October 2020 Issue 542 €3· £2.50· $4
Covid in Ireland
Dispatches from the Great Awokening
“We Are Beloved”: An Interview with Catherine McMahon
Books: The eucharistic miracle of love
EAMON FITZPATRICK
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Editor: Rev. Gavan Jennings
CONTENT Editorial Fr Gavan Jennings
2
Dispatches from the Great Awokening Michael Kirke
5
The ashes of our fathers Margaret Hickey
9
Hume – the missing hero of McGuinness James Bradshaw
14
“We Are Beloved”: An Interview with Catherine McMahon stjosemaria.org
20
“And the Mother of Jesus was there” Rev. Donncha Ó hAodha
25
Finding a bridge Bishop Robert Barron
29
Books: Dr. Ernesto Cofiño Pat Hanra�y
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Books: The eucharis�c miracle of love Eamon Fitzpatrick
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Books: Jérôme Lejeune remembered Tim O’Sullivan
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Assistant editors: Michael Kirke, Pat Hanra�y, Brenda McGann Subscrip�on manager: Liam Ó hAlmhain Secretary: Dick Kearns Design: Dimo Publishers (Naas, Co. Kildare)
The editor, Posi�on Papers, P.O. Box 4948, Rathmines, Dublin 6 Email: editor@posi�onpapers.ie Website: www.posi�onpapers.ie Tel: + 353 86065 2313 For new or renewed subscrip�ons contact: liamoha@gmail.com Ar�cles © Posi�on Papers, who normally will on applica�on give permission to reproduce free subject only to a credit in this form: ‘Reprinted, with permission from Posi�on Papers, Dublin’. Please note: the opinions expressed in ar�cles do not necessarily reflect those of the editor nor of the Opus Dei Prelature of which he is a priest. Printed by Digital Print Dynamics, Unit 14 Millennium Business Park, Cappagh Road, Ballycoolin, Dublin 11.
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P O S I T I O N
P A P E R S
EDITORIAL
As I write, Dublin and Donegal are under a Level 3 lockdown and there is talk of other coun�es having to follow suit soon. While these lockdowns are not as severe as the complete lockdown of last Spring, there are factors which make this �me around feel a li�le worse: we’re heading into Winter, not Summer, the financial damage is beginning to show as is the emo�onal toll of half a year of already spent with COVID. Furthermore the buoyant na�onal esprit de corps has faded to be replaced with an esprit of complaints and recrimina�ons. Civic life is shadowed by a slightly dystopian atmosphere, created by those omnipresent signs demanding masks and hand-washing, the convoluted one-way systems in public spaces, the pedestrians nervously stepping off paths to avoid on-coming pedestrians, and those heated overreac�ons to poor unfortunates who forget to don their masks on entering shops. In a recent general audience, Pope Francis (con�nuing his catechesis on the Church’s social teaching) suggested that the principle of subsidiarity has been lacking in interna�onal efforts to tackle COVID. The principle of subsidiarity is the (much neglected) principle that States should minimise their direct interven�on in the life of a society where subsidiary social bodies – such as families, small businesses, voluntary organisa�ons, churches, trade unions – exist to carry out that same func�on. These social bodies, says Pope Francis, should not be side-lined: “When a project is launched that directly or indirectly touches certain social groups, these groups cannot be le� out from par�cipa�ng … Let everyone speak! And this is how the principle of subsidiarity works. We cannot leave out the par�cipa�on of the people; their wisdom; the wisdom of the humbler groups cannot be set aside” (General Audience, 23 Sept 2020).
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A State which arrogates to itself all responsibili�es and all wisdom (as does the Nanny State) does not seek the input of subsidiary social reali�es, or hears their voices only with great reluctance. And where social par�cipa�on is side-lined by the State, the sense of solidarity amongst ci�zens will be damaged. Such a situa�on is quite detrimental when society is faced with a crisis such as the one we now face:
“
In fact, there is no true solidarity without social par�cipa�on, without the contribu�on of intermediary bodies: families, associa�ons, coopera�ves, small businesses, and other expressions of society. Everyone needs to contribute, everyone. This type of par�cipa�on helps to prevent and to correct certain nega�ve aspects of globaliza�on and the ac�ons of States, just as it is happening regarding the healing of people affected by the pandemic (General Audience, 23 Sept 2020). It seems that here in Ireland, for instance, it has not been an easy task for the Church to have its voice heard by government with regard to public policy around COVID. Ideally the opposite should be case: the State should be posi�vely drawing on the wisdom, experience and evident good will of an ins�tu�on such as the Catholic Church. Furthermore, we have seen here a heavy-handed response to health care professionals who call into ques�on the wisdom of the State’s COVID policies, as well as the derision poured on private individuals who have raised legi�mate ques�ons about the propor�onality of the measures being imposed on the country. That said, despite the shortcomings inherent in the autocra�c approach of States to the COVID crisis, ci�zens must act responsibly. In the words of the Holy Father: “To emerge be�er from a crisis
like the current one, which is a health crisis and is, at the same �me, a social, poli�cal and economic crisis, every one of us is called to assume responsibility for our own part, that is, to share the responsibility” (General Audience, 23 Sept 2020). Each of us, faced with this ongoing crisis, must respond with resilience, imagina�on and op�mism. Resilience is the a�tude of the person who rejects sterile lamenta�on but rises to the challenges presented by COVID. Imagina�on is needed to find crea�ve solu�ons to the many new problems COVID has brought in its wake. This approach is exemplified in a recent news report concerning a Brazilian born chef – Giselle Makinde – who has taken to collec�ng surplus fruit from local Irish growers and suppliers whose sales have been hit by closures of cafes and restaurants impacted by Covid-19. She is turning this fruit into ice-cream, giving a new twist to the “make lemonade from lemons” adage. And finally op�mism – of the supernatural not the facile kind – allows us to see the loving hand of God behind all the events of our lives. Seen this way, all the real – o�en exhaus�ng – trials brought on by the COVID pandemic are ul�mately viewed as blessings in disguise, some�mes in heavy disguise, but blessings nonetheless. Fr Gavan Jennings, Editor Fr Gavan Jennings is a priest of the Opus Dei Prelature and the editor of Posi�on Papers.
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I N PA S S I N G :
Dispatches from the Great Awokening by Michael Kirke
G
iven our strange and uncertain current poli�cal and cultural landscape, it is probably inevitable, but it is s�ll a strange inversion. News itself con�nues to make news and be the news. And it’s not good news. In the anglophone world too much of mainstream media is in the doghouse. That is the only term you can use to describe the place where some formerly proud ins�tu�ons with an important part to play in our democracies now find themselves. The an�-social mobs on social media are certainly part of this story, taking at will whatever scalps they see crossing their woke horizons. But they are not the only problem. Real mobs are now on the march. Not content with the news organisa�ons they have already
in�midated and infiltrated they are now opening new fronts. Ex�nc�on Rebellion (XR) ac�vists have recently disrupted the produc�on and distribu�on of several na�onal newspapers in Britain, a�er blocking access to three prin�ng presses owned by Rupert Murdoch. Prin�ng presses across England and Scotland were successfully targeted and eighty people were arrested. Subsequently, more than 300 people were arrested during protests in central London. XR has accused the newspapers and their owners of “failure to report on the climate and ecological emergency” and “pollu�ng na�onal debate” on dozens of social issues. Ten more days of ac�on are planned to put pressure on the government “to do more to act on climate change”. The irony of all this is that they already have much of the media on their side. But, we might say, mobs will be mobs. Let us just grin and bear it un�l the storm passes – as these storms invariably do. 5
The more worrying phenomenon now is that the news organisa�ons themselves are being unduly influenced by the new pseudomorality which is driving all this. Powerful cliques within some major news outlets, in thrall to the same mobs, are stabbing with their steely knives any of their own who seem to stray from the paths set for them by the pre-determined historical forces which, as neoMarxists, they see carrying them relentlessly to our future. In Britain earlier this year Alastair Stewart, the urbane anchor of one of the main evening news programmes, rolled off the block on the pretext of an ambiguous remark on Twi�er, duly deemed to be racist. Several months later his wounds are again the subject of examina�on in a full-page profile in a weekend broadsheet. In the US we are having instances almost on a weekly basis. James Bennet, editorial page editor at The New York Times, fell on his sword in June for allowing the publica�on of an unacceptable opinion. Then, not long a�er, Bari Weiss, an acolyte of Bennet’s, also an editor and writer for the paper’s opinion sec�on, resigned, ci�ng what she said was unchecked bullying from colleagues. In an open le�er to the 6
paper she depicted the news organisa�on as a place where the free exchange of ideas was no longer welcome. The Wall Street Journal was also in the news-about-the-news because of rumblings from the shop floor complaining about what was essen�ally the paper’s disregard for the principles of the “new morality.” The NYT reported on a le�er from a group of Journal staff calling for “more muscular repor�ng about race and social inequi�es,” as well as skep�cism toward business and government leaders. In another context one would not fault a group of staff expressing opinions and even disapproval of aspects of the standards of a news organisa�on. That is a right. This all becomes a worry when it is put in the context of the current readiness of the new moralists to suspend the freedom of those who do not just differ from them but who are deemed in any way not to be singing from the approved hymn-sheet of the New Church of Cri�cal Theory.
What happened to Alastair Stewart? In January he was obliged to admit to “errors of judgment” in the wake
of a Twi�er exchange with a black man in which he quoted a Shakespeare passage including the phrase “angry ape”. Reac�on of colleagues across the industry who defended him was not enough to save his career with the broadcaster. “I would never use the word ‘racist’ and his name in the same sentence,” said Ranvir Singh, poli�cal editor of ITV’s Good Morning Britain. ITV news anchor Julie Etchingham added: “Al is a trusted friend and guide to many of us.” Despite that and much more, ITN cut �es with Stewart, 68, claiming he had breached editorial guidelines by quo�ng the line from Measure to Measure. Why? Because if they had not done it, the mob would be a�er them, threatening their already fragile adver�sing revenue. Stewart has been quiet since that trauma�c event. But recently he spoke to the Daily Telegraph in a long interview. He talked, not about himself, but about the state of media today. In 1976, prior to his first job with ITV, he spoke to Frank Copplestone, then managing director. Copplestone asked: “So you’re broad le�?” “I said, ‘Yes’. And he said: ‘Right, if we give you a job,
all of that stays at the door. You come in here and you leave all of it behind you’. It was almost a throwaway line and was the most profound and influen�al observa�on in my en�re professional life. I’ve clung to it, not only because it’s right but it helps.” But he sees how social media has now distorted the whole picture. Partly to blame is a belief “that you can say what you want online. Broadcasters think they can be someone else online, that they can be chameleon-like but they can’t.” He remembers the late ITV News At Ten host and former editor of The Economist, Alastair Burnet: “He always used to say: ‘Never ever forget, it’s the news that’s the star. It’s not you – you’re just lucky enough to impart it’.” Then there is the salutary li�le horror story of Andrew Sullivan’s recent profile in the New York Times. Sullivan had been forced to leave New York magazine recently because, according to the NYT, he had not publicly recanted edi�ng an issue of the New Republic published … in 1994. The issue at the �me was a symposium on The Bell Curve, a book by Charles Murray and Richard Herrnstein that explored the connec�on between IQ, class, 7
social mobility and race. “My crime,” he explained in a Spectator ar�cle last week, “was to arrange a symposium around an extract, with 13 o�en s�nging cri�ques published alongside it. The fact I had not recanted that decision did not, mind you, prevent Time, the Atlan�c, Newsweek, the NYT, and New York magazine from publishing me in the following years. But suddenly, a decision I made a quarter of a century ago required my being cancelled. The NYT reporter generously gave me a chance to apologise and recant, and when I replied that I thought the role of gene�cs in intelligence among different human popula�ons was s�ll an open ques�on, he had his headline: ‘I won’t stop reading Andrew Sullivan, but I can’t defend him.’ In other words, the media reporter in America’s paper of record said he could not defend a writer because I refused to say something I don’t believe. He said this while arguing that I was ‘one of the most influen�al journalists of the last
three decades’. To be fair to him, he would have had no future at the NYT if he had not called me an indefensible racist. His silence on that would have been as unacceptable to his woke bosses as my refusal to recant. But this is where we now are. A reporter is in fear of being cancelled if he doesn’t cancel someone else. This is America returning to its roots. As in Salem.” These instances of wokeness as it con�nues to poison our public life – poli�cs and media – are but the �p of an iceberg. We are in big trouble. One hopes that the “Second Law” – no, not that of thermodynamics – o�en quoted by James Ehrendorf, a character in The Singapore Grip, J.G. Farrell’s novel about the last days of that Bri�sh outpost as the Japanese descended on it in 1941, doesn’t spell out the future for our public square. It runs: “In human affairs, things tend inevitably to go wrong. Things are slightly worse at any given moment than at any preceding moment.”
Michael Kirke Michael Kirke is a freelance writer, a regular contributor to Posi�on Papers, and a widely read blogger at Garvan Hill (garvan.wordpress.com). His views can be responded to at mjgkirke@gmail.com. 8
The ashes of our fathers by Margaret Hickey
I
den�ty poli�cs is as much about the collapse of old iden��es as the forging of new ones. The current discussion about how the centenary anniversary of Ireland’s par��on should be marked shows how radically poli�cal iden��es can be reconstructed over �me. When Micheál Mar�n stood up in Dáil Éireann about a year ago and declared Ireland had moved on from “backward ideas about sovereignty” in favour of “the ideals of the European Union”, it must have struck a lot of people that this was something quite incongruous from the leader, of what was proudly the republican party, the an�-par��on party, the party most iden�fied with the pursuit of a unified and sovereign Irish na�on. The same party was also the one most enthusias�cally promo�ng the country’s na�ve
culture and language. It drew its vision from the 1916 signatories and in par�cular Patrick Pearse who aspired to an Ireland, that was “not merely free but Gaelic as well”. A week is a long �me in poli�cs so it should not be surprising that, over a number of decades, a poli�cal party like Fianna Fáil could recast its iden�ty to the point of discarding what it once held to be non-nego�able core values. Like all such evolu�ons it did not happen overnight. The EU as an en�ty in itself, rather than a collec�on of en��es, was implicit in its adop�on of the symbols and structures associated with sovereign states. Its grand assembly was designated a parliament, presided over by its president. It had its own anthem and its own flag and logo. It didn’t set out to dissolve its members’ 9
iden��es but to subsume them, in all their par�cularity, into a comprehensive poli�cal organism. Its declared aim was to break down historic animosi�es between rival na�ons, not destroy or dilute their iden��es. But of course the policy of open borders and centralised policy forma�on needed to secure its aim has ushered in a new sense of what it is to be of Irish or any other na�onality. Incrementally, we have all become a li�le more like each other in how we think, how we learn, how we work, how we eat and, to varying degrees, in how we appropriate a suprana�onal, European iden�ty.
assume a less vividly green shade of na�onalism. In 2004, they quietly changed the party’s name from “Fianna Fáil, the Republican Party”, to simply “Fianna Fáil”. Micheál Mar�n has led them the rest of the way by entering coali�on with the old enemy, the party who approved par��on and se�led for being a free state instead of holding out for an All Ireland republic. But all that was a long �me ago and merging with the old enemy was the next logical step in a converging poli�cal journey as both par�es outgrew their shared social conserva�sm and their founding raison d'être was overtaken by events.
As Micheál Mar�n pointed out in his Dáil address, the “values of the European Union” have ended wars between European states. They have contributed too to the gradual and growing detente between the UK and Ireland. In fact a�er the Good Friday Agreement in 1998, Fianna Fáil under Ber�e Ahern began to
The problem with changing iden�ty is that not everyone is happy to move on. From the point of view of Micheál Mar�n and Leo Varadkar, dissenters will be swept into the current of progress sooner or later or else find themselves, irrelevant and ridiculous, up an ideological creek without a poli�cal paddle to free themselves.
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As a former teacher of history, the new Taoiseach should know it’s not always so simple. Iden�ty ma�ers at some level to everyone. It is about being fully, freely and authen�cally who you feel yourself to be. People may find their sense of self within a belief system or an ethnicity or a culture or a way of life. Most o�en it is within an intersec�on of several of those denomina�ons that we define ourselves. Some people will resist and risk all they have, even life itself to defend that sense of who they are and what they stand for. Micheál Mar�n probably sees his non-par�san stance towards marking the centenary of Irish par��on as statesmanlike. However, in abandoning the deeply rooted iden�ty of his party, he has opened the field to others. Sinn Féin have held more firmly to their republican roots. They have taken over from Fianna Fáil as the colour party in Irish poli�cs. They have managed to gra� their social progressivism onto tradi�onal na�onalism. Perhaps, strapped on rather than gra�ed might be more accurate. However, ill-sorted as their hybrid pla�orm is by European standards, they have managed to sell it at the polls, North and South. Sinn Féin see “nothing to celebrate” about the upcoming centenary anniversary.
At the other end of the poli�cal spectrum, the DUP have called for a public holiday to mark the occasion. Whether this divergence of views will spill over into the same divisive debate that stymied the government’s plans to mark the contribu�on of the RIC to Irish life has yet to be seen. Brexit has shown the EU that there is a point beyond which iden��es can be merged without causing revolt. There are other member states who have gained hugely from EU membership like Poland who are not prepared to trade sovereignty for be�er security and living standards. Like Ireland, Poland paid a high price for its sovereignty. Sweden, in contrast, defines itself more by its progressiveness and inclusiveness, than its na�onal and historic character. Uniquely in Europe, it has enjoyed centuries of peace. But even in Sweden there is a resurgence of na�onalism. From Hungary to Spain, from Sweden to Italy, European countries or rather a significant demographic within them is asking if they can freely be who they are, a people shaped by their shared past, within the new European order. Refusal to acknowledge the desire of people to belong within a culture, a na�on or a tribe, within a na�onal and 11
historic narra�ve has fuelled populist, far right poli�cs across Europe. It is easy to pay lip service to diversity but it is very challenging to live it out. While the European project has certainly kept peace between na�ons, it has created another ri� along a much wider fron�er of ideology. Micheál Mar�n speaks of “the values of the European Union” as if they were what any reasonable person might be expected to sign up to. In actual fact, despite the rhetoric of inclusion, there is a clear push to impose an overarching world view to which every individual and group is expected to conform. Do “the values of the European Union” acknowledge the right of a doctor or a nurse to decline to par�cipate in an abor�on or euthanasia procedure for instance? Do they acknowledge the right of parents to withdraw their children from sex educa�on that does not adhere to a faith based understanding of sexuality? Do they acknowledge the rights of churches to operate chari�es and services that conform to their understanding of the rights and responsibili�es of the individual? On the other hand, do the same “European values” allow arbitrary exemp�ons on the grounds of 12
religion or ethnicity to certain groups despite causing deep offence to the indigent culture? Why is it important to raise up some ghosts from history and not others? How will Europe respond to claims for parity of language rights which looks like it may be the next cause du jour for rights campaigners? It is easy to see how difficult and complex it is to take diversity from aspira�on to implementa�on. It is easy to see how any community, large or small, can live harmoniously without a fundamental shared ethic. Real diversity would allow a voice to the wide range of opinion about how to mark the upcoming centenary of par��on. Can the anniversary be a �me to celebrate, a �me to mourn and a �me to reflect dispassionately all at the same �me ? Will the Irish government who in the words of Micheál Mar�n “have moved on” from the turbulence of the past, be empathe�c to those who have not or feel unable to do so? It is as good an example as any of how difficult it is to give rival iden��es expression in a mul�-ethnic society without conflict. Socie�es that want to validate equally all their component cultures will always struggle to find the commonality that makes “them”
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And how can man die be�er than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods. part of “us”. It is hugely challenging. Expressing iden�ty by singing patrio�c songs at the end of the BBC's Proms concert series no longer passes for a harmless celebra�on of na�onhood. What used to be seen as an exuberant expression of togetherness is now considered triumphalist, threatening and excluding. It could be the la�er in another context but so could almost any anthem depending on how it is appropriated. If celebratory, sing-a-long patrio�sm is to be combed for poli�cal correctness, then we are fast entering a new era of narrow, cultural puritanism, witch hun�ng and censoring, the very nega�on of diversity.
acts of courage. Patrimony is about beliefs and values as much as the �es of blood and race - something people have always been prepared to fight for. Those impulses, it must be said, have exacted a terrible price from the peoples of Europe across the centuries. Nevertheless, the things a person might risk life for are also the things that give life its purpose, its heart and soul. Macauley’s throbbing lines may sound like outmoded jingoism to modern ears but they nevertheless pulse with the �meless human need for meaning and iden�ty even when defending them becomes a weary and dangerous struggle: “And how can man die be�er than facing fearful odds, for the ashes of his fathers and the temples of his gods.”
In one of his poems, from his anthology, The Lays of Ancient Rome, Thomas Macauley, describes how the sense of belonging to a people and place inspires great Margaret Hickey Margaret Hickey has wri�en ar�cles on social, cultural and faith issues for The Irish Examiner, Human Life Review (US), The Irish Times, The Furrow and The Irish Catholic. She is a mother of three and lives with her husband in Blarney. 13
Hume – the missing hero of McGuinness by James Bradshaw
T
he recent RTÉ documentary, McGuinness, was a triumph for all involved in making it. Wri�en by Harry McGee of The Irish Times, it was a gripping account of the life of one of the most important poli�cal figures in modern Irish history. While Gerry Adams has been the undisputed leader of the Republican movement since the 80s, his junior colleague Mar�n McGuinness was always more compelling. Unlike Adams, McGuinness was not born into the IRA, and the oversized role which Derry played in the early days of the civil rights movement coupled with the appalling slaughter on Bloody Sunday adds to the sympathy which ordinary people felt towards him. 14
Overall, the focus of the documentary was admirably balanced. A wide array of leading figures in the Peace Process were featured. Some of the interviewees clearly revered him while others like the DUP’s Gregory Campbell were deeply hos�le. Vic�ms of IRA violence were understandably cri�cal about the omission of key details, such as the role which McGuinness allegedly played in luring the Republican informer Frank Hegarty to his death in 1986. The late Bishop of Derry Edward Daly believed McGuinness played a direct role in Hegarty’s murder by encouraging him to return to Derry, and told an Irish government official as much some months a�er the killing. The bigger flaw within the
documentary related not to the failure to address every IRA atrocity – a mini-series would be needed – but to how it framed the overall narra�ve of the Troubles. What we saw resembled too closely the revisionist view of the conflict which the wealthiest and most dangerous party in Irish poli�cs constantly propagates. Their po�ed history runs as follows: •
In the late 1960s, disenfranchised Irish Catholics living in a bigoted state began a powerful people’s movement for civil rights. (This is true.)
•
Faced with no alterna�ve (here the lies begin), a group of Irish revolu�onaries – the moral equals of those who founded the Irish State – took the fight to the Bri�sh Army and RUC.
•
A�er decades of armed struggle, courageous leaders such as Gerry Adams and Mar�n McGuinness were finally able to bring the Bri�sh Government to the nego�a�ng table.
•
Thanks to their courage, and some minor assistance provided by the previously uncoopera�ve John Hume et al, the newly-created Peace Process ensured that Irish unity could now be achieved by non-violent means.
Sinn Féin have become the most powerful force in Irish poli�cs par�ally on the back of this narra�ve. Whenever they are challenged about their bloodsoaked past, this is the story they return to. This historical narra�ve rests on certain building blocks: if one underlying assump�on or component of the argument gives way, the whole structure collapses. The most important underlying claim is that a nonviolent path towards changing Northern Ireland did not exist before the Good Friday Agreement. This is an absolute falsehood and must be challenged at every turn. In 1973, moderate na�onalists, moderate unionists and the Bri�sh and Irish governments signed up to the Sunningdale Agreement which required power-sharing in the North, along with the crea�on of a 32-county Council of Ireland 15
aimed at promo�ng peaceful coopera�on between North and South. McGuinness and the IRA rejected this outright. A�er four years of hellish violence, they s�ll would not give up. Granted, a large segment of the unionist popula�on (such as Ian Paisley) also rejected Sunningdale, and militant loyalism played a key role in collapsing the agreement. Yet a significant fac�on of unionists (such as Ian Paisley) also rejected the Good Friday Agreement in 1998. A key difference is that the IRA had halted their campaign before the Good Friday Agreement made it obvious that they were unlikely to resume their offensive. If the IRA
had been willing to abandon violence in the 70s, two decades of pointless conflict would have been avoided. Not for nothing did the late, great Seamus Mallon – a ceaseless cri�c of the IRA campaign and leadership – call the Good Friday Agreement “Sunningdale for slow learners.” By the late 1990s, the IRA leadership – with Adams and McGuinness at its heart – was willing to accept less than what was on offer at Sunningdale a quarter of a century earlier, provided that hundreds of Provisional IRA members would walk free from jail. And provided, of course, that the Sinn Féin leadership would play a central role in the new poli�cal and social order. Seamus Mallon Members of the Real Irish Republican Army attending an Easter Rising commemoration ceremony in Londonderry, Northern Ireland, 2010.
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There are other parts of the IRA/SF version of history which need to be challenged too, but which got hardly a men�on in McGuinness – a documentary which gives far too much credit to Adams and McGuinness as if they had been nego�a�ng in the late 90s from a posi�on of strength.
strikers would tell them.
In the early 1970s, the IRA’s campaign was an insurgency, and there was a real possibility that the Bri�sh Government could be forced to withdraw from Ireland. Twenty years later, there was no such possibility, as the security forces had gained the upper hand. “No-go” areas were a distant memory and the IRA’s freedom of ac�on in majority Catholic areas had been greatly curtailed, even in the previously-impregnable South Armagh.
Unsurprisingly, the IRA came to hate Father Faul for speaking such truths, and this widespread infiltra�on prevented the IRA from causing anywhere near as much damage as they had previously, as an examina�on of the casual�es suffered by the Bri�sh Army shows. Over 100 Bri�sh soldiers were killed by the IRA in 1972, for example. But in the final eighteen months of the “war,” a�er the IRA broke their ceasefire by bombing Canary Wharf in London, the same “army” could only inflict a handful of fatali�es on the Bri�sh army.
The IRA of the 1990s was heavily infiltrated by the security forces, a point which Father Denis Faul used to hammer home when urging young Catholic boys in his County Tyrone school not to become foot-soldiers in their war. “If you're lucky, you'll spend twenty years in jail. And if you’re not lucky, your mother will be handed a folded Tricolour at your graveside,” the priest who sat by the bedside of dying hunger
“And if you go to jail or die, it will sooner or later emerge that your commanding officer was a tout, and that his commanding officer was a tout too. And whilst you're ro�ng away, they will be ge�ng off scot-free.”
Faced with con�nuing a lowintensity and completely fu�le armed campaign, the IRA’s leadership chose peace and their organisa�on was gradually wound down in a manner which ensured that dissident splinter groups were never more than a minor threat. For accomplishing this much, Mar�n McGuinness deserves a good deal of acknowledgement, but not much gra�tude. 17
The greatest shortcoming of McGuinness can be summed up in one word: Hume. The references to the real leader of Northern na�onalists over several decades in this documentary were far too limited. We are told in McGuinness that John Hume finished well ahead of McGuinness in elec�ons in Derry in 1982 and 1983 – results which were repeated again and again, results which give the lie to the no�on that the IRA’s campaign had majority support among Northern Catholics. We are shown a video of McGuinness in the 80s, lamen�ng the fact that violence was necessary to bring about change. “I wish it could be done in another way. If someone could tell me a peaceful way to do it, then I would gladly support that. But no one has yet done that,” he says. Of course, there was a peaceful way. John Hume showed this by example every day from when the civil rights struggle began, and every day Mar�n McGuinness ignored this. There is even some evidence that the IRA considered murdering Hume because of his non-violence. 18
There is another aspect to the life of both men which the documentary makers hinted at without examining in detail, and that is the ques�on of religious faith. Modern Ireland is some�mes too firmly a�ached to its secularism to delve into such ma�ers, but the Derry which McGuinness and Hume were born into was a very different place indeed. Hume le� his na�ve city to enter the seminary in Maynooth, before returning home to get married and be a teacher. McGuinness had no priestly ambi�ons, but his family’s religious ins�ncts were obvious: his middle-name was Pacelli, in honour of Pope Pius XII. At an early stage in the documentary, one of the interviewees discusses the young McGuinness’s reputa�on as a man of strong morals while the viewer is shown a faceless young man at prayer. Much later on, we are shown a video of McGuinness as he blesses himself at a funeral, perhaps that of a Republican comrade. We then hear words he spoke in the la�er stage of his illness, as the camera slowly zooms out from the Derry graveyard where he is now interred.
Any historical documentary about a deceased poli�cal figure could conclude with an image of a graveyard. A documentary �tled Hume could end with the same image of the same graveyard, but this would not have the same meaning for a man who never caused another human being to die a premature death, and who never encouraged others to pursue a violent path when a peaceful one was available. Sinn Féin’s false narra�ve is undercut by the existence of John Hume. For decades they wanted to be rid of him, and in their version of history, Hume is barely present at all, just as he is absent throughout most of the McGuinness documentary.
There is a reason for this and it must be challenged. Ireland is at peace now. But it might not always be, par�cularly given that the Northern Irish state is so structurally unsound and prone to division. Wherever the tempta�on towards the use of violence exists, the need to exercise moral responsibility in poli�cs is all the greater. When assessing the past, the achievements of Mar�n McGuinness in the la�er period of his life should be acknowledged, but they should always be juxtaposed against the consistently peaceful example of John Hume. When Derry’s two most famous sons are compared against one another, McGuinness falls very short indeed.
James Bradshaw James Bradshaw works for an interna�onal consul�ng firm based in Dublin, and has a background in journalism and public policy. Outside of work, he writes for a number of publica�ons, on topics including poli�cs, history, culture, film and literature.
19
“We Are Beloved” An Interview with Catherine McMahon
from stjosemaria.org
“Y
ou must understand now, more clearly, that God is calling you to serve Him in and from the ordinary, material and secular ac�vi�es of human life. He waits for us every day, in the laboratory, in the opera�ng theatre, in the army barracks, in the university chair, in the factory, in the workshop, in the fields, in the home and in all the immense panorama of work. Understand this well: there is something holy, something divine, hidden in the most ordinary situa�ons, and it is up to each one of you to discover it” (Conversa�ons, no. 114).
In this interview the St Josemaría Ins�tute speaks with Catherine McMahon on St Josemaría, community, and maintaining faith in a predominantly secular society. Catherine works as the Director of Beloved, an ini�a�ve within Ireland which is rooted in the spirituality of St Josemaría and aims to help women unlock the truth, beauty, and goodness in loving and being loved by Him.
Q
Te l l u s a l i t t l e b i t a b o u t y o u r s e l f and your journey of faith I was raised a Catholic but like many, I stopped prac�cing my faith during my teens. It wasn’t un�l college when I met a recent convert that I began to ques�on my mo�ves for leaving my faith. It was her simplicity and frankness that led me back to prayer and the sacraments. On top of that, I was lucky enough to study for five years at the University of Navarre, which helped me, among other things, to intellectualise my faith and have the confidence to believe that I could make an impact in this world. Since then I have been working in youth work entrusted to the Opus Dei Prelature in Ireland. It has been genuinely enriching for my faith because I get to work at something that not only benefits the faith of others but also helps me a lot in my rela�onship with God. Like everything, it’s not easy some�mes, but I truly believe that it’s only in the light and shadows of one’s faith that you produce your best work. 20
Q
What is the inspiration behind Beloved? When did it launch and how are you and your team hoping to enrich the lives of young adult women today? In 2018, Pope Francis visited Ireland for the celebra�on of World Mee�ng of Families. The final Mass before his departure was, you could say, our Damascus. Each of us who are now involved in Beloved realised then that we needed to do something that would help make young women in Ireland immensely proud of being Catholic. And so began our journey and we launched Beloved in July, 2019. We want Beloved to “reach out to the peripheries” as Pope Francis encourages us: to dialogue with those who doubt or do not believe, while at the same �me, giving confidence to believers so that they can be proud of their faith and be able to share their faith with friends and family. For us, it’s very much about sharing the beauty of the Catholic faith: to love it, to see its relevance and beauty for our modern world, and have the confidence to share it with others.
Q
The teachings and spirituality of St Josemaría and Opus Dei are an important part of your mission. Which of his teachings have most impacted you? And, what do you believe makes St Josemaría an important spiritual guide for us today? St Josemaría is a huge influence for Beloved. Our main inspira�on comes from his famous homily “Passionately Loving the World” delivered at the University of Navarre in 1967. A well-known line from that homily is: “Your ordinary contact with God takes place where your fellow men, your yearnings, your work and your affec�ons are. There you have your daily encounter with Christ. It is in the midst of the most material things of the earth that we must sanc�fy ourselves, serving God and all mankind” (Conversa�ons, no. 113). We want Beloved to be in the midst of ordinary life and help young women find Christ there. That is why we balance our inspira�on between faith and life. We are inspired by quotes and inspira�ons from saints but equally from others who are not saints and some�mes not Catholic – writers, ar�sts, philosophers and thinkers. We want to show the richness 21
of ordinary life, that others – who may think very differently to you – can also nurture your life. To see our faith in the richness of humanity and vice versa. I think St Josemaría is an important spiritual guide for us today because he can help us to be that leaven in the dough in society: to imbue society with Chris�an ideals. As Chris�ans we can run the risk of separa�ng ourselves from the world the more society distances itself from God. But St Josemaría gives us the spiritual tools to enjoy this world in its full glory, to see and experience the richness of ordinary life and society as a source for our sanc�ty. This is a huge contribu�on to the Catholic Church and something that many of us are s�ll unpacking. Opus Dei is a concrete living out of St Josemaría’s life and teachings, and it’s beau�ful to see how so many people of very different backgrounds and viewpoints have applied his teachings to their everyday lives, inspiring and encouraging them to be that leaven in society, living out holiness organically in their lives.
Q
Although the focus of Beloved is geared toward fostering community among young adult women in Ireland, why is it important for not only young adults but people of all ages to find community and journey with others in faith? It’s hugely important, in fact, essen�al. I think the restric�ons of COVID19 have proved to us even more the necessity of genuine rela�onships. No amount of online connec�on can replace our innate need for one-onone deep authen�c rela�onship. For our faith to thrive, we need others to help us along the way. This is obvious in families where the faith of parents nourishes the faith of children and teens, but as adults we also need the help and support of others.
22
You see that in the life of St Josemaría Escrivá. I don’t think he would have become the great saint that he is if it were not for the friendships he had in his life, most especially with Blessed Álvaro del Por�llo. We need friends to be there for us in our faith. We simply cannot do it alone. That is why we wanted to make sure that the priority of Beloved would be people who could meet in real �me and enjoy each other’s company, to learn and be supported by friends who truly care for them. So while we use our online pla�orm to keep in touch and be a daily support, we also create opportunity for meet-ups and events that foster genuine friendship and community.
Q
To d a y ’ s w o r l d o f f e r s c o u n t l e s s d i s t r a c t i o n s that pull us away from our relationship with God. What advice would you share with those who are looking to refocus or establish their spiritual life in the midst of a predominantly secular society? A really good ques�on! I have found Cal Newport’s blog and books (one in par�cular – Digital Minimalism) very helpful in this regard. We use his material quite a bit in Beloved. I think distrac�on needs be tackled as a life choice. Once the fight against distrac�on is embedded in your daily living, it can help your spiritual life. For example: to look for ways to diminish distrac�on during work (turn off no�fica�ons, avoid looking at your phone, etc.) or in family life (at meal �mes). Build the habit of reading literature into your daily rou�ne because, if you are trigger happy with any
23
device, you’ll no�ce how reading is a really difficult exercise to do. Over �me, all these things diminish our need for distrac�on and increase our ability to be in the moment. There are obviously different things you can do to ensure your rela�onship with God is not plagued by distrac�on: for example, avoid bringing your phone into Church or at least put it on airplane mode; use visual aids like an image of our Lady, or use pen and paper to jot down your ideas during your personal prayer. I would also say believe in the benefit of small acts of piety and connec�on with God throughout the day (e.g. just stopping for a second to say “Jesus, I’m doing this for You” or “Help me do this well” as you start your work). As St Josemaría called them these are the “twigs” to keep the fire burning:
Q
Et in medita�one mea exardescit ignis. And in my medita�on a fire shall flame out.’ That is why you go to pray: to become a bonfire, a living flame giving heat and light. So, when you are not able to go on, when you feel that your fire is dying out, if you cannot throw on it sweetsmelling logs, throw on the branches and twigs of short vocal prayers and aspira�ons, to keep the bonfire burning. And you will not have wasted your �me. (The Way, no. 92)
“
Is there anything else you’d like to share with us? Where can our readers learn more about Beloved? You can find Beloved on Instagram (@wearebeloved.ie) and online: www.wearebeloved.ie.
We also have a “sister” site called Hearts+Minds (which we just began in May) because women who were not in the age bracket of Beloved wanted something for themselves! It’s lovely to see how the message of St Josemaría rings home to all ages and in all �mes. You can find Hearts+Minds on Instagram (@heartsandmindsire) and online: www.hearts-minds.ie. This interview appeared online at stjosemaria.org/interview-catherine-mcmahon and i s re p r i n te d h e re t h e k i n d p e r m i ss i o n of t h e e d i to r.
24
“And the Mother of Jesus was there” by Rev. Donncha Ó hAodha
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… this miracle shows us God’s loving mercy and increases our faith and God is no spoil-sport. He sent his Son that hope.
She was there, and she was attentive
we might have life and have it to the full (cf. Jn 10:10) both here and herea�er. It is surely striking that our Lord’s first miracle was at a celebra�on of roman�c love, a marriage feast, and consisted in providing copious, even excessive amounts of the finest wine. Moreover this display of divine generosity was prompted by his Mother. The servants of the feast did as instructed by her – “Do whatever he tells you” – and Christ performed his first miracle. At Cana, “the Mother of Jesus was there” (Jn 2:1) for the sake of her Son and for the sake of all her daughters and sons in Christ. In a truly maternal way, Mary’s interven�on brings about great benefits for each and all of her children at that wedding. The evangelist concludes his account of the miracle in these words: “This, the first of his signs, Jesus did at Cana in Galilee, and manifested his glory, and his disciples believed in him” (Jn 2:11). All of Mary’ children gained from her intercession with her Son: The newlyweds were spared las�ng embarrassment, the steward of the
feast was unwi�ngly saved from disgrace, the wedding guests con�nued to enjoy wine and of the finest quality, Christ began to show his divinity and his disciples began to believe in him. For our part, this miracle shows us God’s loving mercy and increases our faith and hope.
She is still here It is some�mes said that the first rule of friendship is “to turn up”, or “to be there” for others. Mary “is there” for all her children in Cana and also now in the Rosary. Through this powerful devo�on she leads her sons and daughters to contemplate her divine Son and in this way cooperates in his mission to sanc�fy us. “To recite the Rosary is nothing other than to contemplate with Mary the face of Christ”, as St John Paul II put it in his beau�ful 2002 Apostolic Le�er Rosarium Virginis Mariae. To really get to know what someone is like we o�en talk to his or her mother. A loving mother can uniquely provide an in�mate portrait and understanding of her child. Knowledge leads to love, and the more we come to know Jesus through the essen�ally contempla�ve prayer which is the Rosary, the more we can come to love him and thereby grow in the iden�fica�on with him which is 26
Chris�an holiness. The Rosary is, in Pope Francis’ words, “communion around the Mother” (31 May 2013).
She was there and she stayed there The wedding feast of Cana speaks of the whole paschal mystery. While being a par�cular historical event, this celebra�on was also a prophecy and an icon of the work of salva�on. St John’s account of the event begins with the words: “On the third day there was a marriage at Cana in Galilee” (Jn 2:1). Because there is no reference prior to this to a first or a second day, the “third day” is seen to refer to Resurrec�on of Jesus “on the third day”, which sealed the new and eternal covenant of love between God and his people. In scripture, “wine” o�en expresses joy and love. The rich and plen�ful wine of Cana also foreshadows “the Blood of the new and eternal Covenant” generously poured out by Jesus on the Cross. Also at Cana the Lord addresses his mother with the refined �tle of “Woman” and says that his “hour” has yet come (Jn 2:4). When that supreme “hour” of his Passion does come (cf. Jn 17:1), the same “Woman” faithfully stands by the Cross (Jn 19:25-27) and Jesus declares her to be our mother too. As at the outset of his public ministry at Cana, so too on
Calvary, “the Mother of Jesus was there”. The Rosary is a journey through the en�re mystery of salva�on with Mary. It is in St John Paul II’s words, “a compendium of the Gospel”. A par�cularly rich prayer, both vocal and contempla�ve, “the succession of Hail Marys is the warp on which is woven the contempla�on of the mysteries” (St Paul VI, Marialis Cultus, 1974, 46).
She is there, especially when needed The Rosary has shown itself to be par�cularly effec�ve in �mes of danger, anxiety or suffering, both in public and personal events. In Mexico in 1531, St Juan Diego was really stressed because his uncle was dying. He rushed off to look for a priest and avoided taking the path along which he was likely to meet Our Lady of Guadalupe. He feared that being delayed by her might stop him ge�ng the priest on �me for his dying uncle. However Our Lady came to meet him on his way and gently reminded him: “Am I not here, I, who am your mother? Are you not under my shadow and protec�on? Am I not the source of your joy? Are you not in the hollow of my mantle, and between my arms? What more do you need?”
During this pandemic, “the Mother of Jesus was [and is] there” in many ways. In recent months many countries, including Ireland, have been consecrated to Our Lady asking for protec�on from the virus. Pope Francis asked us to pray the Rosary in the home for this same inten�on (Le�er, 25 April 2020). In recent days, Archbishop Eamon Mar�n has called for a “Family Rosary Crusade against Covid” during the month of October. The Primate of All Ireland is encouraging “families to pray the Rosary each day during October – or even one decade of the Rosary – for themselves, their loved ones and for all those whose health or livelihood is being seriously impacted by the coronavirus crisis” (Homily, 20 September 2020). This is surely an apt moment to welcome the encouragement of St Josemaría: “The holy Rosary is a powerful weapon. Use it with confidence and you will be amazed at the results” (The Way 558). Saying the Rosary strengthens our faith, brings many graces and helps us to rediscover that Our Lady is very close to us.
She is there, vital and discreet During these months of the pandemic, we have perhaps rediscovered the sheer beauty of 27
fresh air. Most of the �me we are not par�cularly conscious of the air, this vital element absolutely necessary for our life and which carries light and health with it. The air reminds the poet Gerard Manley Hopkins (1844-1889) of Our Lady. In his poem The Blessed Virgin Compared to the Air We Breathe he stresses the irreplaceable role of Mary as the one who brings us Christ and with him eternal life and every grace, and who is at the same �me, like the air, discreet, selfeffacing and easy to take for granted: “This air, which, by life’s law, My lung must draw and draw Now but to breathe its praise, Minds me in many ways Of her who not only Gave God’s infinity Dwindled to infancy Welcome in womb and breast, Birth, milk, and all the rest But mothers each new grace The does now reach our race – Mary Immaculate, Merely a woman, yet Whose presence, power is Great as not goddess’s Was deemed, dreamed; who
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This one work has to do – Let all God’s glory through, God’s glory which would go Through her and from her flow Off, and no way but so”.
She is there, and with her “all good things” (Wis 7:11)
Praying the Rosary brings helps us to see things with the eyes Christ. In this sense the Rosary is, as Pope Francis reminds us “a school of prayer, a school of faith”. This prayer, says the Holy Father, leads us “to reflect on the key moments of Christ’s life, so that, as with Mary and Joseph, he is the centre or our thoughts, of our a�en�on and our ac�ons” (1 May 2013). Through the Rosary we come to rediscover that Mary is the mediatrix of all graces. Indeed “there is no fruit of grace in the history of salva�on that does not have as its necessary instrument the media�on of Our Lady” (Benedict XVI, Brazil, 11 May 2007). Wherever this is anything good, any grace, there is Christ, and so also “the Mother of Jesus [is] there”.
Rev. Donncha Ó hAodha Rev. Donncha Ó hAodha is the Regional Vicar of the Opus Dei Prelature in Ireland, author of several CTS booklets and a regular contributor to Posi�on Papers. 28
Finding a bridge by Bishop Robert Barron
O
ne of the most remarkable differences between the social protests of the 1960s and those of today is that the former were done in concert with, and o�en under the explicit leadership of, religious people. One has only to think of the crucially important role played by the Rev. Dr Mar�n Luther King and so many of his colleagues and disciples in the civil rights demonstra�ons fi�y and sixty years ago. But we don’t find today the same concert between those agita�ng for social change and the religious leadership. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. Perhaps the most important is simply that the number of people who subscribe to religion, especially in the ranks of the young, has precipitously
dropped in our society. But I also think that there is something subtler at play as well, and I have to put on my philosopher’s hat to ar�culate it. In the 1960s, Dr King and company were certainly using Biblical ideas and terminology to express their cri�que of injus�ce and their longing for a righteous society, but they were also more or less confident that, in doing so, they would find a recep�ve audience among those trained in the poli�cal tradi�on that we might characterize as “classical liberalism.” This, broadly speaking, is the public philosophy shaped by such figures as Thomas Jefferson, John Stuart Mill, and especially John Locke. As is evident in some of their principal texts – 29
Jefferson’s Declara�on of Independence, Mill’s On Liberty, and Locke’s Two Trea�ses of Government, for example – we find a clear sense that human reason can discern certain fundamental moral objec�vi�es, including and especially the truth that all people are endowed with rights and dignity. Furthermore, we find the convic�on that objec�ve theore�cal truth exists and that it is accessible through the intellectual give-and-take fostered by the poli�cal prac�ce of allowing freedom of speech. Though there were clear points of demarca�on between classical liberalism and Chris�anity (indeed all of the figures referenced above were, to varying degrees, opposed to Biblical religion), nevertheless on these central points, people trained in the Scriptural tradi�on could find common ground with liberals. Revisit Dr King’s “I Have a Dream” speech to see a master class in how to weave the two tradi�ons together. King used soaring language from the prophet Isaiah, but then effortlessly related it to Jefferson’s poli�cal philosophy and even to the lyrics of our patrio�c songs. Another excellent example of someone who could link together the two schools of thought was John Paul 30
II. In numerous texts and speeches, the great Pope happily adopted the human rights language of classical liberalism and li�ed it up into the higher context of a Biblical anthropology. The absence of religious leadership in the protest movements of the present moment, and indeed the hos�lity to religion exhibited by many of the protesters, are a func�on of a major shi� in the culture. The philosophy that undergirds the “woke” perspec�ve is not classical liberalism, but rather postmodernism, indeed a fairly nasty strain of it. The voices behind much of the opposi�on leadership today are not those of Locke and Jefferson, but rather of Karl Marx, Friedrich Nietzsche, and Michel Foucault – and this makes a crucial difference. Marx, for instance, denies the existence of a stable human nature, insis�ng that the term simply means “the sum total of one’s social rela�ons.” Nietzsche asserts the nonexistence of God and hence the rela�vity of any claim to objec�ve truth or moral value. In the space opened up by this metaphysical collapse, the “will to power,” he argued, can and should assert itself. And Foucault – probably the most influen�al of the three – understands the ideas and forms
of discourse of a given society to be nothing more than the cynical means by which a dominant group maintains itself in power. A key prac�cal implica�on of this theorizing is that the free speech so dear to classical liberalism as a means of coming to truth is appreciated as a means of oppression. And the appeals that religious people used to make to the rights of the individual are typically seen by postmodern theorists as unjus�fied and ul�mately manipula�ve. As a result of all of this, it is excep�onally difficult for the religiously mo�vated to get any trac�on with those formed by postmodernism, and vice versa. The two groups tend to stare at one another across an intellectual abyss. But all is not lost. If I might suggest one possible bridge between the two worlds, it would be a shared passion for jus�ce. Despite their consistent claim that truth and value are rela�ve and that language is but a subtle means of
domina�on, the schools formed by Marx and Foucault would certainly hold that the oppression of one class of people by another is unjust. To that degree, they inescapably hold to something like an objec�ve moral value, and they would seem to agree that language which ar�culates that value is something other than merely manipula�ve. And here, the Biblical person can indeed find common ground, for beginning with the Hebrew prophets and coming directly through Jesus himself and then into the great Chris�an tradi�on, we find the convic�on that seeking jus�ce is congruent with the will of God. So the conversa�on between the religious and the revolu�onary is tougher today than it was sixty years ago, for a philosophical system more alien to religion than was classical liberalism has come to hold sway in revolu�onary circles. But I would urge my coreligionists not to give up. A love for jus�ce might be the bridge.
Bishop Robert Barron This ar�cle first appeared at: www.wordonfire.org. Bishop Robert Barron is an author, speaker, theologian, and founder of Word on Fire, a global media ministry. This ar�cle has been reprinted with the kind permission of the editors. 31
BOOKS:
Dr. Ernesto Cofiño review by Pat Hanratty No Small Goals: The Life of Dr. Ernesto Cofiño, Guatemalan Physician, Humanitarian, Pioneer in Pediatric Medicine and Servant of God Thomas A. McDonough Scepter Publishers, 2020.
I
never knew much about Guatemala, except that it was one of six Spanish speaking countries in Central America and that it had endured decades of civil war and poverty in common with its neighbours despite (or possibly because of) its being in Uncle Sam’s back yard. This book shows how one man can make a huge difference to the society he lives in – one can say that the life of Dr Ernesto Cofiño (1899-1991) is proof posi�ve that God con�nues to raise up men and women outstanding in goodness in all sorts of places. Ernesto came from a comfortable background – his father had great entrepreneurial skills, but was stern and not easy to live with. His mother helped nurture his deep Catholic faith despite a school 32
system implacably hos�le to Catholicism. Ernesto graduated from high school in 1917 and hoped to study medicine in the University of Guatemala, but such hopes were dashed when a series of earthquakes all but destroyed the capital, Guatemala City, including the University buildings. In 1919, an opportunity arose for Ernesto to study at the Sorbonne in Paris. The book describes his long journey by land and sea to Paris and the loneliness he felt there, but also the fantas�c opportunity for a young man to savour the grandeur of one of the world’s great ci�es. A�er several years of hard work and overcoming some extremely difficult challenges he finally qualified in early 1927 and began an internship – the first foreign intern in Paris hospitals. He
prac�sed medicine at the Hôpital des Enfants Malades with the top figures in French pediatrics. In less than three years as an intern, he co-authored five research papers with interna�onally renowned scien�sts on perioni�s, pneumonia and tuberculosis as they refer to children. He might have had a stellar career in Paris if he had chosen to stay there, but he returned home and helped build up the health system in his na�ve country. He was par�cularly anxious to serve the poor including the indigenous Maya. The book chronicles his career in pediatrics, his deepening faith and his deep commitment to life. Guatemala is one of the few Western countries that protects life from concep�on, despite
campaigns from heavily funded interna�onal organisa�ons whose efforts par�cularly targeted the Mayan popula�on seeking to reduce their numbers. Ernesto was a pioneer in pediatric research in Guatemala, and created the chair of Pediatrics in the Medical Faculty at the University of San Carlos, where he was professor for twenty-four years. The first members of Opus Dei arrived in Guatemala in 1953. Soon a�erwards, Ernesto met a priest of Opus Dei, and felt that its spirit suited him down to the ground. Though already well into his fi�ies at that stage, he threw himself heart and soul into its ac�vi�es, in par�cular to the promo�on of Ciudad Vieja University Residence
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in Guatemala City. By encouraging people to support it financially, he made it possible for a large number of students who couldn't otherwise afford it to come to the capital to study.
Long since widowed, he lived into his nine�es, suffering a painful illness which he bore with great courage and serenity. He died in 1991 and the cause for his canonisa�on was opened in 2000.
Re�rement apparently wasn’t a word in Ernesto’s vocabulary. As long as he could he worked in the field of medicine and helping the development of Ciudad Vieja and other social projects. He intensified his apostolate and sought to communicate his joy and generosity to many other people. He encouraged them to help promote Chris�an social projects, with their prayer and financial support, and put many hours into those projects himself, determined to make the Church’s social teaching a reality.
I strongly recommend this book – it’s easy to read and enlightening in its contents.
He was heroic in helping organize training and educa�onal programs for women from very poor backgrounds and other works of charitable assistance, con�nuing this work right up to his ninetysecond year.
Pat Hanra�y Pat Hanra�y taught Science/Chemistry in Tallaght Community School from its incep�on in 1972 un�l he re�red in 2010. He was the school's first Transi�on Year Co-ordinator and for four years he had the role of home School Community Liaison Officer. 34
BOOKS:
The eucharistic miracle of love review by Eamon Fitzpatrick The Bishop of the Abandoned Tabernacle: Selected writings of St Manuel Gonzalez Garcia Rev. Sean Davidson (ed) Scepter (2018)
A
s Fr Manuel Gonzalez Garcia made his way to his first assignment, he could never have imagined what was awai�ng him! The young priest discovered that the church to which he was posted was run down, shabby and deserted. He was tempted to run away, but instead he sat down quietly before the filthy tabernacle. What happened next changed everything! It led to his eventual canonisa�on and gave us all a �mely reminder of the miracle of love that is the Real Presence. While Fr Manuel contemplated that dusty tabernacle covered with cobwebs, he suddenly realised that Jesus was gazing back at him; “so silent, so pa�ent, so good”. The sadness of the abandoned tabernacle was “oppressing and crushing the sweet heart of Jesus and drawing bi�er tears from his eyes”. Following that profound
experience, he devoted his priestly ministry to spreading devo�on to the Blessed Sacrament. St Manuel assures us each one of us that we are invited to “Come and see” (John 1:46) what great love awaits us in the tabernacle. Jesus is there for us night and day. He wishes to listen to us, to talk to us, to direct and help us on our journey. “The Heart of Jesus in the tabernacle looks at me. He looks at me always …. He looks at me as if he doesn’t have anyone else to look at but me…. because he loves me…. yes, he follows me with his gaze, as my mother would do if she could.” We can however reject that invita�on. St Manuel explains how we can all abandon our tabernacles:
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exhaling healing power”. This is a book to which we can return again and again, least we ever get complacent about the Blessed Sacrament; least we ever become lukewarm in response to our invita�on from “The Tremendous Lover”.
• if we do not receive him in Holy Communion, or visit him or act in accordance with our beliefs; • if we do not prepare ourselves to receive him with a clean heart (perhaps by neglect of the Sacrament of Reconcilia�on), and • if we do not take the �me to listen to and talk to this Loving Guest. But Jesus endures the ignominy of the abandoned tabernacles in order to enflame and dwell within our poor, ungrateful hearts. “As the water in the stream gives off freshness and moisture although nobody approaches its banks, or as the rose breathes forth perfume although nobody gets close enough to smell it, in the same way, the Heart of Jesus in the tabernacle, abandoned and alone, is always 36
None of St Manuel’s wri�ngs about the Mother of God is included in this collec�on; so I will conclude with a quota�on from St Josemaria Escriva: “Our Lady teaches us to come to Jesus, to recognise him and to find him in all the different situa�ons of our day. And nowhere is she more a teacher than in the supreme moment of the holy sacrifice of the Mass, where �me blends with eternity” (Christ is Passing By 94). Eamon Fitzpatrick Eamon Fitzpatrick FCA, is a re�red lecturer in accountancy.
BOOKS:
Jérôme Lejeune remembered review by Tim O’Sullivan
Jérôme Lejeune: La Liberté du Savant, Aude Dugast, Artège, 2019
T
he death earlier this year of Birthe Lejeune, widow of Jérôme, the French pioneer of modern gene�cs, has brought a renewed focus on both their lives. Their daughter’s book on her father (Clara Lejeune-Gaymard, Life is a Blessing, Igna�us Press) is available in English and was reviewed in these pages by Fr Conor Donnelly in 2016. Jérôme Lejeune (1926-1994) should nevertheless be be�er known in the English-speaking world. While two major biographies have been published in French, there are not as yet any transla�ons in English. This fine 2019 publica�on by Aude Dugast, however is due to appear in transla�on in 2021 and follows on an excellent earlier biography in 2004 by Anne Bernet, which included extensive detail, for
example, on Lejeune’s early years and family background. Aude Dugast is also the postulator of his cause for canoniza�on, the process for which began in his Paris diocese in 2007 and was completed in 2012, at which point he was given the �tle of Servant of God. The Roman stage of the process began in 2013 and the “Posi�o” document drawing together informa�on about Lejeune’s life, virtues and reputa�on was presented to the relevant Roman congrega�on in 2017 by Dugast. The process will con�nue in the coming years in Rome. In preparing this biography, Dugast thus had privileged access to his papers as well as extensive contacts with his family, colleagues and friends. As she makes clear, Prof Lejeune is best37
known as the man who, with two other researchers, discovered the chromosomal disorder responsible for Down’s Syndrome or Trisomy 21. Taking as his mo�o the phrase from chapter twenty-five of St Ma�hew’s Gospel – “as you did it to the least of my brethren, you did it to me” – Lejeune had a great love for, and commitment to, his Down’s pa�ents and a strong sense that his voca�on in life was to find a successful therapy for Down’s Syndrome. Whatever his other commitments, he always gave priority to consulta�ons with his Down’s pa�ents and their parents. He was later dismayed to find that his research breakthrough on the cause of Down’s was being used to eliminate unborn babies with this syndrome.
Together with his brothers Philippe, an accomplished painter, and Rémy, Jérôme was the son of Pierre Lejeune, a businessman from the Paris region, and his wife Massa. While s�ll a medical student at the Sorbonne, he had a love-at-first-sight encounter with a Danish student of French, Birthe Bringsted, in a Paris library in 1950. They were later to share a very happy family life with their five children – family summers included a marathon annual trip by car from Paris to the Danish seaside! Jérôme was something of an absent-minded professor and some�mes le� his family on holidays in Denmark to return to work in Paris while carrying the keys of the family car in his pocket on the train – leading to fran�c efforts by his wife and Danish train Aude Dugast
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officials to track him and the keys down at various Danish train sta�ons before he le� the country! A�er the death of Jérôme, Birthe con�nued suppor�ng his work through the Lejeune Founda�on (fonda�onlejeune.org). The biographer presents Lejeune’s life as one of whirlwind ac�vity, balancing his family life, treatment of pa�ents with Down’s Syndrome, scien�fic research, teaching, speaking at interna�onal medical conferences and, in later decades, his defence of the right to life of the unborn, par�cularly the unborn baby with a handicap. Lejeune comes across in the biography as a person of warmth, humour and excep�onal intelligence and also as someone of deep Catholic faith and rare courage. He thus calmly con�nued his work as a university professor, in spite of student opposi�on, during the chao�c student revolt of May 1968 in Paris. The following year, he spoke with remarkable courage against prenatal diagnosis and abor�on of the handicapped at a mee�ng of the world’s leading gene�cists in San Francisco (“To kill or not to kill, that is the ques�on”). Although he was being awarded the pres�gious Allen Memorial prize at the event,
his address was met with an icy and eerie silence. He later campaigned very strongly on TV and in public mee�ngs against the legalisa�on of abor�on in France in 1974. He galvanised French medical opposi�on to the proposed law, with some success at first, but he and his colleagues were ul�mately unable to prevent the introduc�on of the abor�on law and he was himself subjected to considerable abuse and indeed threats during that turbulent period. At the same �me, he never failed to treat his adversaries with courtesy and respect, even at the most difficult moments of the abor�on debate. Lejeune travelled the world extensively, speaking at both scien�fic and pro-life conferences. I remember his powerful address in a dis�nc�ve French accent at a pro-life conference in Dublin thirty or more years ago, when he reminded his listeners of the words of Ma�hew’s Gospel cited above. He was first President of the Pon�fical Academy for Life, established by St John Paul II in the 1990s. From 1974, he was a member of the Pon�fical Academy for Sciences. He had a deep involvement in the area of nuclear 39
from cancer on Easter Sunday, 1994. Immediately following Lejeune’s death, the introductory chapter also notes, John Paul had sent to Cardinal Lus�ger of Paris a medita�on on Christ’s words: “I am the resurrec�on and the life. Whoever believes in me, even if he dies, he will live” (Jn 11:25).
disarmament and was an envoy of Pope John Paul to the Soviet authori�es in the early 1980s, se�ng out the grave dangers of a nuclear war.
The Pope called a�en�on to the day of death of this “ardent defender of life”: “If the Father who is in heaven called him from this earth on the very day of the Resurrec�on of Christ, it is difficult not to see in this coincidence a sign.…Enlightened by these words of the Lord, we see the death of every human person as a par�cipa�on in the death of Christ and in his Resurrec�on, especially when a death occurs on the very day of the Resurrec�on.”
Dugast’s book begins by recalling that when Pope St John Paul was a�ending World Youth Day in Paris in 1997, he insisted, against some opposi�on, on visi�ng the grave of his “brother Jérôme”, who had died Tim O’Sullivan Tim O’Sullivan has degrees in history and social policy and completed a PhD on the principle of subsidiarity. He is a regular contributor to Posi�on Papers. 40
Komarock Home for Street Children
In September 2020 I will start work on a home for thirty street children from Nairobi. All I have at the moment is a field in Komarock, to the east of Nairobi! Komarock will be a sister school to Kwetu Home of Peace in Nairobi (see the interview with me on Kwetu inside). We will be building an office, some classrooms and a small dormitory. Anything you can send would be greatly appreciated. You can send a donation through this account, or alternatively through Position Papers. Thank you for your support! Sr Caroline Ngatia
Site of the future Komarock Home Donations Please make a donation to the Komarock project through Position Papers, through the donate button on our website www.positionpapers.ie (simply making mention of "Komarock"), or by cheque to Position Papers.
