chief priest. (7) 8. A formal division within, or separation from, a church over doctrinal difference. (6) 9. Walk in a leisurely way. (6) 14. The Buddhist equivalent of 29D. (7) 16. A feeling of irritation resulting from a slight, especially to one's pride. (5) 18. Attempt a short piece of writing on a particular subject. (5) 20. A member of a religious community of women. (3) 21. Container in which tea is made and kept hot. (3) 23. Conflict, angry or bitter disagreement over fundamental issues. (6) 24. A container of room in which the bones of dead people are placed. (7) 26. As ruler I find it fantastic and disorienting. (7) 27. The mortal lover of the goddess Aphrodite in Greek mythology. (6) 28. The teaching or revelation of Christ. (6) 29. A place of ideal perfection. (6) 33. Quickly look through written material to find information. (4) 34. The last word in prayer. (4)

Entry Form for Crossword No.7, September 2020 Name: Address: Telephone:

Ezek 18:25-28; Ps 24; Phil 2:1-11; Matt 21:28-32 All entries must reach us by Wednesday September 30, 2020 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.3, Redemptorist Communications, St Joseph's Monastery, Dundalk, County Louth A91 F3FC